- Johnny Gibbs, Lucas' brother-in-law, arrives for a visit at the McCain ranch. A rodeo rider, Gibbs is also on the run from the law, and soon begins to cause trouble in town.
- Lucas and Mark McCain are happy when Johnny Gibbs, Lucas' brother-in-law and Mark's uncle stops by the ranch. Johnny is a rodeo rider who needs money in a hurry to pay off some debts. He accepts an offer from rancher Alvah Kemper to try and break a horse named Lucifer to make a quick $100. He rigs it however to make $500 from Lucifer's owner. Lucas also finds a wanted poster on him for robbing an express office. Young Mark is profoundly impressed by his uncle Johnny and Lucas is worried that he might be a bad influence on the boy. Turns out that Lucas may have been too quick to judge him.—garykmcd
- Lucas is working on breaking a colt named Duster for Mark. While watching him with the neighbors, Mark turns around to a see who's taking to him about his father. He looks straight into the eyes of his Uncle Johnny, Mark's mother's brother. He runs inside to get the picture. Meanwhile, Johnny greets his brother-in-law and we find out that he is a rodeo cowboy. So Johnny agrees to break Duster in. Alva Kemper comes later to ask him to ride a hard to manage horse. He puts up $100 that Johnny can stay on Lucifer for at least 30 seconds. He wants to teach Jeff Stacy a lesson about humility. Johnny goes into town that night, and while Lucas and Mark are getting his bed ready, Lucas discoveres a wanted poster on Johnny for holding up an express office. Lucas is mortified because he son had just told him he'd rather be like his Uncle Johnny more than anything else. Lucas angrily sends Mark to bed. When Johnny comes home, Lucas confronts him about it. Johnny makes a joke about the whole thing. Finally, Lucas gets down to the real reason he's so angry - because his son idiolized him. "Well, you know kids!" Johnny declared. At this point, Lucas is so angry that he punches Johnny so hard he falls back into the dirt. Johnny tells Lucas that he owed it to Margaret to stick by him. The night before, Johnny had gone to Mr. Stacy to tell him he'd throw the race for $500.00. They agree. Johnny goes to the saloon and gets drunk the next night. Mr. Stacy's heavy tells him drunks talk to much, and he better not get drunk again before Saturday's contest. When he gets back to the ranch, Mark helps him to bed and they have a talk. The next morning, Johnny confesses to Lucas that he made a deal with Mr. Stacy. Lucas gets angry again, but Johnny promises he's backing out and will stay on Lucifer for the 30 seconds even if it kills him. When he wins, Jeff Stacy wants him beaten. Lucas stops, then tells Mr. Stacy exactly how he feels about him and tells him he better change his ways. Lucas and Mark see Johnny off. Johnny was turning himself in. Mark tells his father that he knew Johnny was going to jail. "I thought I had to keep my boy from getting hurt. And all the time he was a man." Lucas smiles as they ride off.
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