Aired: January 15, 1973 | Season: 18 | Episode: 17

Overview
Runtime: 45m
Directed by: Arnold Laven
Written by: Jim Byrnes
Guest stars: Alex Sharp, Barry Cahill, Bill Erwin, Denver Pyle, Diana Hyland, Don 'Red' Barry, Earl Holliman, James Jeter, John Carter, John Davis Chandler, Ken Lynch, Linda Watkins, Meg Wyllie, Pat Conway, Tom Pittman, Wallace Earl
Description
Just before he's to be hung, stage robber Shadler busts out of jail, by slugging his last rites priest and donning the robes as a disguise. While burglarizing an uninhabited farm, the escapee helps Deputy U.S. Marshal Newly elude hostile lawmen quarantining a nearby outpost struck by a mysterious plague. Newly believes his pursuers are actually a ring of vultures waiting to loot the dying settlement. When Newly heads back to the besieged town, the fake padre insists on riding with him to minister to the dying citizens.