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Outlaws Return to New March
In the old Oklahoma Territory, many paths led to the outlaw trail. One source of trouble was the clash between aggressive railroaders pushing the rails across new country and the land owners and townsfolk whose right was sometimes ignored.
The town seems peaceful enough, but the underlying tension prompts Will to seek out the Major and ask for his help. In the process, he asks Jack Wilbur to take care of the office for him. This upsets Jill, as she knows her husband is weak. Jack insists on doing it as a way to get his self-respect back. Unknown to Will, the Major is the driving force behind Lew Dance. The Major wants the railroad either destroyed or rerouted to come through town. When a town ruffian is killed by the railroad's toady, Boley, Dance stirs up the rest of the ruffians to challenge the railroad's hired guns. This prompts Will to head to the saloon to arrest Dance. When jack asks why Will does not take a gun, Will says he does not need one because Dance has one. He easily disarms Dance, and with the outlaw behind bars under Jack's supervision, Will then takes a wagon and goes to get the dead man. On the way, he discovers that the Major's ranch has been burned to the ground.
Finding his ranch burned to the ground, Major Ramsur heads to the railroad camp with the intention of blowing it to smithereens. He is taken hostage by Boley, and Will is then forced to walk into the volatile situation to retrieve Ramsur from the hot-headed railroad men. When Major Ramsur asks Will to forgive him, Will can only say, "I'm not god. I'm Will Foreman, an instrument of the law."
This episode is probably the best of the series for background information on Will Foreman. There are also lots of close-up shots for the Don Collier fan.
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The
railroad is coming to the Oklahoma - Kansas border and the owner of the railroad
intends to bypass a small town by five miles. This sets the townsfolk into a
panic, as they realize their town will die. A group of ruffians, led by Lew
Dance, decide to take matters into their own hands. They begin waylaying the
trains, blowing up the engines, destroying railroad property, and killing
railroad men. Into this fracas rides Will Foreman.
The
town of New March is where Will grew up. He knows all the people there, and
Major Ramsur, the town's founder, was his mentor when he was young. The major's
daughter was once his girlfriend. Will tells Frank Caine that he even asked
Jill to be his wife, but she thought he was too wild, electing instead to marry
a tame man by the name of Jack Wilbur. Will definitely does not want to go to
New March to restore law and order. Frank Caine tells Will that the job will
tear his heart out, but it is his duty to go. Will takes his transfer orders
and reluctantly rides back to the land of his youth.
Meanwhile,
Jack has his problems at the jail. He is known as the town drunk, and Dance's
men leave bottles outside the jail for Jack to find. After consuming a bottle,
Lew Dance manages to talk Jack into believing that Will has gone after Jill.
Jack heads out to confront Will, and they meet at the burned down ruins of the
house. A gunfight ensues, which leaves Jack dead.