Gunsmoke (1955) s03e27 Episode Script

starring James Arness as Matt Dillon.
You know, men die for a lot of reasons.
I've even heard of worthy ones.
Like the man who's willing to face it for the good that might come after.
But he's a different breed than most of this Boot Hill trash.
These people died for foolish reasons.
A spilt drink, a wrong card, or maybe worst of all, the bullheaded stubbornness that keeps a man from listening to reason.
To die like this is a waste.
For nothing is gained by the dying.
Matt Dillon, U.
S.
Marshall.
Tie 'em up, would you, Duval? Sure, Jake.
Looked like rain this morning.
Sure clear now.
Yeah.
Been like that all week.
Take Tilman's horse over there, will you, Vince? Yeah.
Hey, give him a hand, will you? Yeah, sure.
We been neighbors long time, Tilman.
Eight years.
Makes a man feel bad about a thing like this.
I always liked you.
Sure.
You ain't never had much luck, have you? Last couple years have gone mighty hard.
That ain't no excuse for horse stealing.
Jake, will you drop by my house and tell my wife on your way home? Of course I will.
I figured on doing that anyway.
I'd be beholding to you.
Doggone it, Tilman.
You know we can't have no man stealing horses around here.
No.
You'd have been after me just as fast if I'd done it.
I would.
Only difference is I'd want to be awful sure you was the one that done it.
I am sure.
Heck, we caught you red-handed, didn't we? I told you a dozen times, Jake.
I found them horses running wild.
Exceptin' we don't believe you.
None of us do.
Ask Bill Jennings.
He saw me.
He knew I was only rounding them up for you.
Jennings ain't here.
Well, why doesn't one of you go after him? He can't be far away.
We've seen enough without what you say Jennings seen.
Sure.
You got your minds made up anyway.
We got to protect ourselves, Tilman.
We got to protect what's ours.
Hey, Jake! What? Come here a minute.
What for? Come here.
What's the trouble, Duval? I seen somebody coming.
Who? Ain't close enough.
Can't tell yet.
We don't want no snoopers.
Just don't let him get too close.
We got a job to do.
All right.
You alone here? Where's Jake Kaiser? I've been tracking you fellas.
Now, who else is here? What's going on here, Duval? You ain't got Frank Tilman in there, have you? Why shouldn't we have him? You have got him.
Where'd you come from, Jennings? I seen you men way off, then I lost you.
Till I picked up your trail out there.
What'd you want to find us for? Jake, Frank Tilman wasn't stealing them horses.
No? Where is he? What have you done?! Howdy, Mrs.
Tilman.
Well, hello, Jake.
Come on inside.
No, thanks, ma'am, I'll stay out here.
My husband ain't home, Jake, he's out on the prairie some place.
I know.
My boy's here, though.
Would you like to see him? No, ma'am.
I want to see you.
Me? What about? Well, it's about your husband, Mrs.
Tilman.
Something's happened to him.
Well, it's like this, ma'am.
You know me and Duval and Benson been losing some horses lately? So? But Frank ain't somehow.
So, naturally, when we caught him driving a bunch of mine today, we figured it's him that's been doing the stealing.
No, my husband's an honest man.
You know he'd never do a thing like that, Jake.
Yes, ma'am.
I do now.
What? Well, Bill Jennings seen him rounding up them horses where he found them running loose on the prairie, I guess whoever had tried to steal them got scared and left them there.
Where's my husband, Jake? That's what I'm trying to tell you, ma'am.
Jennings come and told us what had really happened, but he got there too late.
Too late? Yes, ma'am.
We'd already hung him.
It's the Lord's truth, ma'am.
Clabe? Clabe, come out here.
I'm here, mom! Hi, Jake.
Clabe.
Tell him what you've done, Jake.
I want him to hear it from you.
Clabe, we hung your old man today.
You what? We hung him.
For stealing horses.
Of course they found out he didn't do it.
After.
Yeah.
Yeah, I guess the joke's on us, all right.
Somebody ought to kill you, Jake.
Now, Clabe, don't talk like that.
I said we were sorry.
Yeah.
Sure.
Just the same, I reckon you know what'll happen if you say anything to the law about this.
I got to go now.
I'm late for dinner.
I brung his horse.
Thanks.
Thanks a lot.
No trouble.
Here's your old man's gun.
Sit still.
Clabe.
Clabe, I want to talk to your mother.
How are you, ma'am? I'm middling.
I - Ma's kind of tired, Marshall.
I heard about what happened to your husband.
I-I'm sorry, ma'am.
But the cowboy that found him, he rode on into Dodge last night and told me about it.
Did he? But he didn't say who did it.
I don't reckon he knew who did it, Marshall.
Do you? Like I say, Marshall, Ma's kind of tired.
Clabe, you have any idea who did it? I wasn't there.
I don't understand you people.
You don't seem to be particularly interested in whether these lynchers get caught or not.
They'll get caught.
Clabe, let me tell you something.
Now, don't get it in your head to go out after those men yourself.
If you do that, you'll be just as bad as they are.
And I'll be after you.
It ain't that, Marshall.
It's just that we wouldn't inform on anybody.
We don't believe in doing things that way.
Well, then how do you expect them to get caught? God has his ways.
It's no use arguing with her, Marshall.
Now, look, I know that there are ranches around here that have been losing horses.
And I also know that they'd probably lynch the first man they got their hands on if they thought he's the one that'd been stealing them.
You saying my husband was a horse thief? No, ma'am, I'm not.
But he might've made a mistake.
Or they might have.
Well, I can't do anything without your help.
Sorry, Mrs.
Tilman.
Don't forget what I told you, Clabe.
Sure.
Well, I got to get on home.
Now, don't you worry about a thing.
Everything's going to be all right.
Well, I just don't like that Marshall Dillon sniffing around, that's all.
He's come and talked to three of us now.
There ain't a thing he can do.
I know them Tilmans.
They ain't gonna talk to nobody about nothing.
And it's a sure thing none of us will.
Of course not.
I reckon you're right about everything, Jake.
Of course I am.
So long, Benson.
I'll be talking to you.
Come on.
Well, by golly, there's not very much I can tell you, Matt.
Wasn't much point in bringing him in, then, I guess, huh? No.
Who did bring him in? Oh, some immigrant and his wife.
They ran across him out there, and they didn't even know who he was.
Benson wouldn't like that being known.
About all I can tell you is he died sometime yesterday afternoon.
Mm.
Saturday.
Yeah.
What else, anything? Well, no, except shot twice and that's what killed him.
You don't expect me to tell you who did it, do you? I wish you could.
You haven't got much to go on, have you? Nothing that'll hold up in court.
Well, it seems like ambush is a pretty safe way to kill a man, huh? Better than killing him in church.
See you later.
Yeah.
She's got the big eyes of brown Oh, hello, Mr.
Dillon.
Hello, Chester.
What are you doing? Well, it's come a full week.
It's Saturday again.
Oh, yeah.
I got me a little squashy gal all lined up for the evening.
Well, I hope you didn't tell her.
Tell her what? Nothing.
Oh.
You, uh, you ain't heard no more about Tom Benson, have you? No, why? Well, you know, it's been a full week since he got killed.
Yeah, it's been just about a week and a day since Frank Tilman got lynched, too.
Yeah, it's been pretty lively around here, ain't it? Well, I guess that depends on how you look at it.
Where you going? I don't know.
I guess I'll just go out and take a little walk.
I'll be back.
You look about as sour as Chester did last week when his girl didn't show up.
Hmm? Oh, come on, Matt.
Everybody else is having a good time.
Look.
I'm sorry, Kitty.
You're still bothered about the Tilman hanging, aren't you? He was lynched.
All right, lynched.
That was two weeks ago.
What are you gonna do about it? I don't know.
Just wait around for somebody to make a mistake, I guess.
Maybe somebody already has.
Hmm? Tom Benson.
What about him? Well, it could be that his conscience got to bothering him.
and, well, maybe Jake Kaiser and Duval killed him in order to keep him from talking about it.
I've already thought of that, Kitty.
Well? There's no way I can prove it.
There's not much you can do, is there? Nope, I might as well be in St.
Louie.
Mr.
Dillon Hello, Miss Kitty.
Hello, Chester.
I just run into one of Jim Duval's riders.
Duval's been shot.
Oh, no.
Yeah, he said it happened just as he was going in the house for supper.
His family heard the shot, but by the time they reached the body, they couldn't find nobody that had done the shooting.
How long ago did it happen? Well, he said it was about four or five hours ago.
And he said that it was a rifle that killed him just like the one that killed Tom Benson.
How long's he been here? Oh, at least that long, Matt.
He was here when I came to work.
Uh-huh.
Excuse me a minute.
Jake.
Hello, Marshal.
Jake, I'd like to talk to you for a minute.
Let's step over here, we'll be out of the way.
I'm kinda late getting out home, Marshal.
What is it? Jim Duval was killed tonight.
Duval? Killed from ambush, same as Benson.
Same way, huh? Yup.
It's that Tilman boy, Clabe, that's who's doing it.
What makes you think that? He's crazy, that's why, Marshal.
Ever since his old man got hung, he's been out of his head.
He's out gunning for anybody who was around out there that day.
How do you know that? He told me so, right here in town today.
Say, he was in town last Saturday, come to think of it.
He threaten to kill you? Of course he did.
You go arrest him, Marshal.
No evidence, Jake.
You mean, you ain't gonna do nothing about it? Not yet, no.
Well, he ain't gonna shoot me.
I'll kill him first.
By golly, I'll do it right tonight on the way home.
Jake, you're not gonna kill anybody.
Now you just go on back home and let me handle this.
Then you go arrest him.
You leave it to me.
Not for long, Marshal.
Not for very doggone long.
I'm looking for Clabe.
He's out in the barn.
Mrs.
Tillman, did you hear about Jim Duval? He was killed last night.
All right.
All right? Seems to me there've been several people killed around here lately, Marshal, my husband included.
Do you think Duval and Benson had anything to do with that? I didn't say they were.
What about Jake Kaiser? You're prying, Marshal.
That's the trouble with the law You're always prying.
We don't know nothing.
And Clabe didn't shoot nobody.
He was in Dodge yesterday and the Saturday before, too.
Uh-huh.
Hello, Clabe.
You been hunting? No.
Put the gun back where it belongs, son.
Okay, Ma.
I was shooting hawks with it yesterday.
I left it in the barn.
You should have put it back yesterday, son.
Oh, yeah.
It was dark when I got home, Ma.
I didn't see it out there.
I should have put it away myself.
What brings you out here, Marshal? Jim Duval was killed last night.
That so? Ambushed with a rifle.
Same as Benson.
You don't say.
Jake Kaiser, he, uh, he thinks you did it.
He does? Yeah, he says you threatened to kill him, too.
Maybe I oughta.
Clabe, now don't talk that way, son.
How you gonna prove I murdered anybody, Marshal? There's laws against murder, Clabe.
My pa was murdered.
Where was the law then? If I knew who they were, I'd go after 'em.
Too bad you wasn't there, Marshal.
We don't know nothing about nobody, Marshal.
Do we, son? Nothing at all.
Bye, Mrs.
Tillman.
Come on, Chester.
Hello, Doc.
Matt.
You're just in time for some coffee.
Well, good.
I'm lucky.
Oh? How do you mean? Well, see, you're making the coffee, not Chester.
That's being pretty lucky.
I'm sorry to disappoint you, Doc, but this is Chester's coffee.
I'm just warming it up.
Oh, well, if it hasn't killed me by now, I guess I can take a chance.
That's better than usual.
What's he using now, sunflower seeds? Probably.
You know, Chester's got a theory that coffee ought to be a meal in itself.
Where is he? Oh, I got him outside watching for Clabe Tilman.
What fer? It's Saturday.
Clabe's been making a point of coming into Dodge every Saturday.
What do you mean? Well, you know, there's been a killing every Saturday for the past two weeks.
Well, you don't think it's Clabe? Well, he's sure got more reason than anybody else.
Well, you, you mean he could have gotten out there and killed them fellas and then gotten back in here without anybody noticing it? Could have.
Mr.
Dillon Oh, Doc.
He's here.
I seen him going into Delmonico's.
You know, you said he'd be here.
Yeah.
Have you seen Jake Kaiser in town? No, I ain't seen Jake.
I seen one of his riders, though, and he said Jake wasn't coming into town today.
Well, guess I'd better ride out to Jake's then.
Don't you want to follow Clabe when he leaves? It's Jake I want to keep an eye on.
So long, Doc.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, Mr.
Dillon, I don't see Jake or nobody around the house.
You sure that we just ain't wasting our time? No, he's in there, Chester.
And whoever's after him is bound to show up here sooner or later.
Yeah, I reckon so.
Listen.
Yeah.
Stay here.
Yes, sir.
You let me go! Don't shoot, Jake! It's Marshal Dillon! This ain't gonna do you no good, Marshal! I ain't gonna quit till Jake Kaiser's dead! What's going on out here, Marshal? What's she doing here? She wants to kill you, Jake.
A woman? A better shot than most men.
She's proved that already.
You killed Benson and Duval? And I'll kill you if I have to use a knife! A woman going around killing people.
Why, that's terrible! You lynched my husband! I told you that was a mistake.
I said we was sorry.
Don't touch the gun, Jake.
Now, don't make me kill ya.
You're gonna have to.
I'm sorry, Mrs.
Tilman.
I I'm gonna have to arrest you, too.
I don't mind as long as he hangs with me.
Well, he'll, he'll probably hang, all right.
but I imagine they'll send you to prison.
Prison? What'll Clabe think? I think Clabe probably knows about you already.
He probably figured out that day he found the rifle in the barn.
He probably just didn't know how to stop it.
You found the only way, Marshal.
I'm sorry, Mrs.
Tilman.
Now don't you feel bad.
I don't mind.
I don't really mind at all.
Go find your horse.