Mon, Oct 11, 1971
Kitty finds and reads a letter from Doc Adams, who has disappeared from Dodge. Doc writes that he was so distraught over the death of a young girl under his care, who was suffering from an illness he didn't know how to treat, that he has gone East to re-enter medical school and catch up on something other than surgery for bullet wounds. (This was actually a ploy to give Milburn Stone, who had suffered a heart attack in the off season, time to fully recover.) Soon a new doctor, Dr. John Chapman, arrives. Chapman is a highly cultured, very standoffish New Orleans dandy. The townspeople treat him with disdain and refuse to see him. Chapman pretends not to care, but his feelings are deeply hurt. It takes an explosion at Newly's gun shop -- and a bone fragment pressing on Newly's brain, causing him to have hallucinations and become a dangerous maniac -- to get people to turn to Chapman for help.
Mon, Nov 8, 1971
Lijah, an itinerant mountain man, happens on three murdered members of the Ezra Parker family, and discovers the lone survivor, ten-year-old Rachel Mae, hiding in the root cellar. As Lijah is burying the family, Hale Parker, Rachel Mae's shiftless uncle, comes on the scene. In a struggle with the supposed killer Lijah, Hale is knocked unconscious. Lijah leaves and takes Rachel Mae with him to rescue her from unseen danger. Hale revives and makes his way to Dodge City where he tells his story. Matt organizes a posse and rides out to see what's what.
Mon, Jan 10, 1972
Mando is an outlaw in Mexico who seriously wounds Matt and leaves him to die in the desert. Hidalgo controls nearly all of the small town where Matt finds refuge, and nobody will stand up to him. Matt is determined to kill or capture Hidalgo for his crimes, but is so weak from his injuries he has to prop himself upright with the saddle horn of his horse.