"You say you didn't kill those seven men." "They whipped your father with barbed wire and then they shot him like a sick steer." "After that, why didn't you kill them, Jessie May?" "Mr. Paladin, I'm thinking that it is time you got married." "As your great Benjamin Franklin once said, that a single man has not nearly..." ""October 7, 1876." ""Kill Jessie May." ""During the War of the Rebellion, a terrible hurt" ""was done Jessie May Turnbow." ""Not yet ten years old, he saw his father whipped" ""then shot for an act of espionage against the Union." ""Seven of the 12 men who tried Turnbow" ""have been wantonly murdered by this boy" ""in a grotesque act of revenge." ""Yesterday, it was John Reilly Dowler" ""farmer, businessman, churchgoer." ""Who tomorrow?" ""But Joseph Ergo, one of the 12," ""refuses to raise his hand against the boy." ""We join with Abraham Sinclair in his hunt for the murderer." ""We say, kill Jessie May."" "And it is time, Mr. Paladin, you got married." "Married?" "¶ ¶" "Hold it, Mister." "That's far enough, now." "It's been a long trip, I'd like to step down and rest." "What do you want here?" "I want to talk to Joe Ergo." "All right." "Over there." "Follow me." "Paladin?" "That's right." "I'm Ergo." "This is Abe Sinclair." "Sinclair." "Mr. Ergo, you change your mind?" "See, even a stranger can smell the hate in you, Abe." "I'm keeping bad company." "Hate." "I'm just near scared to death of that boy." "That's the truth." "It can be killed, Abe." "I can remember him when he was a toddler." "And you killed his father?" "We was all there." "Well, how many times have you tried to kill the boy?" "I've gone after him six times." "Mr. Ergo, you didn't answer me." "I changed my mind." "I want him dead." "Why?" "He killed a girl over at Sandee, about 200 miles from here." "And that ain't all he did he..." "That's loose talk, Sim!" "Loose talk." "Give the devil his due." "He just shot her." "She was about 17 years old." "An ignorant mountain girl." "She was married to one of the 12." "I guess Purdy wasn't home when the boy came for him, so he shot his wife instead." "He's got some kind of automatic shotgun." "He made it himself." "I went over for a look." "The shanty was blown to pieces." "Well, I was gonna ask how all this got started." "I... don't suppose that matters much anymore." "Not this side of purgatory." "This reminds me of what we did to his father." "Oh, he was always a good boy, I always liked him." "Stay down here." "Jessie May!" "Jessie May Turnbow!" "This is Joe Ergo!" "Let me talk to you!" "Oh..." "He's reloading!" "Automatic shotgun?" "¶ ¶" "That's a good gun." "A little rough on the outside but it shoots straight." "Yes, sir." "Yours, too." "Have you ate?" "I've been eating my own cooking for the last ten days." "Why don't you climb down and rest yourself?" "All we have is beefsteak but we got plenty of that." "Ansel?" "Mmm, no, thanks." "No more." "Mister?" "No." "Jondill, you can cook." "Why, Mister, you can stay here as long as you want." "Ansel, you never sweet talk me like that." "No, sir, but, uh, it ain't 'cause I don't appreciate your effort, Mr. Jondill." "Ansel?" "Anybody else pass through here this week besides me?" "No." "I lost him at the Matawan River." "That's a bad place." "He killed three men last week." "Seven before that, and a woman." "Ansel." "A kind of saddle tramp over at Territory ford, three, four days ago." "He didn't want to talk." "I didn't bother him." "How old?" "Maybe 40." "No one else?" "Hmm, no, sir." "I ain't seen no one." "Of course, I... don't get around as much as I used to." "Bronc rider?" "Was." "Too many broncs." "How long you been hunting this man?" "200 miles, ten days." "What's he look like?" "I don't know." "I've never seen him." "Young." "Somebody's coming." "Well, this is where I lost his trail..." "Hey!" "Hello in there!" "I hope there ain't some trigger-happy fool gonna shoot me." "That's one of our own." "Come on in, if you're sober." "Where's your horse?" "He broke his leg, you old stove-up fool!" "I ain't surprised;" "I expected it." "Did you get the supplies?" "Sure did." "I didn't lose that pack horse and he's loaded down under the gills." "Whew!" "Let's have some light." "How are you?" "Paladin, meet Jessie Turnbow." "Jessie May Turnbow?" "That's right." "How'd you know?" "A bounty hunter, for sure." "Mr. James, you keep your hand away from that gun, you won't get hurt." "But you got the wrong man." "Don't make no matter to him." "To him, Mr. Turnbow's just dead pork, anyway." "Now, you just stand easy." "Paladin... you got the wrong man!" "Do I?" "He's sure right, Mister." "I don't know what you want." "Your father executed as a traitor in Wyoming, 10, 12 years ago?" "That's right." "They whipped him with barbed wire." "And then they shot him in the head like he was a steer with a broke leg." "Mr. Sinclair said, "He don't deserve it, Turnbow," ""but here's your coup de grace."" "You know what a coup de grace is, Mister?" "It was five years before I found out." "What do you want me to do, son?" "Mourn him?" "I'll mourn the ten men you murdered." "I'll mourn that woman you shotgunned." "Mister, I didn't do none of those things." "Turn around." "Come on." "You got chains, too?" "That's right." "They're in my saddle bag, Mr. James." "Get 'em and put 'em on him." "Go on!" "Yeah, but you can't go nowhere." "Everything's all running over." "You can't get up to the mountains and all the rest of the territory around here's flooded." "You gonna take him back for trial, mister?" "I mean, really take him back for trial?" "I am." "A fair one?" "I won't say that." "I can't guarantee it." "I don't believe it!" "Now put 'em on him!" "We'll stay outside tonight, out in that lean-to, and it'll save temptation." "Come on!" "I hate chains on a man." "I hate chains worse than death." "Mister did you find what you was looking for?" "No." "Mister..." "Oh, here, I brung you these blankets." "Thank you." "He's a good boy, mister." "I knowed him three years." "That boy never treated me with nothing but respect, and I like him." "Mister..." "Well, Ansel and me decided, you try to take the boy, and we're gonna kill ya." "Now where's that gun?" "He took it away from me inside, remember?" "I was wearing it on my hip." "You built it yourself?" "That was a Peacemaker, mister." "I mean the shotgun." "You're loony as a coot, mister, I'm tellin' ya." "You want to tell me about your father?" "I wasn't but ten years old, and what'd I know?" "A good man?" "Yes, sir." "My pa was the king of the world." "I never did have no ma." "She died in my bornin'." "But my pa was the king of the world." "He spoon-fed me when I was sick tanned my hide when I was bad." "He read the Bible to me every night." "Taught me how to ride and rope." "And how not to be afraid to fight." "You asked me about my pa, mister, I'll tell ya." "Boy, he was just the king of the whole world." "Was he a traitor?" "He was a Southerner." "I wasn't but ten years old." "I guess he did whatever they said he did." "Jessie, it's fine thing to be able to build a gun like that." "I don't know many men that could do it." "Like what?" "Like an automatic shotgun that could tear a house to pieces." "You've done that, haven't you, Jessie?" "Boy, mister, now I'm tellin' you, you're loony." "Well, Jessie, if those men did to your father what you say they did, then why haven't you killed them?" "I don't never want to see nobody killed again." "¶ There's a whole lot of places I'd rather be ¶" "¶ Like sitting' under an old oak tree ¶" "Boy, you've changed your tune." "¶ Waitin' for a pretty girl to come after me... ¶" "Not!" "That was close, Mr. James." "That was very close." "Can I talk to you?" "Over there, where the boy won't hear." "Hey, Jondill, where the devil's my breakfast?" "You gonna let me hang without having something nourishing in my gut?" "Mr. Jondill ain't here right now, Jessie." "No, sir, he ain't here right now at all." "Where?" "You asked me where Mr. Jondill was, mister." "I'll tell you." "He's over in those trees, with a rifle lined on your belly." "I drop this hat, and he'll kill ya." "You see, he ain't only a cook, he's a good shot with a rifle, too." "You got a firm hold on that hat?" "Well, my fingers are getting a mite tired." "So suppose you just shuck that gun out with your left hand." "Well, there must be something good about him to get that strong a hold on two men like you." "Shuck the gun out, mister, or I'll drop the hat." "And so help me, if Mr. Jondill doesn't kill you," "I will." "Now the key." "Ah!" "Hey, thanks, you old fool." "You take care of yourself now, you hear?" "Yeah." "Your horse is over there behind the tent." "I'll see you again, Ansel." "And Mr. Jondill, too, you tell him, hear?" "All right." "Boy!" "I will be coming after you." "Yeah." "Go, go, go, go, go." "All right, Jondill, you can come out from behind the tent now." "Well, if you knew, why'd you let him go?" "Well, if he's the one, he won't just keep running." "He'll be out there someplace, and with that fancy shotgun of his, I think." "Besides..." "I didn't want to kill either one of you." "I guess you could have done it, too." "Maybe I was wrong." "Get down." "Get down!" "Git!" "¶ ¶" "Oh, Lord!" "Soon as I heard that whistling I knowed it was him." "He told me his his pa used to... used to sing that tune." "How he loved his pa." "¶ "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. ¶"