"Say, that stuff ain't half bad." "What's his price?" "I'll buy the recipe to take back to the cook at the palmer house." "Daddy owns the palmer house." "I've got a job for you." "You ever hear of a man named celine?" "Well, suppose you stop being so mysterious." "Just who is celine?" "Now, you take my business empire." "It's like a house of cards." "You move a bottom one, the whole thing comes down." "Celine owns that card and my whole life." "He can't make a nickel outta that piece of paper." "But he'll hang on to it till he sees me ruined." "Till he sees me grovel and whine and beg." "Why don't you beg?" "What's the money for if I can't hire you to do it?" "You beg celine to sign this piece of paper." "You were going to show me the sights of san francisco," "Mr. Paladin." "He ain't gonna take the job." "And the sights of san francisco" "Were not included in the deal." "I'm very sorry." "You don't like me." "Well, you ain't met celine." "He didn't take the money, sutton." "What about the woman?" "She went up to his room." "Good." "You." "The man who just passed." "The one in the elegant shirt." "Who is he?" "You find out, sutton." "I don't want to be surprised." "It's just a thousand for his fee." "Please, edward." "Trust me?" "This your earring?" "It was in my mailbox." "A little piece of the broken past." "Still, it was lovely while it lasted." "Everyone came to my salon." "Even the emperor maximilian." "In mexico." "Yes." "Now it seems like a dream of rain in the desert." "The mirror cracks, the music ends." "The revolution." "Have you ever heard of a colonel celine?" "I see you have." "He was aid to maximilian." "It was thought that he was executed." "But now he's been seen alive." "Now, let me guess." "Colonel celine knows the whereabouts" "Of a missing fortune." "No, no." "The..." "The winged lion of cortez." "It's carved out of a single piece of black diamond." "Really, perhaps we should be more careful." "We should watch outside." "Would you do that?" "There is no winged lion." "But for edward, it's different." "He needs to believe in fairy tales and lost treasures." "Mr. Paladin, I need you." "Will you believe me if I lay the truth nakedly before you?" "How will I recognize it?" "My eyes." "I am dying." "A month." "Perhaps a year." "My life has been..." "Well, you read it in a glance." "No, please." "Look." "This is colonel celine." "He was my husband." "Very impressive." "I was young when we married." "Still with the scent of the provinces about me." "He was a very cold man." "Some would say ruthless." "But I was ruthless, too." "I deceived him, made him into a man to be laughed at." "And then the revolution came" "And shattered our little glass world." "The streets were like an asylum," "But I ran through them trying to find my husband." "He'd been swept away." "Executed, I thought." "Until now." "Perhaps I was praying without even knowing." "Don't you see?" "It must be a miracle." "But now, when there's so little time," "I can never find him without someone." "Without you." "I'm terribly s- no." "You mustn't say it." "It is better that we go separately." "Las cruces, and then the trail to the border." "We can meet there." "But there are people who choose to believe in lost treasures." "So, when you come, you will be careful." "If I come." "You will come." "And somehow..." "I will repay you." "Men pretend play trick-track." "They ask about you." "You fool." "I thought that boy spoke no english." "Then why'd you ask him who that fella was?" "Mr. Carter still in the hotel?" "The man with the railroads and the daughter?" "Oh, yes." "He say he wait for word from you." "Well, tell him I've decided to join the search for celine." "Sometimes you throw on black and it comes up red." "Enough, sutton." "He will be reasonable." "My name is schermer." "Your name is paladin." "Gunfighter." "Deadly." "Gentleman." "Please sit." "Where is celine?" "I don't know." "Why do you want celine?" "That I know, and I won't tell you." "Now, be reasonable, mr." "Paladin." "I will tell you." "When the revolutionists stormed querétaro," "Celine was ordered to burn the national treasury." "But he didn't." "I was there." "I saw him take the money." "I'm not a greedy man, but when after all these years," "I'm finally so close, I can't let the money" "Slip through my fingers a second time." "Perhaps you feel some sense of loyalty to the lady." "A past relationship?" "Hmm?" "But that would be a tragic error." "Schermer, there's a stench that comes from you." "If I knew where celine was, I don't think I'd tell you now." "He'll hold out." "Time-consuming and boring." "We'll begin with that one." "See here." "I know nothing about this celine." "I only gave her money." "My interest in choltec is..." "Purely scientific." "Choltec?" "Ho-ho, choltec!" "The monastery." "Thank you, my boy." "I regret to say, mr." "Paladin," "That we won't need you any longer." "Ah!" "Please." "We can come to terms." "Why should I?" "I know now where celine is." "Sutton is armed." "There's a reason." "not much reason." "Sutton, the englishman." "I let him go." "I got my own reasons for finding celine." "What's your offer, sutton?" "It's hard country to choltec." "Throw in with me and I'll take your word." "Secura?" "That's your business." "But maybe you'd like to know how I got the scar." "I was detailed to guard her and celine after we took querétaro." "She got me off guard." "Maybe you can guess how she did it." "But it was celine that cut me." "After he tied me up for his honor." "But, like I say, that's your business." "So I guess it's check round to you." "What about him?" "I'm in no position to hurt anyone." "I alone can make use of celine's money." "What can you gain by..." "By killing me?" "Only a sense of justice." "Now, you get outta here." "You're mixed into something" "You know nothing about, mr." "Paladin." "Take care." "Sutton." "We better make camp here." "It's only me." "All the more reason." "Do you hate me?" "Hate?" "No." "I don't think hate's the word." "Then what?" "Then..." "Nothing." "You feel nothing?" "You're lying." "You are lying." "A dying woman in search of her husband?" "Perhaps I was telling you the truth." "Perhaps you were." "You want the money." "But the thing you're really after is celine." "Why?" "Was he the only man who was ever immune to you?" "You never said why you want to find celine." "It's not only me." "Nor the money." "No." "I wanna meet the man who has one of the world's toughest" "Businessmen willing to crawl on his hands and knees and beg." "A man who's outwitted" "One of the most lethal scoundrels I ever met." "Man who has simple, straightforward sutton so twisted with hate" "That he's willing to risk his life just to cut celine's throat." "A man who has..." "One of the most fascinating women I have ever known" "Willing to throw her life away for him." "Whatever it is the world wants..." "Or god wants..." "Celine withholds." "It's simple." "The desire for something beyond reach." "He is untouchable." "You love him?" "I love him." "paladin." "Paladin!" "He's gone!" "What?" "Sutton's gone." "He's gone on ahead." "Please, quickly!" "Who is it?" ""where is he?" is a better question." "Schermer!" "By the rock fall!" "Now, you cover me." "Both of you." "Sutton?" "Are you thinkin' what I am?" "We could perhaps make it together" "While they kill each other." "Yeah." "You've forgotten..." "Querétaro?" "Go on, sutton." "You fool." "You were outta this." "Mr. Schermer needed help." "The winged lion, paladin, really exists!" "Just put it down." "I'm not a fool." "I was an athlete." "My reflexes are fast." "Don't try it." "Did I stop him?" "You killed him." "And he killed me." "He had to kill celine or me." "Now you're the only one of us who'll..." "See celine." "Paladin?" "Hmm?" "How will you know him?" "I'll know." "Excuse me." "My name is paladin." "I'm looking for a man named celine." "You'll find him just there, near the shrine." "Thank you." "I beg your pardon." "My name is paladin." "I'm looking for a man named celine." "What do you want with him?" "Not me." "A man named carter," "A man named schermer, and a man named sutton." "I am celine." "In those clothes?" "Not yet." "The brothers let me tend this little shrine, stay here." "Perhaps in time." "What are you?" "I left three dead men on the trail, men whose lives you..." "Destroyed with your own corruption." "My corruption..." "Or theirs?" "Schermer." "He's dead?" "He's dead." "I've had his money waiting here for him." "I have no longer a need for it." "You'd give it to him?" "Certainly." "Do you want it?" "I'll show it to you." "How much was it?" "One million?" "Two million?" "Is that what schermer told you?" "A whole treasury full?" "Tropical worms." "Like the rest of the things of this life..." "So much dust that crumbles in your hand." "A dream." "And sutton?" "Sutton." "The texan." "You scarred his face." "Poor sutton." "He wanted to kill me." "Oh, he..." "He wasn't the only one." "This is my last refuge from the suttons of the world." "Monsters that I created." "What if sutton had come?" "What would I do?" "Give him..." "Schermer's money?" "Try to make him see" "What my ambition and pride had brought me, too?" "Or hope to show him" "That the celine he came to kill was already dead?" "And carter?" "Carter hired me to beg you to sign this." "Why is this important to him?" "Oh, you forget." "His pride." "His ambition." "Why you?" "He would beg like a dog," "But as a man, he has too much pride to beg." "Carter is asking me to help him one more step into hell." "I'll sign it." "There was a woman." "A woman named secura." "Your change of heart..." "Comes a little bit late for secura." "Dead?" "How?" "Defending you." "Killing sutton." "For me?" "She died for me?" "The celine she loved..." "Still lives." "Still lives." "But for what?" "We're a small order here." "Very poor." "But in time, we'll bring harmony" "And order..." "And peace..." "To this little corner of the world." "¶ "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 ¶"