Ward is reluctant but gets on the saddle. Seconds later, the horse unseats him and gets thrown against a fence.

           

Nick upbraids Heath for asking an inexperienced wrangler to ride an untamed horse. Seeing how Heath is already racked with remorse, he quickly apologizes.

     

Heath goes on to explain that he lent more than three hundred dollars to Ward because he felt sorry for the man who could never amount to anything. Victoria suspects Ward wants Heath to feel he owes him.

Later, Nora tells Heath that the doctor gave her the okay to bring Ward home. Even though Heath believes he should stay a while longer, she insists on returning to their house.

At that moment, Nick lumbers down the stairs and begins to sum up a list of chores, but Heath is far away, lost in his thoughts. Nick tries to reassure his tormented brother that Ward will be fine but Heath is not convinced.

           

Ward peers at the pair through the window. He suspects the two of getting too close, so he provokes his fall in order to make Heath feel more guilty about his condition. As Nora wheels Ward to their bedroom, Heath lays the hundred dollars on the table and leaves.

           

As days go by, Heath continues to do some fixing up at Ward's place, arousing the man's suspicions that Heath and Nora might be falling in love.

           

A man named Keel (Dennis Cross), shows up at Ward's place to claim the fifty dollars he still owes him, but is willing to forget about it seeing how he's incapacitated. Nora won't hear of it and gives him the money. Nora spurns Keel's advances and he forces himself on her just as Heath arrives to kick the man out.

           

In town, Nick drops by the saloon for a beer. Keel is sitting with two men, talking out loud about Heath, the half Barkley who's fooling around with an handicapped man's wife. Nick fumes and gets into a brawl to defend Heath's honor. Milt, the bartender (Harry Swoger), breaks up the fight by firing a shot in the air. With a split lip, Nick wobbles back to the bar and asks for his favorite medicine, a good glass of whiskey

           

Heath continues his fence mending at the Whitcoms' place while Ward stands by the window, jealously observing their every move.

Taking his seat back in the wheelchair, Ward invites Heath in for a drink. He laments over the fact that he'll never walk again, and that Nora and he can't depend on him forever. He tries to sell Heath on his scheme to invest in a timber company, and asks for five thousand dollars. Heath doesn't have that kind of money and won't ask his family for it either. Ward vindictively reminds Heath that he never asked to ride that wild bronco and that five thousand dollars is nothing compared to a new pair of legs.

           

Ward confronts Nora about her love for Heath but she firmly denies it. She leaves the house for an instant but quickly returns to find Ward standing on his legs. He forbids her to tell Heath about his condition and when she insists, he grabs her by the arm and starts choking her. She falls unconscious.

           

Ward stands from his wheelchair and aims his gun at Heath. Believing he killed Nora, he wants to make the sheriff think he shot Heath in a jealous rage when he found the two of them together. After feeling Nora's pulse, Heath tells Ward that she's still alive. When he gets closer to verify, Heath beats the gun out of him.

Days later, Heath helps Nora pack up her belongings for she's leaving her husband. Nora admits to Heath of being in love with him and that no matter how hard she tried to deny it, she couldn't. Down inside she wanted Ward to be the man Heath was.