Bets were being taken on whether Dooley Delaware (Strother Martin) could walk a wire strung one hundred feet across a canyon with a three-hundred-foot drop. The bookmaker was giving odds of five to one against that he wouldn't make it. Most of the citizens of Salamander City thought Dooley wouldn't make it because of how dangerous it was. Because sentiment was so strong in that direction, the odds really should have been five to one for Dooley's success in walking the wire, since it was felt he wouldn't make it.