Originally Aired: June 8, 1958

In Gunsmoke #322, "Hot Horse Hyatt," Marshal Matt Dillon faces a potential lynching when Doc Adams alerts him that Del Breggan and his ranch hands have cornered a stranger at the livery stable with a rope. The accused man, Jesse Hyatt, insists he purchased two horses honestly from a bearded trader in Wichita, but Breggan recognizes them as his own blooded stock that disappeared from his ranch a month earlier. Despite Jesse's claims of innocence, he has no proof and can barely remember what the trader looked like, leaving him in a dire situation as he awaits trial.

The tension escalates when Breggan threatens to take the law into his own hands if Judge Bent doesn't act quickly. Marshal Dillon must navigate not only the question of Jesse's guilt or innocence, but also confront Breggan's brutal frontier mentality and its effects on his son Tommy, who visits the jail to apologize to Jesse for his father's violent behavior. As Dillon tries to maintain order and uphold the new law in Dodge City, he faces the challenge of protecting a man who may have no way to prove his innocence.