Original subtitles

♪♪

Starring James Arness as Matt Dillon.

Most of the men buried up here

are in a coffin of some sort.

We even know who they are,

but out there on the prairie

a lot of men die or get killed,

and they're left for the birds to pick.

Either way, most of them die hating something,

hating a man because he's different

or hating him because he's got something you want.

You know, it's the hate a man carries that destroys him.

Hate can twist and sicken him

till he's no good to anybody,

including himself,

and that's a bad thing to watch in any man.

Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal.

You got him, Mr. Dillon! You got him!

What you think of that shot, Doc?

Yeah, pretty good for a young feller.

What do you think? Maybe we better be heading back to town.

Yeah, might as well.

My gosh, we've got enough game,

we could eat ourselves into a case of gout.

Well, there's worse ways of dying, you know.

Well, lookit here. This here's the fattest one that you got yet.

Oh, he's a dandy.

You know, that's what I like about this time of year.

You get some good vittles.

Yeah, you sure do.

I tell you, I coulda ate two pounds of that deer liver this morning

all by myself.

Chester, you did eat two pounds.

Well, yeah, that's what I said. I sure could do it.

Yes, sir, sure is going to make some good eatin'.

Whole lot better than salt pork.

That's about all your only two worries...

Is where you're going to get your next meal

and your next fee, Doc, huh?

Those are my only two pleasures.

Fellas, why don't you two ride that meat on into town.

I'm going to swing by the Traych ranch.

He's been losing a few head of cattle lately.

- Oh, Cyrus Traych? - Yeah.

Serves him right if he lost his whole ranch.

Why?

Well, I was out there two years ago

the night his wife died,

and he'd called me too late.

Then he talked me down to half a fee,

and he hasn't paid me yet.

Yeah, he's a mean one, all right. I'll see you later.

All right.

- Doc! - Yeah?

Come here.

- Easy. - My gracious.

Why, he's just a kid.

Matt, somebody's beaten him half to death.

By the looks of him, the way he's wearing his hair there,

I'd say he's a Kiowa boy.

Looky here, Matt.

Somebody's hit him right in the throat with a club,

probably paralyzed his vocal chords.

Hanging's too good for anybody'd do a thing like that.

What can you do for him, Doc?

I can't do anything here.

- Let's get him into town. - Yeah.

Chester, now, let's... Very, very easy.

- All right. - Easy, now.

Easy, easy.

Just a kid.

Morning, Matt.

Morning, Kitty.

Want a drink?

No, no thanks.

You look like you haven't had too much sleep.

What is it, the Indian boy?

You hear about it?

Chester stopped by. Is he going to live?

Doc's not sure yet.

Might be better off if he didn't.

He's pretty badly busted up.

Well, it's always better to live no matter what.

Have you been able to find anything more about it?

Not a thing so far.

Chester's out checking around town right now.

It's a rotten shame.

Must have taken some kind of a monster to do a thing like that.

That I don't know, Kitty.

Might even have been his own people.

His own people?

Except the Kiowas wouldn't do a thing like that.

The Apaches might,

but there ain't any Apaches this far east.

Yeah, but a child?

That's it.

The apaches might do that to one of their warriors,

but not a 12-year-old boy.

I don't know. It just doesn't make any sense.

Just must've been horrible.

Marshal, I've been looking all over Dodge for you.

- Yeah? - Yeah.

That's where I've been, all over Dodge.

Of course I can see now

why you ain't on the job.

- Excuse me. - It's all right, Kitty.

Suppose you stick to business, huh?

No offense, Marshal,

but I expected you out at my ranch this morning.

I lost six more head last night...

Yearlings and calves,

and they was killed and butchered right on my range

and their hides thrown in the gully.

Now, we might've tracked down who done it

if you'd been out there before the dew was off.

How about that other beef you lost?

Were those carcasses handled the same way?

That's right.

Could've been Indians, then.

Sure, it was Indians.

If it was cattle rustlers,

they couldn't sell the beef in Dodge,

not and get away with it for long.

It's not rustlers. It's Injuns.

I'm not so sure about that.

There's plenty of wild game around this time of year, you know.

Oh, Indians won't take any mind for game

when there's beef right around to be stole.

- Did you see any wagon tracks? - Wagon tracks?

If it was rustlers, they'd have to have some way

of getting rid of the carcasses, wouldn't they?

I told you, it's Indians.

There's a whole party of them

camped right down in the river bottom not six miles from my place.

One of my riders seen them last week.

What were they, Kiowas?

How do I know? They all look the same to me.

They're all a bunch of sneaking thieves.

Could've been where that Indian boy came from.

Boy? What boy?

We found an Indian kid this morning,

half beaten to death.

That's why I couldn't get out to your place.

You mean to tell me,

you've been wasting time on some Indian whelp

while I'm losing beef?

Oh, you figure that beef is more important than human beings, do you?

I thought you said it was an Indian.

Get out of here, Traych.

What about my cattle?

I'll take care of your cattle later.

Now, get out.

It's a fine thing

when the law wastes its time

on Indians and dancehall girls

when an honest rancher's getting robbed.

Takes all kinds.

Yeah.

You know, I don't really care if they steal him blind.

Kitty, I'll tell you something.

I'd give his ranch and all the cattle thrown in

to find out who hurt that Indian boy.

Golly, Mr. Dillon,

we sure ain't seen no sign of anything yet.

Nope.

I just can't understand the kind of a man that would do a thing like that.

I can't either, Chester.

I'll tell you what.

Why don't you ride up to the top of that ridge there and have a look around.

Maybe you can get some sign of his horse somewhere.

All right.

And I'll... I'll ride up the river bottom,

and I'll meet you up where we found the boy.

All right, sir.

Hello, Marshal.

We ain't met, but I figured who you was

from hearing folks talk about you so much.

You got time to jaw a spell?

Seems kind of good to talk English once and a while.

Say, is that camp down there on the bottom...

Is that a Kiowa camp?

Yeah. I'm part Kiowan myself.

I scout for the Seventh Cavalry most of the year,

and the rest of the time

I hole up with the Gray Feather clan,

old Chief Cloud Eagle.

Uh-huh. That camp missing a boy, by any chance,

fellow by the name of Kodo?

Why?

We found him this morning.

He's beaten pretty bad.

Can't talk. Fact he might not even live.

If he can't talk, how do you know his name's Kodo?

Because Jess Smiley, who runs the restaurant in town,

has been buying game from him.

He came down and identified him.

Kodo's our'n, all right.

He left here right before daylight this morning

with a dressed carcass of antelope to take in to Smiley.

Say he's in real bad shape, huh?

About as bad as he can get and still live.

You got any idea what might've happened to him?

No.

No, he's a good, quiet boy.

Never seems to get into any trouble.

He sure found some trouble this morning,

somewhere between here and Dodge.

I can't figure it, Marshal.

Kodo's been going in pretty near every morning,

never run into any trouble before.

What has he been going in there for, just to sell the game?

Yeah, we've been trying to sell all we could

to buy rifles and ammunition.

Right now we're having to hunt for game with bows and arrows.

Are you having a hard time getting game?

This whole river bottom is swarming with game.

Two months from now I don't know what will happen,

but right now we can get all the meat we want

by just throwing rocks.

Uh-huh. You're not trading for beef at all?

It's funny you should ask.

Couple of fellows came into camp night before last.

With a load of beef, young beef,

wanted for horses or furs or anything.

They seemed real anxious.

Did you trade with them?

No, I didn't know either one of them.

I figured they'd rustled the beef somewhere, though.

Well, the Traych Ranch, about five miles north of here,

has been losing beef.

They're more than likely the ones that's doing it, then.

Mm-hm.

They're probably still around here somewhere, too.

Tell me something. Now, when this boy went into town,

which way did he ride.

He usually heads north out of here

and picks up that Cimarron stage trail,

and he takes out on into...

Now, wait a minute.

That would take him right by that Traych Ranch, wouldn't it?

It sure would.

Marshal, I'm not going to tell Cloud Eagle about this

till after sundown.

Kodo's his son, his only son.

I see.

If Cloud Eagle goes out looking for him...

Well, Marshal, you'd just better find him first.

I'll find him.

Mr. Dillon!

I think I found his pony tracks, Mr. Dillon.

They're coming right from where we found the boy,

heading right up to the Cimarron.

Let's follow them. Come on.

Do you think we lost them, Mr. Dillon?

I don't know, Chester.

There's no reason for them to have left this trail.

It leads right on up the Cimarron there.

We ain't seen no sign of them, though,

for quite a while.

No. This ground's been pretty hard through here.

We ought to be pretty close to old Traych's ranch, hadn't we?

As far as I know, we're on it.

Come on, let's keep looking.

Wait a minute.

Here.

Right here. We haven't lost it.

By golly, them's the boy's pony tracks all right.

He got this far anyway.

Yeah, and he must've still been carrying that antelope with him

because he dug in pretty deep here.

Yeah.

Well, what do you think? You want to take a little breather?

Oh, them's mighty welcome words, Mr. Dillon.

They go right along with "payday" and "soup's on."

That's what I like, ambition.

Well, I got plenty ambition, Mr. Dillon.

I just don't let it get in the way of my appetite none.

Yeah, I've noticed that.

My ambition is to be rich and retired.

Hope you make it.

Well, I probably won't make it.

It's a good thing to think about, though.

Of course, it's been done,

not as often as it has been tried, but...

It's a wagon.

Yeah.

You reckon it's then fellas that that Indian scout was telling you about?

Let's ride down there and find out.

Hold it! Move the rifle down.

- What's the trouble, Mister? - Get down off that wagon.

What is this, a hold up?

I said get down, both of you.

Get their guns, Chester.

Mr., we ain't really got anything worth stealing.

You're just wasting your time.

I'm a United States marshal. Where you men headed?

We're just going through. That's all.

- Going through from where? - Well, from...

Now, we ain't done nothing, Marshal.

What have you got in that wagon?

Just supplies, that's all.

Chester, keep them cover.

You're making a big mistake, Marshal.

It ain't really the way it looks, Marshal.

We can explain the whole thing.

You're going to explain the half a dozen beef carcasses, can you?

We bought them off a ranch down south.

This one here has the Traych brand on it.

We got it from a tribe of Kiowas down the bottom aways.

They were real cheap.

I guess they were stolen all right.

The Kiowas are hunting with bow and arrow.

These calves were shot with a rifle.

You've been hanging around that Traych ranch

stealing cattle for two weeks, haven't you?

Now, where did you sell the meat?

To the quartermaster at the fort.

We told them we were commissioned men.

Mm-hm.

All right, you're under arrest for cattle theft.

Chester, we'll take them by the Traych Ranch

so he can identify these carcasses and sign a complaint.

Then I'm going to take you two into Dodge,

and I'm going to hang the real charge on you...

Beating that little Indian kid half to death.

What are you talking about?

We ain't seen no Indian boy.

Well, he's going to see you, Mister,

and he's going to remember,

and maybe you fixed it so he can't talk,

but he can sure point his finger.

Chester, get a rope.

- Chester. - H'yup.

You wait out here. I'll find Traych.

Traych?

In here in the barn.

Well, you finally made it out here, Marshal.

Yeah, Traych, we caught the men who have been stealing your beef.

- The devil you did. - Yep.

Chester's bringing them in right now.

You'll have to identify the carcasses and then sign a complaint.

Oh, it'll be a pleasure.

Well, guess I won't need this.

I was fixing to saddle up

and ride out and have a look around.

There's no point in taking those fellows in.

The best thing to do is to shoot them right here.

That's a nice looking antelope you've got here.

Yeah, I shot it this morning down at the river bottom.

I was figuring to cut it up a little later.

- You shot him? - Yeah.

With a bow and arrow?

What are you getting at, Marshal?

I'm saying this antelope was killed with a bow and arrow.

So... So what about it?

You're the one that hurt that Indian boy, aren't you?

- Boy? What boy? - That Indian boy.

Well... Now, Marshal, that was a normal mistake,

a mistake anybody could make.

I seen the kid riding down through the bottoms early this morning.

He had that carcass across his horse.

I figured it was one of my calves,

so I roped him off, his horse ran off,

and then, well, I...

Yeah, then you tied his hands behind his back,

and you beat him, didn't you?

I was fixing to teach them thieving Indians a lesson.

I didn't know till later it was only an antelope he had.

It was a normal mistake.

Traych, that's one of the rottenest things I've heard of.

Now, come on, Marshal.

There's been no harm done.

He's just an ordinary Indian brat,

a sneaking, thieving...

Traych, you're under arrest.

- What? - I said you're under arrest.

Now, let's go.

Don't try it.

Mr. Dillon?

Are you all right, Mr. Dillon?

Yeah, I'm all right, Chester.

Cy Traych, you... you shot him?

What for?

There's an Indian boy in town

can give you the answer to that, Chester...

if he's ever able to talk again.