"You're back with the living, are you, lad?" "You're lucky to be alive, man." "Do you know who shot you?" "No." "Or why." "l came near to killing you myself." "Returning from the lumber camp, I almost ran over you in the mist." "Where is this place?" "You're in Eldir in my workshop." "Okay, now." "Alex McGregor." ""Artist and artisan," they call it." "Maker of memorial monuments and coffins." "You brought the body here?" "Body?" "What body?" "There was a man." "Dead man hanging from a tree." "You're the only body I saw there." "What be your name?" "I am Caine." "Caine." "Well, what makes you think you saw a corpse hanging from a tree?" "No, I did." "I could not see his face." "He was a big man with red hair and clothes like those." "How strange, I didn't see it." "There's only one man in Eldir who fits that description." "Toluca, I have to see Mrs. Norman straightaway about Mr. Norman." "Did your husband ever express any opinion on this matter?" "We're in the middle of a council meeting." "You'll find this a wee bit more important." "Come in." "That's Mr. Caine." "Mrs. Norman, mayor of Eldir." "Mr. Norman didn't want the job." "Noah Fleck manager of the largest and finest saloon in town." "Mr. Norman's." "What's this all about, McGregor?" "I found this fellow two miles out of town." "Sheriff, needless to say, he's been shot." "Who did it?" "I do not know." "He says he saw a man hanging from a tree, and...." "Who was it?" "From the description he gave me, it sounds like your husband, Mrs. Norman." "That's impossible. lt couldn't be." "What kind of a cock-and-bull story is that?" "It is the truth." "Well, I don't believe it." "is Mr. Norman here?" "My husband left town early this morning." "Could you tell me which way he went?" "He went to Blackwater on business." "He owns the bank there." "He owns the bank here too." "He lets Mr. Mercer here call himself president." "It was in the marsh on the road to Blackwater that I saw the hanged man." "Did you see the body, Mr. McGregor?" "To be perfectly honest with you Mr. Caine here has taken a muckle grand shot to his brainpan." "Well then, that explains it." "A hallucination." "Yeah." "We all know those mists out at the marshes play funny tricks." "Yes, people always imagine they see strange things out there." "I was shot after I saw the dead man." "There was a white horse." "Aye." "That'd be his horse." "Well, I'll send a deputy out to check." "Check the area." "Mr. Caine, don't you think it's possible you're wrong?" "I was shot." "Perhaps for seeing what I saw." "Yes, but no one" "No one would kill Jason Norman much less hang him." "That's true." "There's no reason, no motive for anyone to kill him." "Perhaps someone with a secret discontent." "Mr. Caine, my husband was not only the richest man in Eldir but he was one of the finest persons I've known." "Rich is right." "He not only made a fortune, he married a fortune." "The point is, he spent his wealth on this town and its people." "That's right." "There's hardly anyone here who isn't indebted to him for some reason." "He paid my wife's medical bills all the years she was sick." "Even paid for her funeral." "Last month." "is that a fact?" "You know, I never knew that." "Jason has many charities no one has ever known about." "Well, he could afford it." "He took everything he wanted and the rest of us got what was left." "He always wins, and we always lose." "You have both shown your mastery of what you have been taught." "Master Kan." "Which" " Which one of us has won?" "Won?" "Must there not be one who is the victor?" "And one the vanquished?" "When you were young did you not stand by the fountain and watch the bubbles rise?" "They were very beautiful to see." "In a sense, a victory for the gossamer circles of liquid over the insubstantial air they imprison." "When you tried to grasp them, what became of them?" "They were gone." "They were empty without substance." "So, too, can victory be." "And defeat?" "Does not the true value lie in what one does with either?" "Winners and losers, losers and winners." "Now there's a conceptual antagonism if ever I heard it." "Well, looks like we've got a new order of business." "Question:" "If Jason Norman is dead, which one of us killed him?" "Jason is not dead." "Mr. McGregor?" "I want to repay you." "Well, that's dear of you." "Thought you had no money." "I can work for you." "Listen, fella, I've been thinking." "Being as it were it might be a healthier thing if you-- lf you left Eldir." "A man has died and he has been denied." "All right, if you're determined to stay, I'll let you work it off by helping." "You can start with that wagon right there." "Now look, sir you can stay in that workshop if you don't mind coffins." "And listen, laddie, be careful you don't open one you can't put the top back on." "What do you want?" "I am troubled." "Of all you alone do not hold Mr. Norman in high regard." ""High regard."" "I hate Jason Norman." "He's a liar and a cheat!" "First met him in Tucson 1 5 years ago." "We were both down on our luck." "Between us, we had enough for a grubstake." "We went up into the mountains and we struck it rich." "Silver." "But Jason went down into Eldir alone to file the claim." "His was the only name on it." "What did you do?" "I went to the sheriff, Hodges." "He did nothing." "Why?" "Because he's a crook!" "He's been in Jason's pay since the beginning." "And that story about Jason paying for his wife's medical bills that's just a cover-up." "You could have gone further." "Higher?" "Well, I didn't." "I let Jason buy me." "There are a lot of other people in this town had reason to kill Jason Norman and others who will be glad to see the last of him." "Caine!" "There was nothing out there." "There was." "Well I'll send a telegraph to Blackwater to check on Jason's arrival." "It won't get there till tomorrow, anyway." "So there's no need to trouble you anymore, Caine." "You can be on your way." "I am working here in Eldir." "Everything here was going smooth until you came here and started stirring things up." "I have done nothing." "You drunken fool!" "What are you afraid of, sheriff?" "Nothing." "Did you kill Jason?" "Why would I kill Jason Norman?" "Because you're afraid Jason Norman knows how much money you and your men have stolen from him." "That's what." "How'd it go, lad?" "I am puzzled." "What kind of man was he?" "He always wanted me to work from life." "That's his last commission." "Himself." "I'll never be able to finish it now that he's dead." "Could you not work from a likeness?" "There'd be none." "He never liked things like that around." "I do know one thing about him:" "He was an educated man." "We shared a liking a love of poetry." "Poetry's the only language you can create in no time." "So you see, I knew him in a different context on the path." "As far as what sort of man he was, that's hard to say about anyone." "What kind of man are you, Mr. Caine?" "A man like any other." "Are you now, lad?" "I think not." "It's getting late." "What's wrong with you?" "A Chinaman Caine, he calls himself, came into town this morning." "Carol, he says that Jason Norman is dead." "He can't be dead." "I know he can't be." "But why?" "Why would this Caine say a thing like that?" "I don't know." "But if he is you did it." "What an awful thing for a man's wife to say." "But it's the truth." "Without Norman's money, you'd be out of business." "Jason told me he was gonna withdraw all his money from the bank this morning." "That is a lie." "And you have other reasons to hate Jason and to kill him." "What do you mean?" "Don't pretend you don't know." "And how about you?" "Don't you have a reason to kill him?" "What's on your mind, Caine?" "There has been another hanging." "What?" "Mr. Fleck." "In Mr. McGregor's workshop." "You stay here." "Come on!" "Show me." "Another cock-and-bull story." "And here's the living proof you're a liar." "What's going on?" "Chinaman here says he saw you hanging up there dead." "Do I look dead?" "A little elevated, perhaps, but certainly not dead." "I don't know what your game is, Caine but it isn't gonna work." "I want you out of Eldir." "First thing in the morning." "I never saw that before." "What's that?" "Ingenious." "You don't suppose, perhaps, that's the way they left Norman hanging?" "I cannot say." "You'd better not." "One thing's for certain, someone wants your silence." "You know what I mean?" "One way or the other." "Jason Norman made Eldir a good place to live." "Besides that, he gave it a reason for living." "He brought music and playactors inspired the people to the arts of life." "Encouraged me to try my hand at sculpting." "Gave me my first commission on Mrs. Olson's tomb." "It's a strange land, Mr. Caine." "It takes the...." "The temperance of mind to see what beauty can be created out of the raw, rough rock and earth." "Ugly." "And yet, to another such creature might not this one appear beautiful?" "So beauty differs from being to being." "Beauty is constant, as is the truth." "Seek and find what is the truth." "What is the truth of man, master?" "It has been said that a man is three things:" "What he thinks he is, what others think he is and what he really is." "Which of these do you believe is the truth?" "What he really is." "But if a man is wrong about himself and others are wrong about him who is left to say what he really is?" "At what point in time can a man be fixed and frozen if he is to live and grow?" "He must change." "As the lowly caterpillar transforms itself into a finer and more beautiful creature." "Glad you took my suggestion to leave, Caine." "Can't say I blame you." "Hold it." "You're going the wrong way." "It is the way I have chosen." "Better follow him." "Make sure he doesn't come back." "Get Blainey." "Norman's horse." "Over there." "Blainey!" "Hold it!" "Todd?" "Blainey?" "" To J.N. from R.N." "Till death do us part."" "His horse is out in there somewhere." "Well, this puts it all together, Caine." "I just got an answer to my telegraph to Blackwater." "Jason Norman never arrived there." "Then you believe me now?" "I believe Jason Norman is dead and you killed him." "Why?" "I do not know him." "You didn't have to know him to rob him." "Now, the way I see it you probably shot him in the back." "Only he managed to nick you before he died." "I came here to tell you of his death." "McGregor brought you into town." "Caine, I'm arresting you for the murder of Jason Norman." "I asked you here tonight so you could serve as a grand jury." "What is it, sheriff?" "I'm sorry, Mrs. Norman." "I have evidence now that your husband is dead." "And about time." "So you finally got up enough nerve to kill him." "How about you, Mercer?" "What do you mean?" "l mean Jason and your wife!" "A disgusting lie." "Carol was always after Jason, but he didn't want her." "He loved me." "He hated you." "Carol couldn't face Jason's rejection." "If anyone killed Jason, it was her." "Jason was going to Blackwater to sell the bank." "And he and I were going away together." "Mrs. High-And-Mighty had too much pride to admit that." "She preferred to see him dead." "Look, there's no need for any of this." "We've already got the man who killed Jason." "What are you doing here?" "Standing up for him." "Unless you have some great reason I shouldn't." "All right." "You can stay." "Ladies and gentlemen I'm asking you to return an indictment of first-degree murder against Caine." "You...." "You found Jason's body?" "No. I doubt we ever will." "Not after he buried it in the marsh." "Then there's no evidence Jason's dead." "No, there is evidence." "Circumstantial but enough to convict Caine." "Aye?" "I'd like to see that." "You can picture it for yourself." "Here's this penniless, stray Chinaman." "He spots an obviously well-to-do man riding along a deserted road, alone." "He sees his chance for a quick killing." "And he does just that!" "Only Jason gets a shot off before he dies wounding Caine." "The man was totally unconscious when I found him." "Oh, sure, he passed out." "After he got rid of the body." "Then you happened along, and he wakes up in Eldir instead of long gone, as he figured." "Well, then he makes up that fairy tale about Jason being hung." "He wouldn't do that." "He wanted to stir up doubts and suspicions among us to cover up for his own guilt." "And it worked, for a while." "But that's all theory." "Oh, I got facts to back it up." "When Caine left town this morning, he returned to the scene of his crime." "And when my men moved in to arrest him he tried to kill them." "I tried to kill no one." "Then he came back into town, still trying to brazen it out." "But this is the last nail in his coffin." "He took it from the body of the man he killed." "It's Jason's." "All those in favor of returning an indictment of murder in the first degree so signify." "Aye." "Aye." "And in killing him aren't you just trying to rid yourself of your own personal demons?" "What is it, grasshopper?" "Demons!" "Demons trying to kill me!" "There are no demons here." "See for yourself." "Only a bad dream." "Oh, master why do I have such a dream?" "All men have dreams of different types, good and bad." "There are the vain dreams, futile, based on baseless hopes." "There are the dreams that spur and inspire based on aspiration to a high ideal." "And there are the false dreams, based on lies to oneself or others." "Which is mine?" "The incense container was the catalyst of your dream." "A fiction frozen to fact that summoned forth the demons of your dream." "My dream was false then." "False to you." "Therefore, a nightmare." "And yet, to the artist, a good and true dream for in that fabrication he realized his inner ideal of the perfect dragon." "Oh, Lord, I prayed to God I wouldn't have to tell you this." "But we all have to face ourselves for what we really are." "A scapegoat's what you're trying to make out of him to sustain the lies you all live by." "Now, didn't you all say yourselves that no one would ever kill him?" "Well, you're right about that." "What do you mean?" "He killed himself." "Aye." "That morning, early, I was returning to Eldir." "I was crossing the marsh, and I saw him on his horse putting a rope around his own neck." "I called out to him." "He just turned around and smiled." "His crop was waving in the air and he brought it down on the flank of his horse." "Well, every fella's got a right to be left to his own laughter." "Each man carves himself out of eternity and for that, usually dies by his own hand." "All right." "Let's say he died by his own hand." "I went to take him down." "That's when I first saw Mr. Caine here." "I shot at you, sir." "I tried to miss, but I never was much good with one of those things." "Oh, glory be to God I didn't kill you, lad, trying to save a dead man." "I took Jason and I buried him with his horse's gear." "I set the dear thing free thinking it would take to the hills but he returned to search out the man no person could ever find." "I thought what he'd done would never be discovered, and that's the truth." "But how can you let a dead man lie?" "Lie like you people do." "Why did you pretend to be hanged?" "Sheriff paid me to do it." "He was afraid if there was any investigation it'd show him up for the crook he really is." "I had Blainey and Todd set it up." "Why?" "Why did you do it, Alex?" "I gave him a decent burial." "That's more than he would have got here with the words of gossip dancing over his death, like it did his life." "Gossip's murder!" "That's what killed him." "And what's that make us?" "Nothing?" "And everything we feel?" "Nothing too." "Well, I don't believe it." "All this is just an attempt to save Caine." "Absolutely!" "I'm here to save Caine." "I'm here to save all of us." "I found this in your husband's pocket." "Needless to say, it's his last will and test" "Testament." "I do remember I woke this morn" "As the sun cracked In the dawning east" "And felt as though I had been torn" "From a night's unfinished feast" "Standing alone in a dim-lit palace As the taster of a king" "Allowed to sip the wine-filled chalice" "To hear the sounds Of church bells ring" "The bells of a church I could not enter" "Come not close, but pass me by" "For the gates of Heaven are its center" "And the beggar at this banquet, I" "Within this flood The visionary gleamed" "Where is it now" "The glory I'd achieved?" "He is not dead." "Where is he?" "He is here." "He will always be here until each of you buries him." "Alex?" "It's only fitting you should be here for the end." "I had hoped for a beginning." "The day's over." "The dream's done." "Yours was not an empty dream." "It was nothing." "Could you not leave it as it is?" "It would be...." "Be a fitting monument?" "My father gave this to me when I was a wee lad." "I'd like you to have it." "You know, you walk too much with your head down." "You ought to keep your eyes up toward the sun."