Episode Details

Originally Aired: November 8, 1959

Gunsmoke #396, "Cavalcade," presents Marshal Matt Dillon with an agonizing dilemma when Deputy Sheriff Ed Hunter arrives from Richmond, Virginia, carrying murder warrants for two fugitives. Hunter has tracked one suspect, Calvin Moore, for nineteen years following the shooting death of Roger Beauregard. When Hunter shows Dillon a photograph, the marshal recognizes the face as someone he knows well in Dodge City: Doc Adams. The evidence is unmistakable, despite the passage of time.

Doc explains his side of the story to Matt, revealing that young Jim Beauregard challenged him to a duel over a southern girl they both courted. With no witnesses to prove self-defense and facing certain conviction as a Yankee outsider in Virginia, Doc fled west and eventually settled in Dodge. Now Matt faces an impossible choice between his duty as a lawman and his loyalty to a friend. Doc makes his position clear: he won't go back to Virginia and face prison for defending himself. The marshal must decide whether honest law means betraying a good man, while Dodge City waits to see what their marshal will do.