"All right." "Get him out of here." "Well, Mr. Fancy, now that you're awake, maybe you'll tell us what this is all about." "Now that I'm awake, I haven't the faintest idea" " what this is all about." " Mister..." "You wouldn't have something to drink on you, would you?" "I mean a bottle or..." "No, I'm sorry." "I'm the only one wearing chains?" "There's no place to go, anyway." "They put 'em on you;" "I didn't." "They?" "Yeah." "Three men." "There's one with a scar on his face that does all the rough work." "There's another that does the talking." "And a little one that just stands back there in the shadows and watches." "What is this place?" "A warehouse somewhere on the Embarcadero." "How long you been here?" "Two days." "Maybe more." "Time crawls like worms in this place." "All I know is I took a drink I shouldn't have." "Me, too." "Course I've had a little practice." "Do you want to explain this?" "Want to explain these chains?" "Come on out, little man." "Don't be scared of us seeing you." "Listen..." "I got some money stashed away, and if this is a shanghai," "I'll pay you more not to ship me out than you can collect." "Well, if it's ransom, you made a mistake." "May..." "Maybe him and his fancy clothes, but not me." "So, listen, if you'll... if you'll just let me out, I'll..." "It's like paying for your sins before you're dead." "What's your name?" "Alice." "Alice, your friend there may be right about shanghaiing." "Well, now... that doesn't give me much future to think about, does it?" "Six years ago, I came out here with a wagon train full of righteous people." "They didn't think much of me." "Next time I'll make it." "Next time." "I've heard a thousand men say that." "Oh, you sound like a society dame yourself." "Oh, Lordy," "I sure could use a drink." "You gonna be all right?" "I'll be all right." "I head to town once a year, and look what happens." "You have no idea what this is all about." "No." "I just finished bossing a string of wagons from Denver." "When I got to Sacramento, this was waiting on me." "Hmm." "Well, I got one, too." "They're just alike." "The question seems to be, what do we have in common with these people?" "What about her?" "That, friend, is an interesting question." "You know, one woman looks just about like another to me, but I keep thinking I've seen you somewhere before." "My employer hopes you're enjoying this place... the way you should." "And each other's company." "You say your "employer."" "Hmm." "Well, I wonder, your employer doesn't step out and speak for himself." "That'd be you back there in the shadow, huh?" "Alice... you say you came to California six years ago, in a wagon train?" "Wiggen, you're a wagon master?" "That's right." "What's that got to do with it?" "Five years ago," "I took a person away from a renegade band of Apaches;" "a person who had been a prisoner for over a year, had suffered every degradation, every privation." "A person who had been taken away from a wagon train headed for California under most unusual circumstances." "A person who preferred death to living with the constant knowledge of what had happened." "A person who nurtured bitterness and hate, and a lust for revenge!" "Isn't that the way it is..." "Mollie Dean?" "That's the way it is," "Sir Paladin." "I argued against letting them take her." "She was the one they wanted!" "What else could I do?" "Then you did give her to them." "You idiot, I had no choice!" "They'd have killed us all, and I had a lot of people to think about." "Including yourself." "If you're so innocent, what are you doing here?" "!" "I don't know." "Maybe because I kept her alive." "Maybe because I wouldn't let her die." "That don't make a bit of sense to me!" "Yes." "Yes, it does." "I can understand that." "You won't have to wait much longer." "Mollie, what are we waiting for?" "One more." "Mollie, it's not too late to stop this." "Isn't it too late..." "Sir Paladin?" "What do you think, Alice?" "Is it ever too late?" "She should have been the one they took." "What difference would it have made to her?" "I tried to stop them." "It should have been you." "To your health..." "Alice." "A pretty sight for the fastidious Mr. Paladin." "Mollie, she's a lot prettier than you are." "A lot prettier than what you've become." "And Wiggen." "The little boy playing at being a man, but without the courage of a man." "They wanted me." "They could have me." "That's what you said, wasn't it?" "No, Mollie." "I had to make a decision." "There was too many of 'em!" "It was you or the whole wagon train!" "What else could I do?" "!" "You could have fought!" "You'd like to get away, wouldn't you, Wiggen?" "Well, I'm going to walk out that door, and I'm going to leave it open." "All you need is the courage to walk out." "One thing, Wiggen:" "courage isn't your badge to wear so I'm warning you... not to walk out." "What do you think, Paladin?" "I think she wants you to go through that door." "Wiggen, wait a minute." "I'm through waiting." "She's out there laughing at me, and all I got to do is just walk through the door." "That's why I ain't chained, like you are." "She's giving me another chance, so all I got to do is take it." "You take it." "I'll just get me another." "my eyes!" "Wiggen!" "Wiggen, stand still!" "Don't run!" "Don't run!" "We haven't any chance, have we?" "Well... it don't make no difference anyway." "No difference at all." "The last one." "Mollie, that's a child!" "Yes." "A child." "An innocent child." "She was 11 years old when it happened." "But I was as innocent as she." "Do you understand?" "She's the innocence I was." "That's why she's here." "Mollie let her go." "Let her go, and let Alice go." "If you think you have a score to settle with me, all right, we'll settle it..." "you and me." "I've worked too hard to become what I am... to get this place... and all of you here... to do with as I please." "I don't think I'll give it up." "Where's Wiggen?" "Wiggen?" "Over there, Mollie." "Walk over there!" "That's right!" "They're both dead." "You had four reasons to stay alive, and now you've only got three." "I don't remember her." "I remember some Indians took a woman." "I remember lying awake that night, crying." "I still have that nightmare of that terrible day." "But I don't remember her at all." "She's out of her mind." "She has to be." "She's like most of us... alone... walking in the darkness, afraid." "In her, couldn't we be looking at a dark image of ourselves, each of us?" "Mollie!" "Well, don't hide there behind the door." "Come on in." "What did you do with your friend?" "I sent him away." "What I have to do, I can do alone." "Aren't you lonesome?" "For what?" "You?" "Perhaps." "Mollie, what do you want from us?" "You want revenge?" "You want understanding?" "What is it?" "What do you want?" "You have nothing I want." "Now you will listen to me." "I'm dead." "For six years, I've been dead." "Nothing can change that." "You can change it." "Mollie, you can change that." "You show me a scar." "Mollie, show me one scar on you." "They're all on the inside." "Nobody can see them but you." "You can see them." "Only because you won't let me see anything else." "Nobody could ever look at me, let alone love me." "Here." "Now..." "I can look at you." "Could you..." "Iove me?" "If there were anything to love," "I could love you." "Mollie..." "Iove is giving, not taking." "When you take revenge, you take your own life." "And... oh, you've got tomorrow, tomorrow and tomorrow." "Look at that." "Look at it." "That's a woman's hand." "Now oh, that is the mouth of a lovely woman." "It's meant to give." "You talk about a man not looking at you." "Well, I wish I had the years ahead that you have." "I wish a man would look at me like he looked at you... and touch me like he touched you." "Now... give me the key." "Help... me..." "Help... me." ""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" "Paladin, Paladin, where do you roam?"