 When Lucas rides over to Eban Muchen s ranch to deliver some supplies, he finds Muchen shot to death in his living room and his hired hand, Volney Adams, sitting near him, seemingly dazed. Adams claimed that he heard gunshots from the house and ran in to find Muchen dead and an intruder running away. However, since Adams is an ex-convict, no one in town believes him, and soon people are talking about hanging him, spurred on by a traveling medicine man and the local hangman.