TV-14 | 30min | Western, TV Series | Episode aired 3 February 1958
When Wells Fargo is accused of stealing high grade gold ore from the Walking Mountain mine's wagons, Hardie is sent to the mine to investigate after another Wells Fargo investigator is killed in a mine accident after two days on the job.
Director: Sidney Salkow
Writers: N.B. Stone Jr., John Solon
Stars: Dale Robertson, Claude Akins, Dick Wessel
When Wells Fargo is accused of stealing high grade gold ore from the Walking Mountain mine's wagons, Hardie is sent to the mine to investigate after another Wells Fargo investigator is killed in a mine accident after two days on the job.
Director: Sidney Salkow
Writers: N.B. Stone Jr., John Solon
Stars: Dale Robertson, Claude Akins, Dick Wessel
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Where's Fred Harris, that new man? He was working there.
00:18I know, I saw him.
00:19I always said the top shoring wasn't strong enough.
00:22I had plenty of shoring.
00:37Around the mine, the new man had been known as Fred Harris.
00:40But his real name was Fred Henderson, an investigator for Wells Fargo.
00:46Come in.
00:49Oh, come in, Jim.
00:56This is Mr. Wilkins, co-owner of the Walking Mountain Mine.
00:58Jim Hardy, our special agent.
01:00How do you do, sir?
01:01Mr. Hardy, I understand you're to carry on the investigation at the mine.
01:05I'm told that's my assignment.
01:07This letter will introduce you to Mr. Jefferson, my partner.
01:10He supervises activities at the mine.
01:12I do the paperwork here in San Francisco.
01:15I see.
01:16Now, Mr. Jefferson will cooperate with you in every possible way.
01:20Naturally, being my partner, he's as anxious to stop this high-grading as I am.
01:25Mr. Wilkins, about how much ore would you say your mine was losing per month?
01:29Well, that's hard to say exactly.
01:32I would estimate in the neighborhood of about $5,000 a month.
01:38That much, huh?
01:40To some people, that might make stealing worthwhile.
01:43Yes, or even murder.
01:46Murder?
01:47You don't believe your investigator, Mr. Henderson, was murdered, do you?
01:51Well, I believe it's a possibility that bears investigation.
01:55How soon can you leave?
01:56Take the evening train for Sonora.
01:58Take it, and good luck, Jim.
02:02Good luck, Mr. Hardy.
02:03I'll do the best I can, Mr. Wilkins.
02:13I'll do the best I can, Mr. Wilkins.
02:15I'll do the best I can, Mr. Wilkins.
02:44Good morning.
02:45Morning.
02:46Is this the way to the Walking Mountain mine?
02:48Yep.
02:49After you pass them rocks up there, you take the path that leads out across the woods.
02:53You got about two miles to go.
02:55Are they doing any hiring out there?
02:57Yeah, today they are, because I just quit.
03:00Why's that?
03:01Well, I got a slave driver for a foreman.
03:04You won't last long out there, either.
03:06Nobody does.
03:08Thanks.
03:09And you better not try no high-grading.
03:12The foreman's a hard man to fool.
03:14I'll keep that in mind.
03:16Let's go.
03:40The reception wasn't altogether unexpected.
03:43If Fred Henderson was a Wells Fargo man, we'd be expecting another one.
03:56Mike!
03:57Come here a minute.
04:01Yeah, Mr. Jefferson?
04:03Smithson.
04:04Yes, sir.
04:05You're late again.
04:07I overslept, Mr. Jefferson. I... I'm sorry.
04:10The high-grading's still going on, Mike.
04:12How do you know?
04:13It's all in the report.
04:15The samples of ore taken from the mine show a higher gold content than the stuff received at the smelter.
04:21I can't figure it out, Mr. Jefferson.
04:23I'm with the men when they quit work.
04:25I... I watch them wash down. I search their clothes for nuggets.
04:28I don't know what else to do.
04:31Look, we got 15 men on the payroll.
04:33I can fire the whole lot of them, get a new crew. Maybe that'll stop it.
04:36I don't want to go to that extreme. We're short of men already.
04:39It's too hard to get them to work up here in the mountains.
04:41You think Wells Fargo could be stealing the high-grade ore?
04:44Well, I suggested that to Mr. Wilkins, but he didn't seem to think so.
04:56Hi.
04:57Good morning.
04:59You doing any hiring?
05:01Well, we're short a few men.
05:03Where'd you work before?
05:04The last chance mine, up in Colorado.
05:06Why'd they let you go?
05:08They didn't let me go. I quit.
05:10I wanted to see what California looked like.
05:14Well, do I get the job?
05:16All right, you start right away.
05:18This is Mike Phelps, my foreman. You take orders from him.
05:21Fix him up with a room in the bunkhouse and put him to work.
05:24Come on.
05:31In the future, Smithson, you get to work on time.
05:34Yes, sir.
05:37This is where you bunk.
05:42What'd you say your name was?
05:44I didn't say it.
05:46It's Hardesty.
05:48Jim Hardesty.
05:50I don't know how it was where you worked before, Hardesty,
05:52but we don't put up with high-gradin' here at the Walkin' Mountain.
05:55Just keep that in mind.
05:57I'll do that.
05:59After you get your gear put away, report to me and I'll get you started.
06:07Oh, Ed!
06:09Yeah, Mike?
06:11This is Hardesty, a new man. He's gonna work with you and Bill.
06:14Take him inside and show him what we expect.
06:16Let's go.
06:37Hey, wait a minute.
06:39We don't allow our men to have guns in the mine.
06:44You can pick it up after work.
06:47Let's go.
07:03The mine owners knew their best grade of ore was being stolen.
07:07High-grading, it's called.
07:09This meant trouble for Wells Fargo,
07:11unless they could prove the ore wasn't being stolen from their wagons.
07:15I had to find evidence that the ore was being stolen at the mine
07:19before it got to the wagons.
07:22Fred Henderson died trying to get that evidence.
07:29It didn't take much brains to be a hard rock miner.
07:33All you needed was a strong back and room on your hands for a family of calluses.
07:39This looks like pretty high-grade ore.
07:41Some of this ore is so rich it's got nuggets sticking out of it.
07:45I'll put your car outside.
07:47No, leave it here.
07:49It's getting near quitting time.
07:51No sense doing anything today than we can do tomorrow.
07:53Hey, peeps.
07:56All right, time to knock off.
07:58Go wash down your heads, too.
08:00I don't want you walking around with any of our gold dust in your hair.
08:11Bill, I catch you high-grading again,
08:39I'll make a hospital case out of you, so help me.
08:41I don't know how that nugget got in there.
08:43No, of course not.
08:44It just crawled under the collar and sewed itself there with not any help from anybody.
08:50Now, listen, you men.
08:52This high-grading is going to stop around here
08:54or they're going to fire the whole lot of us.
08:56First thing you know, they'll have a whole new crew and a new foreman.
08:59Only that ain't going to happen.
09:02Here's what we took out today, sir.
09:06Pretty good, huh?
09:07Well, it's all right.
09:10Yeah, what do you want?
09:12My gun. I'd like to get it back.
09:14All right.
09:16Give it to him.
10:32Hmm.
10:38A cartridge without gunpowder is about as useless as a saddle without a horse.
10:52Duds.
10:53Every one of them.
10:55During the day, someone got to my gun in the office,
10:57pried the lead out of each cartridge,
10:59dumped the gunpowder out, and stuck the lead back in.
11:19I'm going to get me a confounded bit and put it between my teeth.
11:22If I'm going to work like a horse, at least I'll look like one.
11:25All right, all right. Let's not be chewing the fat on company time.
11:35There goes a friendly cuss.
11:37He ought to be carrying a black snake whip.
11:39He's a lousy company man.
11:43Maybe.
11:46Why maybe?
11:48Somebody's been high-grading gold around here.
11:51I figure it's somebody that's free to wander around as he pleases.
11:55Don't you think?
11:57I don't get paid to think.
12:00It ain't healthy.
12:02Let's go.
12:21Why do you suppose they call this a walking mountain mine?
12:25There's a weak fault running through the mountain.
12:27Whenever a shaft hits a fault, you're likely to get a caved in.
12:30Unless the shaft is shored up plenty strong with big timbers.
12:34Whenever there's a cave in, it sounds like an earthquake.
12:36Like the mountain was walking.
12:38And just about every time she walks, somebody gets killed.
12:42Does it happen often?
12:44A fella got caught in a cave in last week.
12:46A friend of Harris.
12:48Poor guy had only been on the job a couple of days.
12:53How about showing me where the cave in happened?
12:55Why?
12:57Well, I'd like to know where the weak spots are.
12:59I don't want to wind up like that other fella did.
13:02Come on.
13:14Well, here's where it happened.
13:16Old roof fell in on him.
13:18The shoring was plenty weak.
13:21Well, he cleaned up and re-timbered after Harris was killed.
13:25What's this timber over here?
13:27Oh, some of the shoring got busted up during the cave in.
13:38The timber hadn't just busted, as Bill had put it.
13:41It had been cut halfway through.
13:43And whoever cut it murdered Fred Henderson as surely as if he'd fired a bullet through his head.
13:53Seems to me you're pretty curious about a lot of things around here.
13:57You just got an inquiring mind.
13:59All right, break it up, break it up.
14:01What's going on around here?
14:03Char was over five minutes ago.
14:05But none of you guys like it around here?
14:08Now get that oar moving before I fire the lot of you.
14:27Come on.
14:57Come on.
15:27Come on.
15:50Now what are you snooping around for?
15:53That goes clear through the mountain.
15:54An air shaft.
15:55Now what are you going to make about that?
15:57Nothing.
15:58Just thought I felt a draft.
16:25Look out below!
16:46You almost didn't holler soon enough.
16:49Sorry, it was an accident.
16:51Yeah.
16:56Come on.
17:07There's a lot of gold in the California mountains.
17:10Some of it lies in the beds of streams and is panned out as dust.
17:14But most of the gold is buried underground in the form of ore.
17:25Come on.
17:56Come on.
18:23Find what you're looking for?
18:26No.
18:29I think so.
18:31I figure I'm looking at the man that's been high-grading this ore.
18:34And the man that killed Fred Harris.
18:36Oh?
18:38What's a dead man like you going to do with information like that?
18:45That gun won't do you no good.
18:48Them bullets are all duds.
18:50Are they?
18:52Now you come with me, Mike.
18:55You've got an appointment with the sheriff to stand trial for murder.
19:00Let's go.
19:10Look out!
19:21Look out!
19:51Look out!
20:22Look out!
20:32Funny.
20:34There were times when I thought a case was closed.
20:37Then something like this would happen.
20:40I identified myself to Jefferson and told him what had happened.
20:44I suggested that a grading over the air shaft might keep their high-grading losses at a minimum.
20:49Smithson, take a couple of men and bring Mike's body out of the mine, will you?
20:56Well, Mr. Hardy, you can rest assured Mr. Wilkins and I will be eternally grateful for what you've done.
21:00Sure you won't stay and have dinner with us before you go?
21:03Thanks again. I've just got time to catch the evening train.
21:06Are you in a hurry to get back to San Francisco?
21:09I'm in a hurry to find out who Mike's partner is.
21:12Mike's partner?
21:14You think someone's in cahoots with him?
21:15While I was up on a hill with Mike, somebody rigged his shotgun to give me a dose of buckshot poison.
21:21I figured that would be Mike's partner.
21:23You see, this shotgun was bought in San Francisco.
21:27There's the manufacturer's name and serial number.
21:30A lot of business houses are starting to keep a record of customer sales.
21:34You think it's possible the manufacturer may have the customer's name?
21:37Either that or maybe I can find a clerk with a good memory for faces.
21:43People, where they came from, whatnot.
21:46Oh, I see.
21:48Well, thanks again, Mr. Jefferson.
21:58All right, let's get back to work.
22:12Hello, Los Fargo man.
22:34I took a shortcut.
22:36So I see.
22:38I was beginning to wonder if you were going to let me get away with your shotgun.
22:42No, I wouldn't let you do that.
22:45You know, I figure I'm going to lose a couple of thousand dollars a month on account of you.
22:50That's too bad.
22:52It goes that way sometimes. It's no one's fault, really.
22:55You were just doing your job.
22:58You're sure right about that.
23:00Still and all, when one man's responsible for another man taking a financial loss,
23:04that man should pay, financially or otherwise.
23:10Well, that's one way of looking at it.
23:13It's the only way, Hardy.
23:15I imagine you're wondering how I can talk so big when I'm not carrying a gun.
23:20When a man has a stiff arm, he either has a bad arm or a spring derringer up his sleeve.
23:26And no gun's as fast as a spring derringer.
23:30You know that?
23:32So I've heard.
23:35There's one thing you don't know.
23:38It's not always the fastest gun that wins.
23:41But the straightest.
24:05The local authorities took care of Jefferson.
24:08It delayed me a few hours, but I got away in time to board the afternoon train for San Francisco,
24:13where I knew they'd have another assignment waiting for me.
24:16They always have.
24:18For there's always another man somewhere who thinks he can make his pile the easy way.