"Ambition in a man without morality is a dangerous thing." "You had to own something important, even if you had to murder to get it." "In ancient days, the barbers were also surgeons." "This is the 19th Century, and if I want any blood let," "I'll get a doctor to do it." "Thank you." "The next time you draw on me, Grady, it won't be your gun arm I go after." "Next time I draw on you, Mr. Morgan, I'll kill you." "Now go home and wash your face." "Someday that boy may very well try to kill you." "That boy?" "I can outdraw him, out shoot him, or spank him." "It wouldn't even be close." "Cigar?" "You may have made a strategic error in anatomy that could cost you." "You should have hit him on the chin, not the seat of the pants." "What difference does it make?" "A good spanking is what he deserved." "You show the degree of your respect for an opponent by where you hit him." "On the chin, he's a man." "An opponent worthy of consideration," "Across the bottom, he's a boy, a nuisance." "You showed that boy, in front of people he lives with, just how much you respect him." "And that's why he may very well try to kill you." "Just who are you, mister?" "My name is Paladin." "I just stopped off in town for a shave." "You?" "I'm Gene Morgan." "Mr. Morgan, may I buy you lunch?" "I have a business proposition that may interest you." "What kind of business?" "Well, it loses so much in the explanation." "If I'd wanted the kid killed," "I could have done it myself." "But you don't want him killed, do you?" "No, I don't." "I think I'll take that lunch, Mr. Paladin." "Mr. Morgan, I'll get my things from the barber shop and join you." "I suppose you're pretty good with that gun." "I'm considered fairly proficient." "I'm considered fairly proficient with a gun myself, Mr. Paladin." "What makes you think I can't handle Grady without your help?" "You said just a few moments ago you don't want him killed." "That gives him an advantage you'd never overcome." "Why should I want him killed?" "I raised him and his sister." "I've been their only family since their father died." "That's why." "In a gunfight with Grady, you'd draw slow, you'd shoot wide until someday he wouldn't." "It's only the last few months he's been like this." "It's only the last few months he's realized what it means to be a man." "How'd the trouble start this morning?" "Grady's father left him some property bordering mine along the river." "Last year, the river changed course." "Nobody knew who owned what." "So we agreed to wait and let the court decide it." "Today Grady told me he changed his mind." "He doesn't want to wait." "When did he draw on you?" "After I told him to be a man and stick to our agreement, instead of carrying on like a sick calf." "Mr. Morgan, you're not easy on that boy." "Talk like that was bound to make him mad." "Mad enough to draw on me?" "Are you prepared to pay $500 for Grady's life and $500 for yours?" "That's $1,000 in all if you both come out of this alive." "That's quite a chunk of money." "Are your lives worth any less?" "Do you think you could find out why he's become so almighty contentious lately?" "I think that's where my job begins." "Mr. Paladin, you started working for me a half hour ago." "Thank you, sir." "Hello, Frank." "Still giving yourself away, Grady." "Don't you see you're turning your shoulder when you start your draw?" "Waste of time, tips off your move." "Make your right arm do all the moving." "Right arm." "That's better." "But you're firing too soon." "You'll hit him in the leg." "Frank, I don't know if I'll ever be able to outdraw him." "Sure you will." "There's no hurry." "We don't want a repeat of what happened today." "Here, Sheila gave you this for your arm." "She's fixing some lunch." "She mad?" "Nah, I kidded her out of it." "I told her I'd talk you into calming down, so you better make out like I did." "You know how women are." "Yeah, I know." "You know, Frank, you're the only one that treats me like I got any sense." "That's 'cause I know you got sense." "I'm just so sorry about the way Morgan made you the laughingstock of the town today." "I'll get even with him for that." "That won't be easy to do- unless you could get the last laugh on him." "Maybe..." "Maybe what, Frank?" "I was just thinking..." "You want a shave, you'll have to wait your turn." "You're not Mr. Morgan." "That's exactly right." "But I saw his horse outside." "Well, he loaned it to me because I work for him." "And part of my job is to keep you from annoying him." "Annoying?" "That's right." "Annoying." "The rest of my job is to keep him from killing you." "And that's the part of the job I like least well right now." "Well, if you're Morgan's man, there's something you can give him for me." "Want your turn?" "All right." "Want your turn?" "Quit it." "Want your turn?" "All right." "Yes, sir." "Now then, Mr. Stewart," "How would you like your sideburns, huh?" "Long, short?" "Huh?" "How would you like them?" "I don't shave much yet." "Well, now, perhaps that's a fact that you ought to bear in mind." "Now, who's idea was it for you to come here?" "Whose?" "!" "Frank's." "Well, tell him it was a bad idea." "Bye." "Must be getting through somewhere." "Fred, go check on the road section." "Ben, ride west and see if any of that old wire by the rocks gave way." "How many head you figure you lost?" "Oh, so far, it looks about 20." "They broke through the fence during the night, got out in the bottom land." "Is that the land Grady Stewart is so excited about?" "Yeah." "Mr. Morgan, has it occurred to you that you might hold onto a couple of people you are very fond of if you didn't make such a big issue out of a few handfuls of dirt?" "Often." "I suppose I could let Grady have those few acres, but there's 25 years of my life in this land." "I don't want to be stubborn and difficult, but I can't change that easy." "I can't give up something that I've worked for so long and so hard." "Does Grady know that?" "He must know it." "Well, maybe he's not the only one that knows it." "I found where they've been breaking through, but the wire didn't just give way." "Somebody cut it." "A hole big enough to run the whole herd through." "Hyah, hyah!" "Company's coming." "Hyah!" "Hyah!" "Hyah!" "Hyah!" "Hyah!" "Hyah!" "Your cattle can graze the bottom land, but mine can't?" "Is that right, Mr. Morgan?" "You say to wait for the law to decide who it belongs to." "But when Gene Morgan decides his stock needs feeding, that's a different story?" "Just a minute, Grady." "No, just give me my milk and send me off to bed and you'll have everything your own way." "Grady, I don't know how my cattle got out there." "I'll send a couple of men to bring them back." "Will that satisfy you?" "You think I should let him do it, Frank?" "Let him take his cattle back?" "Sure, you have to." "You think he's telling the truth?" "Why would he run his cattle out there and then back down when I call him on it?" "Because he's smart." "I don't understand." "Just wait." "Couple days, the same thing will happen again." "He'll be polite as pie, beg your pardon, take his cattle home." "Pretty funny way to fatten cattle." "It's an easy way to establish claim to the bottom land." "The court'll think it's his 'cause his cattle are all over it." "Precedent, prior right." "Lot of legal talk." "He's in, you're out." "He wouldn't do that." "All right." "He wouldn't do that." "Don't get mad, Frank." "I'm not mad." "It's your business." "Jump when he pulls the strings." "Come on, Grady." "Get a move on." "My men have work to do." "Jump, kid." "Don't take his advice, Grady." "We can work this out ourselves." "And I don't need your advice," "Mr. Morgan." "If I find any of these cattle on this property after tomorrow morning," "I'll kill them all myself." "Now you see what I'm up against?" "Grady and I met briefly this morning." "Apparently you didn't talk much sense into him." "Our discussion was brief but to the point." "I think I'll follow up on it." "To us." "May we live happily ever after." "We will." "If we can just keep Grady out of trouble till he grows up." "You would have been proud of him today." "Morgan was really in the wrong and Grady kept his head." "I bet you had something to do with that." "Miss Stewart, my name is Paladin." "I'd like to talk to you if I may." "This is a sort of a private party." "My question was addressed to you, Miss Stewart." "It concerns your brother." "You might as well sit down." "I think I should tell you, Sheila, that he's a hired gunfighter for Morgan." "Is that true?" "Partly." "But I'm still concerned about your brother." "The way a hunter is concerned about a deer." "I'm concerned about you too, Mr. Gault." "What about my brother, Mr. Paladin?" "Well, to put it briefly, your brother is in much more danger from Mr. Gault here, than he is from me." "My job is to keep Grady alive." "Gault's is to get him killed." "That's a lie." "I don't even want to listen to another word." "It's all right, honey." "Let him speak his peace." "I'm sure you love this man, but you're marrying him partly because you need somebody to help you take care of the ranch and take care of Grady." "Now, just consider, if Gault marries you and gets Grady killed, he owns the ranch." "How would I get him killed?" "Hire you?" "No." "You'd force him into a feud with a man that could outgun him." "You almost succeeded this morning." "If Gene Morgan wasn't fond of Grady and you, this would have happened before." "Morgan won't stand for much more, believe me, he won't." "Now, I know this is hard for you to accept, but Gault is trying to force Grady into a pair of boots that are much too large for him." "And Grady is so anxious to become a man, that he may not live to see the day." "Why would Frank do a thing like this?" "Ambition." "His ambition to own something important." "Even if he has to commit murder for it." "I think you've said enough, Mr. Paladin." "You better leave." "All right." "I'm sorry to have spoiled your supper." "But I had to say this." "Good-bye." "Mr. Gault." "I'm confused." "I don't know what to say." "Well, I say we postpone the wedding for as long as you like;" "until all the trouble with Morgan is over and until you realize that I want you, not your ranch." "No." "That would be the same as saying I believed all those lies." "No, we'll have our wedding as we planned." "Hyah!" "Hyah!" "Hyah!" "Hyah!" "I heard in town that Sheila got married this morning." "Yeah, I was afraid she would." "Common sense is never any match for Cupid." "Grady said he'd do this." "I guess he meant it." "Now I'm going to show him." "Well, Mr. Morgan, you better stop and consider." "I told you once Grady would beat you in a showdown gun battle." "Now think about it." "Is your hand going to be fast, accurate, when you go to kill a boy?" "Come on." "What are you doing here, Mr. Morgan?" "You wanted to be the big man." "Now let's see if you can live up to it." "Stop it." "Please, Mr. Morgan, stop it." "I'm sorry, Sheila, but I warned Grady." "He's determined to force this fight so it might just as well be now." "Frank, you've got to do something." "You've got to make them stop it." "Nothing I can do, honey." "It's Grady's fight." "He'll have to fight it." "Mr. Morgan, he's just a boy." "You can see that for yourself." "Was it just a boy who killed my steer?" "A boy would have more sense." "I didn't do that." "Don't lie to me, Grady." "I told you, that if I found any more steers on that property" "I was going to kill them all." "Thanks for stopping it, Paladin." "Sheila and I are real grateful." "No favor to you, Mr. Gault." "It was purely a matter of economics." "Is that a pair of wire cutters in your back pocket?" "I don't own any wire cutters." "Oh." "Well, that's my mistake, I'm sorry." "Mr. Gault, Miss Stewart." "Come on." "Come on." "What did he mean about the wire cutters?" "Nothing, it's just his idea of a joke, I guess." "Then why'd you reach for them, Frank?" "You said you didn't own a pair, but you do, I seen 'em." "I lost them months ago." "What are you trying to do, kid?" "Make me out a liar?" "What is this?" "What's going on?" "Just wondering who cut that fence, that's all." "Just wondering." "You really are just a kid, aren't you?" "I heard your horse last night." "I got dressed and followed you, down to the bottom land." "Just wanted to go along to keep you out of trouble." "Deny that." "Frank, how can you say that?" "That's it, deny it." "You cut the fence and you killed Morgan's steer." "I wasn't going to tell Sheila, because it was such a stupid kid's trick." "But you're not going to put the blame on me, not on me, kid." "I was in the house all night last night." "No, that's true, Frank." "He wasn't out of the house last night." "Frank, he wasn't..." "You're a dirty, filthy liar, Frank." "A dirty, filthy liar." "You going to go for that gun, kid?" "You been anxious to use it." "Now's your chance." "Frank." "This had to be done." "Sooner or later, somebody would have had to do it." "Come along, Sheila." "Grady, go get her things." "Come along home with me." "I'll send somebody to take care of Frank." "Yes, Mr. Morgan." "Well, I thank you very much, Mr. Morgan." "You should thank Mr. Stewart, too." "He insisted on paying part of your fee." "Well, I certainly do thank you very much indeed, sir." "Since I originally stopped in this town for a shave," "I think I might find time for another one before I left." "You have an excellent barber." "Would you care to join me?" "I feel a little stubbly myself." "I think I will." "How about you, Mr. Stewart?" "Yeah, I think I will."