"Boy!" "Where may I find Mr. Paladin?" "Mr. Paladin is very elusive creature." "I will search his room once more." "Mr. Paladin enjoy himself last evening?" "Very much." "Thank you, Hey Boy." "But I suppose it would have been prudent of me to inquire whether or not Theresa had gotten herself married in the two weeks since last I saw her." "There must be Chinese proverb for new husband." "I'm sure there is." "Now, Hey Boy, I have a number of choices." "I can let that young man shoot me." "Honorable thing to do." "Or I can shoot him." "Or I could take his gun away, that would humiliate him further, and only postpone the inevitable." "No." "I need an honorable, a legitimate excuse for leaving town for a few days." ""Paladin, my father and brother are trying to kill me." "Can you help me?" "Signed, Tully Coombs."" "Tully Coombs." "Must be Avery Coombs' son." "Thank you, Hey Boy." "Will you have my gear delivered to the livery stable?" "I'll leave from there." "And tell Theresa I expect her to have this entire matter straightened out when I return." " I go now?" " You go now." " Good afternoon." " Howdy." "How far out of town is the Coombs place?" " It ain't." " It ain't what?" "Out of town." "Well, let me put it this way..." "Can you direct me to the Coombs place?" "You passed it." "That brick place." "I thought that was the courthouse." "Mister, there ain't no courthouse." "Can you tell me if there's a hotel in this town, place I can get a bite to eat?" " Over there." " Thank you for your kindness." "Old Avery know you're looking for him?" "No." "Why?" "Wouldn't blow my nose around here without I cleared with Old Avery." "Not if I were you." "Give it up." "Come on, boy." "Tully." "Tully Coombs." "Well, Avery Coombs." "I had expected to meet your son Tully." "I don't believe you'll have the pleasure, Mr. Paladin." "You're Paladin, ain't you?" "Mr. Coombs, letters are usually considered confidential." "A man can get killed playing in my backyard, Mr. Paladin." "This matter, well, it's strictly a family affair." "My advice to you is go back to the bright lights of San Francisco, save yourself some unpleasantness." "Thank you." "Now, Mr. Coombs, my advice to you is to tell this gentleman outside the window to take that gun off me." "and save yourself an extreme unpleasantness." "He won't shoot unless I tell him to." "All right." "You always trust a stranger?" "A stranger?" "Avery Coombs, the living legend?" "As much to northern cattlemen, as Whaley, Middleton and King were to southern herders?" "No, Mr. Coombs," "I'll trust you not to have me shot in the back." "Did that legend tell you I've had men shot in the back?" "Yes, but for better 'cause than this, I hope." "All right, Jayce." "We been after Tully for two days now." "We come close twice." "Oh, we did come close, but he's a Coombs all right." "How'd this whole thing start?" "Well, don't make a very proud story, especially when it's your own son." "But you will explain it." "Sure." "Then maybe you'll forget about this mess, go back where you belong." "Maybe." "Tully's been looking to get married for a year now." "He's been after me to give him 160 acres for a toe-hold." "160 acres, that's not much of a toe-hold, is it?" "No, it ain't." "Well, anyway, I said he could have it." "All he had to do was take it away from Jayce." "And who is Jayce?" "My oldest son." "You say Tully would have to take it away from Jayce, you mean they'd fight for it?" "They both got equal rights to it." "Well, that's still a poor way to settle an inheritance." "One of them could get killed." "That would leave the best man still alive." "I see." "And Tully wouldn't fight Jayce?" "No, sir, he would not fight." "Is that him, Jayce?" "Yeah!" "You're Jayce, hmm?" "Well, Jayce, the shots from this carbine warned your brother off." "What's your father gonna say about that?" "That shoulder wound, how'd he get it?" "Tully." "Gunfight?" "Bushwhacked." "Two days ago Saturday night." "How?" "Pa was sitting here and Tully came home from the dance." "He shot him through that open window over there." "This room well lighted?" "Yes." "Did your brother use a handgun or a carbine?" "Handgun." "Now you hear me." "I don't know why my Pa's letting you hang around here, but you stick your nose in any deeper, and I'll knock it off for you." "I'd have got him if that horse hadn't fell out from under me." "You throw a lot of lead for not hitting anything." "You've managed to open that shoulder up again." "Get some whiskey, please." "Paladin, you said I was a legend." "Tell him what I done to be that." "Sit down and I'll tell him." "Are you gonna get some whiskey?" "You and your partner Reid opened up the high country, proved that men and cattle could live through the snow and come out with a profit." "Your father and Reid fell out." "Your father killed Reid." "Now if you're gonna make a point, make it." "Boy, brother or no brother, when a man threatens what's yours, you either gotta kill him or convert him." "Only cowards convert." "He obviously wants you to settle down to business." "Avery, I do not understand you at all." "160 acres." "What do you mean?" "Your sons are not pushing this fight, you are." "So?" "Why can't your sons share their birthright?" "Especially since one of them is asking so little?" "Tully wants me to give him 160 acres of what I built." "What if I give it to him?" "What if he has two kids and they want some?" "And Jayce has two kids and they want some?" "What does that leave of what I built?" "Where does that leave me?" "A lesser man in my eyes, for one thing." "You're a man who's trying to achieve immortality on a piece of land." "I'll leave a son, Paladin." "One strong enough to keep this land the way I got it!" "Don't you think it's time the killing ended?" "These are your two sons, not wild animals." "You ever heard of a man named Darwin?" "Charles Darwin?" "He wrote the Origin of the Species." "I ain't much educated, but I've got that book." "I read it the way some men read the Bible." "And it confirms everything you already believe?" "Right." "Tell him, Jayce." "The strong will survive, the weak will perish." "Don't tell me life ain't a jungle." "I've lived it." "Then Tully bushwhacking you was only playing the game." "His mistake was shooting you in the shoulder instead of the head." "Or are you sure it was Tully that shot you?" "You're a big man, Coombs." "In a well-lighted room, short range." "Who else could it have been?" "Coombs, there's something in your jungle that stinks to high heaven." "I think I'd like to hear Tully's side of this." "Jayce, we'll settle with him when and if we have to." "Paladin!" " You think you'll find him out there?" " I'll find him." "Paladin, I want you to tell him to run or I'll have to kill him." "You'll have to kill him?" "Yeah." "Jayce, I'm only guessing, but I guess that you framed Tully for that bushwhacking." "That's crazy." "What for?" "So he'd be forced to run so you wouldn't be forced to kill him." "He didn't run far enough, did he?" "You tell him to clear out, or I'll kill him." "Would this be Tully Coombs?" "Are you Paladin?" "How'd you find me?" "Apparently, you were in too much of a hurry to cover your trail very well." "You don't seem very pleased to see me." " You been to the house?" " And I saw your father." "How do I know you're not on his payroll?" "You don't." "Innkeeper, hot coffee, hot biscuits, and a steak, rare." "And then we'll talk." "Thank you." "Very good." "You have no idea who shot your father?" "No." "I just started to unsaddle my horse." "I heard the shot and came running towards the house." " With a gun in your hand?" " Yeah." "Then Pa got to a window and got my range." "There's no talking to Pa when he's shooting at you." "So you turned and lit out." "Yes, and I stayed lit out ever since." "You came back last night?" "To meet you." "What about you and Jayce before this?" "Oh, Jayce always did bully me some, but that was for Pa's benefit more than anything else." "Actually, Jayce kinda raised me." "Your mother passed away?" "When I was 4." "Well, you must take after her side." "Well, that's what Jayce says, but I don't remember her much." "Tully, the least painful solution to your problems would be to run." "Clear out and never come back." "Paladin, this is my home." "And I love that land just as much as Pa does." "And it sticks in my craw to be run off like I didn't belong." "Well, then you'll have to fight Jayce." " No." " It's too late for anything else." "No, I won't kill him." "Not for the whole C-double-O." "Tully, I believe that or I wouldn't suggest a fight." "If Jayce says he's gonna kill me," "I'll take him at his word." "Has he ever killed a man before?" "No, but..." "I've never been killed before either." "Well, I'm gonna very hard to see that neither of you spoils that record." "Jayce, where's your father?" "We've been looking for Tully." "We split up." "I just got back." "He must be on his way in now." "Tully's here." " Where?" " Outside." "You didn't tell him." "No." "No, Tully's here to fight you." "All right, if that's the way he wants it." "No guns, Jayce." "You know I don't need a gun." "All right, Avery!" "Come on over here and take a look." "This what you've been waiting for?" "Your two sons fighting like a pair of wild animals?" "This the end of it, Avery?" "Or is that warped philosophy of yours gonna demand another scene?" "A scene where the son kills the father?" "And I picked you to fill my shoes?" "I'll kill him!" "Jayce!" "You don't have to kill him." "Now look at him." "There's nothing left there but a reputation, a legend." "But the land's still his." "No!" "It's ours." "We won, we survived, didn't we?" "Didn't we?" "Didn't we?" "Didn't we?" "All right." "I had the land a good long time." "And I made my mark on it." "Now you do what you want with it." ""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 Paladin" "Paladin, Paladin, where do you roam?" "Paladin, Paladin, far, far from home"