Forty Rifles

In the second episode of The Big Valley series, Lee Majors may have made his entrance and shattered things in the Barkley household in the pilot, but he still has a long way to go toward acceptance.

Some of the hired hands resent him giving out orders like one of the other Barkley brothers like Peter Breck. But along comes a former Civil War general played by Andrew Duggan who Breck idolizes and asks him to accompany them on a cattle drive to San Diego from Stockton.

Lee Majors smells something fishy, even more so after Breck is shot and nearly killed and can't finish the drive. Duggan most assuredly has his own agenda and it involves turning the Barkley hired hands against Majors and making them his own men.

Of course it doesn't work out and Majors wins acceptance. Duggan is quite the colorful hero whose manner belies a touch of madness.

Heath really wins them over in this story.