"You're very quick to confess for everyone else." "Since we have no understanding between us," "I have no choice but to kill you." "Hey boy, I think a pony of brandy" "Might put that mocha on horseback, if you please." "Hey boy," "We have rats in this hotel?" "Square holes, mr." "Paladin, no rats." "Hey boy." "Oh..." "I forgot." "I saved this for you." "See?" ""detective wanted to find missing heir, john thorpe." "Missing heir very special item." ""damsel in distress seeks man with some legal knowledge." "Box 23."" "Well, hey boy, the other side's even more interesting." "Will you get me my billfold" "From the dressing room, please?" "I'd like to see monsieur ganeau, please." "Monsieur ganeau is not." "I'm michelle ganeau, the owner." "May I help you?" "I hope so." "May I?" "The unpleasant aldehyde scent." "Trace of jasmine, touch of honeysuckle and..." "Rose character predominates." "When you finish that, it should be excellent." "You are a designer of perfume?" "No, I am an appreciator of designs." "My name is paladin." "Oh, monsieur paladin, please sit down." "Very few damsels in distress are so charming." "It's for someone who's very dear to me." "Oh?" "My nephew." "He ran away from home, and I have a wire" "That he's in a little trouble in salito." "Mm." "He's pierre deverell." "He wears the trouble like a..." "A boutonniere." "He's disinherited by his father, a strong" "And wealthy man." "He will not permit the boy's mother" "My sister- to help their son." "So he talk to me..." "And I talk to you." "Well, I'm glad that you have." "Monsieur deverell gives my sister very little." "And I have, uh..." "Not much." "Well, money is one of the lesser endowments." "I have some very fine old, uh..." "Cognac." "That's an excellent beginning." "State your business!" "I want to see the sheriff." "Hand me your gun belt." "Uh, it could be one of them." "What do you want?" "I want to see about one of your prisoners." "Yeah, I suspected that." "Who are you?" "My name's paladin." "These are all letters of credit." "San francisco banks seem to trust you." "I guess I can, too." "Thank you, sheriff." "Our, uh, welcome mat must've seemed full of cockleburs," "But we got to be very careful." "This is fitzgerald." "Been two tries to kill him in the past week." "I was beginning to get real self-conscious." "And then somebody tried to poison my prisoner." "Poison?" "His name pierre deverell?" "Mm-hmm." "We call him pete." "What's his bail?" "Oh, put your money away, mister." "After 10:00 tomorrow morning, you can have him for nothing" "Right after the hanging." "He's gonna hang?" "By the neck." "You the one he sent that wire to?" "Well, what happened?" "Stage holdup." "Fitzgerald here is one of the passengers." "There were four highwaymen." "And this youngster took me aside the other side of the coach," "Away from the others." "He took all my money." "He started not to take it." "I tried to get him, but they were gonna kill me." "I-I shot him in the head, just grazed him." "Then I run out before his friends could come around." "When I got there, the driver and the passengers were dead." "Kid was still there," "Unconscious." "Then he's being hung on circumstantial evidence." "Well, the jury might've been influenced" "By the fact that he signed a full confession." "Oh." "May I see him?" "Yeah." "Pierre deverell?" "My name's pete." "Mine's paladin." "Your family sent me." "Well, let's go." "Well, I wish it were that easy, but it's not." "Well, that's what you're here for, isn't it?" "I guess I made a pretty big splash in the papers back home, huh?" "In what way?" "Well, there must've been something." "No, nothing." "Oh, yeah, just like my father." "He reads the front page and the market reports." "Who was it found it for him on page two?" "Well, in san francisco, you may have been a big boy but..." "Out here, in this town, now, today," "You're nothing but a rope stretcher." "They're not gonna hang me, mister." "I can see the courtyard." "They haven't even built a gallows yet." "These people will hang you from a tree limb or a wagon tongue." "You better try and understand that as things look now," "You're gonna be hung tomorrow morning." "Look, I..." "I didn't do it." "You didn't do it;" "you just confessed to it." "Well, that's logical." "That makes sense." "They wouldn't let me get a message out of here" "Unless I signed their papers." "You confessed in order to get word to your family?" "Well, yeah." "That, and I..." "Could see my papa picking up the paper:" "A deverell held for murder." "Apparently, you find this very hard to believe," "But to the world at large, you just aren't that important." "All right, forget what I done wrong;" "You tell me what to do right." "He's a nice feller, ain't he, paladin?" "Why don't you tell him about them three men with beards, now." "Will I get off if I tell you?" "He won't even help me." "If I can find the other men." "Your main concern should be trying to survive the next 18 hours." "It ain't likely." "Well, their names were dink, luss and waller." "I met them by accident." "I was only with them a day and a half." "They all three wore beards." "They only used their first names." "Dink fancied himself as some kind of a gunfighter." "And luss was always complaining about his left shoulder" "Being sore where..." "Where he'd been gored." "And waller got drunk on a couple of drinks." "And luss and waller carried big-bore rifles." "And they all had a..." "Strange kind of smell." "Musky or rancid-like." "Well, that sounds like buffalo hunters." "Were their rifle handles worn?" "Yeah." "They carry skinning knives?" "Yeah, knives honed down till there wasn't a half - inch of steel left." "See you in your office?" "Hold it, wait a minute." "What are you gonna do?" "I'm gonna find out which time you were lying." "Maybe a wells fargo man." "No." "That was an overland stage." "Pinkerton, then." "I don't know." "Well, we're sticking here, anyway." "He's still in the jail." "Fitzgerald's in there with him." "If fitzgerald or the kid identify us..." "How?" "We shaved off our beards." "Yeah." "Anyone can tell that a mile off." "Mm-hmm." "And we'll fix that right now." "Aw, now, wait a minute." "The kid's seen us." "So did fitzgerald, like he said at the trial." "The rat poison didn't work on the kid." "No matter, they're hanging him tomorrow, anyway." "And you both missed that irishman twice." "Heh." "But he can't stay in that calaboose forever." "He'll come out after the hanging." "I'll get him." "What about the man in black?" "Maybe..." "We ought to get him when he comes out." "Well, let's go over it once more." "Where was pete when you found him?" "On the ground, on the right side of the stage." "Where were the dead men?" "Well..." "They were on the left side of the stage." "Where was pete when you shot him?" "On the right side!" "Were there any spent cartridges in his gun?" "No, but he could've reloaded." "Were there any spent cartridges on the ground around him?" "No." "Were the holes in the dead men big," "Like those a buffalo gun would make?" "Well, they were pretty big." "Well, now, that leaves a lot of holes" "In that confession, doesn't it?" "Well, it don't leave one at the bottom," "Where it's signed." "How do you do, sir?" "Afternoon." "You took two lines." "I want a double bed." "Stable my horse, send the gear up to my room." "Afternoon." "You..." "Black suit." "You mind moving on?" "You got any interest" "In that back-shooter they're hanging tomorrow?" "I'm interested in him." "He had some partners." "Said so at the trial." "And I'm thinking maybe you're one of them." "Why don't you go away?" "Who are you, mister?" "You want some advice, mister?" "Travel." "Well, I generally leave a town when I'm ready." "You have some particular reason" "For wanting me out of town?" "I hate rattlesnakes and I hate gunfighters, 'cause I've been bit" "And I've been shot." "You have me at a disadvantage." "'cause I think you might be somebody" "I'd be very interested in keeping alive." "I can't say the same for you." "Now, if you're calling me out," "You're making a very bad mistake." "Why don't you just run along?" "Mr. Paladin, you kind of sneak into town like a chinese stampede." "That was my best lead so far." "He'd still be alive if he hadn't kicked my chair." "Pete said this dink was kind of gun-happy." "Might have took after you on his own." "No." "They tried to gun fitzgerald twice." "Do you suppose I could get him to come out as a decoy?" "He ain't about to leave that jail" "Till he's sure the rest of the gang is gone." "What are you going to do now?" "Nothing much I can do," "Except make myself the biggest and easiest target I know how" "And hope they come after me, and miss." "How you going to do that?" "I'm going to sit right here." "Paladin." "Morning." "Morning." "Nothing happen?" "No." "Still alive." "Coffee?" "Yeah." "Don't look like much we can do." "I'm afraid that boy's a dead one." "Sheriff, he weighs about 175." "If his hanging does come off this morning," "Can you give him a nine-foot drop?" "No gallows." "How about using a high limb?" "Let the horse take a long run." "The best I can, paladin." "The kid wants to see you." "Thanks." "You fool!" "You're killing off" "The only witnesses that can help me." "Just like my family." "I ask for help," "And they send someone like you." "You've forgotten already, haven't you?" "You didn't ask for help." "You were going to humiliate your father." "You don't even have enough self-respect" "Not to lie to yourself." "That's straight talk." "I doubt there's time left for anything else." "All right, I was a fool" "I admit it- but do I owe my life to some stupid kid trick?" "If we start hanging all the fools," "The world's going to be a lonely place to live in." "There'll be fools at both ends of the rope," "Believing that they move the winds and control the tides" "And sentence men to die." "We're all going to die," "And only a few sick and condemned men" "Know how and when." "Now, supposedly," "You know when you're going to die," "And I'm still uncertain." "But you could outlive me." "Inside these stone walls is the first time in 24 hours" "I've been safe from a bullet in the back." "You scared?" "You think I hold my life in so little regard" "That I'm not afraid to lose it?" "I've tasted death in my mouth, paladin." "Like cold iron." "It's always been there." "It's just the first time you've noticed it." "You, too?" "All my life." "Just a little stronger now." "I can't taste anything else." "I got you into this, too, didn't I?" "Well, don't take all the blame" "Just for your share of the trouble." "I chose my own life," "And my own probable way of losing it." "And that's my responsibility." "Yeah, that's right." "Sheriff!" "Yes, sir." "Yes, sir." "Uh..." "Oh." "No." "Sorry." "No more rooms." "Whole county is in for the hanging." "My name's paladin." "I registered yesterday- took two lines." "Sorry, sorry..." "Sorry, sorry, sorry!" "Key." "Thought you weren't coming back." "Almost rented it out again." "You're so fortunate you didn't." "Clerk!" "I beg your pardon." "I was just about to order a breakfast" "One about twice the size of this one" "On a big tray." "It sure smells funny, doesn't it?" "Whole room smells like that now." "You know what it is?" "Smells like buffalo." "Who had this breakfast?" "Two sixteen." "Just one man in there?" "Just one breakfast." "Mm-hmm." "Thank you." "Hey, you'll have the best breakfast in the house." "Mine." "Luss was always complaining about his stiff left shoulder," "Where he got gored." "What..." "What're..." "What are you doing?" "I'm hanging you." "Why, that..." "That's murder." "No, it isn't." "That's lynching." "But you're only one man." "Well, give me time, I could collect a crowd." "Now, who are you?" "Name's hopper." "Hopper?" "Mr. Hopper, I hope you're lying" "Because, if you're not," "You're going to have every reason" "To be really angry with a fellow named luss." "But..." "But..." "Who killed the men at the stagecoach?" "I don't know what you're talking about." "Well, since we have no area of understanding," "The only thing I can do is proceed with this hanging." "Put you up on the stool..." "I don't have time for a scientific job." "I'd say it'd take you about..." "About three minutes to die." "The kid did it." "He confessed." "He was lying." "Dink did it." "The gunfighter- dink." "He did it." "Dink didn't have a rifle." "They were killed with a rifle." "Well, mister, looks like you got us." "I'll tell you the truth." "Waller did it." "You're very quick to confess for everybody else, hmm?" "Where's waller?" "He..." "He..." "He took out." "Oh, did he, now?" "Well..." "Waller took out?" "Yeah." "There are three saddlebags" "On that chair there." "Waller left without his?" "Why didn't you both go?" "Well..." "Well, we had to stick around until" "They strung up the kid." "Then fitzgerald would come out of the jail, and we'd get him." "No witnesses." "What about me?" "Well, you..." "You sat there like a duck all night." "Figured we could get you anytime." "Waller!" "Get him!" "Well, you can all go home." "No hanging today." "Well, luss, get up." "Get up, son." "That was only a rehearsal." "¶ have gun, will travel reads the card of a man ¶" "¶ a knight without armor in a savage land ¶" "¶ his fast gun for hire meets the calling wind ¶" "¶ a soldier of fortune is the man called paladin ¶" "¶ paladin, paladin, where do you roam?" "¶"