Judd Nellis brings a badly beaten man to Dodge City. Nellis claims he found the man out on the trail. Doc has doubts as to whether the beaten man will live.
As Matt Dillon begins investigating the situation, he discovers he actually knows Nellis. Years earlier, someone attacked Dillon and left him badly beaten. Nellis found Matt and was able to see that he received medical attention, similar to what happened with the stranger Nellis brought into Dodge.
Nellis soon returns to his home in the town of Friend, Kansas.
The wounded stranger begins to recover, and Matt finds that his name is Frank Gore. Gore claims he never saw whoever was responsible for the beating, and they also stole $1,000 Gore was carrying. Gore asks about the person that brought him to Dodge, and Matt tells him about Judd Nellis. Once he is sufficiently recovered, Gore leaves Dodge.
About three weeks later, Matt receives a letter from a priest in Friend informing him that Judd Nellis is dead. The priest, Father Tom, requests Matt come to Friend.
Matt makes his way to Friend and talks to Father Tom. The priest explains that he had talked with Nellis after Nellis returned from Dodge. Father Tom subsequently had to leave for a few days, and when he returned, he found a grave with a marker labeled "Judd Nellis" in the church graveyard. Although Father Tom asked around the town, no one seems to know what happened to Nellis.
The remainder of the story involves the Marshal trying to solve the mystery of Judd's death. It isn't that easy, because the people in Friend are not that free with their information.
This episode features yet another solid cast. Tom Reese, a veteran of television westerns and a frequent Gunsmoke guest, is Judd Nellis. The great character actor Ralph Moody is Finley, an older, hard-of-hearing resident in Friend. Moody appeared in many classic television shows around the time this episode was filmed, including The Rifleman and The Andy Griffith Show, where he appeared as recurring characters in numerous episodes of each. Finley's grandson is a kid everyone calls "Runt." Runt is played by Butch Patrick, who would soon star in The Munsters as Edward Wolfgang "Eddie" Munster. The lovely Jan Shepard appears as Marge, who was in a relationship with Nellis and sports a mysterious bruise on her face. The versatile character actor Ben Wright is Father Tom. Wright had a very long career in both television and films. His voice work was featured in a number of Disney animated films, including One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Little Mermaid, and The Jungle Book.
This is a clever Kathleen Hite script. There are several clues that everything is not necessarily as it appears, but the reasoning behind it all is an unexpected surprise. While most of this story takes place in the town of Friend, we do get some early scenes in Dodge with Doc, Kitty, and Quint -- no Chester or Festus, though.
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