The Guitar

Originally Aired: March 2, 1958 In Gunsmoke #308, "The Guitar," a strange drifter named Weed Pendle rides into Dodge City on a mule, carrying nothing but a guitar he never plays. The scrawny, simple-minded man quickly catches the attention of Tyler and Short, two mean-spirited Confederate veterans who discover Pendle fought with the Third Illinois Cavalry in Missouri during the war. When they attempt to lynch him for being a Union soldier, Marshal Matt Dillon arrives just in time to stop the hanging, warning the pair to leave Pendle alone. Doc Adams and Chester had tried to intervene earlier, risking their own lives to protect the helpless stranger. Matt arranges for Pendle to work at the Long Branch saloon, sweeping floors and living in a back shack. Though everyone tries to get him to play his guitar, Pendle refuses, leaving them to wonder if he even knows how. When Tyler and Short cruelly cut off one of his mule's ears as revenge, Matt pistol-whips both men and throws them in jail. The tension builds as the vindictive pair returns to the saloon with Pendle, this time insisting he finally play his guitar for the crowd.