"The Velvet Trap"

(Original air date 11/07/66)
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An outlaw’s girlfriend tricks smitten Nick into killing her lover’s pursuer
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Writer: Don Ingalls

Director: Arthur H. Nadel

During a thunderstorm a stagecoach encounters trouble. A wheel breaks loose forcing the driver (Chuck Bail) to stop. While he and the men passengers help with the repairs, a woman wanders away to seek shelter from the storm.


In the distance she discerns a figure on a horse riding up to lend a hand. She panics at the face of the man and flees into the woods. The man (Kelly Thordsen)) recognizes her and a chase ensues. Luckily she accidentally bumps into Nick and collapses in his arms.


Back at the ranch, Nick relates the story of how he came to meet this girl in the woods while he was chasing after a stray. His brothers can’t help but tease him on the fairytale aspect of his account, believing Nick is laying it on a bit thick, that is until Sabrina Lynn (Laura Devon) herself lends credence to the story. The next day, Nick drives Sabrina to the hotel where she checks in. He works up the nerves to ask her on a date but she politely declines, leaving Nick broken hearted.


Out in the street Nick accepts a shooting challenge from two annoying neighbours, Skinny (David Richards) and Preston (Hank Brandt). From her hotel window, Sabrina witnesses Nick’s sharp-shooting skills.


While admiring his style, her eyes happen to catch sight of the man who pursued her in the woods last night. Overcome with despair she hurries downstairs to accept Nick’s offer of a picnic, much to the cowboy’s delight.


Nick brings his date to a romantic spot overlooking the majestic valley where he does some serious courting. She tells him about herself and her family, including the things she likes and what she believes brings her luck like hanging tiny bells above her front porch.
Back in town, the shady stranger watches Nick escort Sabrina to her hotel where she bids a final goodbye to Nick but he won’t accept it. He insists that she explains why she’s playing with his heart. She finally yields and feeds him a story of a man who fell madly in love with her after she agreed to come to his aid. He was insanely jealous and became possessive of her. He threatened to kill her if she so much looked at another man. She’s been running from this wanted killer for a year. The name Jack Floyd triggers Nick’s alarm. Everyone knows his reputation as a famous gunslinger. Nick intends to protect his lady at all cost.


Jarrod and Heath are against the idea of Nick defending a girl he barely knows. Heath knows Jack Floyd is a tough cookie with dozens of notches on his gun. But Nick’s mind is made up and even Victoria is powerless to sway his decision.
Late at night a stranger (Fred Beir) alights the stagecoach and meets with his lover, Sabrina. She gives him the key to her room with instructions to wait for her. She waits a few minutes before walking inside the hotel where Nick surprises her with an invitation to go riding under the moonlight. She reluctantly agrees and proposes that he meets her at ten o’clock with a saddled horse.


She then goes up to her room to fall into her lover’s arms. She informs him of the man who’s been pursuing her ever since she arrived in town. Her lover proposes to do away with him, but she has a better idea.
Sabrina goes to the man’s room and acts out the part of the spurned woman who wants to do away with her lover. She expects him to be at the livery stable at ten to gun him down.


When ten o’clock chimes in Nick goes to the stables to pick up Sabrina’s horse. There she warns him of Floyd’s presence. The man draws first but Nick is faster on the draw and guns him down.
At the sheriff’s office Nick and his brothers wait for news on Floyd’s condition. The sheriff (Michael Harris) returns from the doctor’s to inform the family that the man just passed away, but that contrary to what they believe, the man Nick shot wasn’t Jack Floyd. He was John Pierce who had been tracking Floyd’s whereabouts after he shot his brother in Arizona. He said that Sabrina Lynn is involved with Floyd, hence the reason why he’d been following her, convinced she would lead him to the gunslinger.
Nick won’t believe Sabrina has been lying to him. He wants to hear it from her and if true, then he intends to finish Pierce’s job.
At the hotel, Nick learns from the desk clerk (Richard Collier) that Sabrina Lynn already checked out.


He then rides out after the stagecoach to catch up with her. The driver tells him that she and a man got off earlier at the crossroads.
Nick continues his journey intent on finding Sabrina. In the distance he hears the jingle of tiny bells. He follows the sound to a beautiful house where he sees Sabrina in Floyd’s arms.


When they part, Nick follows her into the field to tell her he intends to finish Pierce’s job. As he marches to the barn to confront the man, Sabrina yells to warn him of Nick’s arrival. Floyd arms himself and waits for Nick to show up.


Meanwhile Sabrina grabs a rifle and sneaks behind a bale of hay to lend her lover a hand in killing Nick but instead gets Floyd’s bullet in the arm. In the commotion, Floyd drops his guard long enough for Nick to gun him down.
Days later, Nick gets the reward for killing the famous gunslinger but asks that the money go to John Pierce’s widow instead.



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