Thomas Hardy's poem, "The Man He killed", in which a soldier reflects on the all things he might have had in common with the enemy infantryman he shot dead is not quoted here, though at one point quotations (mainly Scriptural) do fly thick and fast. Still, the Hardy poem captures the tone of this episode.
Paladin comes across an abandoned horse that is carrying a pair of brand new high-button shoes underneath its saddle, and some fresh human blood on its saddlebags. A little further on, he finds a dead man.
The shoes were meant as a gift for a teen aged country girl named Sara Jane Darrow, and the dead man was her Father, the latest victim of a clan feud that stretches so far back, and has claimed so many lives, that neither side can recall what it started over. The girl is determined to get revenge by killing some member -- any member -- of the rival Tyler family.
And an appropriate candidate appears -- a Tyler youth seeking to avenge his own Father by killing anyone bearing the Darrow name. (He's played here by Duane Eddy, the same Duane Eddy whose signature 'twangy' guitar riffs produced highly-charted hits like "Rebel Rouser".)
Paladin is forced to tie up the pair since, even disarmed, they're ready to rip each other apart. But a curious thing happens when all three take refuge from a mountain snowstorm -- and young Sara Jane "earns" her Father's intended gift.
This story may make little impression on viewers today, but at the time it aired, it spelled a message of hope to a divided World in desperate need of one.
