Dick hitchhikes is way into trouble when the guy giving him a lift is the notorious Hanes McClure. Warren Oates is in his element here as the guy who everyone is afraid of. The sheriff starts chasing them and McClure almost hits a teen named Tad, but Kimble turns the wheel to avoid tragedy. The sheriff throws them both in jail and believes Dick that he had nothing to do with any of this, but he recognized Dick's wanted poster and is holding him until Lieutenant Gee-rard gets here from Staf-ford, Indiana. The great Strother Martin is also on hand as a conniving, money hungry owner of a pool hall and restaurant. He is also a part time deputy who sells pictures of the famous prisoners and of a young cutie pointing at bullet holes. He also sells autographed pictures of himself signed "what we've got here is failure to communicate." Now, young Tad is crucial to the plot, as his overbearing mama, Madeleine Sherwood, later to become Mother Superior in the Flying Nun, is no superior mother here. She is switchboard Sally, town gossip who is trying to keep her son from becoming like his daddy, who died in prison after falling in with Haines McClure. Only her little tadpole is sick of her nagging and wants to be a gangster. He sees Dick's goodness and wants to help him escape. Eventually there is a shootout between Hanes and the sheriff which leaves Hanes dead and the sheriff critically wounded. Kimble escapes, of course, and tells Tad that if he feels the need to leave his town, and who wouldn't, he should walk away, not run. Wise winds indeed, which Tad follows. The fate of the sheriff is unknown. The fate of Richard Kimble, on the other hand, is known. He remains.....a fugitive.