"I rode out here to bring you back and that's what I'm going to do." "Don't reach for that weapon." "Guns are my business." ""Dancing Girl Missing." ""Sonoma Valley Armenian's colony" ""today sadly canceled it's annual wine festival." "the festival's principal dancer is reported" ""to have eloped with a passing cowboy." ""Although the girl's father, Samuel Abajinian," ""has offered $1,000 for her return, local authorities" ""point out that she is of age and they have no jurisdiction in the matter."" "Thank you, Hey Boy." "Mr. Paladin, you're going away again already?" "Hey Boy, I haven't had any good shish kebab in years." "Rice pilaf, baklava, Armenian cooking, Hey Boy," "Armenian people." "Among the world's finest." "I'll be back two weeks from tonight, and on that night," "I'd like tickets for the Ballet Russes." "My usual box, and you may keep the change." "Thank you." ""Samuel Abajinian" "Sonoma Valley, California."" "Good vintage here, Samuel." "Come on, Samuel, huh?" "You tasting huh?" "Come on, you make opinion for us." "Huh?" "Mmm." "Sadness I taste." "Must we mourn forever?" "We have other daughters." "Coming to your ear, woman, is a blow from my fist!" "Do I produce daughters for every passing stranger?" "Do I beget children to populate foreign villages?" "!" "Come!" "One of the scholars!" "Prepare me an answer!" "Samuel." "Another one." "Silence." "Silence!" "Is wine not being made by sheep?" "Is this flock without a leader?" "Out!" "Do we disregard hospitality?" "Do you want to lose another daughter, woman?" "Out!" "My name is Paladin." "A name is of no importance." "Like the other one... on an animal carrying weapons." "A Turk!" "A leader of Turks!" "Hide the young women in the hills." "Drive the goats off to the hills!" "Bury the..." "Paladin?" "Well, what is the excitement?" "Where is our hospitality?" "I have a certificate!" "This girl of ours, even though she dances to warm men's hearts, a lamb, a mouse, an innocent mouse." "They were seen to kiss the night before." "Next comes my fist to your ear!" "If our Helen was seen to kiss him, it was a matter of force." "It was not reported so." "Place no faith in reports." "Marriage to a moral man has shielded you from evil." "I have traveled." "Once in Fresno, I have seen..." "Away!" "You would shake in fear at the things I have seen." "And how does a moral man see so much?" "Have you ever seen a snake transfix a mouse with its eye?" "This O'Riley is just such a reptile." "You can overtake him?" "It'll be two days hard ride, and I'll try and persuade her to come back, but I expect to be paid whether I succeed or fail." "Both of them!" "There must be a marriage!" "A marriage?" "!" "They have been gone four days and nights!" "There is still such a thing as honor!" "Jorgi!" "Gourken!" "We're in agreement!" "Now the question of price." "I am a poor man." "I have a few acres, a few poor, bad vines." "But Abajinian is generous." "You cry you only want to do this for friendship." "You protest, you-you wish only to serve justice." "Never." "Although it ruins me for this simple task," "I will pay you $200." "Well, the price we originally agreed on was $1,000, but since you assure me that this man is dangerous" "I must ask you $2,000." "Have no faith in my description." "I am a poor farmer." "No, my friend." "You're a traveled man." "On my knees, each night, I will send you my prayers... for the rest of your days, my gratitude... and $500." "My latest offer." "You have a thousand acres, vines with rich grapes, sheep, goats... but for friendship, $1,500." "Have no faith in stories of wealth." "I live above my station, but what can I do?" "My own foolishness traps me." "You have the prayers of an entire colony." "The thanks of a ruined man, and $800." "Absolutely, I must sell my whole farm for one dollar more." "What can I do?" "Such generosity." "$1,200." "$900 and I die at the grape leaves for my children." "$1,000." "Done." "My friend, you've bargained like an Armenian." "This one is no Kurdish farmer." "I spent some time in Van." "The old country?" "I was fortunate to have an acre left, eh?" "Seal the bargain." "Okay, my friend." "A drink of fire." "Most men one swallow, perhaps two." "But Abajinian?" "Watch!" "Enough." "Please." "All right, enough." "Ah!" "Go, my friend, bring me back my daughter!" "There's a man, huh?" "Oh, Mr. Paladin." "Your hat!" "Jimmy!" "Wait for me." "Why don't you leave me alone?" "You do not love me." "You're doggone right I don't." "I been telling you that every step of the last 200 miles." "Look, ma'am, people just ain't going to believe you followed me." "I don't like to be chased." "It makes me nervous." "I'm sorry." "I am so tired." "You help me down, huh?" "No tricks." "All right." "Oh!" "Whoa!" "Now, look." "Look." "See?" "You see?" "You ought to be ashamed of yourself." "Doggone it." "Ashamed?" "Yes." "Is it so bad that I love you?" "You are so tall, so..." "You will not believe this." "When I was a little girl, I would dream of a man who would ride to my father's house." "It was you." "I am a second generation- an American." "I have rights." "Is it so bad to feel love?" "To be honest?" "To say to the whole world, I love you?" "Well... look, ma'am." "I-I didn't say you wasn't a good girl." "It's just that..." "Well, I ain't ready to get married yet." "You let me dance for you?" "I change your mind, huh?" "You so much as move an elbow, and I'll pull this hat down right over my head." "You are afraid of me?" "I got feelings." "Inside me I..." "Look, ma'am." "I'm a man." "And there's a tornado inside me." "If it ever gets loose, it might tear both of us apart." "A tornado?" "Ha!" "Miss Abajinian, my name is Paladin." "Your father employed me to bring you back." "Ha!" "Boy, am I glad to hear that." "Both of you, Mr. O'Riley." "Don't reach for that weapon, son." "Guns are my business." "Well, where I go and who I go with ain't." "I didn't even see you move your hand." "I've been riding hard for two days." "If we're going to talk, I'd much rather it would be over food than guns." "Now, you see what I'm trying to explain?" "See, a man likes to feel comfortable with his woman." "Well, now take this gal..." "How old are you Jimmy?" "Mister, you can talk until you're red in the face, but I ain't going to go back with you two." "Well, it's probably just as well." "A really good girl wouldn't have ridden trail alone with you." "Now you take that back." "She's just as good as she can be." "Well, that's quite a reaction." "A poet might suspect love." "You take that back, too." "Wait a minute, Jimmy." "I'm not using force." "Well, I am!" "If I can't lick you, Mister, okay, then I'll go back free and willing." "I'll help you Jimmy." "Jimmy, you're pushing me." "Ooh, if you'd just stand still a minute..." "Now, Miss, this may make you feel a little better to know that Jimmy's coming back with us." "Oh, Jimmy!" "I'm going back all right." "But don't get any ideas." "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." "First we get the marriage out of the way, then the festival, eh?" "Food, drink, dancing- and such dancing will delight your heart, my friend." "Drink!" "Hey, you could drink, too, but I'd waste good wine on you." "Oh, you're so all-fired smart, huh?" "Well, maybe you know wine, mister, but you sure don't know ranching." "If you're so all-fired smart, how come you ain't got a herd of cattle bringing you in money off of land and feed?" "You just throw it away." "You tell me, Abajinian, how to manage land?" "A child now advises Abajinian?" "This here child was running a thousand-acre spread when he was 19, and making money out of feeding cattle." "Cattle, cattle." "Abajinian is no-no-no cowboy." "You don't have to be a cowboy to know that good beef out here draws- how much?" "Eight to ten cents a pound." "Is of no importance." "Hey, Samuel." "$80 in one little animal." "Pay no attention to it." "Where would you graze the cattle?" "All this canyon pasture is just going to waste." "Pay no attention to it!" "How would you fatten the animals?" "Use that grass you're burning off and the grape mashings you're throwing away." "Pay no attention to it!" "That's good advice." "What does a nester know about raising cattle?" "What is a nester?" "Well, a nester is..." "Never mind!" "It is an insult." "You would insult a man who could tear your bleeding heart from your body with his bare hands?" "!" "Were it not I need you alive for the wedding..." "Ha!" "That's a kid's game." "Not the way we play it." "Gourken, attend us." "Explain to the foreigner." "Jimmy, these coals are kept red-hot." "There's no need for anyone to be burned." "If one player says enough, the other releases him at that point." "You ready?" "Go!" "This one will scream like a child." "Yeah, we'll see about that." "I do not wish to burn you, boy." "Say enough." "Go to blazes." "Just release his hand, Jimmy." "Game's over." "Not by a darn sight." "So... you asked for it." "Game draw!" "Oh, he's strong boy, eh, Samuel?" "He accepts pain like a man." "Yeah." "Even a talker has some good points." "Come, it's time to dress for the wedding." "Mr. Paladin, these people haven't got any right to tear off all my clothes and-and then throw me in here." "Even a barbarian pays for his own marriage!" "And I told you I was just marrying her to protect her reputation." "That don't mean I touched her before or that I'm gonna touch her after." "Just remember, you can take a horse to water..." "This is the first time I ever took a bath in the middle of the week." ""There's a woman at the start of all great things,"" "or so says the French poet Lamartine." "Women!" ""Heaven's best gift."" ""The most delightful of God's creatures."" "Shelley." "But..." "We are indebted to women first for life itself, and then for making it worth living." "There you are." "What's that?" "Oil, boy, for fragrance." "You rub it into your skin." "Very, very pleasant." "I'll do no such thing." "That stuff smells sweet enough to catch flies." "Well, that's a custom." "Well, ain't I got a right to a few customs of my own?" ""All men who avoid female society have gross tastes."" "Thackeray." "Paladin, we have good time, hah?" "Jorgi, thank you." "O'Riley, look at this." "Dolma, baklava, esmir kebab, rice pilaf, keskec, shish kebab." "Now, it isn't often you even see food like that." "You better try some." "No, I..." "I got to be moving along." "Well, now, an intelligent man doesn't ride off into the night hungry." "I tell you, I ain't staying here." "Well, nobody's keeping you." "Bye, O'Riley." "Doggone it, I can't leave without saying good-bye to that girl." "I mean, after all, I just married her, didn't I?" "It's only a formality- as you yourself said, you can lead a horse to water, but..." "How come you're so anxious to get rid of me all of a sudden?" "All day you been telling me what nice folks these people are." "Well, you obviously have no affection for that girl, and under the circumstances, I think perhaps it's better if you don't see her dance." "I mean, a young boy like you, inexperienced." "Well... doggone... you think a little thing like that..." "Well, she can dance her fool head off." "I'll be so... so busy at this food over here," "I won't even..." "I won't even notice." "Well, they got some pretty good cooks here, I got to admit that." "Among the world's finest." "Well, I ain't never said they wasn't." "I mean, just because they don't do things like my people, that don't mean they ain't real down-to- earth folks, too." "I mean, just 'cause this Abajinian girl gets me, well... well..." "Doggone it!" "Women don't chase men." "Now, what I'm trying to say is, is that a man don't want a wife that chases him." "This Helen, man... well, if I have to live with her..." "I wouldn't know what she'd try next." "Look, Mr. Paladin... just watching her makes me nervous." "I mean, my stomach starts to do flip-flops, and-and-and my knees start banging together." "Well, doggone it, I just feel downright miserable." "Well, a man wants to feel calm and comfortable with a woman, don't he?" "Well, there's a time for that, too." "Well, it's time I was going." "Ancient Armenia was at the crossroads of the world." "The origin of their dances is lost in antiquity- a flavor of Greece, Persia, perhaps even of Minoa- but those dances, O'Riley, are a language- the most compelling, understandable, universal language of mankind." "Well, maybe so, but... nah, I ain't interested in dances and..." "Three times since the wedding you moved to your horse." "Three times he moves to leave- now I find him still here." "Perhaps he likes the food." "Perhaps." "For a foreigner, perhaps he makes a good boy." "I'm a liberal man." "If he wants to live with my daughter..." "Is there some difficulty?" "Well, it's customary at this time to speak of the dowry." "Dowry?" "!" "You are mad if you think..." "No dowry, no son-in-law- your own custom, Abajinian." "I spit on custom." "You think I would pay so much as a goat to mix blood with him?" "And I reply, you speak of the Kurdish farmers." "Besides Abajinian, the Kurds are scholars wearing silk coats and speaking seven languages." "You would let your daughter bring to her marriage her bedding and her clothing." "Such generosity should be written on the side of Mount Ararat for all to see." "Perhaps I could spare a goat for milk." "And I reply that besides Abajinian, the poorest Arab in a mud hut is a caliph, dispensing gifts of amber and silver." "Beside Abajinian, the serpent becomes an animal of stature and dignity." "The toad..." "And perhaps I could afford an acre of vines, but no more" " I am a poor man." "...the toad assumes a beauty." "An acre of vines?" "Come, Jorgi, Gourken!" "Let us spread the news of such generosity, hah?" "An acre of vines." "A messenger to the old country, a runner to the next town." "This man is a poet." "Ah, I wish you had bargained for my wife." "And the children will scatter flowers in Lake Gotchka in your honor." "Five acres of vines and two of trees." "Ten and five, with a house." "50 sheep, ten goats, six carrying milk..." "Agreed, agreed." "Stop." "You are ruining a poor old man." "You- you want to see your own father-in-law destroyed?" "Jimmy." "Oh... she's beautiful." "15 acres, a house, 50 sheep and ten goats, six carrying milk, for a son who sees a dancer after she's gone." "Attend him- take him to his bride." "Come on, Texas boy." "At least he knows cattle." "$80 an animal- that's good business." "But I have other problems." "I have four daughters." "I hope boys run in his blood." "His parents had five sons." "Mmm." "A busy day, Mr. Paladin, but a good one." "Perhaps a mogi for luck... and for a grandson." "Mr. Abajinian, that would be a pleasure." "¶ "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 Pal-a-din ¶" "¶ Paladin, Paladin, where do you roam?" "¶"