[GUNSHOTS] NARRATOR: The Rifleman. [THEME MUSIC] Starring Chuck Connors. [GUNSHOTS] Well, there's one thing about the long gun-- tears up what it hits. Kind of discourages the other fellas' trigger finger when he's dying. [HORSE GALLOPING] Holliver, Holliver, we got something working for us. North Fork's deserted. The Marshal mustered the town people over in Twin Creek at some kind of centennial. Well, I don't know is I like that. Playing the empty seats, as the saying goes. Look, nevermind about the empty seat. With most of the town folk over a day's ride away from us, the time is perfect for us! Well, I kind of dispute that any time is perfect for killing a man, Deecie. We ride in like always, take it slow and easy. Pick our man, watch him do a bit of sweating tonight. Will you forget about the sweating for once, huh? And let's just play it safe. Look, you want your kicks, get it in a saloon when this thing's over. Well, you might call it a bias, Deecie, watching a man sweat. But then again, you might say I'm doing a good turn, letting a man live the night out after seeing John Holliver, after knowing the time has come for him to meet his creator. So let's go kill us a man. Do it real nice so the folks at North Fork will remember us. Wow, you got it done already? Yeah, I've been getting a lot of help from Jeffrey these days. Before breakfast, he had it broken down, barrel reamed, and a new spring cut. That's fine, Henry. You're teaching your boy a good trade. Well, you know, Lucas, a man likes to try and pass things on to his son. What's wrong? Holliver. Holliver? John Holliver? That's him with one of his men. Town kind of grew, I might. Seems more like a graveyard than a town. Oh, now, that's just a state of mind, Deecie. To a man whose conscience lets him sleep on an easy pillow, it's a nice, quiet, peaceful town. I've never seen him before. Heard about him, though, having his share of gunfights. You can't call 'em gunfights, Lucas. They're executions. Holliver's an executioner, so many dollars a head. He made us wait five years, but he meant it when he said he'd be back. Made you wait for what? [HENRY SIGHING] That must be the rest of his men. Somebody in North Fork is sure going to die, Lucas. Henry, what happened five years ago? [HENRY SIGHING] Hen-- [DOOR OPENING AND CLOSING] What's the matter, Eddie? Nothing, Lucas, nothing. Nothing? You look like you've got trouble. Well, Holliver coming back here means only one thing. He'll be leaving us with somebody to bury. What happened five years ago, Eddie? Henry Waller was too upset to go into it. Yeah, well, Holliver came to town alone, killed a 19-year-old boy. Picked a fight with him and then made it seem like the boy pulled his gun on him. Well, it was murder, Lucas, pure murder. What happened then? Well, we couldn't officially charge Holliver with anything, so we ran him out of town on a rail. I don't know how he ever got up the nerve unless it was because there were so many of us and Holliver was alone. But we must have been loco that night, knowing Holliver to be a professional killer. Why did he wait five years if he'd been wanting to get even? That's what I don't understand. I don't know, Lucas. I just don't know. Well, Eddie, you know, until he proves himself more than just a peaceful traveler, there's nothing much I can do. I just can't see waiting, not when the time's so right. Deecie, I'm thinking you're living only 50% of your life. That hurry-up way of yours is taking half the spice out of your waking moments. We're taking too many chances lately. It's getting to be like a game with you. If you take life serious, Deecie, you're sure to come out losing, be unhappy at the best. [YAWNING] Lucas, who's Holliver really after? He doesn't have to be after anybody, Nils. Those two are just out standing out there. We're having to meet in my livery stable in 20 minutes. Everybody is sticking together on this. No harm in that. Good idea, in fact. That is, if Holliver is really here with his eye on someone. Lucas, will you back us? That's my job till Micah gets back. Thanks. [SANDING] Don't sand too hard, Mark! You know, you can always take the wood down more, but you can't put on what you take off by accident. I'm being careful, Jeffrey. Henry, I-- Oh, maybe you better run along now, Jeffrey, and get supper for you and Mark. All right, Pa. Your mother left everything fixed. Just put up the heat and heat the gravy. I know what to do. See you in the morning, Pa. Get a good night's sleep, son. Eddie told me what happened five years. Now, maybe Holliver's just passing through town and isn't looking for any more trouble than you are. No, no. No, Holliver would never come back to North Fork unless he intended to get even. What got into me that night? I knew he was an evil man, a killer. Why didn't I mind my own business? Henry, you can't blame yours-- Nils taught me to join him that night. He had no right to take advantage of me. I'm a sick man. I was sick then. It wasn't fair. Holliver was looking right at me that night when we were tying him to the rail. He'd remember me. I didn't think I was the ringleader. He-- they knew I wasn't well. They knew it! They want to be so brave and ride a killer out of town in a rail, why didn't they go ahead and do it instead of involving a sick man? Henry, pull yourself together. What makes a man a coward, Lucas? Nobody can call you a coward for being afraid of a man like Holliver. It isn't only Holliver. I've always been afraid, from the time that I remember considering myself a man. [SCOFFING] A man-- I make a mockery of the word. There isn't a person in North Fork who hasn't the greatest respect for their gunsmith. That's you! I said I was a coward, Lucas. I am. Nobody can blame a sick man for-- A sick man. You know these pills that I've always taken that Doctor Burrage gives me? Sugar pills. Well, I don't understand. Now, Doctor Burrage understands. Henry, I'll have a talk with Holliver, maybe find out what's on his mind, all right? Yes, yes, you do that. He's over in the saloon. And if he came here for me, you tell him that there are others in town who had more to do with what happened that night than I did! You tell him that Eddie, and Nils, and Tom Barrett are more to blame-- Oh, I'm so sorry, Lucas. Meet me over at the livery stable with the other men. I'll be there when I'm finished talking with Holliver. And Henry, calm yourself down, huh? Mister Holliver, my name is McCain-- Lucas McCain. Deecie? Sit. Thank you. Deputy marshal of this peaceful hamlet, I hear. Until our regular marshal gets back, yes. Some folks are wondering about your business in town. I'm back to collect something, Mister McCain. Town owes me, come back to collect. Exactly what do you intend to collect? Well, you might call it self-respect. As marshal here, I don't think you'd have any objections to a man standing up for his self-respect. Depends on your meaning. A debt of honor, sir. I'm here to have satisfaction from the town of North Fork. A town is made up of people, Mister Holliver. True. So is an old man who wants his name to go unsullied to the grave. I'm asking that a representative of this town meet me in the street at sunup. You know very well none of the men who chased you from this town is capable of facing a gunfighter. Rode me from town, Mister McCain. Rode, not chased. Kinda like that record straight. I'm curious, Holliver. Why did you wait five years to come back here? Knew some of the folks would be worried I'd be coming back, Mister McCain. Didn't see no point in having them stop worrying. Holliver, you're a man with a twisted way of thinking, so I'm not mincing any words. My advice to you is to forget this, because if you don't, I'll be on that street when you walk out at sunup. Well, now, I didn't figure on facing no marshal, Mister McCain, but if you see it fitting for you to take the town's part, I guess I'll just have to go along. My boys will be there to see you get a fair shake. There'll be other men behind me on the street, too. Better think twice before carrying this any further, Holliver. [LAUGHTER] Mister McCain, sunup. Well, it's all set, Lucas. We've agreed we'll stand behind the one Holliver goes for. Well, Holliver and I just had a few hot words. He's expecting me to meet him in the street tomorrow, represent the town to recoup his so-called honor. You, Lucas? Mhm. But you were never involved. Luke, you mean Holliver didn't remember any one of us? There's no one man he had his mind set on? If he had, I imagine he would have said so. It was dark that night. I'll bet Holliver didn't have a good look at any one of us. Eh, we've sure been doing a lot of worrying for nothing. There's still worrying to do, Eddie-- just how we're going to handle Holliver and his men tomorrow. But we've got four guns against his four. I don't think Holliver figured on our group of folks standing up against him. Something wrong? You said you had words with him, Lucas. Well, I kind of see it like a personal thing between Holliver and a-- and a marshal now, not against town folks. I thought you told me you were going to stick together, no matter who Holliver came here for. If he came after one of us, Lucas, yes, but you and Holliver are having words. Well, uh, maybe you should have honey-talked him and avoided trouble. We ain't gun hands, Lucas. We were just sticking together for our own protection. Eddie's right, Luke. Fighting ain't our job. Are you trying to tell me you're leaving me to face Holliver and his men alone tomorrow morning? They can't be blamed, Lucas. Fighting isn't their business. Neither is it mine, Henry. But you are the marshal while Mike is gone. It isn't that I wouldn't help you if I could, Lucas, but I'm a sick man, I-- I often wondered what's in a man's mind his last night. Holliver, I couldn't care less. But this business of warning a man and then watching him sweat, it's really going to cost you someday. [HOLLIVER LAUGHING] It's done for a purpose, Deecie. When a man sweats the night through, he just isn't the same laddie in the morning. I'd say by morning, Mister McCain's going to be mighty fidgety. Yes, mighty fidgety. [FOOTSTEPS] Well, I thought you and Jeffrey were getting ready for bed about now. Pa, Jeffrey and me heard about what happened and I-- I-- You must despise me, Lucas. Lucas, if I could help, if I really could help, I would help. I want you to believe that. Don't you think it'd be better if you stopped talking about it? It's a pretty difficult thing to justify cowardice. You're right, Lucas, absolutely right. Pa, what I wanted to say before is that-- I mean-- I know I'm still a boy, but maybe I'm old enough to use a gun now. You're not old enough, Mark. But Pa-- I said you're not old enough to handle a gun! Now get jumping and go on out to the Waller house, and don't come back to town till I send for you. You understand? Yes, sir. Mark. Come here, son. Come here. Someday, you'll be standing alongside me, the two of us together both of us men. But right now, you've got something coming first, a growing-up time. Growing-up time? Mm. You see, son, a man either has a time to look back on or he doesn't have it. It's, uh, well, it's an awfully nice time. When you see an old man dozing in the sun and he looks like he's smiling, well, he's thinking back on his growing-up time, thinking back and living it all over again. Mark, I want you to have that time. I want you to be a boy while you are a boy. Don't want you doing man things. It's really very important. And then when you're a lot older, and you begin thinking back instead of ahead, well, you'll know what I mean. Good night, son. Good night, Pa. Can you sleep, Mark? No. I can't, either. Guess we'll have to stay here till it's over. Uh-- My Pa wouldn't like if I-- if I were to show up in town. Well, you know we can hear the gunshots from here, though. Guess so. Mark, it ain't like my Pa is afraid. Well, he handles a gun real good, so it ain't like he's afraid. He's-- I-- I didn't say anything like that. I didn't say nothing like that, Jeffrey. It's just-- he's so sick. I mean, if my Pa was better, he would help your Pa tomorrow and not leave him out there alone. [MARK CRYING] Oh, I'm-- I'm sorry, Mark. I'm real sorry. [MARK AND JEFFREY CRYING] It does me good, McCain, to see North Fork boasting the one soul with a little bit of backbone. Kinda strengthens my faith in my fellow man. You may be calling this turn, Holliver, but make no mistake-- you're calling whether you live or die. Well, I guess, either way the town will be remembering me. That's kind of important to me, Mister McCain. [FOOTSTEPS] [LAUGHTER] Looks like the sheep have grown horns! Well, I expect we might as well call the whole thing off-- [GUNSHOTS] Nice sound, Waller and Son. It make you feel kind of proud, Pa. No more proud than me, son. Waller and Son. Gee, Pa, that makes them partners. That's right. And that gives me an idea. Why don't we put a sign like that on our barn? You think we need a sign, partner? [LAUGHTER] [THEME MUSIC]
