The premiere episode of Have Gun, Will Travel finds cultured gunslinger Paladin (Richard Boone) already headquartered at a fancy hotel in San Francisco, casually thumbing through a pile of newspapers in search of an assignment. Heading to New Mexico, he offers his services to wealthy rancher Jesse Reade (Harry Shannon), accepting his usual thousand-dollar fee to head South of the Border to rescue Reade's daughter Nancy (Janice Rule) from the clutches of bandit Dave Enderby (a pre-Hawaii Five-O Jack Lord). Risking his life to infiltrate the outlaw-controlled town of Perdido, Paladin finds that Nancy is in no mood to be rescued; she is in love with Enderby, and in fact is now the bandit's wife. Now Paladin must figure a way to disillusion Nancy and prove Enderby to be a thorough rat--and to escape safely from Perdido in the process.
by Hal Erickson
synopsis