"Morning, fellas." "Well, George, sure is a nice day for banking, isn't it?" "Putting in or taking out, Willis?" "Ellie sold six beef." "We're putting in." "Good!" "Good!" "Quick, close that door." "Pull those shades!" "Hands on the counter." "Face the cage." "Quick, move!" "Face the cage." "Get over there." "Some of you know who we are, some don't." "If any of you say anything, then you'll be dead within a week." "You understand?" "Hey, old lady, did you hear me?" "l heard." "I don't know who you are, and I don't care." "It's just taking me a little time to get up my gumption." "I'm going out that door, and I'm gonna bring the sheriff." "If you wanna stop me, you're going to have to shoot a woman in the back." "Anybody say anything, then we'll be back and kill you all." "They killed her." "Who's "they"?" "Who done this?" "Did you recognize them?" "How many were they?" "How were they dressed?" "Martin, go outside, see what you can find out." "All right, Pa." "You people just wanna stand here and tell me nothing?" "You didn't see nothing?" "What's gotten into you?" "Mr. Kennamer?" "They made us face the cage." "What about you, Julie?" "If I did see anything, I wouldn't tell you, sheriff." "You wouldn't tell me?" "Why?" "They said they'd kill us if we did." "What'd you find out?" "Found him." "What'd you see?" "I asked you what you saw!" "Four men." "One slender, dark, with a gray coat." "One slender, with a mustache and blue eyes." "One with a scar on his left eye." "One blond and a round hat." "That's what I thought. I know them." "How come you can tell me so much and they can't tell me nothing?" "They were threatened with death if they spoke." "What about you?" "Ain't you afraid of that threat?" "I do not fear death." "Don, help Mr. Roper with that stretcher." "You come with me." "You sure had a lot of sand." "He just let them shoot down his own wife like that." "You want some coffee?" "Those men you saw, they began rustling cattle around here about three years ago." "Hap Darrow and his gang." "When they started out, there was five of them." "Then one of them got caught by the townspeople, and they hung him." "Since then, they've robbed the bank twice, killed three ranchers." "Mrs. Roper's the fourth." "I don't want you to be the fifth." "l will leave." "No, I'm gonna need you as a witness if I can get a posse together to round them up." "I could keep you here in jail without any charge." "That way you'd be safe." "No." "How about coming out to my place, work for me?" "I could keep an eye on you." "You gotta stay." "It's your duty as a citizen." "l will stay." "Good." "Martin, take him home." "Victor, I want you to put up a "Posse Wanted" notice." "I'm gonna try to round up some men." "Won't do no good, sheriff." "You're wrong, Victor." "This time they shot a woman." "See that horse?" "That's mine." "He is beautiful." "You can help me fix the wall feed the horses, do the laundry and cook, if you're good." "Are you good?" "I do not eat meat." "What's the matter?" "Meat make you sick?" "I do not believe in killing to eat." "No wonder you're so skinny." "That little bow's mine, the other is my pa's." "That big one we got from an Injun." "So powerful nobody's been able to string it." "Your old man wants some biscuits and beef jerky." "You get the men yet?" "No." "Not a one." "You learn to ride that horse yet?" "Made his old man buy him a horse, and he's too afraid to go near him." "Victor, why don't you shut your face." "Why don't you shut it for me?" "No, no." "Let him try it." "One of these days I'm gonna...." "He hurt you, about the horse." "He's always doing that." "I wish I could whup him, but I can't." "Can't run from him either." "He is afraid of you." "Afraid of me?" "That ain't likely." "Caught him stealing once." "Dad gave him this job so he wouldn't have to put him in jail." "Wants to help him." "I hate him." "is that not a waste?" "You think you could help me learn to ride that horse?" "It's gotta be broke first." "I do not ride." "Come." "His mare died when she's giving birth to the colt." "Ain't nobody can go near him now." "We was afraid he might kill him." "That's why we keep them apart." "That's the first time I ever seen anybody touch him." "They need to share their loss." "This tramp, where's he now?" "Sheriff put him to work at his house." "He's a Chinaman." "Get ready to ride." "You gotta kill him right there at the sheriff's house." "That'll teach him." "So long, Pa." "l ain't your pa." "Ma says you are." "Your ma can't tell one pair of pants from another." "Tell her to keep her mouth shut." "Yeah, I'll tell her." "You go home a roundabout way, okay?" "My pa can't even pull that back." "Thought you was gaunt." "You could run a man clean through." "I do not use archery for killing." "What do you use it as then?" "A form of meditation." "Meditation?" "What do you think about?" "l think of nothing but to be one with the target." "You think I'm gonna believe that?" "How can you see what you're shooting at in the dark?" "Watch my eyes." "How'd you do that?" "I do not do it." "lt is not done." "What do you mean it's not done?" "It is only experienced. lt happens." "Happens?" "Pole the arrow the bow are all one." "Not many things." "Not different things." "One." "Well I see it, but I sure don't understand it." "That's good." "Why is it good?" "Remains a puzzle." "When you cease to strive to understand then you will know without understanding." "How come you know so much about bows and horses?" "The horse lives." "I live." "We share this with all nature." "We are one." "You know you're different from just anybody I ever met." "That is good, I hope." "Don't you ever get lonesome just drifting around with no place to belong to?" "l belong to myself." "Yeah." "Me too." "Most of the time I wish I didn't, though." "You are young." "I guess I'll always be lonesome." "It is not to worry." "It is a coyote prowling, not a man." "Are you sure?" "Truly." "Did you really mean what you said about not being afraid of death?" "Yes." "You think you could teach me how not to be afraid of it?" "It is too soon." "It is not something one man may teach another." "Yeah." "I think I know what you mean by not being able to teach me that." "It's like a man has to teach it to himself, sort of." "It is rare to ask your questions." "It is more rare to listen to the answers." "Morning." "Can you hear me?" "Are you in a trance?" "You ain't fixing to die are you?" "Do you--?" "You think you could talk to me?" "Good morning." "Yes. lt is." "Back at the creek, were you meditating again?" "I was cleansing my mind of impurities, of disturbances." "Well, how's that work?" "lt lets me see the nature of things..." "...as they really are." "ls that what keeps you from getting mad?" "It is how I can encounter life's many faces with some sense of peace." "Thank you." "She was steady as a rock, my missus." "She could face hard times." "I never could have made a go of it without her." "She used to say, "Willis some day maybe we'll have the peaceful pleasures we've been seeking you and me together."" "Sure don't care about living no more." "Why didn't you shoot the man who shot her?" "You had a gun." "I never used my gun." "Not in 30 years of wearing it." "I wish I had." "I never even spoke up about who they were." "You did nothing wrong." "lt's what I didn't do." "It's what I never done my whole life." "Stood up." "You lived a good life, Mr. Roper." "Never hurt anybody." "I never tried. I just never tried." "Couldn't." "Well, I'm-- l'm real sorry, Mr. Roper." "Where you going?" "You leaving?" "l must." "Well, how come?" "Hey, listen, if it's something I said or-- Listen, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it." "There is nothing to forgive." "We are friends." "Well, this isn't being friends just up and leaving without saying what's wrong." "Listen, just because you can sit out there and think about things doesn't mean you know everything!" "Well, here." "Take this." "Have something to eat at least." "l don't care if you go or not." "They're coming!" "Hey!" "They're coming for you." "You saw them from up there on the graveyard, didn't you?" "You got scared, didn't you?" "You're just a coward!" "Strike each flame within the width of a hand from the wick." "In this way, the flame is snuffed out." "Yet the candle is not touched." "What is the purpose of so difficult a blow?" "Discipline." "But you may strike with such strength yet in one place and no more." "Master, I am troubled." "We learn to make powerful the force of our bodies." "Yet we are taught to reverence all against whom we may use such force." "When your life is threatened or the innocent life of another you will be prepared to defend them." "Being thus prepared better than others should I not always stand and fight?" "Ignore the insulting tongue." "Duck the provoking blow." "Run from the assault with a straw." "Are these not the actions of a coward?" "The wild boar runs from the tiger knowing that each, being well armed by nature with deadly strength may kill the other running." "He saves his own life and that of the tiger." "This is not cowardice." "It is the love of life." "They seek only me." "Stay here." "You will not be bothered." "You're just trying to save your own skin!" "I don't believe anything you say anymore!" "Here, Mr. Roper." "He acts like he's brave when there ain't nothing to be afraid of." "Then we gotta get him out of it." "He's in the house." "Come on out, Chinaman!" "Get down!" "Behind us!" "I'm not leaving until I kill myself a Chinaman." "Cover me!" "Come on." "Go!" "He's coming!" "Here, take this." "We need you." "Got him." "We'll come back for you!" "Daddy!" "Dad." "Dad?" "It was kind of you to permit me to use this." "It has been very helpful." "Please, keep it." "Thank you." "But I have completed my work." "l no longer want it." "Was it not your father's?" "It is now yours." "You wish no longer to savor the memory of your father through that which was close to him?" "Master, you have taught me to claim no possessions that none may claim me." "The sextant was only a memory, which you could keep not only in your heart..." "...but in your hands." "l am of age." "I must put away such memories." "Between father and son there is a bridge which neither time nor death can shatter." "Each stands at one end needing to cross and meet." "But he is dead." "The bridge of which I speak, grasshopper is your love for him." "Hey." "I ain't gonna be here long, boy." "I mean, there ain't no one to stop us now, is there?" "Well, nothing to say?" "Like what?" "Sorry about your pa." "I'm sorry about your pa." "You're fired, Victor." "You don't work here no more." "You ain't got no cause to fire me..." "...and no right." "l don't need none." "Now I said get out." "Relax, boy." "I took his body to the undertaker." "You know why he's dead, don't you?" "Because of you." "He was trying to protect you, and you didn't even try to help him." "We lost our sheriff." "is it not more important that you have lost a father?" "Mr. Grisson, Mr. James." "Sorry about your pa, Martin." "Same goes for me." "We still need a posse." "Hap Darrow's locked up in there, but his gang swore they were gonna get him out." "Somebody ought to ask the mayor." "Mr. Grisson, Mr. James, now you two men know that my pa helped you out a lot." "He was just doing his job, Martin." "We're not gunfighters, Martin." "We're storekeepers and merchants." "Why don't you try the ranchers." "There's no time for that." "Master, are you never lonely?" "Do you feel loneliness?" "No." "But I do not understand why denied the experience of so many things that other men desire I do not." "Do you remember the day you first came here?" "You stood in the rain." "You did not play games with the others." "My parents were dead." "I was alone." "Is that why you waited so long..." "...so patiently to join us?" "Yes." "It was." "We too were alone." "But you lived here together." "Man, like the animals, is meant to live together with others like himself." "But the meaning of belonging to such a group is found in the comfort of silence and the companionship of solitude." "is that why you let me enter and taught me?" "We taught you, young man because you already knew." "I stopped by your place." "How is everything there?" "It's fine." "Won't be for long, though, if you spend all your time up here." "Well, I'll tell you, since Mrs. Roper died I don't really much care, Martin." "Well, how about becoming sheriff?" "That's a job for a man who does care." "I spent half the day trying to find somebody to take over this job." "Well, who's there now?" "You got Darrow locked up, ain't you?" "Well, he's there all by himself." "Well, what about Caine?" "Where's he?" "l don't know." "Left town, I reckon, which is what he wanted to do all along." "Nothing but a drifter." "All right." "I'll sit in for a few hours, but that's the size of it." "Those men come back, if I'm still there, I ain't gonna get myself shot full of holes just to protect Hap Darrow." "What are you gonna do, run?" "l might." "Well, that's what Caine would do." "And he's just a coward." "Well, I am too." "How can you say that?" "How can you just say that?" "Doesn't it make you sick?" "Not really." "It's kind of a relief to know where you stand." "I'm kind of glad you stayed." "You get kind of lonesome, don't you?" "Yes." "I get lonesome." "Sometimes." "I was kind of hoping you might well, help me break that horse and maybe teach me how to shoot with a small bow." "Perhaps." "Yeah." "Perhaps." "Well...." "Where are you going?" "That Darrow gang's gonna come back and break Hap out for sure." "Why is it for you to do?" "Well, somebody's gotta do the job." "is it not your job to be a boy?" "I ain't no boy. I'm a man." "A man?" "That's right." "Takes a real man to do what I'm doing." "Martin is a gun the only measure you know by which a boy becomes a man?" "At least I ain't no coward." "Mr." "Roper, it's me, Martin." "Yeah, I know." "Martin?" "Yeah?" "You sure they're coming tonight?" " Well, I sure hope so." "What are you, trying to get yourself killed?" "Mr. Roper, we been all through this." "Look, I know what I said out there, but I can't let you do this alone." "Well, that's fine with me." "l don't mind telling you I ain't looking forward to getting plastered with lead all night but I guess if that's the way it's got to be." "Well that's the way I see it." "Two miserable people, ain't we?" "Looking for our self-respect." "Look here, Martin." "I ain't got that much to lose, but you do." "Now why don't you just run along and let me handle this alone?" "Mr. Roper this is something I have to do." "Some folks would admire you, Martin." "I think you're plumb stupid." "We meet on the main street." "There's the bank, jail, an alley on either side." "I'll come down this side in the back and get Hap out." "Right." "You cover me from across the street." "lt'll be easy." "After we break him out, we'll camp at Cold River Canyon." "Let's ride." "Who's there?" "Caine." "You alone?" "Yes, alone." "What you fixing to do?" "Won't shoot." "Won't fire a bow." "Will you load?" "No." "But I will help." "How?" "I will be outside." "Looks like this might be the end of the line." "I'd kind of like to pray." "You?" "Do you know the praying mantis?" "Tall insect, looks like a stick when it stands up?" "Looks like it's praying." "It is the position it takes before it kills." "If they come down the alley you'd best get yourself a stool and shoot out that cell window." "I'll go down the alley." "You men circle around there." "Hey in there!" "Send Darrow out or we're gonna start shooting." "Hap!" "Hap!" "Here's a gun." "Arnold!" "Weaver!" "The Chinaman got the Fox!" "Come in the front door!" "Now!" "There's nobody here but an old man and a kid!" "Come in the front door!" "Give me those keys." "We need something to break the lock open." "There are tools by the side door." "Come on!" "Watch him, Victor." "Watch it, the Chinaman's behind you!" "Victor, get in here!" "Get me out of here!" "Martin!" "Martin!" "No." "Get me out of here!" "Martin!" "Your dad would be proud of you, boy." "Men, let's get some buckets!" "Caine, don't." "Get me out of here!" "Get me out!" "Get me out, Chinaman!" "Come on, come on, come on." "There you go." "Mr. Kennamer's gonna get us a new sheriff." "What will you do?" "Oh, I don't know." "Go back to school probably." "l invited him to come live with me." "Told him I'd pay for helping out." "Might do that." "He's got a nicer place than we used to." "You could live with us too." "I must go." "How come?" "It is right for me." "I will remember you both." "It's gonna be lonesome." "Yes." "Mr. Caine?" "You know, I...." "l wanted to beat that Victor to a pulp but l-- l just couldn't." "That is good, Martin."