"Even you must agree Ortega is a good man." "There are too few of his kind in this world, and if I kill him, there will be one less." "Nothing else will change." "Lupo!" "Esta bien." "I am Mr. Paladin." "I believe you asked to see me." "Please forgive Lupo." "He is my appointment secretary." "I am Largo Ortega, provisional general of the Revolutionary Army and minister of external finance for the Republic of Mexico." "That's a very imposing brace of titles." "I have more, but an Indian peon like me is proud of only one thing... that his back bends less than a burro's." "There are things less worthy of pride in this world." "On your card it is written that you are for hire." "Do you know of a place named San Ysidro?" "I desire to locate there the once Count and Countess Armande del Vayo Casares." "I would pay you to accompany me." "I think you'd find a guide a good deal cheaper." "I will explain." "The count was once bursar to the Emperor Maximilian." "When the government of the aristocrats was defeated, the count came to your country with the royal treasury." "For these years, he has held the money for the return of the old regime." "But that will never be." "How much money is there?" "In your money, there is perhaps 18 million dollars left." "The treasury consisted entirely of French bonds." "With the war in Europe, the bonds have declined." "Perhaps in five years they will be no more than scraps of paper." "Meanwhile, in Mexico, there is famine." "It is money that came from those who are starving now." "By right, it belongs to them." "Will it be returned to them if the count should hand the treasury over to you?" "It will, with your help, senor." "To travel with 18 million dollars in a strange country..." "In my country, I have kept alive by guessing which man would kill me to take my shoes." "But here," "I am not yet familiar with your customs." "Well, in that respect, you'll find our cultures similar." "However, I will do what I can." "Tomorrow then." "Tomorrow." "Senor Paladin," "I should add, Lupo goes with me." "In the beginning of the revolution," "I led the attack on the great hacienda of my village." "The patron was very rich, very Castilian." "His hands were white and soft, but it was not the same with his heart." "Once, he had my fourth brother staked to a wall in his courtyard and beaten for stealing a chicken." "So I had the patron put to the same wall to be shot." "He died very well, the patron." "Very proudly." "With no blindfold." "In the house, there was a library with books against the ceiling." "We burned everything but not the books." "The thought came to me that if a man like that dies well, maybe he has learned it from reading." "So I kept the books, and I read." "I was only a soldier then." "Afterwards, I became a colonel." "And when did you become a general?" "After another library?" "The general at Telexco was taking money from the aristocrats." "I personally killed him." "Then I was general." "Ortega, what does he want?" "He admires your belt." "He would like to take it from you." "Well, Ortega, he's your man." "You tell him." "Tell him to try to take it now, or let it alone for good." "Si, patron." "French Revolution, one of the deputies, as he stood in line waiting for his turn at the guillotine, has reputed to have said," ""There was no revolution." "It was only humanity turning over in its sleep."" "Maybe like you say, it's only a little turn in a long night." "We will go into San Ysidro in the morning." "I'll go in first, make the arrangements for the meeting." "With aristocrats?" "We speak different languages." "Well, maybe their lives have changed." "Maybe they no longer speak as aristocrats." "Good night." "Buenas noches." " And what do you wish?" " Rabbit stew again." " And very delicious." " How much are those beans?" " Five cents." " Five cents?" "Over at Porterville Junction you can buy beans for three cents." "Well, of course, if you prefer to eat..." "All right, all right." "Give me a plate of them." "Very well." "Lapin chasseur." "Minutely as it was served at Arnim." "Bordeaux marinade." " Garlic with lemon." " Yes, yes." " Can I have some?" " You wish some?" "Of course." "Yes." "Thyme... and a little..." "Mmm." " Saffron." " Magnifico!" " Mmm." " But tell me, how do you like it?" "It's very good rabbit stew." "Mmm." "That will be 15 cents." "Of course." "There." "You see, he is a traveler." "He is hungry." "He wants to eat." "And if the food is good, he will pay for it." "Yes." "Sir, you know what I see?" "Not one kitchen such as this, but many, all over." "If there is profit in one kitchen, there must be double in two." "Is that not elemental?" "And for my next kitchen, I need a manager." "A man of some delicacy of taste like yourself." "Well, uh, thank you very much." "But that's not exactly in my line." "Count Casares?" "A minister of the Mexican government is here to see you." "The Empress Carlotta is the only government of the Empire of Mexico." "What is his name?" "Largo Ortega." "They have come." "The Butcher of San Pietro." "Mister Paladin, what is your part in this?" "I am his honor guard." "Honor guard?" "What honor?" "He has sent you here to kill us for the treasury of Maximilian." "And you might have, but you do not know where it is." "I hold it in sacred trust." "Sacred!" "And I will die before I will betray that." "I don't ask you to." "I ask only that you to see Ortega and hear him." "No one will be hurt." "You have my word for that." "And I will rely on your, uh, courtesy." "You will be received at the hour of 9:00." "Largo Ortega, provisional general, Revolutionary Army, minister of External Finance, the Republic of Mexico." "Count and Countess Armande del Vayo Casares." "It is a pleasure." "At one time, it was an honor." "It's excellent." "Yes." "The last of the bottles from my vineyard, and for all time." "I believe General Ortega's troops burned the field." "The field is still there, but it grows corn now." "No doubt the soil is productive, enriched, as it must be, by the blood of those of my class." "And by the blood of the peons who worked under a whip in it." "Well, I'm certain that the soil absorbs the blood of all classes equally." "Still, even planted with corn, I would like to see that field again." "But if we returned, you would have us shot, of course." "Of course." "And if you came back to power, you would have me shot." "Hanging is more proper to your class." "Tell of the capital." "That dreadful wife of the Prussian ambassador." "Does she still come to the salons and ask for pigs' knuckles?" "And the British minister, with his same jokes." "Of course, I had to laugh each time." "We had hoped to get a loan from his country." "His jokes are the same." "And I have to laugh at them, because we, too, hope to get a loan from him." "But the loan will not be made." "The government must have money." "Without it, there will be famine." "I plead to you as countrymen, please return the bonds to the treasury." "They are not ours." "They belong to the Empress Carlotta." "To be used when she is well enough again to return to power." "The empress will never be well enough to return to power." "She will never be anything but a woman trying to piece together the bits of a broken dream behind the walls of an asylum." "In a few years, those bonds may be worthless, but now, today, they might keep children from starving." "And keep the revolution in power." "Possibly." "But children can't fill their stomachs on politics." "Or from the double pockets in General's uniforms." "There will be graft, as there was in your government, but there will also be food for the villages." "You believe him?" "Yes." "I do not." "They have not changed." "They will always be aristocrats!" "I have been sent to take back the bonds by order of the Revolutionary Republic of Mexico." "For now, I have said what is needed." "As have I. We will never betray our sacred trust." "I will return to take the bonds one way or another." "Explain to them about Lupo." "You still have my word." "You know, Paladin, maybe we will not need you the rest of the way after all." "I'm beginning to feel the way of your land now." "I think you will need me." "No." "I've settled on the matter now." "Everything will be taken care of." "Not by Lupo." "With aristocrats, in the end, there is no other way." "Besides, what are two lives against perhaps two million?" "They happen to be two lives that I've given my word to defend." "You know that I am in the right, and if they prefer the money to their lives..." "Besides, it's not your cause." "It is now." "Nope." "I did not think that you would be on the side of the aristocrats." "Only for their lives." "The bonds you may have." "I will have them." "And there is only one way." "It'll be dawn in less than an hour." "We know." "And our first customers will be here even sooner." "So will Ortega." " Ten eggs." " Ten eggs." "Why do you want the bonds?" "They're worthless to you." "Unless you plan to start a counterrevolution." "Is that what you want?" "If it is, then take the money, hire an army of gunmen and go." "No." "I..." "I have my kitchen." "And a new one at the next town." "Already she has saved a thousand dollars toward it." "Besides, in a matter such as this, only the empress should command." "The empress is not going to command anything." "Now give the bonds to Ortega now while they still have some value." "It is our land, our people." "Perhaps now, even the empress would want it." "No." "If one has lived by a dream, one should be strong enough to die by it." "Or strong enough to find a new dream and live by that." "Even you have to admit that Ortega is a good man." "There are too few of them in this world, peasant or aristocrat." "If I kill him, there's one less, and that's all that will change." "No!" "No, no." "Perhaps in a new country there must be new dreams." "Stable boy!" "We are not of the same government, but we are of the same people," "and that will always be." "I could never stand the Prussian ambassador's wife again." "As a frequent traveler," "I shall look forward to seeing your next kitchen." "Who overcomes by force hath overcome but half his foe." "Maybe Shelley was right." "I think perhaps he was, except that it was Milton." ""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"