"Where the baby at?" "I gave her to Declan Toole to take and raise in New York." "You did what?" "I thought it best." " Aw, nah." "I gotta go." " No, Elam, they're gone." "They left on the train." "Can't believe you done this." "Toole will raise her up in a good place." "It wasn't his baby." "She was mine." " She was" " She was mine." "Baby was white." "It weren't your baby." "Don't ever say that." "She was my baby." "Why'd you do it?" "Get away from me now." "I wanted to give you a chance to understand and still love me..." "What?" "But I reckon you don't." "I can't after what you done." "Huh?" "Get outta here." "Get out!" "Go back to whoring." "Get out!" "Just remember that I gave you a choice." "You ain't gave me nothing." "You just took." "You took everything I had away." "But I'm still here." "I'm still here, Elam." "You still a whore." "Now get outta my house." "Get outta here." "Get out!" "Go back to your whoring." "Take your-- take it!" "Shave and a morning whiskey, Mr. Durant?" "A double, I think, Willie." "Something doubly big on your mind?" "An old friend passed away." "I'm feeling a little melancholy." "Good friends is hard to come by." "All mine are deader than shit." "Gutshot, poison, pox, bad wives, you name it." "Hmm." "How did yours die?" "Greed, I think." "His reach exceeded his grasp." "Hold still, now." "Hmm?" "Don't wanna nick you." "What are you doing here?" "Mormons is building a spur line railroad of their own." "You want it to come here or Laramie?" "Here, of course." "Ouch." "Sorry." "My pappy taught me how to shave." "I'm a little rusty." "The Mormons been poaching my men." "There's bad blood between me and them." "Please be careful." " Damn it." " You got to hold still." "Now, go like this." " This?" " Yeah." "Yeah, you hired them to do a survey for you back in '61." "Thought maybe you could broker a deal to suit us both." "No." " No." " Can't or won't?" "I won't sully my relations with the Mormons with your foundering." "For a man with a straight razor to his throat," "I don't imagine you're gulling me." "Cut my throat or leave me be, Bohannon." "You're missing one hell of an opportunity, Durant." "As did you, sir, just now." "Pretty?" "Everywhere I looked, she was pretty, hmm?" "You seen Mr. Ferguson?" "Yes, sir, but he ain't taking no visitors right now." "Appreciate you trying to protect him but I need him to ride out with me." "Ain't him I'm trying to protect." "It's you." "He up there with a bottle and a gun." "Ain't drawn a sober breath since Eva gave away the baby." "He a little dangerous right now." "A man who's lost everything's got nothing to lose." " Can he ride?" " Ride a horse?" "'Bout only thing he can do right now is roll off that roof and break his damn fool neck." "Might sober his ass up." "Elam." "Elam Ferguson." "What you want?" "You plan on coming down off there anytime soon?" "I ain't decided yet." "You make a decision, son, or I'll make it for you." "Son of a bitch." "That's a threat?" "It's a warning." "Get his ass straight or you get him outta here." " I need every man working." " I ain't his pappy." "And I ain't got time for his shit." "I aim to be spiking rail right through Cheyenne in ten days or God himself tell me why not." "Do you understand me?" "Yes, sir, Mr. Bohannon." "Good." "I'm looking for a Thomas Durant." "What's your business, stranger?" "Commonwealth Detective Malone, Boston, Massachusetts." "Executive office." "Is that good enough for you?" "Sure is." "He's probably getting his morning shave." "Is this where Senator Metcalf was staying?" "Only place in town." "I figured it was." " You know where he went?" " No, sir." "Just disappeared into thin air." " Got any rooms?" " Oh, I can give you his." "I have no idea what happened to Metcalf." "And that's the truth." "We burned him with the cholera victims." "I don't know that." "Well, I'm telling you." "Don't." "I can't tell the truth if I don't know it." "Mr. Durant." " Why don't you stay?" " All right." "Special Agent Malone." "Nice, uh, suite you got here." "Why did Senator Metcalf stay behind when General Grant, Oaks Ames, and the board left?" " He didn't stay here." " Desk clerk said he did." "Well, perhaps for a day or two." "Did he say where he was going?" "Oh, he would have no reason to tell me his travel plans." "His wife says you are childhood friends." "Perhaps yes." "But we had... we had very different childhoods." "Whiskey tumbler." "It fell against the wall." "When was the last time you saw the senator?" "With, uh, some of the hotel guests." "I'm sure he can't remember." "Can't say I do remember." "Good day, gentlemen." "And that's how it's done." "Where are you going?" "I'm getting the hell out of here." "Let's not appear to be fearful." "I'll only be gone a few days." "He gonna be any trouble?" "Well, he won't bathe." "And while you were in Cheyenne, he pulled that knife when I asked him to sweep the church." "Boy, don't you know better than to pull a knife on a church lady?" "You're not going to hurt him, are you?" "He ain't mine to whup." "Get your gear, boy." "You're coming with me." "He might've fallen off a Mormon wagon." "Maybe somebody at the fort will want him." "Will he be safe traveling that far?" "Safe as me, I reckon." "You get frisky with that knife again," "I'm gonna leave you to the Indians." "He doesn't think you really will." "He don't know me so well." "Come on." "I have reconsidered your request to negotiate with the Mormons on your behalf." "Somebody smoked your tree." "You out on a limb?" "Colorful, Mr. Bohannon, but no." "I assure you I am acting without duress." "Might be trouble up ahead where it is I'm going." "Don't need it following me too." "Now, there's one you wanna keep your knife handy for." "You got me?" "All right." "Let's ride." "Come on." "Right there." "See the way the hawk dropped something on the rise?" "Probably snatched up his lunch afore he realized it was a rattlesnake." "Why you keep looking back, doc?" "We're in Mormon country now." "Thought you said you was friendly with Mormons." "I've had my dealings with them, yes." "That don't comfort me none." "Who is that boy?" "Just a mute boy." "Probably fell off one of the Mormon wagon trains." "Happens sometimes." "So you've adopted him as your pet, hmm?" "Thought I'd trade in my walking bosses for him." "Oh, and what are you planning to offer the Mormons in exchange for your men?" "Open passage west on the U.P. for their settlers." "Free rail tickets." "Hmm, you are desperate." "Why the hell else would I bring you?" "You the sheriff here?" "Chief of railroad police." "What?" "Oh, nothing." "Just didn't figure on the chief of police to be so" "Black." "Drunk." "Ain't a crime out here." "Detective Malone." "Boston Police." "Got a minute?" "Just a few questions." " We got trouble, Mickey." " Not me." "Copper's asking questions about Metcalf," " and Durant made me look" " What?" "He made me look guilty." " I warned you about Durant." " I know." "And you were right." "This copper is from Boston, Sean." "Mickey, what are we gonna do?" "You're gonna get as far away from me as you can 'cause all you ever do is bring trouble." "So go, be gone." "I don't know you." "Why don't you do us all a favor, Sean?" "Disappear." "Just poof, thin air." "Don't even leave a stink." "All right." "Fade into these cottonwoods." "You hear any gunfire, you hightail it back to the railroad, you hear me?" "Gentlemen!" "Collis Huntington." "If you're here after your deserted workers, you're too late." "They and the Mormons are already in my employ." "Thems is my men." "May I suggest we camp in yonder meadow out of rifle shot of that gloomy place?" "Mr. Scoggins." "We'll camp for dinner." "I ain't got time to be lollygagging around here." "This is a fortuitous turn for both of us." "Who would you rather deal with, Huntington or the Mormons?" "Just behave yourself at dinner, and let me do the talking." "Mr. Bohannon, my spies tell me that your railroad is faltering." "We had some setbacks-- weather and Indians and rustlers." "Cholera hit us hard." "Some of my men went over there just for food and water." "This is Mormon territory, gentlemen." "They are fastidious about interlopers, especially negroes and the oriental." "My deal with Brigham Young forbids Chinese labor." "I'm gonna need men to build through here." "It's a long walk back for your Chinamen." "Their country has been decimated." "Human meat hangs in the markets at Nanjing." "My workers will settle in California." "By the turn of the century, I predict Mandarin will be the state's second language." "Thank you, Mr. Scoggins." "I, um-- I hired some Mormons for some of my early surveys, summer of '61." "Yeah, and it cost me $1/4 million last week to regain Brigham Young's confidence in railroad men." "I had to pay that and some to get reliable maps of this region to replace the worthless charts they'd supplied me." "Horseshit." "You chose to cheat 'em." "Regardless, you're through in the west, Thomas." "You know, I replace him when he fails to make his deadline." "Is that so?" "I'll tell you what." "I'll make it simple for you." "You give me the men you made arrangements for today, and I'll give you Bohannon." "I ain't yours to give." "I know that's what you want." "It's certainly what I want." "And do either of us really give a damn what he wants?" "Is that how you negotiate?" "I knew this was a waste of time." "Thank you for the supper." "Mr. Bohannon, you're not gonna get your men back, but I can offer you something better." "This is what I can save you." "Eva, I can't hire you." "I can sleep under the whiskey wagon." "That's no problem, okay?" "I can eat scrappings." "I'm worth something, Mickey." "Look at what I'm worth." "Eva, I know you're worth something." "But I can't afford trouble with your Mr. Ferguson." "This ain't got nothing to do with him." "It's got everything to do with him." "He's out there right now." "He's angry, he's drunk." "And I'm speaking with the woman who made him that way, who broke his heart." "I'm sorry." "Eva, I can't." "Take this money." "Hop the next train." "You're already packed." "Please." "For both our sakes, don't look back." "Mr. Ferguson." "Buy you a drink." "The train that's coming ain't leaving till tomorrow." "Thank you." "Right." "You look like a man with a problem that leaving town's gonna fix." "You're waiting on tomorrow's train?" "Nowheres to go." "Nothing when I get there." "You?" "Nowhere and nothing at all." "Hello." "I need you to send a wire to the Boston police department." "Suspect by the name of Sean McGinnes." "S-E-A-N" "M-C-G-I-N-N-E-S." "And have 'em get back to me as soon as possible." "Yes, sir." "Thank you." "Eva." "I was worried about you and the baby when I got word of the cholera." "Oh, God." "Eva, I'm so sorry." "All right." "Come on." "Come on." "It's for the boy." " Chinese candy." " He's already asleep." "Thought you only spoke Chinaman." "I am Chinese, born and raised in Peking." "Hmm." "You hung a Mormon boy, I heard." "Pretty sure his father killed my chief of police and blamed his son." "That's not how they're telling it." "Bet not." "Thank you, Mr. Scoggins." "Brandy." "These Mormons fought our government across Missouri and Illinois into Utah." "Massacres have been attributed to their militias." "Brigham Young has vowed to avenge the blood of his prophets on anyone who crosses them." "That would include you if they were to catch you over there, son." "I need them men." "I'm curious what you're gonna offer 'em." "Smoking my pipe to figure that out." "What is it you want out of all this?" "I ain't put too much thought into it." "Let me tell you." "A big house on the beach, a beautiful wife, a little boy playing with a bucket in the sand." "You tell me I'm wrong." "I guess maybe Durant's right." "Some men are architects, and others, just builders." "I don't mind it like that." "The offer still stands to build east with me." "Appreciate it." "I'm heading west with the U.P." "Good night then." "I'll see your Pacific one day, Mr. Huntington." "Yes, you will, Mr. Bohannon, one way or the other." "Did you really hang a boy?" "I knew you could talk all along." "Did you?" "No." "What's your name?" " Ezra." " Ezra." "Ezra." "What happened to you?" "Yeah." "I understand." "Let's get some rest." "Tomorrow, you're gonna help me outsmart two of the smartest men in the world." "They don't know what they don't know about men like you and me." "And that's a lot." "Mm." "Yeah, I hear ya." "Psalms, wake up." "Oh, brother, turn your head." "Something died in your mouth." "Get up." "Now get up." " Get your pants on." " What's the matter?" " We gotta go." " Something burning?" "We gotta go to New York, get on the first train out." "Get away from here." "We going to New York." "Get your pants on." "We ain't going to no damn New York." " We got to." " What?" "My baby girl there." "We gotta find her." "You ain't getting that baby back." " We can find her." " What?" "We can't find her." " I need you." " Look, your baby gone." "You hear me?" "You listen." "She gone." "And you ain't getting her back." "Hmm?" "Now you think on-- you think on this now." "Done been through too much." "Done come too far." "And deep down, she wasn't yours." "You know it." "Hmm?" "Find you a bunk." "You sleep this off." "Wake up the man I know you to be." "I miss my baby girl." "I miss my baby girl." "Brother, she gone." " How you doing, Dutch?" " Awful, Mr. Bohannon." "They been working us near to death, feeding us hardtack and water, praying and churching, we ain't good enough to go inside out of the weather." "Glad you run off from my railroad now?" "Well, reckon it's better than cholera." "But hell, they promised us women." "Ain't none." "No whiskey, not even no coffee." "What kind of folks is that?" "I can't be seen talking to you, but I need you back, all right?" "Rumor is they'll shoot us if we try to run away." "I ain't seen it yet, but just look yonder." "Yeah." "Yeah." "It's about to get a whole lot worse." "All kinds of shit's about to get heaped on you, son." "You there!" "What's your business?" "Oh, I found this mute boy out on the prairie." "Trying to get rid of him." "He one of yours?" " Has he papers?" " No." "Mostly he's got fleas and rickets." "What's your name, stranger?" "This ain't about me." "It's about the boy." "Yeah, well, there's something about you I don't like." "Hell, there's something about me a lot of people don't like." "Yah!" "Yah!" "Yah!" "Yah!" "Wait, hold, hold." "Damn it, boy." "Didn't I tell you not to pull that knife on church folk?" "Sorry about that." "Just be on our way." "Good day to you." "Come on, Dutch." "Be brave." "They can't shoot all of you at once." "If they don't shoot me in the back, they're waiting for you in the tree line." "I can't live like this anymore." "Malone sent a telegram to Boston about me." "I've been running my whole life, Mickey." "I don't wanna do it anymore." "What are you saying, Sean?" "I'm gonna do what's right." "I'm gonna confess myself to Ruth in the church and then turn myself in to police for all I've done." "You turn yourself in for what you done, and you're turning me in for what we done." "I don't care." "You've denied me too." "You're as dead to me as I am to you." "You'll hang, Sean." "I don't care anymore." "At least this way, I'll be free." "Sean." "Hello, Ruth." "I've come to give confession." "You're a baptized congregationalist now." "You should pray to God, not me." "Do you believe a person can change, Ruth?" "Make amends for the things they've done?" "I don't think" "I've ever told you about my mother." "I, uh" "I remember the day she put us aboard the boat in Cork, my brother and me, how she made me promise to take care of him." "Why are you telling me this?" "Why now?" "I need-- I need you to hear this, Ruth." "I can't help you, Sean." "You're the only one who can." "No." "Ruth, listen to me." " No, please, Sean." " This is important." "Ruth, right-- right before we came out west..." " Please get out." " It was--it was me..." " Please, Sean." "Please, I" " And these--these two girls." "And my brother Mickey, who everyone loves." " Please stop." " Let me tell you" " who he really is." " Sean, please stop!" "Sean!" "Sean!" "Sean." "What have you done?" "I just saved your life." "He came into my saloon and confessed to me that he killed that Metcalf fellow." "I told him he should make his confession to God and turn himself in to the police." "That's a strong sense of conscience you have, sir." "He left the saloon in a state." "I had a bad feeling seeing him come this way." "And wh I got here, he had his hands all over her." "He assaulted you, did he?" "Try to choke you or strangle you?" "May I?" "It's just like the others." "The others?" "This is good enough for me." "Imagine my luck." "The man who killed Metcalf also suspected for two murders in Boston." "I'll probably get a promotion, maybe a raise." "Hmm." "Good piece of work for you then." "There was an accomplice with the bodies in Boston harbor." "Killed a policeman." "Boston sounds like a dangerous place" "I'd not want to visit." "Good on you then." "Well, thank you for the ride, Collis." "Not at all." "I'm heading east to inspect the Union Pacific's bridges, see which ones I'll have to replace when I take over." "Well, that's-- that's still in Mr. Bohannon's hands for now." "Bravo, Mr. Bohannon!" "I understand your brother confessed to the murder of Metcalf, and then you were compelled to shoot him in the church." "Yes." "And the Boston policeman has left." " He has." " Hmm." "What is it that you want, McGinnes?" "You do understand what this means." "It means that, had I gone to jail for any reason, your prospects in Cheyenne would have dimmed considerably." "Do you understand?" "I am but a simple Irishman seeking his fortune in the new world," "Mr. Durant." "When and if I choose my hand to fall on you, it will reach through the veil of your incomprehension and smite you not in some dark alley or a cowardly corner, but in full daylight." "You're threatening me?" "Ah." "Well, with a little bit o' luck, you had the advantage on me." "But I have been pushed aside, falsely accused, robbed, wounded, and insulted enough." "Now, you will wean yourself from these delusions, and you may still have a future here." "Otherwise, not." "Good day, sir." "What happened in Boston, Mickey?" "Sean." "Two young girls, a few months apart." "A shopkeeper's daughter... and a schoolteacher." "Much like Ruth." "Sean was Sean." "They came to bad ends, they did." "Sean did what he did." "What about you?" "Sean was my brother."