"Tres hombres," "Ish-Kay-Nay..." "Whatever you call him." "I guess you must be John Russell... unless one of them is." "I can't hardly tell you apart." "I'm Russell." "Who are you?" "I'm Billy Lee Blake." "I work for Henry Mendez." "If he sent you for horses, all we got are green." "We're not going to be needing any more horses." "They're closing down the stage line." "You're a bit out of touch up here, ain't you?" "Well, then, what do you want?" "Mr. Mendez wants to see you." "He's waiting down at Delgado's station." "He told me to tell you to come on in." "All right, you told me." "Let me have my horse back so I can get out of here before dark." "You afraid of it?" "I don't like what I see in the daylight around here." "Go ahead." "Hombre." "Which name today?" "Which do you want?" "Anything but bastard will do." "We'll useJohn Russell." "No Apache names." "No symbol names, all right?" "All right." "Come inside." "We'll have some mescal." "You get home all right?" "I hear you're out of work." "Well, I bought my last horse from you." "The notices go up this week." "After 20 years, the railroad has come to Sweetmary." "It's progress, my friend, change." "It's the law of life." "Anyway, I brought you here about something else." "I thought you'd want to know that Mr. Russell died three nights ago." "He went in his sleep." "Doesn't that affect you?" "The man who raised you?" "Seventy-eight years is a long life." "Yes." "He was an old man." "Not a bad one, either." "Anyway, he left you his watch and a boarding house on Walker Street in Sweetmary." "It's two stories high." "I live there myself." "This is a big something to think about." "Why?" "Because you can live among white men again... on land that a white man has given you." "You've been up in the mountains too long." "It's time to speak English to people no matter what language you think in." "And get your hair cut." "Why?" "There's something to be gotten out of this, something to your advantage." "At least go look at it." "I think that if you see it, you'll keep it." "And there's a woman running it... good-looking woman." "Do I inherit her, too?" "No, my friend." "That's up to you." "You can be white or Indian or Mexican." "Now it pays you to be a white man for a while." "Go to Sweetmary." "Say, "How are you?" "I am John Russell." "I own the Russell place."" "Put yourself on the winning side for a change." "Is that where you are?" "A Mexican is closer than a White Mountain Apache," "I can tell you that." "How old is she?" "Hey, uh, Mexico." "You got a bottle back there?" "I guess anybody can come in here." "Yeah... if they allow Indians." "Hey, uh, when did they start letting Indians drink?" "Maybe they've been drinking that..." "Apache slop they make out of cactus juice." "Tizwin?" "Yeah." "Yeah, that's right... tizwin." "Maybe that's where they bought the nerve to come in here." "It would take a week with tizwin." "They got time." "What else they got to do?" "That ain't tizwin." "That's mescal." "Yeah, that's mescal." "Well, that's still not allowed... not even sticky sweet Mex drinks." "Not for Indians." "Aw..." "look at that." "They just can't hold their liquor." "They sure can't." "Nobody knows why." "It's just a fact of nature." "No more, huh?" "Before you leave, you put money on the bar for mescal." "Next time, I'll drop you." "I talk about bringing you to a house that has flowerpots in the window and napkins on the table." "A savage." "I don't know why you say that." "I was thinking about it in English." "Oh, it's so hot out there, that wash dried while I was hanging it." "I don't think this meat is fresh." "Don't think about it." "Just cook it." "But it smells funny." "You think it'll be all right?" "Yeah, if you put chili peppers into it." "I wouldn't eat it myself on a bet." "Hey, what's going on?" "I'm moving you out." "I want you to take your socks, your cigar stubs, your long johns, and your nickel-plated sheriff s badge and amble back down the hall to your own room." "Huh." "I like it here." "Can't quite remember how you got squatter's rights in here anyhow." "Seems to me you came by one night to ask for an extra blanket and stayed a year." "You beginning to worry about public opinion?" "My public's getting bigger than usual." "The new owner's coming today." "What the hell is he, a preacher or something?" "He might not understand this arrangement." "I'm not sure I do." "I don't like this." "I didn't think you'd be crazy about it." " I don't like it at all." " Humor me." "I just want to keep up appearances for a while." "Nothing to get sulky about." "Jessie, you can't move me around like you do the furniture." "I might not come back." "Sure, you will, Frank." "Where else are you going to put your big, cold feet?" "Are you kids up?" "Coffee's on!" "All right, Jess." "Come on, she wants us down." "What if she does?" "We're paying the rent." "What are you going to do, lie around all day?" "Mmm." "I might." "You know, the way I calculate it, you spend about 17 hours out of 24 in bed." "I need a lot of sleep." "Reckon you'll come out to see your shadow on Groundhog Day?" "What's there to get up for?" "I don't have anybody to talk to." "I don't have anybody to visit." "Big excitement around here is to watch Jessie chop the head off a chicken for dinner." "If you're hurting for something to do" "I'm poking through every sock I own." "Try putting a darn in some of them." "Darns raise blisters." "Buy some new ones." "You must think I'm made of money." " If you are, I never see it." " Now I'm cheap, huh?" "This isn't what you promised me." "I promised you I'd do the best I could." "What did you think married life was gonna be?" "Getting away from a hardscrabble ranch on the Rogue River and my old man who never raised anything but kids and bad luck!" "The lovemaking's fine, isn't it?" "No, it isn't fine!" "It's mostly something you want to do and usually without taking a shave." "Look." "You don't want to have any kids." "You don't want to keep house." "Now you don't want to sleep with me." "I can do better to get a dog to keep me company!" "I'd like to see these forks just once without yesterday's dried egg on them." "The walls of this house are paper thin, Billy Lee." "What's that supposed to mean?" "It means you can hear everything through them, and I mean everything." "We fight a lot." "What's wrong with you two?" "Well, what isn't?" "What did you get married for?" "So you'd have the right to sleep in the same bed?" "I guess." "Well, that part of it isn't going to last, believe it or not." "She'll get fat, and you'll get old." "Then what?" "I'm not worried about then." "I'm worried about now." "You try living with the 24-hour bellyaching and see how you like it." "That's the price you pay if you want it where you can nudge it in the night." "Billy, time to go to work." "Well..." "I see the silver's being polished all nice and bright for Mr. Russell." "And what's the matter with that?" "And who are you going to all this trouble for?" "A man who was carried off by the Apaches when he was a child, raised among red devils to be a red devil." "Is that what I'm gonna have sleeping in the bed in my front bedroom?" "I'll tell you something else about him." "When old man Russell found him amongst some army prisoners at Fort Thomas and took him to his home, gave him his name, this ingrate went back to the Apache again." "He had no use for the white man." "So... you don't waste your time with this, hmm?" "He eats with the fingers." "When I get done with him, he'll be eating out of my hand." "You think so?" "Uh-huh." "Mr. Russell?" "I'm Jessie Brown." "I've been expecting you." "The gate seems to be off the hinge." "I know." "I've been meaning to do something about that sometime or other." "Come on in." "We can't talk here." "I hear it." "The roof s got a nice, big leak too." "If it were raining now, you'd drown right where you're standing." "But it isn't raining, is it?" "Doesn't appear to be." "Mr. Russell, this house has got ten rooms, two flights of stairs, and one woman to keep it all nailed down." "That's me." "All right." "Would you like to see the rest of the house?" "There's nothing else to show you except me and the account books, and you've already had a fairly critical look at me." "Well, I'll take a look at the books." "You might like to know that old man Russell had a fine funeral." "Everyone in the house chipped in." "We bought him a horseshoe of red carnations." "They didn't last in this heat, but they were pretty." "And we got him a marble headstone." "It has his name on it, and underneath we had them put," ""In the fullness of his years."" "Is that all right?" "I'd settle for that on my own slab." "What do you figure yours is gonna read?" ""Shot dead," probably." "Don't people like you, Mr. Russell?" "Only takes one who doesn't." "Let's assume you're going to have a future." "How would you feel about going into business with me?" "I'll make the same arrangement with you that I had with old man Russell." "These are the accounts." "You'll clear $300 a year without even lifting a finger... and you'll have a place to hang your hats, besides." "I've had an offer on this house... for a herd of horses down in Contention." "I think I'm going to take it." "You knew that when you walked in the door." "Let me ask you something, lady." "This house here that you're so hot about, it's mine, isn't it?" "Yes, it's yours." "I can sell it or not sell it, whichever, right?" "You can do what you want to." "Was there anything in that will that made provision for you?" "Not a line." "Then it turns out that I don't have any responsibility toward you at all." "You don't owe me a thing." "No." "Fact is, I don't." "And I'm not one to quarrel with the facts," "Mr. Russell." "Anybody in there?" "Just one." "Got something to say, and I'd just as soon nobody heard it." "Why?" "Something wrong?" "Russell is selling the house." "I'm high and dry." "Well, now, that's kind of sudden, ain't it?" "It's his house and my luck." "If you're hurting for money, I can let you have a little." "You can let me have more than that." " Like what?" " Make an honest woman out of me." "Come on, Jess." "You're already that." "Now, don't hedge." "I need an answer." "You appear to be it." "That's a hell of a romantic way of looking at it." "You could do a lot worse." "I don't turn your pants pockets inside out." "I don't say no in the middle of the night." "When you got the stomachache, I'm ready with the bicarbonate of soda." "When you get a cold, I'm the one who brings up the croup kettle." "I know I'm not 20, but that's not too bad." "Over the years, I have learned to control my temper." "All that's true." "So?" "Yes or no?" "Not a chance." "Well..." "I've gone this far." "So if it's not too undignified to ask, why not?" "Jessie, you could be the Queen of Sheba with a rose in your teeth, you could be Velvet-skin Annie out of a Frisco hook shop, the answer would still be "no."" "You got me in pretty classy company anyhow." "I been working since I was ten years old, cleaning spittoons at a dime a day." "It's now 30 years later and all I can see out the window is a dirt road going nowhere." "The only thing that changes the view is the spotted dog lifting his leg against the wall over there." "Saturday nights, I haul in the town drunks." "I get their 25-cent dinners and their rotgut liquor heaved up over the front of my one good shirt." "I wear three pounds of iron strapped to my leg." "That makes me fair game for any punk cowboy who's had one too many." "No, Jess." "I don't need a wife." "I need out." "Doesn't seem to be my day, does it?" "I'm doing you a favor, honey." "Anytime a man weasels out on you, it turns out that he's doing you a favor." "Well, maybe you are, Frank." "Are you in charge here?" "Henry Mendez." "It's urgent that my husband and I get to Bisbee." "I want to arrange to leave tonight." " The line is closed." " I'm prepared to hire a rig." "We don't have any." "What do you have?" "Nothing at all, lady." "We got a mud wagon." "Who's going to drive it?" "I could do it." "He doesn't have enough experience." "The company would not allow it." "I'm willing to let him drive." "You might also be willing to sue us in case something happens." "If I bought the wagon?" "It's not mine to sell." "If I paid for more than just our fares?" "Well, you'll need a driver, horses... four, maybe six horses." "And the relay stations aren't working anymore." "The same horses will have to go all the way." "If they don't make it, who's going to pay for them?" "I'll buy the horses." "So there's no other problem, is there?" "You want to get there bad, don't you?" "Settle it." "We'll go to the hotel and have dinner." "That should give you time to find a man and get ready." "I don't know, lady." "You'll make a month's wages in three days." "You'll be ready." "Me and Doris want to get out of here, so does Jess." "That's three more of us." "And Russell's looking for a ride too." "All right, that's four." "Why can't we do it?" "Have I said we couldn't?" "Whoa!" "Is everybody ready?" "I saw that fella Mendez." "I'm going along with you." "Going to Bisbee to get married." "What do you think?" "Not much, but that's up to you." "Here's your ticket." "If there are any stops open on the way, show that for meals." "Drinks are extra." "Hand it in when you reach your destination." "Hey, this one's for him." "Want to hand it to him?" "Sure." "I see you're going to Contention." "I change there for Bisbee." "Yesterday I was in the army, and next week I'll be a mining man." "Week after, I'll have a wife all arranged for and waiting." "Isn't that something?" "Yes, it is." "What did you do with my house plant?" "I stuck it in the boot." "It's O.K." "It better be." "I nursed that thing along for six years." " Cicero Grimes." " Yes, sir." "Well, write it down, boy, for the coach out front." "It's a special run." "I know that." "That's why I'm going on it." "I'm afraid it's full-up." "You can get one more on up top." "No one's allowed to ride with the driver." "That's a company rule." "They going?" "Yes, sir." "Both of them." "You got a ticket for that stage out in front?" "Well, that's it." "You can give me your ticket, and you can take the next stage." "That's a funny idea." "No, that's not a funny idea." "That's a good idea." "See, you could stay here, get drunk, have some fun." "Now, how's that sound?" "But I'm gonna be traveling tonight." "No." "I don't think so." "Leave him alone!" "You come late, you find your own way." "What did you say?" "I said why don't you leave him alone?" "The man wants to take the stage, let him take it." "Well, suppose I take your ticket instead." "You just walk in and take someone else's seat?" "Looks like it, don't it?" "Somebody's pulling a joke on somebody." "You think so?" "What kind of a business do you run here?" "You let a man walk in and say he's taking your seat after paying the fare?" "The company doesn't do anything about it?" "Friend." "This business is between you and me." "We don't want anybody else poking their nose into it, do we?" "You wearing a gun?" "You better get one." "You can't just threaten a man like that." "There are witnesses here seeing you threaten me." "They heard you call me a dirty name." "I never called you anything." "And even if they didn't, I did." "I didn't say a word." "Now, friend..." "I'm going to step out into the street here, and if you don't come out in about one minute," "I'm going to have to come back in here." "You should have done something." "You talking to me, lady?" "Yes, to you." "It wasn't my business." "What if he'd taken your ticket?" "He didn't." "That soldier would have helped you, and you know it." "I didn't ask him for any." "He didn't even have a gun." "That's his business, he don't want to carry one." "Takes a lot to light a fire under you." "If it's all right with you, lady," "I just didn't feel like bleeding for him." "And even if it isn't all right with you." "What if there were Apaches out there now, watching us?" "Don't alarm yourself, young lady." "The wild, free ones are all up in the mountains." "The wild, caught ones are at San Carlos." "I've heard a lot of stories about what Indians do to white women." "They do the same thing to white women they do to Indian women, and they don't mind it much, red or white." "I don't know if the ladies enjoy that kind of talk." "What kind of talk?" "About Apache Indians and what they do to women." "You saying I got a loose mouth?" "If he wasn't saying it, I am." "Right." "That lady speaks right up, don't she?" "Mm-hmm." "If you want to know if I'm carrying a gun, I'm not." "My tongue is my only weapon, Mr. Grimes." "And it's deadly." "I've lived among the Apaches on a reservation... the women grinding corn and rubbing skins, the men almost naked... some of them quite striking." "Just when you begin to find them almost beautiful, they squat and pick at themselves with the dogs sniffing at them." "I can't imagine eating a dog and not thinking anything of it." "You ever been hungry, lady?" "Not just ready for supper, but hungry enough so that your belly swells up?" "I wouldn't care how hungry I got." "I know I wouldn't eat one of those camp dogs." "You'd eat it." "You'd fight for the bones too." "Have you ever eaten a dog, Mr. Russell?" "Eaten one and lived like one." "Dear me." "Mr. Russell obviously feels sympathy for the Indians' plight." "If you're a humane man, you do." "But you have to live on a reservation like San Carlos to see that caring for them is not a simple matter of giving them food and clothing." "My name is Favor, by the way." "I happen to be the Indian agent at San Carlos." "As the agent, I see all the problems the Interior Department is faced with... natural resentment on the part of the Indians, their distrust, their reluctance to cultivate the soil." "They live where they don't want to live." "That too, which can't be helped for the time being." "Do you happen to know someone at San Carlos?" "Most of them." " You've visited the agency?" " I lived there." "I don't think I recognize you." "Did you work for one of the suppliers?" "No." "I worked for the police." "But the police are all Apache." "Whoa." "Delgado's station." " Mendez!" " Well, who else?" "You can wash at the bench near the kitchen door and follow the path around the back for the other things." " Still got horses?" " A few more days." "Then change them for these." "I thought you had closed down." "That's a long story." "Get your woman to make some coffee, eh?" "Mr. Mendez." "I find myself in an awkward situation." "I'm going to have to rely on your tact." "You mean you have a dirty job for me to do." "Giving as little offense as possible arrange to have Mr. Russell ride on top with you." "How do I offend the man without offending him, Dr. Favor?" "My wife finds it disturbing having him inside with us." "What is there about him that bothers the lady?" "I'm sure you know his history better than I do." "I leave it in your hands." "And wash yours?" "It's for the dust... or whatever reason you want." "Dr. Favor... says you shouldn't ride in the coach." "They all say that?" "I don't know what they all say, but he's paying for most of it." "I don't think he wants to argue." "What do you say?" "Well, I say, why make people unhappy?" "Let them do what they want." "It's not a big thing." "Why should we let it worry us?" "What if I decide to stay inside?" "A man could catch his death of cold riding up on top." "Is that worth arguing about, making trouble, getting people angry and upset?" "Or is it easier to forget it?" "Which?" "If you ask... why I lend myself to this... it's a habit... a lifetime of it." "I didn't ask." "Against the cold." "I want you to hear this." "I was just telling him that you're not the first through here this afternoon." "About an hour ago, three men came by." " Did you know them?" " Some riders." " But did you know them?" " They may work around here." "This station's supposed to be closed." "What were they doing here?" "It happens." "People pass by." "What did they look like?" "Did they say where they were going?" "If you think they planned to hold us up, they wouldn't know a stage was coming by today." "I want to go another way." "Is there one?" "There's a road past the old San Pete Mine." "It hasn't been used in years." "It's wild and hard to travel over, but it ends up in the same place." "We'll take it." "We have women." "Any possibility of being stopped, we should take precautions." "Start without delay, if you please." "Hyah!" "Get up!" "Get up!" "Hyah!" "Hyah!" "Smoke bother you?" "Would you put it out if I said it did?" "Oh, yeah." "My mama taught me to remove my hat and my cigar in the presence of a lady." "Whatever else I take off depends on how lucky I get." "Oh, it's stuffy in there." "I noticed." "Listen, I had nothing to do with your getting thrown out." "All right." "Although, frankly, it wouldn't bother me a bit if you had to walk all the way to Bisbee." "It wouldn't bother me either, lady." "Get up there!" "Get up now!" "Get up!" "Get up!" "Giddup!" "Yes!" "Giddup!" "Ho!" "All right, everybody out!" "Billy, take care of the horses and get a water bag." "Why have we made this stop?" "If you're thinking of us, we're not tired." "No." "I'm thinking of the horses... and me." "I'm tired." "We'll rest here for a couple of hours." "I have to get some sleep." "If you're smart, you'll do the same." "Hey, amigo." "This ain't the stage road." "We took a different way." "Different way?" "You just take any old road you feel like?" "I think you'd better talk to Dr. Favor." "No." "I'm talking to you." "We all agreed." "You were asleep." "I thought... he wants to come with us so bad, this will be all right." "Where's it go?" "Same place." "We'll be in Benson tomorrow if the road is all right and nothing happens." "What could happen?" "You better stop right there, lady, or I'm going to know all there is to know about you." "Well, you could at least have cleared your throat." "I couldn't." "My heart was in it." "It's hot." "These are heavy." "So you've seen my legs." "There are worse walking around." "Some worse, some better." "Well, you're not going to have much to do with them, so don't let it worry you." "You're a pretty thorny woman." "Has anyone ever gotten within range of you?" "Not that it's any of your business, but I was married once." "Been a widow since I was 19." "My husband was a sweet Missouri boy." "One night, they brought him home on a kitchen door." "Been shot eight times." "Seems there had been an argument over the price of a Mexican saddle." "He had a comic valentine for me in his pocket." "The dead are dead." "You ought to bury them." "I'm sure that's good advice." "Trouble is, Mr. Russell," "I think you feel the same way about the living." "What do you want?" "I hope I'm not bothering you, but it's so hot, I was just cooking." "Whew." "There's a nice little breeze up here, though, isn't there?" "Everybody's gone to sleep." "I can't sleep when it gets this hot." "I just wake up dizzy." "That a fact?" "This place sure is spooky, all those buildings and nobody in them." "You know, I'm awfully glad you're along with us." "If anything happened, it's nice to know there's somebody along that could do something about it." "That's what you think?" "I saw you back at the station." "You frightened the life out of everyone back there." "Did you like that, little lady?" "I like to see a man act like a man." "I think that you should have what you like." "Oh!" "Don't do this!" "You scared?" "You never had it like this, hmm?" "You get hurt a little, and then you... get rubbed a little bit." "Ha ha ha!" " Where do you think you're going?" " I'm going to get my husband!" "So he can charge up that hill and get his head blown off?" "You let go of me!" "He's got to do something." "That man hurt me." "You wagged your tail in his face to get his attention, and you got it." "You're disgusting, you know that?" "You talk so dirty." "Wipe your nose and shut your mouth... and tell everyone you fell and skinned your knees going to the public convenience." "Here." "Mop up." "Hyah!" "Hyah!" "Hyah!" "We're missing a water bag." "We started with three." "I must have left it behind at San Pete." "Mendez will skin me." "Right down to the bone." "Oh, that's an awfully pretty kit." "Yes." "It's made of Spanish leather." "Geranium?" "Jasmine." "Would you like some?" "It's cooling." "Thank you." "What does a bottle like this cost?" "The best years of your life." "I like Dr. Favor." "He has such lovely manners." "I was noticing his hands." "He keeps his nails so nice and clean." "He's very proud of his hands and feet, they're so small." "I, on the other hand, am proud of his brain." "It's very large." "He reads a lot, doesn't he?" "Far into the night, which is just as well." "'Cause when he takes his trousers off and folds them neatly and hangs them over the back of a chair, that sharp, exciting intelligence of his doesn't count for very much." "All we're left with is thin, spindly legs with those little blue veins on them and all the knots and bumps." "A love match, huh?" "When I was 18 and a student of his and I heard him read Robert Browning." "But now I'm 35, and I hear him cough up phlegm." "They all make those noises... bathroom noises and bedroom noises." "Well, I suppose we've all felt the same chill." "Not me." "I like men." "They may have put a little gray in my hair, but I keep coming back for more, so they must have something." "Hear, hear." "Whoa!" "Everybody take a nice walk to the top of the grade." "Hyah!" "Well, I'm getting tired of this trip." "I want a bath." "I want to sleep 12 hours." "I want a big, rare steak." "And then what?" "I don't know." "I never know what's next." "Whatever it is, I'm going to have to scratch for it." "That I do know." "Wish I could find a rich old man and give it a rest for a while." " Where?" "Out to pasture?" " Mm-hmm." "I'm ready." "Let someone else work up a sweat for a change." "Let someone else put the meat on the table." "Glad to buy you dinner." "Mmm." "There's a lot of men who will do that, Mr. Russell." "Well, I'd just as soon make it breakfast." "No, thanks." "I just take coffee in the morning..." "nothing with it." "You know, we liked not to have made it." "I figured you had some catching up to do." "When you didn't come by the main road, we went back to Delgado's." "He told us you'd come this other way." "He didn't want to tell us, but he told." "I tell you, we done some riding." "Well, look who we have here." "Hello, Jessie." "Feeling ornery, Frank?" "Let's not start asking questions." "Just one..." "what are you doing here?" "Going bad, honey." "All right." "Break out that luggage." "Doc Favor's pretending he don't see us." "Things kind of close in on you, don't they, Doctor?" "I have no idea what you're talking about." "My wife and I are going to Bisbee to settle some affairs." "We'll be there two days at most." "That's not where you're going." "You're going to hole up in Mexico, or you're going to get on a boat in Veracruz and head out." "Hey, Lamar, you know something." "He ought to be over here with a gun." "He don't need a gun to pull off a robbery." "He does it with pen and ink." " No." " Yeah." "He just claims a higher beef tally than what comes in." "Then he pays the trail driver off for what's delivered, charges the government for meat that ain't even there, and then pockets the difference." "Ain't that right, Doctor?" "The Indians go hungry, but you don't." "All right." "Let's get to it." "What about up in the boot?" "A shotgun." "Do you think this is worth your while?" "You won't be able to show your face again." "I purely appreciate that, but don't give me no more advice, please." "I'll bet you're dead or arrested in two weeks." "You ain't gonna have nothing to bet with." " There are witnesses." " I don't see no witnesses." "Lamar, you see any witnesses?" "No." "Not here." "That man don't look like no witness." "Hey, mister!" "Are you a witness?" "I've seen you someplace." "That bothers me." "Come on, mister." "Help me out." "Where was it?" "Cicero!" "Well, now, lookee here." "How much did you steal?" "Tell us so we don't have to count it." "He figures he's helped enough without giving us the tally." " About 12,000, I figure." " Somewhere around there." "Get it loaded." "Looks like you did good, and we did better." "Boy, get up there." "Throw those two saddles down." "Amigo, you and you, saddle them two horses." "I figured you'd ride along with us a way." "I'd better not." "You'll be all right." "I'll be all right here." "You're coming." "One way or the other, you're coming." "Friend, I'll thank you for the buggy ride, and we'll do it again some time." "Hyah!" "Hyah!" "Hyah!" "Kid, get down." "What?" "Just get down from there." "Hey, Braden." "Hold up a minute." "I forgot a little something." "What are you doing up there?" "Getting my things." "You figure you're going someplace?" "Why stay here?" "Just how far do you think you're going to get?" "That's to find out." "Now, how far did you say you're going to get?" "Leave us some water!" "Now how far?" "Oh, about as far as Delgado's." "What does that mean?" "Maybe if we all get thirsty, we'll go to Delgado's and get some mescal." "Jessie, do you want me to do something about Braden?" "There's nothing to be done about him." "Russell!" "Russell, where are you going?" "Russell!" "Wait for us!" "Russell!" "Russell, wait!" "Why didn't you wait for us?" "What did you want me to wait for?" "Look, we want to get out of here before they come after us." "Is there something stopping you?" "Man, what is the matter with you?" "This isn't happening to one person." "It's happening to everyone." "And you want me to show you the way?" "Sure." "You show us the way, we follow, but we are all together." "Together, huh?" "I flatter myself that I understand Mr. Russell." "We affronted his dignity... a very necessary thing to a man." "We asked him not to ride with us." "Now he's telling us we can't walk with him." "Isn't that right, Mr. Russell?" "Maybe we don't walk the way you walk." "Fair, but harsh." "But for all that, you're no longer in a hurry, are you?" "No." "I'm in no hurry." "If you want to go on, go on." "Leave the saddlebags and the gun." "I thought we'd get to that." "You forgot something, didn't you?" "Money." "An odd oversight for a man who thinks of everything." "I was a little busy back there." "He's thinking, "Why not take my money out here?"" "No law to stop him." "Your money?" "You starved a bunch of Indians to death at San Carlos for that money, and now you're trying to get your sticky fingers on it, and meanwhile Grimes is getting the time he needs." "Enough of this." "We have to move." "Why move?" "Why not wait here for him, maybe finish it?" "Finish it?" "You mean kill him?" "They get close enough, they're gonna kill you." "They didn't hurt anybody before." "Why would they wanna hurt us now?" "They'll be running out of water." "You wanna give them yours?" " No." " They'll kill you for it." "And if we don't finish it, what then?" "You got no say in this." "Now, you can go on or stay, whichever." "Either way, you leave the saddlebags here." "The belly gun too." "You're not a figure to command too much confidence, Mr. Russell." "What if everyone decides against you?" "Then they've got you to show them the way home." "It's the frying pan or the fire, as far as I'm concerned." "At least Russell knows the way." "All right." "Everybody, stay put." "You got one thing to do, kid... watch him." "He can leave until the time they come." "After that, no." "If he tries to leave with nothing, shoot him once." "If he takes the money, shoot him twice." "If he picks up the water, you empty your gun." "Understand?" "I don't understand anything about this mess." "Mendez, you think you can do this?" "That's right." "Right there." "First, a shotgun when they're close... and I mean so close you can touch them... and then this if you need it." "I'll be over there." "Where?" "Right there." "If one of us doesn't get a good shot, the other probably will." "Hit something, Mendez... first the men, then the horses." "I don't know." "Just to sit here and wait to kill them?" "If there was some other way, we'd do it." "Maybe we can outrun them." "If you run, they're going to catch you." "They're going to kill you." "You believe that more than you believe anything." "All right." "And try not to puke." "You may have to lay in it for a long time." "Hey, hombre!" "A compliment on your shooting." "You have put a hole in me." "Whew!" "I never had a bellyache like this since I'm a little boy." "Hey, amigo!" "Friend!" "I am going to give you back this bullet." "Tonight, Mendez, not while the sun is out." "Why not?" "Because you sweat a lot and you'll want more." "Hey, hombre!" "Look, amigo, how close you come." "I tried to do better." "I think you moved." "You can be sure I move." "How do you prefer them..." "tied to a tree?" "That would be nice." "You like to pull a trigger, huh?" "I can do it again for you." "You could, but first I have to talk to this other... this Favor." "He can hear you." "Tell him this..." "Tell him he give us the money and some of the water, and we give him his wife, and everybody goes home." "Ask him how he like that." "You out of water, huh?" "Ah, this Grimes, he never bring canteen, only whiskey." "He think it is going to be easy." "It's going to get harder." "Not if this Favor give us the money." "He hasn't got it." "He gave it to me." "Ohh!" "Yousteal the money." "Ha ha ha!" "All right." "We trade with you then." "You give us the money, or we shoot the woman." "All right." "Shoot her." "That nice little soft woman?" "You don't care we shoot her?" "She's nothing to me." "How about the others?" "What do they say?" "They say what they want." "I say what I want." "Tell Grimes how things are up here." "Tell him he'd better think some more." "All right." "I talk with Grimes." "Ha ha ha ha!" "Mr. Russell... we're getting more and more worried about you." "If you can tell them to shoot Mrs. Favor without even flicking an eyelash, we're beginning to wonder how you feel about us." "You're a lot of trouble." "Then will you tell me why we keep trotting after you?" "Because I can cut it, lady." "There's no more cover." "It's just open country." "If we cross in daylight, they'll ride us down with their horses." "Then we leave when it's dark." "Can we have some water now?" "Tonight." "Do you object to our eating?" "The biscuits, not the beef." "It's packed in salt." "I figure we'll reach San Pete tomorrow morning," "Delgado's, if we're lucky, the next morning." "And then home." "It doesn't seem so far when you look ahead." "The trouble is you have to keep looking back." "Don't let that get away from you." "I'm going to go have a look at things." "My friend." "I want you to know you did very well back there." "It took more nerve than most have to lie there waiting for them." "Well, he shouldn't have made me do it." "You didn't have to, you know." "Listen, he makes sense, whether you agree with him or not." "He makes sense, even if it kills you... that's what you're saying." "It's just I never shot at a man before." " That's not an easy thing." " I know, but it seems easy to him." "If he can kill two people, he can kill five." " For what reason?" " My money." "No." "I know him better than that." "Where money is concerned," "I'm afraid you don't know anyone." "All right." "Wake up." "Wake up!" "Come on." "Wake up." "Get over there." "Throw me my gun, please." "The saddlebags and the water." "Maybe you'll leave us your blessings since you're taking everything else." "Do you think you can carry all that?" "I think so." "You better put down that gun." "You got two ways to go... put it down or use it." "Even if you tie me, you're going to be dead." "You've persuaded me." "Will that do?" "If you wanted to go someplace, keep going." "I see." "You're driving me out, is that it?" "Looks like it." "What am I permitted to take with me, if anything?" "Your life." "How's that?" "Not overly generous." "They're probably out there waiting for one of us to show himself." "You might make it." "If I don't, it's the same as murder." "If you get there, look me up." "We'll drink on your luck." "If you get there." "Good-bye, my friends." "Take care of yourselves." "Oh, it's getting cold." "You haven't moved a muscle in the last hour and a half." "You don't get tired." "You don't get hungry." "You don't get thirsty." "Are you real?" "More or less." "I've known a lot of men, but I never met one like you." "There's always been something that could rattle them or shake them up a little." "You, maybe?" "I've done it to a couple in my time." "Where are they now?" "Oh, they're all gone." "I've been wedded and bedded and loved and let down." "It hasn't always been nice." "At least it's been natural." "And you... do you toss a girl over the back of your horse and ride off into the pinon trees?" "You asking for a demonstration?" "I think I'm asking for trouble." "What does that mean?" "I don't know." "A signal, maybe." "Maybe they found Favor." "Yeah, maybe that, too." "We'll hole up in that shack on top while it's daylight and hope they pass us by." "Why stop now?" "If we keep going, we get home." "Oh, man, we're so close." "So are they." "There's blood in my shoe." "You always bought them a size too small." "Dr. Favor!" "It's Dr. Favor!" "He doesn't remember we left water behind." "We have to tell him." "You don't do anything." "What do you mean we don't do anything?" "Take a look at him." "He's dying of thirst." "What did you think would happen?" "You just thought you'd never see him again, so yesterday, it was all right, huh?" "No." "I should have said something yesterday." "I'm saying it now." "Lady." "They could be anywhere out there." "Don't press our luck." "Dr. Favor!" "Dr. Favor!" "We left water behind in the mine shaft!" "In the mine shaft!" "You will learn something about white people... they stick together." "They better." "Well, I reckon I will just take me a little hike up that hill and parley." "Any message you want to send your husband?" "Tell him I'm being well looked after." "That's real wifely." "Hey!" "I'm coming up to talk." "Y'all hold your fire." "Wait a minute." "Wait!" "He wants to talk." "That's no trick." "Let's hear what he has to say." "You don't know what he wants." "You have to find out what he wants." " Doesn't that make sense to you?" " All right." " Anybody home?" " We can hear you." "Come on out." "We'll talk some." "You say what you want." "How'd you like to go home?" "What else?" "It's looking at you." "See, we can stay here just as long as we please." "I can send a man for more water and chuck, but you people can't move around." "You can't move unless I let you, right?" "What's your offer?" "You leave the money, we leave the woman." "We have to talk about that." "You do that." "We'll let you look at the woman while you're talking." "That may help." "When you're ready, bring the money down, and you take her." "Suppose..." "Well, suppose nobody wants this woman." "That's all right, but you ain't leaving' here with the money, and that's the main thing you think about." " Hey." "I got a question." " What's that?" "How you going to get down that hill?" "Now, you hold on." "I'm going down this hill the same way I come up it." "You hear me?" "Now, you just hold on." "Aah!" "Aah!" "Cicero Grimes, meetJohn Russell." "Where's he going?" "Up behind us to close the back door." "How do we get out?" "Hey, hombre!" "How would you like that woman?" "If you want that woman, hombre, you better hurry, or maybe there will be nothing left in the sun!" "Alex... please... help me." "Alex, help me." "Alex!" "Alex!" "Alex!" "Alex!" "Alex!" "Alex!" "Alex!" "We have to give them that money." "I think you know that." "Like you had to give that one water, huh?" "People help each other." "People kill each other, too." "I've seen that." "You're going to see some more." "If you want to say that it's my fault we're stuck up here, go ahead." "No." "What I want to know is why you helped." "Because he needed it, just like that woman needs it." "It's not up to us to decide whether she deserves to live or not." "We only help, huh?" "Do we have another choice?" "Not help." "Just let her die?" "That's up to Grimes." "You mean, you'd sacrifice her life for that money?" "Is that what you're saying?" "You go down there, and you ask that lady what she thinks of life." "Ask her what life is worth to those Indians in San Carlos when they run out of meat." "But she didn't take the money." "Favor did." "She said, "Those dirty Indians eat dog,"" "that she couldn't eat dog no matter how hungry she got." "Ask her if she'd eat dog now." "I don't know what your gripe is against the world." "Maybe you got a real one." "Lady, up there in those mountains, there's a whole people who have lost everything." "They don't have a place left to spread their blankets." "They've been insulted, diseased, made drunk and foolish." "Now, you call the men who did that Christians, and you trust them." "I know them as white men, and I don't." "Russell, if nobody ever lifted a finger until people were deserving, the whole world would go to hell." "We better deal with each other out of need and forget merit, because none of us have too much of that... not me, not you, not anybody." "If it bothers you, why talk about it?" "Hey, man!" "Do you hear me?" "Come on down here!" "I got something for you." "Hey, hombre, whatever is your name... do you hear me?" "Alex!" "Alex!" "Alex!" "Alex, please!" "Please help me!" "Alex!" "Alex!" "God sees this, and if we live, we must live in fear of him." "At least that's what they frightened me with when I was a child." "Don't be frightened, Mr. Mendez." "There is no God." "Not in either of us, perhaps." "Not anywhere." "Nothing, Dr. Favor?" "Nothing." "You're sure?" "No reward in heaven?" "Why lie to ourselves?" "Well, hell, then?" "A little bit of hell, maybe?" "Ah, yes." "There's hell." "Alex?" "Alex?" "Alex?" "Alex?" "Alex?" "Alex?" "Alex?" "Alex?" "Alex?" "Alex?" "Alex?" "By dark, she'll be dead." "Isn't somebody going to do something?" "All right." "Somebody want to go down there, go ahead." "Just one thing..." "You walk down there, you're not going to walk back." "You leave the bag and start up with the woman, they're gonna kill both of you." "You're saying that so nobody will take the money and try." "They'll kill both of you." "That's why I'm saying it." "That's your wife down there." "You going to cut her loose?" "Mendez, you going to save her?" "Billy Lee What's-your-last-name, you going to go down there?" "This one won't." "That's his woman, but he won't do it." "He doesn't care enough about his own woman, but maybe somebody else does." "But maybe somebody else does." "All right." "You, lady." "You worry about his wife more than he does." "Go on down there, cut her loose, start back up again, get shot in the back... or in front, if the Mexican by the trough does it." "In the back or in the front, one way or the other." "Just give me your knife." "That's all I want from you." "You want a lot more than that from me, lady." "All right." "Kid, come here." "I'm not looking to get myself killed, so pay attention." "You know how to use this?" "I guess so." "Ejects and loads." "It's ready now." "There's one in there, and I hope you only need the one." "Watch the Mexican." "After I go past him, he'll come out with his back to you." "If he touches his gun, shoot him." "In the back?" "I'll ask him to turn around." "There's something else..." "the money." "What about it?" "Maybe it's you who will have to take it up to San Carlos after, but that's easy, huh?" "I thought you were keeping it for yourself." "Think what you want to think." "That's up to you." "All of us thought so." "It belongs to those people up there." "I grew up on their land." "I hunted every foot of it." "Maybe you take the money back" "I owe it." "I'll see it gets back." "Tell them to cut you out a plain ten-dollar horse by way of thanks." "All that trouble you went to, huh?" "It's a shock to grow old, Mr. Russell." "Hey!" "Got something for you." "Mister, you got a lot of hard bark on you, walking down here like this." "Now I owe you." "You put two holes in me." "That's usually enough for most of them." "Don't try it again." "That vaquero is more than a fair hand." "You got the money?" "Unless I brought my dirty laundry by mistake." "Let me see it." "You look for yourself." "Come on." "Hurry up." "Oh, get out of the way." "Please get out of the way." "Well, now." "What do you suppose hell is going to look like?" "We all die." "It's just a question of when." "Mr. Mendez?" "This one's still alive." "I would like at least to know his name." "He was called John Russell."