At the Carlton, Paladin comes down to the lobby and flirts with Miss
Pegeen Shannon, who he assumes is a new woman guest. She invites him up
to her room and leaves, but the clerk informs Paladin that Pegeen is the
hotel's new stenographer. Undeterred, Paladin hires Pegeen to dictate a
letter to John Staffer, an attorney-in-law in the town of Santa Maria,
New Mexico. He tells Staffer that he's received his downpayment and will
ride into town, but refuses to provoke a gunfight. As Pegeen prepares
the letter for mailing, she asks Paladin why he changed her mind about
her. He suggests that they become friends and when she proves skeptical,
assures her they can discuss it more when he returns in three weeks.
As Paladin rides to Santa Maria, he comes across an Indian boy, Charley
Red Dog. Charley has made camp and invites Paladin to join him.
However, first he draws his gun and orders Paladin to turn over his.
Once the gunfighter does so, offering a tip on using fat to lubricate
his holster, Charley offers him some food and reveals that he has a
marshal's badge. Paladin notices that it looks suspiciously fake and
Charlie explains that he earned it from a correspondence school. He
shows Paladin his equally fake-looking diploma and tells the gunslinger
that his name will stand for liberty and justice. Charley is riding to
Santa Maria to enforce the law because his father died, gunned down on
the streets by an Indian hater just for walking on the streets. He plans
to become the new marshal there and enforce a no-guns policy like the
one in Abilene. Paladin asks what Charlie plans to do if he tries to
take his gun back, and Charlie offers him a fair gunfight. Rather than
gun down the earnest young man, Paladin declines... but keeps his
holdout derringer close at hand.
When Paladin arrives in Santa
Maria, he meets with the town's leading businessmen: Staffer, Lem, and
Cornish. They already know about Charley and are surprised when Paladin
suggests that they appoint the boy as town marshal. They want someone to
dispose of the worst of the criminal element, Joe Denver, who will be
back in town the next day. Paladin refuses, saying they need someone who
can enforce the law full-time instead of a gunslinger killing one man.
Lem says that they'd rather have a real lawman, but the businessmen
admit that no one is dumb enough to take the job. Paladin warns them
that Charley will enforce the law whether they want him to or not, and
that he'd rather die than let anyone stop him. The businessmen agree but
insist that no one knows that they hired Paladin to help Charley. That
suits Paladin fine, as he has a plan to make sure that Charley gets
respect.
Paladin goes to borrow a gun but sees Charley at his
new office, putting up a freshly painted sign. Paladin picks a fight
with one of Denver's men outside of a saloon. He knocks the cowboy in
where Tuck, Ed, and several other gang members are playing cards.
Paladin knocks out the cowboy and orders a drink. When Ed tries to make
casual conversation, Paladin insults him and punches him unconscious
when Ed takes offense. The other gang members draw their guns but
Paladin offers to cut their cards... and shoots their deck in half with
Ed's gun before anyone can react. Impressed, Tuck tells Paladin that
Denver will want to see him when he arrives and Paladin says that he's
looking forward to it.
Charley comes to investigate the gunshot
and orders Paladin to hand over his new gun. Tuck and the others are
surprised to discover that Charley has already disarmed the gunslinger
once. Paladin cowers convincingly and gives Charley Ed's gun, warning
the outlaws that Charley is even faster than he is. The other men
quickly fall into line and hand over their guns while Paladin secretly
sighs in relief.
Later, Paladin returns to Staffer's office and
they watch as a local Indian hater, Gus Johnson, storms into Charley's
office. Paladin runs over to intervene, only to see Gus come flying back
out of the office. Charley comes out and disposes of the man with a few
well-placed blows, much to Paladin's surprise.
Paladin
continues to watch over Charley and Staffer joins him. Cornish runs over
from his general store and warns Paladin that he overheard six men
planning to break into Charley's office that night and kill him. Staffer
warns that no man can handle six-to-one odds but Paladin figures to
even the odds up a bit.
That night, the men break into
Charley's office and attack the would-be marshal. Charley fights bravely
but is desperately outnumbered. However, Paladin uses his derringer to
shoot out the lantern and then enters the office. Using the darkness as
cover, he knocks out three of the thugs and sneaks out, while Charley
sends the other three packing.
The next day, Staffer swears
Charley in as the mayor while Paladin looks on in satisfaction. Lem runs
in and warns them that Denver is in town and plans to gun Charley down.
The businessmen turn to Paladin, who suggests that Charley let him
handle it. If one gunslinger kills another, it won't reflect badly on
Charley. Charley reluctantly opens the door for Paladin so he can go out
and handle the outlaw... and then cold-cocks Paladin from behind.
Straightening his shoulders, Charlie says that he plans to uphold his
vow no matter what and goes out into the street. The townspeople have
cleared the street and Denver is waiting for the new marshal.
Lem and Staffer wake Paladin up and the dazed gunslinger realizes that
his derringer would be useless in the gunfight. Since Charley collected
all of the guns, Paladin sends Lem to get a gun from Cornish's store but
they discover that Charley has locked those up as well. Two gunshots
ring out and Paladin runs out into the street. Charley is alive and
well, and Denver is one the lying facedown in the street. Charley thanks
Paladin for his earlier advice on improving his fast draw... and then
relieves him of his derringer. However, the marshal admits that he knew
Paladin shot out the lantern and lent a hand the previous night. Charley
takes out his diploma and tears it up, and tells Paladin that he knew
it was a fake but that it gave him a direction for his life. He thanks
Paladin for giving him respect and shakes his friend's hand.
Paladin collects his money from the businessmen and prepare to ride out
of town. As they see him off, they jokingly suggests that he split the
$1,000 with Charley since he did all of the work. Paladin figures that
the two of them are already even: Charley got their gratitude and
Paladin got their money. Charley nods in farewell as Paladin rides out
of town.
Written by Gadfly on Sep 2, 2018