Gunsmoke (1955) s02e06 Episode Script

ANNOUNCER: Starring James Arness as Matt Dillon.
Most people think of Boot Hill as a place where only men are buried.
But there's a grave or two of children here also.
For a child can die as hard and fast as a man can.
And for the same mindless reasons.
Out there in the high plains there may be more graves.
Unmarked perhaps, and yet it's something you don't easily forget.
A man with my job has enough to forget.
Matt Dillon, U.
S.
marshal.
Of course you're my son.
My own boy.
Your name is Dennis.
Naturally, you couldn't be expected to remember that.
Dennis Cullen.
Name Vihocan.
That's Cheyenne for "white boy," Mrs.
Cullen.
When we brought the Indians in, it was the name that made me take a good close look at him.
I know you've always felt you'd see your son again someday, ma'am.
Yes, marshal.
Are you sure you're not making yourself believe this is your boy? Name Vihocan! A mother can tell her own flesh and blood.
She said the boy was only two years old when he was taken by the Cheyenne.
Yes, when our wagon train was attacked at the Medicine River.
Oh, Colonel Honeyman, if my husband hadn't died in the fighting, you'd see that this boy is the very image of him.
You don't have to try to convince me, Mrs.
Cullen.
You wouldn't be taking on a problem like this unless you were very sure.
A problem? Despite his white blood, you're going to have an Indian boy on your hands.
But time will change all that, won't it? We're of the same flesh.
You'll begin to see that soon.
In no time at all.
There's some papers in my office for you to sign, Mrs.
Cullen.
I'll get them ready.
Take the boy to the supply room, corporal.
See if you can round up some shoes and clothes for him.
Oh, Dennis! Please.
Go with the corporal.
Nobody's gonna hurt you.
Have I done such an awful thing? I lied to the colonel.
What do you mean? He's not my son.
What? And I think you know it.
Well, he needs a good mother.
Thanks you, marshal.
You do understand, don't you? Mrs.
Cullen, I think you're gonna have your hands full.
But I'll give him all the love and care I hope my own son is getting.
If he's still alive somewhere.
All right.
Let's go in so you can sign for your, uh, son.
You make me feel a little guilty, Kitty.
Guilty? You've bought more hats in the past few weeks than you'll ever have a chance to wear.
Well, hats are the one virtuous weakness I have.
do you use blackmail or sheer force to make them patronize my shop? Envy.
I know how I feel when I see another woman with a new hat on.
Well, anyway, I'm very grateful.
I don't have any children, Mrs.
Cullen.
I've never been married.
I understand.
And helping you out a little- Well, it makes me feel good.
And so does this hat.
I'll take it.
Dennis.
Where are you going? Me go out.
What you mean to say, dear, is, "I am going out.
" I am going out.
Yes.
But not like that.
You can't run around in just a pair of pants.
Go to your room.
Put on the shoes that the soldiers gave you.
And a shirt.
That nice blue one I made for you.
Don't look at me like that.
You've got to stop acting like a little savage.
Me go out! Oh, Kitty, Kitty.
I try to be patient, but He won't let me give him a haircut.
He won't wear a pair of shoes.
It isn't easy, I know.
The strain.
And people are so cruel.
What names they call him.
Why? Well, because to them he's still a Cheyenne.
And right now everybody's thinking about the ones that broke out of Fort Dodge the other day.
The same Indians who raised him.
But it's not his fault.
It's fear, Mrs.
Cullen.
The Cheyennes have been raiding ranches and stealing horses and guns and, well, nobody knows what to expect next.
Oh, Kitty, I It'll all be over with someday.
Now, come on.
What do you say we make ourselves a cup of coffee? Now, you get out and stay out, and don't ever come back to my store again, you hear? Well- Heh.
-looks like your protégé is in another peck of trouble.
I got a good notion to take a whip to you.
Why, you little- You little- What's the trouble, Ross? You better do something about that Indian kid, marshal.
He's not an Indian kid.
He's a white boy.
Well, a lot of folks ain't too sure about that.
They don't think he's Mrs.
Cullen's boy at all.
He sure don't look like her.
Why'd you throw him out? He was trying to buy ammunition for a Sharp's rifle, that's why.
What? Huh.
Oh, he was probably just planning on a turkey shoot.
Now, don't be funny, Doc.
He said it was for Mrs.
Cullen.
Now, you know that's a lie.
He's aiming at joining up with them Cheyennes of his.
Joining the- The- The killing and raiding out there on the prairie.
Look, taking care of the Indians is Colonel Honeyman's job.
He's got two troops out after 'em now.
He ain't never gonna catch 'em.
But that boy, you better lock him up for his own good.
You can't stop people worrying.
I don't wanna hear any more about it, Ross.
That boy's got a tough enough time ahead of him as it is.
Come on, Doc.
Mr.
Dillon.
What is it? It's that Cullen boy.
He got in a fight with a grown man, right in front of Doc's house.
Well, I just don't know what this town'll do for excitement if that boy ever gets civilized.
All right, you Indian whelp.
Come at me! Sure, kid, you can take him.
Here.
That's right.
You got a knife now.
Come on.
Come on.
Yeah, go on.
You Indians ain't red.
You're yellow.
Yeah! Ooh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
All right, put the knife down.
That's an order.
Not hardly, marshal.
Let the kid fight.
Yeah! Let's have some fun, marshal.
Let the kid fight.
Come on.
Let's have fun.
What's the matter with you, anyway? Fighting a boy.
I'm sick of seeing him skulking around here like a little savage.
Ain't we having enough trouble with the Indians without having one of them running around loose in Dodge? I'm gonna open him up.
Oh! You had no call to do that, marshal.
Shut up.
Look at his arm, Doc.
Come here.
Don't worry about it.
I know people that get along better with one arm than two.
Don't forget the knife.
White man give me knife.
Then I fight.
All right.
Now you've had your fun.
Anybody wanna claim this? Come on, son.
Now, look, son, uh, before we go inside, you-? You wanna tell me about it? Name Vihocan.
All right.
Don't let's go into that again.
What I wanna know is, uh, why did you think you had to fight that man? Man talk bad.
Hit me in face.
You not come, I kill him.
Make big coup.
But you're not an Indian, son.
You're not a brave.
When are you gonna get that through your head? Vihocan have many Indian brothers.
But you're home now.
With your mother.
And you gotta stop thinking like an Indian, or you're gonna get in worse trouble.
Vihocan fight.
Mrs.
Cullen talk hard.
But she no understand.
She'll understand.
Come on.
All right, son.
Dennis.
Your cheek.
You're hurt.
What happened, Matt? Well, I'll tell you about it later, Kitty.
Right now, I wanna talk to Mrs.
Cullen.
Oh.
I'll go finish my coffee.
Marshal, what happened? Who hit my boy? I'd like to talk to you alone, ma'am.
Dennis, you go to your room.
You own a Sharp's rifle? Yes.
It's the very one Mr.
Cullen died fighting with at Medicine River.
Well, why do you ask? Well, it seems as though Dennis was trying to buy ammunition for it.
But Dennis doesn't have any money.
Does he know where he could get any? He stole it.
Mrs.
Cullen, Mr.
Ross has an idea that Dennis is trying to help the Cheyenne.
I can't believe that after all I tried to do for him, he hasn't changed a bit.
Well, I'd hate to think that too.
But until the rest of those Cheyenne are rounded up, people in Dodge are gonna be pretty edgy.
That's why he got hurt.
What do you mean? Well, he got into a fight with a grown man.
A knife fight.
No.
Wasn't his fault, but that's the kind of thing that can happen more and more until this, uh, thing blows over.
Well, what am I gonna do? Well, you'll just have to keep him home.
If you let him run loose on the streets, I'll have to lock him up for his own protection.
Well, I'll- I'll talk to him.
I know I can make him understand.
Sorry to intrude, Mrs.
Cullen.
Hello, marshal.
Hello, colonel.
I'd like to talk to the boy, ma'am.
Why? What is it? Something the trouble? You know who Little Wolf is? Well, sure, he's chief of the Cheyenne down at the Darlington agency.
He was at Darlington.
I just got word he jumped the reservation and is headed this way with 300 of his people.
Hmm.
You think they're planning to join the Indians at Brokeloose and Fort Dodge? No question about it.
Well, what does Dennis got to do with this? Why have you come to see him? I think he can tell me where their point of rendezvous is going to be.
Well, how would Dennis know? Indians scatter when they're being pursued, Mrs.
Cullen.
They regroup at some secret point later.
And every man, woman and child of them knows well in advance just where that point is.
Better call him, Mrs.
Cullen.
Dennis.
Oh, Dennis.
It's all right, son.
Colonel Honeyman wants to talk to you.
Hello, boy.
Colonel soldier want talk with Vihocan? Tell me, do you know Little Wolf? Little Wolf chief.
Good chief.
Maybe so.
But he's done a bad thing now.
No.
He left the reservation.
He's going to join Long Knife.
Long Knife my chief.
Oh, Dennis, don't say that.
He isn't.
Let him talk, Mrs.
Cullen.
Long Knife escape.
Yes.
He and the others you were with burned their barracks at Fort Dodge and killed three soldiers.
Vihocan know.
I'm sure you do.
You also know where Long Knife is meeting Little Wolf and his people.
If you tell me, you'll be saving lives, boy.
Not only of soldiers, but Indian lives too.
Not know meeting place.
Well, you can't beat it out of him, colonel.
No.
Sorry to have bothered you.
Good night.
I don't care what anybody says, you can't blame Little Wolf for trying to lead his people back home.
You can't blame him for that.
Well, that kind of talk gets you nothing but trouble around here, Doc.
Well, I don't care.
The Cheyenne Indian is a northern mountain tribe.
Now, you can't take people like that, and transplant 'em hundreds of miles south in a stinkin' reservation, unless you want 'em to starve to death.
Yeah, I sure wish we could get that through to the War Department, Doc.
Well, I don't know what everyone's worrying about.
When Little Wolf catches up with Long Knife, they're not going to go on any warpath.
They're- All they'll wanna do is just get out of Kansas, and get back up north.
Get home.
Right.
Marshal.
What's the trouble? It's Dennis.
He's gone.
Gone? After supper.
We ate early.
I had a long talk with him.
I tried to tell him how much I need him, how much I love him.
I tried to explain how things were in Dodge now, but things would be better when this Indian scare was over.
What'd he say? Well, he didn't say much, but I think he understood.
I felt closer to him than I ever have before.
Then I did some sewing.
He went to his room.
And later when I came in to say good night to him, the window was open and he was gone.
Well, maybe he's just wandering around town, ma'am.
No.
He's gone for good.
What makes you so sure? He took the Sharp's rifle, and that isn't all.
He stole a calico pony from Lynch's stable.
I see.
Well, there's not much we can do now.
It's too dark to find him at night.
But you will bring him back? We'll go after him first thing in the morning.
The marks of that calico's broken shoe are farther apart here.
Must've kicked her into a gallop, huh? Yeah, the kid turned off pretty sharp.
Almost like he knew right where he was going.
Yeah.
Come on.
That bridge there, there's a ravine right on the other side.
Yeah.
You know, Mr.
Dillon, she's in a terrible fix.
Who, Mrs.
Cullen? Yeah.
I mean, it can't be much comfort to her if we bring him back and he keeps wanting to run away.
And if he's with them Indians and we don't find him, well, I can't imagine how she's gonna feel.
Yeah, and that's not the worst of it, Chester.
What do you mean? He's not her son.
He ain't? Nah.
She knew it when she first saw him at Fort Dodge.
Did you know it too? Well, that's what she told me.
I'm a partner to the crime, if you can call it that.
Now that ravine is what Colonel Honeyman would call an ideal rendezvous point.
Yeah, or an elegant place to get bushwhacked.
Yeah.
Well, let's see who's right, huh? Lookie there, will you? Come on.
Marshal make long ride.
Catch Vihocan.
You travel pretty fast, son.
White lady send marshal? Mrs.
Cullen's mighty worried about you.
Colonel soldier, he worried too? Colonel Honeyman didn't send us.
Not follow? No.
He didn't follow.
Oh, my goodness, Mr.
Dillon.
Look at that, would you? Don't move.
Well, don't worry.
I ain't gonna move.
Sure are a fierce-looking bunch, ain't they? They're warriors, every one of 'em.
So you knew all along this was the meeting place, huh? Vihocan know.
My name Little Wolf.
You tell Vihocan pony soldiers no follow.
The pony soldiers are hunting you like a coyote, Little Wolf.
But they're not with us.
Vihocan say Little Wolf can believe marshal.
We came to take the boy home.
Little Wolf say all men free.
Vihocan must make his own choice.
But he's too young.
He doesn't know what's best for him.
Boy never be man, if other people make choice for him.
Yeah, but this boy is not an Indian.
He's a white boy.
And you know what'll happen to him if he stays with you and Long Knife.
He live like Indian.
White people treat Vihocan bad.
Kick.
Beat.
Call names.
Miss Cullen no understand.
No one understand.
It takes time, son.
Boy decide.
If want to come with Cheyenne, you don't stop.
I'd have a pretty hard time doing that.
You fight.
We kill you.
Yeah.
Now before you make up your mind, son, remember this: these Indians are poorly armed.
A lot of 'em are probably sick.
When winter comes, many of 'em will die.
The soldiers will get the rest of 'em.
Soldier not like Indian.
Soldier get tired, go back.
Indian go north.
Powder River home.
Hunt.
Fish again.
White people not my people.
Vihocan stay with Indian.
Vihocan decide.
Leave now.
Maybe someday come back great chief.
Not with the Army after you.
Do you understand what they're saying? Yeah, Chester, as a matter of fact I do.
Just enough.
Just enough? What do you mean? They're saying "Medicine River white boy.
" Medicine River white boy? Well, that's where Mrs.
Cullen lost her son.
Yeah.
Well, then this boy is? Yeah.
He's her son.
She never even recognized him.
Well, I'll be.
Are you gonna tell her? No.
No, I'm not gonna tell her, Chester.