The Night of the Hangman - Recap

Jim and Artie are aboard the Wanderer as it passes through Kansas. The train stops at the town of Kirby Gap with two hours until sunset and the agents decide to take in the town while they wait. The townspeople are celebrating the shipment of the last herd of cattle from the Rawlins ranch. Jim and Artie approach as rancher Amos Rawlins congratulates everyone and offers a celebratory feast on behalf of himself and his wife Eugenia. Eugenia comes up to join her husband and thanks the townspeople.

As the crowd disperses, Artie suggests that they join the party and the agents join the line. Meanwhile, one of the townspeople, banker Roger Creed, approaches the Rawlins and insists that they’re spoiling their workers. Amos disagrees and invites him to join them. As they talk, Rawlins drops his cane and bends over. A shot rings out and a bullet hits Amos in the head. A man runs off and a woman, Abigail Moss, yells that he shot Amos and she tried to stop him. She shows Jim and Artie the pocket that she ripped from the killer’s jacket. The agents go after the killer, who runs up the stairs to a second-floor room. Jim goes after him while Artie circles around the back. When Jim bursts in, he finds a man sitting on the bed, a gun in his hand and a pocket torn from his jacket. Jim takes the gun from him and informs him that he’s under arrest for murder.



Two days later, the killer, Lucius Brand, is put on trial. The prosecutor, Franklin Poore, sums the up the case by saying that Lucius’ real target was Creed. Abigail identifies Lucius as the killer and Jim testifies to finding him with the fired gun in his hand and the patch torn from the coat. Creed explains that his bank loaned Lucius money for his farm and then foreclosed when the drought hit, and Lucius threatened to kill him.



Lucius finally takes the stand and says that he woke up just before Jim burst in, after he had sent his wife to live with her family. Poore points out that as a farmer, it was unusual that he slept until noon. Lucius claims that he had too much to drink the night before. He doesn’t remember any torn pocket on his coat and admits that the gun is his, but insists that he didn’t fire it. The jury quickly finds Lucius guilty and Judge Blake orders him to be transferred to prison to awaiting hanging in two days. Lucius tries to make a run for it but Jim easily stops him. Sheriff Jonas Bolt fires a shot anyway and narrowly misses, much to Jim’s surprise and anger. As Lucius is taken out, his pregnant wife blames Jim for her husband’s pending execution and insists that Lucius is innocent.

As the agents head back for the train, Jim admits that it bothers him that it was an open-and-shut case. Artie points out a few obvious flaws in the case and they decide to go see Lucius and offer their help. He doesn’t see the point but tells them that he had dinner the previous night at the Kirby Gap Hotel, then drank with a couple of cowhands from the Rawlins ranch. He passed out and woke up just before Jim busted in. Lucius saw the gun on the floor and picked it up, and wore the coat the night before. When Jim wonders why he woke up, Lucius says that he was awakened by a nightmare of a train bearing down on him. As the agents leave, Lucius asks what they’re going to do about it Jim says they have two days to think of something.



Jim and Artie go to Lucius’ hotel room and search the place. Artie seemingly disappears but then speaks up and Jim follows his voice to a speaker pipe mounted behind the bed. He directs Jim to sit on a chair and move the arm panel, and Jim is shot up into the attic where Artie is waiting. The agents figure the real killer used the chair to escape, and Artie finds a sound-maker device that duplicate a train engine. As they prepare to go back down, the agents discover that someone has set the building on fire. Jim fires a spike into the ceiling and they lower themselves out the window to safety. They run away just as the attic explodes.

Later, Jim talks to Blake, Poore, and Bolt and tells them what happened. He admit that the evidence was destroyed in the fire but asks for a few more days. Blake agrees but Bolt objects, warning that a stay without evidence could cause a riot. The judge quickly agrees with the sheriff and tells Jim to prove Lucius’ innocence.

Back at the train, Artie is examining daguerreotypes from the celebration. One of them shows Abigail grabbing the pocket from the killer’s jacket. The killer’s face isn’t visible on the plate, but Artie has found a balloon that was released one second after the shot was fired. The agents figure that the balloon was a signal to the real killer in the attic. The killer fired the shot and then woke up Lucius. Jim has Artie blow up the photo of the balloon hawker so that they can identify him, and Jim goes to see him while Artie talks to Abigail.



Posing as a reverend, Artie goes to Mrs. Peacock’s Boarding House where Abigail is staying. He asks Mrs. Peacock for information but she says that she’s too busy and slams the door. However, when Artie tells her to inform her mother when she returns, Mrs. Peacock falls for his flattery and invites him in. However, she’s less than happy with Abigail and starts to explain, once Artie agrees to sample her wretched ragout.

Jim goes to the novelty company where the balloon hawker works and enters through a window.

Mrs. Peacock continues to serve Artie ragout until he can get her back on track. She tells him that Abigail left early that morning and said that her uncle had left her some jewels. The landlady rambles on for awhile until Artie finally gets to explain that Abigail is taking the noon stage and it hasn’t left yet. The agent runs out after telling Mrs. Peacock that he doesn’t want anymore of her ragout.



Jim looks around the novelty store and finds two small pieces of pipe that go together to make a small derringer-like device capable of holding a single bullet. Three men come in and attack Jim, who makes short work of them. He hears a door slam in the back office and goes in, but discovers that the door is closed. Another sound-maker is on the shelf. The first door closes behind Jim, sealing him in, and poison gas pour out of a wall ornament. Jim grabs a windup drummer, attaches a piece of explosive from his heel, attaches it to the drummer, and sends it to the door. The explosive detonates on impact, blasting the first door open, and Jim makes his escape.

Artie, posing as Henrick the jewelry salesman, gets on the road ahead of the stage that Abigail is using. The driver takes him on and Artie seats himself across from Abigail. He then slides open one of the drawers of jewelry and finally catches Abigail’s attention. Artie then tells her to stay away and claims he doesn’t have any jewels, and then apologizes for his overreaction. He shows her a ring and Abigail shows him one of the jewels she received from her “uncle.” Artie tells her that it’s costume jewelry and Abigail figures that her employer betrayed her. When the stage arrives in the next town of Paradise Flats, Abigail catches the next stage back to Kirby Gap. Artie slips away and then releases a messenger pigeon from his fake jewelry case and sends a note to Jim.



At the Wanderer, Jim is examining the pipe derringer when the pigeon arrives with the message that Abigail is coming back. He goes to watch her as she enters Poore’s office and angrily argues with the attorney. Another man is in the room but Jim can only make out his left hand. Poore slaps Abigail and then the other man closes the drapes. Jim goes over and enters the office, but no one is inside. As he looks around, Poore comes in through the front door. Jim accuses him of paying Abigail to lie in court and says they’re going to talk to Blake. The attorney agrees but then his thugs come in and knock Jim out, and then take him through a secret doorway

Artie arrives at the Wanderer and Mrs. Brand comes in with a gun. She says that her and her unborn child have been waiting for him and she is going to kill Artie and then Jim for what they did to her husband. Artie tells her that he has the evidence that will clear Lucius’ name and tells her to help him with his daguerreotype projector. Surprised, Mrs. Brand agrees and Artie projects two daguerreotypes. In each one a man on a horse is visible, and Artie uses a series of grids to show that the horseman was positioned such that the fake Lucius couldn’t have shot him. The agent leaves for Poore’s office to show him the evidence clearing Lucius.



In the secret office, Poore’s men suspend a lamp from the ceiling and tie Jim up beneath it. The attorney spreads lantern oil on the floor around and then puts a burning candle beneath the rope suspending the lamp. Poore departs with his men and Jim tries to get free.

Artie arrives and uses a chessboard to show Poore and Creed how Lucius couldn’t have killed Rawlins. Poore draws a gun and takes Artie into the hidden office. They tie him up with Jim and leave, and the agents quickly use Jim’s hidden collar knife to cut Jim free. He gets loose just in time to catch the lamp as it falls and then frees Artie. As they leave, Jim notices an umbrella in a stand that has a handle identical to the pipe derringer he found. The umbrella belongs to Eugenia, who comes in through a secret door with her own thugs. She informs them that she hates the town and hated her husband. The agents make quick work of her thugs, capture Eugenia, and take her to save Lucius. As they go out, Artie notices the chessboard and realizes that he used a queen—the most powerful piece in the game.



Later, Jim and Artie invite Lucius and his wife to join them at the train for a celebration. The couple thank them for their efforts and share a toast. Jim explains that Eugenia was the daughter of a wealthy men who went bankrupt. Since she hated Amos, she approached Creed to help her. Poore ran the rest of the show in return for half of Amos’ wealth and Creed’s political backing. Lucius ask them to change the daguerreotype showing Amos’ murder. When Jim does so, he finds that the next daguerreotype shows an attractive woman. Artie is smitten until Jim explains that it’s Abigail under one of her many aliases and disguise. He assures his partner that if he wants to see her, visiting hours at the prison are the first Monday of every month.

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