The Shot

Originally Aired: December 2, 1954 Suspense #574, "The Shot," stars William Conrad as Lieutenant Zachary Peyton, a man consumed by an incomplete duel from seven years past. When Benjamin Rolls drew the first shot in their duel, he fired and missed—but Peyton refused to take his return shot, declaring that he would choose his own time and place. Rolls walked away laughing and eating cherries, seemingly indifferent to death itself, which only deepened Peyton's obsession. Now Peyton has tracked Rolls down, discovering his former adversary has inherited a fortune and just married Marcia Pemberton, a woman he loves deeply. Peyton practices relentlessly with his dueling pistols, terrifying his landlord Mr. Temple, who watches him shoot playing cards off a fence post from his bed with chilling accuracy. As Peyton's old friend Jim Stockwell tries to dissuade him from his revenge, it becomes clear that Peyton has been waiting for this precise moment—when Rolls finally has something precious to lose. The question that haunts Peyton is whether the man who once laughed down a gun barrel can still face death so carelessly now that he has found love and happiness worth living for.