Gunsmoke (1955–1975): Season 14, Episode 6 - O'Quillian - full transcript

Gunsmoke, starring
James Arness as Matt Dillon.

130.

Well, O'Quillian?

All right. I'll see you
and raise you 100.

We said table stakes.

Well, this'll make
up the difference.

This heirloom of the clan
O'Quillian is worth at least $200

across the expanse
of our fine and fair land.

Even melted down it's worth 100.

All right, all right, you're on.

Four kings.



Well, now.

If that isn't the strangest.

Here I am with
me own four fives...

and a king.

That makes five kings.

You calling cheat on me?

There are a few
things in life I shy from,

but truth isn't one of them.

Once more, just to make
sure that I heard you right.

The word is cheater,
and stupid to boot!

I'm undecided.
Right ear or left ear?

Or maybe both.

Cheater.

Much obliged, my good man.



If'n Judge Anderson don't
hang you, Curt's brother will.

♪ What's the news?
What's the news?

♪ O my bold Shelmalier

♪ With your
long-barreled gun of the sea

♪ Say what wind from the
south blows his messenger here

♪ With a hymn of
the dawn for the free?

♪ Goodly news, goodly
news, do I bring, youth of Forth

♪ Goodly news do
I bring, Bargy man

♪ For the boys march at
dawn from the south to the north

♪ Led by... Company halt!

Yoo-hoo!

Dodge City, my good man,

home and heritage of a
lawman skilled in weaponry, huh?

If that means a dead shot and
you're talking about Marshal Dillon,

this is the place.

Good, good.

How much, my noble brother?

Five big men.

One big man.

Five big men.

Too bumpy. One big man.

You want watch?

Why, you thieving rascal.

How did such a people
ever lose this land anyway?

My name is Leary O'Quillian,

observer emeritus of this
land of space and savagery.

- Do you have cold beer?
- We do.

Ah, fine.

By all points and purposes,
it is an English beverage.

Still, this morning I have a
head belongs under a hen.

That there'n somethin'
different, ain't he?

Appears so.

Course, a fella, he can
get to be too different too

and get hisself in a
whole heap of trouble.

- That so?
- Course it is.

My Great Uncle
Burris, he proved that.

Well, yeah. I know I shouldn't
ask this, Festus, but I will anyway.

- Ask what?
- About your Uncle Burris.

Oh, yeah, well, he was bound and
determined to be different, you know.

So we casted his legs in
plaster clean up to his hips.

Now, what did he do that for?

Well, he had this here idea that
if he didn't move around so much,

then his body wouldn't wear out
and he'd live longer, don't you see?

I knew I shouldn't have asked.

Well, everything just went fine
for the first three or four months,

and then along about the fifth
month he's still in this here plaster,

and Aunt Soble, she
went to town for the day,

and he got this terrible itch and
of course he couldn't scratch it,

and he just went barking mad.

Barking.

I tell you, Judge, we should
have left like most of them others.

Leaving establishes guilt.

And you don't think we
ain't established no guilt?

- According to how you look at it.
- Makes mighty pretty simple looking.

Didn't that little rattlesnake
just before he left,

wasn't he bragging on the
fact that he'd killed Curt Tynan?

He was drunk. Besides, that won't
make no difference to Clay Tynan.

Make no difference? We done
found it as self-defense, didn't we?

Not me. You did.

On account of there
wasn't a man on that jury

that hadn't been cheated by Curt
Tynan one time or another, you included.

Everything's gonna
fit together fine.

I've thought this clear
through. Clear, clear through.

Gravy, Briggs ain't
gonna get here any sooner

for you staring down
the street for him.

Come give us some of that
what made the mouse treat the cat.

Yes, sir, I got this all figured
right down to the moment.

Here's the way it goes.

What's the first thing Tynan's
gonna do come him to town,

being as he's trailed them
cows all the way from Texas?

- Get him a drink.
- Mmm, a drink.

And a bath.

So first off he goes
down to Rosey's,

gets him a tub and a
bottle, soaks up both.

Now he's feeling the sunrise in
him and he comes down here.

Plays cards, loses to Chickenfoot
and then tears up half the town.

That's when it's normal.

This time it ain't
normal. Curt's dead.

The point I'm trying to
get to you on, Parker,

is by the time he
finds out about Curt,

he'll have drunk up
several rivers of this.

He ain't gonna be
doing no thinking

about how the snake
that killed Curt got loose.

He's gonna be thinking
about where at is he?

That I know.

Well, then, you should
have said that, Your Honor.

Hey, Judge, Judge. Tynan,
he's at Rosey's place right now.

Thank you, Briggs. Have a drink.

No. If you don't mind,
I'll just be leaving.

I understand, Briggs.

Yes, sir, I'd say everything's
going to schedule.

How about you, Parker?

I'd say you got fox blood
in you somewheres, Judge.

That's what I'd say.

Gravy, get all your bottles
and get 'em up on the bar.

Be quick about it, I say.

Hey, Curt! Where's Curt?
Somebody get his alligator hide in here.

- Rosey, Rosey, Rosey, come here.
- Yeah, Rosey.

Rosey, old flower, this
is for you and the horse.

Yeah, well, who's first?

Hey, come on,
boys. Hey, come on.

I'll buy you some drinks
you can float canoes in.

Yeah!

No, no, no need for that.
Spearville opens its arms wide.

- Help yourselves. The drinks are on us.
- Whoo-ee!

Well, thanks for the
hospitality, Anderson.

No, that's Judge Anderson,
Clay, Judge Anderson.

Law and order, every
skinny inch of him.

Not too much order
tonight, huh, Judge?

Cowboys cowboying gotta
loose their cinches, I say.

Have a good trip up
the trail, Mr. Tynan?

Anderson, let me
tell you something.

We brought 1,800
head out of Texas,

and with seven
stampedes and five storms

that'd drown an elk standing on
a plain as flat as a billiard table,

and with all
that, with all of it,

I got me 1680 cows up
yonder on the Malapai right now.

Now, you answer me
one question, just one.

Can Chisholm or Blocker or
any of them old salty rannies,

can they brag on any
better than that, huh?

- No, sir, Clay.
- No, nobody.

That's a heap of doing,
Mr. Tynan, a heap of doing.

Here you are,
Rosey, for you and...

- The horse.
- Right!

That horse is gonna take
second money this time, I tell you.

Get out of the way,
you overgrown elk.

Hey, where's that
no-good brother of mine?

Didn't I send somebody
to fetch him? Hey, didn't I?

Boy, he'd better have me a
buyer better than the one last time.

Well, move it, Parker!

I'm afraid I... just can't.

What do you mean, you can't?

Uh... Curt is...
dead, Mr. Tynan.

Dead?

That... That's right, Mr. Tynan.

Yes, sir, Mr. Tynan.
Shot, he was.

Well, well, old Curt, he probably
done deserve that as certain as sunlight.

You know, he'd look
you in the face and lie

like an Indian done
swallowed your watch.

He had him about as much
guts as an ant after a buffalo run.

Worthless. He's as worthless as day-old
beer and yellow as mustard without bite.

Yes, sir! Yes, sir!

Now, who killed him?

I said who killed him?

An Irishman named O'Quillian.

- Where is he?
- He said he was going to Dodge.

- Chickenfoot.
- Yeah, Clay?

Now, you... you done
heard who and where.

Now, I want you to take the breed
and I want you to fetch me that man.

Right. Quahine.

All right, some of the rest
of you boys fetch me a tub.

I'm gonna take me a bath.

Well, come on, move it!

Come on, let's drink up here!

Come on, get a-drinkin'.

You did good, Judge.
Oh, you did good.

Parker, the only difference between
a rut and a grave is measurement.

Now it's time to
leave this town.

Here's to the old sod.

To Ireland. To that
Emerald Isle of freedom.

To us and freedom.

"The sword of
light is shining still."

Hello, Sam. How about a beer?

Coming right up.

Louie.

Mr. Burke, this
here's Mr. O'Quillian.

- Mr. O'Quillian, Nathan Burke.
- Howdy.

I thought so.

No, you don't, Mr. Ogre.

What you got
there, Mr. O'Quillian?

- The weather.
- Weather?

Aye, the weather. The ogre
comes out: bad weather.

The milkmaid comes
out: fine weather.

- But I'll fix that.
- Fix what?

The weather.

We'll keep the ogre in, leaving
the milkmaid to come out,

and it's fine weather
we'll have, we will.

That will make the
difference in the weather?

Aye. It's a fine instrument, the
name of which is a barometer.

Are you trying to say that
thing will change the weather?

Well, not really, except...

Except what, Mr. O'Quillian?

Well, except just in
case, Louie, my friend.

Except just in case of what?

Except just in case
the devil takes a notion,

we'll keep the
ogre in, just in case.

But that thing, if it works
at all, follows the weather.

The ogre has
nothing to do with it.

That the way it
is, Mr. O'Quillian?

It is, Louie.

But, still, little's the
harm and who knows?

We'll keep the ogre in,
leaving the milkmaid out,

and give the poor
Lord above a chance.

Amazing. Any intelligent
man believing such foolishness.

- Foolishness, is it?
- Foolish and superstitious.

Aye, well, now, can it not
be said that all new thoughts

were regarded as superstitions
at one time or another.

Take your steam
engine, for example.

But a barometer works
on a system of pressure

which the weather
establishes beforehand.

People like you resist new
thoughts, you do, you and all your kind.

All of you crowded into the
hothouses of your stuffy little minds.

Blind, you are, and
stupid to the core of you.

Stupid? You're
calling me stupid?

I'll beg your pardon.

Perhaps I shouldn't
have used the word.

Perhaps I should have
caressed you instead.

Down, Louie.

Break it up. Come
on, break it up.

Then there was this here
nephew, Orlie Beckleton.

- He was kind of different too...
- Festus, your steak's getting cold.

Yeah. Well, he had hisself this
idea that he could fly, don't you see?

So he harnessed two
84-pound wings to his mule

and just went a-hightailing
off down to Pounders Bluff.

Why, he never even
slowed down or looked up,

just went right
over the edge of it.

Course, the mule,
now, he come back.

He's a little three-legged,
but he's still a-walkin'.

And Orlie, he was pasted
over every rock in that gorge.

Marshal! Marshal Dillon! The
Long Branch, there's a big fight.

Well, it's like Bull
Run all over again.

Stop it! Sam!

Ooh.

A beautiful, beautiful fight.

Look at the glorious
savagery of it.

All right, hold it
up! Break it up!

See to that pack over there.

All right, hold it
up! Break it up here.

Who started this? Sam?

Well, I don't know, Marshal. I
was down at that end of the bar.

I know who did it.

It was that Irish fella. He was... I
don't know where he is. He's gone.

Well, Kitty, looks like things
got a little out of hand here.

Yeah, just a little.

Sam, would you help clean
up some of this mess, please?

- Sure thing.
- Who did start it?

Well, O'Quillian was his name.

He hit me along the side
of the head with a beer mug.

You mean he just
hit you for no reason?

Well, that's exactly what he did,
just because I refused to believe

a barometer could
control the weather.

Barometer?

Marshal, I think
you'll be interested.

Louie and his
guest, Mr. O'Quillian.

Top of the world
to you, Marshal.

Oh, isn't it a heroic
figure you cut.

A true Cohoran, one of
the heroes of my homeland.

All right, on your feet.

Hey, look, I'm up, I'm up, man.

There's no need to take such a tone.
There is a time and place for violence.

Festus, get him out of
here and let him sleep it off.

- Come on.
- An interpreter of life is what I am.

- And all the moons above it.
- I'm deeply sorry, Marshal.

- You just go on and sleep it off.
- Thanks, Marshal.

A veritable signpost
for lost souls.

- You...
- Control yourself, man.

Control yourself. A mercy
merchant, that's me calling.

Oh, come on, mercy merchant.

You'd better let Doc
take a look at that.

- Well, can I buy you a drink?
- I could sure use one.

Sam.

Hey, Whiskers. Come here.

- Yeah, you, come here.
- Now, you lookee here, mister.

I ain't partial to
getting called Whiskers.

- No offense meant.
- Well, it was took.

I was looking for a friend.

- Luck to you.
- I thought you might know him.

- Ain't likely.
- Easy.

No sense in starting no trouble.

If he's here, we'll
find him. Come on.

Well, hello there, Red.

Hello, Texas.

Two whiskeys.

Looks like we kind of missed
out on all the fun, don't it?

- Yeah, it was lively.
- And they was fighting over you.

That what you think, cowboy?

No. I'm just saying that
you'd be worth fighting over.

30 cents.

- Yeah. Can I buy one for you?
- No, thanks.

Then I'll have one for you.

Yeah, looks like one
of your Kansas twisters

just tore this place
right up, don't it?

It was more like a Gaelic gale.

Huh?

Yeah, some Irishman...
and his barometer.

- An Irishman?
- One of Dodge's newest additions.

Fortunately he drank enough
to keep the rest of the night quiet.

Here's to you, Red.

To that Irishman,
wherever he may be.

- Marshal, Marshal, Marshal!
- What's going on here?

Marshal, come quick.
There's two of them.

One's a breed and the other... They're
taking my friend. You gotta come.

What are you talking about? You
been on the bottle already this morning?

No, I ain't been drinking.

They're taking O'Quillian
down at the freight yard.

They're gonna kill him.
Please, please, Marshal, come.

- Please, Marshal, please.
- All right.

- All right, Louie.
- Hurry, Marshal.

There they are, Marshal.

All right, that's far
enough right there.

Stand aside, pilgrim.

Untie the man.

I didn't come here
looking for no trouble.

- I came here to find him.
- I said untie him.

A man named Tynan
sent me after him,

and there's no way I'm
going back without him.

The man's staying right here.

Louie, untie him.

Arrest him.

Arrest the scrofulous
brigand. Kidnapping, he was.

There I was lying in peaceful
slumber minding me own business.

- O'Quillian, shut up.
- Shut up, he says, to a citizen.

Now, what happened?
What's this all about?

A poker game in Spearville
where I was being brutally cheated.

And I suppose you
weren't doing any cheating?

Of course I was, but a
lot less than his friend was.

- What about it?
- Who's asking?

US marshal.

I'll leave the explaining
up to Mr. Tynan.

All right, then
ride out of here.

You're not going to let him go?

- Not after what he did to me?
- I told you to shut up.

It could have been simple, Marshal.
It all could have been just simple.

Of course, I've not seen
it with me own two eyes,

if indeed the hearing
of it is not enough.

Getting on, mind you, the word
is that wages for dancehall girls

are $10 a day in Wooten.

$10 a day?

Indeed it is, indeed it is, not to speak
of half as much again in Spencer.

And a possible interest
in the business as well.

Oh, refreshments, refreshments.

Drink up, ladies, drink up.
The party's on O'Quillian.

- Here, my good man. Keep the change.
- Thank you.

Now, I know it's not for the
likes of me to be offering advice,

yet, in all, it is the need of the
human world to re-improve, huh?

That's right.

And now I want to thank you
for the fair chance of your beauty

to lighten a tired man's heart.

Farewell, my lovelies.

And mind what I told you, now.

No boss spends money
unless pressed to it,

if you know what I mean.

I've no doubt of your
intentions, my good man.

Then buy it or shut up.

But I am yet not daft
enough to pay thrice as much

for what a week ago
yesterday I saw in Virgil,

and that town not
even on the railroad.

I don't believe you.

Well, then, take a trip and see
for yourself. It's the only logic.

Meanwhile, such wealth
is for the next world.

- Good day to you.
- They've been cheating us like this.

Rumor, folks, just rumor. Remember,
it was rumor that had the world flat.

Not half as flat as my pocketbook
if I had to deal with the likes of you.

My sympathies, dear ladies.

He doesn't know what he's
talking about. I can prove it.

These prices are the
same every... Ladies.

Let me tell you something.

When I bring a girl out here, I pay her
double what she could get back east.

I teach her manners,
I teach her thrift,

and if and when she
ever wants to go back east,

I make sure that she's
better for this experience

and she can live any kind
of a life she wants to live.

Now, Matt, I have been more
than fair in all of my dealings

with anybody who
has worked for me.

- Kitty, what are you getting at?
- Him. Him.

Now, the girls aren't listening too
closely to him now, but they will.

- The law of averages...
- Now, wait a minute. Who is this him?

Leary O'Quillian.

Now, I have to admit, that man would
charm the birds right out of the trees

and borrow money
from the graveyard.

- What's eating you?
- Well, I'll tell you what's eating me.

All of a sudden my fees are
too high. Too high. Think of that.

You know the last time
anybody paid me anything?

Jim Driscoll over in
Burleyville paid me off in turnips.

Whole basket of
measly little turnips.

Now, wait a minute. Are you having
trouble with this Leary O'Quillian?

Who else? World's leading
authority on everything.

Medicine included now.

Well, I hope you're convinced.

You too?

Oh, yes. Girls and wages.

See there? You gotta
do something about him.

He's a natural
born troublemaker.

Sounds to me like Louie Pheeters

is about the only friend
he's got left in Dodge.

Well, I'll tell you something about
that. He's even corrupting Louie.

You've got rights
is what you've got.

- Rights?
- Right, rights.

You feel guilty because
you've got no job.

Well, I have no
job either, have I?

Oh, but you're different,
Leary. You've had an education.

Oh, only of the mildest sort,
and at me mother's knee.

She used to say to me.

"My sweetest little
darling." God bless her.

And you've traveled.

Aye, that I've done.

But me, I'm a bum.

Like you say, I ain't
even got the courage

of a night moth
banging at a window.

I'll not have you throwing me own
words back at me, Louie Pheeters.

I was speaking of others.

You're more than just meat and
bones, man. Any animal's that.

You are a human being,

and a human being's got rights.

- That's the human way, it is.
- What is?

Brotherhood, that's what it is.

Being a human being gives you the right
to be cared for by other human beings.

It's only natural.

Charity and kindness
is the only thing

that keeps human beings
from being human animals.

Now, that's plain
to you, isn't it?

I guess so.

Louie, you and me are dreamers.

And here is the birthplace of
dreams if we can capture them,

and we can capture them.

The world needs dreams.

The world owes us, the dreamers,
a meal when we come to its doors.

It does, Louie. It owes us.

It does?

- Marshal, come in, come in.
- Welcome, Marshal, most welcome.

- Sit down, sit down. Would you like...
- No, no, thanks. No, thank you.

I want to ask you
a few questions.

Well, my pleasure,
Marshal. Proceed.

Have you ever been to the
towns of Wooten, Spencer or Virgil?

Near them.

Near enough to know that the
dancehall girls there are paid more

than Kitty Russell
pays her girls here?

Something plaguing you, Marshal?

You an authority on banking,
storekeeping and medicine, are you?

Well, I keep my
eyes and ears open.

O'Quillian, have you had a
real job in the last five years?

A man's job is as he sees it,

and I see my job as the
betterment of mankind

by pushing people
to better themselves.

It makes little mind how
they do it as long as they do it.

Well, it makes a
difference here.

Now, I don't mind you telling
all the stories you want to,

but you'd better cut out telling
the kind of lies that cause trouble

or I'll run you out of town.

I got my rights, I have.

You got your rights.
They're called the law.

Rosey, bring me my pants!

Oh, you want something
done, you gotta do it yourself.

- They got the breed, huh?
- I done told you Dillon done it.

He's the fastest gun I
ever seen except for yours.

There wasn't no sense
for me to start no ruckus.

Used your head.

I don't pay you
to use your head!

Here, now, you get up.
Get up here. Wake up.

Now, you get the rest of
these boys up on their feet.

We're going to Dodge
and we're going right.

Come on, get up.

Never did get my bath.

Come on, Chickenfoot,
get a move on.

Rosey!

One of the most importantest
things there is is to have good boots.

Is that so?

And the next most importantest
thing is to have 'em fit.

Why, I knowed a old
boy back home one time

that just flat froze to death
trying to pull on a pair of boots.

- Buried him in a basket.
- In a basket?

Yeah.

- That old boy wasn't an uncle, was he?
- No. He...

- A cousin maybe?
- No. He...

Second, third or
fourth or fifth cousin?

No, he just a old boy
that I knowed around town.

Phenomenal.

There. There, Matthew.
How much is them boots?

Oh, they're $5 a pair.

$5?

They ought to be wearing a
mask asking a price like that.

Why, it's the blamedest
thing I've ever...

- Marshal, Doc, Festus.
- Newly, sit down. Have a beer.

Well, sir, I'd better not. I
had to leave my shop open.

- Is something wrong?
- Well, sir, I can't really tell.

- Maybe there is, maybe there isn't.
- What is it?

Well, I was working late tonight
and I heard some voices in the alley.

Who was it?

That O'Quillian fella
and Louie Pheeters.

- What were they doing?
- They were filling some bottles.

With what?

I don't know for sure, but it
smelled like alcohol and licorice root.

I'm sorry, Marshal, I didn't
mean to be sticking my nose

into somebody else's business.

You did the right thing, Newly.

Well, it's your turn
to buy, ain't it, Doc?

Well, you chinchy old skinflint.

See, I recollect clear as Friday,
Matthew bought the first one,

Miss Kitty bought the next
one, and now it's your turn,

and you know it is.

We can sell this stuff
as fast as we make it.

Is it right?

Oh, heavens bless
us, of course it's right.

But $2 just for...

It ain't the money
that matters, Louie.

But this is...

And it ain't whether in truth this is
an oriental reviving solvent or not.

What matters is that if people
believe it works, it will work.

For the betterment of mankind,
Louie. For the betterment of mankind.

Anyway, people'll buy anything
that's only one to a customer.

All right, O'Quillian,
that's enough.

- You don't quite understand.
- I understand all right.

- You're coming with me.
- Where are you taking me?

- You're going to jail where I can...
- Jail? Me?

That's right. I'll let
you out in the morning.

Louie, if I ever see you hanging around
him again, you're gonna be in trouble.

Newly, pour all that stuff out
and throw the bottles away.

Very good, Marshal.

Farewell, Louie Pheeters,
my one true friend.

And remember this moment.

The bird feels nothing when you
clip its wings, but it flies no longer.

Get up here. Get up.

I'll say it now, Marshal Matthew
Dillon, if you don't got to Hades,

there's simply and fairly
no sense in having the place.

Oh, Newly. Newly, please.

Oh, my goodness,
that's pure alcohol.

Don't you realize, Louie,
what this stuff could do to you?

I know, but, please,
just a bottle or two.

No, sir. I'm just doing
what the marshal told me.

I know, I know, but I've never
been so close to so much, Newly.

Louie, you're just torturing
yourself. Now, why don't you leave?

I have to. I can't stand
to see such woeful waste.

Turn the key,
Marshal, turn the key,

and lock me mortal corporosity
in your hellish dungeon.

But know that when you do,

the spirit of Leary O'Quillian
soars beyond your grasping reach.

Why don't you lie down
and get some sleep?

Sleep. Sleep, you say.

The time will come when
not but sleep will be my fate.

Oh, sleep.

The married cousin
of death itself.

And death's cold arms will
be around me long enough.

Sleep! Sleep indeed!

- What are you doing here?
- Good evening, Marshal.

I told you there'd be somebody
else wanting to do the listening.

- You're Dillon.
- That's right. What do you want?

Well, it ain't what I want.
It's what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna kill me a man,
Dillon. Maybe two, comes trouble.

Boys down home say you
run a hard town for a dry drover.

It's a lawful town. You're not
gonna be killing anybody in it.

I didn't say I'd kill anybody
in it, only if it comes trouble.

I'm looking for a man
named O'Quillian.

- Yeah?
- Irishman.

- Killed my brother.
- He what?

Bad hearing all of
a sudden, Marshal?

- Where'd this happen?
- Over Spearville.

Well, if it happened
in Spearville,

then I'll be turning him
over to the authorities there.

I don't care where he goes or
how, as long as he gets killed.

Bullet or rope, me at the
far end and no need to guess.

Hear you shot a
lot of men, Dillon.

My job's saving lives, Tynan.

From what I hear about
you, that separates us.

Maybe it does. Maybe it does.
Maybe someday we'll see how far.

- Come with me.
- What for?

We're gonna have a
talk with Mr. O'Quillian.

O'Quillian, this man's name is Tynan.
He claims that you killed his brother.

Proud to say I did, Marshal.

- You mean to tell me you admit it?
- I do.

Cheating, he was. Bold
as new nails. I told you that.

- You didn't tell me you'd killed him.
- That's true, I didn't.

Anybody who plays cards with a
stranger the way your brother did

ought to have a nurse.

Yeah, that's old Curt all right.

Five feet and all
of 'em pointing left.

You bought luck, Dillon.

You'd have stiffed me on this and I'd
have brought my boys into town and...

Tynan, this man's standing
trial in a court of law.

I've been tried in
Spearville. Tried and freed.

What's he talking at?

I'm talking about my
trial, you mutton head,

where I stood for five awful
hours in the shadow of a noose,

defending myself
with a terrible brilliance,

until at the end I
heard the verdict.

"Justifiable homicide" is
the words the man used.

Well, if he's telling the truth,
well, that's it, he's a free man.

He can't be tried twice
for the same crime.

Well, you can just take
all this trial hoorawing...

- Hey, that's enough.
- I want that man and I want him now!

That man's staying right where
he is till I get a wire from Spearville.

Now, get out of here.

My boys are waiting
outside of town.

I hope for both our sakes
it can be a legal hanging.

Tried and freed.

Tried and freed!

Matthew?

Matthew, here's that
telegram from Spearville.

♪ And hoorah me
boys for freedom...

Listen to that
one-man potato famine.

What's it say?

Well, he's right, not guilty.
Claimed self-defense.

What?

You're gonna have to go out
there and meet that Tynan gang

on account of that no-good...

Well, let me tell you
something, Festus.

No matter what you think of this
man, the law says he's worth protecting.

Better go find Newly. Keep
an eye out for Tynan's gang.

- Marshal?
- Yeah?

Can I talk to you, Marshal?

What do you want?

You don't like me,
do you, Marshal?

I never said I disliked you.

Only because you
don't understand me.

And what you don't
understand is the drive in me.

Rebellion is the way
of all earths, Marshal.

It is as necessary
as the air and the sun.

Do you understand that, now?

O'Quillian, what I understand is
that when you dig a hole in this earth,

you owe it to the earth to fill it
back up with something better.

- That's called work.
- Work? Why should I work?

I've committed no crime.

I hate work. I hate work the same
way the good Lord hates Dodge City.

Marshal, they're coming in.

Oh, Marshal, you're not going
out there to face the lot of them?

- Why?
- To fill a hole.

- Matthew, I just seen...
- Yeah, I know.

Newly, take the general
store there, will you?

- Yes, sir.
- Festus, better get yourself a rifle.

Right.

Oh, good lad, good lad.

- Leary!
- And you brought us the guns too.

I did, I did.

Oh, Louie, you're a
terrible man, a terrible man.

- And I brought us something else.
- A moment of cheer too.

Shh.

Louie, what in the...

Leary.

It's all right, Louie. I've
done it a thousand times.

He'll be up and around in a few minutes
with nothing but a slight headache.

But he's my friend.

Well, don't you see
what I've done for him?

I've taken him out
of the line of battle,

and by so doing I
may have saved his life.

Look at him,
sleeping like a baby,

while you and me go forth
to meet the oppressors.

Hold it right there, Tynan.

The law speaks, boys.

We wired Spearville.

We found out that O'Quillian
was tried and found not guilty.

- He's a free man.
- Oh, the law speaks again, boys.

You mind the last time
the law spoke, boys?

That was down near San Antone,
Dillon, a little border town of Cruces.

There was a lot
of drinking, fighting.

Had 'em a sheriff. He
was about your size, Dillon.

Hard eyes, not much talk.

Now, he'd fight you till the devil
took Eskimos, everybody said so.

Well, we took that old hard eyes
and we stripped him down birthday raw,

put a grain sack over his head
and run him out on cactus mesa.

The law spoke that day, Dillon.

Whoo-ee! Did the law
speak that day, huh?

I'll make it easy
for you, Dillon.

All I want's that Irishman,
and he ain't worth tired cloth.

He gets protection in this town
same as anybody else, Tynan.

Now, turn your men
around and ride out of here.

I want him.

You want him bad
enough to die for him?

Any man lays a hand on a gun, you're
gonna be the first one to take a bullet.

Now, if that's the way you
want it, make your move.

So it's me you want. It's
me what comes afore you.

Right, Louie, me lad?

- Right.
- Get him out of here, Louie.

And ready to do battle with
any man born of woman,

and ready to face
death and danger

with the courage of
Cohoran's own tooth and fang

and the devil with tomorrow.

O'Quillian, get out of
here. Louie, take him away.

Gonna fill a hole, old Matt
and me is. Gonna fill a hole.

No man fights
O'Quillian's battles

unless O'Quillian
fights by his side.

Newly.

I... I never did get me my bath.

They're both dead, Marshal.

All right, pick 'em up
and ride out of here.

Leary, are you hurt?

Leary, speak to me. Leary?

Here, let's just...
Help me roll him over.

Doc.

Oh, holy St. Peter.

Where is the angels?
Where is the angels?

You were expecting
angels, were you, O'Quillian?

I'm dying. I'm dying.

Eventually, yes,
but not tonight.

You've got a flesh wound,
hardly more than a scratch.

Come up to the office
and I'll take care of it.

Louie, did you get these guns
in a barrel behind my shop?

I threw these away. Sears are
gone. The cylinders are rusted tight.

You couldn't fire
'em if you wanted to.

- Where's Festus?
- Marshal, I gotta talk to you.

- What about?
- Festus.

I'm afraid he was
hit on the head.

O'Quillian.

He... He's just napping,
Marshal, just napping.

And here I am wounded,
half me side blown away.

Oh, a terrible scar to indicate
the sacrifice and endurance

in the endless tedium of
enlightening my fellowman in...

in practically nothing at all...

is the truth of it.

- Here we are.
- Much obliged, Miss Kitty.

- Thanks, Kitty.
- Is it true what I've been hearing?

That O'Quillian went to
work down at the stable?

- It's true, Kitty.
- Even got Louie working with him.

- Louie?
- Yeah.

He hasn't had a drink in a week.

Well, must be true what they say,
wonders will never cease to happen.

That's a fact, Miss Kitty.

You know, Hank
says he ain't never had

so much time on
his hands in 30 years.

And that just proves what
I said clear as a crystal.

What did you ever say
that was clear as crystal?

Well, about that
O'Quillian fella.

I said that he
was sure different

and that he was bound
to make some changes.

For the worse,
that's what you said.

What are you doing?

I'm fixing to go
crawdad fishing.

Craw...? Well, it's too windy.

Well, that's all you know.

You don't have to have a great intellect
to know that the wind's blowing outside.

Well, it ain't
gonna be if I stop it.

- Stop it? The wind?
- Course.

All right, how you
gonna stop the wind?

Well, you see this little fella
right here? That's bad weather.

And this here girl there,
that's good weather.

Now, if I was to go to work and
shove that little fella back under there,

then there ain't gonna
be no more wind.

It ain't gonna clamber up
and rain or nothin' like that...

Stay tuned for scenes
from next week's Gunsmoke.