Gunsmoke (1955) s02e14 Episode Script

ANNOUNCER: Starring James Arness as Matt Dillon.
Not all the men buried out here on Boot Hill were shot.
Some of 'em were knifed, some were lynched, and some were just plain kicked in the head.
But most of 'em died revenge.
I guess not many folks around here pay enough attention to that saying about how vengeance belongs to the Lord.
At least, they sure don't act like it.
If they did, they wouldn't need me: Matt Dillon, U.
S.
marshal.
Good morning, Chester.
Oh Morning, Mr.
Dillon.
Well, it looks like we're in for another warm day.
Heh-heh.
Well, you'd complain if it wasn't, wouldn't you? Well, I don't mind the heat so much.
As a matter of fact, I kind of like it.
Well, what are you complaining about, then? It ain't so much that I'm complaining about the weather.
It's now I'm worried about the flies.
You know, every time we get a warm spell like this, I swear that all the blowflies in Kansas come to this office.
Chester, you know, for a man who's lived on the high plains, you're getting pretty soft.
Yeah.
Maybe you'd better head back to St.
Louis, huh? Oh, now, Mr.
Dillon, you know I never was in St.
Louis.
Well, don't have to worry about him.
Ew.
If that don't beat a hen a-peckin', I'll swear.
That- That darned old pump down at the end of River Street is sucking up mud again.
Now, Chester, I've seen you drink a whole lot worse than that.
Oh, well, I don't mind a little bit of mud every now and then, but if we don't get some rain pretty soon, every pump in Dodge is gonna be bone-dry.
I remember one time down in Atascosa County all the wells went dry.
There wasn't a sober cowboy in 15 miles.
Oh, mercy.
Well, what in the world's he think he's doing? What's who think he's doing? Well, Old Man McCready's son, Billy McCready.
Well, I'll sworn to goodness, he's got no business doing that.
Well, what's he doing? Well, I don't know, but he sure ain't up to no good.
Just look at that, would you? Well, I guess that's the only way I'll find out.
Well, you're too late now.
He's quit.
Well, what was he doing? Well, I don't know, but he- He- He was- He was messing around with that wagon.
He was fooling with the traces or the singletree, or something.
Well, let's go find out, huh? Now, Billy McCready always was a wild one.
Well, he's young, Chester, with no mother.
Well, I just hope he don't grow up to be as ornery as his old man.
Yeah, I hope you're right about that.
I wonder whose wagon this is, anyway.
Well, I don't know, Mr.
Dillon.
I don't think I've ever seen it before.
Look at that.
Well, I'll be.
Them traces cut pretty near in two.
Now, what'd Billy want to go and do a thing like that for? Hey there.
What are you men doing to that harness? Is this your wagon, mister? It sure is.
Well, does Billy McCready got any reason to have it in for you folks? Billy McCr- Don't you tell 'em nothing, Jim.
T'ain't none of their business.
Now, wait a minute, Jenny.
This is Marshal Dillon.
I don't get into Dodge much, marshal.
Haven't had a chance to meet you.
Proving up a homestead don't leave a man much time.
Proud to know you, marshal.
I'm Jim Gabriel.
This is my wife, Jenny.
How do you do? This is Chester Goode, here.
Hi, Chester.
Howdy.
We've got a quarter section just this side of McCready's ranch.
And you was right, marshal.
They have got it in for us.
Them McCreadys have been trying to hound us off our land for months, but Jim and me ain't budging.
We filed on that land last fall.
We've been living on it ever since.
Proving it up, like the law says.
It's been a backbreaking job, marshal.
Touch and go, all the way.
We've put our blood and sweat in that land.
McCready ain't gonna touch it.
What does he want it for? Doesn't he have enough land for his cattle? It's the water he wants.
I run onto a spring a couple of months back and opened it up, and they've been after us ever since.
What's he been doing to you? Talk, mostly.
Made threats.
But yesterday, Billy come by with that no-good Bart that rides with him, and he says they was through talking.
Well, it looks to me like they meant what they said.
Do you see this? Look at that, Jenny.
Cut pretty near through.
They was aiming for us to lose our team on our way home.
And leave us stranded out on the prairie.
They ain't running us off, marshal.
Me and the boy will fight 'em to a standstill.
Boy? Our son, David.
He's over getting the mail.
He's a fine boy, marshal.
When are you folks planning to head home? Be late afternoon, I reckon.
I gotta get them traces fixed.
Well, there's a harness shop just down the street there.
Just across from the Long Branch.
You stop over at my office before you leave, will you? Yes, sir.
It's a terrible way to plague a body.
Yeah.
And I think they got a lot more trouble ahead of them, Chester.
Whoa.
We've got company, Jim.
Seems like.
Your sister and the family from Philadelphia.
Got here sooner than we figured.
Here, take the wagon, son.
You get the horses unhitched, son, then come on in and meet your cousin from the East.
Giddap.
What are you doing here, McCready? How'd you get back from Dodge? In our wagon.
Same way as we got in.
Were you lying to me, Billy? I did what you told me, Pa.
Honest.
Shut up about what I told you.
I wouldn't worry about it, Mr.
McCready.
Who's gonna believe a no-good sodbuster with the seat of his pants out? I just don't want the law to come snooping around.
The law's on your side, Mr.
McCready.
They've been stealing water off your cattle, ain't they? We ain't stole nothing.
That's our land that water's on.
I found that spring myself.
I cleaned it out, and I opened it up.
If you want to talk about the law, you talk about the homestead law.
I don't hold much to that one.
Reckon the government made a mistake.
There's too many of your kind out here already trying to steal from us honest ranchers that built up this country.
Honest? You get out of here, McCready.
Take them vultures with you.
I guess you found them cut traces and fixed 'em, huh? That's too bad.
A good long walk might have made you less uppity.
And, uh, we were gonna light you a nice signal fire so you could find your way home.
We still can, Pa.
Only now they can watch it up real close.
Yeah, might be kind of convincing at that.
Bart, throw some coal oil over this junk.
Wait till the marshal hears about this.
I've already heard about it, Mrs.
Gabriel.
Just hold it right there.
Well, what are you doing out this way, marshal? Same thing I'd be doing in Dodge, McCready: enforcing the law.
Well, I guess there's no call for that around here.
Can't we drop in for a neighborly visit without everybody making a fuss about it? Why, you're getting as bad as Gabriel here.
He's been talking real wild.
You oughta heard him.
Yeah, I heard him.
And I heard you too.
Well, you can't put a man in jail for talking, I reckon.
Bother you some to go to jail, wouldn't it? There weren't no jails out here when I first came.
No marshals neither.
And things were a lot better then than they are now.
Yeah, for people like you they were.
if you or your son or that hired man of yours cause these people any more trouble, I'm gonna throw you in jail.
You got that? Come on, boys.
Let's get out of this shack.
Wait a minute.
Not till you put those things back where they belong.
All right.
Get going.
Mrs.
Gabriel, you see they put 'em back right.
It's a lucky thing you followed us out, marshal.
Reckon that's the last trouble we'll be having with them.
I wouldn't count on it.
Morning, Miss Hyde.
What's the matter, Doc? One of your patients run out on you? Guess a man has to be in pretty good shape when he comes to you if he aims to survive at all, huh? Well, it's not absolutely necessary, but it might help.
I swear, I don't know what's happened to him.
What's happened to who? Oh, fella out on the Bar Z.
They're bringing him in in a buckboard.
A horse rolled on him, broke his leg.
I'm supposed to set it for him.
He ought to be here by now.
Well, maybe he heard they were bringing him to you and, uh, put up a fight, huh? By golly, you just never get tired of making fun of the old and honored profession- What's that? Hey, that feller's lathering up his horse.
Doc! Doc! What's the matter? It's my boy.
He's sick.
He's awful sick.
Doc, you gotta come.
What's wrong with him? I don't know exactly.
My wife's sister just got here from the East.
Her little girl was sick the same way, and she died that first night before I could even come for you.
She died? Well, what's it like? What's the boy act like? Well, he- He gets awful cramps.
In the legs, mostly.
And- And he can't hardly talk.
And- And he's turned kind of blue all over.
Stomach hurting? Just something terrible, Doc.
He keeps wanting water, but it don't seem to help him none.
The little girl who died, she act the same way? Just the same way.
What do you think it is, Doc? Sure sounds like cholera.
Cholera! Maybe the little girl caught it back east and brought it out here.
I haven't seen any indication of cholera around here.
My boy, Doc.
He ain't gonna die too, is he? Well, now, I'm gonna do everything I can for him.
But you hightail it back home.
You tell your wife to burn everything that little girl touched.
Clothes, blankets and everything.
And you stay away from your boy too, otherwise you may all catch it.
All right.
Now, it's very important you don't touch any of his dishes.
Everything he eats off of, you have your wife boil.
Boil them good, don't get 'em mixed with yours, understand? Yes, sir.
Are you coming, Doc? I'll be there as soon as I can.
But I've gotta stay here in town now and set a broken leg for a fella.
But rush out there and tell 'em what I said.
I'll tell 'em, Doc.
And I'll tell 'em you're coming too.
Yes, I'll- I'll hurry.
What do you think, Doc? Well, if it's cholera, it's bad.
Real bad.
Well, if that don't beat all.
A red seven.
Red seven.
Oh.
Mr.
Dillon, there's times when you can't beat this game, even if you cheat.
Now, Chester, I'm afraid there's a lot of games like that.
Say, have you seen Doc tonight? No- No, I guess he ain't got back from the Gabriels' yet.
He should have been back a long time ago.
Seven games in a row and I couldn't beat it once.
Red seven.
This be your trouble? Oh.
Oh.
Oh, well.
If that don't beat all.
Mr.
Dillon, do you think that there's any danger of that cholera spreading to Dodge? Why, are people worried? Well, yeah, they have.
There's been some talk, yeah.
Well, I hope they don't panic.
If everybody keeps their head, there shouldn't be any danger.
Marshal.
What are you doing here this time of night? I'm looking for Doc.
He never did show up, and I can't find him no place in town.
He should have been out to your place this afternoon.
I know, and when it come dark, I got worried.
The boy's a lot worse, marshal.
I gotta find Doc.
McCready been in town today? Well, yeah.
I saw him and that Bart fellow when I was helping Doc splint that- That fella's leg.
Go get our horses.
Marshal, we've just got to find Doc right away.
We'll find him.
Let's go.
Jenny, how's the boy? Worse.
A lot worse.
I couldn't find Doc, Jenny.
I didn't expect you would.
I know what's happened to Doc.
What do you mean, Mrs.
Gabriel? I figured it all out last night after Jim left for Dodge.
I know how Doc is.
Ain't nothing in this world to keep him from coming when a person's sick, unless somebody stopped him.
I reckon somebody did.
Oh, Jenny, I- You said you saw McCready in town when you was talking to Doc yesterday morning.
Well, of course he done it.
You may be right, Mrs.
Gabriel.
I didn't want to worry you, but I'll tell you one thing: if he does have Doc, he won't have him for long.
He wants us all dead.
He'd like that fine.
But I figured it out, marshal, and I got him beat.
You what? Like the hand of God, and I knew what I had to do.
Mr.
Dillon? I'm gonna get my rifle.
No, you stay here.
I'll handle this.
Morning, Gabriel.
Mrs.
Gabriel.
Marshal.
Me and Bart thought we'd ride over this way and see if there was anything we could do to help.
I mean it now, folks.
I'm only trying to be neighborly.
McCready, you get back on that horse and take me to Doc.
Doc? Well, what are you talking about, marshal? Doc's here, ain't he? I said get back on that horse.
Bart.
All I'm doing is breathing hard.
You touch that, you won't be breathing at all.
All right, McCready.
Let's go.
Now, look here, marshal.
I don't know- Wait, all of you.
Listen to me.
I can save us a lot of time.
Your boy, Billy.
Where is he? Why, he stayed at the ranch.
He wasn't feeling so good this morning, and- Why? What difference does it make where he is? Billy come by here last night.
Stopped for a few minutes.
Said he'd been out on the prairie for a couple of days, was heading home.
Well, what about it? He didn't give you no trouble, did he? No.
No trouble at all.
He just wanted a drink of water.
It was real late, after Jim had gone back into Dodge.
After I'd figured out why Doc hadn't come.
Just a drink of water, that's all he wanted.
So I went in the house and I got it and give it to him.
Well, I'll pay you for the water, if that's all that's bothering you.
Yes, you'll pay me, Mr.
McCready.
Because my son's in that house, bad sick, dying, maybe, of cholera.
And he's been drinking water too.
Lots of it.
Out of the same cup.
But Doc said- I know what Doc said.
Nobody is to use dishes after my boy without their being boiled first.
And nobody has, except your son.
And he didn't feel so good this morning.
Why, he's got it.
Marshal, she did it deliberate.
She tried to kill my son.
McCready, where's Doc? But Billy'll die.
Yes, he'll die, without Doc.
Just like you meant my son to die.
All right, where is he? All right, we did lay for Doc.
I'll admit it.
We got him in a cavern of mine, five, six miles from here.
Me and Bart took him.
Well, he'd better be all right.
He's all right.
Just locked up, that's all.
McCready, you're the worst I've ever seen.
Get on that horse! Doc's been in there with that Gabriel boy all afternoon.
What's he aiming to do? Spend the night? He could get away for an hour or so.
It wouldn't hurt nothing.
He could leave some medicine.
He's a pretty sick boy in there.
Well, I got a sick boy too.
There ain't nobody with him but Bart, and he don't know nothing to do.
Yes, and neither did the Gabriels, till Doc got here.
All right.
Well, what's done is done.
Ain't no call to let my boy die over a little misunderstanding.
Doc's never let anybody die in his life, McCready, if he could help it.
What's he doing in there now? Why don't you shut up and go back and sit down.
Now, look here- Well? How is he, Doc? Is he any better? No, he's dead, Chester.
Dead? Yeah, the little feller died about a half-hour ago.
Well, why didn't you tell us? Well, I've just been trying to tell those folks how to keep from getting it themselves.
I thought you told Gabriel that back in town, Doc.
Yes, I did, Matt.
I- I told him.
Takes a little persuading, people as hard up as they are, to get 'em to burn what little they got left.
Hm, it's a doggone shame, that's what it is.
Well, too bad the boy died, but he has.
And that's that.
Ain't no use wasting any more time around here now.
Wasting time? McCready, if I ever start laying it into you, so help me, I- Look, Mr.
Dillon, who's coming.
Why, what's Bart doing over here? He hadn't ought to let Billy alone.
Doc, how are the folks taking it inside? No, they're not saying much, and they're not crying any.
Well, they're pretty lean folks.
I guess they'll make out all right.
Why'd you go off and leave Billy alone? Mr.
McCready- What is it, Bart? Billy's dead.
Dead? He died right there in his bed.
I did all I could.
I just didn't know nothing really to do for him.
He got blue all over and cold, and- And then he just choked up and died.
Billy's dead.
I did all I could, Mr.
McCready.
I put blankets on him.
I gave him water.
Wasn't your fault, Bart.
It was Doc's fault.
And hers.
You gave my boy that water deliberate, knowing what it would do.
You killed my son.
Now, that's enough, McCready.
It wasn't your son that died, marshal.
It wasn't your son that was murdered.
McCready, I'm going- No, marshal.
He's right.
The guilt's mine.
But as the Lord as my witness, I didn't aim for nothing like this to happen.
I didn't want the boy to die.
I figured if- If Billy got sick, McCready would let Doc go.
He could cure both boys.
That's what I meant to happen.
Well, my boy would be alive right now if you hadn't wasted the whole afternoon in there.
McCready, it's about time you learned some facts, and that goes for the rest of you here too.
Now, listen to me.
Your boy, and yours too, Mrs.
Gabriel, they'd have both died, whether I'd have been here or not.
What are you saying? Well, I'm just saying that the medical profession has got no answer at all for this.
Not yet.
They may have someday, but- But not yet.
I just made your boy as comfortable as I could, and that's all I'd have been able to do for Billy.
Probably no more than Bart was able to do here, more than likely.
What I'm saying is that I just don't know how to treat cholera, any more than I'd know how to cure insanity.
And neither does any other doctor.
Then I did kill him.
Like I'd shot him with a gun.
I reckon I better go home and look after my son.
Mr.
Dillon, what about the law? Ain't there nothing you can do about him? Well, there's different kinds of law, Chester.
McCready has already been tried, judged and sentenced.