ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Originally Aired: October 30, 1956
Suspense #671, "Red Cloud Mesa," George Bowman operates the Red Cloud Trading Post on a remote Navajo reservation, where he considers the Indians his people and himself their friend. His isolation is shattered when Four Thumbs, a Navajo veteran who once served under him in France, arrives seeking sanctuary. Four Thumbs has escaped from the psychiatric ward of a Veterans Hospital after shooting a guard, and state trooper Arturo Fojillo is already searching the area for him. Bowman faces an agonizing choice between his duty as a law-abiding citizen and his loyalty to a man he once commanded—a soldier whose mind was shattered defending a position long after his platoon had been wiped out.
As Fojillo arrives at the trading post to investigate, Bowman must decide whether to turn in Four Thumbs or help him evade capture. The tension mounts as the trooper searches the premises while the elder Yellow Salt and other Navajos watch, their loyalties unclear. Caught between two worlds and two codes of honor, Bowman struggles with what it means to truly help a tormented warrior who has no place left to die.
