"I would like to buy some beans and salt." "Whiskey or brandy." "Take your pick." "I need only food." "Well, I already told you what you're gonna get." "Hold it!" "You're under arrest." "You're under arrest for larceny." "What say you to the charge?" "l am not guilty." "Well, I caught him red-handed, judge." "On my oath." "Are there any witnesses for the defense?" "Prisoner have anything to say?" "Court hereby declares the prisoner guilty as charged." "By the mercy of the court, the prisoner has a choice of sentences." "Six months' labor at Sterne's silver mine or two years in jail." "What's it gonna be?" "To choose one or the other is to agree with a lie." "Hasn't even mind enough to make a decision." "What do you think of that?" "Well, we better get started, then." "All right, you. ln there." "Bannack. I was beginning to think maybe the well had dried up." "Not much chance of that." "Speaking of dry...." "You look occupied, Sterne." "Yes." "We hit a new vein while you were gone and it appears the ratio of silver to lead is approximately..." "...double what we've been getting." "Our lien holders will be glad to hear that." "What did you bring us?" "A Chinaman?" "Yeah." "But he steals in English." "He's volunteered to give us six months of his miserable life." "You got a name, Chinaman?" "I am Caine." "We have an effective method of shaping attitudes around here, Caine." "It works with thieves like yourself." "Step over here." "See that?" "That's what they call the Oven." "It's all iron, so it takes the heat and cold and increases them sharply." "In other words, it's sizzling when the sun's out and well below freezing at night." "After a few days in there, you learn to cooperate. lf you survive." "Any questions?" "What is "cooperate"?" "Two things:" "Work hard every minute during your shift and stay out of trouble." "Hey, Rupp." "Look what we got here." "Hey, boy." "Where'd they find you?" "What's the matter, no speakee?" "I am Caine." "Now ain't that something." "He's got a name." "Hey!" "He's got a name!" "So do I, boy." "Name's Rupp." "You are the leader here." "You're a smart one, you are." "You just remember that and we'll get along real fine." "Hey, Denver." "Give it the best place in the house." "About all that can be said is it's better than sleeping outside." "Yeah." "Good thing you brought your roll along." "You'll need it." "Nights get stone-cold up here." "I know what you're thinking." "I was thinking the same thing myself the first few weeks I was here." "But not long ago, four fellas were found trying to sneak out of here at night." "Bannack, he lined them up in front of us and shot them dead." "There just ain't no way out of this camp." "You gotta face that." "And when a man has served his time..." "...is there a way out then?" "Now that I can't answer." "Because nobody's worked his days out yet." "This place has been here a long time." "Yeah, it has." "Lot of different outfits worked it for years." "Then some months ago, they found out the whole thing was sitting up on top of an old Indian burial ground." "That sure changed everything." "I do not understand." "It seems that a miner turned up some bones." "Promptly got himself killed in a cave-in." "That set things off like a volcano." "Camp emptied out, so did most of the town." "is it not foolish to be afraid of another man's bones?" ""Who disturbs another man's bones will find his own grave before the sun sets."" "That has been echoing around these hills as far back as can be remembered." "So we are here as slaves because free men will not work." "Yep." "Don't know whether it was Sterne's notion or Bannack's." "But I guess it was either that or go broke." "So about five months ago, they made a deal with the sheriff, cleaned out the jail and they started trumping up charges against anybody who was passing through." "Like I said, friend there ain't no way out of this camp." "Not alive." "And it won't serve you to think about it." "Why do you hesitate, grasshopper?" "I am afraid." "What is it that you fear?" "l do not know what lies beyond." "lt is only a corridor." "Leading to a place that is no longer used." "is that something to fear?" "lt is very dark, master." "And is it not also dark in your room?" "Yes." "And do you have fear there too?" "No, master." "Perhaps, then, there is a greater reason for your fear." "Master before I came here a boy in the marketplace whispered of a corridor of death." "He said the place at the end holds the bones of many who entered." "But, grasshopper, what is it that I have told you?" "That life is a corridor and death merely a door." "Do you not believe me?" "Yes, master." "But I am still afraid." "ln time you will learn to fear only your fear itself." "We will talk of this again." "Your bed awaits you, grasshopper." "You're a good worker, Caine." "I wouldn't like to think your other men are dogging it, Rupp." "Oh, no, sir." "We're doing the best we can, sir." "Well, I suggest you make sure of that." "Yes, sir." "All right, come on, you men." "Let's pick it up." "You." "Come here." "Come here." "What do you think you're doing?" "l was told to work. I am working." "Down here, you work like I say." "Don't try to show nobody up." "Forget about old Bannack." "Just do your quota and not an ounce over." "Get it?" "Well, you'd better." "Get in there, Caine." "Get him." "Hey." "Hey!" "Come on, you got him." "Come on, get him." "Kick him!" "Get in there!" "You were advised to cooperate." "It appears you need instruction." "He didn't start it, Mr. Bannack." "Meador did!" "Four days in the Oven for both of them." "Take them." "Don't you feel the cold?" "Of course." "You just sit there." "Yes." "What kind of man are you, Caine?" "I am not different from you." "I might have believed that before I saw you heaving those guards around." "I never seen a man handle himself like that." "You learn that in China?" "Yes." "And other things, more important." "Like what?" "To celebrate every man's life in my own." "I've done that before." "Not the way you mean it." "I've drunk to the health of everybody from the Atlantic to the Pacific." "And halfway back again." "And somehow along the line it come to me that I was the only one raising my glass." "Now there's nothing to celebrate for." "Nothing to celebrate with." "When a man has nothing, it is then he is most able to raise himself up." "l won't have to make the effort." "When we dream the things we wish for happen by magic." "When we wake, we know without effort, a man is less than nothing." "What's the point?" "We're all doomed." "Why do you say that?" "Because the dead have cursed this place." "Ain't none of us gonna get out of here alive." "Come." "Come, grasshopper." "Walk the length of this beam." "Do not touch the ground until you reach the other end." "Very good." "Once more, now." "Start there." "Better." "Come." "Tomorrow, grasshopper, and for the next week I want you to practice walking on the beam." "May I know why, sir?" "This corridor leads to a pool of acid once used for the plating of metal ornaments." "It serves now merely to teach each student the importance of balance." "I will ask you to cross over that pool of acid on this beam." "Master if a student should lose his balance and fall into the pool will he not be consumed by the acid?" "It is essential always to keep one's balance, is it not?" "Yes, master." "l am certain you will survive." "l will prepare myself, master." "That is wise, grasshopper." "That is wise." "Caine...." "How...?" "How...?" "Can you trust me?" "Yes." "Yes." "If you trust me completely I can help you." "If I tell you you are not within a prison the prison is within you can you believe that?" "I believe it." "Sit." "Like me." "Sit up." "Yes." "Yes." "Like this." "Let all effort flow out of your body." "All heat flow from your body." "The weight of your body becomes less and less until the body becomes one with the spirit which is as light as a feather." "As a breath." "A moment." "As nothing at all." "Object lesson." "Open her up." "Go on." "Go on, get them out!" "It's a grave." "Hannibal dug up a grave." "l'm getting out of here." "Stay where you are!" "Nobody's going anywhere." "What's wrong with you?" "These aren't human bones." "Get back to work." "Let me out of here!" "Come back!" "Stay here!" "You come back here!" "Get out of there!" "You'll get trapped." """Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me." "Thou preparest a table before me." "My cup runneth over." "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."" "Amen." "All right." "You men will have to pick up the pace now." "You lost valuable time." "Start moving." "We ain't going back in there, Bannack." "Are we?" "Well, men, are we?" "That's right, we can't" "Guards!" "Hold your fire!" "Meantime, let them think it over." "It's against my better judgment but Mr. Sterne insists you men should be given a chance to reconsider." "You have five minutes." "When five minutes are up, we start firing." "Two minutes left." "What then, Bannack?" "You really think old Sterne's gonna let you kill us?" "Who's gonna dig his silver for him?" "That's right." "He'd have to close down." "He'd be wiped out." "We're calling your bluff, Bannack." "We ain't going back." "Call it, then." "We'll get four or five of you." "Who wants to be first?" "You just can't kill one or two of us, you gotta get us all, right, men?" "That's right." "One minute left." "Fifty seconds." "Stand ready." "We're ready too!" "Caine!" "Get back here!" "Coward!" "Turncoat!" "Twenty seconds." "You got the only one you could get, Bannack." "A yellow skin!" "You ain't getting any of the rest of us!" "Were you afraid, Caine?" "is that why you did it?" "To cast away life without true purpose." "is this not wrong?" "Might be better than dying in here." "We will not die." "We will endure." "Until we remember that we are men." "We're gonna drop one by one, just like Hannibal." "The power to claim life is not superstition it is destiny." "Bow to superstition and you create a new, unhappy destiny." "Watch, grasshopper, and you will see that it is possible to cross safely." "Now it is your turn." "Why do you delay, grasshopper?" "I see where others have fallen." "Let your eyes see only the beam." "In that way, you will not fall." "Observe closely. ls not your flesh still clinging to your bones?" "The pool is filled with warm water, nothing else." "You believed it was acid." "I saw skeletons." "Look again." "Superstition is like a magnet." "It pulls you in the direction of your belief." "I've seen what can happen to men when a real leader comes into their midst." "Like Caine." "He was the one who backed down." "He knew the men weren't ready." "Heroics on the spot, easy to deal with." "We have the guns." "But hope and dignity...." "Now, that's what I fear." "But there's no fear in him." "None at all, that's why he can't be controlled." "Before long, he'll teach the rest of them." "Fear almost ruined us before." "Now we need it." "Make them believe in a superstition?" "I think we have to." "And destroy their new leader before he destroys us." "Caine, dig away here." "Lower the level so we can push the cart through." "Hey!" "Look at what the Chinaman found." "What have you got there, Caine?" "These came from the earth." "They must be returned." "There, you see?" "The Chinaman's not afraid." "He's not worried about the superstition." "Maybe you men can learn something." "Get back to work." "Sealed off." "We're trapped." "There's no way out." "Look out!" "Get the night shift, the other guards, everybody." "The cook." "Hurry!" "What's it look like, Bannack?" "Well, the access tunnel must be intact." "The whole mountain will have to collapse for that to give way." "That leaves about 1 00 feet in question." "Half of that may be blocked." "Maybe three-quarters." "What if it's all blocked?" "What's the longest it'd take for them to dig it through?" "Sometime tomorrow morning." "We could all be dead by then." "That's no help." "The air. lt won't last, will it?" "Air might find its way through from other chambers." "That's a possibility." "How good a possibility?" "What are we gonna do, just sit here and watch each other choke to death?" "Start digging!" "Come on." "Will not our labors use the air more swiftly?" "He's right." "Well, at least we die trying." "Perhaps it would be better to remain still." "Use one light." "And free the mind from fear." "l agree." "Well, I don't." "Come on." "Hold it, Rupp." "I'm going along with Caine." "So am I." "It's no good standing there, Rupp." "Come over here and sit down." "Get those beams out of your way." "Watch the wheelbarrow." "Get some of those big rocks so you can get your shovels in there." "I gotta-- l gotta move around for just a minute." "Sit down." "I can't. I gotta-- l'm gonna go crazy in this place." "Get away from there." "Don't do that, it'll start all over again." "How do we know that they're doing anything up there?" "Do what I tell you." "You dragged us down here." "You're the cause of it all." "We're all in this together." "Listen." "They've reached the second angle." "That's where the track intersects." "Still 40 feet, maybe 45." "How long will that take?" "Seven, maybe six and a half hours." "You said that we had enough air for...." "We only had enough air for four hours." "The way I figured it." "Yeah?" "Well, the way I figure it without you, there's more air for the rest of us." "You pull that trigger you'll kill all of us." "The blast will set off another cave-in." "I won't use the gun." "Enough!" "If you try this, he will fight back." "You will lose more air to kill him than you will save." "He deserves to die!" "We'll do it quick." "And then what?" "Another?" "And yet another?" "Until you yourselves have done what the mountain could not?" "is there nothing we can do?" "There is something." "Be still." "Do not speak." "Try to sleep." "Still your heart." "And hope." "You saved me once, Caine." "I trust you." "It's no use." "No use." "It's two more hours at best." "They'll be out of air any time now." "Suppose it was you in there!" "It's hopeless." "Caine." "Yes." "I'm afraid to die." "Then think of living." "It's the end." "The end." "Ain't it, Caine?" "Perhaps as waking is an end to sleep." "Won't be long now!" "You hear me?" "Can you hear me?" "We are alive." "Hey, you doggies!" "Sterne's gone!" "So are the guards!" "Other men's bones made him give up instead of us." "is that what saved us?" "No." "We done it ourselves." "Them digging and us trusting." "And none of us giving up on each other." "Not other men's bones but other men." "What will they do to him?" "They'll take him to the county seat." "Turn him in." "And while they're at it, they'll let the marshal know what's been going on on this mountain." "And you?" "What will you do?" "Well, I've been underground a long time, Caine." "Dying day by day." "Not just in there." "Any suggestions?" "Live."