Gunsmoke (1955) s04e16 Episode Script

starring James Arness as Matt Dillon.
Oh, Mr.
Dillon, this sure is pretty country in through here, ain't it? It sure is, isn't it? You know, why didn't they build Dodge City up here somewheres instead of down there in that gol-durned dusty plain? Well, I don't know, Chester, it'd be kind of hard to get the railroad up here, don't you think? Well, yeah, I reckon.
You want to take a breather? Mr.
Dillon, the only thing I'd rather hear you say is: "Do you feel like eating?" All right, we'll do that.
Looks like a good place to build a fire right over there.
Going hunting's fine, Mr.
Dillon, but you know, the goin' home's just about as good as the startin' out.
Chester, I figured you'd think the best part was getting that deer bagged and having Charlie Beck dress him out and roast him.
Well Well, yeah, that is the best part, naturally.
I think I like roast deer just about as good as I do prairie chicken.
I don't normally, but I agree with you.
But you know, time we get that home, we split it up with Doc and Miss Kitty and we give some to Charlie for dressing it, couple of other people well you know it don't look quite as big as it did.
You know, I was thinking the same thing myself.
What are you fixin' to do? You know, that's pretty wild-looking country up there.
Maybe we can take back a couple of deer.
You want to come along? Well, you mean Well, uh, no, I I'm gonna go up there and see what I can find.
Yeah? I'll just get some firewood.
What is it, Mr.
Dillon? Some dry-gulcher up there took a shot at me.
What for? Who is he? Well, let's go ask him.
Let's get the horses.
Go ahead.
Well, this is where he was, all right.
Think you hit him, Mr.
Dillon? There's no sign of blood here.
This sure is wild country he could've lit out in any direction.
It looks like he's following the ridge up there.
Let's try to follow his trail.
Keep your rifle ready.
What is that? Well, just a jackrabbit, I thought.
Come on, let's go.
Think whoever it was lives down there? Well, there's only one way to find out, Chester.
Come on.
Looks kind of lonesome like, don't it? Well, ought to be somebody here.
Anybody home? Hello there! Kind of gives you the creeps, don't it? How do, ma'am.
What do you want here? Your husband home? Who is it wants to know? My name's Dillon.
This is Chester Goode.
I never heared of neither one of you.
We're from Dodge City.
Well, then you just better get on back there.
This ain't no good place for strangers to come.
Is that so? Go on, now, get out of here.
Not till I've talked to your husband, ma'am.
I'm warning you now, you get out of here.
You get on back in there.
Keep Pa inside.
What do you want here, mister? What's your name, mister? Alben Peavy.
You got business, you hurry up and state it, and then get.
Well, I'm a lawman, Peavy, a United States Marshal.
That don't mean nothin' to me.
Well, maybe it'll mean something to you by the time I'm through.
Now, I want to know why you shot at me.
What are you talking about? Somebody took a couple of shots at me back up there on the ridge.
There's others besides us lives in these hills.
We didn't see any others.
Mountain folk ain't ones to run around in the open like.
It might be best You shut up.
Stay inside.
You got any proof of what you're standing there accusing me of, Marshal? Nope.
Not yet.
Well, then the best thing you can do is to clear out of here and leave folks be.
You ain't wanted here.
You don't belong.
We got our own laws; don't need none of your'n.
Now, you better get something straight, Peavy.
The same law that holds in Dodge City holds here, and it doesn't allow you to kill a man from ambush.
Never shot nobody in my life without I had a just cause.
That all you got to say? 'Ceptin' only just to get out of here and leave us be.
How about you, ma'am? She ain't got nothin' more to say neither, Marshal.
You gonna let him get away with that, Mr.
Dillon? We'll be back.
Whoa! Whoa there! Gosh darned critters! Whoa! Get on down, Liza.
Gonna need your help.
Alben, you're sure this ain't wrong, what we're doing? Course I'm sure.
Now, don't you think no more on it.
Good morning.
Hold it.
I'll take the rifle.
Butt first.
I thought I told you to leave us be.
You did.
Well, what are you doing back here? What are you bothering us for? You bothered me some yesterday, Peavy.
Those bullets came awful close.
I told you, I don't know nothin' about that.
Where's Pa? What have you done with Pa? Been nobody around here since we've been here, ma'am.
He's out huntin', more 'n likely.
He's always out huntin'.
Is that where you been? No, we ain't.
We been out You shut up.
'Tain't nobody's business where we been, Marshal.
No.
No, please.
Uh, Marshal There's no need a-lookin'.
That's a man in there.
He's dead.
Been shot to death.
Who is he? His name don't matter none.
Who killed him? I didn't.
We don't know nothin' about it.
We just found him layin' out there.
Out where? About a mile back down thataway.
We come on him accidental.
He'd been dead since yesterday, looks like.
So we put him in the wagon and brung him back.
And just what'd you figure to do with him? Why, we're gonna bury him, of course.
Seems to me you're going to an awful lot of trouble for somebody that you don't even know.
You find a man lyin' dead on the ground, can't just drive on and leave him there.
No, but you could let the law handle it.
I told you once, I don't hold with your kind of law.
We work things out ourselves.
Peavy I got an idea that you could tell me who this man is, and if you didn't kill him yourself, you could tell me who did.
Well, I ain't talkin' none, Marshal.
And I don't reckon you can make me, neither.
No, I don't reckon I can.
Just so long as we both understand.
Go on now, Liza.
Fetch me my shovel.
Yes.
If you got no objections, Marshal, I'll get on with the burying.
Well, he's about the mule-headedest man I ever seen.
Chester, I want to backtrack that wagon, take a look at the place where they found the body.
Come on.
Well, this must have been where he fell.
Hit pretty hard, too, by the looks of it.
Yeah.
You think Peavy's the one that shot him? I don't know, Chester.
Now lookit here.
Look at all these horse tracks.
Wagon tracks, too.
But the the wagon must have come after the horses because the tracks roll out over the top.
Yeah, then it turned around and went back the way it came from.
Well, I-I just don't understand it, Mr.
Dillon.
First this feller takes a shot at you.
Then he turns up dead.
And then the Peavys is a-burying him.
Uh, Chester, I got an idea that may be one and the same fella.
You mean the feller that took a shot at you is the same as the dead man? Pretty close to where we lost his trail yesterday right up there.
Well, maybe that's the reason why he shot at you, Mr.
Dillon.
Maybe he knowed somebody was out to kill him.
Could be, Chester.
Come on, let's get out of sight.
Hold it.
Hold it right there.
Who are you? I'm a United States Marshal over in Dodge City.
Looking for somebody, - are you? - What's your name? Cade.
Jack Cade.
This here's my wife Ellen.
How do, ma'am.
Ain't us you're looking for, is it? Would I have any reason to? No, no, of course not.
Just asking's all.
You folks live around here? Couple of miles.
Uh-huh.
You know Alben Peavy? Yup.
We know him.
He a friend of yours? Not hardly, he ain't.
Shut up, Ellen.
Well, if you're not friends of the Peavys, where are you heading? Theirs is the only place this road leads to.
A man can ride where he pleases, can't he? Well, I guess he can, unless he's carrying a rifle and his wife is, too.
And they're heading for somebody's place that they don't particularly like.
All right.
I'll tell you, Marshal, you're so smart.
A man like Alben Peavy don't deserve to live.
He killed our Ben, then he stole him.
Run off with his body.
A man can't get no lower than that.
How do you know it was Peavy killed him? 'Cause I found Ben last night, that's how.
Lying dead right there by them rocks.
So I went to fetch Ellen, but she don't hold with moving no dead body at night, so we waited till morning.
And when we got here, he was gone.
Them wagon tracks told us plain as anything, Marshal.
It was them Peavys done it.
Now, why would Peavy want to kill him, Cade? What difference does it make why? All that matters now is he's dead, and they done it to him.
And they gonna pay for it.
We're gonna meet 'em straight on and get this over with fast.
Ellen's just as good a shot as I am, Marshal.
Well, I guess the Peavys must have had some good reason for killing your son, then if they did kill him.
Marshal, it ain't none of your bother.
I told you that already.
Well, I'm afraid I'm just gonna have to make it my bother, Cade.
Hold it right where you are.
Don't move.
You raise that rifle, ma'am, I'll have to shoot him.
Pretty sneaky, ain't you? Get their rifles, Chester.
Yes, sir.
All right, let's go.
Where? You wanted to see the Peavys, didn't you get it over with? All right, let's go see 'em.
They see us, they'll start shooting without even a warning.
Maybe not.
I don't even think that they're here.
No, they're here, all right, Chester.
Keep an eye on them, will you? Sure.
Cade, you just rest easy there.
Keep quiet, too.
I hope Peavy shoots him.
I wouldn't worry none about that if I was you.
You folks like to take a breather? Chester, bring 'em back.
What are you up to? Well, I want to explain something to you, Peavy.
And to Cade and his wife at the same time.
Cade? Give me that rifle, Marshal.
I took his rifle, too.
Well, then, I don't need no gun.
I'll kill him with my bare hands.
Stay right where you are.
There he is.
They're burying him.
They're burying my boy.
Is that who it is, Peavy? Is that Ben Cade? It's him.
Well, then, why didn't you leave him where you found him? I told you before.
Can't leave somebody lying dead on the ground.
You can if it's somebody that you hate as much as you hate this Cade family.
All right, Marshal.
I'll tell you.
There's another grave here.
You might not have noticed it, Marshal, but it's here, and it's our boy's buried in it.
Two months ago, Ben Cade shot my son.
Before my boy died, I promised him I'd bury Ben alongside of him someday, and that's what I'm a-doing.
It's your boy's own fault he got shot.
If he hadn't been hounding Ben, it wouldn't have happened.
I'll teach you whose fault it was, you Peavy! So that's what this feud here is all about, huh? And it ain't over yet, neither.
You were after Ben Cade because he killed your boy.
Well, wouldn't you be? And you were after Peavy because you think he killed your son.
What do you mean, think he did? All right, your feud's over.
I know who killed your boy.
You do? I did.
What? He fired at me from ambush yesterday.
He must have thought I was Peavy here stalking him.
I fired back.
I didn't know it at the time, but I must have hit him.
He got away, and must have managed to live until he reached the spot where you found him.
We tracked him to within a quarter of a mile of there.
Is that true, Peavy? You didn't shoot him? I never claimed I did.
I just found him dead, like I said.
Then it had to be you, Marshal.
Nobody else around here would have.
I'm sorry, Cade.
He fired at me, and I fired back.
I didn't know who he was or anything about it.
Well you had to defend yourself.
The important thing is, what are you gonna do now, all of you? I can tell you what we're gonna do.
We're gonna put a stop to it.
That's what we're gonna do.
We both lost our sons.
They're dead.
We can't bring 'em back.
There ain't gonna be no more killing.
Not as far as we're concerned.
Well, I reckon maybe there's something in what she says.
We used to be right neighborly before this all got started.
Maybe we've been acting kind of crazy.
All of us.
Whatever it was that started it between the boys, whosoever was at fault, we'll never know.
And I don't reckon it matters much now.
Not now.
Cade if if you and the missus was of mind to agree, well, I'm-I'm willing to go on ahead here.
Bury the boy alongside of my son.
I reckon we're willing.
All right.
Cade, you leave Ben here, and maybe maybe you ought to come around once in a while.
I'd want to do that.
See my boy's grave.
I'll take real good care of it.
Both of 'em.
Ellen, maybe if we was to go in and boil up some coffee.
You do that.
You women go on and do that.
Marshal, if you and your partner will wait till we finish.
All right.
We'd like that.