Gunsmoke (1955) s03e12 Episode Script

starring James Arness as Matt Dillon.
Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho! Hold! Throw down the rifle.
Now the box.
Step outside.
Everybody.
I said get out.
Let's have them.
Inside.
You just gonna leave him there? He'll keep till you get back from Dodge tomorrow.
Then you can have that fella, Daggett, come out and bury him.
He's real good with a shovel.
Now, get.
Come on! All right, let's go, haw! Come on, let's go, boy, let's go! Whoa.
Forever more, I thought I was doing good just to hit it when it was sitting still there.
Well, you are doing good, Chester.
Try it again.
Well, all right.
This time, I'm gonna do it like the gun fanners do it.
I'm just gonna pulverize that log.
You know, a lot of them gunmen swore by it, fanning.
All right, give it a try.
All right.
Kind of tore it on the hammer.
Looks like it's safer in front of that gun than it is behind it, huh? Yeah, looks like it.
Ho! Marshal Marshal Dillon? Ho! Hello, Jim.
Got trouble, Marshal.
Stage was held up.
One of my passengers shot down in cold blood.
Meanest thing I ever seen.
Where'd this happen, Jim? Other side of Wagon Bed Springs, between there and Jesse Daggett's.
Daggett's? He runs the stage station out near the Colorado line.
I think Daggett's in on this, Marshal.
What makes you think that, Jim? He knew I was carrying gold.
When we was having breakfast out there at the station, I seen Daggett talking to as cursed a looking gunman as you'd want.
The fella rode off, left before we did.
Now I figure as how he he went somewhere and changed his horse and outfit and waited on down the road for us.
Was he alone? With his face covered.
I didn't have nobody riding shotgun.
Figured he'd give it away, you know, that I was carrying gold.
Yeah.
Well, look, maybe you'd better take the body to Long Neck, 'cause he'll handle the burial for you.
Well, he made me leave the body out there, Marshal.
Said when I got back, I was to tell Jesse Daggett to go out and bury him.
Huh.
Well, all right, Jim.
We'll ride out there with you tomorrow.
You, uh, bring a shovel along.
I'll bury him then.
All right, Marshal.
Haw! Let's go.
Haw! Well, I must say, miss, uh, that having such a pretty fellow traveler makes riding a stagecoach just pure pleasure for me.
Might I ask where you're going, miss? My wife and I are going to Santa Fe for our honeymoon.
Does that answer your question? Well, um, yes.
I didn't mean Sure brings to mind another one.
Ho! Hold! Well, looks like we won't need that shovel after all, Jim.
Let's get going.
Ho! Hold! Well, you got 20 minutes.
The food's bad, but it's clean.
Supper's on the table.
Like to freshen up, ma'am, it's out in back.
Well, I'm hungry enough, let's try it.
I'm for that.
Howdy.
Howdy Marshal.
Gonna be, uh, cold this winter.
I, uh feel a chill in the air already.
Yep, I'll have to lay in some more whiskey pretty soon.
Oh, I just kind of figured you to make your own whiskey, Daggett.
I do, Marshal.
Got five barrels of corn buried on the road out there.
Stage and horses keep them shook up proper that way.
You had the station long, Daggett? Three years, come spring.
Put the place up myself.
Pawnee try to burn it down every now and then, but my luck's been good, and I'm still here.
Ah, you plan to stay, I guess, then, huh? A man's plans are his own, Marshal.
Just an idle question, Daggett.
It's all right.
I think I'd kind of like it around here.
You have no neighbors, but you got a lot of company passing through.
Ain't all good company.
A lot of people travel, Daggett, good and bad.
That's right.
Somebody did us a favor.
We thought we'd have a grave to dig today.
I did that, Marshal.
Fella come by yesterday, said there was a dead man out there, so I went out and buried him.
This is all that was on him.
Looked like he had been robbed.
He was.
He was robbed and murdered.
Like you say, Marshal, all sorts of people come through here, good and bad.
Well, folks, we're pulling out.
Jim, I think we'll be staying on a while.
I figured you would be, Marshal.
Well Mr.
Dillon, I think I'll go to bed.
Figured you fellas might like to join me.
Always have a little touch before I turn in.
Mr.
Dillon? Well, that, uh, sounds pretty good.
Yeah, I might not mind a taste.
That's that will do her.
Here's to you.
Yep.
Ah well, good corn whiskey is hard to find.
Has the right taste.
Well, but I think I will go to bed.
Have another, Marshal? Well, might have another little short one, I guess.
You know, I, uh just been thinking about that stagecoach that was robbed the other day.
Can't figure out a man shooting somebody down in cold blood like that.
Might have been a mistake.
Gun might have gone off by accident.
Yeah.
Might have.
You think it did? What I think won't raise the dead, Marshal.
Might keep a few more from dying, though.
I figured that's what you were doing down here, looking for that fella.
Guess it's no secret.
No, of course it isn't.
You're welcome to stay as long as you like.
Thanks.
Looks like it might take some time.
Guess that's what you're paid for.
Jim Buck thinks it might be that gunman that was around here talking to you the day of the holdup.
That was Nat Pilcher.
I don't care what Jim Buck thinks.
You know, it's not gonna help your business or the stage lines if any more passengers get killed around here, Daggett.
It won't, for sure.
Everybody expects a stage to get held up once in a while, but that's not the same as passengers being shot down for nothing.
I can't figure this man out.
Not unless he's just a born killer.
Might have had a lot of reasons.
Men are all different.
Yeah.
Guess that's why I'm a lawman and you run a stage station.
All right, Marshal, I'm gonna tell you something, but it ain't what you want to hear.
You don't have to tell me anything, Daggett.
I believe in letting a man kill his own snakes, Marshal.
Well maybe I'll get lucky and kill mine.
You don't get lucky.
A man's born with his luck, and he just goes on using it up till it gives out on him.
Guess I could use some of your luck, Daggett.
No, sir.
This business is between you and that killer.
I won't interfere, and I won't help.
Even though the man was murdered for nothing? Let dog eat dog, I say.
Hope you won't regret that.
One more regret won't break me, Marshal.
I'm not so sure, Daggett.
Ho! Hold! You want to wash up, there's a basin of water out back.
You got 20 minutes.
Hello, Jim.
Hi.
Well, I wish I had a job like yours.
Nothing to do but sit around, play cards and drink whiskey.
I wouldn't call that whiskey myself.
Well, that'd take the beak off a buzzard.
Yeah.
Well, you done anything about finding Daggett's friend? Jim, if I did find him, I couldn't prove anything.
Well, you might just shoot him for luck.
Probably just some cowboy passing through, Jim.
Maybe.
Anyway, I got no gold aboard this trip.
Oh, well, then there's no trouble, is there? Well, here comes another pilgrim for supper.
No, I guess it ain't either.
Hello, Jesse.
I heard there was a marshal here.
That's right.
What can I do for you? Me? You can't do anything for me, Marshal.
That so? I just want to see what a marshal looks like.
A live one.
You're looking at one, mister.
Hey, you're touchy, ain't you, Marshal? Real touchy.
I don't aim to start no trouble, I just came in to say hello.
Friendly like.
What's your name? Pilcher.
Nat Pilcher.
Is that so? Sure.
I'm a friend of Jesse Daggett.
An old friend.
Ain't I, Jesse? Where you from? What do you do? I'm a cowboy, Marshal.
Know anybody needs a good hand? What do you do besides ride? Funny you should ask that.
Is it? You being a lawman, it is.
Ever hear of Charlie Hall, sheriff over in New Mexico? I have.
They say Clay Allison shot him.
That's what they say, Marshal.
But I know for a fact it wasn't Clay that killed him.
Nice meeting you, Marshal.
See you later.
Jesse.
There's a thoroughly mean man, if I ever seen one, Mr.
Dillon.
Be just as easy as pie for him to ride right up and just plain kill somebody.
He's your man, Marshal.
He's got to be.
Supper's ready.
Haw! Haw! Come on! Be in Dodge tonight, back here tomorrow.
Yeah, if he doesn't get shot up.
Not carrying any gold this trip.
What was Nat Pilcher doing here? Looking for you, I guess.
Seems funny.
All he did was to remind me what a hard case he is.
Didn't seem to have much effect.
You're still here.
Should've gone back to Dodge, Marshal.
Why, Daggett? Things will work out here all right without you.
That's all, Marshal.
Things will work out here all right without you.
Daggett, uh Hmm? I know it may seem like I'm meddling in your affairs here, but, after all, a stagecoach was robbed, a man was killed.
Guess that kind of makes it my affair, too.
Want to thank you for knowing I had nothing to do with all that, Marshal.
I'm pretty sure of that now, but, uh, I'm still not going back to Dodge without a man.
You know, Daggett, uh, you ought to plant some trees around here.
It'd kind of improve the place.
Not enough water.
Why don't you dig for it? You'll never get a woman to marry you unless you got some trees around.
Thought to have a woman out here once when I first planned about running the stage station.
Was over in New Mexico.
Seems like a long time ago.
Well, I guess things don't always work out.
I was might fond of her, Marshal.
But I lost her.
Been a little lonely ever since.
You're lucky, Daggett.
Least you came close.
That's more than some men do.
Yeah.
I came close.
It's the first time that I ever sorted beans and lost money at the same time.
Ho! Ha! Ho! Is that the stage already? I don't know.
Just think of that.
Jim Buck's been clear to Dodge and back while we just been sitting there.
Well, waiting is the hardest part, Chester.
Hope it pays off in something besides beans.
Jim, what happened to you? They stopped me again, Marshal.
By heaven, I'm going after him now if you don't.
Take a look in the coach.
Is she dead, Jim? Of course she's dead.
Where's your other passengers, Jim? There ain't any.
She was the only one aboard this trip.
Give you a hand.
Hurt bad? In the shoulder.
Take a look.
He knocked me off the box.
I wasn't gonna stop at all.
Then he just rode up, ordered her out, put a bullet in her and rode off.
You think it was Pilcher? Who else would it be? You seen him.
You know what he's like.
Had to be him.
Take a look in the coach, Daggett.
Take a good look.
And tell me what you think of killing women.
How do you feel about it now, Daggett? You still willing to let dog eat dog? Let me tell you something.
If you know anything about this, anything at all, and you're not talking, you're as guilty as the man that killed her.
Look at him, Marshal.
I told you.
I told you he was in on this.
Maybe you're right, Jim.
I know I'm right.
After he shot her, he made me put her back in the coach.
Then he says to me, he says, "Take her to the stage station.
Tell Daggett here's a little present for him.
" Chester.
Shh! Shh! He just rode out.
What time is it? It's about an hour before dawn.
Come on, let's go.
You think he's gonna meet Pilcher, Mr.
Dillon? Well, he's sure gonna try, Chester.
Well, we've been going ten miles already.
Yeah, about that, I wish we hadn't let him get so far ahead of us.
Well, we're right on his trail, though.
Yeah.
So you followed me, huh, Marshal? You bad hurt? Bad enough.
Pilcher? I'd have killed him, but my gun didn't go off.
No luck.
No luck at all.
Just stood there and shot me.
You get any idea where he went? Said he was going back to the station.
Get you.
You know, I would've come with you this morning, Daggett.
Wasn't your business.
It was between me and Pilcher.
He come here to devil me.
And finally killing that woman, he knew I couldn't stand that.
You mean to say he killed that woman and that other passenger just to prod you into a fight? Yeah.
Why didn't he just kill you outright? That's what he was doing, Marshal.
Little bit at a time.
Killing everything that mattered to me.
He must have hated you pretty bad.
Oh, he did.
I had a wife out in New Mexico.
I caught her with Nat Pilcher.
I didn't shoot him.
Shot her instead.
You kill her? I don't think he cared so much if I killed him, but I guess he didn't like losing her any more than I did.
Been after me ever since.
You know, I could've stopped this whole thing, Daggett.
You can have him now.
Chester will stay here with you, Daggett.
I'm gonna ride back to the station.
Marshal, it's all the same to you, I'd just as soon die alone.
Your privilege, Daggett.
About time you got here.
How's your shoulder, Jim? I got to get to Dodge somehow and see the Doc.
We'll get you there all right.
Where's Pilcher? Good morning, Marshal.
Hello, Pilcher.
You've been riding.
So have you.
Man like me rides a lot, Marshal.
You should've kept on riding, Pilcher.
I wanted to see you again before I left, Marshal.
That's what Jesse Daggett tells me.
I'm gonna kill you, Marshal.
I been looking forward to it.
Chester, take the horses around the corner, will you? Now, you can still drop your gun belt and take your chances in court.
I figure my chances are a sight better with you, Marshal.
It's your choice.
It's always been my choice.
Except for the night Jesse Daggett shot his wife.
It doesn't matter much now, does it? To me, it does.
Mr.
Dillon! Oh Tell you, I never heard so many shots so quick.
He was pretty fast, Chester.
That just goes to show you that fanning isn't too accurate there.
No, no.
I guess not.
What was it all about, Marshal? A woman.
Now, Jim, I'll help you hitch up your team and drive back to town.
I'd be grateful for that.
We'll have to go a little bit out of our way first, though.
Why's that, Marshal? Pick up Jesse Daggett.
Jesse? Yeah.
His luck ran all the way out this morning.