Matt has the unhappy task of tracking down Gilcher, a long-ago friend of his, who fell on hard times and turned to horse theft and attempted murder. Matt surprises Gilcher at his mountain camp, and the two men sadly reminisce over old times. Suddenly, Gilcher sees a man up on the next hill holding a rifle. Gilcher warns Matt that the man (whom Matt can't see because his back is to the hill) is about to throw down on them both. Matt thinks Gilcher is bluffing. Gilcher makes a lunge for his discarded rifle -- and Matt -- thinking Gilcher is about to shoot him -- fires. An instant later, a rifle slug whizzing past Matt's ear confirms Gilcher's story. Matt promises to the dying Gilcher that he will give up law enforcement, which he does. He takes a room in Dodge while the new marshal tries to deal with a bounty hunter who shows up in town. Soon afterward, a young man shows up in town, seeking out Matt and claiming to be Gilcher's son. Matt tries to befriend the young man and get him out of scrapes. The bounty hunter, hearing of this and knowing a secret nobody else does, soon corners the young man and hires him as a hired gun. The two of them bushwhack a wanted man in the Long Branch, accidentally shooting a saloon girl in the process. The incident convinces Matt that he needs to resume his marshal's job and purge Dodge of the bounty hunter -- and find out why the young man took up with him.
—Peter Harris