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Gunsmoke - "The Coward" (Old Time Radio, 1955) · Gunsmoke | Old Time Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: John Meston wrote this October ninth, nineteen fifty five broadcast
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: of Gunsmoke, directed by Norman MacDonell. In episode one hundred
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: eighty three, The Coward William Conrad is Marshall Matt Dillon,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: with Parley Bear as Chester, Howard mcneer as Doc, and
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Georgia Ellis as Kitty. An apparently mistaken shooting sets Dodge
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: City talking of an ambush, and gambler Ebe played by
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Vic Perrin, says he has overheard a threat against Dylan.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: With rumor, fear and provocation in the air, Dylan must
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: decide whether the warning is real. We now take you
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: back to the original broadcast.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Around Dodge City and in the territory on West. There
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: is just one way to handle the killers and the spoilers,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: and that's where the US Marshall and the Smell of
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: gun Smoke. Gun Smoke, starring William Conrad, the transcribe story
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: of the violence that moved west with young America and
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: the story of a man who.
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: Moved with it. I'm that man, Matt Dillon, United States Marshall,
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: the first man they look for and the less they
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: want to meet. It's a chancy job, and it makes
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: a man watchful and a little lonely. Most people think
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: a dodge city here in the eighteen seventies is a wild,
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: lawless town, swamps with exciting women and strong, daring men.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: The men they picture as fighters, they kind of stand
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: up for almost no reason at all and gun each
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: other down with as little regard for their own lives
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: as they have for their opponents. Men whose courage is
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: as raw and harsh as the prairies. It's bread on. Well,
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: this is the picture, but it isn't quite complete. We
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: got our share of cowards too, like the one whose
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: work I ran into the night I found a note
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: on my door said come up to Doc Adam's office
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: as fast as I could.
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: Docs in the back room, mister Jones, that's the trouble testing.
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: He's got Jack Massy in there.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: Jack Massy, that cowboy who looks.
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: Up whenever he comes to time.
• 3:01
  Speaker 5: You remember him.
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: He always comes into office and SATs around and talk.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: Oh the redheaded followed him.
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: It's been six months since we've seen.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: Him, I would say, doing up here? What's wrong? Well?
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: Doctor better ask him? You know, man, doctor, Well, he's dead,
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: oh poor, as soon as the sun him.
• 3:21
  Speaker 6: I knew he couldn't make it, not for a hole
• 3:23
  Speaker 6: like that.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: And Doc, would you mind telling me what happened? Somebody
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: shot him?
• 3:27
  Speaker 5: Then?
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: Well? Who shot him? We don't know.
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: I was coming down the street, mister dun and I
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: heard a shot and I run in found him laying
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: there on the floor, right where he fell out of
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: the chair.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: Out of what chair? Chester?
• 3:39
  Speaker 5: Wait?
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: Yours mine?
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: Yes, sir, down in the office. He was waiting for you,
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: I guess, And somebody sneaked in the back way and
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: shot him.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: Why he was shot in the back so.
• 3:52
  Speaker 7: Well, he was sitting in your chair, and we noticed
• 3:56
  Speaker 7: he was wearing a hat just like the one you wear.
• 3:59
  Speaker 6: And also he's a out the same size as you.
• 4:02
  Speaker 7: Somebody's out to kill you, Matt, to kill you the
• 4:05
  Speaker 7: easy way?
• 4:40
  Speaker 8: How about?
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: Kitty said on thanks?
• 4:46
  Speaker 9: What brings you into the Long Branch this time of night?
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: I just looking around, Killy, Well, there are a lot of.
• 4:52
  Speaker 9: Men at the bartol there. You think you can think
• 4:55
  Speaker 9: him out? The man who thought he shot you tonight?
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: He was travels fast, isn't it.
• 5:03
  Speaker 9: I heard somebody was after you two days ago?
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: You did? I figured it for talk?
• 5:09
  Speaker 9: Didn't anybody tell you about it.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: I haven't been around much the last couple of days, kiddy,
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: But even so, I guess it isn't the kind of
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: talk people feel easy about passing on. That's for me anyway,
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: I guess not you know who started it?
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: He did coming this way, But well that's said Ebie.
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: What's he doing in Dodge?
• 5:31
  Speaker 9: You want to drop around more often, Matt. He's been
• 5:33
  Speaker 9: banging feral here three or four days now, that Sam Harry, Yeah,
• 5:37
  Speaker 9: he's been doing fine too.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Ebee always was a smart gambler. Hello, Marshall, he's kiddy. Hello,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: ev you mind if I see down?
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: No, go ahead.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: I been meaning to come see you, Marshall.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: Oh is that so?
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  Speaker 1: I heard about the shooting tonight, same as most everybody has.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: I know something about it, Marshall. Would you like to
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: hear tell me? Well, a couple of nights ago I
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: went out back to breathe a little fresh air. Now
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: we're standing out there in the dark around the corner
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: in the alley, and I heard a couple of men
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: come out.
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  Speaker 5: He couldn't see me, and I couldn't see them.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: But I heard one of them tell the other he
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: was going to shoot Marshall Dylan shoot him anyway he could.
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: Uh huh here a little late telling me aren't HIV.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: I don't exactly owe you no favors, Marshall.
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: Why did you bother to tell me at all?
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Because I don't like killing. That's why I hate killing.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: I've told you everything I know, Marshall.
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: I'll be going now.
• 6:52
  Speaker 9: What's that all about, Matt? What's between you and Ebe?
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  Speaker 3: I knew him out in Santa Fe one time, Kitty.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: He was bullying a man and I showed him up
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  Speaker 3: to be a coward. A lot of people witnessed him,
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: and Ebe never forgave me, And maybe his story is alive.
• 7:10
  Speaker 9: Maybe he's the one who did the shooting.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: I don't think ed Ebie has the guts to shoot
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  Speaker 3: a man, even in the back.
• 7:16
  Speaker 9: Who is it, then, come, Jenny?
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: I do no that there are a lot of men
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: who'd like to see me dead. I know I'd be
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: willing to take my chances with anybody who'd face me.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: It's the man who shoots out of the dark I'm
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: afraid of. Nobody wants to die, but it's even worse
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: without a chance to fight back. That's what always made
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: me feel especially bad about a man who broke his
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: neck falling off a saddle, or who maybe disappeared in
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: front of a stampede of buffalo, or who liked Jack
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: Massey sitting at my desk, had to take a bullet.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: I'm back. That's not dying. That's being slaughtered like a
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: hog in a pen, robs a man of everything he's
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: lived for. And I make me mad, make me some met.
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: I lost my sense of caution like a night. Chester
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: and I were walking up front, straight after the summer.
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: Well fires and near boots, mister jail, and I'd hie
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: me out on the prairie first bell.
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: Oh you wouldn't you bet I would?
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: Out there? You can see a man coming a mile off.
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: I don't think he'd like that. Chester.
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: I guess you're right. He'd never folly out in those
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: not him or them. You think they might need more
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: than one might be. I'm going to miss you. Don't
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: wanted to hire some men to hang around with a
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: sort of bodyguard, and nobody there, try and ambushing you.
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: The son of that try the better, Chester, get it
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: over with one way or the other.
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: I wished eyes was cool about it as you.
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: I'm not cool, Chester, a massive.
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: You sure got a funny way of showing it. If
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: I was man, I'd be hopping around like a brown
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: with the burunder tail. I'd be a strong and slowering
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: a form on my mouth. Get out, Chester, he's up
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: there in the alley.
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm going after him. He'll stay here.
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: No, by god, he not this time. No shot.
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: Start shooting myself. Start shooting while you got a chance.
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: I sure will.
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: He's buy that, barn, what you're doing. He's leaning on it.
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I see him.
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  Speaker 5: I'll shoot you. I'll shoot you good.
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  Speaker 3: Drop that.
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: You walk right up to him? You're doing? And he
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: had a gun right in his name, his drunk Chester,
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: Did you knock him down like it?
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  Speaker 3: Ah'm hard enough. Let's get him up to the docs.
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: We'll so him up and find out what this is
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  Speaker 3: all about.
• 10:00
  Speaker 10: But don't put that cup down yet, fella, not before
• 10:15
  Speaker 10: you drink every drop of coffee in it.
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: Ah, I'm drowning in coffee, dog, I said, drink it.
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: M Yeah, there no more, doc, I'm sober, no.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Mad.
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: He can talk straight now, It's about time. What's your name,
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: mister nat Swan?
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  Speaker 5: But I didn't mean nothing, Marcia. I didn't know what
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  Speaker 5: I was doing, honest I.
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  Speaker 3: Didn't, And I'll tell him they were trying to kill me.
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: No, no, don't don't hit me.
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  Speaker 3: Don't hit me. You're a real cor don't you one
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  Speaker 3: even to shoot me in the back. You had to
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: take on a loto whiskey.
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  Speaker 4: I got nothing against you, Marshall. I come to town and
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: heard all that talk and thought I could make a
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  Speaker 4: name for myself if i'd done the shooting.
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  Speaker 5: Ain't no more to.
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  Speaker 3: It than that, listen, no more to it than that.
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  Speaker 4: Nothing personally, what I mean.
• 11:19
  Speaker 7: I should have put stryp nine in that coffee.
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  Speaker 3: What are you saying? Doctor? Never mind? Dog, I believe
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  Speaker 3: this one, oh he do. Well, it's true, honestly, Yeah,
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: it's true. Right, And there are a lot of other drunken,
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: brainless bombs gonna try it for the same reason. They've
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: heard somebody's hat to murder me, and they got to thinking,
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: why shouldn't they do it and get the credit for themselves. Well, no, man, no,
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: it's not that. It's already started, doc, And there will
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: be others, lots of them, as long as I last
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: Chester and I rode nat swanned onto the Arkansas told
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: him to get his horse across and to keep going.
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: I guess he thought I was about the shoot him
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  Speaker 3: the way he rode off, all hunkered up in the saddle,
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  Speaker 3: trying to look small, and I was pretty sure he'd
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: never show up and dodge again. Yeah, that'd be one
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: less glory hunter to deal with. But I thought of
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: how many were left waiting in the alleys, hiding in
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: the shadows. Now it made me jumping, and I didn't
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: realize how bad off I was until we got back
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  Speaker 3: into town. Rode into the stable, We put our horses
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: into their stalls, and we're walking towards the door.
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: His barns plumb desserted tonight, mister Jones.
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: Late Chester. Everybody's either drunk or in bed.
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: But where are somebody who ain't?
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: Hey?
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: What's he doing? That rifle?
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: Here? Duck in the staal Chester?
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: He seems.
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: All right. Dropped the rifle, mister, not likely drop it?
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: I say, no, he's gonna shoot me. You got him?
• 13:13
  Speaker 11: He will stay back chest, No, shoot, don't shoot again.
• 13:29
  Speaker 11: They got his rifles yesterday.
• 13:32
  Speaker 6: Last you mister, you put a bullet in a lung.
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: Who are you?
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: I've never seen him before?
• 13:40
  Speaker 5: What do you care?
• 13:41
  Speaker 6: Who I am, you've got to kill mass what you're doing?
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: Why were you after me? Somebody hire him? Tell me.
• 13:50
  Speaker 6: You shoot a man down and then you're trying to.
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: Blame it on him.
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: Maybe he wouldn't after you after nobody.
• 13:58
  Speaker 6: I come from a horse, That's all.
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: I think. He's telling the truth, mister Dylan.
• 14:03
  Speaker 6: Dylan, you you're the Marshall.
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: What did you think I was?
• 14:13
  Speaker 6: I heard talk somebody was out to shoot you. It
• 14:16
  Speaker 6: wasn't me. I was just trying to get home to Texas.
• 14:22
  Speaker 6: There ain't gonna make.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: It now, all right. I heard you lever your rifle
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: on the stake. You're about to shoot.
• 14:30
  Speaker 6: I thought I was being held up.
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: Oh wait, you hollered at me.
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: Oh my goodness, mister Dylan. He ain't got nothing to
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: do with this.
• 14:40
  Speaker 6: Of course I had. If I was you, Marshall, if
• 14:45
  Speaker 6: there's talk about somebody after me, I'd find out who's
• 14:50
  Speaker 6: making the talk.
• 14:52
  Speaker 11: I wouldn't go around shooting at us.
• 14:56
  Speaker 5: This.
• 14:57
  Speaker 6: Somebody's got you out.
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: We'll get you up to docs, mister. He'll take good
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: care of you.
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: Mm hmm.
• 15:08
  Speaker 6: Don't don't bury me in a blanket, Marshal. Fix me
• 15:12
  Speaker 6: a box, will you?
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: Promise me you'll fix me box. Yeah, yeah, I promise.
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: I can't swallow no more. Oh god, it drop drow.
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: I like killed an innocent man Chester.
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: He'd have shot you if you hadn't.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: I don't even know his name. But we'll fix him
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: a box. We'll fix him a good one. And I'm
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: gonna do something else. He said, I've been not smart,
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: and he was right. But I know what I'm doing now.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Hello, Hello, kitty, you're looking for somebody, you bet?
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: I am trouble now. The trouble's over, how it sooner
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: will be here.
• 16:25
  Speaker 9: It's going to be a fight that don't need me
• 16:27
  Speaker 9: in this saloon.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: I'll be mighty surprised if there is a fight. Kidding,
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: cowards don't carry guns. I'll see you later.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: You can't you carry three longs? Yeah, Marthle Dylan, you're
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: gonna try your luck.
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: My luck ran out about an hour ago. Maybe why
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: I shot and killed an edisent man. What are you
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: talking about?
• 16:57
  Speaker 5: Marshall?
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: You were too cheap to hire somebody to get me ibe,
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: and too much of a coward to try it yourself
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: like that. Your story about over hearing that talk out back?
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: You spread it around hoping it'd give some brainless fool
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: the idea to try it himself.
• 17:15
  Speaker 5: Now that's a lot.
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: Two men tried it and they made me so jumping.
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: I just killed him and I thought was going to
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: try it again. Well, I feel pretty bad about that. IV.
• 17:24
  Speaker 5: I got nothing to do with it.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: You told me the story thinking it would make you
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: look innocent. You are smarter to IV for a while.
• 17:33
  Speaker 5: You can't prove any of this.
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: I don't have to come on.
• 17:39
  Speaker 5: You can't arrest me.
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: No, and I'm going to lock you up and tomorrow
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: I'm going to run you out of town telling some
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: men have died because are you a coward? As EV?
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: I wish I could hang it for it.
• 17:50
  Speaker 5: Don't you call me a coward.
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: You're the worst coward I ever sat up.
• 17:55
  Speaker 8: You stop saying it. You're doing just what you did
• 17:59
  Speaker 8: out and sata F. Come on, ABE, show you I'm
• 18:04
  Speaker 8: not a coward. You won't call me that anymore.
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: Take your hand out of your pocket.
• 18:10
  Speaker 5: I got a gun in here. I'll kill you myself.
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: No you want You're not gonna draw that gun.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: Yes, I am not you ebe, I'll do it, not you.
• 18:23
  Speaker 5: I'll kill you.
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: Just keep talking ibe keep talking.
• 18:32
  Speaker 9: Why didn't you show him that you had a right to.
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: I think he wanted me to kiddy what. I think
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: He'd rather be dead than face everybody knowing what a
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: coward he is. Atl He's got his punishment coming for
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: the rest of his life.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: Gunn Smoke, produced and directed by Norman McDonald, stars William
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: Conrad as Matt Dylan Us Marshall. Our story was specially
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: written for gun Smoke by John Meston, with music composed
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: and conducted by Rex Cory, sound patterns by Tom Henley
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: and Ray Kemper.
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: Featured in the cast were Vic.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: Paren, John Dayner and Jack Edwards, Barley bear Is Chester,
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: Howard mcneher is Doc, and Georgia Ellis is kidding.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: From Dodge City. That was gun Smoke, Episode three, The Coward.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: Follow Gunsmoke for more classic broadcasts.