- THE WAR OF THE SILVER KINGS
Original Airdate: September 22, 1957
Synopsis. Soon after arriving in the mining community of Echo Springs, Maverick wins a high-stakes poker game with Phineas King, the unscrupulous town magnate. King doesn’t take kindly to losing—he has Maverick beaten up, and later tries to have him killed. Knowing that King is as much a cheater as he is a millionaire, Maverick is determined to beat him at his own game.
“The War of the Silver Kings” establishes the key elements of Maverick’s character. Twice, Bret beats Phineas King by sheer bluff—he stayed in the poker game, and later won the game, by betting with an envelope filled with clipped newspaper; then he snows King into settling with the miners even though Maverick knew that the court had reversed the decision upholding the apex law. Upon accepting defeat, King thinks back and then realizes exactly how Bret did it. “It was guts, nothing but guts,” he said, with clear respect for Maverick’s abilities.
Synopsis. In the town of Hallelujah, outlaw Cliff Sharp breaks into Bret’s hotel room and plants evidence linking Maverick to a $40,000 robbery-and-murder scheme. After the town convicts him on circumstantial evidence, Bret faces the gallows. When greedy Sheriff Tucker offers to fake the hanging if Bret leads him to the stolen money, Maverick goes along with the ruse but ditches the sheriff at the first opportunity. When Bret discovers that Molly Clifford, Sharp’s wife (played by Whitney Blake) arrives in Hallelujah, he trails her to New Mexico in the hopes of finding the money and clearing his name.
Synopsis. David Frankham guest stars as “Captain” Rory Fitzgerald, a con artist acquaintance whom Bart encounters in Virginia City. Fitzgerald owes Maverick $4,000, but claims to be out of money. Bart becomes suspicious when he recognizes the glamorous “countess” whom Fitzgerald is escorting as Liz Bancroft, a card dealer from New Orleans. He later discovers that Fitzgerald and Bancroft are plotting to swindle wealthy Placer Jack Mason out of $200,000.
