When two of Cheyenne Bodie's men are gunned down by hired gunslingers, the sheriff warns him not to take any big chances by confronting the killers. But Cheyenne doesn't take injustice well, and recent events have put him in an unforgiving mood. Texas fever has decimated his cattle in the Panhandle so he grudgingly resigns himself to working for somebody else instead of having a herd of his own. Before he heads to New Mexico to take a job as ramrod on a friend's ranch, he sticks around long enough to help the Cattlemen's Association and kindly country vet Nate Weyland (Denver Pyle) figure out what's causing local cattle to get sick and die. If they solve the mystery soon, it'll avoid a range war between local cattlemen and visiting herders from south Texas. Doc Weyland doesn't think the cows alone are spreading the fever, and finally concludes that it's the ticks not the cattle themselves. By that time, the war has started; now their goal is to stop it.
Helen Ransom (Susan Cummings with a German-inspired southern drawl) is a fiery south Texan determined to get her cattle to market via the most direct route, which unfortunately means crossing unfriendly territory full of sick animals. She tries to enlist Cheyenne's help by flirting ("I'm fixin' to stamp my brand on you, Mr. Bodie") and, when that doesn't work, by appealing to his sense of fair play, anything to get him to do what she wants him to do. But she picked the wrong man to bat her false eyelashes at, especially when he finds out she's married. He bonds with her husband when Ernie (reliable Ross Elliott) saves his life with a bluff (no shells in the shotgun) and over a drink encourages him to stand up to her. Easy for him to say, but as it turns out, Ernie has it in him, after all, and he proves it in a showdown with the hired guns. All-out range war thus averted, the Ransoms can get their cows moving and local cattlemen can save their own.
This episode is the closest Cheyenne Bodie has come yet to being his own boss, so it shows that the goals he had from the beginning of the series haven't changed. Until he finds that piece of land to call home and a gal to share it, he remains true to his own values and aspirations, which is one big reason the character played by the ever-engaging Clint Walker remains a favorite in the pantheon of cowboy heroes.
Helen Ransom (Susan Cummings with a German-inspired southern drawl) is a fiery south Texan determined to get her cattle to market via the most direct route, which unfortunately means crossing unfriendly territory full of sick animals. She tries to enlist Cheyenne's help by flirting ("I'm fixin' to stamp my brand on you, Mr. Bodie") and, when that doesn't work, by appealing to his sense of fair play, anything to get him to do what she wants him to do. But she picked the wrong man to bat her false eyelashes at, especially when he finds out she's married. He bonds with her husband when Ernie (reliable Ross Elliott) saves his life with a bluff (no shells in the shotgun) and over a drink encourages him to stand up to her. Easy for him to say, but as it turns out, Ernie has it in him, after all, and he proves it in a showdown with the hired guns. All-out range war thus averted, the Ransoms can get their cows moving and local cattlemen can save their own.
This episode is the closest Cheyenne Bodie has come yet to being his own boss, so it shows that the goals he had from the beginning of the series haven't changed. Until he finds that piece of land to call home and a gal to share it, he remains true to his own values and aspirations, which is one big reason the character played by the ever-engaging Clint Walker remains a favorite in the pantheon of cowboy heroes.
