In a dry period of his career (we see Paladin - Richard Boone - talking to Hey Boy - Kam Tong - in the Palace Hotel in San Francisco asking if anything of interest for him occurred, and being told that there has been a major earthquake in China and a steamboat explosion on the Mississippi) Paladin gets invited to accompany a Mexican official named Miguel Rojas (Michael Pate), his wife Maria (June Vincent) and the hotel Doctor Mayhew (Onslow Stevens) to the opera. During the performance a man enters their box and stabs Rojas in the stomach, but Rojas shoots the man dead. Mayhew and the Rojas leave the theater, while Paladin prepares to tell the police what happened. Later he learns that there has been a blood feud involving Rojas family and a neighboring one, involving corpse mutilations as well as killings. He also learns from Dr. Mayhew that although the wound seemed trivial the patient has developed complications. Paladin visits Rojas and is asked to accompany his body for burial back in Mexico, for which he will be paid $1,000.00. Paladin hopes this won't be necessary.
The next week Hey Boy hands Paladin the newspaper, and the main item is about a huge payroll robbery. But the item Paladin concentrates on is the notice of the death of Rojas. He is soon contacted by the widow and goes to the undertakers establishment (the undertaker is Ned Glass) and sees the coffin is ready. All Paladin has to do is to get a stagecoach and transport it to Mexico.
He hires one, but soon has troubles on the route. First with a know-it-all American border officer who doesn't like Paladin's face, and who insists that dead bodies can't be taken across the boarder (Paladin comes ready with a legal volume showing they can). Second there is an attack on the stagecoach by Mexican bandits. Even after beating back the bandits, Paladin is uncertain about his situation. Is he still being followed, and by whom? It is a cleverly done little episode, but the trick is too easy to guess, especially after one recalls movies like THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY. Still it is interesting to see Boone's Paladin in his native San Francisco high life, attending the opera and discussing Shakespeare's ROMEO AND JULIET with Rojas.
The next week Hey Boy hands Paladin the newspaper, and the main item is about a huge payroll robbery. But the item Paladin concentrates on is the notice of the death of Rojas. He is soon contacted by the widow and goes to the undertakers establishment (the undertaker is Ned Glass) and sees the coffin is ready. All Paladin has to do is to get a stagecoach and transport it to Mexico.
He hires one, but soon has troubles on the route. First with a know-it-all American border officer who doesn't like Paladin's face, and who insists that dead bodies can't be taken across the boarder (Paladin comes ready with a legal volume showing they can). Second there is an attack on the stagecoach by Mexican bandits. Even after beating back the bandits, Paladin is uncertain about his situation. Is he still being followed, and by whom? It is a cleverly done little episode, but the trick is too easy to guess, especially after one recalls movies like THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY. Still it is interesting to see Boone's Paladin in his native San Francisco high life, attending the opera and discussing Shakespeare's ROMEO AND JULIET with Rojas.
