"Give it to me, it's mine!" "Give it to me!" "I'll pay you for it." "How?" "No!" "On your way, mister." "This way, captain." "There's a shortcut through these rocks." "Is this the one, grasshopper?" "Look after my wife, Benson." "Take him, sergeant." "Yes, sir." "Your tread must be light and sure as though your path were upon rice paper." "It is said a Shaolin priest can walk through walls." "Looked for, he cannot be seen." "Listened for, he cannot be heard." "Touched, he cannot be felt." "This rice paper is the test." "Fragile as the wings of the dragonfly, clinging as a cocoon of the silkworm." "When you can walk its length and leave no trace you will have learned." "How does that work, sarge?" "Him and the captain's wife." "All the boys are trying to figure it out." "You might wanna figure out how you're gonna be walking guard for the next six nights." "You have passed here many times, grasshopper but never before paused." "What is it that has caught you up?" "The tapestry, master." "A treasure of great age and beauty." "Beauty?" "An image so sinister." "Does it frighten you?" "It disturbs me." "The figure in the center, does it have a name?" "Kuei, a demon." "Why does it disturb you?" "I have seen it before." "Somewhere else." "Where?" "I am unable to say." "Could it have been in your mind?" "Perhaps it was." "That is likely." "We all encounter a demon when our conscience is not at rest." "What troubles you, grasshopper?" "My thoughts seem to warn of a meeting with this demon." "It is as if something remains to be settled between us." "Do you know what or why?" "I cannot remember." "Cannot?" "Or is it that you do not choose to remember?" "How much longer?" "Be a few minutes, Mrs. Starbuck." "Well, please hurry." "That's a mighty fine animal you got there." "You keep riding him like that, you're liable to break his heart." "When I want your opinion, I'll ask for it." "Sorry, ma'am." "Amy, we've got some talking to do." "Roy." "We're going home." "Roy, you're hurting me." "Now, I want some answers." "Leave me alone." "The Chinaman, is he the one?" "Roy!" "No, you've put me off long enough." "l've got a right to know!" "Roy, just be patient with me." "Patient?" "I've torn myself apart being patient!" "You've had a rough time because of the baby, but-- l don't want to talk about that!" "I don't want to hear another word about the baby!" "Not ever!" "Amy it's been almost a year." "I thought you'd snap out of it, but you're...." "You're acting crazier every day." "Maybe if you sent me away for a while." "Back to Ohio." "I wouldn't be a burden to you." "Don't talk like that." "Now look, whatever's happened, we'll work it out." "Just tell me, let me try to understand." "Just tell me." "I'm tired." "Amy, I love you." "It is that Chinaman." "Those times you go off, it's to meet him, isn't it?" "Isn't it?" "No, it has nothing to do with that." "Then what?" "He still playing dumb?" "He hasn't said a word." "Wait outside." "Yes, sir." "You want to die, mister?" "My wish is to live." "How long have you been meeting with my wife?" "I saw her this morning for the first time." "Why you?" "Any trooper around would be only too glad to...." "But you?" "Captain, you are deceived." "I do not know your wife." "I want the truth, mister." "When I saw them, I thought the man was trying to harm your wife." "I came to help." "That is the truth." "There was nobody else. lt was you!" "Dirt!" "That's how she wants to hurt me." "Wallowing in dirt." "Why?" "You tell me." "Why?" "Captain." "Sir, Shelby Cross just delivered another load of venison." "He left some vouchers on your desk for you to sign." "Sir." "What about the prisoner?" "We have to enter some sort of charge." "Charge?" "That's right." "Unless you want to let him go." "Write him up for assault." "Sir?" "Assault on a woman." "You got enough money to buy yourself a lawyer?" "No." "Too bad." "Assault on a woman is a hanging offense." "Oh, it's you, Mrs. Starbuck." "l'm going to see my husband, Benson." "Pretty moon out tonight, ma'am." "Yes, I noticed." "Well...." "l wanted to talk to you." "I'm Captain Starbuck's wife." "I know." "I'm sorry about what happened." "About all this." "I can imagine what you must think of me." "You say you are sorry." "I am, truly." "Yet I am here, in custody." "You did not speak in my behalf." "In the morning, I'll tell my husband it was all a mistake, all right?" "l promise." "The thing that man tried to keep from you you wish it back. ls this not so?" "Did you find it?" "Yes." "Please give it to me, I need it." "No, no." "Don't." "Don't open it!" "No, don't!" "You'll spill it!" "Don't!" "Oh, no." "What would I have spilled?" "Never mind." "I stare at you and I speak." "You stare back at me and say nothing." "A piece of cloth upon a wall?" "Truly, grasshopper, do you expect a reply?" "I realize the tapestry cannot speak, master." "Then who is it that you address?" "Yourself?" "Yes." "And are you able to answer the question the tapestry cannot?" "No, master." "is it not because as the tapestry is mute, so are we so long as we are held immobile by the tightly-woven threads of fear?" "What must I do, master?" "You will know that once you have sought out your demon and confronted him." "Only then will you come face-to-face with the thing you fear that which you have given the shape of this demon." "I mean you no harm, captain." "How did you get out?" "l broke the lock." "Captain, your wife carries a carved riding crop." "I would like to know how she came to possess it." "Picked it up somewhere, I guess." "I don't remember." "lt is important you tell me." "Now, look, you're pushing me!" "I don't want to hear you even mention my wife!" "She came to the jail tonight." "What did she want from you?" "The riding crop." "You had it?" "Yes." "The question is, where did she get it?" "In China?" "I bought it for her when I was stationed at the embassy in Canton." "In China, it is called a Kuei joss." "Joss?" "That's some sort of pagan idol, isn't it?" "Yes, used to worship the spirit of evil." "You met with some misfortune in China, is this not so?" "Our baby it was stillborn." "That's when everything started to go wrong." "And continues to go wrong for your wife, does it not?" "Because of this idol?" "This spirit of evil?" "is that what you're saying?" "I sense the joss holds an answer for me as well as for your wife." "Some answers are what I badly need." "This man who brings the provisions here, where can he be found?" "At his trading post across town." "Why?" "It is he I saw struggling with your wife." "Shelby Cross?" "All the time it was" "Captain." "It is not what you think." "Sergeant!" "The Chinaman's loose!" "Hold it, Chinaman, or I'll shoot!" "Get around the train!" "Sir, the Chinaman busted out." "He got away." "He can't be far." "We'll round him up." "Let him go." "Sir?" "He hasn't done anything." "Yes, sir." "Stay right where you are, Chinaman." "Hadn't had time to get around to the cash box yet, had you?" "I did not come for your money." "What were you looking for?" "This." "Where is Mrs. Starbuck?" "l don't know." "She was here." "She paid you with this." "l run a trading post." "Sometimes I trade goods for goods." "You trade on human weakness." "That's her lookout." "Not anymore." "Starbuck?" "Mrs. Starbuck?" "It is a time when the body is at its weakest and the mind, seeking to protect itself, looks for something beyond itself." "It creates, in its fear, a figure that exacts a more terrible price." "What part of the pond do you live in?" "I do not live in the pond." "Do you live in the waterfall?" "Please tell me." "I do not know where l live at present." "I am seeking entry to a new place." "Why are you looking so deeply into my eyes?" "Where else can I seek the truth?" "What truth are you seeking?" "A truth that will help me reach a different world." "How do you reach this world?" "Only through someone who is already there." "Can you tell me?" "No." "Telling isn't seeing or hearing or feeling." "Well if you tell me, I can hear, see and feel." "What do you do in this world?" "Oh, I drift." "I become one with it." "Do you have friends here?" "Oh, yes, I have many friends." "Who are your friends?" "The flowers." "Aren't they beautiful?" "So brightly colored." "They're so beautiful." "Unlike anything I have ever known." "Then your journey inward has begun." "Yes, master." "Though as yet, I do not recall where l met this demon or what was said between us." "You must go deeper into this world." "l'm afraid, master." "Why?" "I may lose my way within this strange world and never emerge." "It is a risk, grasshopper." "Must I take this risk?" "It is the only way to confront your demon." "I do not wish to confront him." "Let us sit here for a moment." "To run from your demon is to have him pursue you." "Better to advance and meet him in his world than to retreat and have him enter yours." "The doorway to another reality lies before you." "You must step over the threshold." "You must enter this world, meet your demon wherever you were in the past when you created him however young you were at the time." "l have entered." "Do you see your demon now?" "I begin to." "How does he appear?" "As the tapestry portrays him?" "In much the same way but more present." "More real." "What else do you see?" "Nothing." "But I hear things." "Things?" "Sounds." "Voices, I think." "Their voices make a music all their own." "There's no such beauty in any other world." "Do they speak to you?" "Oh, yes, they speak to me." "Are they speaking to me too?" "Of course." "They are welcoming you." "They know you are my friend." "Are you hurt?" "No." "They are angry at me for being with you." "Don't be frightened." "Look around." "You are safe here." "What do you call this place?" "Heaven." "It is like heaven, isn't it?" "Are you happy here?" "Very happy." "Do you want this now?" "Oh, no." "l don't need it here." "When did you first have need for it?" "Just after my child was born." "The one that died?" "Stillborn?" "When you created your demon, as I did mine." "What is this place?" "I come here whenever I am lost or in doubt." "Each time, there's a new revelation." "Look." "Oh, my baby." "Oh, that's me on the bed." "Oh, my poor baby." "What is happening?" "The doctor tried, but he couldn't save it!" "The baby died so I could live." "Two events are not bound together." "He said it would.... lt would help me sleep." "He said it would give me peace." "Amy!" "The torment is in your mind." "You are not the cause of your child's death." "I know you're very frightened, Kwai Chang." "But I'm going to help you." "You'll soon be rid of all your fears." "How do you know my name is Kwai Chang?" "I know many things." "I know that spiders spin and the Earth turns and heads roll." "Look again!" "Why are you here?" "I don't want you here, priest!" "Get out!" "Before I tear your heart out!" "Get out of my world!" "Save yourself!" "Save yourself if you can, Kwai Chang!" "Even now, it may be too late." "I see you prefer to remain." "Excellent!" "What are you doing, grasshopper?" "How do you account for this strange and violent behavior?" "I trade goods for goods!" "That's her lookout." "What demon possesses you to make you abandon the ways of Tao?" "We must leave here, quickly!" "Are you afraid to turn around and face me?" "I am not afraid." "So we finally meet." "We have met before." "I made a bargain when I was very young." "No, you made it with one of my brothers." "There are many of us." "l owe you a debt." "A debt?" "If we are many, yet we are as one when it comes to the payment of debts how are you prepared to acquit yourself?" "First, we must bargain." "Excellent!" "I have been known to bargain." "But if it is in your mind to cheat on this bargain, it will not be so for l will" " For I will not-- l will not fulfill my part until after you have fulfilled yours." "And what is my part?" "Release the girl." "This girl for you?" "Yes." "You know all that such a compact involves?" "Yes." "Done." "Now, priest, Kwai Chang Caine, whatever you call yourself you are mine!" "Are you all right?" "l'm sorry, Roy." "I'm so sorry for what I've put you through." "I blamed you for the baby's death." "I punished you when it wasn't your fault." "Oh, I'm so ashamed." "Darling, it's over. lt's forgotten." "I love you. I've always loved you." "Hold me." "Let's go home." "Grasshopper." "Where are you, grasshopper?" "Master, I am trapped in this world." "You trapped yourself." "You must fight." "There is no way out." "You seek to escape." "Instead you must go in even deeper." "How?" "This demon is your own creation." "Search out when you first created him." "Search out when you put yourself in his power when you were very young." "Another one is dead." "The typhoid just consumes them." "And look at this one." "His fever keeps on climbing." "He can't last much longer." "This girl seems to be fading too." "Yes, like that boy." "She needs a miracle." "It will be a miracle indeed if both survive the day." "If you must take one, take her." "Please take her." "Let me live." "So that is where we met." "What does it matter?" "You are mine!" "No." "You made a bargain!" "But I know what you are." "I created you." "And I shall destroy you!" "I don't think so." "What strange behavior is this, grasshopper?" "You made a bargain with me!" "No bargain may be made with a child delirious with fever." "I've told you." "Sometimes I trade goods for goods." "You trade in human frailty." "I gave my child's life so that I might live." "You were not the cause of your child's death." "You are alive only because you asked me to take the life of a little girl!" "Plea of a frightened boy cannot change the will of destiny." "I command you to die!" "And I command you to be nothing." "How desperate she must have been." "She traded it for her release from pain." "I would have killed him if I had found him." "Or he you." "My men picked him up trying to run." "You know how much we owe you." "What I did, I did for myself." "Caine." "This spirit of evil is it gone forever?" "The mind is free to create its demons..." "...or its guardians." "Amy?" "We choose our own directions." "Will you take this?"