Suspense. And the producer of radio's outstanding theater of thrills, the master of mystery
and adventure, William N. Robeson.
For years and years and years, the western story has been as stylized as a Punch and
Judy show. There were the good guys and the bad guys, the blonde school marm and the brunette
dance hall girl. And there was old Texas Slim who loved old paint more than he did either
of these females. They were one dimensional characters with no more depth than the page
in which they were printed or the film in which they were photographed. Then something
happened to the western. Something which had existed in the old west all the time. People.
Real people. Each with good in him and bad. People with human frailty and human strength.
One such a person is our western story of suspense told. Listen. Listen then as Jackie
Kelk stars in Sundown, which begins in exactly one minute.
Memo on medals. Information about our military awards and decorations. The awarding of American
medals had its beginning during the Revolutionary War. Certain military and naval commanders
were presented gold medals to commemorate their victories. The first medal in our nation's
history was given to General George Washington after he had forced the British to evacuate
Boston. That medal is now in the Boston Public Library where it was placed on exhibit in
1876. 100 years after the historic event it commemorates. Technically early medals were
not decorations in the strictest sense. They honored both the victorious event and the
officer in charge. Also they were not designed to be worn as later medals were. Therefore
they were presented in a suitable case for safekeeping. What we now know as the Purple
Heart Medal was originally a badge of cloth material specified in Washington's establishing
order to be a figure of a heart in purple cloth or silk edged with narrow lace or binding.
American decorations and medals are worn to the left of all American decorations. They
are never worn alone but must appear with at least one American medal. Few tributes
are as meaningful and as cherished as the awards and decorations of our armed forces.
And now. Sundown starring Jackie Kelk. A tale well calculated to keep you in suspense.
It's sundown. That's why the town looks like a ghost town. There are folks around all right
hiding behind door cracks and windows. Here's what they're hiding. There's Kirby Hunsiker
coming out of the saloon at one end of town. And there's Ben Ford coming from the livery
stable at Tother. Walking toward each other slow. Right hands hanging an inch from their
gun holsters. In a minute one of them will be dead. Kirby Hunsiker or Ben Ford. Little
Ben. Nothing but a baby when I picked him up off the desert 14 years ago. Hold up a minute
Sam. What is it? Over by that dried out water hole. It looks like a mane. It's some hand
right enough. Come a long way for water and come to the wrong place. Give me a hand with
it. Is he alive? Just about. Got it to my way. My kid. Yeah yeah where are they? Right
there. The wagon. Need more water. He's gone. Yeah. We'd better find his wife and kid. There's
anything left to find. There was something left. A sun baked wagon. A dead woman. And
a five year old boy. His face was burned and his lips cracked with fever. He didn't cry.
He didn't even whimper. And he didn't talk. We gave him water and he took it. Then he
sat there staring away into the desert as we buried his mother. Hey what do we do about
him? Take him with us I reckon. Nobody but us on the ranch. Nobody to take care of him.
Ain't nobody here either. We'll do what we can. He'll grow or he'll die. He grew a big
raw bone kid. By the time he was 12 he could handle a man's work. And I had a feeling for
him. A feeling like he was my own. He did some strange things that nobody else could
understand. Like riding off in the desert and coming back with his face blazing and
his lips split. He couldn't have said why. But he was fighting back at the desert because
it had robbed him. It was like a cactus was growing in him. I couldn't get to the root
to pull it out. Until one night at supper. Dan? Yeah Ben? Do I have any money? Well I
reckon you do boy. You work for your keep. How much do I have Dan? Well this is your
home. Everything that's here is yours. I want my own horse. I see. Fair enough. Take your
pick. The black coat with the star on his face. I want him. Alright boy. You've got
yourself a horse. Yes he got himself a horse. But it was more than that to him. It meant
he had something that was his come flood or thunder. Something in the world that belonged
to him and nobody else. It gave him a reason for being alive. It pulled the roots out of
that cactus inside of him. And he didn't ride out into the desert anymore. Ben had had the
horse for almost a year when Kirby Hunsaker came. He rode in one afternoon while Ben was
in town with a buckboard picking up supplies. Howdy. Howdy. Your horse looks like he could
use a rest stranger. Need shoeing and he'll be alright. I'll trade him and cash for a
fresh horse. Nobody's going to ride a horse of mine like that. I said I'd trade him. That
means I'm going to trade him. The name's Kirby Hunsaker. Kirby Hunsaker. A name that was
drifting all over the west with a trail of blood behind it. He had a face like a woman
and eyes like a steel trap. And there was no glove in his right hand. A gunfighter. If
you're thinking it over you're wasting my time. Better do it Dan. Alright Hunsaker.
I'll take the black with the star on his face. Put a rope on him. Not that one. He ain't
mine. I ain't asking who he is. Well any other horse. Anyone you want. Even trade. Get that
black and keep your hand away from that gun. Dan, do what he says. You can give young Ben
the Palomino. Ben came back and I told him. He hadn't cried when I found him in the desert.
He didn't cry now. But there was something in his eyes. It was hate. Hate like a pure
white flame. I don't want the Palomino. He's the best horse on the place. Not to me. He
isn't mine. Sam. I tried to save him for you Ben. I know. You can have your pick of anything
in the corral. I don't ever want another horse. Well when you see something you do want you
just holler it's yours. That's a promise. Anything Dan? Anything. Alright then. I'll
take your gun. My gun? You promised Dan. I promised. Here. It's yours. Goodnight Dan.
Goodnight Ben. Why in all my days I never heard of such a lame brain thing as giving
a kid like- He'd have gotten one someplace sooner or later. If I know him right it best
be sooner. Hunsiker? Yeah. Hunsiker. Good thing he's only thirteen. When he's grown
we can hope for him to get better since. You're wasting your hope Sam. I'm hoping that Kirby
Hunsiker gets killed before Ben's grown. In a moment we continue with the second act of
suspense. Another visit with Joe and Daphne Forsythe. Okay Daphne the slides are all set.
Turn off the lights. There. Oh Joe isn't that pretty. Where was that? That was Vale Pass
on the Grand Divide. Remember how hard the wind blew? I certainly do and it was cold
too. Next time we go on a vacation let's get an earlier start. Well we save money by waiting
until fall. Remember this one? Oh sure that Zion National Park. Oh it was lovely. We sure
had a lot of fun on that trip. It was worth the money. It was a good investment alright.
Almost as good as savings bonds. There you go again. Well I just can't get over how good
a bargain they are. We women like bargains you know. Oh I know I know that and four dollars
back for every three invested is a pretty good bargain. Right. Oh was that where I fed
the bear? Yeah that's Yosemite. We were lucky the bears weren't already in hibernation.
How do they live when they hibernate? On fat they store up during the warm months. Just
like savings bonds. Huh? Well you buy a savings bond a month right? Yeah. And it's a great
way to save the way those bonds rack up interest right? Right. So we're just like the bears.
We're storing up fat for our future use at interest rates that give us four dollars at
maturity for every three invested. A very interesting idea. You can learn a lot from
nature. Yeah just imagine smoky the bears selling savings bonds. Oh Joe show the slides.
And now starring Jackie Kelk act two of sundown. A boy and a gun. They were together night
and day. He slept with it next to his cheek and you could see the red mark of the barrel
on the side of his face when he'd get up in the morning. And when he wasn't working we'd
often come across him in Samaroya in the foothills. Look Sam he's at it again. He ain't shooting
at cans no more. What's that he's using for a target? It's a figure of a man marked off
on the rock. Looks like a piece of paper where the head ought to be. Your eyes are going
back Sam it's a picture. One of the express company reward posters for Kirby Hunsucker.
It went on like that for six years until the bullets were hitting close and fast. Then
I'd catch him in the barn practicing the draw. He'd start to wear his gun belt low on the
hip and his right hand hung by side sun scarred like a claw. The rest of him had changed too.
He wasn't a boy no more. He was a man. We heard more and more about Kirby Hunsucker.
His name got to be one of the three mentioned most when the talk in the saloons turned to
gunslingers. Jim Dunn, Boaz Watson and Kirby Hunsucker. All bound to meet someday to find
out who'd be a flick faster on the draw. Then had to be there the night a stray cow puncher
stopped to rest his horse. Coffee stranger? Thanks. Reckon I will. Your horse sure needed
water. You must have come a long way. From Goldfield. Riding lucky though. I come through
Flagstaff just in time to see the fight. What fight? You mean you ain't hurt? I must have
been riding fast. Never seen a gun fight like it. Who was in it? Two of the best. Big Jim
Dunn, Kirby Hunsucker. Who won? Hunsucker. Dunn never cleared his holster. Hunsucker
beat Jim Dunn? Yeah. Wish I could have stayed in Flagstaff. Boaz Watson some place around
too. As soon as he gets wind of it he'll be on Hunsucker's trail for a showdown. If Dunn
never cleared his holster then the man ain't born that can out draw Hunsucker. Boaz Watson
thinks he can. He's been itching for the chance. It's a chance he ain't gonna get. Ben, where
you going? I gotta go Dan. Flagstaff? You know it. And don't try to stop me. Trying to stop
him would have been like trying to stop an avalanche. But he couldn't stop me from following.
I was an hour behind him when I reached Flagstaff on the third morning. Ben wasn't hard to find.
He left a trail of questions behind him. I caught up with him in the last saloon on the
street. Still asking. Well Bartender? Yeah, I reckon he comes in sometimes. When? Usually
about an hour from now. Noon? Good. I'll wait. You going to buy me a drink Ben? If that's
what you came for Dan. It's been a rough trailin' ya boy. Men and horses ain't meant to be pushed
that hard. I was in a hurry. Well maybe we can take it easier going back. Maybe if we
left right now we could camp out someplace tonight. Like we used to. Ask me later Dan.
This is something I gotta do first. Sam and I saw Big Jim Dunn in a gunfight once. He
was like lightning Ben. But Hunziker killed him. Don't worry Dan. I'm good with this gun.
I hope you're good enough. That's something we'll know soon. At least I got here before Boaz Watson.
In a moment we continue with the third act of... Suspense. What do you know about the Navy's
specially meritorious medal? Have you seen many of them lately? Probably not as the medal is no
longer issued. Congress authorized this medal early in 1901 for officers and men of the Navy
and Marine Corps who rendered specially meritorious service other than in battle during the Spanish
American War of 1898. Among the 93 recipients of the medal were the crew of the Collier Merrimack
for its efforts to bottle up the Spanish fleet in Santiago Harbor and men of the American
flatboat crews who saved the lives of many Spanish sailors who had jumped from burning ships.
Recognition of gallantry and action by a grateful nation inspires new generations of Americans to
hold fast to those principles which have made our country great. For it is the extra effort
and heroism which a free nation citizens exhibit that reveals their pride in our heritage and their
unflinching determination to maintain our cherished way of life. And now starring Jackie Kelk act 3 of
Sundown. Ben wouldn't drink and he wouldn't leave so we waited. Then I heard the door swing. We'd had
a couple of times only this time it was different. Talk around the tables cut out. The bartender's
hands tightened around the glass he'd been wiping. Every head in the place turned toward the door.
It was Kirby Hunsucker. He and Ben never seen each other before. Somehow they knew each other. Their
eyes caught in hell. I hear somebody's looking for me in case anybody don't know me. The name's
Kirby Hunsucker. I'm looking for you. Speak your piece. A long time ago when I couldn't do anything
about it you stole a horse from me. You calling me a horse thief? That's what I'm calling you. You
got nerve kid. Name your price I might pay it. You'll pay it. I set the price a long time ago.
Your life. You got a gun. Dig for it. You move first Hunsucker. I'm giving you an edge. Better take
it kid. No. No I want to give you a little time Hunsucker. If I draw first then you got to move
without thinking. But I want you to think. I want you to think and worry and decide. While you're
talking I might get tired of waiting. You won't draw fast enough Hunsucker. So I'm gonna give you
a chance. I'm going down to the livery stable to take a nap. At sundown I'm coming back up the
street. I don't want anybody on it. You better run Hunsucker or shoot me in the back while I'm
going out that door. Because if you don't I'm gonna kill you. It's sundown now and here I am in the
window of the hotel. There he is in the street. Him and Kirby Hunsucker walking toward each other.
And the town is so quiet you can hear their steps in the dirt. A hundred yards. Seventy five. Fifty.
The fingers of their right hands clawed like hooks almost touching their gun butts. Doesn't even seem
like the Sun is moving anymore. Like even the shadows are glued there to the ground waiting for
one of those hands to move. Because when it comes it'll come fast. Better dig Hunsucker.
I'm gonna collect for that horse. You'll collect kid. Ben you all right boy? I'm all right. Let's
walk. Well it's all over now boy. We'll saddle up and go home. It's the blacksmith. I guess our
horses are ready. The stress rider came in just after you left the stable. He said Boaz Watson is
riding in. He ran into him on the trail. You gonna stay and meet him? Me? Well I got no quarrel with
Boaz Watson. Looks like you will have. He was mighty keen on meeting up with Hunsucker. Looks
like you've taken over Kirby's place. Dan what'll I... That's what I was afraid of Ben. You killed
Hunsucker. Now every fool, every drunk, every gunslinger looking for a reputation will try to
get hit by trying to kill you. I can't go back with you now can I? I can't ever go back. From now on
I've got a fight or run. What are you going to do Ben? Head for the border I guess. Go as far as I
can till I can't go any further. I'll come with you. I've been holed up in one place too long anyhow.
No Dan. I gotta go alone. This is where we split right now. Thanks for everything.
I'll never forget you. Goodbye Dan. Goodbye Ben. Goodbye boy. Goodbye son.
Suspense. In which Mr. Jackie Kelk starred in William M. Robeson's production of Sundown by
Joel Murcott. Supporting Mr. Kelk in Sundown were Louis Van Rooten, Charles Seal, Vic Perrin,
William Quinn, and Jack Crotion. Listen. Listen again next week when we return with another
tale well calculated to keep you in suspense. This is the United States Armed Forces Radio
and Television Service.