- The Virginian on a business trip to Montana finds himself in an area where protection is provided by an ex-outlaw to several towns. All is well until he is forced to kill one of the enforcers. That puts his life on the line with no backup.
- The Virginian and Belden are to go to Billings, Montana on Shiloh cattle business with Belden hoping to visit women he has met in the past. However, his saloon fight injuries - over a woman - keep Belden at Shiloh. On the way, The Virginian meets up with Ben Hunter and his group when they interrupt a holdup attempt on him by one of Hunter's men. Hunter invites him to his ranch where Hunter admits up until a couple of years earlier he had been an outlaw. He finds that Hunter is leading a protection racket that now covers a number of towns on the way between Medicine Bow and Billings, and that the people in these towns are cowed into paying him outrageous fees to keep their homes and businesses safe. When The Virginian is forced to kill one of Hunter's men, the citizens of Rutledge are ordered to turn him over to be killed and their monthly payment is increased from $1400 to $2000. Except for the daughter, Susan, of store owner, Stuart Masters, all of the citizens are willing to do so. Realizing he must still travel through the area controlled by Hunter, The Virginian decides to fight alone.—rbecker28
- The Virginian and a ranch hand are in a saloon when Ramrod tells the ranch hand it's time to go but, after the Virginian has left, there is a fight over a local woman.
The next morning the Virginian finds out the ranch hand is incapacitated from the fight, as he is hobbling around in broken slippers not his boots, so he rides off without the ranch hand.
The Virginian is later drinking from a pool when he is set upon by a would-be robber but who loses in a fight with the Virginian.
Ben Hunter arrives with a posse to tell the Viginian's attacker to move on, without the mare he took from Ben, and then tells the Virginian to go with them to his home where he gloats over his local status.
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