Rawhide

- Season 8

(1965)

One of Rowdy's drovers is killed and another wounded trying to stop a lynching. Looking for justice for his men, Rowdy runs into a town run by a power hungry sheriff and deputy, who are protecting the father and son who did the shooting.

Jed convinces Rowdy against his better judgment to hire Danny Hawks who is riding an expensive stallion. Danny proves to be a capable drover but when Nat Benson wants Danny and the stallion handed over, Rowdy finds himself in a bind.

Rowdy is a week late to start a drive with a tight deadline. If they make the it, a big bonus awaits. However, Rowdy has to take Lash Whitcomb as his Segundo. Lash drives the men hard but near the end Rowdy learns why Lash is on the drive.

While checking a mine, it caves in on Quince and Blake trapping them. One of the drovers noticed old explosives nearby. He and his friend offer to blow the mine open for $500. However, the two men prove to be as unstable as the explosive.

Short on men Rowdy encounters Chiricahua Indians led by a white chief. Against the advice of his men, Rowdy hires them to help drive the herd to the river for a few cattle. Unsure of his new hands a band of Pawnee add to the intrigue.

Rowdy makes a deal to buy horses from the Gufflers. When he finds the horses are poor quality and wants his money back, Ma Guffler wants her money. She takes Rowdy hostage threatening to hang him at sundown if she doesn't receive $3,000.

The men buy 200 cattle to take north so the drovers can make some cash for themselves. However, Col. Vasquez takes the cattle giving them 40,000 pesos from a rogue government. Jud tries to recover their money but ends up with Mrs. Vasquez.

The herd needs cover from a potential storm but the only cover is owned by a widow who is a suffragette. She is in a battle with the bar owner and mayor of Broken Bluff. They want the drovers to vote against the women in return for help.

After he is shot at, Jed returns to camp to find a US Marshal wants him for murder but he was cleared. Jed decides to run so the Marshal arrests Rowdy for helping him. Jed turns himself in to clear Rowdy but his fate is less certain.

The sadistic top hand of the rancher Rowdy is delivering cattle to bullies and humiliates one of the drovers when the young man shows interest in the rancher's daughter. Despite Rowdy and Jed's attempts to talk him out of it, the young drover is determined to avenge his honor with a duel.

Rowdy fights to drive his steers across the Red River without getting into a range war between ruthless carpetbagger Duke Aberdeen, and Southern gentleman Major Buford. A raid into Pennsylvania ravaged the Duke's town. Most of Rowdy's crew fought for the Confederacy - but they don't want to chomp on the past. So when Buford's son Court ground-drags one of the Duke's hired guns, Rowdy cuts the rope. Because Court's mother died after their Virginia plantation was torched, the young hothead wants revenge. Rowdy's agreed to take Buford's beef into his herd. Duke controls ...

When a detachment of army cavalry requisitions a hundred head of cattle from the drovers, Rowdy attempts to get reimbursed by the army. To his chagrin, he discovers the cavalry officers are really cattle rustlers.

Rowdy hires a drunk to lead the herd across a dangerous river. The man is afraid, fakes an injury, and tries to sell a third of Rowdy's herd to a conman. Rowdy helps the young son to cope with his father by talking about his own father.