"Obviously, Mr. Paladin, a bank teller isn't qualified for such a job." "Do you think you could manage to leave in the morning for Emigrant Valley?" "Mr. Craft, if Dan Tibner wants" "$10,000 delivered safely to your bank, why doesn't he send it by stagecoach?" "Doesn't trust them." "He'll deal only with a bona fide representative of the bank." "We hold title to the tract of land he's buying." "Very well, Mr. Craft." "Will you see that there's a credit of $500 to my account by morning." "Five hundred?" "Now, if you're going to bargain with me, the price will go up proportionately, and I had intended to go to the opera tonight anyway." "Five hundred..." "Yes, Mr. Paladin." "All right, thank you very much." "I, uh... oh, all papers." "Self-explanatory." "Two signatures, thank you." "$500 for direct receipt..." "Whatever you're looking fer, that ain't gonna help you none." "Gypsies put it there." "Well, Romanies are many things but seldom artists." "They were around here yesterday." "I drove them off with a shotgun." "Thieves, all of 'em." "Well, then this is meant for you." "It's a curse." "It's true." "It's a Romany curse." "Even my horse went lame walking by it." "Well, now we ain't got nothing to worry about." "Well, you would have to be Dan Tibner." "You the bank feller?" "Prove it." "I'll fetch the money." "Well, until you do fetch the money," "I'll just keep this, mm-hmm." "Don't try following, neither." "Stranger, I could blow your head off." "Oh, I guess you could at that, but everything considered," "I don't believe you really want to." "Well, that all depends." "I'd, uh, be obliged if you'd raise your hands." "You get up now." "I presume there's some reason for all this." "There's a reason." "Let me see your back." "Now we can travel." "All right, get down, mister." "Hello, Mr. Sherwood." "It's Dan, he... he's dead; shot in the back." "Why would anybody want to kill Dan Tibner?" "For $10,000, I imagine." "Nobody knew where he had his money hidden, not even Earl here." "I-I..." "Who are you?" "Oh, Mr. Paladin." "Well, it's all right, Earl." "He-he's from the bank." "Came out here to meet your brother." "Ah, sorry, Paladin." "Me and my foreman was just trying to flush out some strays, out of the brush, and we heard a shot, and..." "Earl, what happened?" "I don't know." "Found Dan lying there, started looking around and then I found him." "Oh, uh, this is Earl, Dan's brother." "Uh, that's my foreman up there." "Canning!" "Well, who did it, him?" "You reach for that gun, you better mean to use it." "Canning, don't be a fool." "Mr. Paladin is from the bank." "Mr. Paladin, you think Dan had that money on him?" "Well, he left me over an hour ago to get it." "You see any other strangers around here, Earl?" "Only them gypsies." "Well, they're camped down on Cotter's Creek." "Let's go down and get one." "Wait a minute, that's sheriffts business." "Well, gypsies ain't nothing for you to be afraid of, mister." "You see, around here, we handle them things ourselves." "We'll just go down there, we'll get the guilty one, and we'll hang him, and we'll burn the rest of them out." "Not just yet, you won't." "Well, who else could it be?" "Dan had trouble with them just yesterday." "He peppered 'em with buckshot." "That's not evidence of murder." "That's enough evidence for me, mister." "You know, a man would think that you was afraid of something." "What man?" "Well, you heard Earl say there'd been trouble." "Now, what more do you want?" "I want $10,000 and the old man's horse." "If the gypsies have them," "I'll take the guilty one into the sheriff." "In the meantime, you keep this jackass away from me." "I hear you g..." "Canning, stop it, stop it." "All right." "You go over and have a talk with them if it'll make you feel better." "Now, we'll be along as soon as we get Dan home." "That'll give you a little time to make up your mind whose side you want to be on." "What's this?" "Well, you name it, Galahad." "It's a gypsy earring." "Oy... your beast is lame?" "Yeah, it's just a bruise." "He's carried me a long way, but not as far as you've come." "For us, time is not measured in miles but by centuries." "Outcasts of destiny, second cousins to the wind." "Steal your purse, leave a curse, the caravans of Romany." "A poet is always welcome." "Will you rest a while?" "If you need a fresh horse, sir," "I can offer you a trade at a great loss to myself." "Dimitri is a horse trader." "I'm Golias;" "I'm leader of my people." "I'm called Paladin, and I believe I might just look at your stock." "First, some food." "Now." "Your choice for your lame animal." "Show me one with a white face." "These are all we own." "Perhaps, now, some food." "A song, your fortune." "Well, the food and the song would be most welcome." "Does one greet a stranger with silence?" "Music!" "Darklis!" "Some food for our guest." "It is humble fare to offer a guest." "I have tasted stew of the autumn hedgehog before." "Then there is a double welcome." "In this country, of course, there is only porcupine." "You are one of us." "No." "No, a gypsy has neither a past... nor future." "The past is dead." "The future is a riddle, my friend." "Why talk of such things?" "Shall we talk of murder, then?" "Your words are an insult to our hospitality." "I've killed men for less." "By shooting them in the back?" "Now, a man named Tibner has been found shot in the back and $10,000 is missing." "We are poor here, Paladin." "In all this camp, you would find nothing of value." "Gold?" "A legacy given to her when she was a child." "Darklis doesn't need you to defend her." "Well, you didn't look too capable sitting in the dirt." "I need neither of you." "Do you suspect women, too?" "I suspect this woman is capable of anything she sets her mind to, including murder." "Dan Tibner also had a curse put on him, but it was a bullet that took his life." "Now..." "This was found by the body of the murdered man." "Golias, I killed no one, I swear." "Then how do you account for this?" "No." "The old one fired a shotgun at me, and I ran like the wind." "I'm not responsible for his death." "You child." "You ask many questions without explanation." "Golias, in a few moments, there will be men riding through those trees." "They will hang a gypsy and burn your wagons, and the only way you can prevent that is to give me the guilty one." "Woman... in this matter, I am an unfit judge." "You have the gift of second vision." "You will know the truth." "Who is to say that humility is not a greater quality than either wisdom or second sight?" "Take my hand." "I see beyond the present." "Black clouds holding the moon with only lightning to show the way." "I see a tree, shriveled and dying, and a pale horse bearing a rider without a face, waiting at a crossroad." "You have the gift of hindsight." "The rider was murder." "Wait..." "I see the pale horse, but the night has turned it black." "The beast is cursed, and those who ride upon its back must die." "There is nothing more." "Well... perhaps time has given you wisdom." "A pale horse turned black, hmm?" "You swore!" "I swore the truth!" "The horse?" "The old man was dead." "He had no need for the horse." "You saved my life." "Well, the old man was dead." "You stole his horse, and that's when you lost the earring?" "All right, what've you found, Galahad?" "Tibner's horse." "Well, that ought to be enough evidence, even for you." "Not by about $10,000." "What are you getting at, Paladin?" "Well... this one... wears a necklace of gold." "Was Dan's money in gold?" "I don't know;" "I never saw it." "And this one, this is Golias." "He's the leader, and he does have a very bad temper." "But Dimitri..." "Dimitri stole the horse." "Will you tell me what this is all about?" "Dimitri admits stealing the horse, but he swears he did not kill Dan Tibner." "And I say Dimitri is a lying, white-bellied murderer." "You got that rope, Earl?" "Now, wait a minute." "You talk a lot about killing and fear." "Just how strong is your courage?" "Well, why don't you just try me?" "These people... have a way of settling the truth between men." "You carry a knife;" "can you use it?" "I can use it." "Dimitri, hmm..." "I hope truth is a strong ally, for my talents don't run to fighting as yours seem." "But you will fight?" "Because I am innocent; yes." "Having saved your life, it is a custom of your people," "I believe, that it now belongs to me to do with as I please." "Yes." "Well, I please to save it." "The knife?" "You?" "Truth." "No!" "No, wait... wait a minute..." "don't use the knife, I..." "The truth?" "It was Sherwood." "He planned it all;" "he got the money." "I had nothing to do with it." "He's lying to save his neck." "Paladin!" "Well, I imagine we'll find that Mr. Sherwood is in some financial difficulty." "That he had to have the $10,000, as well as his land." "Now, wait, Canning said he'd get the money." "I didn't ask him how." "You let him kill Dan?" "Earl, you got to believe me." "I-I thought it was the gypsies." "He's got $10,000 of yours." "I'll get it." "And get him out of my sight." "Can you bury this one?" "Of course." "You came as unwelcome guest." "I hope you are leaving as a friend." "Yes." "And you and I are even." "Yes." "Until you are again in need of a horse." "One could hope that Darklis has lifted the curse from this one." "And you might have shown a little more concern during that knife fight." "Why, Paladin, you are a man who does whatever he sets himself to do." "Darklis, is that second sight?" "No." "Woman's intuition." "If ever you are in San Francisco..." ""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" "Paladin, Paladin, where do you roam?"