Lew Murdock (Wesley Lau) shoots a deputy for the hell of it, takes off with some stolen money, and is hellbent on taking $3000 in silver from his ranch owner pa, Aaron (Philip Coolidge; Tingler (1959)). Aaron hires Paladin to "persuade" Lew to leave the area or kill him. Reason Aaron wants Lew gone is because of his impressionable 19 year old son, Jamie (Lee Kinsolving). Jamie looks up to his older brother, willing to ride out of town with him even though he understands what Lew has done in the past. When Lew sickeningly pistol whips Aaron and takes the silver by force, Paladin will seek to find his location and try to convince Jamie that his older brother is not worth a shred of loyalty. Jamie, of course, will defend his brother when Paladin first shows up, but the knowledge of the stolen silver (and what Lew did to their father) may finally open up the teenager's eyes as to how cold blooded and evil Lew truly is. Kinsolving, I had seen in episodes of The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone (neither was really all that spectacular, which is unfortunate because I think he shows promise in "Son's of Aaron Murdock"), and he carries himself well as a seemingly insignificant little man who has a decent humanity, seems quite bright (his work with horses in the stables for little pay, leaving the nest because his father's stance against Lew, is proof that he has a keen understanding of how to tend to, shoe, and take care of them), and can hold his own in a fight (perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of this episode will be how Kinsolving engages in fisticuffs with a heckling Frank Gorshin (Riddler of Batman, and familiar to Star Trek fans for his work in one of its most famous episodes, "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"); Gorshin had goaded Kinsolving into the fight and received an ass whooping for doing so!). The conclusion was obvious: the younger brother would see the older brother for the kind of cretin he really is, and, upon such a discovery, not allow him to get away with pa's coin. Paladin mostly observes and reacts in this episode, as Jamie is the character who truly makes the difference as the climax of the story comes to a close. Lau shows up at the very end, but he does enough to establish just what kind of oily outlaw Lew is. He has a viper smile and there's no reason to think he wouldn't have killed Jamie just to run off with the silver. Paladin, though, had it covered if Jamie was unsuccessful. How Paladin discovers Lew's whereabouts thanks to a symbol on a stolen Navajo horse and a visit to an old flame of the outlaw proves just why he's ace at bounty hunting.
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