The Virginian Season 5, Episode 20: The Gauntlet

Legacy of Hate

The new owner of Shiloh quickly finds his hotheaded grandson accused of cattle rustling. He learns his neighbor is the widow of a friend who died with him. The sullied family name reduces their finance options putting Shiloh in jeopardy.

Ride to Delphi

The Virginian counted 50 cows that were delivered to Grainger but the next morning five of them are missing. The Virginian feeling responsible tracks the stolen cattle down but finds himself arrested on murder charges and can't explain it.

The Captive

A white girl is caught with her adoptive Arapaho parents stealing Shiloh cattle. She stays at Shiloh while the authorities try to find her white parents. She wants to return to the Arapaho but is forced to learn to live in the white world.

An Echo of Thunder

After helping deliver a herd of horses, Trampas decides to take a few days to visit an old friend nearby but he arrives in time for his friend's funeral. He is bothered by the circumstances of his death, so he decides to investigate.

Jacob Was a Plain Man

Jake who can't hear or speak runs after he accidentally kills a man in a bar. He lands at Shiloh where his hard work results in a job. Stacey seeing Jake can't express himself decides to teach him to read and write but puts him in danger.

The Challenge

After a stagecoach holdup and accident, Trampas stumbles into a farm with a concussion and amnesia. The farmer and his two kids tend to Trampas but the white handled gun he is carrying puts him into danger from the law and the outlaws.

Outcast

A man wanted for murder and robbery escapes jail and ends up in Medicine Bow where he befriends Stacey in a fight. He goes to work at Shiloh as a ranch hand and Elizabeth takes an interest in him. However, Stacey is less certain about him.

Trail to Ashley Mountain

Trampas leads a two man posse to capture the brother-in-law of a friend in jail who is innocent when the Sheriff is injured. They encounter others who hinder their progress and an unhappy couple. But the big problem is Trampas' partner.

Deadeye Dick

A woman visits her sister in Medicine Bow bringing her teenage daughter who is enamored with a Dead Eye Dick western novel. She develops a crush on The Virginian after he settles her horse aggravating a teenage boy she meets who likes her.

90 min

High Stakes

When a friend of The Virginian is killed and the posse won't follow the killer out of the county, The Virginian goes alone. He tracks the killer and a woman involved to a remote outlaw controlled town but can he get them back to the law?

Beloved Outlaw

A wild white stallion draws the attention of Elizabeth who convinces her grandfather to buy it. Against his wishes, she tames and breaks the stallion when Trampas is unable to. Her and the stallion become inseparable but a problem occurs.

Linda

Upon returning from Texas The Virginian finds himself in the middle of express line holdup. On the stagecoach he meets a beautiful woman who ultimately confides in him that she is a courier carrying a package - possibly illegal.

Long Journey Home

Jim Boyer Sr. returns to his wife and son living in Medicine Bow and takes a job at Shiloh. Boyer is a very capable but ignores detail in his work as he tries to earn the foreman job at another ranch Grainger is hoping to purchase.

The Girl on the Glass Mountain

Howie is leaving his free life on the range to marry the beautiful Donna whose father is a leading businessman. Once married, they move into a new saddle shop Howie starts. He finds the life confining and gambles away the payment on it.

90 min

Vengeance Trail

Stacey is forced to kill a man who tries to rob him. He returns the body to the man's sister who asks Stacey to leave rather than see the Sheriff. She is afraid their younger brother who joins the Shiloh cattle drive will try for revenge.

Sue Ann

Sue Ann McCrae (Patty Duke) lives on a small farmstead with her widower father (Edward Binns), her two younger brothers, and hand Joe Stevens (Paul Carr). Joe wants to marry her but she feels trapped and one night runs off. She hails a stage driven by Mr. Tait (Roy Barcroft) and on it meets Trampas and tells him she is going to San Francisco. Arriving in Medicine Bow, Trampas gets her a room at Mrs. Crandall's (Rita Lynn) boarding house. Meanwhile, Joe and Pa McCrae search for Sue Ann and learn from Tait that she went to Medicine Bow and that she was with a Shiloh hand, Trampas. They arrive at Shiloh and Trampas takes them to the boarding house. Sue Ann confesses to them that she wants to see life and live it and do things outside the farm routine and that she is going to get a job to raise money to go to San Francisco. She volunteers to come back to the farm but her father says he will give her a chance to spread her wings but she is always welcome to return. Joe wants to stick around

Yesterday's Timepiece

A mysterious watch and a recurring nightmare spur Stacy into leaving Shiloh to investigate the murder of his parents, killed years before. Elaine: Kelly Jean Peters. Potter: Robert F. Simon. Tyke: Andy Devine. Graham: Bruce Bennett.

90 min

Requiem for a Country Doctor

One morning the Virginian arrives in a small town to meet Stacey Grainger and sees a gallows being built. From the owner of the saloon, Clara Plain (Cloris Leachman), he learns Stacey is being held in jail and is scheduled to be hanged the next morning. The Sheriff (Ford Rainey) tells him Stacey lost in a card game watched by the beloved local doctor, John Marsh, and had harsh words with him and that the doctor had a large quantity of money he had collected for the local orphanage. Having no money, Stacey went out of town where he encountered and murdered the Sheriff for the money and was caught by two locals. Stacey claims he came upon the already dead doctor, heard someone running away and fired a waring shot into the dark. Although Stacey did not have the money on him, the Sheriff claims he threw it away when he heard men approaching. In the next cell to Stacey is Randall (Morgan Woodward) who is awaiting transfer to prison. The Virginian learns that Stacey's trial was called hastil

90 min

The Modoc Kid

Five men arrive in Medicine Bow intent on robbing the bank: Bob Archer (Harry Carey Jr.), Frank Cave (Gene Ellis), brothers Roy (John Goddard) and Cullen Tindall (Harrison Ford), and leader and well-known gunslinger, Del Stetler alias the Modoc Kid (John Saxon). However, they have been observed by Deputy Emmett Ryker and are ambushed by him, Sheriff Abbott (Ross Elliott) and other deputies. Cave is killed and Archer is wounded and captured but the others escape even though Roy Tindall is seriously wounded. They manage to elude the posse and go to Shiloh ranch where the hands are away on a trail drive and only the Graingers are home. They take the Graingers prisoner, forcing Elizabeth to tend to the wounded Roy, and it soon becomes clear the Modoc Kid is obsessed with his own notoriety as a gunslinger. Roy needs medical attention and so the Modoc Kid forces John Grainger to lure Dr. Hinton (Paul Fix) to Shiloh with the pretense that Elizabeth Grainger has broken her collar bone in an ac

90 min

Without Mercy

Melanie

Doctor Pat

Dr. Spaulding decides to hire another doctor to help share the load but he is unsure whether the attractive female doctor he is sent will work out. The Virginian takes a strong interest in her and her problems as she tries to adapt.

Nightmare at Fort Killman

Watched by two men, Stacey Grainger buys a train ticket to San Francisco where he is to meet the Virginian. He leaves his bag with the Station Master (Harry Harvey Sr.) but when he returns to the station to catch the train he is waylaid by the men who had been watching him. One of the men, whom it turns out is army Sergeant Tom Beale (Johnny Seven), dresses Stacey in an army uniform, fills him with rotgut and takes him to Fort Killman where he gives the clerk (Wally Strauss) papers saying Stacey is Willard J. Thorne, a new recruit. Beale is surprised to learn, however, that his own army discharge papers have not yet arrived and won't come through for two days. The unconscious Stacey is thrown in the guardhouse where he meets black soldier Billy Martin (Don Mitchell). The top Sergeant, Joe Trapp (James Daly) and commanding officer, Captain MacDowell (Les Crane), return to the fort from a reconnaissance. It is clear the two distrust one another and are not on good terms, with Trapp imply

Bitter Harvest

A Welcoming Town

Trampas tries to clear the name of a dead friend, who was accused of assaulting a young girl. Trampas: Doug McClure. Judy: Lynda Day. Clint: Robert Fuller. Sam: Frank Overton. Kathy: Carole Wells.

90 min

The Girl on the Pinto

On the range Trampas spots a girl (Valora Noland) riding a pinto whom he has seen before but whom no one believes exists including the Virginian. Trampas rides after her but she rides off refusing to talk to him. In town he sees her again with her mother, Miriam Harley (Vivi Janiss), learns her name is Amanda, and that her parents have bought a local farm. He tries to get her to go a dance but she refuses. As the Harley's leave town they are watched by a man, Richard Pierce (Warren Stevens), who has just arrived at the hotel. Pierce learns where the Harleys live and later visits and talks with Amanda but rides off when her father, Frederick (R. G. Amstrong) arrives. In town, Pierce tries to get the stationmaster to arrange to stop a train so it can drop off some horses and is overheard by Sheriff Mark Abbott. He also briefly talks with another man who arrives on the train, Bert Robinson (Sandy Kenyon). The Sheriff returns to the jail where Marshall John Howard (Ken Mayer) is waiting a

90 min

Lady of the House

Myrna Loy portrays a cunning widow. Hired to run the Grainger house, she alienates Stacy and Elizabeth, who think Grainger wants to marry the woman. Grainger: Charles Bickford. Elizabeth: Sara Lane. Stacy: Don Quine. Virginian: James Drury.

90 min

The Strange Quest of Claire Bingham