A vengeful father, a traitorous deputy, a protective daughter and a waterless desert threaten Cheyenne’s mission to bring a prisoner to justice.
Episode Notes[]
- The plot, situations, dialog and some footage in this episode were lifted from the movie Along the Great Divide starring Kirk Douglas and Virginia Mayo.
Real World References[]
- Notice any? Add them here.
Continuity Nitpicks and Errors[]
- In the scene when he is about to shoot his lame horse, Gregory Walcott (Lou Gray) was wearing a modern metal wristwatch on his left hand. A crewmember off-camera noticed it because a voice softly but distinctly says, "That wristwatch."
Plot[]
Pop Keith dictates his will to Merrick while Cheyenne waits for dinner.
A group of mounted men throw a noose over a tree limb. They intend to hang Pop Keith, an old, crusty homesteader they believe guilty of killing one of the sons of rancher Ed Roden. Before the hanging can commence, a trio consisting of Marshal Len Merrick, Cheyenne Bodie and Deputy Lou Gray ride into their midst. Merrick demands Roden hand Pop over to face a fair trial in Santa Loma. Thirsty for revenge, Roden draws on them. His partners refuse to cross a federal marshal and Roden has to give up his prisoner.
On the way to Santa Loma, Cheyenne leaves the group to investigate the scene of young Roden's murder. Roden the elder is already there to take his son's body. He angrily refuses Cheyenne's help and rides away. Bodie finds a pocket watch at the scene and tries to get Roden's attention, but the man ignores him.
Marshal Merrick succumbs to a gunshot wound.
That night, Cheyenne rides up to the Keith farm to find Merrick and Lou in a firefight with a mysterious figure in the barn. He sneaks in the back and wrestles a rifle away from Mary, Pop's daughter. She is dead set on helping her dad escape the lawmen, even using the ruse of cutting herself to escape which Cheyenne foils. She begs him to let Pop escape but the tall cowboy won't budge.
When one of Roden's neighbors warns them that Roden is headed their way with a lynch mob, Merrick makes a dangerous decision to cut through the desert to escape them. Roden's gang gives chase. The two groups face off and three things happen: their water supply is shot up, Cheyenne takes Dan Roden hostage, and Merrick is wounded. The lawman's last act is to deputize Bodie and ask him to get Pop to Santa Loma alive. Cheyenne swears he'll complete the task and Merrick dies.
Ed Roden, Sr. inspects the tell-tale watch as Dan Roden squirms.
That night after they bury Merrick, Mary tries another escape attempt. While comforting Cheyenne as he grieves, she steals his gun. He outwits her with a handful of sand to her face and the party moves on. The next days bring more bad luck: Lou's horse goes lame, windstorms whip at them, and Cheyenne is forced to stay awake while the others sleep. When their last chance for water turns out to be polluted, Lou demands the group take an alternate route. Cheyenne refuses and Lou draws, but Bodie shoots his gun away. Now he has four prisoners and no allies. Pop makes it clear that as soon as Cheyenne falls asleep they'll kill him.
The group continues on through another day and night as Bodie struggles to stay awake. Suddenly, Cheyenne's horse trips up. Horse and rider fall down a dune and Bodie lands in the sand, unconscious. Pop grabs his gun. When Lou tries to kill Bodie, Pop shoots him instead. After Bodie wakes, Pop hands his gun back saying he isn't a killer. Bodie is thankful, but he's still set on getting them all to Santa Loma, even without horses.
Cheyenne fires on Dan Roden when the murderer tries to escape the posse.
The group finally makes it to a settlement and a water source, but Roden and his men ride up on them. Dan sees his chance while the others are having a drink and runs off to join his father. During the next firefight Mary is wounded. That's the last straw for Pop who gives himself up to save her. Roden tells his men to string up the old man. As he tears off Bodie's marshal badge, the watch from the murder scene falls out of his pocket. Roden tells Dan to take his watch, and Cheyenne says he found it near the dead son's body. With this revelation, Roden realizes that his son Dan is the real killer.
Dan takes Mary hostage and backs into a barn with Cheyenne on his heels. Dan manages to avoid Bodie, get onto a horse and ride off. Roden the elder guns him down. Both of his sons now dead, he sadly surrenders to Cheyenne. Roden's posse, Cheyenne and the Keiths get back on the trail to Santa Loma and justice.
Quotes[]
"Your manners need improving, ma'am. When you want something, say 'please.'"
- - Cheyenne gives Mary Keith a manners lesson when she tries to steal his revolver.
"What do I gain by killing Roden's boy? You can see what I got to lose. This old neck and this place ain't much, but I like 'em both."
- - Pop Keith
"You sure got a lot of faith in the law."
"Someday everybody'll have faith in the law if we can keep good men behind these badges."
- - Cheyenne and Merrick discuss career opportunities.
"I've drifted all over the West, met a lot of men, but nobody like him. I only knew him maybe six months. It was like knowing him all my life. I never met a better man."
- - Cheyenne's eulogy to Marshal Merrick
"No one will argue with me. I'll be boss of the Roden ranch now my brother's out of the way."
"You ain't much on mourning, are you?"
- - Dan Roden tries unconvincingly to get Mary and Pop Keith to think they're on the same side.
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