'Ordeal'
Episode 48
Mark and I had gone out into the dessert to get salt for the winter. "Whew! Pa, you think that next year we can afford to buy our own meat salt instead of comin' out 60 miles into the dessert to dig it?" "I hope so son. I don't fancy digging in this dessert heat anymore then you do. Right now it's a matter o
f dollars and cents." "How far towards home do you figure we can get today?" Ask's Mark. "Oh, I'd say about 20 miles or so."
I thought I'd set the water keg on back of the buckboard. I thought it would be easier for us to get to. All of a sudden a rattler spooked our horses. They took off and I went after them. Mark came running behind. I jumped on the wagon. But I couldn't stop it. The wagon hit a bump and it threw me off of the back of it. I rolled down the hill and slammed my side into a rock. The wagon broke away from the horses and tumbled down the hill. "Pa," yelled Mark, as he came running to help me. I tried to set up slowly. I had the wind knocked out of me and my side hurt. "I'm alright Son. Mark you go, go check the team. I'll see if the wagon can be fixed. Go on Son." I checked the wagon out. We had two broken wheels and a broken axle. I asked him how the team was. The one horse's leg was broken. Mark knew that I would have to shoot the horse. I told him I had no other choice. "I know Pa. How are we going to make 60 miles of dessert with one horse and no wagon?" I looked over the dessert. I told Mark it wouldn't be easy. I couldn't let him know how concerned I was. I told Mark to unharness the horse and I went over to do the same to the one with the broken leg. I looked over at Mark. He was watching me, then turned to finish what he was doing. I shot. Mark paused for a moment. "Well, we better get ready. We got one barrel of water left," I said. The sun was immensely hot. I looked over the dessert in front of me. It was a long way to walk. Possibly 6 or 7 days to the nearest water hole. There wasn't much chance of meeting anybody. I turned and looked ahead of me too. This looked like a much better trail. It looked like 1 or 2 days to the base of the mountain. I thought I remembered a water hole in that area. We could fill out canteens, and then it's another day or so until all the water we need. "We'll head for those mountains Son." Mark finished unharnessing the horse as I gathered our things up. We were alone. Little did we know the 'Ordeal' that lay ahead for us.
"Boy, I'm full up to here," said Mark, as his touched his chin. "Can't squeeze in another drop?" I asked. "No sir, there's plenty left for you," as he handed me a pot of water. I took off my hat and filled it with water. I told Mark to give the horse a drink. We all got our fill of water, that is for now. I told him to take off his hat. I then took the water left in my hat and poured it over him. "Hey," he said. "Evaporation Mark, we gotta keep our body from loosing water. This will slow down the ole' sun for a couple of hours." I told Mark we'd come back for the salt, we still needed it to salt our meat for the winter. We headed out. We traveled for sometime. Mark on horseback and me walking. My side was starting to bother me more. Mark was watching me and could tell. Suddenly Mark said, "Hold up, Pa." I asked him if something was wrong. "You know what you always told me about..... lying? Well, ah, your sides really hurtin' isn't it?" I assured him it was just sore and bruised. I told him to get back on the horse. He told me it was my turn to ride and if I didn't ride, he wasn't riding. I told him to have it his way and we both walked. We bedded down for the night. It got really windy and a sandstorm started up. This spooked our horse. It took off and Mark after it. The sandstorm got so bad that I couldn't see which way he or the horse went. "Mark, come back here." I kept calling to him, but no answer. I couldn't hear or see a thing. Suddenly I heard him holler, "I'm over here behind the rock." I kept following his voice. I finally found him. I got behind the rock and shielded Mark from the storm. We stayed there for the night.
We finally got to the water hole that I had told him about. It was dried out. We had to go on. We started traveling up the mountains. They were hard to climb, really rocky. We we're having a hard time. I took Mark and helped him to get in front of me. While climbing, Mark loosened a rock and it fell hard on my foot. I could hardly walk on it. I tied my handkerchief to the muzzle of my rifle so I could use it for a cane. As I looked over the dessert, I told Mark it would probably be two, two and a half days. We kept moving. We went quite a ways and I could hardly go anymore. My foot was thrombin' and I couldn't walk on it. I decided we'd stop for the night. I told Mark to take a drink and get some rest. I couldn't let him know I didn't drink anything. I needed to save what we had for him. Mark didn't know it but I planned on him going on without me. While Mark slept I took all the water I had, except for a few drops, and put it into Mark's canteen. I put my food that I had left and put it in Mark's bag. I took my bag and started to write a note to Micah: Dear Micah, These maybe my last words written. I know you will love him as if he were your own. So I leave my son in your care. Raise the boy right, Micah. Lucas I woke Mark up. I told him he would have to make it for both of us. He was surprised when I told he would have to go on alone. "Alone! No, I can't leave ya'." "A man's got to use his head when things get rough. If I was to try it with this foot, neither one of us would make it." He didn't want to go. I told him there was plenty of food and water left for him to make it and enough for me if I lay there in the shade. I'd wait there for him to bring back help. He was scared. I assured him there was nothing wrong with that. "A smart man knows when he's scared." I gave him the note I wrote Micah and told him to put it in his pocket. I told him it was directions on how to get to where I was. I gave him his food and his canteen. I told him to take a drink. I already had mine. I told him to take a drink every now and then and slosh it around in his mouth and then swallow it. I told him when he's walkin', he should keep his pace steady and regular. Not to run, it would only slow him down. I told him to walk for an hour or so and then sit down and rest about five or 10 minutes. That would get him more miles then walkin' those minutes will. I showed him a group of jagged peaks. I told him that's due northeast. I told him to always keep them in a direction line with the top of the mountains behind us. I told him that would head him to the Allen Ranch. I grabbed him and asked him if he remembered it. He nodded his head and then hugged me. I told him he better get started before the sun climbed any higher. We smiled at each other and then he started to leave. I called to him, "Mark, take the rifle." "No, no I won't take it, please don't make me." I told him there was nothing here in the dessert that I needed protection from. "Well then, I don't need it either. I won't take it Pa, please don't make me." He felt strong about not taking it. Like he was reading my mind. I thought taking the rifle made him feel that I thought I wasn't going to make it. I sent him on his way without the rifle. I watched him slowly fade out of sight. But before he did I saw him wave to me.
The buzzards were flying over head. Just waiting. Coyotes howling and waiting. They all wanted to get in on the feast, me. I wasn't about to let them have me without a fight. I started shooting and shooting and shooting. It had to be hard for my boy. He did good. He remembered about resting and what I said about keeping the mountains inline with each other. He ran out of water. He had to keep struggling, pushing himself. He almost made it to the Allen Ranch, but he collapsed. He heard two cowboys working on the edge of the Allen Ranch. They were putting up a fence up. He got up and walked farther, but again he collapsed. He cried out with a weak help and then another. Still no one heard him. The one cowboy thought he heard something. He turned and looked around. He couldn't see Mark. He asked the other cowboy if he heard anything. He said, "just the wind". Mark kept trying to reach them. They finished there and decided to head out to the north range. Just as they were leaving Mark hollered again. They heard him this time. They looked around and saw him lying in the ground. They rushed over and tended to him. They rushed over to him.
Mark brought one of the cowboys to help find me. When they got there there was a bunch of vultures all feasting on something. Mark saw my rifle lying on the ground. He jumped off his horse and picked it up. The cowboy shot in the air to chase away the vultures. Mark stood there, grasping my rifle, worried, waiting and watching. The cowboy had gone over to check out the situation. He told him it was a coyote. "But where's my Pa. Where can he be?" The cowboy found a trail from me dragging myself. They started to follow it. "There he is", yelled Mark. "Pa, oh Pa." As Mark reached me I mumbled, "Raise the boy right Micah, raise the boy right." "It's me Pa, me. We made it Pa. We made it."
Piddlin' stuff.....Hank Stohl played The cowboy at the end of the episode.
He's one of the Cowboy's that found Mark. The one who went with Mark to get Lucas. He also appeared in 'Death Trap' as Britt.
This is a great story! It truly shows the love between a father and a son. From Mark walking when his father wouldn't ride and from Lucas giving Mark his food and water. Thinking only of each other!!!!!
Here is a great article about "The Rifleman" — October 1959 TV Guide
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