The sixth and final season of Have Gun, Will Travel opens with the series' long-overdue "origins" episode, explaining how soldier-of-fortune Paladin came to be...Paladin (though we still don't learn his real name). Richard Boone plays three roles, as the "contemporary" Paladin, his younger self, and an aging, world-weary gunfighter named Smoke. After preventing young Roderick Jefferson (James Mitchum) from killing him, Paladin learns that Jefferson isn't really a gunslinger, simply a luckless young man who'd agreed to the "hit" to pay off a gambling debt. With this, Paladin flashes back to his own youth, recalling how he too once tried to square a debt by offering to capture or kill a wily fugitive from justice. William Conrad, who directed this episode, also appears in a minor role.