This is one of those RMT episodes that dealt with a natural disaster of sorts, albeit with a few plot twists (other similar episodes like this I recall are "Blizzard of terror" and "Hurricane!").

This one involves a young confederate soldier returning war-weary to his home in Texas. He'd gone to the War between the states along with his father...but the father was killed in combat. The son is saddened that his mother has remarried...even though his father was killed he can't fully forgive her for taking up with another man for that time. His mother would like him to stay close to home but he can't bring himself to do so.

So he joins a cattle drive and heads out on the range. He sounds like one of the youngest of the grizzled bunch that will be on the drive, but can also take care of himself. He learns also that there's an adversary on the drive...another cowboy who may not be the nicest of sorts.

I'm not a film connoisseur, but I remember surfing on cable television one night and seeing a John Wayne film wherein he played a boss on one of these cattle drives and there was indeed a stampede. I don't know how the cinematographers did it all, but they caught the "mood" of the cattle (and their cowboy attendants) perfectly on a night when they were apparently easily spooked. One unfortunate cowboy went out an camped out at the edge of the group, and was trampled to death by the runaways...the camera angle caught exactly what he would have seen in his final moments on earth, and it was frightening. This episode seems to have the same elements, albeit in a radio version.

It also has one of the few what could be termed "off-color" jokes I've ever heard in the RMT. Paraphrased not long after the young man from Texas joins the drive, at chow time:



COOK: "Would you like me to throw a couple of them 'prairie oysters' on the grill?"

COWBOY: "Sounds good to me."



Pleaaghhhhh..... ops:
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