"Ginger wasn't on her way to church when you met her, Buddy." "She was taking a shortcut to the saloon." "She wants your money, and she's ready to kill for it." "Help, mister, help!" "Please help me." "What's the trouble?" "Give me a hand, would you, mister?" "This what all the shouting was about?" "Try and heft that and you'll see what the shouting was about." "Excuse me." "I been out of sight and smell of folks so long," "I kinda forgot my manners." "Name's Buddy Webster." "Paladin." "Mighty glad to meet you, Mr. Paladin." "I been alone most part of five years, ain't heard nothing but the sound of my own voice." "Gotta get this on them horses out front" "All right, what's in it?" "Gold dust." "That's right." "Ain't that about the prettiest sight you ever seen?" "Came out here to make my strike and by golly, if I didn't go and do it." "Aim to lug this into Jackson City so I can turn it into money." "Boy, I sure am doing all the talking, ain't I, though?" "Yes, sir, you are." "Boy, oh boy." "Wait'll I get to town with all that money in my pocket." "You keep talking about money, and you might not get to town at all." "I never thought about that." "Maybe you'd be good enough to give me a hand, would you?" "Every instinct I have is telling me to go on to San Francisco alone." "I'd sure hate to lose what I got now after all I went through to get it." "Well..." "All right, Buddy." "Let's divide the gold up." "Put some of it in each of those sacks." "We'll load it on the horses, and then I suggest we go into Sacramento instead of Jackson City." "It's closer." "It's gotta be Jackson City." "In Sacramento, you can convert the dust into money, put it safely in the bank, then go anywhere you want." "It's gotta be my way, Mr. Paladin." "I'll tell you why if you'd like." "I have a feeling I'll be happier not knowing." "Here." "Get yourself a room in that hotel." "I'll find the assay office and convert this dust into money," " with a minimum of fanfare." " I'll just mosey around." "You wait in the hotel room." "Okay, you sure are taking the fun out of it." "Just as long as I get the best, that's all." "As long as it's the best." "I don't care." "No, no, no." "Hey, listen, listen." "I'll leave it up to you guys." "I'll leave it up to you, only talk one at a time." "I only got two ears." "Listen, hey, listen." "You gotta talk one at a time." " Please, please!" " I've only got two ears." "I only got two ears!" "Hey, wait, wait, wait, wait." "There's the man with my money." "Pay these gents for me, will you, Mr. Paladin?" "Yes, do so, would you, please?" "Well, I'm delighted we had that little talk about discretion, Buddy." "All right, gentlemen." "Who's first?" " Is this your saddle?" " Yes, sir." "How much?" "He's offered me $300 for it." "Thank you, sir." "$5,000, if you please, sir." "A ring?" "Which ring did he select?" "That's the one the boy picked." "The one he wanted." "He wanted the biggest and the best." "Of course I have another one here, little smaller, but a better cut." "No, siree." "I want the big one." "All right, Buddy." "There you go." "Look at that." "Pretty?" "That one's real." "Scratch it." "Scratch it." "Go on, scratch it on the window." "Two rings?" "What do I need two rings for?" "Buddy, I don't even know what you need one ring for, but that gentleman at the door, that smiling gentleman he made you a present of one of those rings." "Look at that." "Well, Buddy, here's your money." "Got a saddle, two rings and heaven help you, you're on your own." "Mr. Paladin," "I wonder if you'd do me one last favor?" "Name it." "This ring, it's for a girl." "That's why I had to come here instead of Sacramento." "I see." "I thought you told me you were in that mine for five years." "That's right, five years." "Five years since I seen her." "I met her one time." "Just one night." "Just one time and we both knew it was the real thing." "Right then and there, I knew I'd come back and marry her." "You've written, kept in touch?" "No, I'm not much at writing." "But when I left, I told her I'd gone to make my fortune and I'd be back for her." "What's the matter now?" "You don't look right." "Well, I guess it's just the look of a cynic when he's confronted with too much youth and hope and faith and what do you want me to do, Buddy?" "Find her?" "Would you, Mr. Paladin?" "First time I see her," "I don't want to be in front of a lot of folks." "I want to be alone with her." "You understand me?" "You make me feel very ancient." "When you find her, just you ask her if she'll meet me where we met before." "She'll know what I'm talking about." "Her name's Ginger." "Ginger Adams." "Well, Buddy," "I think you might brace yourself for the possibility that she hasn't waited." "Five years is a long time." "Mr. Paladin, you don't know what this means to us." "She told me she'd wait, and she will." "Innkeeper, I'll have a whiskey on him." "It's fair enough, but that wasn't no bad saddle I sold him." "You'd have sold it cheaper." "Well, maybe, but enjoy your drink." "Thank you." "I'd like a favor if I haven't run my credit out." "Well, that depends." "I'm looking for a girl named Ginger Adams." "She was here in Jackson City five years ago." "And this drink's on me." "What's going on, Mr. Paladin?" "I waited and waited for you." "Sit down, Buddy." "I thought you was lost or something." "Then I saw your horse outside." "Where is she?" "Can you manage to be a little less cavalier with your money?" "She's in here, Buddy." "Mm-hmm." "Buddy." "Ginger." "Ginger." "It's really you." "Oh, Ginger." "I dreamed of you night and day, Ginger." "I lived it over and over and over again." "Did you, honey?" "Ginger, didn't you?" "Sure, sure, baby." "Night and day over and over." "My Pa had just passed on and I'd gone to church to pray, you know?" "When I came out, I was walking down the dirt road in back of the church down where my horse was tied." "That's where I met her." "On her way to church." "Remember?" "How could I forget?" "Let's have some drinks, honey." "I don't need no drink, Ginger." "All I want to do is just look at you." "Just hold you." "Ginger, I did it." "I made my fortune." "Just like I said I would." "Look, hundreds of thousand of dollars, Ginger." "And I got something for you." "You say the little one's the best?" "Give her the big one." "That's what I thought." "Ginger, it's a wedding ring." "We'll be married, but I want you to wear it now, just like we were already married." "That ain't real, is it?" "If it cuts glass, it's real." "Drinks are on me, young fella." "My name is Joe Becker." "Thanks." "We're not drinking." "Well, I can't tell you how happy I am that we're gonna be married at last." "What's my name, honey?" "My married name." "Go on, say it, so I can hear how wonderful it sounds." "Mrs. Wilbur Webster." "You call him Wilbur, do you, Miss Adams?" "Gosh no." "Nobody calls me Wilbur." "Go on, honey." "Tell him what I call you." "Calls me Buddy of course." "Among other things." "Let's get out of here." "I wanna be alone with you." "I gotta be alone with you." "Well, I don't want people staring at us." "I want it to be just us." "You go on." "Tell me where you're gonna be and I'll come to you." " No..." " Oh, please, honey." "That's the way I saw it in my dreams." "Are you staying at the hotel?" "Yeah, but hurry." "Will you hurry, please hurry?" " Okay." " Wait a minute." "What happened to our romantic?" "I thought this reunion was supposed to take place on the hallowed grounds of your first meeting." "That's right, Ginger." "That's the way it oughta be." "Buddy, Buddy, she knows where you first met." "You don't have to remind a woman of the place where she fell in love." "You do remember, don't you, Miss Adams?" "Of course she remembers." "Sure." "Sure I remember it." "It was..." "Virginia... you couldn't have forgotten." "Virginia." "Yeah." "I remember you calling me Virginia." "And I remember telling you how it was my mother's name, and how my pa could never bring himself 'round to calling me that because he hated her so for leaving him." "Buddy Webster." "There was a new moon." "Yeah." "Yeah, there was a moon shining on the water and..." "And there were willow trees." "Look, you go on ahead." "I want to change." "I'll meet you at the willow trees." "Say, you forgot your saddlebag." "If there's anything of value in it, you don't wanna leave it here." "I'll take care of these till he's ready to leave town." "All right." "Mr. Paladin, I just came to get my things and to thank you for all the help you've been to me." "Where are you meeting her, Buddy?" "How'd you know that?" "She told me not to tell nobody and here you went and guessed it." "Let me tell you the rest of it since you know that much." "We're gonna be married." "Buddy." "Ginger was not on her way to church when you first met her." "She was taking a short cut down the back road to the saloon." "Aw, cut it out." "Buddy, she works in that saloon." "She's what is politely known as a saloon girl." "You're trying to rib me, but even as a joke," "I wish you wouldn't use her name like that." "She wants your money." "And she is amoral enough to kill you for it." "If I didn't owe you so many favors," "I'd be tempted to make you eat them words." "But as it is, I just hope I don't see you no more." "Well, there's a pretty good chance that you won't." "He's coming." "Ginger?" "Is that you, Ginger?" "Yeah, honey." "I'm here." "My lamp just went out." "That's all." "I didn't know you was gonna kill him." "Do you know any other way to shut him up?" "He's just a kid." "I thought we was just gonna take the money." "That's the only way I know of keeping it, baby." "You stand there and you listen." "Well, sweet princess, hurry." "Your knight impatient waits without." "Here it is." "Five years and a half million dollars." "Now tell me what good it is to me, will you?" "That was for you, saloon girl." "I was gonna buy you the world." "A better one than this, I hope." "I could have given you a new life." "Thanks, Buddy, but you'd had to start me over from a newborn baby to do that." "I gotta go to work." "Not here you won't." "What do you want for this dump, bartender?" "What do you want?" "Speak up, man." "Don't stand there." "Money talks." "Money's God!" "What's your price?" "How much you want?" "That's the answer, ain't it, Paladin?" "Money!" "Money's what makes the world spin." "Money." "And I'm rich!" "Rich, you hear me?" "Now get outta my saloon, everybody." "Get out!" "Go on, don't just stand there." "Get out." "I bought it!" "Didn't you see me?" "Go on, get out!" "Everybody." "Go on, get out." "Don't just stand around." "Go on!" "Not you, saloon girl." "You stay here." "You ain't got money enough to buy me, you whining rabbit!" "How's that, Virginia?" "How's that for a new life?" " All over." " No, it ain't." " 'Cause I'm gonna ruin her." " Are you?" "Why?" "Because you're young and inexperienced?" "'Cause you imagined a girl to be something she isn't?" "She was a saloon girl when you met her, Buddy." "And she's still a saloon girl." "She hasn't changed a bit." "You want her to pay for your lack of reality?" "She didn't ask you to pin this dream on her." " She didn't even remember you." " But I loved her." "You loved a picture in your mind." "Look at her." "Go on, look at her." "Now what kind of a life do you suppose she's had?" "Do you think a woman chooses this line of work if she doesn't have to?" "I've got an idea this world's hurt her just about enough." "What do you want?" "You want to deliver the coup de grace?" "The final act of brutality?" "Is that what you're looking for?" "I'm sorry, Virginia, about everything." "Yeah, I guess I am too." "But I'm willing to try and forget it and still make an honest woman out of you." "Well, I was thinking a little bit less romantically." "What was you thinking, Mr. Paladin?" "Well, I don't have to be married to be honest." "What, Virginia?" "Well, it's not in much shape now, but..." "Well, then it's yours!" "It's yours!" "Romeo." ""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"