 In Dodge City and in the territory on West, there is just one way to handle the killers and the spoilers, and that's with the U.S. Marshal and the smell of gun smoke. William Conrad, the story of the violence that moved West with Young America, and the story of a man who moved with it. I'm that man, Matt Dillon, United States Marshal, the first man they look for and the last they want to meet. It's a chantsy job, and it makes a man watchful, and a little lonely. You can't leave for town. Ben Redgate, you fill my wood box, and there'll be no going to town tonight. Ma, you can't keep me here like a tethered calf. Why, you're living in my house, you'll do as I say. I'm a man-grown ma. Pa says I can... Pa says you want to go to town so you can be like your pa. Oh, now ma... Ben, it's going to town that's turned him the way he is. He's still my pa. Well, you're not going to town. That's the end of it. One man in this family hanging around saloons is enough. Where is the horses? I told you to get the horses, Ben. Ma says I can't go. Well, and I say you can. Go on now, get the horses. The boy isn't going, Horatio. Don't stand in the way, Levy. He's big enough to go to town with his pa. Ain't you, Ben? I sure am, pa. He's not to go. You're not to take him in there and start him on the road you took. Well, now. Ben, don't think it's such a bad road, I'll wager. Sure not. All them sights I never seen. Time you saw them, boy. I mean what I say, Horatio. Ben is not to go. I can't stop you from going. It's too late for you anyhow. Whiskey hasn't been off your breath for five years or more. That's no concern of yours. It's my concern that I had to keep this place going so that my boy and I'd have a roof over our heads. Oh, ain't you had it hard, though? I've done what had to be done. And I'm not going to have you coming back whenever the spirit moves. You're stirring up things, filling the boy with wild tales. He's my son. He's your son like I'm your wife. It hasn't meant much for a long time. You can't come back now and start taking over the boy's life. I should have known. You ain't stopped reading me out since the last time. I don't know why I keep coming back. Well, whether you come or go means nothing to me. But mark my words. You leave that boy alone. You mind you said that, Livy. You will have cause to rule this day. Paul, where are you going? Any son of mine can find me in Dodge. I won't be hiding. His favorite is Daddy standing there, do he? No, sir. A racial rib gate never spells a drug. Why, he'd lick it right up off in the bar if he had to. Why don't you leave me be? Why, sonny, we figure you need somebody to look after you, that's all, isn't that right? That's right. The way I get it, his mom don't like him out of her sight. Somebody's got to watch over him. Come on now, leave me be or I'll just... Or you'll do what, sonny? All right, boys. All right. You've had your fun. Uh, you the red gate boy? My name's Ben Redgate and I'm man-grown. Sure you are. Is that your paw lying across the table back there? Sure, that's him. Look, Ben, why don't you call it quits for now and go on home, huh? You sound like my maw. She don't think I can get along out of her sight. I don't think you're out of her sight right now. What do you mean? Isn't that your maw standing there at the door looking in? She's got no call to follow me. Maybe not, but you're sure doing it. Well, I guess. I guess I have to see it to believe it. Come on home now, Ben. I ain't gonna go. I ain't gonna listen no more of your lectures. This is no way for you, Ben. Come home now and we'll say no more about it. We'll say no more about it because I ain't coming and I ain't gonna listen no more. Mind your tongue, Ben. It wasn't easy for me to come into a place like this. Don't you cause me trouble now? Ben, don't follow me. And if I'm gonna take a drink out of this bottle, I'm gonna do it. Not while I'm here to stop you. You may be too big to it, Ben, but I can still knock a bottle out of your hand. You can't bust all the bottles in the saloon. I would if I could, right now. I still ain't coming, ma, no matter what you do. All right, Ben, all right. I can't drag you. But I tell you this, if it'd do any good, if it'd keep you from turning out like your father as soon as he ever saloon and can just burn to the ground, I'd even help strike some matches. She said some mean things there. What might it mean? She splashed that bottle full of whiskey just like it was nothing. And a terrible thing. Wasting whiskey like that is terrible. Can we buy you a drink, boy? No. I've had enough of this place. You going home like she told you? No, I ain't going home. I'm going to hunt up a place to get drunk where more can't find me. Started at the little town of Rome in New York state back in 1817. And on July 4th, 1967, the post office released a special sesquicentennial stamp there in honor of the big ditch they dug, which it says on the stamp in my album here was the Erie Canal. Now, in case you don't know, that canal went all the way from Buffalo on Lake Erie to the Hudson River, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. The biggest waterway ever built in the United States at the time, and it was done mostly by the Irish just over from the old country, who did their digging with spit and mussel. Made lots of money for years on tolls, and the traffic and freight and people through the canal was mainly responsible for building up the Midwest and keeping business in the East busy doing it. Well, of course the Erie Canal ain't what she used to be, because the railroads do most of the job now, but the big ditch is still there, and so is all the history that went through it. Excuse us this time, Chester. I just took all your men, the game's over. Oh, well, I don't think checkers is a very good game to play. Why can't you keep your eyes open? Oh, no, sir, it ain't that. Some colors, they get kind of blurry, kind of hard to tell the red from the black. Did you ever notice that? That doesn't make much difference to me. How's that? I wind up with all the checkers anyway, whatever color. What in the world's going on? I don't know, come on. Down in the street there, see? Yeah. I don't think they're going to put that one out, either. Oh, they've been playing for sure. Got a hole tall enough. That's the new saloon, the prairie wagon. There's no hope for that place. It'll be enough of a job to keep the fire from spreading. I'll go help with the buckets, Mr. General. I'll go around back and see which way it is spreading. Marshal, put a red hand in. Marshal, I don't know. He done it, Marshal. This is playing. What's she done? Well, come on quick, Mr. We've got a fire to fight. That's just it, Marshal. She set the fire. Ms. Redgate? No, Marshal, but you better go fight it before it spreads through the whole town. You can't let her go. I'm not going anywhere. I'll wait for you, Marshal, right here. You can do more than that, Ms. Redgate. You can pass empty buckets back. All right, children, let's get to work. There wasn't no wind. You sit here, Ms. Redgate. Thanks to her, the whole town didn't burn up. Your men got faxed to back you up on the shore. Marshal, everybody heard her say she'd like to set a match to every saloon in Kansas. Ain't that right, James? It sure is. She set it right there in the long branch just tonight. And there she was, out back watching the prairie wagon burn. I wasn't watching, Marshal. Did you say those things, Ms. Redgate? I said I'd like to see them burn, Marshal, and I'm not sorry this one did either, but I didn't burn it. You got to lock her up, Marshal. I'll take care of her. Go on, lock her up. She done it plain as day. I said I'd take care of her. Now, you men, get out. I'll send for you tomorrow if I need you. But, Marshal, we could... I said, get out! I think maybe you better tell me what you were doing out in the alley. I didn't set that fire. You were heard talking about burning saloons. And the saloon burns. You were found right out back. Now, does that sound very good to you? No, Marshal, it don't. I'm going to have to hold you till this thing gets straightened out. Mr. Dillon. Oh, excuse me. That's all right, Chester. Mr. Dillon has fell out here, says he's got to see you right now. I'll bring him in. Well, yes, sir, but I just thought maybe it might be better for you to come out and see him for just a minute. If it's all so... All right, all right, Chester. You stay here with us, Redgate. Yes, sir. Now, it's you, Redgate. What do you want? To do my duty. Is that so? That fire? That terrible fire, Marshal. What about the fire? I know. You know what? I know who done it. I know who burned down that new slune. That terrible thing. All right, tell me. Who did it? You won't believe it. Well, you tell me anyway, huh? You're a hero of a woman too good for her own good. Oh, come on, Redgate. Tell me your story. Too good for her own good. Redgate. Well, that's her name, Marshal. You saying that she set that fire? I seen her, Marshal. I seen her, Chester. You telling me that you saw your wife start that fire? Sure. Sure. You? Then why didn't you stop her? Huh? I said, why didn't you stop her? Well, uh, Marshal, I couldn't... Uh, I couldn't get there in time. I was, uh, I was still across the street when I seen her. Across the street? That's it. That's it, yeah. I was across there when I seen her standing in front of the slune with a big torch. Great, big torch. Did you say in front of the slune? That's right, Marshal. And she threw the torch. Now, what did she do? Well, she just stood there, watching, right there. And I want you to go get her, Marshal. Arrest her. She's too good for her own good. I don't have to arrest her again. You don't? Why not? Just tell me why not. She's already in my office. Really? In the jailhouse? Ha, ha, ha. Oh, that's good, Marshal. I don't want to see that, Marshal. I want to go inside. Yeah, I think maybe you'll better. Come on. But in common, yet they're each one of a kind. Take, for example, Pulaski, Virginia. Every day is another day of sawdust in the air at Pulaski. But it's clean and fine and white. And besides, the Pulaski and Coleman furniture company is the only one in the world. If you're driving down from Washington on U.S. Highway 11, you'll pass right through Pulaski, and you can stop at Don Keaster's Gap Restaurant for that good Virginia country ham sliced thick. Fair weather finds Piedmont Airlines touching down at New River Valley Airport nearly two hours closer than the old Roanoke terminal. If you're in Pulaski at the right time, you'll pass right through Pulaski. Or if you're staying longer, a season ticket to the concert in Blacksburg at VMI are just the thing. And those Civil War cannons still need a nice-sized part. But if your hometown is Pulaski, you already know this. We only wanted to remind you, it's still there. A race shoe. Where's Ben? Go on now, Marshal. I'll be right back. A race shoe. Where's Ben? Go on now, Marshal. Lock her up. Lock her up, Marshal. Oh, sit down, Redgate. Sit down. I just wanted to see her locked up. I don't think that's going to be necessary. Why not, Marshal? She done it. She said she was going to. I've seen her. I'm not so sure about that. Anybody'll tell you she said that she'd soon see all the saloons burn? She'll tell you herself, won't she, won't she, Livy? What have you done with Ben? You, you're in a fix for sure, ain't you, Livy? You're a boy to run off, ain't you? Because you didn't want him to see his paw. Send him home, hurry. She'll give him a chance to grow up decent. You, you've been out looking for him, ain't you, Livy? You couldn't sit there at home and wait for him, could you? Yes, I've been looking. Is that what you were doing in the alley, Ms. Redgate? Yes, Marshal. Hi. I'm ashamed to tell you it was. I was feared someone would tell him if they saw me out front so I was going along the back way. I got my hindsight now. I can see it was wrong. Yeah, I hear that, Marshal. Winnie, Redgate admits he was wrong. Lock her up, Marshal. Lock her up. Let her sit there, spell and repeat. You got it backwards, Redgate. What's that? You're the one who's going to sit there and repeat. What? Your wife never was out on Front Street. Two witnesses saw her around back. Your story doesn't make any sense at all. Marshal, I swear it is. Don't bother. You sure wanted to get at her, didn't you? Now, wait a minute. I'd watch what I was saying if I were you. Matt, take it. Matt. Yeah, Doc, what is it? Well, um, I'll come back later. No, it's all right. It's all right. What's on your mind? It'd be better if I came back. Just speak up, Doc. Well, Matt, it's, uh, it's about that fire. Has somebody hurt? Somebody's dead. Well, who was it? It's Ben. Isn't it? I had a feeling about tonight. I had a feeling that's why I kept going after him, looking for him. You saying that my boy was he not soon? Well, yes, actually. He must have been asleep back at the bar. I'm sorry. I'm real sorry. Oh. Ben is dead. What? I didn't mean nothing like this. I didn't mean to hurt nobody. Just to get living affixed for a day or two. You set the fire, didn't you? Yes, Marshal. I said, but I didn't mean to burn my boy. Take him back and lock him up. Yes, sir. I'm sorry, Ms. Redgate. At least there was something I could do to make it easier for you. If you like, I'll have Chester take you home. Home? I drove Ben away from home. What did I do wrong, Marshal? I only wanted him to be a good boy. What did I do wrong? Maybe it's not what you did wrong, Ms. Redgate. Maybe you just tried too hard to do right. When it comes to political terminology, I guess that old character Elijah Cuddlestone has used it all, for instance. And I say that all of them, every man Jack and nominated to run against me is cast in the same mold, poured out of the same bottle, chips off of the same political stump. If you die, I mean there's no choice among them, that is. I say it's a fact that you'll see them ring in a dark horse candidate. Dark horse, that is, because they can't make up their minds otherwise. What do you mean? Well, dark horse in the political sense in which Elijah used it means pretty much as he explained it. An unexpected nominee brought in to break a deadlocked balloting for a candidate from among the leading nominees. President's Polk, Pierce, Garfield and Harding were dark horses. Originally, dark horse was a racing term for a horse whose abilities were kept in the dark until displayed in the race. Produced and directed by Norman McDonald, stars William Conrad as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshall. Featured in the cast were Parley Baer as Chester, Howard McNeer as Doc, and Georgia Ellis as Kitty. George Walsh speaking. Join us again next week for another specially transcribed story on gun smoke. This is the United States Armed Forces Radio and Television Service.