Two hoboes, Harry Lightfoot (Leslie Nielsen) and Crouch (Berkeley Harris), pass a rural farmhouse where only Mrs.Clinchy (Marge Redmond) and son Timothy (Rory Stevens) are home. Mrs. Clinchy gives them some food but they want more and try and force themselves into the house. Timothy escapes through a window to get his father as Crouch threatens Mrs. Clinchy with a knife. In the Medicine Bow saloon, Deputy Emmett Ryker celebrates his birthday with good friends Ezikiah the blacksmith (Claude Akins) and bar worker Ev Clinchy (Harold J. Stone). Timothy arrives and tells his father what has happened and they all ride, along with Sherriff Brannon (Harlan Wade) to the ranch and find Mrs. Clinchy stabbed to death. With the help of the Virginian, the hoboes are captured crossing Shiloh and returned to the town jail. The two deny killing Mrs. Clincy, claiming some Indians did it, and Crouch manages to hide his knife in the jail cell. The town is outraged by the crime and there is talk of lynchin