Original subtitles

[theme music]

NARRATOR: "Gunsmoke," with Milburn Stone as Doc, Amanda

Blake as Kitty, Ken Curtis as Festus,

Buck Taylor as Newly, and starring

James Arness as Matt Dillon.

Well, Slick, I'll be made of milk if he don't hang on.

Done took him up a rock slide, he'd

slip in it, through water where a trout

couldn't find his own shadow.

And in all, there he is.

Just keeps coming on steady and even as a toenail

growing in a casket.

Yes sir, Slick.

I'll be a gelded rooster if I can figure out why they do it,

all on account of I gutted me a gambler as crooked as a gully.

You'd figure they'd be right glad to get rid of him.

But no, got them laws tattooed on their eyeballs.

The bible ain't no seriouser to 'em.

They don't never learn, just keep coming after you,

bigger than a skinned mule.

Fool doings.

Ought to be a law about the law.

This'n here, though, well, he's got sand to him.

Most of 'em don't have.

Still in all, gonna lose his life.

He don't ever learn.

[music playing]

[gunshot]

[music playing]

You want me?

[music playing]

They don't ever learn.

[music playing]

Just never learn.

[music playing]

They do not ever learn.

[music playing]

Mornin', Settler.

You didn't dream about a short tree full of coons last night.

I heard 'em, too.

Gonna be a year for wolves.

And welping about the same time we'll be calving.

Best keep your eyes skinned.

Let's see if we can trick those chickens out of some eggs.

[music playing]

You smoothed out some country, boy.

Did you throw him or did he take off up the creek

after a gold sign and get lost in his own shadow?

Bet he's in trouble, wherever he is.

[music playing]

Come on, Settler.

Come on.

[music playing]

[dog barks]

See him, Settler?

Well, you just gonna stand there,

or you want me to sing a hymn over you?

Go get him.

[dog barking]

[music playing]

Well, Settler, he finally surfaced, after all.

Two days you snored loud enough to fetch hogs from a mire.

Here, drink this.

Elk gall juice and liver soup.

Doesn't sound nor taste pretty, but it'll

make a fort out of soft sand.

Obliged.

You got no papers on you, so I've got to ask

you right out who you are.

[music playing]

All right.

Where you from?

[music playing]

Well, who shot you?

Look, what I'm getting at is are you wanted?

[music playing]

I don't know.

You don't remember getting shot?

No.

You don't remember none of nothing?

I guess not.

Well, I'm a-- I heard about such, but I never believed it.

Not recollecting anything?

Like they put you in a box and raised the lid another time.

I'm sorry to have troubled you, ma'am.

I'll be leaving.

Then you'll go crawling.

That right ankle's bad swollen.

But you dont' remember none of that?

No, ma'am.

My name's Mike.

Mike?

I was supposed to be a boy.

Ma tried for Peggy, but mountain for stubborn Pa

was, and Mike it is.

And I'm going to call you Dan because Daniel come

into the lion's den, and that's what

you'll be in if you take light the circumstances here abouts.

Now, drink that.

Yes, ma'am.

How'd you get me here?

You horse come in sore-footed.

Settler-- that's my dog-- and me backtracked to where you were.

I got you on my horse--

You got me on a horse?

Well, you helped some.

But I guess you could push a grizzly over the rafters

easier.

Drink that. -Yes, ma'am.

And it isn't ma'am.

It's Mike.

Yes, ma'am.

Uh, Mike.

You know, I may not remember who I am or how I got here,

but I'll tell you one thing-- I never knew anybody called

Mike looks as good as you do.

You want to know something?

I shouldn't never have picked you up.

Never.

[music playing]

Anything?

No, ma'am.

Old Canoot says he ain't seen hide nor hair of him

or heard nothing, neither.

Doc, I'm worried.

He's been gone over two weeks.

Well, Kitty, how many times have we sat at this very table

and worried about Matt?

Now, you know as well as I do, he'll come

riding in here before long.

You can bet on it.

Well, I don't care what anybody says.

If he's not back here pretty soon,

somebody's gotta go looking for him.

Well, that's just what I'm fixing to--

Now, hold on just a minute.

Let's don't go traipsing around the country

without knowing what we're doing.

Tell you what to do-- Festus, you go

over to the telegraph office.

You tell Barney to wire every station up north.

Now, we'll get a line on him that way.

All right.

That'll do 'er, Doc.

Now, that's the only sensible thing to do.

You're not fooling me one bit, girlie.

You're just as worried as I am.

[music playing]

[music playing]

Just what do you think you're doing out here?

Good morning.

I asked you a question.

Well, I figured I'd been goldbricking

around here for a week.

I-- it was about time I started to earn my keep.

Who said I was gonna keep you?

Just a figure of speech, ma'am.

Uh, Mike.

I'll be leaving in the morning.

Leaving?

You can't even walk, let alone ride.

Well, I've been a burden to you long enough here.

I'll tell you when you're a burden to me.

I'll also tell you when you're fit enough to ride out of here.

And let me get some peace and quiet in the morning.

Sorry I woke you.

Breakfast will be ready in 15 minutes.

Don't let me call you again.

Yes, ma'am.

[SINGING] Got breath like a fox and a face like a box.

Heart of pure gold turned permanent green.

And I love my sweet Raylee.

Whoa, Slick.

Had to be a hasty [inaudible] spread.

You gotta figure it come legal, seeing

how he wouldn't know a running iron from his own backside.

Yeah, but he's smart, Slick.

Got the devil in his pocket with a lock on.

But, maybe we can get us a short roost here.

Opposites attract, my papa said when he left Mama.

You know, it ain't the world I'm asking for,

Judge, just one valley.

Just one valley, Ray.

You're 100 miles to the spine of this land, this valley.

I don't care if it's the stairs to the moon, Ray.

I want her land.

Look, I want to make something of this valley,

and I can't do it with her owning

the rights to those headwaters.

Ray, if we could get a federal grant for a stage line,

it'd have to come right down the divide

and right through her bonnet.

Property condemned in the public need.

Be a train coming down shortly to Buell.

We're gonna need that rail line, Judge.

You see that, don't you?

Like to make something of those God-chosen Earth that lasts.

But I need those headwaters, Ray!

And that Yardner woman, she couldn't find a smile

to life if she had a knit.

No way to her.

Well, I see your concern.

I don't say I don't agree in the long of it.

And I'd be a liar if I said you hadn't helped me into office.

But I never asked you for a favor, Ray.

That was the bargain.

Yeah, we made an agreement, Hasty--

what was good for the land, land being this country.

Now, this Yardner woman, well, maybe she's a mite frosty.

But she's got guts and an iron basket

working that spread of hers alone.

And that's how it all started-- with guts.

We got to have the likes of that woman.

The country needs 'em.

Now, you talk to her, Hasty.

We all tried.

Nobody but a fool shakes hands twice with a bear trap.

Why don't you try and incorporating her, Hasty?

She's still a woman.

I know that they can be forts sometimes,

but they still got a pulse.

Oh, now, lookie here, Judge--

Hasty, you're making an empire, and I'm making a judgment.

What that woman owns, she's earned.

When you try to use the law to break a part of life,

I can't sanction it.

And I won't.

And that's all?

Yep.

You a hard man.

Oh, just born on the hard side of the bed.

We ain't far apart.

MAN: Hey! LES DEAN: Watch it, Slim!

MAN: Ow!

Hey, hold it!

What's going on here?

This here one come in, no asking, just straight.

Come and I braced, took to his horse, and that old beat bit

me!

Done sent him east to all the best schools.

Still in all, I guess a skunk still smells like a skunk

to him.

That's about it.

My thoughts as well.

Didn't mean no [inaudible], Starcourt.

It ain't Starcourt.

It's Mr. Starcourt.

Now, you water your horse, and you

ride out of here, right now.

I go where I want, when I want, junior boy.

Wait a minute, Monte.

Wait a minute.

Where you come from?

About anywheres the compass turns.

Where you going?

LES DEAN: Where the spirit moves me.

What can you do?

About anything I ever thought of.

Use that gun?

Some.

Get.

You're hired.

$25 a month and found.

Bunkhouse is yonder.

Don't use it.

I'll bed in a river wood, fetch my own found.

$30 a month.

What's your name?

Lester Dean this year.

You've found work, Dean.

See you first light.

Come on, Slick.

Mr. Starcourt, $30 a month?

Right.

Excusing me, Mr. Starcourt, but that's

$10 more than our top hands are getting.

Oh, he'll earn it, Monte.

Don't you worry. He'll earn it.

Go get him, Settler, before he thinks himself to death.

Go on.

[barking]

All right, Settler.

General calls, the troops move.

[barking]

Settler come in?

No, he's a dog.

He sure doesn't know it.

Ah, smells Like pie.

A side of muley roast.

Their prime this time of year.

Should have made a stout son of a--

Son of a gun stew?

Yeah.

Son of a gun stew.

I can carve if you want.

I never want.

And I've been carving, butchering,

skinning, and scaling since before I can remember.

Get some plates. -Yes, ma'am.

Uh, Mike.

Plates.

Plates.

Knives and forks are in the-- wrong cupboard.

Sorry.

Sorry.

Ain't that the common word these days.

The plates are in here.

So you like muley roast?

No, not in particular.

Same as Ma, not particular.

That and a pound of tears at night.

That dress, did you ever wear it?

Once.

Johnny Yardner was all this land--

big, wild as any cliff eagle, yet kind as clover.

He always had a smile and a joke to the day.

Come out here together.

Sunday morning he was out mustanging,

wind howling like a banshee.

His horse found a prairie dog hole.

Tracked him as quick as I could.

When I turned him over, he was grinning

that sideways grin of his.

He said, sorry.

Hell of a way to take the honey out of honeymoon.

Then he died.

That'll be three years ago Friday next.

You been taking care of this place alone ever since?

MIKE: I have me a Mexican field hand from time to time.

But yeah, I run it.

It's getting cold.

Let's eat.

Stop all that sugarfooting.

Dear Chief, a mule deer was shot,

and it rolled down the side canyon so that I had

to quarter it to get it out.

Some potatoes I kept from freezing this year

by doing everything but putting them under the hens,

some dried apples in a pie.

For all the bounty you laid on this table

without an ounce of effort from us,

we're right here to thank you.

Amen.

[music playing]

Eat.

[music playing]

I thought you were hungry.

[music playing]

Now, we've talked on it, and you know what stands and where.

I do, Starcourt.

Mr. Starcourt.

You know something, Starcourt?

I do believe if if'n you's would tie his tongue down,

his arms would talk enough to flap 'em to death.

$100 here, $100 in the bank in Starcourt when it's done.

I don't care how she's removed.

I don't like murder, but I've been around it.

I sense you're a better man.

But you got needs, that's plain to see.

And you're not known.

That's my concern.

But you double back on me, Dean, and I'll skin you.

I'll set my men on you, I'll drag you back,

and I'll skin you slow as any squaw ever wished.

Understand?

Monte, there's 100-silver pouch in the right desk drawer.

Get it.

But Mr. Starcourt--

Get the money, junior boy.

Let the men talk.

Gentleman might be right, Monte.

So you have your own idea what money is, Mr. Dean.

Yep.

Reward.

Reward?

LES DEAN: You trap, you shoot, you do your getting.

Doing the best that's in you, and you get that reward.

Done proper, it's money.

Done what ain't proper and it's you.

You and what's coming now.

Coin, not paper.

I'll see her, I'll know what to do.

[music playing]

Let's go, Slick.

[music playing]

Excusing me, Mr. Starcourt, I figure you want me to kill him.

Oh, we'll kill him, Monte, all right.

What kind of businessmen would we be, letting $200

go down the craw of some sundown shadow

who's just as dead as the buffalo he smells of?

[music playing]

[board creaking]

What are you doing up there?

The roof needed fixing.

The roof needs fixing in a dozen places.

How come you picked to spot right over my head?

Just lucky, I guess.

Well, close up that hole and go patch somewhere else.

Yes, ma'am.

[music playing]

[board creaking]

Oh, uh, forgot to say good morning.

Get out of here!

[music playing]

[SINGING] I seen her in the moonlight,

later in the sunlight.

And the moonlight was best when there weren't no moon.

No way to spoon.

[music playing]

Mike, you got any beeswax?

It's in the hutch where we got the dishes.

MATT: Thanks.

[music playing]

What's the matter?

Haven't you ever seen a woman in a dress before?

I guess I just forgot how good it looks.

Well, don't go getting any ideas that this is for you.

Oh, of course not.

Course not.

Woman has to have a change once in a while, you know.

Ow.

Let me see it.

It's nothing.

Well, why don't you just go sit down

and finish whatever it was you were doing?

Whatever you say.

Thanks.

Where'll you go?

Oh, I don't know.

Someplace, find work, I guess.

Must be lonesome, not knowing who you are, where you

come from, why you was shot at.

Guess you think on it.

Yeah, I've been thinking on it, all right.

Oh, I'm such a fool.

Most of us are.

You got particulars?

Couldn't sleep last night.

Yeah, I, uh, heard you tossing.

Did you?

Would have occurred to some to come find out why.

Occurred to me.

I'd have shot you deader than a banker's pulse.

I don't think so.

Why not?

The gun is right there.

Appears to me the idea did a lot more than just

occur to you.

You took it all the way round the mulberry bush.

Well, if the gun was out here--

Yeah?

Well, what stopped you?

Well, maybe I'm a married man with a bunch of kids.

You're not.

You sure?

I'm sure.

How?

You've got a disconcerting way of looking at a woman,

like you're measuring her.

Is that so?

MIKE: Mhm.

Married man with kids gets that beaten

out of him sooner than later.

You're a range bull, mister.

There's no ring in your nose.

You, uh, said you couldn't sleep.

I was thinking.

MATT: That always keep you awake?

It does when it concerns my way of life.

Meaning what?

You're almost well now.

MATT: Yeah.

That means you either gotta go or make

up your mind about staying.

You mean I got a choice?

Guess so.

That's what all the thinking was about.

You don't know who you are, where you're from.

And maybe you never will.

I don't think you're married, so that solves one problem.

But you sure are something.

Got a way about you tells me whatever you did,

you did with authority.

I like that.

I like you, too.

[music playing]

I tried not to, but--

That a proposal?

You can go straight to hell!

Mike.

I'd like to stay.

[music playing]

LES DEAN: Hello, the cabin!

[dog barking]

Damn this place is worse than Dodge City on a Saturday night.

[music playing]

What's the matter?

I don't know.

LES DEAN: Coming in peaceful.

[music playing]

Are you all right?

Yeah.

[music playing]

Well?

It's all right, Settler.

Take it easy.

I'll be made of milk if that ain't a fine looking dog,

ma'am.

MIKE: He'll do.

What do you want?

Water for old Slick under me and vittles.

I got money.

I've been out a spell, but I'm well-fashioned, ma'am.

Ma'am.

Sure, we're all well-fashioned.

And that's the well yonder.

And come in.

I do thank you, ma'am.

And you stay out here.

You're taking on men's ways.

[knocking]

Come in.

I surely do thank you, ma'am.

Uh, ma'am, didn't know you had company.

MIKE: Ain't company.

Two's company.

This is Mr. Daniel.

He's just passing through.

How do?

Mr. Daniel.

We finished eating, but there's some son of a gun stew.

Sit.

That's nicely, ma'am.

Ma'am.

Well, call me Favorite.

Favorite?

Ain't that a name thought, ma'am?

Well, it come this way, it did.

We had eight boys, all of them scuffy but trying.

Well, when I come along, they waterwitched over my momma's

tummy, sizing they was.

Well, they just knowed I was gonna be a girl,

so they called me Favorite.

Name ain't ma'am.

It's Mike.

Mike Yardner.

Mike, ma'am?

Oh, surely.

Mike. Yeah, ma'am.

Things sure do come out left hands, don't they?

Got to agree with that.

Mhm.

Ma'am, it's the best!

Frog's in it, what does it.

If'n it'll make you hop, I'm all for it.

Never thought I'd be taking bait under a roof tonight.

No, sir.

Not after that pass up yonder with the wind howling like lost

souls hunting for graves.

You come down that pass, did you, Dan?

No.

Oh, no business of mine.

None at all.

Got to tell you the truth though, Miss Mike,

I was told I had best tread easy if I was to come by here.

You was a widow woman I was told, with a trigger

temper and a rifle to prove it.

They told you right.

I don't take to strangers.

Dan here got himself stove up somehow or other.

Settler and me found him out on the prairie closer

to judgment than being prayed over

and waiting for the shovel.

I'll be made of milk if that ain't a caution.

How'd that happen?

Somebody took a shot at me, creased my skull.

I don't remember anything.

Yeah, I heard of such things happening.

Times I wish I couldn't remember nothing.

Yes, sir, there have been times.

Well, you appear to be doing all right now, though.

Thanks to my nurse and that son of a gun stew there.

Well, it's getting late.

I'll be out in the barn.

Me and old Slick's been together so long, every time I snore,

he answers.

See you first light.

[music playing]

Oh, and, uh, ma'am?

Like the man said, that's son of a gun stew.

That's pure sugar to a body used to lemons.

First light.

[music playing]

Well, Mike, uh, we never did figure

out, am I going or staying?

Well, you can't go now, not at this hour.

We'll talk again in the morning.

MATT: Oh, Mike, uh, are you going to need that?

No.

We're a lot closer to understanding one another

than we were.

I just don't want you to get dizzy going

round that mulberry bush and lose your sense of direction.

[music playing]

Goodnight, Mike.

Sleep well.

[music playing]

Oh, hell!

[music playing]

[whistling]

It is truly difficult for a lady to get some sleep around here.

[music playing]

Morning.

Morning.

How come you're always up before I am.

I, uh, kind of wondered about that myself.

And?

Figured you're bone lazy.

I'll take this coffee out to Fortunate,

and then I'll fix us some breakfast.

All right, fine.

[les singing]

Yes sir, Slick, ain't it a caution the way

the wind comes to you with thoughts as clear as brook ice?

I was wrong.

I was wrong.

Well, we just go visiting, we will.

Visiting where?

Starts the heart, Favorite.

Where you going?

Just got here.

Best set a while.

Thank you, Mike, ma'am.

I ain't no drifter, though.

I come certain as a front side.

I come to kill you, ma'am.

Kill me?

Starcourt.

He wants this valley, short grass and long.

Paid me 100 eagles, full feather,

hundred more in a bank in town.

I done bent low in recent time, but not this low.

A man could pound greased iron with a woman like you.

Dillon's come on to luck after all.

Dillon?

I seen the way you looked at him.

It do become a woman to look like that.

You'll have a good life.

What he don't know won't chew on him.

You said Dillon.

You know him?

Know him?

I was near wearing him for three days.

Made of steel twice, that one.

Had to shoot him.

You?

Yeah, I shot a man in Dodge was meant for a bullet.

That man in yonder, that's Matt Dillon, Marshal of Dodge City.

He's put in his time.

Now you take to the sunlight, the both of you.

Be riding, Miss Mike.

Well, where you going?

Going back to Starcourt, go and take him bag his eagles.

Gonna tell him when they saw the roost, they took the moat.

Don't never call it Favorite.

MATT: Isn't that Favorite riding out?

Uh-huh.

Kind of a short hello, wasn't it?

Had to see Starcourt.

Who's Starcourt?

Big rancher next valley, wants this land.

Sent Favorite to kill me.

What?

Think he found shame to it.

Anyway, he's returning the money Starcourt gave him.

If he goes back there, they'll kill him.

Matt, don't do it.

Matt?

[music playing]

You called me Matt?

You're Matt Dillon, marshal, Dodge City.

That's why y strange when I mentioned Dodge City.

You were on the verge of remembering.

How did Fortunate know?

He's the man who shot you.

You were trailing him for killing a man in Dodge.

Heavens Vincent.

What?

That's the gambler he shot.

You remember then?

Yeah.

Everything?

Everything.

[music playing]

Mike, I'm sorry.

I got a badge, responsibility, 20 years of my life.

20 years and you never got married?

She must have been some kind of woman.

Mike.

Well, I said it.

I never should have picked you up, never.

Well, go on.

Go save Fortunate or arrest him or do whatever

you have to do with him.

I'll come back. We'll talk about it.

Will you get out of here?

[music playing]

Mr. Starcourt, that man Dean?

Well, what about him?

His horse just came in, but he wasn't on it.

Well, get out there and bring him in!

You short-bellied-- Farnsworth, Stopper, go get him!

What for?

Thought I better let you know where I was.

Shame to have you boys running all over the country.

Stand easy.

You, junior boy.

Pour a drink?

Go to hell.

Been there. Pour a drink.

All right, now.

Back away, easy.

You best put that hand up on the bar.

Put it up there, you want to keep it.

I didn't double on you, moneypockets, just found

some folks worth the worth.

The whole worth, moneypockets.

That makes them as different from you

and me as the north end from the south end.

'Sides, you was, uh-- you was aiming on killing me anyway,

wasn't you? -Still am.

She's still in my way, Dean.

Now you are, too.

Five to one, Dean.

Less you're lightning for Dodge, then

you're gonna wind up with more lead in you than a Boston bar.

I ain't saying you won't kill me.

I'm saying I don't care.

Done my living, moneypockets.

I done it all.

You ain't licked your lip come the first bullet,

I'm gonna put a hole in you low.

And you gonna shout out loud.

Spend a long time praying, even longer dying.

[gunshot]

All right, now.

I'm gonna ride out of here.

There's gonna be two instead of one at that woman's ranch.

And they deserve heaven for supper.

Come I to hear that you put any rocks in the way of that,

you can start looking for me anytime the moon's covered.

Now I'm riding out of here.

The only where you're riding is to a hill with a hole in it.

Hold it!

[gunfire]

All right, you men.

Drop your guns.

Move back.

Heavens Vincent?

Yeah.

I figured you had to surface sooner or later.

Always played the odds too long.

You take me back, that it?

That's right.

Rope or jail?

I don't know.

Well, wouldn't mind a rope.

They way they do-da-day around, it's bound to be jail.

Couldn't stand to that.

Don't do it.

Gonna lose your light, you don't learn.

Trouble is, reckon I waited just a-- maybe a hair too long.

[music playing]

One of 'em got lucky.

Oh, I'll be made of milk.

Ain't she a woman clean.

Stand to her, Dillon.

Things are built for the likes of her.

I'll be made of milk.

[music playing]

[horse hooves]

[dog barking]

[music playing]

You all right?

Yeah, I'm all right.

I want you to know something, Daniel.

It ain't easy to find two good men and lose 'em both.

[music playing]

Mike.

Mike!

[music playing]

[theme music]

NARRATOR: Stay tuned for exciting scenes

from our next "Gunsmoke."

[theme music]