"This is the day the dog reaches for the sun, doña soledad." "I will protect you from him," "But how am I to protect you from yourself?" "Señor!" "Be so good as to move on!" "Move on, do you hear me?" "This boy needs help." "He does not need your help, nor do I." "Well, why not ask him?" "Get up." "Get up and start digging." "Cigar?" "Alright." "Now, you just take it easy." "You're not missing anything." "Except a slow death." "What would ever cause them to do that to a boy?" "I am a man, señor." "Don't you ever forget that." "Well, I suppose that justifies it." "I beg your pardon." "What's your name?" "Ah, you talk too much." "Well, I'm very sorry to have disturbed you." "Would you like me to cover you up again?" "Where is your horse?" "wait a minute." "I must borrow this." "And your gun belt." "I didn't mean to leave you here." "maybe." "But I have business now, for this man who put me here." "Don't you think you ought to let the law handle that?" "The law?" "!" "I am a man, señor!" "It is only a few miles." "You look strong enough." "Señor?" "Don luis ortega?" "I came as quickly as I could." "My name is paladin." "You came on foot?" "But this is ridiculous!" "I stopped to help a boy and he stole my horse." "He stole your horse, only?" "You are lucky, señor." "That boy doroteo kills with no more thought of mercy than a scorpion." "Unlike you, whose tortures are slow and full of thought." "He is the one?" "You had no right to interfere, señor." "Doroteo was there on my orders." "What crime could he have committed that would justify such a punishment?" "You are paladin, who is to take me to the United States?" "Soledad, please." "There has been a complication." "There has, indeed." "We may shoot him, instead." "Why would you dig a stranger out of an ant hill?" "What was he to you?" "He was a boy in pain." "I might be moved to dig you out of an ant hill, if I hadn't already met you." "He's in the boy's pay." "You hire him to take the girl to the United States," "Instead he will take her to the boy." "Agh!" "I don't want this job." "But, señor!" "You do not wish to take me to the United States?" "It is not a pleasure trip!" "Go to your room." "What are you thinking?" "I bet to her, to that girl, all our adult problems" "Are merely a romantic adventure." "Sí, señor." "She is young." "Perhaps it is her fault, as well as the boy's." "But that doroteo not only threatens me if I do not give her to him," "He also makes a mockery of our law." "We are at war, señor." "The peóns wish to be lords." "And the law of nature is turned upside down by that boy." "The peóns swear he is immortal." "They follow him." "Where will it end?" "It is a terrible punishment," "But I wish you had left him." "Take señor paladin to his room." "You are fortunate he shows mercy on you." "But I will be on guard tonight." "¿qué quieres?" "Hey, yankee!" "Thank you!" "Dead." "It is your horse?" "And my gun." "He plays with us a cat and mouse game." "Soon, he will come for my daughter, and they will not stop him." "He said, "thank you, yankee."" "Don luis, why don't you take your daughter out yourself?" "I am old." "He would catch me at his leisure." "And I will not leave." "It is my land!" "And I will not let the son of a slave drive me off it." "I have no choice!" "Take her with you." "All right." "We'll leave as soon as possible." "I will see to a horse for her." "You know the road?" "There are many roads, señor." "And he is on all of them." "You come prepared, anyway." "If he catches us, I advice you to use this on yourself, señor." "It is better than letting him kill us slowly for his own amusement." "Thank you." "Uh, and you?" "Oh, he will not harm me." "I am keeping this for you." "Thank you." "I will come to you as soon as I'm able." "Vaya con dios, eh?" "Señor paladin?" "Adios." "Tired?" "Not tired enough to rest in a place like this." "Señor!" "I didn't get a chance to thank you properly," "And already you place me further in your debt." "You can thank me by getting out of my way." "Ha, why are you so unfriendly?" "I only want to reward you." "Tonight, we will celebrate what you have done for me." "My companion is in a great hurry." "Your friend is in a hurry?" "What is your name, amigo?" "Hernando." "You do not like my face?" "Keep your eyes on it!" "Hernando?" "Strange that I have never seen you before." "Or have I?" "And yet you refuse to have a drink with me?" "That is very gracious of you." "But we do not have time." "Neither do I." "We will camp here tonight." "I think that "boy" is afraid to climb down." "You will draw against me?" "I tried to be your friend, and you spit on me!" "Está bien." "You saved my life," "Today I will let you live." "You and, and that boy without a nose." "That will make us even." "Tomorrow..." "I will not know you anymore." "¡ya pasó. ¡vámanos!" "Thank you." "Soledad, on your father's hacienda," "A peón is not much more than a slave, is he?" "Oh, they are very happy." "All except that one, that doroteo." "Some evil demon made him dissatisfied." "Even as a child, he had evil dreams." "About you?" "Why not?" "He saw me every day." "Even the dog has the right to dream about the sun." "Well, the sun shines equally on all." "It doesn't smile at one, or wink an eye," "Or toss its hair." "But, he belonged to my father." "Why should I not amuse myself?" "Because the dog is now old enough and wild enough" "To want some amusement of his own." "Señor, my father paid you to protect me." "He paid you well." "I can protect you from him." "I cannot protect you from yourself." "What do you mean?" "I think you, yourself, are the evil demon that made him dissatisfied." "I?" "Soledad..." "On the day that the dog can reach up and touch the sun," "Heaven help you." "Ah!" "I hate you!" "All right." "If you tried to touch me, I would kill myself!" "No danger." "You do not find me attractive?" "Well, not if it's gonna cause you to kill yourself, no." "You ice cold norteamericanos." "You have no feeling for beauty." "For tenderness." "For love." "All you think about is the gold my father paid you." "Don't talk so loudly." "I don't want to lose the gold." "You care more about the gold than you do for me." "The gold belongs to me and you do not." "Conditions can change, eh?" "Certainly." "I may lose the gold." "Oh, that is not what I was talking about!" "Have you no feelings for love?" "Ask me again when we get safely across the border." "Safely?" "I spit on your safety!" "You have the heart of a, a rabbit!" "Yes, a sick rabbit!" "Soledad?" "Sí?" "Come here." "Ah, what a pity." "What?" "That, as you said..." "If I should touch you, you would surely kill yourself." "Oh!" "You..." "Gringo pig!" "Señor, all my life, I've been running away in this country." "I know exactly where there is to go." "When I saw your horses going to the river, I knew you'd come here." "So, I am here waiting." "Shut up that noise, woman!" "Soledad!" "I welcome you." "But I like you better with hair." "Señor, now you can say you have done your duty," "But in vain." "So, now let us act like civilized people." "Drink and celebrate," "While we wait for the priest." "Priest?" "Of course." "For our wedding." "Ha, you thought that I wasn't gonna make an honest woman of you?" "But my men are looking for a priest right now." "I told them at least an archbishop!" "For a wedding of nobility." "Oh!" "It is a glorious life, the life of an outlaw!" "Huh?" "I am a hunted man with few simple pleasures." "I am no man to be afraid of when I'm not fighting." "Where are your women?" "Ha." "If your father knew that, he would know too much." "You have a village?" "Everything." "Children, families." "Little farm." "Almost like we were humans, soledad." "But we have no don luis." "Doroteo, this is a stupid, cruel thing you're doing." "Taking your revenge on don luis through his daughter." "You think that I'm a toothless, ugly old man" "Who has to take a woman by force?" "She likes me!" "I know when a woman likes me." "Well, soledad?" "You see what you've done?" "Your dog reaches for the sun." "You will do better to keep your mouth shut." "She wants to stay with me." "She is a very young, very stupid girl." "All this to her is one big adventure." "What do you think is gonna happen when the music and the dancing stops?" "She finds herself alone, she's homesick." "She has to feed herself, comb her own hair and wash her own feet?" "I can do that all!" "I am a wonderful cook." "These are my people, señor." "They speak my language." "They fight for freedom!" "Oh, you know nothing about it." "You will make a fine revolutionary." "I suppose when you kill her father, you're going to give her the gun?" "Shoot my father?" "That is silly." "Is it?" "!" "You think this war's gonna stop because you stay with him?" "If she has a free choice, doroteo," "You tell her the truth." "Muchacha," "Your father is my enemy." "Please, feel my back." "Those scars you feel are from his whip." "'cause I looked at you in a way he did not like." "There isn't one man who'd be left alive in this world, after doing that to me." "Well, soledad, that's a pretty good joke on your father, isn't it?" "To lose his daughter to the peón he had whipped for looking at her." "But if we get married, you'll no longer be a peón." "In your father's eyes, I will always be a peón." "Now, do you understand?" "You will let my father live, eh?" "Let him live?" "Why, certainly." "If he erases my scars." "¡caballo!" "¡caballo!" "All right, this is far enough." "Go on back." "The girl's father hired me to bring her to safety," "Not to fight his war with you." "Perhaps someday you will be sorry, doña soledad." "This war, I will win." "And generals and presidents will come to me." "Not the little peón boy who has dreams of a little rich girl," "But asking for me by the name that my fighters know." "Do you think he really means that about generals and presidents?" "Who knows?" "Now, don't tell me you're sorry I took you away from him?" "I do not know." "Perhaps it is something that a man cannot understand." "Perhaps." "Doroteo says his fighters call him by another name." "What name?" "Pancho." "Pancho villa." "¶ 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?" "¶"