The Virginian Season 8, Episode 21: A King's Ransom

Long Ride Home

Holly finds two cowboys who are looking for work. The younger hand Jim looks up to Ben as the only father he has ever known as the two roam around looking for a place to settle. Ben isn't ready to settle down but Jim may have found a home.

A Flash of Darkness

During a cattle drive, a rattler startles the Virginian's horse while he is chasing a stray, and he is thrown and hits his head on a rock causing temperary blindness. As he wanders in the darkness, he stumbles upon a young lady who lives with her father (James Whitmore)and brother, whom the Virginian had just fired. The daughter wants to help the Virginian though the men protest. The two men tell her that they are returning the blind man to his friends but actually plan to kill him. After leaving the house, the Virginian somehow manages to escape and makes it back to the house where he wanders into the corral and is nearly trampled by the horses until Trampas and Jim Horn rescues him from the corral and the two men.

Halfway Back from Hell

In Arizona Trampas is forced to work as foreman on a ranch staffed by men on probation from prison. The locals want them removed and the US Marshal in charge of the area is less than enthusiastic about them being there as well.

The Power Seekers

After the territorial representative resigns, Clay is drafted to run against a local man. Clay soon learns the dirty side of politics, including being lied to about who drafted him. He runs an honest contest, but will the other side?

The Family Man

Jim becomes farmhand, midwife and friend to a pregnant teenager whose husband is on the lam from the law. Anna: Darlene Carr. Obie: Frank Webb. Jim: Tim Matheson. Rigby: John Pickard. Trampas: Doug McClure. Sheriff: Ross Elliott. Virginian: James Drury.

90 min

The Runaway

A runaway boy is found on Shiloh who won't talk. They wonder about his parents becoming gravely concerned when they discover he has been severely beaten. No one realizes how close his dad is as the orphanage manager wants him back.

A Love to Remember

The Virginian is attracted to Julie Oakes, an Eastern reporter whose mysteriously tragic past may doom their relationship. Glover: Fred Beir. Virginian: James Drury. Barton: George Murdock. Holly: Jeanette Nolan. Grainger: John McIntire.

90 min

The Substitute

Trampas leaves on vacation but his plans go astray when he is picked up by a bounty hunter for murdering a popular doctor. He has to contend with a hostile town, planted evidence, and a saloon girl who swears she saw him commit the murder.

The Bugler

A story of alienation between a veteran Army officer and his son, a deserter. Toby: Michael Burns. Hamilton: Morgan Woodward. O'Rourke: Alan Hale. Grainger: John McIntire. Virginian: James Drury. Holly: Jeanette Nolan. Elizabeth: Sara Lane.

90 min

Home to Methuselah

An old lawman friend of The Virginian comes to Shiloh to see him and ask him to go on a hunting trip. However, he doesn't say the prey is two outlaws. Once The Virginian learns the truth, he decides to help but is surprised by the target.

A Touch of Hands

A pig tailed brat returns home from finishing school for a two week vacation as a beautiful woman catching Trampas' eyes again. They fall in love as she remembers the good times but her father wants her to return to school in the east.

Journey to Scathelock

An emergency recalls The Virginian so he allows Jim Horn to go alone with $4000 to complete a purchase of horses. Everyone takes Jim for a wet behind the ears youngster including the woman and her partner who steal the money he carries.

A Woman of Stone

A white woman and her son are forced to leave the Shoshone reservation when her Shoshone husband dies. She is found sick on Shiloh. Unknown to everyone her white husband and now engaged daughter live in Medicine Bow thinking she is dead.

Black Jade

Trampas decides to track down where Cobey Jade obtained a silver watch that belonged to a friend. While with Jade who lives in an abandoned mining town, they are taken captive by a band of roving outlaws who believes Jade found gold there.

You Can Lead a Horse to Water

The accent is on comedy as a proper Southern woman, aided by Trampas and old Luther, goes after robbers who took her dowry. Luther: Strother Martin. Trampas: Doug McClure. Baxter: Noah Beery. Kendrick: Anthony Eisley.

90 min

Nightmare

The Virginian helps the widow of a local businessman prove her innocence when first her husband is killed in a fire followed by his right hand man who names her as he dies. She has a history of mental illness after her first husband died.

The Holocaust

An eastern combine wants to take over the Wyoming cattle market with Shiloh in the middle of their sights. A burned Shiloh and delayed cattle drive leads to a loss on the sale of cattle resulting in all the Shiloh hands being laid off.

Train of Darkness

On a train to Cheyenne, Grainger, Elizabeth and Jim become involved in a fellow traveler's efforts to escape a vengeful family. Jed: Dennis Weaver. Lotte: Charlotte Stewart. Neeley: John Larch. Grainger: John McIntire. Elizabeth: Sara Lane. Jim: Tim Matheson. Evangeline: Barbara Werle.

90 min

A Time of Terror

The Graingers are taken hostage by two brothers and their sister to get access to a friend of Clay who is a Judge running for the legislature. They blame him for killing their father and stealing their family farm for a railroad.

No War for the Warrior

The drama of a fugitive caught between his Kiowa heritage and the demands of the white world. John: Charles Robinson. Virginian: James Drury. Jim: Tim Matheson. Trampas: Doug McClure. William T. Webb: Charles Aidman. Ned Cochran: Henry Jones. Cully: David Sheiner.

90 min

The Sins of the Fathers

The Virginian and Shiloh money are rescued by a lone man who he rewards with a job at Shiloh. He rubs the other men the wrong way, works hard, but is obviously a gunman. Clay Grainger soon realizes who he is but won't let him be fired.

Rich Man, Poor Man

Poor Harve Yost turns into rich Harve when he finds a dying man with a saddle bag full of money and gets a $10000 reward. Never a man to manage money or time The Virginian advises him to buy a ranch but Harve tries to rival Shiloh

Gift