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Gunsmoke - "The Coward Reused Script" (Old Time Radio, 1959) · Gunsmoke | Old Time Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: On January fourth, nineteen fifty nine, CBS Radio presented the
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty two installment of Gun Smoke. This
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: broadcast reuses John Meston's earlier script for The Coward, first
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: heard on October ninth, nineteen fifty five, with Norman McDonnell producing.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: In Dodge City, an unknown threat has Marshal Matt Dillon
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: in its sights, while its identity and method remain uncertain.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: William Conrad is Dylan, joined by Parley Bear as Chester,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Georgia Ellis as Kitty, and Howard mcneer as Doc. Joseph Kerns,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Jack Moyles and Lawrence Dobkin are featured in the guest cast.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: And now our story begins.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Around Dodd City and in the territory on West.
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: There is just one way to handle the killers of
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: the Spoilers, and that's where the US Marshall and the
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: Smell of Guns Smoke Gone moves for, starring William Convan,
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: the story of the violin that moved west with Young
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: America and the story of a man who moved with it.
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: I'm that man, Matt Dillon, United States Marshall, the first
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: man they look for and the.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Last they want.
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: To meet.
• 1:42
  Speaker 5: It's a chance, a job, and it makes a man
• 1:45
  Speaker 5: watchful and.
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: A little lonely. Most people think of Dutch City here
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: in the eighteen seventies is a wild, lawless town, want
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  Speaker 4: with exciting women and strong, daring men. And then they
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: picture as fighters, the kind who stand up for almost
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: no reason at all and done each other down with
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  Speaker 4: as little regard for their own lives as they have
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  Speaker 4: for their opponents. Men whose courage is as raw and
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: harsh as the prairies it's bred on. Wow, this is
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: the picture that it isn't quite complete. So we've got
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: our share of cowards too, like the one whose work
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: I ran into the night I found a note on
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  Speaker 4: my doors. I'd come up to Doc adamsself. It's as
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: fast as they could.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Such a trouble Chester. We've got Jack Messy in there.
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: Jack Messy boys who look you.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: Up whenever it comes to town. You remember him.
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: He always comes into the office and sat around and talk.
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: Oh you're the right out of telling you? What's he
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: doing up here? Was wrong?
• 3:10
  Speaker 5: His document asked him allow that doctor?
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: Well he's dead uh.
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  Speaker 4: Or as soon as I saw him, I knew he
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: couldn't make it. Not for the hole like that, and
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: so what happened that somebody shot him at? Oh, we
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: don't know.
• 3:33
  Speaker 5: I was coming down street, miss Jim, and I heard
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  Speaker 5: a shot and I run in found him laying there
• 3:38
  Speaker 5: on the floor right where he fell out of a chair.
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  Speaker 4: Allot, what chair yours mine?
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: Yes, sir, down in the office.
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  Speaker 5: He was waiting for you, I guess, And somebody must
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  Speaker 5: have sneaked in the back way and shot him.
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: But why he was shot in the back so well,
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: he was sitting in your chair, and we noticed he
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: was wearing a hat just like the one you wear.
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  Speaker 4: And also he's about the same size as you. Somebody's
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  Speaker 4: out to kill you, man to kill you the easy way?
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, thanks?
• 4:41
  Speaker 6: Well what brings you into the long Branch this time
• 4:43
  Speaker 6: of night?
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: Not just looking around?
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  Speaker 7: There a lot of men.
• 4:47
  Speaker 5: At the fire over there.
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  Speaker 6: I think you can pick him out.
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: Why the man who thought he shot you? The night
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: news travels fast. I had somebody was asking you a
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: two days ago, you did I think it is to talk?
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  Speaker 4: Didn't anybody tell you about it?
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  Speaker 5: That?
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  Speaker 4: I haven't been around much the last couple of days, kiddy,
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  Speaker 4: But even so, it doesn't the kind of talk people
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  Speaker 4: feel easy about passing on to me, that is anyway.
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  Speaker 4: I guess you know, he said, so he did us
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  Speaker 4: coming this way, So I said, he, what's he doing
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  Speaker 4: in that? Gott to drop around more often?
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  Speaker 2: Though?
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  Speaker 4: He's been banking sell here three or fourth days. But
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  Speaker 4: it's Sam and Harry. Yeah, he's been doing fine too.
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  Speaker 4: He'd always was a smart gamble. Hello, Marshall, k.
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  Speaker 8: Uh you mind if I said down, I'll go ahead.
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  Speaker 4: Thanks. I've been me come to see you, Marshall. How
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  Speaker 4: does that so? Yeah? I heard about the shooting and
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  Speaker 4: I seen a most everybody has. I know something about it, Marshall.
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  Speaker 4: Would you like to hear it?
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  Speaker 2: Tell me?
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  Speaker 4: Well, a couple of nights ago, I went out back
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  Speaker 4: to breathe a little fresh air. I was standing out
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  Speaker 4: there in the dark around the corner in the alley,
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  Speaker 4: and I heard a couple of men come out. They
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  Speaker 4: couldn't see me and I couldn't see them, but I
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  Speaker 4: heard one of them tell the other he was going
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  Speaker 4: to shoot Marshall, Doom shoot him any way he could.
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  Speaker 4: That's all you heard. Oh they said something else, but
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  Speaker 4: I couldn't understand it. Then they went back in. You
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  Speaker 4: got no idea what it was I didn't dare take
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  Speaker 4: a look Marshall to kill me. Sure you're a little
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  Speaker 4: late telling me that you mean, I don't exactly owe
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  Speaker 4: you any favors. Mon, why did you bother to tell
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  Speaker 4: me all? I don't like killing. That's why I hate killing.
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  Speaker 4: Well shows you everything I know, Marshall going now like Kitty?
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  Speaker 2: Is that all about that?
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  Speaker 4: It's between you and Yeah? I knew him out from
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  Speaker 4: the Santa Fe one time, Kitty. He was bullying a
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  Speaker 4: man I showed, Hi must be a coward. A lot
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  Speaker 4: of people witnessed it. Jevie never forgave me. Maybe so
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  Speaker 4: I was alive. Maybe he's the one who do the
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  Speaker 4: shouldn't I don't think Eddie has the guts to shoot
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  Speaker 4: a man even enough back. Who is this then?
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  Speaker 6: Haven't you any ideas?
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  Speaker 2: Now?
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  Speaker 4: A lot of men if I could see me said kidding.
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  Speaker 5: I know.
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  Speaker 4: I'm always willing to take my chances with anybody who
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  Speaker 4: will face me. It's the man who shoots out of
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  Speaker 4: a dark I'm afraid of. Nobody wants to die, but
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: it's even worse without a chance to fight back. That's
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  Speaker 4: what always made me feel special with that about a
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  Speaker 4: man who broke his neck falling out of his saddle,
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  Speaker 4: or who maybe disappeared in front of a stampede of
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  Speaker 4: buffalo who, like Jack Massey's sitting at my desk, had
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  Speaker 4: to take a bullet in the back. It's not dying,
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: it's being slaughtered like a hog in a pen. It
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  Speaker 4: rubs a man everything he's lived for. Let's see.
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  Speaker 2: I tell you, if I was.
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  Speaker 5: In your booth nicknames, I'd hie me out onto the.
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  Speaker 4: Pery first time here was You bet I would out there.
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  Speaker 4: You can see a man coming to my off. You
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  Speaker 4: know you wouldn't like that, truster.
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  Speaker 5: I guess she wouldn't. Never follow you out in the open,
• 9:15
  Speaker 5: knock him? Or you think there might be more than one.
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  Speaker 5: It might be, but none of us don't. Don't you
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  Speaker 5: hire some man to hang around a sort of a
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  Speaker 5: bodyguard boy, then nobody wouldn't there.
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  Speaker 4: If I am god, the try the better truster to
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  Speaker 4: get it over with one one or the other. And
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: I resize it was cool about it. The you my
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  Speaker 4: cruel truster, and I'm mad, and sure he's got a
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: funny way coming it now.
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  Speaker 5: If I mad, I'd be honking around like a bone
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  Speaker 5: to the bar under tail. I'd just swanton and a slowing,
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  Speaker 5: a pull on my mouth and blood. He's up there, Natalie.
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  Speaker 4: I'm going after him, and I'm going with you here.
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  Speaker 4: Start shooting, mister. Let's start shooting while you got a chance.
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  Speaker 6: I sure will I shoot him, sut you good. That's
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  Speaker 6: why I'm gonna do shoot all right, dropped a gun?
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  Speaker 6: Shot you walk right up to him, mister dunder.
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  Speaker 7: He had a gun in his name.
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  Speaker 2: His drug Chester, you know, came out.
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  Speaker 4: I hit him hard enough. Come on, let's get him
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  Speaker 4: up the ducks so it'll sober him up and point
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  Speaker 4: out what this is all about. Here's your coffee. Don't
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  Speaker 4: put that cup down here thought not before you drew
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  Speaker 4: give we'll drop a coffee in it. And I'm drowning
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  Speaker 4: in coffee, doc, and I drinking. No boy, doctor, I'm
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  Speaker 4: sober now not you can talk straight enough? Now, it's
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  Speaker 4: about time, all right, muster. What's your name? N mat swan.
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  Speaker 4: But I didn't mean nothing, mushalling. I didn't know what
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  Speaker 4: I was doing, honest thinking that, I'll tell you you
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  Speaker 4: were trying to kill me.
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  Speaker 5: Once you watch.
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  Speaker 4: No, don't don't let me don't, yeh. They're a real
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  Speaker 4: coward and just one may But I showed me in
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  Speaker 4: my backyard to take on a load of whiskey. I
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  Speaker 4: ain't got nothing against you, mushalling. They come to town,
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  Speaker 4: heard all that talk, so I could make a name
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  Speaker 4: for myself if I don't shoot. Ain't no more truth
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  Speaker 4: than that, no more truth than they never mind, Duck,
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  Speaker 4: you know something, I believe this one. You do well,
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  Speaker 4: it's true, honestly, be sure it's true. And there are
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  Speaker 4: a lot of other drunken, brainless bombs gonna try for
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  Speaker 4: the same reason. They've heard somebody's out to murder me,
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  Speaker 4: and they got to thinking, why shouldn't they do it
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  Speaker 4: and get that credit for themselves. No, man, it's not
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  Speaker 4: that already started. Duck. There the others, lots of them,
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  Speaker 4: as long as I last Chester, and I rode Matt
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  Speaker 4: Swan down to the ar Kansas and told him to
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  Speaker 4: get his horse across and keep going.
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  Speaker 7: I guess he thought I was about the shooting, the way.
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  Speaker 4: He rode off all hunk it up in the saddles,
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  Speaker 4: trying to look small, and I was pretty sure he'd
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  Speaker 4: never show up in Dodge again. I was one less
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  Speaker 4: glory on.
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  Speaker 2: Her to deal with.
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  Speaker 4: That the thought of how many were left waiting in
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  Speaker 4: the alleys, hiding in the shutters, and the jumping. I didn't
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  Speaker 4: realize how bad off I was until we got back
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  Speaker 4: to town. Rode into the stable. We put our horses
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  Speaker 4: under their stalls, and we were walking towards the door.
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  Speaker 5: By unusually miss Dune and I.
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  Speaker 4: Was late Chester. Everybody's get a drunk or in bed.
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  Speaker 5: But there's somebody who went was doing that rifle.
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  Speaker 4: Stuck into that stall. He had dropped the rifle. Mister,
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  Speaker 4: not like me, Robert. I said, no, he's gonna shoot.
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  Speaker 2: You can't stay baccess, don't shoot.
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  Speaker 4: Don't shoot again with Chester. I got his rifle. I
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  Speaker 4: got some last to mischief. Put a bullet my lung.
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  Speaker 2: So I am I never seen him before?
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  Speaker 4: Or do you care who I am? You gone kill?
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  Speaker 4: Men's what you're done? Why were you asking me? Somebody
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  Speaker 4: hire you? I come on telling him. You shoot a
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  Speaker 4: man down and you try to blame it on him.
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  Speaker 4: You should do me.
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  Speaker 2: We weren't after you wasn't after nobody.
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  Speaker 4: Just come from my horse.
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  Speaker 5: I think he's telling the chiefness, you know, didn't.
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  Speaker 4: Marsh, I would just think I was. I heard somebody
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  Speaker 4: was out to shoot shoot on me. I was just
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: trying to get home to Texas.
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  Speaker 2: I'm gonna make it found.
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  Speaker 4: But I heard general whoever that rifle myster you were
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  Speaker 4: about to shoot. I thought I was being held up.
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  Speaker 5: Oh you hollered at me.
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  Speaker 2: Just knowing he ain't got nothing to do with me.
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  Speaker 4: Of course I ain't, was I you, Marshall? If there
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  Speaker 4: was talk about somebody after me, I found out who
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: was making talk, I wouldn't go out around shooting innostin fool.
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  Speaker 2: Somebody got you out smart.
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  Speaker 4: Or he'll get you at the docks. Mister, he'll take
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  Speaker 4: care of you.
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  Speaker 2: No, no, dude, don't bear I mean no mind getting Marshall.
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  Speaker 4: Fix me a box. Woul't you promise? Fix me a box? Yeah?
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  Speaker 4: I got drum. I can't swallow no more, go drown.
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: That's true. I'll trust grind. I just killed an innocent man. Well,
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  Speaker 4: either shot you if you hadn't. I don't even know
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  Speaker 4: his name. No, we'll find him a box. We'll fix
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  Speaker 4: him up, a real good one. Yes, and I'm gonna
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: do something else. He said, what's that? I've been not
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: smart and he was right. But I know what I'm
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: doing now. I've not kidding now that trouble's overton will
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: have you made a surprise that there was? If I kidding?
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: Cowards don't carry.
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  Speaker 8: Guns, and yeah, long, Marshall Dylan, you're gonna try your luck.
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: My luck ran out about an hour ago, even I
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: shot and killed an innocent man. What are you telling
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  Speaker 4: me about? Marshall? You were too cheap to hire somebody
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  Speaker 4: to get me evy, and too much of a coward
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: to try it yourself.
• 18:10
  Speaker 7: I don't like that Orrior story about over here in
• 18:13
  Speaker 7: that talk.
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: I'm back. You spread it around hoping it would give
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: some brainless fool the idea and try himself.
• 18:18
  Speaker 7: That's a lot of two men tried it and made
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  Speaker 7: me said jumpy. I just killed him and as I
• 18:21
  Speaker 7: was trying.
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: It again, and I feel pretty bad about Eddie b
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: I've got nothing to.
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  Speaker 2: Do with it.
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: You told me the story thinking of to make you
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: look into and what you are smart at me. Ebe
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: for a little while, but you can't, pulenty. I don't
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: have to not come on you kind of me now,
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: but I'm going to lock you up and tomorrow I'm
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: going to run you right out of town Till innocent
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: men have died because of your coward is Sabe. I
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: wish I could hang you for it. Call me a coward.
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: You're the worst coward I ever sat. I'm saying it.
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: You're doing just what you did, Santa Fame. Oh I'm
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: not a coward.
• 18:58
  Speaker 7: I won't call me that anymore.
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: You hand out of your pocket. I got a gun
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: in here. I'll kill you myself. You want you and
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: I gotta draw that. Oh, yes, I am not you, Leabe.
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: I don't worry. Just keep talking, he just keep talking,
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: going out shoot him. That I had to write because.
• 19:23
  Speaker 7: I think he wanted me to kill you, and I
• 19:27
  Speaker 7: think he'd rather be dead than.
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: Face everybody knowing what I telard he is and he's
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: got his punishment coming and the rest of his.
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: Life run produced them directed by Norman McDonald's Sorry, William
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: John rad As Matt villen Us Marshall.
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: The story was Especially.
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: Looking for Guns, book by John Messon.
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: Featured in the cast were.
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: Joseph Kerns, Jack Moyles and Lawrence Dobtons, Harley Beare is Chester,
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: Howard mcneer is Doc, and Georgia Ellis is
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: Kidding Gun Smoke Episode three hundred and fifty two has
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: concluded Follow Gun Smoke for more classic broadcasts.