The Virginian and Judge Garth visit a group of settlers who are moving into the public lands used for grazing by the nearby ranches. Judge Garth and Barney Wingate check with the Land Office learning that their usual automatic renewal on the lease for the lands was stopped. When they investigate banners being raised in Medicine Bow, they learn an old classmate of Garth's, Matthew J. Cosgrove, who is a congressman in New York is bringing immigrants from there to settle in Wyoming to curry favor with his constituents. He also arranged to have his nephew, David, a lieutenant in the Army to be there on a make work project to fix a bridge. David stops at Shiloh to meet Betsy but learns by accident that Judge Garth has a low opinion of his uncle. Garth's main concern is that the land being settled is poor quality for farming and the settlers will lose everything on it. Cosgrove swears the government blessed the land for farming but when Garth tries to verify it, he finds it not to be true. When Cosgrove made his plan public before the government reported on the land, his assistant faked the reports to cover his mistake without telling Cosgrove. To make matters worse his assistant steals the settler's money for the land. When the telegraph is down, his nephew is able to help by using the Army mirror signaling system.
—Anonymous