"MAN:" "Back in the days of the Old West... there were these stretches of territory... that I think God and nature just plain forgot about... dark and parched and empty as all the moons of Mars... places where sensible men never ventured... where only dreams and phantoms walked... kind of these way stations somewhere smack between... civilization and the ninth circle of hell... the badlands." "[Sheep baaing]" "[Sheep's bells ringing]" "[Gate opens]" "[Whistles]" "[Bell rings]" "Hector." "Si." "[Whistling]" "MAN:" "Back then I never understood... that when our Creator made the first bounty man, he must have butterfingered the damn thing and dropped it... before he had a chance to install a heart, because a bounty man, he don't live for nothing... but that poster reading, "Wanted... dead or alive"... and blood money that will line his pockets." "Always taking, never giving nothing in return, except sometimes, with the folks he meets, he leaves behind a little bit of his contagion... that poison, that rot." "It can sneak itself inside behind your eyes, and all of a sudden, it's like rats let loose in your skull, and life's a place you only ever seen before... in your nightmares." "I detect the aroma of cash." "BEARDED MAN:" "I caught a stone." "[Cocks gun]" "What's this business about?" " Hmm?" " My amigo Emanuel." "Got drunk." "Twirled himself right off the roof." "Always was crazier than a one-eyed billy goat." "Taking him down to Encino, the county seat." "Give him a proper burial." "Where y'all headed?" "Laredo, I reckon." "Perhaps I could offer you something for the old throat." "[Uncocks gun]" "It's awful good." "Appreciate it." "Pleasure..." "Mr. McComas." "BEARDED MAN:" "Hmm. $500." "MAN:" "Look but don't touch, Barston." "That pelt's mine." "Is that a fact?" "MAN:" "My boy's got him spotted near Arkansas." " Arkansas?" " Yeah." "Imagine that." "Me and Mr. McComas got us some personal matters to attend to, so don't give yourself no ideas." "You ain't gonna find me nowhere near that place." "How's my affidavit coming?" "You want it fast or legible?" "I'd like it today." "Yeah." "If you've got a spare padre, send him over to Hector's place." "There's a couple girls in need of a healthy dose of Jesus." "I'll see what I can do." "Your Christian charity just about wants to break my heart." "Ain't you getting old for this?" "Old... but not slow." "Whatever happened to that fairy-tale spread... on the Bayou Salado?" "I would have thought you'd be up there raising horses by now." "Come spring, that's where you'll find me." "Assuming you live that long." "BARSTON: $5,000?" "Acknowledging receipt of one very deceased sheep thief... for 50 American dollars cash." "When they up the ante on the half-breed?" "Red Roundtree?" "About 5 minutes after he raped a white girl." "Parents got money." "That's government property." "That stays here." "Trade you, even up." "For what?" "McComas." "I seen him... heading for Laredo and the Rio Grande." " Bang, bang!" " Bang, bang!" "MAN:" "Another one headed for the river." "Only reason God made this town was to serve as a sieve... for the scum to ooze right on through to Mexico." "Hyup." "BARSTON:" "When it's life and death in the balance, nothing's going to keep a man from saving his precious hide." "But sometimes the unexpected... starts creeping slow and deadly into your skull, and that instinct for survival gets stampeded by hope, and then neither life nor death seems to matter much anymore." " Mescal." " All rightie." "BARTENDER:" "Here you go." "Feel like buying me a drink before you cross the river?" "For a smile like that, I'd get an honest job and go to work." "I try not to drink with men like that." "Why not?" "Because I got ruined by so-called honest men." "Besides, they usually belong to another woman." "I expect you don't belong to any woman." "Nope." "Never found one who'd have me." "My name's Blossom." "McComas." "Here's to the high life, McComas." "Let's find a place to sit." "McCOMAS:" "You boys got our table." "People always cut you such a wide path, Mr. McComas?" "Nobody ever cuts me nothing." "I cut my own path... and my own throat, too, I reckon." "I know all about that." "BLOSSOM:" "What's chasing you?" "I got a lawman... by the name of Anson Starett after me... up from Encino County... and he's meaner than an acre of snakes." " Who'd you kill?" " Hmm." "His brother." "He tried to shoot me for stealing a horse." "My own damn horse." "Course, I done plenty to get hanged for in this lifetime." "Guess it evens out in the end." "What about you?" "What brings you to this hellhole?" "You heard it all before, McComas, chapter and verse." "Had it done unto me... a million times different than I'd have done unto them." "You get tired of running away from what you ain't." "You wake up and find you run out of places to run." "About played my string out, too, I reckon." "I been everywhere but hell." "Not wanting to rush that." "I wasn't planning to stop." "I'm real glad you did." "Ha ha ha!" "Aw, will you look at me jawing like a jackass?" "Haven't spoke this many words in five years." "I ain't felt this good since... hell... maybe I never in my whole life felt this good." "You know what it is?" "I never knew how tired I was of... of running till I met you." "You know, tired of killing and... riding one good horse after another into the ground... and shaking hands with every demon in hell... just to..." "just to stay alive." "You don't look tired to me." "Aw, my God, lady." "Where you been my whole life?" "Well, I'm here now, McComas." "How much time have you got?" "Not much." "Then we'd better get started." "Oh, no." "Wait a second." " We don't have to do this." " Oh, yes, we do." "Beer." "[Door closes]" "Now you smell like a man who wants company." "Did you draw that water from a snowman's bladder?" "You had enough sand on you to dry up the Rio Grande... and let you walk across." "Ooh, that's another thing." "I had my fill of that damn sand." "Oh, and that river, too." "You don't have to cross the river yet, McComas." "Well, no." "My hat... oh..." "You know, if I hadn't done even one of the jackass things..." "I done in this rotten life, I wouldn't be here now." " I wouldn't have met you." " Hmm." "It's like the will of the gods." "Meant to be." "I expect you been with lots of ladies." "I expect you're right." "But you know what?" "I can't even remember one right now." "Not a one." "Come on, McComas." "We got some slats to rattle." "Ooh." "Well..." "All right." "Let me look here." "SECOND MAN:" "All right." "FIRST MAN:" "Hey, mister." " You seen this fellow?" " Can't say as I have." "[Coughing]" "How long you had it?" "It's just a chill." "The consumption." "A year, I guess." "Maybe it'll go away." "Maybe." "Be a long time before I pass through here again." "McComas?" "Yeah." "Take me with you." "I'm hard to keep up with." "Haven't had trouble yet, have I?" "No." "You won't hitch up with a man going the other way?" "I got no choice." "You always got choice." "Not since you walked through that door." "You're the man I want." "I don't care which way you're going." "BLOSSOM:" "You swear?" "McCOMAS:" "God's truth." "I trust the fellow who told me." ""Heaven on earth," he said." "And we can really go there?" "The Mexican ocean..." "the water's so blue, it's green." "And big fish?" "So tasty and willing, they jump from the sea to the pan." "And yellow parrots?" "Whistling lullabies every night before you sleep." "And sand like cinnamon?" "Oh, God, McComas, I love you." "I do." "I haven't said that and meant it... since I was 14 years old." "It's going to happen for us, I swear." "I swear it." "Heaven on earth." "Then go, right now, before it all goes away." "Get your horse and meet me in the alley." "Please go, please, if you love me." "MAN IN GRAY:" "Friend, did you run into this customer today?" "He's gone, headed for the river." "MAN IN TAN VEST:" "Takes care of that." "MAN IN GRAY:" "Probably halfway to Sonora." " Betcha that's him." " It's him, all right." "He'll be back." "So will I." "[Neighs]" "What the hell?" "You seen that dog?" "Here?" "Now?" "Come on, now." "Turn around." "Turn around, you son of a bitch." "I want you to see me before you die." "Take it real slow." "You're going to help me get out of here." "McCOMAS:" "Keep right beside me." "McCOMAS:" "That's right." "Slow and smooth... like two Dutch uncles on a Sunday stroll." "MAN:" "Oh, my God." "McComas!" "Aah!" "Where's my damn horse?" "BLOSSOM:" "McComas." "McComas, here." "McCOMAS:" "Blossom." "McCOMAS:" "I had this weird feeling in my gut... but it's starting to go away now that you're here." "BLOSSOM:" "I'll make the pain go away." "They got me dead center." "Must have missed my vitals." "Just a bit further." "There he is." "There's old Blaze." " I thought he was stolen." " I led him back here." "I should have known it was you, watching my back for me." "I'll always be with you, McComas." "I feel the strength flowing back into me, Blossom." "I feel it." "We're going to make it." "Can you ride?" "I've ridden with worse holes in me." "I got to cross that river." "Meet me on the other side." "Parrots and cinnamon sand, just waiting for you and me." "Not the river." "You have to go the other way." "The other way?" "You can't cross the river till nightfall." "They'll catch you." "You have to go back the way you came in, back up the hill, toward the graveyard." " Graveyard?" " They'll never look there." "You can see the river." "You can see the sheriff ride out." "You can see when it's safe." "I'll meet you there after dark." "We'll cross the river together." "OK." "BLOSSOM:" "Go." "BLOSSOM'S VOICE:" "I'll meet you there after dark." "We'll cross the river together." "[Gunshot]" "McCOMAS:" "No!" "McCOMAS:" "Blossom." "McCOMAS:" "No!" "BARSTON:" "The stench of cold dirt and his own decay... screaming in his nostrils," "McComas kept riding, hellbent for the river." "He don't remember if he ever got there." "But I know where I was... spreading cheer at a rest stop on the road to Red Roundtree." "BARSTON:" "I knew if I showed my fright... the wolves would smell it, too." "But you know them wolves." "They smelled it out anyway." "There ain't a man alive... even an old vagabond like yours truly... that don't have at least one thing deep down inside of 'em... they're scared to death of." "Mr. Barston, with all due respect," "I wonder if this is the time to be telling such things... to a child, right before bed." "It's OK, mama." "Alma, it's only a tall tale." "Anyway, there they were, just a-scritch, scritch, scritchin' at the door... with their real long nails." "They pushed them soft, big wet noses against the door so they could get my smell." "All of a sudden, this grin come over all of their faces, and they showed me these big, long, sharp teeth of theirs... and let me smell the blood on their mouth." "And then they reared back quick on their haunches, muscles tense and coiled, ready to pounce, and..." "[Knock on door]" "FATHER:" "Carstairs, what got you out on a night like this?" "CARSTAIRS:" "Sorry." "I have bad news." "My mother's taken ill." "She's going to die." "I have to leave for Boston immediately." "Good Lord, If there's anything we can do..." "If you'd look in after Sarah." "I've no choice but she stays here." "There's no one to look after the place." " Don't worry." " I'll take corn bread tomorrow." "I hope we're not snowed in by then." "Thank you." "I, uh..." "I better..." "You just go." "Take care." "Everything will be fine." "I wish it was so." "Dear Lord... the inequities of the temporal world." "I guess that means I got to go, too." "If I had the proper goods, I'd sure clap hands for you." "FATHER:" "We'd sure feel better if you'd wait out the storm." "FATHER:" "Wouldn't we, Alma?" "BARSTON:" "I got no choice." "You got to meet your friend." "That's a fact." "Old Red Roundtree." "He'd just about die if I didn't meet him." "He's a sensitive soul." "FATHER:" "Never known you to turn a cold shoulder to a guest." "Mr. Barston, take this muffler." "Misses..." "You are a bona fide angel." "[Whistling]" "FATHER:" "I don't know what's inside your head." "You sure you don't want me to look in on Sarah?" "It's my place to go." "That man just makes me feel queerly." "Long as he's gone, I'll be fine." "BARSTON:" "Alma rode that next morning... and old thoughts and feelings started sneaking into her head, how the prairie just stretches out... flat and empty and heartless for what seems like forever, how all that huge, open sky... can make you feel so weak, so naked, so afraid." "[Knock on door]" "ALMA:" "We heard your husband was called away." " Thought you'd enjoy company." " Come in." " Some corn bread." " You..." "How kind of you to think of me." " I know how hard it can get." " Do you?" "Yes." "Be worse without a friendly word now and again." "SARAH:" "Yes, it would." "It means a great deal." "Thank you for coming." "My william thinks highly of you." "No, truly." "He admires you very much... and John, of course." "We've grown fond of will ourselves." "Maybe you won't be such a stranger after he's back." "You're extending an invitation?" "You don't need an invitation." "Things are different here than in the East." "They certainly are." "Beg pardon?" "Coffee, Mrs. Heusser?" "That would be fine." "Thank you." " Storm been brewing a long time." " Yes." "Everything on the prairie must take us by surprise." "When we see a storm coming... it must surprise us by not coming." "I like that." "I must remember to tell that to John." "Does John appreciate conversation?" "My william used to enjoy it." "Sometimes a man is just too bone-tired to talk." "No, that's not the case." "Alma." "I may call you Alma, may I not?" "ALMA:" "Of course." "Tell me what he wants." "What a man wants?" "Only thing harder would be to ask them what we want." "Some days... a man might want a hot supper laid before him more than..." "More than he wants to listen to a pianoforte... or hear a new song by Schubert?" "This is what william used to admire." "This is a different place, ma'am, and hard times." "Yes." "Yes, hard times." "Is there room for music or literature in hard times?" "Do you enjoy poetry, Alma?" "ALMA:" "I don't read very much." "Do you know the work of Shelley?" "The only verse I know comes from the Scriptures." ""And like a dying lady, lean and pale..." ""who totters forth wrapped in a gauzy veil..." ""out of her chamber, led by the insane..." ""and feeble wanderings of her fading brain."" "Shall I go on?" "I don't care for such a thing." "Oh?" "And why not?" "It's a sorry picture of life." "I don't think of life like that." "Then what do you find to think of at all... in this miserable, unpleasant place?" "My family." "The Lord God." "Ah." "It is an easy thing to recite such ideas... but when the wind comes hard out of the east... and you see a brush fire cresting over the hill... and your crops begin to..." " There's no sense saying that." " Precisely." "No sense." "Don't talk such a way." "No sense in enduring such hardship, is there?" "Is there, Alma?" "I'm sorry, Mrs. Carstairs." "The storm is almost here, and John might be waiting supper." "SARAH:" "Oh, no." "Please." "Forgive me if I've been rude." "I forget myself." "You see, in Boston, it is common to converse in this manner... about books and ideas." "We read a great deal there." "We read Scripture as well." "Truly, I meant no offense." "You're feeling poorly, aren't you?" "No." "I'm quite all right." "Really." "Quite all right." "Thank you." "I just..." "If you would be so kind as to visit a bit more." "Please?" "Please, sit down." "I know why my william likes you so much." "Your william loves you." "Sometimes when there are troubles... a man has no time to let a woman know." "Yes." "You would take his part, wouldn't you?" "Why should you refuse his friendship?" "Who can bear this desolation?" "The sound of the wind can drive one mad." "Did you hear about Emily Brown?" "Her husband took her with him east for firewood." "When they stopped the wagon at a grove, she ran for a tree... the first she had seen in three years... she threw her arms around it and would not let go." "Three years." "He never should have taken her east." "He must have known her poor heart could not bear it." "You come home with me now." "No." "I do not need neither you nor your home, thank you." "But you need me, don't you, Alma?" "[Wind howling]" "Yes, I guess I will be staying." " Where are you going?" " To see to my horse." "When you return, we shall talk more of my william." " You would like that?" " Yes, I guess that will be nice." "SARAH:" "Of all the times he visits your place... on his way home to me..." "when John is not there." "Beware of the wolves, Alma." "[Wolf howls]" "BARSTON:" "The poison of fear... once it gets snuck deep down enough inside of you, you got two choices... either face it and fight it... or watch as it twists your brain to madness." "ALMA:" "Sarah?" "Sarah?" "SARAH:" "I'm cold..." "SARAH:" "So cold." "I'm so cold." "Your fever's worse." "Did you remove your shoes?" "Good." "Keep your clothes on." "You'll need them against the chiII." "I'm so cold." " I'll make you a pallet..." " No." " Don't move me, please." " No, no." "I'm so cold." "Please help me." " Hush." " Please." "It'll be all right." "I'll make you some fever tea." " I'll go find the herbs." " No!" " I'm just going to make tea." " No." "Don't you see them?" "It's the wolves." "There's nothing there." "No." "Look." "Look." "[Wind howls] Oh, God!" "No." "There's nothing there." "Listen to me!" "There's nothing there, do you hear me?" "No wolves will come in this storm." "I hear them at the door..." "their snuffling and scratching." "I hear them at the window, their heavy breath at night." "The wolves like my house." "They know we're here." "They know william is gone." "They know you fear them, too, Alma, don't they?" "[Wind howling]" "[Shutter bangs]" "[Wolf howling]" "They are hungry, Alma, just like I am hungry... hungry for a real hearth and a fire... and for mother and father and friends from childhood... and flowers and trees." "SARAH:" "Lie beside me." "Please." "Hold me." "I cannot bear this loneliness anymore." "Tell me the truth, Alma." "Are you not lonely?" "Yes." "Sometimes." "What do you miss the most?" "My family, I guess." "My father had a farm." "It wasn't much of a place." "Crop was never any good, but we got by." "Why did you leave?" "I imagine it was John." "And I never said no." "Margaret was a baby, and then the men came from the railroad... promised us paradise... free land and good weather." "I never knew men to lie like that till then." "Those men lied with our lives." "Oh, Alma." "Are you afraid?" "Sometimes I wait... when John goes to town... by the door." "I can't take my eyes off the horizon." "It stretches so far." "There's nothing between me and the end of the world." "You know we will die here." "[Chair creaking]" "[Wind howling]" "[Scratching]" "[Snarls]" "[Gasp]" "[Wolf snarling]" "SARAH:" "Oh, God!" "They're here!" "They're here." "It's them!" "They're here." " Hush." "Hush." " They're here." "There's nothing can hurt us." "They'll break down the door." "I know they will." " What are we going to do?" " Sarah?" "SARAH:" "No." " Sarah." " They know." "Did someone come by last night after william left, a man with a cart?" "Did he?" "They know william deserted me." " It's your fault." " What?" "SARAH:" "It's your fault." "I know what he does with you." "That's why he went away." " It's your fault." " Stop." "No." "It was you." "They're going to kill me." "Stop it." "They'll kill me." "They'll kill me." "Stop this nonsense now." "It's the fever talking." "There's nothing out there!" "Nothing." "[Wind howling]" "[Scratching]" "[Growling]" "SARAH:" "They're here!" "Stop!" "No!" "They're here!" "Alma!" "[Wolves barking]" "[Sarah screaming]" "[Banging against door]" "SARAH:" "No." "Please!" "Alma!" "[Barking]" "[Sarah screaming]" "SARAH:" "Alma!" "[Barking and snarling]" "SARAH:" "We are hungry!" "[Gunshot]" "SARAH:" "Can't you see them?" "ALMA:" "There's nothing out there." "ALMA:" "Nothing." "[Sarah humming]" "BARSTON:" "Sometimes folks just like Alma, they discover there's an antidote to the poison." "If you can just dig down... hard enough and deep enough and make the fear your friend, it'll yank its claws out and set you free." "Been my experience, however, that things don't always work out that tidy." "Aah!" "[Horse neighs]" "[Horse neighs]" "[Horse neighs]" "[Horse neighs]" "[Gasping]" "BARSTON:" "Bull's-eye." "13 months, Chief." "That's something you call an eon... a long, long time." "I think that that's entitlement just to milk the moment a tad." "Don't you?" "Gave up my toe for you." "Yeah." "January 31." "Lopped her off with a bowie." "Frostbite." "Sitting in a snow cave two days waiting on you." "And then you duck me." "Ha ha." "I thought I had your scent, but you're a clever son of a bitch." "How things been going for you lately, anyway?" "[Roundtree gasping]" "Oh." "Well, I kind of understand what you mean." "You know where you made your big mistake?" "You stopped thinking Indian." "You let that bead-counting, Mother McCree Irish in you... get all mushy in your insides... and grab ahold of your brain reins." "Ha ha ha." "Ohh." "[Irish accent] Lordy, I wish I could go home." "Oh, how I wish I could go home." "I know that's exactly where you was headed..." "White Rock." "Home." "I guess you heard the latest." "That McLeod family, you know, up in Colorado... they done gone and upped the ante times 10." "Ought to seen what they done with your likeness." "You ain't going to believe this." "Huh?" "Now, that's a dead ringer." "That's a fine job." "He's gone." "BARSTON:" "Hyah!" "You just relax there, Chief." "You'll be buried as soon as I get you to White Rock... and get your bones identified proof positive proper." "They'll probably be arguing over the rights... on who gets to plant you first, anyway." "BARSTON:" "The thing I never realized was the nightmare." "It can get inside anybody, even the bounty man hisself." "There's one brass-tacks fact I never appreciated... not until it was too late, anyway." "When you come right down to it... there's no difference between my kind of hunter and the prey." "[Neigh]" "[Gasps]" "BARSTON:" "Aah!" "You rascal." "I suppose you're right." "You best keep them eyes open." "Seeing as I deprived your townsfolks of the pleasure... of excruciatingly disposing of you, I'd keep them open." "You never know." "Might want to try it over again." "I believe it just hit my nose, Red." "Little scent of heaven." "The land of milk and money lies just around the bend." "Better hope the wind don't shift." "Your townsfolk get a whiff of you, they're liable to clear out faster than you can say... formaldehyde!" "Hyah!" "Get up there, girl!" "It's rummers of whiskey and flat-fannied women for lunch!" "Gleaming $5,000, evil of a town." "Hyah!" "Hyah!" "Hyah!" "Hyah!" "Hyah!" "Hyah!" "Whoa." "White Rock." "Paradise." "Home." "Hyah!" "Hey, old-timer." "[Bottles clank]" "Oh." "There's the most encouraging thing I've seen all day." "Barkeeper... how's about a drink for the house... and a big old bottle of Old Kentucky for yours truly?" "Jesus on a half shell." "Oh." "Looky here." "Maybe I'll go ahead and help myself, then, if you don't mind." "I ain't had nothing but jerk beef the last three days, and my throat's drier than a woodpecker's lunch." "What's the matter?" "Never seen a dead man before?" "Sure as hell ain't the White Rock that I remember." "No, sir." "There wasn't a Saturday night would go by... some sass-mouth big britches wouldn't end up... belly-up in the street." "What the hell's happened to your town?" "That Iode must have run dry." "You a marshal?" "Or maybe that poor fellow out there... is a friend of yours." "I'm not a marshal." "I'm a bounty man." "And I just brung home the fox." "The half-breed just swallowed White Rock and the West whole... then spit it all back bloody pieces." "I reckon you all remember what Red Roundtree looks like." "Reckon we do." "There he is... signed, sealed, and delivered." "The Red Roundtree I know, when he finally gets back to town, he sure the hell won't be riding in that way." " will he, Tom?" " No, sir." "He'd be flying down Main Street, howling like a banshee, shooting them.44s straight at the moon." "Y'all trying to tell me that ain't Red Roundtree out there?" "MAN IN HAT:" "The stinking piece of vulture bait you got, guess I know that ain't the Red I used to drink with." "I'll give you, it might have been a few moons... since Red Roundtree done showed his face in this town." "I'm not calling anyone a liar." "I just think that maybe your recollection's a bit fogged... of, uh, what the man looked like." "I can't argue that, mister." "That's him, all right." "On the page and in the flesh." "But that out there... no, sir." "That ain't him at all." "You can't see his face." "Come outside." "TOM:" "No." "When Red come back, it'll be galloping ramrod, straight in the saddle, howling, hollering!" "[AII talking at once]" "Don't need to see his face." "That blaze of red hair... is the biggest son of a bitch in the county." "TOM:" "Fellas, I think that..." "BARSTON:" "Fellas, I think that's Red Roundtree... and you four bastards damn well know it." "Damn well know you just made yourself a mistaken identity." "That's all." "A big mistake." "BARSTON:" "All right." "This dung hole's still got a sheriff's office, don't it?" "No need for no sheriff around here no more." "Not since the fun went away." "They really do know, don't they, hoss?" "Just like you knew that you'd be protected... if you come back to this town." "There ain't nobody inside there... except your old half-witted drinking compadres." "Home." "Not today, hoss." "What are you playing this jackass game for, protecting that piece of meat laying out there?" "Lem Fowler and billy O'Day were your friends, miners just like you." "Man shot them in the face for nothing." "For fun." "I'm sure you heard what happened to the McLeod girl in Colorado." "MAN:" "Not done by that thing you got out there." "I know that he was your friend." "Nothing I can do about that." "What's done is done." "And you can still have him to bury, uh... just as soon as I get a signed statement... by whichever one of you fellas, uh... still got the skill to..." "write his own name." "Statement?" "Stating what?" "Stating that that's Red Roundtree lying out there... $5,000 worth of damn dead doornaiI." "$5,000?" "Yes, sir." "And I'm the one that done it..." "T.L. Barston." "BARSTON: 13 months, and he's mine." "[Gun cocks]" "I reckon it's time you rode out, back where you came from." "Don't you worry." "We're gonna take real good care of that piece of baggage you got out there." "So you just hand me that there horse pistol... for safekeeping till the city limits," "Mr. T.L. Barston." "Yes, sir, I will." "BARSTON:" "You'll sign, you sons of bitches." "You'll sign." "[Horse neighs]" "Claim-jumpers!" "[Gunshot]" "MAN:" "Ah!" "[Gunshots]" "You're mine, Red." "You're mine." "I saved you, Red, in the nick of time." "They got to come back sometime... 'cause this am where the honey's at." "[Wolf howling]" "BARSTON:" "Went down to the river." "Couldn't get across." "Jumped on a critter." "Thought it was a hoss." "Hoss wouldn't pull." "Sold him for a bull." "Bull wouldn't holler." "Sold him for a dollar." "Dollar wouldn't pass." "Threw it in the grass." "Grass wouldn't run, so I sold it for a gun." "Gun wouldn't shoot." "Sold it for a boot." "[Glass breaking]" "MAN:" "You just leave that $5,000 worth of sirloin there!" "We'll let you ride out of here alive!" "We got a problem here, Chief." "Looks like a state of siege." "You know what?" "Hell, we don't need them." "I know a mommy and a daddy up in Colorado... that's going to welcome you and me with open arms... and wallet." "[Gunshot]" "MAN:" "Come on." "What's your answer, Barston?" "What do you say?" "[Click]" "[Gunshot]" "What do you say, hoss?" "[Knock on door]" "BARSTON:" "Come to talk terms." "Sure." "Drop that pistol where we can see it." "Come in slow." "BARSTON:" "How I know I ain't getting plugged when I walk in?" "How about coming out here?" "Uh..." "Crack the door a tidge." "I'll show you." "OK?" "BARSTON:" "OK." "Come on in." "Let's talk turkey." "BARSTON:" "Gobbler it is." "[Gunshot]" "[Gunshot]" "[Men shouting]" " Open the door!" " Come on!" "[Pounding on door]" "Colorado bound, hoss." "[Men shouting]" "It's Red Roundtree, and I'm the one that's brung him down!" "Hyah!" "MAN:" "Aah!" "Aah!" "[Shouting and cursing]" "Oh, God!" "Oh, God!" "Get it out!" "Get it out!" "Aah!" "BARSTON:" "Colorado, here we come!" "MAN:" "Barston, I'll see you in hell!" "[Men shouting]" "BARSTON:" "I believe it just hit my nose, Red." "The scent of paradise." "Ah, you can smell it..." "just around the bend." "We're going to make it, Red, if you can just hold on." "Colorado... tall grass... high sky, palominos..." "Just around the bend..." "Yeah." "She won't die, will she, Red?" "Damn right she won't, Chief." "We're going to make it, Red." "[Thump]" "Red?" "Chief?" "Oh..." "Ohh..." "There you are." "I can't see a thing." "Show us the way." "You get us up on the Bayou Salado." "It's home, hoss." "[Click]" "[Gunshot]" " Is that him?" " I think so." "Crazy old buzzard rode himself round in a damn circle." "Never got more than 500 yards from town." "Old Red Roundtree finally gotten around to coming back home." "It's about time." " Maybe we ought to bury him now." " Just a little while." "What about that other one?" "BARSTON:" "They buried Red Roundtree at twilight, only time the heat gets tolerable enough to put pick and shovel in your hands." "Wasn't nary a carpenter among them, so Red got laid in the grave without a box." "They figured he wouldn't mind." "It was probably cooler that way." "And they put the bounty man right beside old Red." "'Twas never any doubt in anyone's mind... that I belonged there." "BARSTON:" "Only wish I could have stayed... but with the bounty man, it just don't work that way." "[Whistling]"