The episode begins when Lucas hears something outside and finds a badly injured Cavalry officer that has deserted. Lucas mends the officer's injury only to find that a group of troops are outside with the intentions of taking the officer back to their unit for a court martial.
Since the troops are stationed outside of North Fork, the officer over the troops, Major Dalmer, uses the North Fork jail to house the deserter. When Lucas comes to town he finds that the officer has had no medical treatment and begins to question the Major's command. All this does is lead Lucas down a road where the Major begins a campaign to make sure his command is never questioned.
An entertaining story that could had continued well after the allotted thirty minute time limit. Robert Cornthwaite was excellent playing the Major with the idea that his word is always right. Plus it was nice to see Harry Carey Jr in a role that looked made for him. Good watch.