The Big Con

With banker, Mr Botkins, out of town Mr Papp is in charge of the Dodge Bank when a man, Shaneways, comes in and requests to borrow $20,000. At first there is no way that the bank will let him borrow the money but when Mr Papp learns that Shaneways is in a poker hand and is holding four aces, Mr Papp believes there is no way the bank can lose on this deal. So he loans the money only to lose it in the card games rules. Mr Papp has wagered the entire life of the bank on the hand and is now suicidal.

When Doc Adams hears about the game, he remembers hearing about such a game when he worked on a riverboat. When Shaneways believes he has been discovered, he takes Doc Adams as hostage and leaves town. Matt is on the trail.

The way the con came together was quite interesting. But other than that discovery there is little this episode has to offer. There is one scene where Matt is being shot at while on the prairie. He tells the other person that they are too far away to hit him. Perhaps it was the camera angle but they appeared closer than a right rear-view mirror would have made them seem. Con was nice, not much else.

The set-up is a good one. Dillon watches as inexperienced banker Papp loans 20 thousand to gambler Shaneways on basis of a poker hand with four aces. Trouble is Dodge can't afford to lose that much from their bank, but how can they lose with four aces, especially when the bank is promised a profit of 4 thousand in return. Then again, Doc says he's seen the poker players before. So what's Matt going to do.

It's a clever premise, convincingly performed. Note that the script has substitute banker making the reckless loan and not regular banker Botkin who's away. That wrinkle makes such a big loan more believable. However, Dillon's strategy once the action moves to the prairie is rather hard to follow, maybe because of the murky staging. Nonetheless, the final scene makes revealing use of the big empty, the rolling plains of the Kansas frontier.