"Can you gentlemen tell me where I can find a Colonel Draco?" "So, you're his imported butcher, are you?" "He does have the look of an undertaker... black suit and all." "Probably uses that gun to promote his own business." "Friend, your assumption could be correct, but in this case I am just a man looking for Colonel Draco." "Why don't you find him yourself, gunfighter?" "Myra." "Myra!" "I'm sorry, Charles." "I was just giving Sven" " dinner instructions..." " Never mind that now." "Look out there." "It's him." "It's the man I sent for..." "it has to be." "Mr. Paladin moves like a dancer." "Myra." "Watch." "Stop this deviltry!" "Well, now, I did think my enemies had multiplied very quickly." "They call me Brother Grace." "I'm a circuit minister preaching the ways of the Lord." "Whence come the wars and fighting among you and these townspeople?" "Well, sir, I dislike being identified as a butcher, and I dislike intensely the idea of these two knocking my head in." "He was asking for Colonel Draco." "Oh, then you're the one." "I'm the one." "Now would you mind explaining that?" "Collie, Brock." "Explain?" "Well, if I were versed in the use of such a tool of destruction." ""At night he will ride a pale horse," ""but at noon he shall wear black, and we shall call him death."" "When I rode in here, I thought this was a nice, quiet, peaceful little town." "A sane town!" "Until you rode in, it was..." "a quiet town preparing to celebrate the Eve of St. Elmo." "Well, for a man who follows the profession you do, it seems to me you are very hasty in forming your judgments." "I look and I see what I see." "Now hand over your weapon, and I'll reserve my judgment." "Not just yet." "Then I'll pray for divine guidance." "Or a miracle." "Myra." "Brother Grace, one question:" "the reception committee, who are they?" "That's Brock March and his son Collie." "The men you were hired to kill." "Miss Draco." "I'm Myra Draco." "My brother, the colonel, wishes me to take you to our house." "My name is Paladin." "I know." "My brother saw you fight." "He was very impressed." "I take it you were not." "Violence sickens me." "As do those who use it." "Yes." "Still, there are times when there is no other way." "Men are all alike..." "no gentleness, no kindness." "Even on a holy day." "The Eve of St. Elmo." "I'm surprised you've heard of it." "Oh, yes, I've heard of it." "Let's see, if memory serves me properly, the belief is that if the saint receives a gift he favors, he will perform a miracle." "And what gift do you bring, Mr. Paladin?" "Death?" "The colonel is in library." "Colonel Draco." "Paladin." "We drink to death." "No, Colonel, I do not drink to death." "Death is implicit in this." "And that's a very interesting sidearm you're wearing." "Let me see it." "I think not." "I like a man, doesn't trust me." "All right, take your drink and sit down." "Now, we've spoken of death and your gun." "Now, how would you define an insurrection?" "An insurrection is an uprising against civil or military authority." "And, uh, how are insurrections usually handled?" "Well, according to history, they have usually been put down." "And the leaders executed." "See, I own this valley." "And the river that runs down the center is mine also." "The water costs the people here nothing, but the right to cross my land to get to it is revocable without notice." "Recently a few have sunk wells, and now they sell the water directly to the others for a small fee, of course." "But it's not the money... it's the challenge to my authority." "Stop the leaders, and the rest will stop." "And the leaders would be Collie and Brock March." "Well, Colonel, it seems to me if there's been any infringement of the law, the sheriff ought to handle it." "Sheriff died over a year ago." "I haven't yet found anyone to replace him." "You know, I'm amazed that you haven't handled it yourself." "Paladin, do you think I sit in that chair because I want to?" "Eight months ago Brock March shot me." "His bullet killed my legs." "Now that you're here, your legs will be my legs, your eyes my eyes, and your gun my gun." "Now, Colonel, this has been a very bad mistake." "I don't hire out for hatred, I don't hire out for revenge." "Paladin, some men buy love." "I'm willing to buy hate." "I've been tempted many times to use this gun as an instrument of judgment." "To be judge, jury and executioner." "I have thus far resisted the temptation, and I don't believe I'll make an exception in this case, even for that." "Now, you don't fool me, Paladin." "Cautious, gentle of speech..." "not like the others." "Oh, yes, Paladin, you're the man I want, all right." "Colonel, the very best I'll do for you is investigate your claims tomorrow." "You'll do more than that, Paladin, and you'll do it tonight." "This whole town has been warned." "They want a miracle, do they?" "All right, we'll give them a miracle." "And an object lesson as well:" "the death of those who defy my authority." "Sven!" "Is bad, is bad you be angry." "What?" "I'm all right, I'm all right." "I just need a little rest." "We'll talk later, Paladin, after dinner." "There's no one on my side... unless it's you." "Where is she?" " I tell her we eat now." " Hmm." "Myra!" "I'm sorry." "Well, the table is not alone in its elegance tonight." "Thank you." "Sven, the wine, please." "Mr. Paladin." "You're late." "I was looking for this." "You wear our mother's brooch?" "Mr. Paladin, you would have admired our mother." "She was strong." "When our father died, she took the land that he left her, the poor land, made it grow wheat and corn." "She had 50 working men eating her salt and bread." "They feared her." "And they had reason to." "Yes, Mr. Paladin, she was what a woman ought to be." "Well, Mr. Paladin, perhaps your temptation to use your weapon is increasing." "Perhaps." "I think that bullet was meant for you." "That possibility had occurred to me." "Perhaps it was meant as a warning." "Yes, maybe it was just a stray bullet from the gun of some drunken cowboy." "Well, Brother Grace." "This is an unusual honor." "I have come especially to invite you to the services at midnight." "You think my presence will effect your miracle for you?" "Your presence may itself be the miracle." "Yes, the manifestation of the divine intervention in the course of human affairs." "All right, Brother." "I shall be there." "We'll all be there." "Hmm." "The man in black." "There is no reason for you to be there." "Brother Grace, I think perhaps this might be reason enough." "It was just fired through that window." "I dug it out of the fireplace." "Until then." "I'll show you out, Brother Grace." "Paladin, I knew you wouldn't disappoint me." "Especially when the chips are golden, huh?" "We have an hour to dress for St. Elmo." "Let's not disappoint him." "Sven?" "Is that why you're going?" "To earn that?" "Is it Brock, Myra?" "How did Brock happen to shoot your brother?" "It happened out there, in the streets." "My brother called him names, then he began to hit him with a buggy whip." "But it wasn't just the water rights." "Brock's a widower." "He passed a few words with me." "He looked at me as though I were a woman!" "My brother hates me, but I'm all he's got left." "Brock and his son will be there tonight." "Oh, yes." "Why else would my brother go and take you?" "I understand that." "And I believe that St. Elmo might be happier seeing you in something just a little less somber." "I should have known." "Oh." "Now." "I said, now." "Yes, sir, I suppose now is just as good a time as any." "The gunfighter gives up his guns?" "A miracle indeed, Mr. Paladin." "Brethren," "St. Elmo has indeed answered our prayers." "No!" "That was not the miracle." "But you shall have one." "Brock." " Paladin." " No!" "You cheated me." "You want a miracle, huh?" "Please." " I will show you a miracle!" " Please." "Sven, you fired that bullet at the house tonight, didn't you?" "I only want frighten you away." "All his hate..." "Well, the colonel had one friend, didn't he, Sven?" "I'm sorry it ended this way." "Which was the miracle, Mr. Paladin?" "Your giving up your gun?" "Colonel Draco walking?" "Or the death which struck him down?" "Brother Grace, who's to say what constitutes a miracle?" "Hmm." "All of these things might have been miracles, or none of them." "I'll leave that decision to you and to..." "St. Elmo." "Or perhaps is this the miracle?" "That these words echo clearly:" ""Judge not, lest ye be judged."" "Let us pray." ""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?"