In a dusty old frontier town a dessicated corpse swings in the breeze, the word ‘shame’ scrawled against the gallows, testament to the folly of the rough justice dispensed by the townsfolks. It’s the corpse of a friendly native American, strung up in the belief that he had lead some desperados to the very member of the town who had befriended him and brought him into the community.
Well, obviously it’s not, it’s an alien, strung up in the belief that he had led some other alien desperados to the very member of the town who had befriended him and brought him into the community. Leaving aside the issue about it simply being a well-trodden type of Western trope moved into space, the plot hinges on the alien keeping quiet, when interrogated, about exactly what did happen, as opposed to what the townsfolk believed happened.
