Original subtitles

Gunsmoke, starring James Arness as Matt Dillon.

What in the Sam Hill are you trying to do, you knuckle-headed stump-stump? I

hope you turn that rig over and roll halfway to Dodge City, you good-for

-nothing speed merchant. Get up.

There's times when a hygen just don't realize his own powers.

I wouldn't make a sudden move, stranger.

Well, not if I was you, I wouldn't.

You're looking at about the slowest moving critter that ever lived.

He ain't one of them, Uncle Angus.

I told you to stay put and to stay shut.

But this here's a fellow we put in a run over back down the trail.

That's true.

I got a good look at him.

Well, it is true you're not one of them, I recollect.

But you could be a hired gun for him.

I could be, but I ain't.

How could he be hired by him when he was in front of us and he was behind us all

the way?

Now look, laddie, when I want any lip from you, I'll ask for it.

Still, what you say does make sense.

Of course it does. I ain't one of them fellas that shot them holes in the back

of your wagon. Whoever they are.

See, I come from Dodge City.

I'm a wagon builder.

I used to be. I mostly do repairs now for friends and folks that needs my

help. You don't say.

Oh, yeah.

Us Higgins knows more about building wagons than the Follard invented them.

And I suppose you charge like a wounded buffalo.

Oh, golly, Bill, no. Just whatever a body's willing to pay.

See, I depend on my Follard man.

I ain't never been cheated yet.

Especially but somebody that's in a heap of trouble needs me to help him out.

Well, now, me name's Angus McCabbott.

This is Jocko, a sort of unofficial nephew that sort of adopted me some few

months back.

I'm fastest hiking.

Well, why don't we have a look at that wagon wheel?

Yeah.

Oh, hello, Doc. Come on in.

Be with you in a minute there. I just got a little paperwork to finish here.

Well, if your paperwork's going off to Washington, you've missed the train. The

next one in is on tomorrow morning. You know that.

Yeah, I know.

That's all right.

Gotta get done sometime.

Well, do you suppose you could take time out for a cup of coffee? Oh, that sounds

good.

You seem to be taking this awful calm.

What's that?

Festus? New job and everything? New newspaper gonna open up here? Didn't you

hear about that?

Oh, yeah. He was in here first thing.

Wanted me to check up on this fella.

I think his name was McTabbit.

Wanted him to find out if he's wanted by the law.

Yeah, well, is he?

No, not as near as I could figure.

Pretty good, isn't it? He stops to help somebody out in the prairie, fix a wagon

wheel or something, winds up with a job. Yeah.

And a newspaper reporter at that.

Reporter?

Well, yeah. I thought you said you knew about it. Oh, I didn't know about that.

I thought he was going to sweep out her. What's he going to report?

He can't even read or write.

Well, I'll tell you one thing.

One word he can spell, and I got a hunch he's going to be spelling it.

That's trouble.

Must not be a bullet left in Hay City.

I got that there sign nailed up, Mr. McAngus. It's McCabot.

Angus is me first name.

Well, fiddle, it don't make no difference. You knowed who I was talking

about, didn't you?

That's not the point, Mr. Hagen.

Accuracy. It's the very lifeblood of a newspaper.

Well, when we was a-bloating up them bottles this morning, you told me it's

printer's ink was.

A different metaphor for a different occasion.

As a reporter, you just remember this. No matter what you say about anybody,

always remember to spell their name right.

I've been meaning to tell you about that because we just could have us some

trouble about that from time to time. Trouble?

Why should there be trouble?

You can always ask a man his name, can't you? Or ask someone who knows him.

Well, it ain't that, because I know everybody's name for miles around. Like

I was telling you, I know everything you used to know about Dodge City.

Upside down and backwards and crosswise and sideways.

Then what trouble could we have?

Well, it ain't going to make no difference that I don't know how to

read, because I'm going to know what's in the paper.

But this here spelling thing...

You saying you can't write?

Crowed man, and you do know how to write?

Well, I reckon you can.

Sure. It's easy.

Smart aleck.

Now, wait a minute.

I need a reporter that knows this town inside out to get the right kind of

stories that'll make folks sit up and bark for more.

Hmm. And to sell advertising, too.

Advertising? What's that?

Oh, I'll tell you about that presently.

So it doesn't matter that you can't write. Jock here will do it for you.

Well, I'll call you.

I ain't gonna have that little old scamp of following me around.

You don't have to. You can tell him your story right here in the office, and he

can either write them down or set them up in print. Yeah, but how would I know

that he's gonna write down what I tell him to?

Because if he doesn't, he knows exactly what'll happen to him.

I'd get whaled, I reckon.

Within an inch of your life, laddie. Within an inch of your life.

Well, just as long as he ain't underfoot all the time.

He ain't.

Isn't.

Well, then I reckon you better start to tell me what advertising means, Mr.

McAngus. It's McTabbit.

Angus is his first name.

There we are, Ms. Breaker. Put it right there.

All right.

And we put this... I think you better hold it. That's it. Now, hold it tight.

All right. One more package now, and slip it right under there, I think. Are

you all set? All right. All set.

Thank you, Jonas.

Oh, look out!

That's the window. Oh. Here's the door, right over here. Oh, good. Sorry I

couldn't help you out with the package. My back's been plaguing me all week.

There we go. All right, Jonas.

Goodbye.

Look out!

Bill, it's hard to tell whether that's a human being or a pack mule, ain't it?

You know, that's a very fine lady, Fester. She's real quality, that woman.

Always pays cash.

$2.37 she'd have spent. Some weeks it'll go even higher.

Jonas, by a remarkable act of fate, you might call it, that's just what I've

came here to talk to you about.

You mean about Miss Preaker?

No, about money.

Oh, well, now, Festus, I'm just sorry as all get out, but business hasn't been

too good, so I couldn't see my way through. Hold your taters now.

That ain't what you think. Now, I came here to help you.

No, well, I can't afford help. I barely make ends meet.

Well, then, I'm just a follower you'd order to talk to. Now, Festus, there is

not enough work here to keep two of us busy. Jonas, I ain't asking for no job.

I done got me a job.

You have?

Well, of course I have.

I am the Dodge City Clarion.

The voice of truth.

You don't mean to tell me.

Well, I do mean to.

You ever heard of advertising?

Yeah, I've heard of it. I reckon more or less, you might say.

All right, here's something you ain't heard.

There's more millionaires that's got themselves rich over advertising than

you can shake a stick at. Well, Festus.

I ain't got nothing against being rich.

All right, you just perk up yours, because I'm fixing to explain to you how

she works.

I see when the father's got some good things to work with.

I ought to whop the daylights out of you.

What for?

For being late again.

I... Oh.

Oh, I thought that you was the young'un. No, I'm afraid not. My name's Matt

Dillon. I'm United States Marshal here in Dodge.

You Angus McTabbott, by any chance?

I am.

And what can I do for you, Marshal?

I'd like to ask you a couple of questions.

About what?

Well, about, uh, what was the last town you were in and why did you leave?

Why, uh, I was in Hayes City, Marshal.

And you might say I left there, well, to better meself. A man's got to get ahead,

Marshal. Uh-huh.

You know, I, uh, I dug those three bullets out of the tailgate of your

wagon.

I was just wondering if that might have had any bearing on your decision to

leave Hayes.

Marshal, you might have noticed that I call my newspaper The Voice of Truth.

And that's just what it is.

I print the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

But sometimes it seems to rub folks the wrong way.

Well-meaning folks.

They just can't take it.

Meaning?

They run me out of town.

Well, I'm sorry to hear that.

Marshal, I'm an honest man. To me, a fact is a fact, and I call it just that.

And if some people can't stand it, well, there's nothing I can do about it.

What's this you got here? Is this the new edition?

Yeah, it's the front page. Now, how do you like it?

Well, I don't like that.

I'll tell you, somebody's gonna like it a whole lot less. This is Merle Benlon.

Merle Benlon. Now, let me... Is that right? Richard, I was telling you about

got his start of rustling cattle over in East Texas.

Oh, yes, that one.

You can't print that.

Why not? Festus here says it's true.

Well, of course it is, Matthew. Everybody knows that.

Well, they think they know it, but it happened a long time ago. It's been

forgotten. Now, it's water under the bridge.

But if it's the truth, it doesn't matter whether it's the truth or not. People

aren't going to like it, and you two are liable to get yourselves shot.

does come to the ball pretty fast once in a while. Marshal, it is the duty of

the press to print the truth.

And it's the duty of the law to protect honest citizens going about their lawful

business. Now, let me ask you something, Mr. McTabbit.

Did the law protect you in Hayes City?

There wasn't any law.

At least none worth mentioning.

And I'll bet you didn't hesitate to print that in your paper, probably on

the front page.

A fact, sir, is a fact.

Well, maybe old Merle won't even read this paper.

You want to bet?

Well, Matthew, if you think this little old item's gonna stir up a ruckus, wait

till you see some of the things I've dug up. I've got me some pearl-button bag of

billies right here.

Uh-huh.

Well, sorry to hear that, Festus.

You know, I'd kind of gotten used to you. I'm gonna miss you around here.

Oh, I ain't figuring on leaving town or... You still intend to go on printing

these articles, then, I take it, Mr. McTavitt?

Marshall, if I have a fault, it's being too honest.

Truth is truth. All right. All right. Truth is truth.

Welcome to Dodge, Mr. McTavitt.

Thank you, sir.

Good luck to you.

All right. Let's have a look at the rest of those articles. We've got a newspaper

to bring out.

The rest is hanging in here.

Oh, there you are.

Howdy, Mr.

Ben Lyon.

You want to get shot here, come out in the street for it.

What would I be getting shot for?

For this, you white-livered groundhog.

What give you the idea you could call me a cattle rustler and get away with it?

Is that what it says in the paper there, is it?

You know that's what it says.

Well, how could I know that when I can't read?

You don't have to read.

It says here you're the reporter for the local news.

You're the one that put it in the paper.

Well, how could I do that when I can't write?

You keep talking, you'll claim you can't breathe.

And when I get through with you, it'll be the truth.

Now, wait a minute, Mr. Bedlam. Now, you just ain't got no idea the trouble that

we've had to getting that paper started in this town.

You're running into one of them right now.

Oh, but, Mr. Bedlam, well, we've even got a nine-year-old boy that's wrote

some of them items. Ben is setting up the type for us.

Are you saying a nine-year-old boy wrote this story?

That's what I'm saying.

How would a nine-year-old boy know about me rustling them cattle back in East

Texas before he was even born?

I've been wondering about that myself. Fact is, I'm fixing to ask him that.

Now look here, Haggin.

I don't know nothing about no nine-year-old boy, but I know what I

want from you right here, right now.

I want a public apology.

Now start talking.

Hold it.

Merle, you know better than to go around town stirring up trouble.

It's him that's stirring up the trouble.

Him and that, that, that, that, that outer towner he's working for.

And it ain't just me. They made a lot of folks around this town mad on hornets.

Merle, I, uh, I know all about it.

But you know, you're running around waving a gun at people. That's not gonna

solve anything.

Now why don't you go on over and have a beer and cool off?

Some other time, Marshal.

Nine-year-old boy.

Haggon, you've not heard the last of this.

You wait.

Well, Festus?

Big blowhard, puffin' and a puffin'. He don't scare me none.

Now, let me tell you something.

As near as I can figure from reading this morning's paper, there are going to

be about six or eight other people who feel just that way.

Matthew, there ain't nothing in that paper that ain't the truth.

Well, that's fine. But, you know, there's other ways of handling the truth

besides spreading it all over the front pages of the newspaper.

Well, good morning, gentlemen.

Yes, Kitty.

Kitty, what are you doing with all that sugar? Are you going to bake a cake for

the whole community?

Well, I'll use it up eventually.

But at the price, I just couldn't resist it.

Price? What do you mean? Well, didn't you read the notice in the paper about

the general store?

Jonas has got a special price on sugar today.

Half price.

Half price?

Well, it costs him more than that. What's the matter? Is he crazy or

something? No, I don't know.

All I know is I saved 80 cents on the deal.

I'm gonna put this away. I'll be back in a minute.

Notice in the paper, huh?

Festus, you wouldn't by any chance have any idea why Jonas is selling sugar at

half price, would you? Of course I'd do. It's on account of advertising.

Advertising? Mr.

McCain explained me, and then I explained Jonas. Would you mind to

explain me?

Oh, be glad to, Matthew.

You see, it's easy once you get the hang of it.

Now, what a father does, he goes to work and he puts an advertising in the paper

saying that he's fixing to sell sugar for a high price today.

And that brings folks from all over that ain't never been in his store before.

Well, that's true.

Clab Chummers has his store at one end of town and Jonah's has his at the

other. They don't usually change customers too much. Yeah, but you see,

that's where the advertising comes in. Because all them folks that's been

trading at old Clab's store.

They read this here notice in the paper, and they just come a-hightailing it over

to old Jonas' store to buy that cheap sugar, see?

Well, I'll tell you, Festus, that sounds fine, except for one thing.

What? You wind up with one more man wanting to take a shot at you.

Don't you understand? For every customer that Jonas gets, Clab Chummers loses

one. And if you think that Merle here's got a temper, well, he's a baby compared

to Clab Chummers when he gets mad.

Seems to me you only got one problem.

Which one of them is going to put a hole in you first?

I just wanted to take it. But you tell me later. I got folks going out that

door empty-handed.

Here.

Take this. Give me a hand.

Well, Phil, I don't know the prices nor nothing. All right, ask somebody or make

a guess. Well, I didn't... in the paper business.

Is there something I can help you with, ma'am?

No, there is not.

Jonas, it appears your old customers don't matter no more.

Oh, I'm real sorry, Miss Preaker. What can I do for you? Well, nothing that you

couldn't have done 30 minutes ago if you were to mind to.

Well, I'm real sorry, but you see how it is. Now, what do we have on our shopping

list? I ain't got no list.

A body can't shop decent like with the place swarming with strangers.

I know one thing you're going to want. I got a new shipment of dried apricots.

That's dropping years.

I don't want no apricot. All I want is sugar.

Sugar.

How much did you want, Miss Preaker?

Twenty pounds.

Twenty pounds?

Yes, and I want someone to help me tote it to the buggy.

Yes, ma'am.

I'll sack it for you.

Excuse me.

Oh, what is them consorn things, anyhow?

They are sponges.

Bath sponges.

Well, here, you just put them in this poke and take them home. But I don't

want to buy a shopping bag. It's for free. Sold them things, whatever they

are, and you just enjoy them and come back again real soon, will you? Real

soon. Thank you, Chris.

Clive.

How are you, Clive?

Well, if I ever saw a bunch of sneaking, low-down, cheating turncoats,

I'm looking at them now.

The ones that sold me out for a mess of pottage and come down here to trade.

After all the years I've been treating you fair and square.

Clam Chummer, get out of my store.

I got a much right to be here as the next man. Who knows, I may want to buy a

pound of sugar.

I'm all out.

It wouldn't surprise me. I'd sure like to know who put you up to this, Jonas.

You're not smart enough to think of it yourself.

And if I ever get my hands on him, I'll... That's enough.

It isn't pleasant to stand here and see those that you call friends collecting

their 30 pieces of silver.

Get! Get!

All right.

If that's the way you want it, I'm going to cut the price of sugar 10 cents a

pound. That's not it.

And I'm taking 4 cents a pound off of the price of flour.

Get out!

And that goes for Jonah's customers.

as well as my horse.

Have you ever heard that? I

mean, like in the paper where you put.

Donuts, what do you think?

Can't make no spice along with sugar because everybody's done stocked up on

that. Best to stay on them peanuts.

How many customers would you say come in this store today?

Oh, maybe 300.

Maybe even more than that. It's hard to say.

Every one of them went out with something, too. I just worked my fool

legs off trying to keep up with this business.

I know you did. You must have made the worst tub full of money.

I lost $18.43, and that doesn't count them peanuts you set there in it.

Well,

there was a heap of folks come in here, and they bought a heap of stuff. I just

was carrying it out there in arm loads. Yes, there was.

And most of it was sugar.

I haven't got a pound of sugar in this store, and I don't get another shipment

for three weeks.

You and your advertising.

That cheap sugar, that'll bring them in, and then they'll just buy all kinds of

other goods.

That lot you know about customers.

And don't you ask me what I'm going to put in that paper next week. I ain't

going to put nothing in it. Not next week, not any week, ever.

Jonas, I know how you feel, but the way things stand now, you're just going to

have to do some advertising next week.

Why? Because Clive's a fixin' too.

Well, when you see some of the specials he's got, it'll just curl your hair.

Fine. Let him go broke if he wants to. Yeah, but then you ain't gonna have no

customers at all.

I'll lock that door. I'll go fishing.

Wait a minute, Jonas. Now, let's not lose our heads. We gotta figure

something out here.

Got me an idea.

I don't wanna hear it.

Supposing you was to go to work and mark everything in the store down 10 cents.

Are you trying to bankrupt me?

Wait a minute now, I ain't done yet.

Before you do that, you go to work and you mark everything in the store up 15

cents. This is even more harebrained.

I'll be right back.

Well, I wonder who Festus' new enemies are today.

I'd like to know that myself.

He might print one of those personal stories about me.

Say, I'll bet they'd be kind of spicy.

I'd like to read some of them.

Oh, you would, would you?

Well, what about you?

What about me?

Well, Festus could probably tell him a few things about you.

Well, Festus couldn't.

He couldn't.

Maybe I ought to get one of those papers.

Good morning, sir.

Morning.

These for sale?

Yes, sir, they most certainly are.

That'll be three cents, please.

Well, that's a penny higher than the other paper.

And worth it.

Thank you. I take it you're a businessman?

Well, you ought to know. I got an advertisement here in your paper. Clap

Chummer's General Store.

Of course. Mr.

Chummer. You dealt with our Mr. Hagen.

You mean Festus? That scalawag has given me more trouble in the last week than

I've had in a month of Sundays.

Him and you together.

You come again now. All right, who's next?

Why, Miss Freaker, how nice to see you. Don't you soft-soak me.

I've learned the truth.

Well, that's nice.

I'm glad to hear it.

Shut up, you mealy-mouthed old weasel. Please, nothing.

I know all about you. Miss Freaker, I saved something for you. Five pounds of

fresh honey. It's here in the back room.

Are you out of your mind?

You're not going to get me in that back room.

You'd probably knock me in the head to keep me from telling what I've just

heard. S.E. Benlin told me what you're up to. Shh, not so loud. Now we can work

this out. Oh, you're not going to shush me, Jonas.

Listen. Listen, everybody.

Did you hear what this old goat just done?

He marked everything up before he marked it down.

And the special prices today are higher than the old ones. Please, now don't

listen to her.

You know how Miss Preaker is when she gets up. Well.

Well, I do, because I bought some of them. They was five cents a pound, and

now they're ten.

You was trying to pull a cheat on us, and you know it.

Well, if the rest of you want to stay around here and shop and be cheated,

that's your business, but I'm not going there.

When you get right down to it, it wasn't as much Jonas' fault as it is that

newspaper's in town. Just like Merle Benson said, everything was just fine

until that newspaper started throwing rocks in the pond.

Marshall, you ought to...

Yes, ma'am. I'm going to think about that.

Well, Jonas?

You heard it. It's true.

I lost money on that fool's scheme last week. I was just trying to get even.

Well, that didn't sound like you.

Oh, I don't know what I was thinking about, Marshal, but when Festus

described it, it appeared like it made sense.

Festus, huh? So he's behind this, too.

Well, it's no more his fault than it is mine.

Marshal, it's that gall-dang newspaper that's to blame.

How do you figure that?

Oh, bringing them newfangled ideas like advertising and so-and-so. Look, that

may work back east, but that's not our way of life.

Jonas, where's all your customers at?

You know, I just may never have no more customers thanks to your half-baked

schemes.

Something go wrong, did it? It sure as shooting did.

Best as what's it gonna take before you come to your senses?

Golly, Bill, Matthew, I was just trying to help old Jonas. I wasn't figuring

to...

What's the matter, Jonas?

If you got nerve enough to lie about a man, you ought to have nerve enough to

back it up.

I have took just all I can today. I'm going out there and... Jonas!

I know you were a liar, but I didn't think you were a coward, too.

Now, clad this mat down and hold your fire. I'm coming out.

Jonas, you just put the gun down. You're not going anywhere.

you was in there, Marshal. Well, now stop acting like an idiot and give me

that gun.

But he's got it coming to him.

I'm not going to ask you again.

Now let's go on inside. I want to get to the bottom of this.

So do I.

You know you're just lucky you're alive, Clab Chummers. If the marshal hadn't

stopped me, I'd come out and blowed your head off. If you'd have stuck your head

out that door, I'd have shot you so full of holes you could read this newspaper

through you. All right, now just hold on a minute, the both of you. Now, Clab,

what got you so riled up? I'll tell you what it's all about. I'll read you what

it's all about.

Listen to this.

The way we get it, if Clab Chummers wants to learn just what breed of mangy

polecat canine he is descended from, he ought to ask Jonas Fitch.

We've been informed that Jonas made some real strong remarks on the subject. That

was last week when you come in here and got me all mad. And that ain't what I

said anyway.

But didn't know it was going to be in the newspaper.

Festus is the only one who heard me say it.

Hey, wait a minute. Where is Festus anyway?

Oh, he's standing over here behind the door.

Well,

he was right there.

He just snuck out.

And do you know why he did it? He knew what was coming. He's the one that put

this story in the paper. Mr. Chama?

I reckon you better get back over to the store. That crowd is giving me a rough

time. I can't handle them.

What's the matter?

Well, it appears like somebody found out that you marked things up higher before

you marked them down.

Clab! You two!

I guess we better get over there.

Marshall ain't nobody honest no more.

Me, fastest.

Mr. McKay?

Borg? Troublemaker, that's what he is.

Sure ain't no sign of life. Nope.

Maybe he went to get some seltzer grub. No.

We can come back. We got plenty of time.

Meanwhile, we'll round up Slim and Tex and the rest of the boys. Boys in the

mirror.

Boys are true.

Mr. McDaniels, it's me, Ferris doesn't know.

Did you hear them fellas talking out yonder? I did.

Well, you and me ain't a bit proper in this town. So I've been hearing.

Well, what are you figuring on doing about it? Truth is never popular here or

anywhere else, Mr. Hagen.

Honesty has its price. People just don't want to face up to it. But I intend to

do something about it. What are you fixing to do?

We're getting out of town. I didn't ask you.

Is that what you're fixing to do?

Yeah. Well, what about me?

I'll pay you three days extra in lieu of notice.

What good's three days' extra pay gonna do me when there's a half a dozen

fallers around town a-fixin' to shoot me?

Maybe you should leave town, too.

Well, I can't leave town.

I live here.

Leastwise, I did.

Ah, these are times for soul-searching, Mr. Hagen.

You know, this might be a pretty excellent opportunity for me to sneak my

wagon over from the livery barn.

You start breakin' down the press.

Now, wait a minute. You're still in my employ, Mr. Hagen. So hop to it.

Hop to it!

When my uncle sets his mind, there ain't nobody that can argue with him.

I don't even try.

I'll tell you this. He tries to pack up and leave now, he ain't even gonna get

to the edge of town.

just won't stay in no place where folks got larceny in their hearts. Well, I

don't know about that, but let me tell you something about some of these folks

in Dodge.

They're the greediest, cheatingest, double-dealingest bunch of yahoos that I

have ever saw. And if I... You're a real good cusser, Mr. Hagen. Never mind that.

Now, you put them things back up in there and start to setting up this

tight, because we're going to get us a paper out. We're going to put us out a

one-page special.

Write down whatever I'm telling you to write. You hear me?

Let's cost me a dollar and get your own, mister.

Well, I suppose you're going to join the gold rush, huh?

Why should I? If they find any, they're going to bring it right back here.

That's a fact.

Say, if there's gold out there, let's go find it.

normal people into maniacs, gold.

I suppose there really is a strike?

There's no doubt about it. It says so in the clarion, the voice of truth.

That's exactly what I mean.

I wouldn't miss it for anything myself.

Bastards! Get in here!

What in the name of topper are you up

to? We sure got him steered up, didn't we, Mr. McAngus?

What do you mean, we?

What I mean is the paper did.

Look, I left you here to break down the press, and instead you...

Well, at least why does it give us time to get the wagon packed up? Them folks

ain't worrying about us. They all got gold on their brains, see?

Why didn't you tell me about this strike instead of spreading it all around town?

What strike?

Are you saying... Do you mean to tell...

Did you?

You sure had the right idea, Mr. Haggin. They're buying them like hotcakes. I

reckon this will be the last punch, though. There ain't hardly nobody left

in town.

Here's the money for the last punch. Get out there and start selling wrestling.

How

much

is he charging for them? A dollar a piece.

We done made $320 and we ain't even done. yet shoot we're gonna make more

money and all them yay who's out yonder looking for gold it ain't honest

well i don't reckon it is honest but it's a heap better than getting your

tailgate shot full of bullet holes now come on i'll help you pack your wife

come on

it ain't honest

Looks like you're using real beef instead of burrow meat.

If that gives us a good, I'm fixin' I have a second helpin'. Mario?

Mario?

Oh, dear son of, that's good, he's goin' out.

Folks ain't got sense enough to pound sand for a rattle.

Well, howdy, Matthew.

Hello, Festus.

Hey, if you ain't had supper yet, there's some pretty good stew here. You

got to spoon it up yourself. Ain't nobody here but me.

Well, you know, I guess I'll just have a cup of coffee.

And I'm surprised to see you here, Festus.

Where else would I be?

I'm out there with the rest of them at Pueblo Flats.

I ain't lost nothing out yonder.

I think most of them figured they'd find something out there, don't they?

Well, I heard what it said in the paper, but I just figured it was kind of a wild

herring. A wild herring?

Well, just because it's in the paper ain't no sign it's true.

You mean to tell me that you think that Angus McTabbitt is a liar?

Well, no.

No, he's honest, all right, but it just could have been that something got

printed in the paper that he didn't know about, you know, kind of by accident,

like. Mm-hmm.

I'd sure like for you to tell me how that could be an accident.

Matthew, you had no right to ask me things like that.

They're such a thing as professional loyalty, you know.

Yes, sir. Pestis, you know, I sure do admire your sense of professional

loyalty. But I tell you, I don't think you have to worry about that anymore.

I'll just buy the clarion office over there and look to me like old Angus had

just spacked up his equipment and left town.

You don't say so.

Without even so much as a howdy-do or a goodbye.

Yeah.

Hard to figure a fella like that, ain't it? Well, at least now you don't have to

worry about the professional loyalty.

Well, Matthew, it just could be that Mr.

McAngus is figuring on opening up a paper in another town, saying he's

fixing to write me to where to come to work for him. So till I hear from him,

well, I'll just keep on like I'm still working for him.

Festus, I'll tell you something.

You've got an awful strong sense of honor there.

Yep. I try to have.

You know...

I think there might be something to this idea you had about this story being

printed without Angus knowing about it.

What makes you think that?

Well, a man like he is, stranger to Dodge and all, he'd have no way of

knowing all those stories about Pueblo Flats and all the gold that's supposed

to be down there.

Well, I ain't sure I know just what you're talking about, Matthew.

Well, now, the surest way to get about half a dodge out in a wild goose chase

would be to print an article in the newspaper about a gold strike down in

Pueblo Flats.

But you see, it'd have to be a local man, somebody that knew all about that

place.

Anybody in mind in particular, Matthew?

Oh, not exactly.

I'll tell you one thing, though.

I'm sure glad you weren't mixed up in it.

Oh, that crowd's gonna be mean when they get back here.

You know, they're gonna want to tire and feather somebody, and I don't say that I

blame them.

You reckon they will be?

You know, there's one good thing came out of it, though.

Gives Angus a chance to kind of slip out of town quiet-like without all this ill

favor coming to a head.

Well, that's the whole idea, Matthew.

I mean, when that article got printed, kind of accident-like, you might say.

I sure hope they never find out who printed it.

Say, you know, Thad's been after me for the last week or two to go hunting with

him. And I kind of promised him I'd go.

That so?

Fact is, he asked me about it just the other day.

So I think I'll go look him up.

Well. Wait a minute.

Aren't you even going to finish your supper?

Oh, no. I've done that all I want. I told old Thad I'd meet him.

You know how it is.

A promise is a promise.

Yes, sir, Festus.

A promise is a promise.