Sam is a famous gunfighter, supposedly faster than Paladin. He rents out the last hotel in Laredo in anticipation of his arrival. When Paladin arrives looking for a room and is forced to kill Sam's gunfighter Kovac in self-defense, Sam arrives before Paladin can leave and can't let it go for fear of losing his reputation and looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life.
Inviting Paladin to breakfast, Sam and Paladin bond over their mutual profession and their refined tastes. Sam's wife Eileen brings Sam's son Sam Jr. to the hotel to sees his father on the boy's 9th birthday. Sam and Sam Jr. spend an hour alone, and then Eileen says that she can't take Sam's lifestyle anymore and she's leaving for San Francisco. The gunman angrily admits that he likes being number one and won't go with her, and Eileen leaves with their son on Paladin's advice. Sam prepares to exchange gunshots with Paladin, but then tells him to leave no matter what it will do for his reputation. The hotel clerk, Logan, who Sam has been verbally abusing, shoots Sam in the back figuring that it will make the hotel's reputation. Paladin looks down at Sam's body, perhaps seeing his own future, and then rides to give Eileen the news.
