 Ranger Bill, warrior of the woodland, struggling against extreme odds, traveling dangerous trails, fighting the many enemies of nature. This is the job of the guardian of the forest, Ranger Bill, pouring rain, freezing cold, blistering heat, snow, floods, bears, rattlesnakes, mountain lions. Yes, all this in exchange for the satisfaction and pride of a job well done. What's given me a vision? The one-wire fence is a tool of the devil. President, it's our duty to see that young Bradshaw doesn't put that one-wire fence up. Unfortunately, there are men still living in our modern world who have taken certain liberties with the scriptures and interpret God's word according to their own liking. The voice you just heard is that of Jeremiah Sykes, self-appointed leader and prophet of an isolated area called Elk Mesa. It wasn't too many years ago that Jeremiah was the leader of one of the bloodiest range wars the West has ever seen, and he and his clan held off the invaders and retained control of Elk Mesa. But now Jeremiah has overlooked one thing or two, youth and progress. The dreams of the young empower them to tackle obstacles that would floor an older man. Such was young Herb Bradshaw, son of Jack Thunder Bradshaw. Thunder Bradshaw got his name from the range war days. He said he could shout a man to death or thunder him down with his guns. Well, right now, Herb and his dad are out at the old Conklin spread on Elk Mesa. Let's find out what happens in the story, The One Wire Fence. Son, you mean to say that you want to start out on your own with this rundown ramshackled spread way up here in Elk Mesa? Yeah, that's what I want, Dad. I don't understand, son. Your dad's the richest rancher this side of Central City, and I'd be glad to start you out on a decent spread. How'd you start out, Dad? With bare land, the sweat of my brow and the best gun hand in the valley. Well, that's the way I want to start. Maybe not with the best gun hand, but with nothing. Build it up just like you did. You sent me to college to learn scientific ranching and animal husbandry. Well, now I want to build my own cattle empire. Well, I guess you wouldn't be Thunder Bradshaw's son if you didn't. I can't stop you because it's in your blood. I'll have my lawyer drop the papers and I'll settle the back taxes and buy the lease, and then you can start to work. Thanks, Dad. Thanks a lot. I should thank you, son, for making me so proud of you. There's just one thing about this place you ought to know. Jeremiah Sykes? That's it, son. There isn't any reason I should have trouble with him, is there? I hope not. The range war's been over and done with almost 30 years now. You were just a wee smidgen when your old dad's guns and Jeremiah's guns thundered across this country. Well, there's no reason for range war today. Maybe so, but don't you underestimate Jeremiah Sykes and his clan? Jeremiah walks around with a Bible in his left hand and a sharp shooting rifle in the other, and put a bullet through your one minute, then pray over you the next. What do you make of it, Paul? Looks like the spirit of the Lord moved into the Conklin Place. It was about to fix it up, young'un. Yeah, it sure looks that way, Paul. Who do you reckon it is beside the spirit of the Lord? Mind your tongue, young'un. In a few days, we'll drop in neighborly like and have a look-see. I reckon we will, if you say so, Paul. Let me have another look into them glasses. Yeah. Hey, Paul, I got news for you. All right, Luke. Speak it out. You know who it is that bought the Conklin Place? No, young'un. The Lord ain't giving me no visions about that yet. I recognize him now. It's her Bradshaw. You sure about that? I sure am for certain. Well, I can see him and Shorty Petcher riding in there with their horses and a lot of gear. What do you think of that, Paul? He ain't doing no harm, but if and he does, the spirit of the Lord will direct my past to destroy them that tries to move a Guinness. How come we're taking the long way back to town? I want to stop and see how her Bradshaw is making out, Paul. Hey, that's right. He's got the old Conklin Place now. He sure has, honey. Lock, stock, and barrel. And there ain't much lock, stock, nor barrel. Have to give the young fella credit, though. Thunder Bradshaw is a plenty wealthy man. Herb could have an easy life, but he's a chip off the old block. Only there's one chip I hope he hasn't acquired. You mean a fast gun and a straight shot? I guess that ranged war was pretty bad, wasn't it? Plenty bad. Well, there's Herb Spread Now. Company. I'll say quite a bit of company. There's my eyesight field. Your eyesight isn't failing, old timer. That's right up slow and easy. Find out what's going on. Spirit of the Lord will punish you for interfering with our neighborly visit to your young and ranched under Bradshaw. Don't try and pull that stuff off on me, Jeremiah. You blame Almighty God for everything you do. Why don't you stop the fraud and act like a man once? Almighty God isn't going to have anything to do with the likes of you. And if you don't- The Spirit of the Lord will take your- Close your blaspheme in the app and listen to me once, will ya? That's better. That's for your neighborly visit. Well, I think you're just nosing around and you better vanmose out of here. We come here to visit your youngin. Not you. Maybe I better leave, Jeremiah, before you and dad get so riled up there's trouble. I reckon he's right, Paul. Let's get. There's too many Bradshaw cowpokes around here for us to whip anyhow. All right, youngin. Don't you push me too far, Thunder. Well, there'll be some new graves in that Cemetery of Yawn over Yonder. Just a minute, Jeremiah. He comes from. We're party. I- I allowed you how you must've come right up out of the ground, Mr. Jefferson. Where'd you fellas come from? Not out of the ground, her. We just rode in quietly and listened. Well, welcome to my spread. Thanks. Jeremiah. I heard the threat you made. You heard a right. The Spirit of the Lord's given me a vision. Oh, just a minute. You don't know the first thing about the Holy Spirit. You would read your Bible the way it should be read. You'd find out that you're a blaspheming man, Jeremiah. That's tongue-in-the-brill. You hold your tongue, thunder. Now listen to me, both of you. There's not going to be any range war again. The first man that tries to start it will have me to deal with. And that goes for the one who shoots back, too. There's still bad blood running here, but that's all it's going to do, run. First drop that spill will bring the strong arm of the law down in your necks like the plague. Is that plain enough? Yes, sir. It is. Come on, young man. Let's go. All right, folks. Thunder, you have every right to visit your son's spread. You'd better not let me catch you irritating Jeremiah and his clan, you understand? Yep. Let's go, boys. I'll see you in a few days, son. OK, Dad. Come on up as soon as you can. Let's go. Hey, come on. I'm sorry I had to get tough, Herb. I could see the old war blood beginning to boil, and I don't like it. Boss, you sure got yourself an idea here. Glad you like it, Shorty. Oh, I didn't say I liked it. I said you sure got yourself an idea. What's that supposed to mean? Yeah, it has some water. Thanks. Now, what in the name of common sense are you going to do with all these twisted and tangled barbed wire fence after we get through ripping it out of the ground? You'd like to spend your free evening straightening it out? Me? Well, Herb, you know I spend my evenings carting the Witter Smith. All the way from Elk Mesa? Well, maybe not every evening. But tell me, will ya, what's with this fence ripping? I'm going to put a new one in, Shorty. No, no, there's a logical answer if I ever heard one. Oh, why do you got to tear out the good fence posts in? I can't really replace the rotten ones. String new wire? I want to use steel posts and just one wire. Huh, now let me have that canteen back. There must be something in it besides water. Oh, no, it's just water, Shorty. Well, you said you were putting up just one wire fence. That's right, just one wire. Poor fellow. So young to go off his trolley. Think you never heard of a one wire fence? No, but that isn't what disturbs me most. No, what does disturb me most? Whoever heard of a one wire fence that would hold a steer or a haze? Fellas got troubles keeping some of them in with six strands of barbed wire. Now, this one wire will hold them all right, Shorty. I've got it. Why didn't I think of it before? Think of what? You're going to get your herd from that cowpoke university you went to. They got education. They know they ain't supposed to go over or under a one wire fence. Yes, young'un. Now, what's that herd Bradshaw up to? Why, he done tore up all the fence posts on his spread. Maybe he's done been took with a fence. The spirit of the Lord told me there'd be strange things for our eyes to see. Of course, that was a crumble down fence. Well, maybe he just- Mind your tongue. OK. Let me figure this out. All right, Paul, but I know one thing for sure. What's that? Well, I know Herb went to the university and he's going to run that spread real scientific like. I've seen some of the beef they have over there at the university and you never seen such beautiful critters in your life. Well, honest, Paul, and I figure Herb's going to have some the same way. Now, you wait and see. He ain't going to have them long as he gets some fence line up, young'un. Herb, I've had it. This cowpock is plum water off frazzle. Me too. Guess you won't be courting the widow Smith, is he, isn't it, shorty? Oh, he's had it, boy. I'm courting a good supper and then relax. When I get through relaxation, I'm going to sleep. When I get tired of sleep, what I'm going to turn over and sleeve some more. Me too, buddy. Yeah, in the morning, I'll throw the rest of this stuff over the junk pound. Store it there until I can figure out how to get rid of it. I still can't get over the one wire fence and them education critters. Shorty, don't tell me you haven't ever heard of a one wire fence, electric fence. A what? An electric fence. With honest goodness, electricity, Joe's in it? Yeah. You're going to raise a big herd if you fry all the critters on the hot wire. No, it won't be hot enough to fry a grasshopper. Just enough to scare them as soon as they touch it. Is that the truth, boss? Sure. I don't want to electrocute anyone, man or beast. I don't think you would, but you say you're going to hang a one wire on steel posts? That's right. With insulators, steel posts are easy to move and strong. They don't raw. You know, boss, maybe you're not as crazy as you act after all. Well, thank you, Shorty. Barbed wire has hurt many a good doggy real bad and torn a good hostage shreds. Well, them critters ever go near the one wire fence after they once touched it? Oh, not usually. That's another advantage. I understand. You're getting messed up a lot like Christie juice. I won't go near it either. Oh, it isn't that strong. Let's hit the hay, huh? I've got to go to the end of the town in the morning. Get that one wire fence at the freight depot. Oh, her, boy. You've taken over the old Concomplace. Yeah, that's right, Si. See, all my fence didn't come in yesterday like it was promised. Sure did, boy. How come you ain't got no barbed wire fence over there, huh? Oh, I won't need it, Si. This is an electric fence. Oh, why, sure, I wasn't thinking. I should have known that these electric control boxes and smooth wires for electric fence, it's all piled on the ramp. You can back your truck around to it and have yourself a bale of fun. Hey, get that, boy. Oh, bale of wire, bale of fun. Yeah, I got it, Si. Here's my check to cover the bill. I got to get busy now. See you later. Ah, sure thing. Oh, as the youngsters say, see you later, alligator. After a while, crocodile. Huh? Oh, yeah. Fellas have all the fun in live. Oh, hi, Bill. I didn't hear you walk up. How are you? Busy, happy? Let's see someone has the courage to start using an electric fence up an Elk Mesa. Say, do you really mean that? Of course I do. Many valuable animals have been lost on the barbed wire. You know Pete Jones, don't you? Yeah, he's a dairy farmer over at Junction Cityway, isn't he, big operator? Right. Well, he lost a fine brown Swiss cow because she got her tail caught in the barbed wire fence. And of course, she tried to get free. She got free all right by pulling the switch off her tail and all the vertebrae in her back out of line. No kidding. She had total loss? Yeah. Shipped her out of the canners for a little or nothing. Pete figured he lost $30,000 in that barbed wire fence. $30,000 on one cow? Mm-hmm. By the time he had it in the milk production he lost, pure bred calves, she would have given birth to, and milk from them. That is milk from the Heifer calves, pure blooded bull calves with a soul for a nice price, a breeding stock. That's right. I'm so glad it wasn't me that that happened to. Yeah, give you a hand loading the fence. Well, thanks. Two can do it quicker than one. Let's go. Well, this machine beats digging post holes all the pieces. I'll say it does, Shorty. And what's more, take the steel post out of the ground. All you have to do is use this post jack and wash them right up. How about that? Maybe I'll have more time to court the winner, Smith, than I figured with all this modern and scientific ranching. Sure you will. She'll have you washing windows and paint the fence. Well, as you take all the hope out of an old bachelor when you say that, we better pound steel post. I'll pound them till sunset, just so I don't have to wash windows and paint fences. I'm glad to hear you say that, Shorty. I wouldn't want to lose a good man. Say, what do you suppose old Jeremiah and his boys are going to say when they see this one wire fence full of electricity juice? Nothing. What can they say? It's my fence. It's on my property. Yeah, I hope you're right. Even though I'm going to be a bachelor, I sure would like to live to be an old one. Kind of a fence. Is that herb putting up, Paul? Appears to be a fool's fence, Youngin. How's he spec to hold beasts with one wire? Hey, Paul. Wow, that's a smooth wire, too. Oh, give me them glasses. You're right, Youngin. What kind of a devil's tool's that? Let's us go take a look at it. Come the dark of night, we will. We surely will. Where's the fence, Paul? I can see it with my own eyes, Youngin. Wow, that is a smooth wire, all right. It's real smooth. I'm going to touch it and find out what he's got on that wire is to make them critters stay back. Ah! Luke, what's wrong? You got the devil fits? What's in that wire? The spirit of the Lord told me no good was to come of this. As his servant and prophet, I'm going to destroy this tool of the devil. Don't touch it, Paul. The evil spirits will make you jump and holler. They sure are meme spirits. You're right, Luke. Well, there's a box at the end. Maybe that's where them evil spirits come from. Maybe so, Youngin. I'll shoot the box and kill them evil spirits. Boss, what was that? Sounded like rifle shots. Seems like I can hear him too. Yeah, I thought I was dreaming there for a minute. That's no dream, hurry. So not throwing your spread. Let's get out there and find out what's going on. You son of a, why did I load my rifle? No rifle. But, boss. You heard me. No rifle. Let's go. Are you sure the shots came from this direction? No, but I think so. Hey, there's the new fence. Hey, wait a minute. Hey, why? That control box, he shot the pieces. Little pieces. That's the understatement of the year. Let me have a light over here. Sure. Hey, the wires torn off the posts. Yeah. Somebody must have gotten nosy and touched the fence. No, I'll say they did. Touched it real hard. Hear the prophet of the Lord. The spirit of the Lord has given me a vision of a tool of the devil. And it's on your land. Hear the prophet of the Lord. Destroy the one wire fence or you will be destroyed. Blow hard. How does he think he is? Why aren't your son for your dad? Oh, no. I don't only mean bloodshed. Maybe I wouldn't be so bad. We'd get rid of that nut up there in the hills. Shorty, don't you ever talk like that again. There ain't going to be no range war if I can help it. I'll make some coffee. Boss? Yeah? You better call Bill Jefferson. He said the guy that fired the first shot goes head first into the cooler. No, Shorty. You just don't understand the problem. Yeah, sure I do. That stupid old geezer up there in the hills is trying to run you off your spread. Now you're right to a point. Now, Jeremiah's not stupid. Ignorant, yes. Backward, yes. But he's not stupid. Now, they saw us put up the one wire fence. It came down at night to investigate. Then one of them grabbed a hold of the wire and the fun began. I thought I heard somebody yelling and a carrying on out there. It could have been Luke. Possibly. Doesn't really matter who it was. The fact is that they just didn't understand what happened when they touched the wire. Isn't that strong, Joel? But they let their imaginations run away with it. You can say that again. I sure would have liked to see an old Luke tangle with that fence. He sure must have hopped around like a frog on a hot rock. What are you going to do in the morning, boss? I'll put the fence back up. Stumpy, I have a strong premonition about Herb's one wire fence. How about you and Grey Wolf riding out that way and sort of easing yourselves close and help Mesa without being seen? Yep, easy to do. Take the portable radio and stay there all day. If any trouble starts, call me. I'll hop out in the copter and settle those fellas down for good this time. Destroy that tool of the devil. It's full of evil spirits. This is no tool of the devil. It's an electric fence. It's perfectly harmless. You will listen to the prophet of the Lord or you'll die. You are going to tell me what to do on my own land, Jeremiah. You kill me and you'll be executed for murder. You'll also start a range war. I, the prophet of the Lord, have spoken. Yeah? I have spoken, too. Hand me that roll of wire, shorty. I don't know if I should, boss. That old crackpot just labelled to shoot you down. You heard me. Yeah, there it is. You get back. If they shoot me down, you go get Bill. He'll take over from there. Right here. Are they shooting at Herb? Yeah. I watched like you said. They wrecked the fence last night and Herb's trying to rebuild it. Now they're giving him hot lead. Mona, boys, we're riding up to Elf, Mesa. That old fool wants another range war. We'll give it to him. Let's go. Come on. I'm from the right flank. Al, you take 10 men and hit him from the left flank. The rest of you, come with me and wait for my signal. Jeremiah wants war. He'll get it. I'm not called Thunder Bradshaw for the fun of it. Boss, here comes your whole dad in his old outfit. Oh, no. How'd he get one of this? I don't know, but he did. Just mouse, scatter, and fight on foot. I'll wait for my signal. No, Dad. No, this is wrong. Out of my way, son. We're going to finish off Jeremiah and his clan for good this time. You do, and I'll be ashamed to call you my father. What? Why, you ungrateful welp? I'll get out of here. Are you ready, boys? There's a helicopter coming in on the Mesa. I don't know why. And meet me, old Jefferson. Put down your rifles. And meet me at the One Wire Fence. Any man that doesn't obey my order goes to jail if he doesn't get shot first. And that's the story of the One Wire Fence, Jeremiah. Safer for a livestock and a timeless. Here, let me grab a hold of it. Look out there. I mean, evil spirits will grab you like the dead man. You're talking about the low power electrical impulses, Luke. They're absolutely harmless. I can feel them just a little bit. It appears our actions were born out of ignorant, sir. I'll say they were. Not only your actions, but Thunder's action, too. He's right, isn't he, Dad? Yeah, he's right, son. I'm sorry for the smash I gave you in the face. I didn't hurt a bit, Dad. Honest. I reckon we'd better be getting for home, Luke. Now, just a minute, Jeremiah. You too, Thunder. Jeremiah, you got your Bible with you? Of course. I always got my Bible with me. Good. Because you and I and Thunder are going to sit down, and I'll read it to the both of you. And if it takes until doomsday, you're going to know and understand what God's word has to say about sin and salvation and Christian love, and also about false prophets. You know, Bill, I think maybe my one-wire fence is good for more than joten livestock into staying inside where they belong. And it certainly was, boys and girls. Jeremiah and Thunder took quite a while to shake hands, but they did. And now there's peace and quiet over at Trouble Land once more. All started and ended with the one-wire fence. See you next week for more adventure with rain.