 Ranger Bill, warrior of the woodland, struggling against extreme odds, traveling dangerous trails, showing rare courage in the face of disaster. In the air, on horseback, in a screaming squad car, his mind alert, a ready smile, unswerving, loyal to his mission, and all this in exchange for the satisfaction and pride of a job well done. Perhaps this story will be hard for you to understand. You might even think it's a bit too sentimental. But keep an open mind, will you? It'll be something to make you think, too. Now let's call this story old faithful. Henry Stompy, Gray Wolf, and I have been doing a lot of trail riding the last six weeks or so to get the district ready for the influx of tourists. There are many things that have to be done and looked after to make sure that the area is as safe as we can possibly make it for the inexperienced and also the careless visitor. For riding along, talking over the previous day's work, it's early morning and the horses are frisky. What matters, she not act like Lady Horse should. You should behave yourself. Let's put something in their oats. Like what, for instance? I don't know. Already sure got a lot of pep in spite of the hard work they've been doing. You're right there, pal. Say, old timer, how's the Lady Horse, Matilda's age, supposed to act? Look on the black bears, make sure they're in good humor. Oh yeah, they can get mean. Make sure that- Oh Matilda, easy girl. Stompy, you all right? Yeah, I guess so, but my horse ain't. What do you mean? She stepped in a chuck hole. Could tell by the way she fell. Great, Scott, you're right. Her left front legs twisted underneath her. You don't think her legs broke? I can't tell for sure, but it looks like it's broke. Easy Matilda, we're gonna move you so we can take a look at your banged up leg. Ready fellas? Yeah. Say when. We've got to be quick about this now, just to get her leg out of the hole with the least amount of pain for her. On the count of three now. One, two, three. Little more. That's good. Good job. I don't think it hurt her too much. I hope not. Easy Matilda, old girl. Easy girl, easy now. All right, let's have a look at your leg. Now I'm not going to hurt you, I can help it. We've got to find out. Easy now. Hold her Matilda, hold her now, and we try to help you. That's it, you're gonna rest now. I won't bother your leg anymore. It's broken old friend. Fractured in two places. You fellas start making camp. But Bill, you hurt me. Let's make camp. Well Grey Wolf and Bill decide what to do about Matilda. Take it easy Stumpy. You putty rough on old timer. After all it is his horse. Yes I know, Grey Wolf. It's better to keep Stumpy busy right now though. You have point there. What do you think about horse Bill? What I'm thinking isn't very nice for a Matilda or the old timer. Break plenty bad. Take a look for yourself. Chuck hold it a good job. Plenty bad, all right. Broke two places. What would the Indians have done under these circumstances, Grey Wolf? This bad place for it to happen. Hard to get horse out with thick trees all around. Indian probably take hunting arrow and put animal out of misery. Even an old and faithful animal like Matilda. That kindest thing to do. That's what I think too. We're going to have to shoot her. Yes! Where's the verdict? We're in a bad place for this accident to happen old timer. There's no way we can possibly get her out. That is without clearing a road to this thick stand of trees. If it happened out in the open we might be able to save her. I guess the only kind thing we can do is shoot her. Shoot her? Stumpy Matilda is an old horse. Her bone's not men good anymore. It's not too good a chance for her. I'm sorry. So am I Stumpy. Very sorry. Thank you for your sympathy but they ain't going to help my horse none. We got all kinds of fancy dangled machines. We can't help my old horse these years. She saved my life twice and now a purse. She got a right to- Take it easy old friend. Yeah we we know how you feel Stumpy. We know she's been your good friend these many years and never complained or shirked her duty. I also realize that this is the day of miracle medicines even for animals but take a look around you old timer. How in the name of common sense can can we get her out of here? Yep I reckon it's not impossible all right but you overcome that before ain't even gonna get a veterinarian here to look at her? Ain't ain't even gonna try to help her? Sure old friend. We're gonna try but on the other hand you think it's fair to hurt him to make her suffer? If you was Matilda which would you rather do? Get shot through the head with a revolver? Or suffer a little bit. Wait and see if your busted leg can't be patched up so you can live a little longer. You win. We'll bring a vet in by copter and you can be lowered on a cable to the treetops. No you're talking Sonny like your old self. Bill if this was 25 years ago I wouldn't argue but but this ain't 25 years ago. I understand old timer. You better take care of your horse when I set up the radio huh? You understand what you're supposed to do Amos? Over. Yes Bill I do. You want me to pick up dock waters and bring them out to you? You'll mock the spot by a smudge fire and I'm to lower the dock through the trees by cable then go back to the heliaport and wait for further orders. Over. Good boy. Take a leg now this is important over. I sure will. Tell Stumpy not to give up. Be sure to do some wonderful things now a day for banged up animals. Out. Thanks Amos. Out. How's Matilda? She seems to be comfortable right now. Good. Tell Stumpy the dock's on the way. Okay. I'll tell him. Bill to fire tower three. Bill to fire tower three. Over. Tower three to Bill. Tower three to Bill. How's Matilda? Over. You must be sitting there with a switch open. That time over. I don't need my ears to watch for fires. Over. You have a point there all right. Well Matilda's as good as it can be expected. You will no doubt know that I'm going to make a smudge fire shortly. Over. Right. You're north eight and west six right? Over. That's close enough gas. Well I can't draw with you now Tom. Out. I understand. Tell Stumpy to keep his chin up. Out. Should I start the smudge fire? Yeah that'll be fine Henry. I'll give you a hand clearing a safety area. He's going good now. Should I put the smudge maker on it? Well let's wait till we hear the copier. Sure. How's the old timer? Kind of down in the dumps. Isn't saying much right now. Just looking after his horse and thinking plenty. And that's what worries me. Oh what do you mean? I thought he's doing pretty good. He isn't thinking out loud. Bottling it all up in sign. I see what you mean. When he blows his lid it'll be rough. Yeah. You gotta try and prevent that. Hey hey I hear the copter. Let's put the smoke maker on the fire so we can find it. Grab the Doc's gear pal. Right. I got you. Hey Doc unhook harness. Okay. Sunhook gray wolf. And I'll slide out when I hold steady. Right. Let her go. This is some experience for me fellas. I've made a lot of calls but various means of transportation but hell this beats all. It is a bit unusual all right Doc. Um where is the injured horse? Over this way uh Stumpy's weather. It's his horse. Yeah so I understand. They aren't too bad. But we'll have a look at her and see what we can do. Do you think you can save her? I don't know Henry. Oh hello Stumpy. Howdy Doc. There she is. I'll bust it up. Her leg that is. Yeah I see. Now easy now young lady. We'll have a look at this fractured leg yarn and see if we can do something for her. Easy now. I'm through for the time being girl. Take it easy now Matilda. Yeah what's the verdict Doc? Not good old timer. The leg's fractured in two places. Oh don't tell me you come all the way out here just to tell me that. Can't you? Yep I can save her but uh not here. What's that mean? Well it means unless you can get her out of here and back to the hospital where I can put her in the sling and then split her leg. She'll have to be shot. But how about her age? She ain't no spring chicken you know. Well her age is of this advantage but I don't make the job impossible. Yep if you can get her out of here I'll fix her up. It's for the supper fellas. It was fine. I won't mention it Doc. Well gentlemen we have a problem. Uh Doc. Hey help Bill. Can you give the horse a sedative to ease her pain and let her sleep? Sure of all means. But uh what I'm going to give her is mighty powerful. You mean repeated doses of mine killer? Yep repeated doses of the same strength would. How long will the first dose last? Oh from 10 to 12 hours. That means we've got to get her out of here in the dark tonight. Yep the longer we wait the worse it'll be for. Now you speak truth. I'm going to go give her the hype now. You fellas make up your mind what you're going to do. We can't let that horse suffer any longer. Yes old friend. I heard one time about some fellas rustling cattle by carrying them out with a sling and helicopter. That's right. It's a fact Stumpy. Why can't we do that with motility? Well uh you forget one thing. What's that? The cattle were standing up. Not dead weight lying down. Huh that knocks that idea to a cocktail. And I thought you had the answer Stumpy. Well now don't go stepping all over your own feet young fella. Huh how are we going to get her into a sling? We'll make a hoist but using a long pole and a stump is a lever to jack her up high enough to get the sling on her. We're going to jiggle pick her up and tow her back to the hospital. Hey what do you think of that fellas? That's some good enough to try. Yeah you said it. Let's talk it over with Doc Waters. He says okay we'll do it. Whoopie keep it. What do you say Doc? I say it sounds good enough to try it. Well it hurt the horse? No she won't feel a thing not a thing. She's out like a light right now. This stuff is fast and effective you know. Now uh we gotta be careful the broken bones don't pierce the blood by so. That happens we'll have to apply a tourniquet. Nope I don't see any problems from my side of the picture. The problems are all yours fellas. I hope it works. Well you heard the man! Where do we- You fellas not rigging the lever hoist. Well I radio instructions and I'll help you get everything ready. Let's get to work. Never mind wise guy. You haven't got a horse with a broken leg over. No but I'm glad to have a helicopter with a busted motor. Okay what do you want me to do? Over. First of all get a sling from Doc Waters place and load it down to us over. How would you mark the spot? Over. Bonfire. You know the general direction and hang around a while or you can land if you wish and a clearing to wait until we're ready to have you lift the horse and carry you to Doc Waters hospital. Over. Okay say have you ever seen the gasoline trademark of the flying red horse? Over. Sure what's that got to do with this? Over. Oh that's just a picture. This is for real. The flying black horse in the sick bay sling. Over. Listen clown get moving will you? We haven't got all night. He's got the stump all set. He's got a notch in the top of it. What do you mean? Well this stump that's as tall as Henry acts as a fulcrum and we make sort of a troth in the top for the lever to rest in. Well he'd do a good job of high cutting. Sure did. Well this skinny tree is clean to branch his and ought to make a good lever pole. Good job Gray Wolf. All right let's set it up on the stump and into the notch. Say when? Wait let me tie a line on the end of this log. It's going to be up in the air a bit and you need some muscle to lift this. When we get it up high enough drop it on his head fellas. That's a good idea. He'd talk like we not have muscle. You know for what I'm glad. Really glad to hear stuff be pulled off out of this corny remark. For me too pal. All right let's get this pole in place on the count of three. One. Two. Three. Let her down. Almost looks like a teeter totter with one end sticking up. What next? Now we run this rope is hanging from the high end of the log. Hook it down to the sapling over there and we've tied its head to the ground. When we're ready to hoist virtually we cut the sapling and it'll help lift her up. Go that again. Well at one end the horse will be attached. At the other high end is a rope. It comes down to the ground is stripped down to the slippery underbark. Then the rope is attached to that strong sapling that's bent over. When we let the sapling go it pulls the rope that slips under the log and pulls down the. Sounds good to me. Now Doc why the peculiar look on your face? Well I've been enjoying the education making a hoist out of raw material. However the thoughts occurred to me how you're going to attach the horse to the log so it'll be lifted up. Well old timer you know the answer as well as I do sonny. Okay we're going to make a temporary sling out of rope. We'll slide it under and attach it to the long. However it would shut off some of her blood supply if we use it too long so we'll wait for the regular sling which won't hurt her over the long period of carrying her to town. Hey when hey I can see the copter's landing lights flickering through the trees. Let's soup up the bonfire. We're ready Gray Wolf you can release the sapling anytime. Oh I cut rope now. Well that's fine let's get the regular sling on to where Prado. Your ideas sure work fine Stumpy. Don't count your poultry before their hatch young filler. Is she still out Doc? Sure Bill you got lots of time yet. All right I'll call Amos and have him move into position. Even he didn't go home. He didn't go home old friend. Just sit down somewhere to conserve gas huh. That's fine Amos hold it right there and lower your cable. Okay Bill here it comes. Have you got enough light? Plenty. Your landing lights and the bonfire give us plenty of light. I can see the cable end now. Make sure the hook safety pin is in place. We don't want any accidents after going this far. Right. Got the hook now. Hold tight for a few minutes. You'll have to take the dock up first. Okay. Up you go Doc. Old primer. When you get back to town I'll have her all sick and injured. I don't like that it was my own. Thanks. Well looks like I'm going back to town the same way I come. See you fellows later. Salon Doc. Salon Doc. Take her up slowly Amos. Okay. Up she comes. Look at that will ya. He's lifting there just like a bird. She's gonna hit that treetop. Amos stop the winch. What's wrong? Bring your copter a little to the right. How's that? Fine. He's up now. Hold it Amos. Okay. What now? A little to your left. Just a little. She might clear. Hey! Matilde's moving up there. You're seeing shadows from the bonfire. I am not. Look! She's coming out of the sedative. Let her down Amos. Then you'll have to lower Doc Waters down too. Okay. But we'd better make it in the next try. I'm gonna run out of gas. Matilde. Doc you take care of the horse. You fellas help him. All right Bill. Okay. Where are you going? I'm going to top those two trees. You can't do that in the dark. It's too risky. It's tough enough in the daylight. I'll be all right. We've got to get Matilde out of bus. You heard Amos tell me he hasn't too much gas left. When he comes back this time we've got to make it. I'm not right. But I not let you top two trees. I top one. Okay. If you want to. Now wait a minute you young whipper snappers. I ain't letting you risk your lives for the sake of my old horse or young horse. I admit that she's been my good friend a long time and all that sort of stuff. But she's lived a good life. Had good care. I'll miss her like old get out if we have to leave her here. But that's what I'll do. You fellas who showed me that there ain't no other way. Uh Gray Wolf are you hard of hearing. Almost deaf like stone. Let's top those trees for two old faithful friends of ours. Huh. I hear plenty of good when you talk. Easy does it Amos. Fine. Fine. You're clear of the treetops now. All right take off. Doc gave her a smaller dose this time. Out. Okay. Boy am I glad we made it this time. You know something I feel real good about this whole thing. Thanks for else asking me to help. You fellas are okay in my book. I'll make sure she gets to town safe and sound out. Say old timer this is no time to get wet eyes. It's all over. Yeah come on old friend. Take it easy. Hey I'm just thinking how fortunate Matilda and I are that you fellas are willing to do so much for two old friends. Yes sir this makes up for all the years of hard work. And that's how it happened boys and girls. Well see you next week for more adventure with.