"Para." "Hide." "What did he mean, "hide"?" "It must have been the sun." "The sun didn't tie his hands." "Chico." "No, Chico." "No." "No." "Drive them into the square." "Ole!" "Ole!" "Ole!" "Ole!" "Ole!" "Hello, Chris." "Vin." "Thought you took a job riding' shotgun for Overland." "I quit." "How come?" "My health." "Doctor said to find a climate with less lead in the air." "What are you doing here?" "Tracked a man across the line for bounty." "Who?" "Ole!" "You." "Well, ain't you gonna ask?" "What?" "Why I'm after ya." "You just told me." "Bounty." "Hell, Chris, you think I'd do a thing like that?" "I came so you'd know there was a price on your head." "How much?" "Five hundred." "Dollars?" "Pesos." "Hell, it's enough some shypoke might throw down on you while you're asleep." "Maybe I oughta ride with ya, in case you need any help." "Wouldn't want to put you to any trouble." "No trouble." "No trouble at all." "Bravo!" "Hell, let him fight." "I'll pay for the bull." " Y pagaras el entierro?" "He wants to know if you'll pay for the funeral, too." "Ole!" "Ole!" "Aha!" "Aha!" "Friend of yours?" "Petra." "I prayed you'd be here." "What is it, Petra?" "What happened?" "Two days ago, many men with guns rode into our village." "Chico tried to fight them." "It was no use." "All the men they did not kill, they drove into the square and took them off into the desert." "Coming here, we passed through two villages, both of them empty of men." "Only women, crying over their dead." "You say many men with guns." "How many?" "I don't know." "Fifty, maybe more." "They didn't say anything?" "Where they were taking them?" "Why?" "Nothing." "What do you make of it, Chris?" "I don't know." "We can't fight a whole army of 'em." "Chico would, if it was the other way round." "Chico's a fool." "Because he laid his gun aside, married Petra, tried to amount to something?" " Vamos esta noche, senor, o manana?" "What did he say?" "He wants to know if we are going after them tonight, or in the morning." "It's a big country." "Findin' 'em could take a long time." "Hell, I haven't been going anywhere for ten years." "Either have you." "Ain't it the truth." "Take them to my room." "They can sleep there." "Where are you headin'?" "To get help." "Findin' men ain't gonna be easy." "Depends where you look." "What about this one?" "He stole a pig, senor." "A pig?" "Yes." "I can let you have him very cheap." "This one?" "He caught his wife with another man." "Both of them." "This one is worth many pesos, senor." "But if I were you..." "Open it." "Senor..." "Open." "Hello, Frank." "Chris." "Haven't seen you around." "Haven't been around." "Been in here." "He killed four men in a gunfight." "That's a fact." "How would you like to get out?" "I'm listenin'." "Friend of mine's in trouble." "How much trouble?" "About as much as you are." "How many guns you up against?" "Fifty." "Maybe more." "Anybody on your side?" "How much?" "The risk is very great, senor." "A hundred pesos?" "Fifty." "He killed four men." "I could make it five." "Fifty." "Where'll I find you?" "At the hotel." "We're riding south in the morning." "You got a horse?" "No." "I'll get one." "He is not very friendly." "I'm not hiring friends." "Are you going to talk all night?" "If you had any respect for a condemned man, you'd keep quiet and let him spend his last hours in peace." "He is going to be shot in the morning." "What'd he do?" "Huh!" "What didn't he do?" "That is Luis Emilio Delgado." "I take it you did not understand me, senor." "You are Luis Delgado." "You know me?" "Heard of you." "Did I not tell you I was famous?" "That is his last request." "You don't know how good that makes a man feel." "I can imagine." "I mean you knowing my name, who I am." "For years I have said to myself "Luis, the day will come when you'll not have to ride in the dust of others, when everyone will know who you are. "" ""There'll not be a train or a village robbed that people will not say" "'The one who robbed from us was el bandido Luis Emilio Delgado. "'" "And just when I was about to amount to something, this had to happen." "What will people think of me when they find out I was shot for killing one man?" "One stinking little man." "I have killed a dozen in a single day." "More." "I tell you, senor, there is no justice." "What if they don't find out?" "But they will." "Not if you ride south with me." "Against 50 guns, maybe more?" "The odds are not good." "Better than you'll have against that wall tomorrow." "You've got a point." "Well?" "What is the pay?" "Whatever it takes to get you out." "Fair enough." "How much?" "But, senor, I cannot." "A hundred pesos." "They will stand me against the wall... 200." "I have a wife, six little ones... 250." "Three." "But I cannot let him go." "He will have to escape." "Unlock it." "Un momento, senor." "Do you mind if I escape first thing in the morning?" "Hello, Chris." "It's gettin' so a fella can't find an unattached woman anywhere hardly." "Let's get out of here." "Whew!" "That was a close one, huh?" "So was the last time." "And the time before that." "When'll you ever learn, Colbee?" "How'd I know she was married?" "Women ain't like cattle, with a brand to let you know they're another man's stock." "How would you like to use that gun belt for more than just holding up your pants?" "A village was raided, a friend of mine taken prisoner." "I need help." "Well, I'd like to give you a hand, Chris, but..." "They took all the men, drove them into the desert." "I ain't been gettin' much sleep lately." "Took off all the men, you say?" "Two days ago." "You mean there's a village full of women and no one there to help them with their planting' and their harvesting'?" "No husbands?" "No husbands." "The hell you say." "How'd you do?" "They any good?" "They're alive." "Hey!" "Hey, what the hell do you think you're doin'?" "Basta con el pequeno." "He said the little one had enough." "But I had my money bet on him." "You lost." "Why, you..." "The little one's had enough." "Touch that gun, I'll kill you." "Are you all right?" "Si, senor." "Senor..." "Me llamo Manuel." "Yo he oido que busca pistoleros." " Podria llevarme?" "He says his name is Manuel." "He heard we were looking for fighters." "He'd like to come along." "You're gonna take him?" "For luck." "Counting Chico, that makes seven." "Buenos dias." "It's a lovely day, no?" "You're late." "I overslept." "Let's get the hell outta here." "Gracias." "Coffee?" "Oh." "Don't mind if I do." "Don't mind at all." "You'd never know she's around, would you, quiet like she is?" "Had me a quiet woman once." "Outside she was calm as Sunday." "Inside she was wild like mountain scenery." "I'm gonna ride back that way again one of these days." "Where's that?" "Sonora Town." "I was there once." "Once?" "You mean you didn't go back?" "For what?" "Well, there's over ten head of females for every male in Sonora, that's for what." "And I oughta know." "I went through over half of 'em one night." "And woulda got around to the rest of 'em if I hadn't pulled a leg muscle." "I was bucking' horses this side of the line and sellin' 'em tame up in Deming." "Now, a good amount of 'em was no more than hoorah girls, but the way I look at it, a woman's a woman." "Ain't that right, Frank?" "You talk too much, Colbee." "Since when can a man talk too much about a woman?" "Since when?" "Colbee." "You take the first watch." "But you said Vin was a'gonna." "I changed my mind." "Go on." "You didn't have to do that, Chris." "I wouldn't push him into a fight, if that's what you think." "If you had, you might have been in trouble." "He's fast." "Fast as you are?" "I'd hate to have to live on the difference." "I'll remember that." "Do that." "I wonder why the hell they took Chico and them others off." "Damned if I know." "Time we get to the village, blowsand will have covered up any tracks." "If we strike out blind, we don't stand a chance of finding' 'em." "Petra said there were two other villages raided." "That means they took close to 300 prisoners." "Only one way to move that many men on foot in the desert." "Like cattle." "From one water hole to the other." "Well, that don't narrow it down too awful much." "Lotta cow trails between here and the Sierra Madre." "Herds moving on them every day." "Word gets round." "What do we do in the meantime?" "Drop Petra and the boy off at the village and start riding a wide circle." "See if we can cut their trail." "That could take one hell of a long time." "I know." "I haven't been goin' anywhere for ten years." "Vin, if you have to worry about something, worry about what happens after we find Chico and the others, not if we find them." "I never thought I'd come back." "Vin, Colbee." "Cut him down." "Get 'em out of here." "Llevatelos de aqui." "He escaped - and see what they did." "My poor little one." "The Devil's Spine." "It ranges from the headwaters of the Concho, north to the border." "According to the woman, her husband escaped from a village about here." "That's where they're holding Chico and the others." "Did he say why?" "He wasn't there long enough to find out." "But there ain't no village between the Devil's Spine and the Concho." "That's what the man said." "He was a long time in the desert, Chris." "He coulda been out of his head, got turned around." "He found his way here, didn't he?" "I'll catch up the horses." "We'll leave in the morning." "Ride out tonight, we could save time." "Use up our animals, we'll be on foot." "We'll leave in the morning." "Better get some sleep." "You too, Colbee." "I wish to hell I knew for sure." "Knew what?" "If I'm here because Chico's a friend, or if I'm just on the prod for a fight like Frank." "Killin' can get inside of you." "And you think that's happened to you." "Why else would I be here?" "Sure, Chico's a friend of mine, but..." "Hell, I don't even know his last name." "Neither do I." "Don't it make you wonder?" "No." "How the hell come, Chris?" "Because in all the years I've made my way with a gun," "I never once shot a man just to see him fall." "That time ever comes," "I throw my guns in the water bucket and ride out." "So will you." "Who does he belong to?" "His parents are dead." "Chico looks after him like he was his own." "Chris, why would they take Chico and the others away?" "I don't know." "Maybe if you went to the Rurales, asked for help." "It wouldn't do any good." "But they are supposed to protect us." "Have they ever?" "No." "They never will." "Because we are poor." "Because we cannot pay them." "That's true, isn't it?" "Maybe someday it'll be different." "And in the meantime?" "We do what we can." "And die." "There's always that." "Chris." "No matter what happens, we will never forget you, and the others." "That's all a man can ask." "If you ask me, we oughta stayed on back there and given them women a hand." "They're gonna fall behind in their planting' and ploughing'." "So will you, Colbee." "So will you." "How come you're still along, Luis?" "Thought once you got clear of that firing squad, you'd head for the hills." "So did I." "What changed your mind?" "Well, I had a long talk with myself." "I said "Luis, in all the years that I've known you, you've not done one thing for anyone but yourself. "" ""Not one." "And it's about time that you did. "" ""Where would you be if it was not for the poor farmers you've stolen from?"" ""You would be nothing." "Help these poor people, and you'll be able to ride proud, with your head high up. "" "If somebody don't blow it off." "Then I would die in good company." "Hell, Chris there, he's been killin' for ten years." "Vin, about half that time." "Colbee, he hunts other men's wives between gun jobs." "Manuel's nothin' but a chicken thief." "And you?" "I'm no better than they are." "But you're still along." "You coulda run for the hills, same as me." "I got my reason for stayin'." "And it don't have one damn thing to do with friendship, or helping' poor farmers." "Buenas tardes, compadre Lorca." "Buenas tardes, compadre." "Have you seen the priest?" "He was looking for you." "Again?" "He heard about the killings." "He said we should have tried to reason with them." "Reason?" "Did I build an empire upon reason?" "Did we reason with renegades, bandits, corrupt officials?" "But these are not renegades, nor bandits." "Nor are they corrupt." "You never tire of being my conscience." ""The strong must be generous to the weak. "" "You know who made up that rule?" "The weak." "Francisco, I have to talk to you." "Two workers were killed last night." "They were trying to escape." "But you have no right." "Look, Father." "I know your feelings for these people." "But would it be a more honourable death if they fell pulling a plough?" "The Church cannot sanction..." "Sanction?" "You wanted a church." "You couldn't pray it into existence so you came to me." "You chose this place, these methods." "For a reason." "What reason can there be for killing in cold blood, Francisco?" "You wouldn't understand." "I understand murder, slavery." "Look, Father." "I set out to rebuild this church, this village, and that is what I'm going to do, with or without your blessing." "I cannot stand by and let this go on, Francisco." "Nothing says you have to stay." "Everything says I have to stay." "He is right, Father." "You should leave this place." "I can't." "You mean you won't." "I mean I can't." "Buenas tardes, senor." "Buenas tardes." "What can we do for you?" "A friend of mine." "You're holding him prisoner." "I want him." "And all the others." "Just like that." "You are either a very stupid or a very brave man, senor." "One word from me and you would be dead." "That'll make two of us." "There are five Winchesters pointed at your head." "Professionals." "Perhaps we should have a little talk." "We just did." "Father, you'd better get Francisco." "Don't move, Father." "You would kill a priest?" "Only if I have to." "Same old Chris." "I might have known you'd be along." "It's good to..." "Whatever you and your men are being paid," "I'll double it." "I'll triple it." "Same old Lorca." "Come." "We will talk." "Can't do that." "That's the only thing you can do." "You're six against 60." "Don't expect these farmers to help you." "They have no stomach to fight." "No?" "No." "Kill him." "Go on." "Kill him." "You've killed others." "But they didn't have guns." "They had guns three years ago when 200 men gave up their lives inside the walls of this church." "Gave up their lives to rid this country of tyranny." "Do you think it concerns these farmers that I tracked bandits across miles of desert and fought them on this ground while they hid under their straw beds?" "Mis hijos." "My sons." "Tall, erect, like two well-bred stallions." "They're buried here with the others." "No longer will their graves be marked by ruins." "This church, this village, will be a monument for those who fought so well." "A monument built with the sweat and blood of those who never fight." "I'll prove it to you." "Lopez." "Do as he says." "Kill him." "Francisco." "You stay out of this, Father." "I have stayed out of it as long as I can." "I beg you, Francisco, before it is too late." "Before God damns you to hell for what you are doing here." "You spared my life once." "Now I'm going to save yours." "Take your vaqueros and ride out of here." "Ride out and don't look back." "I was wrong." "You're not the same old Chris." "I won't let you drown your grief in other men's blood, if that's what you mean." "Go on." "Get out." "Pues morimos, compadre." "Muchachos!" "Vamonos!" "There will be a next time." "Vamonos!" "He will be back." "I know." "I swore I would never wear this again." "What a man swears and what he does isn't always the same." "It's good to see you, Chris." "Good to see you, Chico." "Is it?" "Lorca has many men out there." "I've been shot at before." "But we cannot pay you to help us, Chris." "I knew a young gun once." "He was a wild, mostly drunk kid when I met him." "Turned out to be a man." "Man enough to set his gun aside, take a wife, try to amount to something." "He also turned out to be a friend." "Worth dying for?" "If I have to." "What about the others?" "They're along for the fight." "If it wasn't this one, it would be another." "Get up in the bell tower." "Watch off toward the cemetery." "If they come, it'll be from there." "And Chico." "Don't get too attached to that gun." "When this is over..." "I'll throw it in the water bucket and ride out." "I did not know it would come to this." "When Francisco lost his sons" "I tried to give him consolation." "He told me he wanted to build a monument to those who had fallen." "I convinced him it should be a church." "I wanted it as much as he did." "Even more." "As God is my judge," "I have tried to help these poor souls, tried for so long." "I've spoken to them of faith, of love." "They believed me." "But my words and their prayers have changed nothing for them." "The children have died, the crops have failed." "And now I have betrayed them." "I'm not a religious man, Father." "But I'll tell you this." "They need you." "More now than ever before." "I failed them." "You failed yourself." "Got knocked down." "Get up, Father." "At least as far as your knees." "That's the last of 'em." "Now what?" "We movin' out tonight?" "We're not moving out at all." "Catch us in the open with 300 men on foot, we won't have a chance." "We gonna stand it out here?" "We got cover, we got supplies." "And they have to come to us." "That cuts the odds in half." "They won't lay out there very long." "Like as not they'll try to get it over with as fast as they can." "I wish to hell these walls were higher." "They will be." "You and Frank split the workers in two groups." "One take the south wall, the other take the north." "Get rocks, timbers, adobe blocks, anything a man can stay alive behind, and start building." "Now?" "Now." "The storm is over." "It's a long day's ride to the hacienda, compadre." "Would you have me run from seven guns and those farmers?" "Those cowards?" "All we have left is the ammunition in our belts, the water in our canteens, and the food in our stomachs." "That is enough." "That is more than enough." "Vamonos, muchachos!" "Adentro." "Vamonos, muchachos!" "Vamonos!" "I don't know about you, but that scared the hell outta me." "You reckon they'll hit us again?" "Just as hard as they can." "Bring me a horse." "Come on." "Are you all right, compadre?" "I will make them suffer for this." "I will make them all suffer for this." "Lopez, you may ride to the hacienda." "Get every man that works for me." "Every boy old enough to carry a gun." "The farmers, the vaqueros." "Bring them all here." "But if I do that, you will have nothing to go back to." "The cattle will scatter into the hills and the crops will fail in the fields." "All you have worked for, compadre." "All I have worked for is buried beside that church." "My sons." "Do as I say, compadre." "Funny how your mind'll play tricks on ya." "Up there, when they was comin' at us, I got to thinkin' they were husbands." "Husbands?" "Ganged up on me." "Sent a shiver up my spine." "I swear, we get outta this, I ain't ever gonna look at another woman." "Ever." "Agh!" "Oh." "Sorry." "Looks like they're gonna wait for night." "They hit us in the dark, it could get kinda hard to stay alive in here." "We make a run for it, we can be back at the village in two days, maybe less." "And then what?" "Make our stand there." "What about the women and children?" "Yeah." "Looks like you should have turned me in for that bounty." "About that bounty, Chris." "There never was a price on ya." "I just wanted to ride along with you for a ways." "Well, maybe they'll back off." "Not Lorca." "He won't let go till this is over once and for good." "You seem like you know him pretty well." "I was paid to kill him once." "Shame you didn't get the job done." "By his sons." "His sons?" "He said they were tall, erect, like finely bred stallions." "They weren't." "They were gentle, like their mother." "Lorca thought they were weak." "He rode roughshod over them trying to make them over in his own image." "Their mother tried to stop him." "Died trying." "They hated him, wanted him dead." "So they hired you." "Lorca found out about it." "He could have had me killed." "Instead he gave me a horse, let me ride out." "Don't know why." "Maybe he saw in you what he never saw in his own." "Maybe." "Wonder how come the two of 'em ended here." "Knowing Lorca, he shamed them into it." "Then why is he building this church for 'em?" "Not for them, Vin." "For him." "He got his chance to do the one thing he could never do when they were alive." "Be proud of them." "What are they waiting for?" "I wish now that Petra had never found you, Chris." "That you'd never gotten into this." "You and the others get killed, what good will it do?" "Nothing will change." "No matter what happens here, nothing will change." "There'll always be someone like Lorca, someone to push men around like cattle." "I've seen enough of fear, running, hiding." "When this is over, I'm heading north across the border." "I made my living with a gun once." "I can do it again." "What about Petra?" "Man runs out on his own people, doesn't leave a wife a whole lot to be proud of." "She'll understand." "Will she?" "Chief Lopez went to the hacienda." "Tomorrow he'll bring 400 guns." "If he does, this will soon be over." "The sooner, the better." "I agree." "You'll get that old bird drunk, you don't watch out." "No entiendo." "Tu hacer ese pajaro borracho." "Hey, hello, Chris." "Uh..." "Manuel here, he's got somethin' he wants to tell ya." "Go on, Manuel." "Tell him." "Todo este tiempo..." "No, no, no." "You tell him what I taught ya." "Hable en ingles." "For a long time..." "No, compadre." "What he's tryin' to tell you, Chris, is that for a lotta years now he's been knockin' around from one village to another." "He ain't got no folks that he can remember." "He don't even know how old he is except he's young and he's been called Manuel ever since he was knee-high to a grasshopper." "Another thing he remembers is that he always felt kinda lost and lonely." "But he don't no more." "Know why?" "No." "Why?" "Because when I was out there stompin' around in the rain last night," "I come across a sign with the name of the village on it." "Something "Del Norte"." "First part of it had been burned off." "So?" "So, Manuel was always lookin' for some place to come from, some place he can belong to, be proud of." "Now he can." "Village ain't got no people, he ain't got no village." "So from now on they can call him..." "Manuel from Something Del Norte." "Yeah." "It's got a nice ring to it, ain't it?" "Yeah." "Uh, Chris." "Um..." "Anyhow..." "Think we oughta get him outta here safe?" "You know, he ain't a whole lot with a gun, and they keep comin' at us that way, he's gonna get hurt." "Maybe we could send him off somewheres." "If we did, I'd sure feel a whole lot better." "What about him?" "How'd he feel?" "Now that he's finally got something to belong to." "Yep..." "Frank was right." "I talk too damn much." "It's Frank." "You all right?" "Just a crease." "Were you tryin' to get your head blowed off?" "It's my head." "You get yourself killed, it won't do anybody any good." "Depends how you look at it." "What's eatin' him?" "I saw you up there on the wall this morning." "Now this." "Why?" "None of your damn business." "Chris." "You never knew my wife, did you?" "We had us a place in West Texas." "Wasn't much, just gettin' started." "Had a herd to build, wire to string and such." "One night some Comanches got drunk, jumped the reservation, lit out, killin', burnin'..." "We woke up, they was all around the cabin - 14, 15 of 'em." "I held 'em off as long as I could till I only had one shell left." "Ellie screamed at me not to let 'em take her alive." "She'd seen what they'd done to others." "She kept begging' me, begging'..." "So I..." "The Comanches saw what I'd done." "I thought they'd kill me too, but they didn't." "They just rode off." "Next morning I started tracking' 'em." "Killed 'em one at a time, all the while hoping' they'd kill me." "Five years, I've been tryin' to get the job done." "But it don't look like I have to wait much longer." "I heard 'em talkin' out there." "Lorca sent for help." "Come tomorrow he's gonna have 200 guns, maybe more." "And he's not gonna settle forjust us, Chris." "He wants 'em all dead." "Every last one of 'em." "Senor..." "The others, they have asked me to talk to you." "They don't want you to die here because of them." "Go." "While there is still time." "They will not kill us all." "Those who are left will return to the village, begin again." "If we are strong like you..." "But we are not." "We are weak." "Too weak to fight." "You fight every day of your lives." "You fight the land to grow crops." "You fight to keep a roof over your heads, clothes on your back." "That is not the same." "The hell it's not." "We are cowards, senor." "We are afraid of everyone, of everything." "Our whole life is one of fear." "We are born with it." "We die with it." "It is our way." "It will always be our way." "Please, senor." "We beg you." "Before it is too late." "Go, please." "You ain't thinkin' of runnin', are you, Chris?" "He may be right." "I knew a fella once." "He was loud, always bragging'." "Inside he was afraid of his own shadow." "Never woulda got over it either, if this other fella hadn't come along." "I'm talkin' about that night in Texas when you made me stand alongside you in the street." "I remember you had to knock me down four times before I'd go against them guns." "We got to do the same for them, Chris." "We got to stand alongside of 'em so that someday they can stand alone." "I thought all you did was think about women, Colbee." "I used to be afraid of them too." "We ain't gonna run, are we, Chris?" "Hell, no." "Orate, frates." "If you're thinkin' about goin' out there, we'd better get at it." "Those others get here, the hills are gonna get higher to climb." "How many men does he have left?" "I counted 30." "We could circle high around and come at 'em from behind." "One chance in hell." "That's better than none at all." "Saddle the horses." "I already did." "Tu quedate aqui." "Ain't you gonna take him with us?" "He'll cover us from the bell tower." "We'll need all the help we can get." "He stays behind." "For luck?" "For luck." "Kyrie eleison." "Kyrie eleison." "Kyrie eleison." "Kyrie eleison." "Chris." "Hey." "Come on." "Chris." "Keep going." "Ya!" "Giddap." "Ya!" "Chris." "Alto el fuego!" "Alto!" "Vamonos." "I got it done, Chris." "I finally..." "Chris." "Kill them." "Kill them." "Don't stop." "Kill them." "Kill them." "It was Chico's idea to finish building the church, to bring all three villages here and make them into one." "I thought you were heading north." "I changed my mind." "I'm ready to go, Chico." "Go where?" "Well, back to get the rest of the women." "He volunteered." "So long, Colbee." "So long, Chris." "Too bad the others couldn't have seen this." "We'll remember them in our prayers." "Goodbye, Chico." "Chris." "So long, Padre, Chico." "Adios." "God bless you." "I'll be damned." "I doubt that." "I doubt that very much."