In this story, Sam Dichter (Steve Forrest) sees a hanging body before entering the town and its bar. He orders a whiskey, then sees 5 men playing a game of poker. When the clock chimes 9, Charlie McKinley (Lex Barker) leaves, and Dichter recalls that Charlie died in Abilene, and is shaken when Charlie meets his fate, but not the other 4 men at the table, who ask Dichter to take McKinley's place. When Dichter idly calls Joe Bristol (Albert Salmi) "brother", he snaps, "Don't call me brother. I'd sooner be kin to a vulture bird," and asks Dichter to recall when Bristol lost a duel in Monterey to Max Auburn (Larry Watson), a gunman who was younger and faster than Bristol was. He says to Doc Soames (Buddy Ebsen) that while Dichter may be fast on the draw, he's slow with his brain, and Dichter calls Bristol out. The clock chimes 10, Bristol is called out by Auburn, and as Bristol leaves, Dichter sees daylight instead of darkness, after which Bristol meets his fate. Dichter says he's dreaming, but Abe Bennett (Jim Davis) says that it's no dream, saying he had robbed banks before being shot dead in a holdup of a bank in Tombstone by a deputy armed with a rifle who saw him in a church steeple, and that his take was $40, which paid for his burial. The clock chimes 11, and Bennett meets his fate. Doc Soames tells Dichter of how he saved gunmen, until he counted the lives lost. Then he killed himself, adding, "The point, Mr. Dichter, the elusive point, is that we, all of us, were doomed from the moment we took up firearms." The clock chimes 12 and Soames meets his fate. The barkeep (Gilbert Roland) asks if Dichter recalls the lives he took, adding, "It's just a waiting room, Mr. Dichter, where each man awaits what is ordained. Some call it Hell." The clock chimes 1, and Dichter hears a crowd outside, which he is told is his jury, and the barkeep says, "It's closing time, Mr. Dichter. No doubt I'll be seeing you again." Dichter looks at the hanging body, and removes the hood from its face, then he screams, recalling that he was hung for murder. He enters the bar on foot, and sees the barkeep and the 5 men who said that all 6 would be there forever. When I saw this story, I thought: No one wants to be there forever, not even me. Spoiler alert: The segment was shot in the saloon set used in the TV western series based on the Owen Wister novel The Virginian.
