An elderly circuit judge comes to Dodge to take care of its court docket, only to run into a group of old enemies -- outlaws who rob and kill people in their paths. No one has ever lived to give eyewitness testimony against the family. The judge soon learns that he himself is near death from a heart condition. When the gang goes free after still another set of murders, the judge contrives an ironclad way to get the entire group hanged.

Festus and the hermit come upon killer Gard Dixon dying in the desert, and when Festus helps him recover, the hermit forces both of them to tote water and gold dust.