Don Collier

Outlaws
The Fortune Stone

Beau Lattimer: Gerald Mohr
Ann Dineen:  Dianne Foster
Fescu: Edward Atienza
Denker:  Charles Fredericks
Bagley: Robert H. Harris
Talkeesh: Iron Eyes Cody
Written by Andy Lewis

 

A stagecoach is held up and the robbers are pleased to find a jeweler, Fescu, aboard with some valuable items. Fescu was smart enough to drop his most valuable piece, the Fortune Stone, out the window before the robbers could find it. But when the robbers take off the stage driver is anxious to get a wounded man to town and won't let Fescu try to find his diamond in the desert.

Fescu explains to Marshal Frank Caine that the Fortune Stone is worth $10,000. He begs to be allowed to go back to the scene of the crime and find it. It's more than the dollar value, he explains. The idea of a lost jewel is like a loose wolf. Marshall Caine tells him he can go the next day, but in the meantime, he wants all the stage passengers to stay in town and submit to a personal search.

A young man named Ollie is tending to the stage horses and notices one of them is limping. When he picks up the animal's leg he finds what looks to him like a large, shiny stone on a chain embedded in the horse's shoe. He pulls it out and puts in it in pocket.

Beau Lattimer, a con man recently released from Leavenworth Prison, is very interested to find out if one of his fellow passengers might have pocketed the valuable jewel. Ann Dineen, who was on her way to becoming a mail order bride doesn't have it. The only one left is Mr. Denker. Lattimer convinces her that she could have a much better life if she assisted him in getting the stone. He offers to teach her everything he knows and she agrees.

Ann wastes no time in knocking on Denker's hotel room door. Soon they are drinking, he more than she, and she is sitting on his lap. In a pause of his boisterous singing he hears the sound of someone in his room. He discovers Lattimer going through his belongings and does not accept the con man's excuse that he heard some noises and came to investigate. Denker pulls a gun. But when Deputy Marshall Will Foreman responds to the sound of gunfire, it is Denker who is dead. Ann backs up Lattimer's story that it was Denker who was searching Lattimer's room and Denker took a shot at him.

Meanwhile, young Ollie has used the Fortune Stone in a poker game and lost it. The gambler that won it is caught dealing from the bottom of the deck and his gambling career, and life are ended. The undertaker, hoping to make some money, offers the jewel to the general store owner, Mr. Bagley. The store owner thinks the chain might be silver and gives him $1.60 for it. Bagley, a rather lecherous married man, promptly gives the necklace to his naive shop assistant, Kate. Lattimer finds out and threatens him - those were stolen goods, worth $100. When Bagely demands it back from Kate, she finds that it must have fallen off when she was chasing away some noisy boys. Sure enough, one of them has it, but Lattimer and Ann are interrupted in getting it by Will. While they are being told they should leave on the next stage, the boy gives it to the father of his sick friend, and they tie it on new wind bell the man is bringing home. Ann catches up with the child and hysterically shakes the truth out of him. 

Ann appears on the doorstep of the Davies. She says she was admiring the wind bell from the street and wants to buy it.  But while she is running back to the hotel to get Lattimer for the money, a strong wind blows and snatches the Fortune Stone from the Wind Bell. It falls into the cart of an Indian, who likes the way it looks and attaches it to his belt.  He is delivering wood to Bagely in the general store. Bagley's eyes light up at the sight of the stone. "Would you like to sell me that belt?" he asks. "No," replies the Indian. "Pants fall down." But what he does want is a stove.

Lattimer overhears the Indian exclaiming happily over the bad trade he thinks that Bagely made. Lattimer stalks Bagley through the streets and kills him. He takes the stone back to Ann. He tells her smoothly that his plan is to leave with it, but he promises to send for her soon. In a rage she stabs him, causing him to drop the Fortune Stone out the window.

It is picked up by Ollie and his fiancé. They race it over to Will and he promises them the reward. Ann runs after it brandishing the knife, screaming that it is hers. She is subdued by Heck. "I never even got to touch it," she sobs hysterically.  

All this time poor Fescu has been sifting through the sand where the stone was originally lost. He has dealt with wind, stage coaches running through, flocks of sheep, and Heck's big feet but he won't give up until he finds it.  Heck distracts him while Will lays the necklace in the sand where Fescu is currently sifting. The Deputy Marshals ride off a little ways, wait for a moment, and smile to hear the man's cries of "I've found it!"

 

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