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Hey, Toby, my cup's empty.

Seems to me like you ought to be springing to your feet

and fetching me another, huh?

Can't spring a lick till the sun's up for a full hour.

Got about 40 minutes to go yet.

Why don't you spring for yourself?

Oh, that wouldn't be seemly.

You're the station manager.

Station manager's supposed to wait on folks.

I wait on the horses.

Heck of a way to run a stage line.

Heck of a stage line.

I won't argue that.

Reno stage missed its connections,

and I had to stay here all night.

Straw to sleep on.

Bugs to bite me.

And you snoring.

And to top it all off, I had to get up first this morning

and make the coffee.

Well, the right kind of a customer

would've went out and fed the stock.

Seems to me I heard a horse.

Got a whole corral full.

No, this one was kind of far off out there somewhere.

Reckon I left that corral gate open again?

Mmm, it would be just like you.

Uh... Do you mind springing up

and going out and taking a look?

I don't mind as I do,

but I'm going to have to get my strength up first.

How long that take?

Ooh, 'bout an hour.

Maybe two.

Horses will all be gone by then.

I expect so.

You know,

this is the third bunch I've lost in the past two weeks.

What in tarnation?

- They ain't gonna get away from me. - Toby!

Oh!

Toby, that was a foolish thing to do.

Y-You was gonna let them get away.

They wouldn't have got very far.

Stay right here; don't try to talk.

You could've helped me.

I never took you to be yellow.

No use going up against drawn guns.

Besides, I knew one of them.

The short fellow was Bill Enders.

Now, how far could he get with me knowing who he was?

Toby?

Who is it?

It's Toby Barker.

I'm not calling you a liar.

I just want you to be sure you know what you're saying.

I know what I'm saying.

It's pretty hard to believe.

If somebody came in here an hour ago

and asked me what I thought of Bill Enders,

I'd have told them that he was a fine young fella

with a real nice wife, well-thought-of around town,

pretty good businessman.

Well, Adam, you are in business with him, ain't you?

We own shares in the same mining claim,

along with two other people.

Proves right there that you thought he was all right.

About the only thing a man could say against Bill Enders

is that he likes Faro more than he should,

but, shucks, you could say the same thing about me

if you were a mind to.

But, Adam...

he is better with a gun than most.

I know how good he is.

I got a lot of respect for your judgment, Adam.

The whole town has; you're a Cartwright,

but gimently, if you're wrong about this thing,

it's gonna cause an awful lot of trouble.

Folks are gonna say that...

Bill had a right to go gunning for you,

for ruining his name.

What do you want me to do?

Back away from it?

Forget I saw him kill Toby?

No, I just want you to be cold, dead sure

that it was Enders you saw do the killing

before you stir up a lot of trouble.

Well, I'm cold, dead sure.

Would you be willing to go with me right now

and say that to his face?

Let's go.

Roy, what's going on?

Come on down to the jail, Bill.

What for? What have I done?

I want to talk to you about the killing of Toby Barker.

I don't know anything about that.

I've got a man says he recognized you.

Recognized me? What do you mean?

He says you done the killing.

Now, come on.

Wait a minute, you can't be serious?

I'm serious.

Are you coming willing or not?

Who says I killed Toby?

I say so.

Adam?

You're wrong, Adam.

No, Bill, I'm not wrong.

I recognized you the minute I saw you.

Toby died a few minutes after you shot him.

Come on.

Adam, to accuse a man of murder

without positive evidence

is a terrible injustice.

But to accuse a friend...

I have positive evidence.

I saw a man killed.

I know the man who killed him.

Is it an injustice not to want Toby's murderer to go free?

Well, you, uh, know the man who killed him.

How do you know him?

How do I know anybody?

I've seen him before.

It was Bill Enders, and nobody else.

Now, he had a hood over his head,

isn't that what you told us?

Yes.

Well, was he wearing any special clothes?

No.

Did you see any scar or a tattoo on his hand?

Was he wearing a fancy gun?

Anything brand him?

No.

Well, if there were no distinguishing marks,

and he was wearing a hood over his head,

how can you be so sure it was Bill Enders?

'Cause I'd know Bill Enders if he were wearing a sack

clear down to his ankles.

Adam, that's no proof, no evidence.

Not to back the kind of charge you're making.

Look, if I put a sack on his head,

and I put a sack on his head,

it wouldn't make a difference

what kind of clothes they're wearing,

you'd know who they are; Hoss, Little Joe.

Because that's who they are and nobody else.

There has to be more.

What do you mean by more?

Motive for the robbery.

Is Bill Enders in any financial difficulty?

Enough to rob?

Now, you're his business partner,

you should know.

I don't know.

You don't know.

You say he killed Toby.

In all the time you've been with Bill,

have you ever seen him lose his temper to the point of violence?

Of killing?

No, I don't think so.

But yet you accuse him of robbery and murder.

You know he's guilty.

What do you want from me?

A denial?

You want me to forget what I know?

I want you to recognize the doubts

that will be in other people's minds.

Well, I'm not really concerned with their doubts.

They weren't there.

I was.

I know that Enders killed Toby,

and I'll live with that as long as I breathe.

Pa, I don't know why you got to be so rough on him.

Looks like you can just take his word for it.

Adam's only doing what he thinks is right.

I've got to be rough on him.

He's heading for a real storm of trouble ahead.

If I can rattle him, if I can shake him,

well then, maybe Adam isn't so sure about his accusations.

But if he can hold his conviction firmly against me,

that's a strong conviction,

probably a right one.

And he can hold it against anyone.

Come on, come on, will you hurry?

I ain't got all day to hang around here with you, Adam.

I got a week's chores I got to get done today.

Yeah, it seems to me, when you find a job that you're good for,

that you want to do your best with it.

Work hard, work up.

How you supposed to work up when you're holding down a job?

Well, you could eat more, get fatter, put on more weight.

First thing you know, somebody wants you to bear down on a pole

that's prying up the edge of a barn.

Don't you get smart with me, young man.

I'm liable to lose my temper and... decapitate you.

- Howdy, Hoss. - Hi, Roy.

Adam, it turns out that you were wrong

about Bill Enders killing Toby Barker.

I wasn't wrong.

I'm afraid you were.

Now, it happened about 20 minutes

after sunrise in Goat Springs.

Isn't that what you said?

That's right.

Well, I've got witnesses that saw Enders in Virginia City

less than two hours after sunrise,

so I had to let him out of jail.

Well, Enders couldn't have been in Virginia City

an hour and a half after killing Toby.

That's right.

A man couldn't travel that far in that length of time,

so that proves that he was not in Goat Springs.

It's quite the other way around.

It proves he wasn't in Virginia City.

But, Adam, I've got witnesses.

Witnesses can be wrong.

Well, the witnesses I'm talking about

are Mrs. Kramer and her daughter.

Now, you don't find two finer

and more responsible ladies anywhere.

In this case it just works out that you were mistaken.

I am not mistaken.

Adam, why couldn't you be wrong?

You're only human.

You use human eyes, human brains, human judgment.

Why can't you admit that you may be made a human mistake?

You saw a man Enders' size,

something made you think it was Enders,

you thought it was Enders,

but you, you can't be sure it was Enders.

Oh, come on, Pop, of course I know I'm human.

I make mistakes but not this time.

I saw Enders kill Toby.

That's the truth, and nothing you're going to say

is going to change it.

But the witnesses, boy.

Well, couldn't they be honestly mistaken?

Both of them?

Well, if the witnesses aren't lying and they're not mistaken,

there's only one answer left.

Enders killed Toby in Goat Springs,

then rode to Virginia City

in time to be there when the witnesses saw him.

Adam, it's 25 miles from Goat Springs to Virginia City.

That road is uphill and as crooked as a dog's hind leg.

There ain't no horse or no rider

in these parts that could make that ride in an hour and a half.

You've got to be wrong.

I saw Enders in Goat Springs.

Mrs. Kramer and her daughter saw him in Virginia City

an hour and a half later.

He's got to have made that ride.

Adam, you are plumb wrong

about seeing Bill Enders in Goat Springs.

What are we going to do with him, Ben?

Wait a minute, wait a minute.

Look, Adam, you know Jim Beckett

the, uh, the Pony Express rider?

I know him well.

Would you say that he's the fastest rider

and has the best string of horses in the territory?

Yeah.

All right, we'll get Jim Beckett to make that ride...

Test ride... tomorrow.

Whether it takes one hour or three hours,

at least we'll know nobody could have done it faster.

Well, if he makes it in time, proves I'm right.

I'll go along with that.

You come into town tomorrow to see how he does.

Meantime, you'd better have a good apology ready

to hand to Bill Enders.

It ain't 25 miles to Goat Springs, it ain't 28 miles.

If it's a foot more than 20 miles,

I'll crawl it on my hands and knees.

It's closer to 30 than it is to 20... that's what I say.

Eh, you ought to measured it 'fore you started betting.

How you gonna know if you'll win or not?

Anyway, it doesn't matter so much how far it is.

It's how much up and down it is.

Them hills would kill a kangaroo.

All I got to say is, if that pony rider don't show up here,

he's going to prove young Cartwright's

as wrong as a five-legged horse.

Adam... they told us you were here.

I insisted we come and talk to you.

After all, we've been friends for a long time.

Well, I'm sorry it has to be this way, Mary.

You're not as sorry as I am, Adam.

Weren't for the wife here,

I'd have been gunning for you before this.

Men.

How stupid they are sometimes.

I don't mean you, Adam.

I mean my husband.

He seems to think a gun is the answer to everything.

She, uh, showed me the light.

Said that no decent man would make an exception for a friend

when a thing like a murder was concerned.

You're as decent as they come, Adam.

You thought you saw me gun down Toby.

You have to stick with that until you're proven wrong.

I shouldn't blame you for it or cuss you.

I should admire you.

I do, Adam.

It must be miserable for you to call a friend a murderer.

That's right, Bill, it's miserable.

All right, now, let's, let's just leave it as it is.

Still a few minutes to go.

It's going to be all right.

Don't you worry now.

Well, we'll all be laughing about this

before the day is out.

♪♪

Well... it's been more than two full hours.

I know, I've been watching the clock.

Change your mind about Enders yet?

No.

Well, how do you explain the difference in time?

I don't.

Here he comes!

Come on!

Here comes the pony rider.

It's the pony rider, Pa.

Looks like he's ridden that horse half to death.

Old Jim gave it a good try.

Jim did the best he could, and it still took him

two hours and five minutes

to ride from Goat Springs to Virginia City.

Now, that should clear Bill Enders.

It seems to.

Only seems to?

Bill Enders killed Toby Barker, Pa,

and nothing's going to change it.

Adam.

Why me?

I keep asking myself that.

Why me?

Of all the men in the territory...

A lot of them don't know any better way

of making a living except stealing...

Why'd you have to think of me when you saw that thief?

I, uh, I always thought we were friends...

Maybe not close friends

but better than just "hello" and "how are you?"

We even got a little business deal doing.

I just don't understand why you thought of me

at a time like that.

I never tried to hurt you or cheat you

or steal from you, did I?

Why, you never heard of me do anybody wrong, did you?

No, you didn't, you couldn't.

Tell you what I'd like to do.

Now that Jim Beckett's proved I couldn't have done it,

I'd like to forget the whole thing,

take it like it never happened, go on from where we left off.

Are you willing?

Bill, I saw you and another man rob

the station at Goat Springs.

I saw you fire the shot that killed Toby.

Now, I'm not going to change my mind about it.

I'm not going to forget it.

I'm going to keep on saying it and trying to prove it

until you stand trial...

or till they bury me.

Adam, what's wrong with you?

Why are you doing this to me?

You got to have a reason.

No man tries to lie another man onto the gallows

without a reason.

Well, what is it?

Tell me.

You want me to hang.

You want me dead and out of the way.

Why?

Is there something about that mining claim

I don't know about...

A pocket of gold maybe, a new vein of silver?

You know better.

Do I?

What about my wife?

She's a beautiful woman.

None prettier in a thousand miles.

You've been kind of friendly with her,

now I think about it, real friendly.

Is she the reason you want me out of the way?

So that you and her can get together?

Give me your gun, Arch.

No, Bill, you asked for that one, you had it coming.

Sammy, give me yours!

No, Sammy, don't give it to him.

Give me that!

Adam, you'd better get out of here

before you get yourself killed.

♪♪

Adam.

How far does a man have to go

to fulfill a moral obligation?

Does he ever reach a point where he can say,

"Well, I've done everything

"reasonable men can expect me to do.

"This is the end of it.

I'm through"?

Does he ever reach that point?

I shouldn't think so unless it...

actually was the end of it.

Well, let's look at this thing a little closer.

Except for your brothers, you stand alone in this business.

Don't you?

What about my father?

Did you really have to ask that question?

Nah, I guess not.

Well, in any case, everyone you know...

The sheriff, businessmen in town,

the housewives, the children...

All feel the same way.

They think you're dead wrong about Enders.

I know.

And yet they are the very ones for whom you're fulfilling

this obligation, aren't they?

I expect so.

I don't think they would find fault with you

if you decided to stop.

Right now.

As far as they're concerned,

you, uh, you're out to destroy a man

most of them like.

I think they would rather you quit.

True enough.

Well... what are you going to do?

Well, I'm going to think it over.

Maybe...

I'll turn out to be a bigger coward

than either one of us thinks.

Adam. I'm so glad.

I was afraid you hadn't received my note

or you wouldn't come if you had.

Well, I got here as quickly as I could.

Please.

Come.

Sit here.

There is so much to say.

I don't know where to start.

Well, why don't you try the beginning.

Of course.

Good, sensible Adam.

You always know what's best.

Adam, I want to ask you a favor,

a personal favor for an old friend.

You the old friend?

Adam, almost everyone in town seems to agree

that Bill is not the man who killed Toby Barker.

In fact, you seem to be about the only one

who won't accept that fact.

So?

Bill has been trying very hard

to make something of himself,

in a business sense, I mean.

I've tried to help him.

I think he has a pretty good chance.

But you're Adam Cartwright.

Anything you say, anything,

even if you're honestly mistaken,

is bound to influence people to some degree.

If you go on saying that Bill killed Toby Barker,

it... it might just be the end of all his chances.

What would you have me do, Mary?

Stop saying it.

Even though I'm sure?

Yes, Adam.

Say to yourself, "I was honestly mistaken,

but mistaken after all."

Won't you do that for me?

You're asking a lot, Mary.

I'm afraid not.

Oh, Adam.

Adam, Adam, Adam.

You've always liked me, haven't you, Adam?

I know you have.

And I've felt the same way about you,

whether you knew it or not.

Oh, Adam.

We could be much closer, Adam.

If we were careful about it.

It won't work, Mary.

All you've done is to tell me that Bill is guilty.

I'm sorry.

- Is this it? - Yeah.

Seems to me a man could leave the road here,

come out on that flat down below, cut over by that hogback

and go north and east.

I think it'd cut off at least five or six miles.

Yeah, you reckon a man could run a horse through there, though?

Yeah, let's take a look.

Come on...

Hey, Adam, come here.

There's fresh tracks

and a couple horses by here recently.

Yeah, well, it could've been anybody.

Let's take a look and see if we can't find out

- where they came from. - Right.

Hey, Adam, come here.

A carcass.

Horse looks to be like he was rode to death.

See how he's sweated?

Could've been.

It's beginning to look better all the time.

You're sure you ain't overlooking nothing?

Not on your life.

The brand on that horse won't be hard to trace, either.

Yah! Yah!

Hah!

You all right, Adam?

Just tore my shirt and a little hide, that's all.

He's up in those rocks somewhere.

Yeah.

Hey.

I think I seen something.

All right, let's smoke him out.

Who is it?

Stewart.

What do know about that?

He's the other one.

I never figured it to be him.

Yeah, well,

I reckon we might as well get him on back into town.

The sheriff might not have figured it either.

Yeah.

All right, Adam. All right.

I saw him. I know it was Arch Stewart.

What are you going to say, I'm wrong again?

That Arch Stewart didn't have anything to do

with robbing and killing Toby?

Of course I'm not.

The brand on the dead horse says it belonged to Stewart,

and he certainly wouldn't try to bushwhack you

unless he had a good reason.

But I'm gonna say that...

I think you're doggone lucky.

Lucky to have stumbled onto what you did,

and lucky to have lived through it.

And I'm also going to say

if people would leave the sheriff's work to the sheriff,

I think we'd all be a lot better off.

Is that all that's bothering you?

No, it ain't.

You know why your Pa's here?

I asked him here, that's why.

Something has come to my attention

that's just about ruined my faith in human nature.

In fact, I didn't know which way to turn.

That's why I asked him in... For his advice.

Well, what is it?

It's Mary Enders.

She come in here and told me

what you had been up to with her,

and I swear, I was never so shocked in my whole life.

You, of all people.

And what did Mary Enders say?

Well, sir, she was sitting right in that chair there,

where you are, with the tears trickling down her cheeks,

all broke up, a-wishing she were dead.

A decent, happily married young thing like that.

Adam, how in the world could you do such a thing?

Now, wait a minute, Roy.

Look, I told you before, this is absolutely ridiculous.

I don't believe a word of that story.

Maybe you're right, Ben,

but people are still going to say that the reason

Adam was claiming that Bill Enders shot Toby

was to get Bill out the way so's he could get married.

Now, just hold on there, will you?

Now, I'll go along with you

in your criticism of Adam's stubbornness...

I criticize that myself...

But this is not... it's absolute nonsense.

Now, are you saying that Mary Enders was lying to me?

- Yeah. - She was lying!

She knew Bill was away that morning,

she knew that he and Arch Stewart robbed that station,

and she knows that Bill shot Toby.

Well, of all the buttheaded, stubborn numbers

I've ever come in contact with in my life, you are the worst.

Now, Bill Enders did not kill Toby.

And I've got two witnesses who have already proved

that he was in Virginia City

at the time the crime was being committed in Goat Springs.

And furthermore, I've got the man who did kill Toby

in a cell behind them doors.

Well, it it's not Bill Enders, you got the wrong man.

There he is... Sammy Yates.

Did Sammy admit he was guilty?

Of course not... Do you expect a man

to admit to something that's gonna hang him?

Well, what about the gold coin?

We found $1,500 of the Goat Springs money

hid in a mattress on his bed.

And what did he say when you found it?

Just exactly what you'd expect him to say.

He he didn't know nothing about it.

Well, he was telling you the truth.

Sammy didn't rob the station, and he didn't kill Toby.

Enders did and planted the money to make Sammy look guilty.

Oh, the devil he did.

Look, Sammy fits your description, don't he?

He's the right size.

Yeah, he's the right size.

He was Stewart's errand-boy.

Don't it makes sense that he'd help him out in a holdup?

Then what makes you so dad-blasted sure it wasn't him?

Because it was Enders.

Oh.

Ben, this is your son.

Can you talk some sense into his head?

Well, I think it would be a waste of time, Roy.

Pretty hard to change his mind

once he has that look on his face,

particularly when he may be right.

Gentlemen, I've had just about all of you Cartwrights

that I can take for one day.

Now, it's my job to save your life, if I can,

but I'm not gonna argue with you anymore.

I'm gonna lay down the law to you.

Now, from now on, you stay out of this case,

and you stay away from Mary Enders,

and you keep your mouth shut about Bill Enders.

Now, that's an order, you hear me?

I hear you.

Now, get him out of here.

And if I was you,

I'd take him clean out of the country,

because he ain't apt to live a long time

if he lingers around here.

Where's Hoss?

He took the body over to the funeral parlor.

I told him I'd meet him later over at the saloon.

Yeah, well, let's go get him.

I could do with a little something after that session.

You could do with a little something?

Adam, Pa, you fellas look tired.

Sit down and have a beer.

That's what we're doing.

All right, Adam.

I know why you've been trying to lie me onto those gallows.

I know about you and Mary.

She told me what you've been doing.

Now step out here and let's see what I can do to you.

Not today, Bill.

Draw.

No.

You dirty yellow back!

Nope.

You sneaking, thieving, lying coward!

No.

Stand up like a man, or I'll gun you down where you are.

I'm not gonna draw against you, Bill.

I'm gonna count to three, Adam,

then I'm gonna draw.

I'm not fooling, yellow back. I'll count to three!

You just count to one, Enders, and I'll cut you square in half.

There'll be no gunfight today.

Ben, you get your boy out of town.

- Come on. - Come on.

Well?

Well, I've got nothing to say.

What about you?

Ah, wouldn't have been a fair fight anyhow, Adam.

He's faster on the draw.

Ain't no use in getting yourself shot.

You still think I should have given him a try, though, huh?

I don't know.

Folks are gonna say you were scared.

Folks'll be right.

I didn't want him to get away with three killings.

What do you mean, three?

Well, he killed Toby Barker. That's one.

If he killed me, that'd be two.

And with me gone, they'd hang Sammy Yates,

and that makes three.

Now you tell me... is the family pride worth three lives?

I don't know...

I'll give Enders a shot at me if it'll make you feel any better.

But right now, I'm gonna prove that he killed Toby.

How are you going to do that?

I'm gonna start out by making the ride

from Goat Springs to Virginia City

in an hour and a half.

Hyah!

I have exactly 8:00.

So do I.

He's on his way.

He's on his way... to kill himself,

trying to make a lie look like the truth.

Hmm. I'll be in the hotel lobby if you need me

before the hour and a half's gone by.

All right, Ben.

I was getting worried you wouldn't get here in time.

I'm here.

You know the area above Birch Creek?

I looked it over on the way in.

You can see a pretty good piece of the road from there.

Think you can stop Cartwright from that point?

That's what you're paying me for.

On your way, then.

I heard that, Bill.

I won't allow you to do it.

Not another murder. I won't let you!

What's the matter, Mary? Conscience... or fright?

Either one, it's too late now.

I've been bothered with both... My conscience and my fright...

Ever since Adam Cartwright accused you of killing Toby.

I'm not going to argue with you, Mary.

What's done is done, what's got to be done can't be stopped.

I didn't know about the other one until after it was over.

This I know about!

All right, Mary, what do you want to do?

Tell the sheriff about me?

You want to see your husband hang?

Then what?

Live with that for the rest of your life?

You see?

What would you do without me for the rest of your life?

♪♪

Adam, you're running ten minutes behind.

I'll kick him harder.

♪♪

♪♪

Easy.

I don't miss much at this range.

Drop it.

He's gonna make it!

Adam's gonna make it!

Here he comes.

He's going to make it.

Sure surprised me.

Sheriff?

Sheriff, I lied to you.

Adam Cartwright had nothing to do with me.

And my husband, Bill Enders, killed Toby Barker.

Bill! Bill, hold on there!

Stand clear, boys.

Hey, you hold on!

Bill.

Bill!

Oh!

What happened?

I didn't make it.

You didn't make it? We were right behind you.

Mary Enders confessed

to Sheriff Coffee before I got here.

Mary confessed?

Bill's gonna stand trial for Toby's murder.

Well, thanks to Adam.

Thanks to what we call his stubbornness.

For a man to hold on to his convictions takes courage.

It was a good ride, son.

All the way.

Now, come on, let's get home and get those chores done.

This has been a color presentation

of the NBC Television Network.