"Look." "Comin' there." "Foggy out there, huh?" "Yes, it is." "Your horse all right?" "Seems to be." "This the posse that's looking for Sam Tarnitzer?" "All that had stomach for it." "But that doesn't tell us who you are." "Gunfighter, huh?" "I was hired by James Sanders." "That makes sense." "It was Sanders' kid that Tarnitzer hung." "If you join up, you'll take a cut out of the bounty the same as everyone else." "That makes $100 even, don't it?" "$100 silver." "And then ain't I gonna have me a good time at old Fat Maria's in Sacramento..." "That why you joined this posse?" "For a hundred dollars?" "At least he's no hypocrite." "I'm afraid the rest of us aren't motivated by anything quite so clear cut as a profit." "What he means is, we're out to kill Tarnitzer, and we don't need no pay for it." "No, not to kill him, but to plunge our hands in his blood and try to rip the past from him." "And we've got every right to do it!" "He stole a mining claim from Mr. Crawford, he stole the wife from Mr. Burton, and from this old sod of a disbarred judge, yes, he stole something from me, too." "But I'm afraid that is merely obiter dictum." "I'd swear he could talk the feathers right off a yellow egg." "You know, maybe Pike here is right about Tarnitzer hiring him a gunman." "We don't know anything about him, except that he says he was hired by Mr. Sanders." "Yeah, that, uh, that crossed my mind." "Well, there are four of you and one of me." "That should give you some comfort." "We're moving out- you coming along?" "Four, if you can count a drunk and a bank clerk that don't even know which end of a gun to hold." "I'll know when it comes time to kill Tarnitzer." "About the only place he could hide out around here." "We'll flush him out - he ain't got no place left to run." "He sure ain't fool enough to hide out here in the open or in this old barn." "He ain't in there." "Well, if your logic is correct," "Tarnitzer is somewhere between here and the mountain." "Yeah, but where?" "The mountain- that's where you'll find him." "Be like finding a bean in a pea pot." "You coming?" "You can stay right here if you want to, then." "Let him hang back." "It'll be just one less out of the bounty money." "¶ ¶" "Tarnitzer!" "You're trapped!" "You come out of there with your hands wide and empty, or I'm gonna burn this field!" "Crawl out begging?" "!" "I never bellied up to a man in my life!" "All right, mister, whoever you are, you found me, now let's see you come and take me out!" "You want me to burn this field?" "!" "Who are you?" "!" "What score you got with me?" "!" "None!" "Just you come on out of there!" "The bounty money, is that it?" "!" "I'll pay you double over!" "What's your price?" "!" "Name it!" "It's already been met by the father of the boy you hung!" "Now, do you want me to burn this field?" "!" "No man ever did me" "I didn't do him back once over." "I'm not dead yet, and I'll find a way to pay you before I am." "You got any orders to give now, Mr. Tarnitzer?" "There's no use, Mr. Burton." "Our majestic Lord Tarnitzer has finally met a court he couldn't buy or browbeat or corrupt." "Judge... paper." "Take my will." "Put down the legal part now." "I, Sam Tarnitzer, being of sane mind, hereby leave... and bequeath... to..." "Who you leaving it to?" "Him." "Mr. Paladin?" "!" "Paladin." "Yeah." "Cattle, land... everything I own." "Or to any one of you that kills him before he gets back to San Cristobal." "Put it down!" "You think we're gonna kill a man for your dirty money?" "Maybe he figures that, uh, we're just like him." "No, you're not like me." "You just want." "I had the guts to take." "You got it down?" "Yeah." "Well..." "I guess we can take that purported will now and destroy it." "I'm afraid that choice isn't yours, Mr. Paladin." "If I may quote a legal decision:" ""Where, by the legator's wish, a test of time or performance" ""is set as a condition to inheritance," ""the said inheritance shall be construed" ""as an involuntary trust," ""and the heir shall in no way or manner prejudice the rights of any known residual legatees."" "And that is from Grey versus..." "Champion." "Star Court proceedings 1543." "None of which pertains." ""No person can inherit monies, wealth or other goods by the commission of immoral or injurious acts."" "Blackstone's Commentaries, volume three." "What about this will, Judge, is it legal or not?" "If it came before me," "I would rule it quite legal." "Well, I guess that settles it." "Not that, uh, it means anything to me." "Well, it sure don't mean nothing to us." "All I want's my hundred dollars." "Well, as Burton says, I, uh..." "I guess that settles it." "I'll ride behind now, Crawford." "You giving orders now?" "Yep." "Unless Tarnitzer's will is proved invalid between here and San Cristobal." "We'll stop and camp here for the night- if that's all right with you, Mr. Paladin." "That's fine." "Sort of thought you might be anxious-like to get back to San Cristobal." "If it was me that had all that money coming," "I reckon I wouldn't mind taking a few chances to hurry it along." "What kind of chances, Mr. Pike?" "I was just saying "if."" "If." "Well, Mr. Pike, I think I'll stay close to you, just so I know what's on your mind, just so I don't take any chance on a bullet in the back." "Let's get that body off the horse." "Judge, don't you ever walk up behind me like that again!" "Judge?" "Yes, I-I was a judge, but not any longer." "There's our judge now." "Look at him." "The very picture of impeccable magisterial authority." "Would you care to join me?" "No, thank you." "Well, now that he's dead, it doesn't seem to matter." "Doesn't seem to make any difference." "It would if you had all the money" "Paladin's going to come into." "You work in a bank." "How much you figure Tarnitzer was worth?" "Half a million, I'll bet." "That money doesn't belong to Paladin any more than it did to Tarnitzer." "It's mine, every cent of it." "I'm the one who found the Blind Frenchman mine." "All you got to do to get it back is kill him." "You'll just about have time to count it all up before they hung you." "Well, I thought maybe if we sort of all put in..." "No, then you'd all end up hanging together, or shooting each other separately." "Not if I kill you in a fair fight." "Oh, no, they won't hang me." "See, I've got witnesses." "Well, just how long do you think you can trust them?" "Paladin, I'm telling you to draw." "Crawford, I'm gonna tell you one more time- that will is worthless." "Don't squander your life on something that doesn't even exist." "Now don't you try anything." "There's three of us." "You can't gun us all down." "Doesn't that body on the ground mean anything to you three?" "That's all the legacy Tarnitzer left you." "He had this planned all along." "First Crawford, then each one of us- one by one." "Till he gets everything in the will." "Well, Tarnitzer understood you three pretty well." "You say you came out here because you hated him?" "Well, with a worthless scrap of paper, he's turned you three into something no better than what you hated." "I guess old man Tarnitzer knew your kind pretty well, too." "I've never seen a gunfighter yet get squeamish over a couple extra killings." "But you ain't gonna gun us down like you did Crawford." "You might get a couple of us, but one of us is bound to get you." "There seems to be no way out, Mr. Paladin." "Well..." "Well, let's see if you three can trust each other." "You ain't gonna kill him and get the will." "What are you laughing about?" "Shut up." "If I was hung up in a trap like you are," "I wouldn't be bellowing around." "Pike, you're the one that's in a trap." "All three of you." "And it's a trap you made." "Get over there and sit down." "Move!" "You're not going to shoot, Pike." "Burton's standing there right behind you." "He wants that will, too." "What do you think he'd do, you gave him an opening like that?" "You're the one that started it." "Now what are you going to do with him?" "I got to think, don't I?" "Maybe you ought to tie me up." "Yeah." "You and the judge get the rope over there and tie him up good and tight." "Oh, no." "I'm not going to put down this gun and tie him up." "You want him tied, you tie him." "Well, Pike?" "Shut up." "Well, one of you could stand guard while the other two slept." "I wouldn't object to taking my turn at guard duty." "Yeah, I just bet you wouldn't." "You with a gun in your hand and Burton and me asleep." "Simply an offer." "I think we ought to get moving." "That's what I think we ought to do." "And it coming on night- who's gonna ride in front, you?" "No." "There is a very ancient Sanskrit saying" ""If one is going to skin a tiger, one is wise to make certain first that it is dead."" "Oh, Mr. Paladin." "You changed your mind?" "About what, Judge?" "Oh, about the necessity of illusions." "Personally, I don't have any." "If I did, I used them up a long time ago." "Besides, this takes their place very nicely." "I don't believe that, Judge." "If it did, you wouldn't need it." "Now take these two- Pike and Burton." "They both think they're going to get a lot of money out of Tarnitzer's will." "But you know better." "What illusion drives you into this?" "No, not an illusion- a reality." "On the bench you learn about illusions, because of realities." "Lust and hatred and greed." "You'll find it in them, you'll find it in me, and you'll find it in the ones that pretend they're incorruptible, like you, Mr. Paladin." "Judge, would it be worth your life to test that?" "Perhaps." "Why don't you shut up?" "Keeping you awake, Mr. Pike?" "Now you just don't worry yourself none about it." "If anybody goes to sleep around here, it ain't gonna be me." "Possible." "And if you manage to survive the night and if you manage to kill me and if you manage to avoid being hanged for that," "I still don't know what you're going to do with all that money you think you're going to come into." "I don't believe even a man like you can spend $500,000 in Fat Maria's in Sacramento." "And you, Mr. Burton, what are you going to do with your imaginary half million dollars?" "Do you plan to buy back your wife?" "You don't even remember what her face looks like." "What do you want?" "You want your youth back?" "All Tarnitzer's money won't buy that for you." "All you're trying to do is mix us up." "I'm warning you, stop it." "Leave him alone." "So you can kill him and get all the money?" "Well, gentlemen, you aren't excluding the judge, are you?" "At any rate, you have the entire remainder of the night to consider the problem." "And since I am governed by Virgil's dictum that "He who fears sleep, fears death,"" "I shall retire and leave you three to guard one another." "Good night." "It's not that I want to kill you, but I have to, you know that." "I've got more right to Tarnitzer's money than Pike does." "How are you going to explain that bullet in my back?" "I've thought of that." "Now don't you try anything, and don't you make any noise." "I want to make it look fair." "I don't want them saying that..." "that I done murder." "Well, if you don't call this murder, Burton, just what is your name for it?" "You wouldn't feel so hard against me if you understood." "Man spends most of his life grubbing over figures." "What for?" "All I had was my wife." "And she wasn't in love with me." "Man ought to be like Tarnitzer- take what he wants." "There's Tarnitzer's body right over there." "You envy him?" "You want to trade places with him?" "Don't you try confusing me." "Now you better go for that gun, 'cause I'm not going to wait any longer." "What about me?" "Aren't you saving a place to lash my body down, too?" "I'm afraid that's exactly what you want." "It's a day's ride to San Cristobal." "I still might find a way of satisfying the requirements of the will." "Judge, you keep the will." "You keep the will for whatever it's worth to you." "That funny?" "That really funny to you?" "Three men, three human beings, strangled on their own lust, their own greed." "That there's so much evil in this world that a man like Tarnitzer can play on it even after he's dead, and for nothing?" "That's exactly it." "All for nothing." "You let them go on until they'd eaten each other's guts." "Why?" "!" "Mr. Paladin, it's a peculiar fact of nature... that when a man sells his own soul he likes to believe that everyone else has sold his, too." "Rather like Diogenes searching for darkness." "It can be very painful to stare into the light." "Oh, no, Judge." "No, you're going back sober." "And you're going to stand in the light." "And I hope it burns you." "¶ "Have gun will travel," reads the card of a man ¶" "¶ A knight without armor in a savage land ¶" "¶ His fast gun for hire heeds the calling wind ¶" "¶ A soldier of fortune is the man called Paladin ¶" "¶ Paladin, Paladin, where do you roam?" "¶" "¶ Paladin, Paladin, far, far from home. ¶"