The Ox-Bow Incident

In Bridger's Wells, Nevada, in 1885, two cowboys, Art Croft and Gil Carter, join a posse formed by the townspeople to pursue three men suspected of murdering a local rancher and stealing his cattle. The posse, led by Confederate officer Major Tetley, interrogates the trio: Donald Martin, Juan Martínez, and Alva Hardwicke, who claims he purchased the stolen cattle from Kinkaid but received no bill of sale. As the posse debates whether to hang or take them to town for trial, Gil Carter quietly reads out a letter written by Martin to his wife, highlighting the lack of evidence against him, and ultimately the posse decides to deliver the letter and $500 raised for Martin's wife.