The tension was almost unbearable....

I was clicking through the channels on the tv last night, something I usually don't do, but I was tired and thought some mundane tv program would be the perfect solution to put me into a deep sleep.

I usually look for the religious channels. The droning of some tv evangelist usually is the equivalent of taking 20 sleeping pills.

But as I was clicking my way toward my destination I stumbled upon the opening scene of an old Western series. It was black and white and showed this mean-looking cowboy walking toward the camera, rifle in hand. The rifle had this big loop for the lever action. The guy gets closer and closer and he has a very grim look on his face. Suddenly he drops into a crouch and starts working that lever like lightning -- blam! blam! blam! blam! blam! blam! blam! blam! blam! blam! blam! blam! blam!

Holy crap! Thirteen friggin' shots! By now I was on the edge of my seat. After the shooting was over they guy turns and looks right into the camera and the words....THE RIFLEMAN are written across the screen.

I knew this was going to be a show worth watching and all thought of sleep left me as though thirteen shots rang through the air.

As it turns out, the rifleman is this rancher, living with his son. The kid is about 10 years old. I'm not sure why there wasn't a wife around. I surmised she may have been killed in an earlier episode.

This particular episode starts with Lucas (the rifleman) and Mark working on a fence. They engage in this typical father-son talk, stuff about getting the fences ready for winter, making sure all the cattle are counted, that sort of stuff. As they are chattering away the music starts to get really sinister and the camera pans to a grove of trees about fifty yards away. There sits a man on a black horse. The man is dressed in dark clothing and is very unkempt. He has a five o'clock and there are several scars on his face. He watches Mark and Lucas.

This looks bad, I'm thinking to myself, but then the camera switches back to Mark and Lucas and they are wrapping things up for the day. They head back to the house and pretty soon they are sitting at the table eating supper. By now I have forgotten all about the dark stranger, so engrossed was I in the father/son conversation that was now taking place.

But then the door opened and, just like that, the dark stranger was standing there with gun in hand. Lucas had his cup halfway to his mouth. He froze and then took a sideways glance at his rifle which was leaning against the wall on the other side of the room.

"Don't even think about it, McCain", the stranger growled.

So that was the rifleman's last name, I thought. McCain. Kind of a cool name.

Now the stranger was looking at Mark and I swear to God it looked like that kid was ready to crap his pants. The stranger takes a length of rope and tells Mark to tie up his old man.

Lucas says, "Do as he says, son."

So Mark ties Lucas to the chair as the stranger watches. Afterwards the stranger checks the knots, all the while aiming his gun at the kid, and, satisfied that the knots were secured, he orders the kid to turn around and then ties him up and roughly pushes him against the wall, where the kid collapses.

Then the guy walks over to Lucas and starts talking. It turns out that the guy had just been released from prison where he had served 10 years for cattle rustling and it was Lucas' testimony that put the guy behind bars. He had thought of nothing else while he was in prison but killing McCain once he got out. And now the time was here.

"I'm gonna enjoy this", the stranger says, as he begins to raise his gun to shoot McCain.

At this point I had my hands covering my face and I was peering between my fingers. My heart was pounding and my shirt was drenched. How could this bastard shoot McCain in front of his son?, I thought.

But then the camera switches to Mark and the kid was undoing the knots in his rope. The stranger hadn't tied him securely. Now the kid was free and was pretending he was still tied up, all the time eyeing the rifle in the corner.

You have to realize at this point everything was moving very fast. The bad guy is just about to shoot. The kid makes his move. He lunges for the rifle and yells, "Pa!" as he throws the rifle toward his father.

But the kid forgot his pa was still tied up, and the rifle hits the old man's shoulder and falls harmlessly to the floor. The bad guy starts laughing at the kid and goes to shoot him, but Lucas lunges forward in his chair, knocking the bad guy to the ground, the kid races over, grabs the rifle and shoots the guy right in the head while he is struggling to get up.

The show ends with Lucas and Mark burying the guy out by a rock pile and Mark is upset about taking a man's life, but Lucas puts his arm around him and says, "Remember son, there comes a time when you have to kill."

Then the credits start rolling.

It was just an excellent damn show.

Has anyone seen that particular episode?