The Loner

Season

1965

7.6

A wandering ex-soldier encounters various problems wherever he visits in his travels.

Episode List

S1 • E1

An Echo of Bugles

William Colton rides into a town one month after Appomatox. Inside, there is a young man, not much more than a boy, who is talking really tough. An old man fresh out of a prison camp is there as well. The old man, Ab Nichols, fought for the Confederacy, and is offended when the young drunk, Jody Merriman, desecrates the Confederate flag. That's when Colton gets involved. As he fights for this man's honor, he remembers back to the last day of the Civil War and another young man he came face-to-face with.

S1 • E2

The Vespers

Colton rides into a town where a man he met during the Civil War is now a minister. Reverend Booker was a Confederate captain who once saved Colton's life, carrying him to safety while they fought at Shiloh. The Reverend is married, and his wife is expecting a child within the next couple of weeks. His life seems perfect. But there is a reason Colton rode in to find him. A gunfighter is looking for the Reverend so he can avenge him for a lawful killing the Reverend committed two years before. The reverend refuses to use a gun to protect himself, and this time he's decided not to run, much to his wife's alarm.

S1 • E3

The Lonely Calico Queen

Colton finds a letter on a dead man that leads him to search for a girl named Angela Wheeler.

S1 • E4

The Kingdom of McComb

One day William Colton rode into a town where a young Quaker boy was being led into the saloon. It seems he had set one of McComb's barns on fire. Some time earlier, the Townsend's had found some virgin soil outside of town and offered to pay McComb for it. McComb refused, and the Quakers settled the land and began homesteading. McComb demanded they get off their land. He had threatened all sorts of things against them if they didn't. This particular day, he made his threats again. Townsend Sr. went to Colton's hotel room and asked him to kill McComb for them since it was against their religion to perform the act of violence themselves; but they soon came back to their senses. Townsend decided it would be best to leave.

S1 • E5

One of the Wounded

Drifting through Kansas, Colton signs on as farmhand to an embittered woman caring for her husband, a Union colonel struck mute and catatonic from PTSD.

S1 • E6

The Flight of the Arctic Tern

While traveling to the Arctic Tern Ranch to attend a childhood friend's wedding, William Colton rescues what he believes to be a woman on a runaway horse. The fact was that Terna didn't need rescuing at all. Then when he meets his friend, Rob, he realizes it was his fiancée he was rescuing. He soon finds out that Terna is one spit fire woman, and Rob wasn't the first man she had set her eyes upon marrying. She seems to enjoy throwing herself at men, and Rob seems to try and drink his problems away.

S1 • E7

Widow on the Evening Stage

A renegade Apachie war party attacked a wagon train and killed all twenty members. One of the members was a man named Joe Sullivan. He was moving West to meet up with his parents, and his wife and daughter were coming on the stage. The parents were sad to hear of their son's murder. Harry asked Colton to go with him to meet the stage and tell the widow. But a surprise was waiting for them there. It turns out that Joe Sullivan had married an Indian, and Harry wanted nothing to do with him. He spat out that Joe was dead, and ordered her to leave at once. Colton put Sue up in his hotel room until he could send her away the following day. But something else happened that evening. An Apache Indian boy was captured. The men planned to torture him before killing him. Colton decided that he had to try and get Sue out of there, because she could be next. But was it already too late?

S1 • E8

The House Rules at Mrs. Wayne's

Colton goes to visit an old friend from West Point, but discovers that Abner Wayne had died, leaving his wife and a son behind. The boy immediately takes to him, excited that Colton was in the war and went to West Point with his father. Colton learns that Mrs. Wayne has gone against guns and the war, and strictly prohibits him to talk about these things to her young son. Colton agrees to respect her wishes, but believes it's a mistake. Then when he goes into town, he runs into the hot-shot rancher who killed Abner out of lust for wife. Trouble is brewing, especially when Gibson learns Colton is now staying at the Wayne house as her guest.

S1 • E9

The Sheriff of Fetterman's Crossing

Colton becomes a deputy to a bungling sheriff.

S1 • E10

The Homecoming of Lemuel Stove

While traveling, William Colton meets an ex-Union soldier who fought in the war for three years. Before that, he had been a slave. His father had traveled out west to find a better life for them and Lamuel Stove was joining him. But when they arrived in the town, Lamuel made a horrifying discovery: his father had been lynched the night before. Lamuel was filled with grief and mourned deeply for his father. He was told that about ten men came to his father's house, dragged him to town, abused him, then lynched him. They planned on leaving his body hanging in the tree until the following day. Lamuel, filled with grief, now had to decide what he would do about it.

S1 • E11

Westward the Shoemaker

Colton takes under his protective wing a timid Latvian immigrant venturing west to open a shoemaker's shop.

S1 • E12

The Oath

William Colton rides into an inn one dark, rainy night. As soon as he goes inside, he realizes something is wrong. Maria announces that she and her father no longer run the place, the man behind him does. But Billy Ford doesn't run the inn for long. He collapses with a terrible pain in his side. Colton thinks his illness is serious, and when he finds out a doctor is upstairs he goes to speak to the doctor. The doctor turns out to be a bitter surgeon who lost his hand when his horse spooked, causing a wagon accident and his hand to be severed by the wheel of a train. Colton delivers a fiery speech and begs the doctor to come look, though the doctor had already given his diagnosis: Appendicitis. Then Colton comes up with an idea: He'll do the surgery if the doctor will tell him what to do. Did he pull it off?

S1 • E13

Hunt the Man Down

Colton is conscripted into a sheriff's posse tracking a wily old mountain man who won't be taken without a fight.

S1 • E14

Escort for a Dead Man

After receiving a desperate letter for help from a man who called himself W. Hardy, William Colton rides into a town that is practically abandoned. The only men he saw were three men who looked to be wanting to kill any outsiders who came in. The only woman was a hotel clerk who assured him they had plenty of empty rooms. Soon, Colton learned that the man who wrote the letter was one of his old privates named Andrew Drake. Drake had been a coward and placed some of his articles on a dead man. Colton believed the dead man to be Drake. Drake explained that he was ready to turn himself in at Saint Thomas, where his father, a Sergeant, was now stationed. But it seems three men were after him, and getting him out of town would be difficult.

S1 • E15

The Ordeal of Bud Windom

Bounty hunter Colton becomes embroiled in domestic diplomacy between alleged murderer Barney Windom and his fiercely loyal son Bud, especially after the rash teenager vows to kill the notorious gunslinger coming to testify against his pa.

S1 • E16

To the West of Eden

Trekking across an unforgiving desert, Colton is unhappy to be joined by a hapless senorita and her precious "pequeno." He's even more unhappy when a pair of desperadoes dog his trail.

S1 • E17

Mantrap

A wounded Colton finds a safe harbor with a lonely prairie woman while on the lam from an outlaw gang determined to kill him for witnessing their stagecoach robbery and murder.

S1 • E18

A Little Stroll to the End of the Line

William Colton is deputized as a United States Federal Marshal after they receive a letter from Preacher Whatley for protection. A man by the name of Matthew Reynolds had just been released from prison, and the Reverend is afraid he is on his way to kill him. But after talking to the Reverend in person, Colton learns the real reason for the letter: Reverend Whatley wants to hire him to kill Reynolds, and he's willing to pay a thousand dollars for the job. Of course Colton turns down the generous offer so the Reverend orders one of his men to do the job. Colton sets out to do his sworn duty to protect any and all who need protection, and he learns the truth about Reynolds.

S1 • E19

The Trial in Paradise

William Colton traveled to the abandoned town of Paradise after a bartender told him a man with a missing leg and two friends were on their way to kill Major Dichter. He ordered an attack on April 6, 1862 that killed or injured over 100 men. These three men believe he knew the attack was impossible, and were furthermore upset that he received medals and pensions because of it. They planned to hang him. Colton protested, stating they should hold a trial for this man. They agreed to let Colton be the defense.

S1 • E20

A Question of Guilt

While sleeping in his camp one night, Colton woke up to hear a man calling him "Pete." Colton called out, asking who he was. The man shot at him, and Colton had no choice but to shoot back. Unfortunately, Colton killed the soldier. He took the soldier's body into the town where the 23rd U.S. Calvary was temporarily posted. Major Crane began hinting at accusations. Colton promised the Major he would get to the bottom of things, and he refused to give up even after the town kicked him out. What secrets would he discover?

S1 • E21

The Mourners for Johnny Sharp: Part I

In an abandoned salt mine, Colton engages a dying young guitar-playing gunfighter in a final conversation while lurking outside a ruthless crook plots to get his hands on the dying man's loot.

S1 • E22

The Mourners for Johnny Sharp: Part II

Colton follows instructions left by the late Johnny Sharp to have the four people closest to the deceased gunman meet at the undertaker's parlor.

S1 • E23

Incident in the Middle of Nowhere

Colton is shot and left for dead in a stagecoach robbery, then finds a little girl riding his horse.

S1 • E24

Pick Me Another Time to Die

Colton sees a sheriff killed, then is knocked out when he examines the body, and accused of the murder himself. But he recognizes the real killer---the deputy who is now the new sheriff.