" Four" " Pair of jacks." "Two sevens." "Nothing." "Jacks bet." "Call." "Play for fifteen." "I'm out." "Call." "Out." "Bust." " Five." " Fold." "Deal me out." "I'll be back for the next turn." "Same game, five card stud." "But when I deal, I like to start with all fifty-two cards." "There's only one thing worse than a crook, that's a clumsy crook." "Keep the money, just give me my horse." " You'll get your horse and a rope." " No, hey...!" " Who was shooting?" " It turned into a hanging party." " Hanging who?" " The new man, for cheating." "You kick a cheat out of town, not lynch him." "What the hell are you doing?" "Hey, George." "Wake up and get out here." "Lay still, boy." "Come on." "Get him up to his room." "Let me know if he needs anything, except brains." "How come you didn't hear when they dumped me there?" "I sleep pretty good sometimes." "No questions about last night?" "I knew what was gonna happen, and it did." "They weren't just five men, they were a mob." "I tried to stop them." "I believe you." "When a gambler lets his game wind up in a killing, pretty soon he don't have a game." "You know anything about this?" "What about you?" "Was there a game downstairs after I closed up last night?" "Maybe you're right at that." "But I don't know, I can't swear to it." "You know, I always wanted to bust into that glass to find out what your hole card was." "What do you think it was?" "Ace of diamond." "I think you had your royal flush." "So did the other man." "But he folded, so he never found out." " Where you heading?" " Anywhere, to leave this place behind." "But first I got to deliver a message." " Finish packing for me?" " All right." " Morning, Mr Evers." " Hello, Van." "Stoney, Mace." "How are you feeling?" " Never better." " Same." "How are you?" "I'd say come and visit me, but I know better." " My daughter's in, go on up." " Thank you." "What are you doing out in the sun?" "You sleep all day." " I had to get up early to pack." " Pack?" "You're always coming or going." "When will you decide to stay?" "People who stay have no place to go." "Where's your brother?" "If you're going to say goodbye again, say it." " Goodbye." " Say it properly." "All right..." "There." "That was one wore-out, no-account kiss." "How was that?" "Fine, but you wasted it." "I don't plan to come back this time." "It wasn't wasted." "You enjoyed it." "And you'll be back." "Nora, you're the most foolish thing in the world, a good woman." "Why foolish?" "She'll push herself up against a man till he forgets she's good." " Then she expects marriage." " How else would she end up?" "With me she could end up picking hay from her dress." "Wanna bet?" "Don't gamble on my better instincts." "I don't have any." "I just have instincts." "Nick!" "Nick!" "Van wants to see you." "Here I am." "How do I look?" "From up here, just about right." "You two have been fighting each other for years." "What's your reason this time?" "We don't need a reason." "I got one." "I don't like him." "Do you think about that card player much?" "Just all the time." "Big mistake, getting wound up with a gambler." " You gamble right along with him." " But not for a living." "What do you do for a living?" "Sit around till you own the ranch?" "Only half of it." "The other half will go to you." "Just giving you some brotherly advice." "You're not worried about me, just about yourself." "If Van was my husband, you couldn't run him." "He'd run you." "No way." "I've had a gutful of that from Dad." "You could get along better with Dad if you tried." "And with Van, and everybody." "Why don't they try to get along with me?" " Hello, Van." " Marshal." " Any news on the hanging?" " Nothing to hang anybody with." " I don't even know his name." " What do you do in a case like that?" "You bury the man, but keep him in mind." " You're off to Denver." "Going for long?" " Depends on Denver." " Everybody in for Denver!" " Why are you going?" "In my business, you gotta follow the play." "So long." "All right, Charley." "Pair of fives." "Nine." " Fives bet." " I'll bet ten." "From what I read, you left Rincon too soon." "I don't know." "That gold strike improves nothing to damn little." "You'll miss the easy pickings." "There's no easy pickings till they get it out of the ground." "There's no easy pickings in Denver, either." "Ma'am." " Ma." " Fred." "There's only one kind of people I don't like:" "Strangers." "That's not a stranger, that's progress." "Sure." "They tell me he's bringing in a long mahogany bar." "Real long." "When the front end gets here, the rear end will still be in St Louis." "You stand to lose customers." "The ones I've been getting I'd just as soon lose." "Whatever happens over there, my place stays the same:" "Good liquor, a few card games and no girls." " You might lose all your customers." " Then to hell with them." "My name is Jonathan Rudd." "I come from God's House, just a little way up the street." "The House is ready for use, to hear God's word." "If He's only got one, I'll be there." "First services will begin on Sunday morning at 9 a.m." "You're all invited:" "The drunk, the sober, the big and little sinners, the clean and the unwashed." "The many who'll come to scoff and the few who'll come to pray." "You can count on me, Parson." "I'm the dirtiest, drunkest, most sinful fella the Lord ever saw." "There'll be a place for you." "There was a seat for Judas." "Ma'am." " Deal." " Who's Judas?" "Let's get to gambling." "O, come, sinner, come there's room for thee" "Hark, 'tis God's home" "O, come and receive salvation free" "Hark, 'tis God's home" "O, come and rest, come and rest" "Heavy-laden guilt oppressed" "O, come and rest, come and rest" "Hark, 'tis God's home" "Amen" "Well, I see God's House is full today." "But I don't think I've started any religious revival." "You came here out of curiosity, most of you." "And your curiosity was mainly brought on by Mr Colt." "If I hadn't fired that gun, there'd be nobody here but me and the dog." "Before I came here, there was nobody but the dog." "You didn't seem to think you needed a church, just a big doghouse." "But I'm here to tell you, you need a praying place." "You want to know why?" "I'll tell you why." "Because you're hell-bent for hell." "The Lord saw fit to sprinkle gold here." "Man and his greed is turning Paradise into a pigsty." "By day he sweats for a pinch of yellow dust, and at night he squanders it on lust." "But let's not blame our sins on the gold." "There was sin here before it was found." "Just a while ago, a man was hanged, for no reason that ever came to light." "Nor were his murderers ever brought to book." "They walk the streets as free as you and I." "But their Maker knows who they are." "They can't escape from Him, and He will punish them." "Now I say to you, mend your ways." "Your feet are already on the downward path." "Stop!" "Before the fires below devour you." "Amen." "May God bless you all." "You plan to be the conscience of this town?" " It could use one." " Somebody elected you?" "God." "And Mr Colt, first name Samuel." "Sort of biblical, isn't it?" "Mr Colt votes a lot of people in." " He also votes a lot of them out." " You're forgetting about God." "Why not let God do his own work?" "I'm filling in for him till he gets around to Rincon." "Well, if either of you needs any help... call on me." "Nick Evers." "Meet me here in an hour, Stoney, and space out those drinks." "Yes, ma'am." " Nora." " Mr Hurley." "The bridle broke going home from church." " Dad patched it but I need a new one." " I'll fix it in a jiffy." "Thanks." "I'll be back after I finish my trading." "Mr Hurley..." "What did you think of the new preacher yesterday?" "A lot more than he does of this town." "Maybe the man's right." "Fred Carson must be keeping banking hours." "But bankers don't leave the front doors open." "He must be in the storeroom." "I'll go see." "Stay out of there!" "I'm going for help." " What the hell is that?" " Looks like Stoney had an accident." "That's no accident." "He's been strangled." "George!" "Sit down." "That's right out of Rincon Creek." "Funny thing about gold, it doesn't look like gold until it gets to be money." " Have you read about Rincon?" " Paper's full of it." "If it ain't the strike, it's Fred Carson being drowned in a flour barrel." " Tomorrow it'll be Stoney Burough." " What about Stoney Burough?" "Somebody gave Stoney a new string tie." "Only it was made of barbed wire and a little tight." "That was some unhealthy card party I had going." "Three men dead." " Up to now." " Up to now?" "It looks like someone's out to kill every man at that party." "That's a good reason to avoid Rincon, if you planned to come back." "That's what you've come a hundred miles to tell me?" " I'd have come further." " Thanks." "But the night I got thrown out in the street, you never did wake up." " I'm woke up now." " Stay awake." "When do we go back?" "Back?" "It's you who ought to wake up." "If a man's out to kill you, don't let him pick the time." "You go to Rincon, he'll even pick the place." "I won't know him till he looks for me." "You won't know him in Rincon either, he won't wear a sign." "But I will, and then he might just make one bad move." "Well, I guess a man's gotta be a damn fool once in a while." "It proves he's still alive, huh?" "I've seen strikes before." "They eat a town up alive." "Like a snake." "Before I go to Mama's, I'll clean up." "From what I hear, up the street there is the place for it." "Smash your baggage, mister?" " Can you find me a room?" " Mama figured you'd be back." "You still got your old room." "Van!" "Take the bag up to the room, will you, George?" "I heard about Fred." "It wasn't easy, walking into that storeroom." "Walking out was the hard part." "And now Stoney Burough." "Everybody's edgy, even my father." "He's putting up a reward for Stoney's murderer." "Like he did for Fred Carson." "He won't let me go anywhere by myself." "And look what he makes me carry." "Well it's a sure thing you won't kill anybody." "Unless you're that close." "I'm glad you're back." "Only you didn't learn much in Denver." "You forgot some." " You need a shave." " I was about to." "Not in her place!" "I'd sooner shave you myself." "It happens I also need a bath." "I can't help you there." " I'll post the notices." " Thanks, Al." " Hello, Van." " Mr Evers." "What do you think of what they're doing?" "What who's doing?" "I just put up another $1,000 to find out, I don't know." "Tell Nick I'll be at Mama Malone's tonight and to bring some good card players, he'll know who." "I'll do that." " I thought this was a barber shop." " What changed your mind?" "You did." "Change it back." "It is a barber shop, and I own it." "I could use a shave." "If I got you for one bell, what do I get for two?" "A barber." "Hazel, this gentleman wants a shave." "Yes, Miss Langford." "Ever give any shaves yourself?" " About once every thousand faces." " I guess I'm the wrong number." " Good afternoon, Miss Langford." " Afternoon, girls." ""Miscellaneous" is $20." "What's "miscellaneous"?" "Something you didn't ask for." " Do many people ask for it?" " It sells well." "Thank you, sir." "We had a seven-man poker game that turned into a lynching party." "Now three are dead." "We're here to talk about those three and us four." "I care only about one of the four live ones, and that's me." "I care about the dead ones." "There never should've been a hanging." "Fred Carson was my friend, and I could even stand Stoney Burough." " Not you, though." " You bleed too easy, Joe." "The hanged man was a cheat." "Stoney was a mean drunk." "Carson got paid for his hand when he weighed anything." "Anybody at this table could be doing these killings." " You're not drunk, so you must be crazy." " Shut up." "How did you figure that?" "About the lynching, you could call it a partnership in a killing." "They all sit around and start itching, these partners." " They wonder who'll crack first." " Who would?" "Lt'd be his hide, too." "He'd swap his life for all the others." "If I thought anybody'd do that, I'd kill him myself." "Sure, so would you, even you, that's what I'm talking about." "Van doesn't believe any of that." "He's just stirring things up, seeing what floats to the top." "I'd say Fred and Stoney got killed by an outsider who got even for this hanging." " Got any proof of that?" " A little." "Do you know what I saw in Strangers' Corner in the cemetery?" "Flowers on that card cheat's grave." "Who'd do that?" " Sure not me." " Nobody but an outsider." "Take it that way, then." "But this outsider, this flower-picker, how did he find out Fred and Stoney were in the lynching party?" "There's only one way he could find out." "From someone who knew." "How'd he guess what outsider to go to?" "Maybe he did a little figuring and tracking, like I did with the flowers." "Only better." "Maybe he even saw the man put flowers on the grave." "We're out to save our necks, and right now I wouldn't give two bits for the four of them." "All I know is, I know less than when I got here." "Come on, Mace." " I'm sorry you came back." " I thought we were friends." "That's why I'm sorry." "Where are you going?" "When I was younger, a shave lasted a lot longer." "Good evening, ma'am." " This place is closed." " Was closed." "You just opened it." "It's 2 a.m. And the girls have gone." "Not all of them." "You answer to one bell?" "I'm not one of the girls, Mr Morgan." "You know my name." "We meet some place before?" "No." "I'd have remembered." "You're very gallant for 2 a.m. But I'm not one of the girls." "And I don't give shaves, especially at this hour." "How about that one face in a thousand?" "The last man I liked is three years gone." "That's a long time." "Want to tell me about him?" "What's there to say?" "He was a man." "Well, go on." "That covered it, Mr Morgan." "He was a man." " How'd you know who I was?" " I inquired." "Why?" " I wanted to know who you were." " Same question." "Why?" " You're asking a lot of questions." " I don't often hear the truth." "I'm still waiting for an answer." "Why did you find out who I was?" "You're a man, which is no recommendation." "You're a gambler, which is less." "You think you're the best gambler in the world." "And that's no recommendation at all." "But like you said, three years is a long time, a very long time." "That's not good enough." "All right." "I like you." "That's better." "Sometimes the truth is actions, not words." "Act!" "That could've led to trouble in this town." "Prevented it." "If I was who you're worried about, it'd be too late." "I'm Jonathan Rudd." "That's my church down the street." "Van Morgan." "Pretty late for a preacher, isn't it?" "We don't keep hours." "Nor does Mr Poe, that's where I've been." "The liquor's better at Mama Malone's." "I believe you're right." "But I don't go for the liquor." "I go to get people away from it, on Sunday mornings at least." "Wind must've blown the door open." "Hey, you!" "Gimme a hand, quick." "Come on." "Hold him while I cut him down." "It's Mace." " What do you want, Dad?" " I think I'll just have some coffee." "Thank you." "I think that's all I'll have, too." "I hate funerals." "Who'd want to kill Mace Jones?" "Just about anybody who ever knew him." "What would it take to make you lose your appetite?" "A bellyful." "Sometimes you don't seem quite human." "More like you were made in a factory or something." "If I was made by a machine then you made it and you ran it." "Stop it, both of you." "Just once!" "Now to the sin of murder we must add sacrilege." "Since coming to this town, I've sadly had to perform the burial of three men who have died violently." "For the hand that slew Fred Carson and Stoney Burough," "I sought the Lord's forgiveness." "But for the limitless evil of him who slew Mace Jones," "I ask for limitless punishment for he took a man's life in God's House." "Let us pray, therefore, that heaven receives the soul of Mace Jones, and that the soul of his killer wander the darkness for ever." "All men being sinful and Thou just," "I pray You regard any score against Mace Jones as even." "Strike it from Thy books and let him sleep." "Amen." "Amen." "I didn't hear you praying, Little George." "You never will, either." "I don't believe in it." "Hey, George." "Van called the last meeting, I am calling this one, while we're still alive to meet." "We've paid for that hanging three times." "We've paid for it all right." "But anybody notice how?" "Three times by some kind of strangling." "Stoney with wire, Fred smothered, Mace got the rope." "All three of them strangled." "Which brings to mind what?" "The way the card cheat died." "I still say it's the work of an outsider getting even for the card cheat and an insider telling him who did it." "I don't know why it didn't hit me before but it sure as hell hits me now." "We want the man, but we've never looked up from the card table." "Well, I am looking up now." "And right at me, huh?" "If George was going to talk, he'd talk to the Marshal." "He'd talk where it'd do the most good, where we wouldn't find out." "Why?" "What good would it do George?" "You think George likes you, Joe?" "He don't like nobody." "You're the one who found that man and told him about the card game." "Now you just tell us who he is." "I got no use for lynchers." "They ought to get the same thing they give out." "And if I needed any killing done, I'd do it myself." "But you're right about one thing." "I don't cotton to most people." "Least of all to you." "Why, you...!" "There's a right place to stop." "I don't know if Nick is right, but you'd best keep your back to the wall." "And Van had better sit right alongside him." "'Cause if I'm wrong about George, I just might be right about him." "Everybody ought to have somebody to say goodbye." "Even you, Mace." "That sermon over Mace, you take it hard that he died in your church." "My church?" "I don't own it, I just look after it." "That night, how long were you out before the bell rang?" "I told Marshal Dana." "Why don't you ask him?" "I'd like to hear it from you." "I went up to Poe's, as I said." "I saw you on the way back." "I was gone maybe an hour." "Even if you talked some, that's a long time." "Poe's is only 100 yards away." "Suppose I said I like to walk at night." "Suppose I said that's what I was doing." "You believe me?" "No reason not to." "I'm glad you take my word for it, because that's what I was doing." "What kind of man murders in a church?" "The kind that doesn't believe in God, the kind that God doesn't scare." "No killer is scared of God, Mr Rudd." "In a church, in an alley or behind a rock." "Watch this, sweetheart." "Left hand." "Men talk about guns like they're women." ""She's a beauty", they say." "What's beautiful about a gun?" "If you were going to do a man in, what weapon would you use?" " It wouldn't be a gun." " I'll bet it wouldn't." "If he was after us, we'd be dead." ""The wicked flee where no man pursueth."" ""The righteous don't flee, they stand like a lion."" "Yes, ma'am." "That's the right quote." "Where'd you learn about the Bible?" "Where'd a preacher learn how to shoot?" "Every preacher was something else before he became a preacher." "You know, I'm tired of shooting at tin cans and bottles." "We still have some cartridges left." "We're not going to shoot each other, are we?" "How about?" "Six out of six." "Can't do better than that." " You can only do worse." " My shooting was way off." " Way off?" "Six out of six?" " I was aiming at the spaces." "See you in church." "If every preacher was something else first, I wonder what he was." "Everybody was something else first, even me." "I don't know what you are now." "You don't need that gun to find out." "But maybe I need one." "Sam!" "I'll bank the fire." "Go on home." " Only one rig left?" "I'll take care of it." " OK, Joe." "Are you still stewing about Mace Jones?" "Stewing about how I sit down to a drink and play some cards, and how I get up and hang a man." "Being drunk is a poor excuse." "You weren't drinking very much, what's your excuse?" "I don't lean on excuses." "Whiskey or no whiskey, you went along." " With you leading." " That makes you a sheep." "A drunk sheep maybe, but all the same." " You were with us on that rope." " Three men on that rope are dead." "You don't give a damn about anybody except yourself." "When I was ten, eleven my mother died." "They laid her out in the parlour and my old man took me in to see her." "She wasn't my mother any more." "She was something busted." "She was something that wouldn't run any more." "My old man was crying but not me." "He looked up and he said, "Where's your heart, boy?"" "I didn't say anything." "So he slapped me right across the mouth." "I still didn't say anything." "So he took me out, back of the barn, and he beat the hell out of me." "But he never drew a tear." "I think your mother was as dead as you." "If I am dead the same man killed me." "Name of Sig Evers." "Bring a glass for your friend." "I think he'll need it." " He won't drink with you." " Bring the glass." "Now it's reserved for just you and me." "That's right." "These are unlucky chairs." "Are you afraid to sit down?" "You sure know where to find them." "Mace Jones in the church, Joe Hurley in the stable." "Meaning that I could've killed both of them." "So could you." "Trouble is, so could any other man in town." "Any one of those four guys could've blabbed to the killer." "My guess, though, is that it's the first, Fred Carson." "Why Carson?" "Figure like the killer." "First, you get the names of everybody." "Then you kill the guy who gave them to you." "You sure want him out of the way." "You're pretty good at that, figuring like the killer." " Finish your drink." " You have to start it to finish it." "That's what this meeting's about." "You're head of the Miners' Association, so act like it." "Tell the Marshal to stop these killings." " No miner has been hurt." " Not so far." "It takes two hands to pan for gold, and you can't shoot with your teeth." " We gotta have protection." " All right." " I'll see what I can do." " All right." " I'm doing what I can." " We've had killings before." "But out in the open, and we could deal with them." "This don't make sense, and anyone can be next." "When we had two dead, I put up $2,000." "Now we got four dead, I'll put up $4,000." "A thousand a head, $4,000." "That's more than you make digging gold." "I don't see anyone claiming it." "We're here to ask what you're doing about it." "I'm just a plain town marshal." "I'm not a Pinkerton detective." "I've got one deputy to help me out." "And Otis and me, we can't cover the ground." "You can put up $1,000 an hour, it won't give us more eyes and ears." "We need more tin stars, not rewards." "Any one of you can be sworn in." "If you find anyone else, send them in." "If you make everyone a deputy, you'll be swearing in the killer." "I don't want any star." "But I am serving notice." "I'm wearing my gun tied down, and if I have to, I am going to use it." "A man'd be a fool not to wear a gun and a bigger fool to use it too fast." "Someone who meant no harm could die reaching for a chew of tobacco." "You listen to Nick Evers and Rincon will have more dead than Gettysburg." "I'll tell you this:" "I can't control the miners much longer, they're rounding up hotheads." "Either you do something or they will, and I can't say I blame them." "Nick says wear your gun and use it fast." "Mr Morgan says wear it and use it slow." "I say don't wear it and you won't use it at all." " Do you wear a gun?" " Yes." "But I'll leave it at home if everyone else does, too." "And end up hanging by your bell-rope?" "Well..." "I could tell you to pray, but I don't believe the killer answers to prayer." "I'll remind you of another thing:" "All four dead men were wearing guns." "The guns didn't save them." "Can I ask you a question?" "Why does a preacher put on a gun?" "People get funny ideas about a preacher." "That when he starts pounding a Bible he stops being a man." "That's not so." "But the Book doesn't say a man can't make himself better." "So I say, leave the guns at home." "Marshal." "I hate to go in there." "Just stay away from the flour barrels." "Are you still mad at me, Nick?" "Not you, the world." "The world?" "It's flat." " Be with you quick as I can." " Take your time, Mrs Wells." "This will make beautiful underwear." "The Chicago people say it's from Switzerland." "Seems a shame to cover it up." "It won't be covered up all the time, will it?" "I mean, you gotta hang it on a line some time." "You're making this young lady blush." "Did the ribbons and elastic come?" "I'll look in the storeroom, I ain't unpacked everything yet." " Why did you think I was blushing?" " At your age I did." "Someone like you, I..." " You belong in the storeroom." " Why?" "You were about to say women like me always wore black lace." "Yes." "How else can men tell..." "who they're with?" "They can tell long before they get to the underwear." "The last thing I expected was to like you." "Thanks." "Women usually don't like women who like men." "Here it is." "I'll wrap it for you in a jiffy, Miss Langford." " I hope I'm not keeping you." " No hurry, I'm getting an education." "Hey, mister." " Say, aren't you Nick Evers?" " Yeah." "I hear you said every man should keep his gun handy." " That's right." " I agree." "Handy means handy." " Yeah." " Come on." "What's been done, huh?" "Not a damn thing." " I say we put in a new marshal." " Right." "If we don't do something, no one will." " Looking for someone?" " Making sure nobody's looking for me." "Stop waving that around." "Put it away." "Make this town safe and you can have it." "You're making it unsafe." "I'll take the gun." "Oh, no." " What would you do if I gave it back?" " I'd load it right back up again." " Try with that." " That ain't gonna stop me." " I'll get another one." " You got another." " Drop it or I'll throw you in jail." " No." " You heard me." "Hand it over." " No." "Stop it, you crazy fools." "Get down." "I don't care what side you're on, don't take it here." "All you can shoot off is your mouth." "I can't cover the side of the street from here." "Van, don't!" " They'll kill him." " If you can't stand it, don't watch." "I'm glad you didn't listen to yourself and leave that home." "Sounds like the war is over, and without me, too." "Every player has his way of going." "Some raise, some call some just pass." "I owe you something." "Say it and you got it." "Come to God's House every Sunday for a month." "That's a steep price for just my life." " Miss Langford, meet..." " We've met." "At the window." "We were looking at the same goods." "She means you." "We were afraid you'd get shot." " Looks like I could still get shot." " Not by me." "I've been put out enough to do it." "You're both lying." "You could." "But you couldn't." "He thinks he knows about women." "You don't, do you?" "Oh, about one little thing, maybe." "How's Al?" "He isn't cold, but he won't be warm for a while." "I'm going to move him to my place." "So now we've got a dead deputy and a shot-up marshal." "That ain't much law." "Al knows it all right." "He said for you to get help from Denver." "All right, I'll take the next stage out." "But we need some tin showing around here." "Is Al up to swearing in some deputies?" " He can do that, but not much more." " Anyone want to volunteer?" "We can't ask you, Mr Rudd, but Van, we could use your help." "I don't think so, a gambler with a star?" "Some folks think no gambler is honest, they'd call it a stealing badge." "You know why they might say that?" "Because men once gambled for the clothes of Christ." "Putting flowers on your brother's grave." "That's what finally gave you away to me." "Lucky the right man happened to see me." "It didn't just happen." "I made it happen." "I was looking for the man who was looking for me, you." "Somebody who'd talk." "You saved me a long hunt." "What were you doing in that street this afternoon?" "You're not here to stop killing, but to kill." "I'm particular about who gets killed." "It would've been odd, you getting yours out there today." "All right, who's next?" "George, bartender at Mama Malone's." " He was in the card game?" " It was after hours, why not?" " He was in the hanging party?" " Right up front." "Bartender George, that makes five." "You make six, my brother makes seven." "How many more were in that game?" " Just one." " And when do I get that name?" " After you settle with George." " I see." "One at a time all the way, that's it?" "That's it." "This name you're keeping back." "Why save him for last?" "He led the hanging." "When I tried to stop him, he used a gun butt on me." "He's last because I want him to die once for every man in that game, and once for himself." "Besides, he'll be the toughest to take out." "Wouldn't like you hurt before your job is done." "I killed those men because they killed my brother." "What about you?" "Why did you want them dead?" "Because they were alive and I didn't want to be dead." "Any one of them could've found you." "They could be doing to me what I'm doing to them." "I see. "Do unto others."" "I've got just one rule:" "Me first, nobody second." "Name me somebody who don't feel that way." "You had to do it, if you're to keep up with Poe." "They say competition's the life of trade." "It'll be the death of me." "Don't complain, it's closing time and we're still full." "You'd better turn in so you can clean up this mess in the morning." "That is if you can sleep for the racket." "I was born in a bass drum and raised in a brass horn." "George!" "Get up!" "Get out here and clean up this sinkhole!" "Oh, my God!" "Pete, get someone from the Marshal's office, quick." " What for?" " Just get him." "George's room." "Stand you for a cup of coffee." " What's the matter?" " It's George." "I found him dead when I opened up this morning." " Pete, will you get Dr Cooper?" " Yes, sir." "Somebody shot a hole right through George's gut." "Must've been from close up." "There's powder burns on his vest." "What bastard would do a thing like that?" "He was a mean one." "Who'd shoot a man that was begging for his life?" "He was no beggar." "He wouldn't have said "please" to live 1,000 years." "It sure looks like he's begging, with his hands like that." "Or maybe praying, which comes to the same." "Praying?" "Not George." "The man they dug that one for ought to be buried over there." " In Strangers' Corner." " George was no stranger to you." " He sure was a strange colour." " We all look alike to the worms." "I took you for a fool." "I made a mistake." "Big mistake." "Forty-five calibre." "There had to be trouble before I got the last name." "Sure, once you got it, you'd kill me before you killed him." " So instead you're going to kill me." " It's bite or get bit, Reverend." "And I'm biting." "There's one thing you forgot." "Who'll take care of the last man?" " Van Morgan will be my pleasure." " Van Morgan." "I've had to believe you." "But I don't believe you tried to stop that hanging." "Stop it?" "Hell, I led it, just like I've been leading you." "Any last wish?" "Would you like a smoke?" "Would you like to say a prayer?" "I would like to pray." "Not for myself, for my brother." "Go ahead." "If you can find one to fit that card cheat." "Oh... but first, get rid of the gun." "Unknown, found hanged March 1, 1880." "It said that in the papers, too." "Did you know that?" "Get praying." "This man was lynched in Rincon, Colorado, that's what it said." " Then it said what he looked like." " He looked like every second man." "Height, weight, colour of eyes, hair." "That's not what brought me here, though." "Marshall Dana wrote something else." "Old knife scar, right shoulder." "That made it Frankie Red." "Well, Frankie." "I guess they didn't bury you with any gospel." "I'll try to make it up to you now." "This might be good for you, too." "Oh, come on, Frankie's waiting for you in hell." "I just had a thought." "When they find you, my old man will offer another thousand." "Only this time it'll be for me." " Here it is." " Come on." "Something for you... from the Book." ""'Vengeance is mine,' sayeth the Lord."" "But this day I am the Lord, and I repay." "I sure wouldn't want your job." "I heard about George, Van." "I'm sorry." "But we've got two US marshals coming in a week." "Anything else happen?" "I've got some real bad news for you, Mr Evers." "The worst." "But I don't like to tell you on a street corner." "I think you just told me, it's..." " It's Nick, isn't it?" " He was shot." " Nick's dead?" " Yes, honey." " Where is he?" " Over at Doc's house." "Come on, honey." "I talked to Mr Evers before he went home." "He'd like you at his son's funeral." " I'll see him at the graveyard." " The burial's gonna be at the ranch." "I'm taking the casket out there now, the family asked me to." "If you'd like to ride along with me, you're welcome." "I'll go by myself later on." "Catch up with you, maybe." "One for you, Nick." "Stoney." "Tinhorn." "Carson, Mace, Hurley." "And me." "I hope you win." "Can't miss." "I'm playing with six dead men." "Where are you going?" "For a horseback ride." "Wanna do me a favour, Mama?" "Depends." "If I'm not back by dark, will you flip that last chair up?" " What if you do get back?" " We'll sit down and play some cards." "About time." "If a man don't work, he ain't respectable." " Mr Rudd." " Mr Morgan." "Last time I came to the Evers ranch, I thought Nick was a lucky man." ""For every beast of the forest is mine."" "You've preached a lot of funerals lately." "Got anything new?" "The funeral's for the living." "I'll say that he was a good son and brother, a loyal friend and a good citizen." " Won't you gag on all that?" " Why should I?" "I'm a gambler, and I don't always bank on my cards or I'd be broke." "Like your opponents." "Every once in a while, something comes out of the air, and says something in your ear." " An hour ago it landed." " What did it say?" "It said, "This is it, play it."" "Well, then, play it." "You're the killer of Nick Evers and all the rest." "Make that executioner, of the criminals who killed my brother." "They hanged him for just some fast work with some cards." "George wasn't in the game." "Nick Evers swore he held that rope and so did you." "George wasn't there, and neither was I." "So Nick was the one who talked." "Looking back, he was due to go bad." "I thought he was too smart to get killed." "Nobody's too smart for that, not even you." "And not even you, Mr Rudd." "You left George for dead, but he lived to say something with his hands." "It didn't come to me till you turned that last chair over at the card table." "George wasn't praying, he wasn't begging." "He was trying to show who killed him, a man who prayed." "You won't be reading over Nick 'cause I'm taking you in." "There'll be no trouble, Mr Morgan." "But if you don't mind, first I'd like to read the rest of that psalm about the thousand hills." "Well, read." "Or can't you read upside down?" "If that's a Bible, read it." "If not, drop it." "Mr Rudd's the man we've been looking for, Mr Evers, the killer." "Of Nick, too?" "But why?" "I don't know about the others, but I think Nick got onto him like I did." "I won't see your father again, so would you say "so long" for me?" "I will, Van." "But I don't think he'll ever get over Nick." " You'd better, though." " I'll try." "But it's not like a bullet." "A bullet kills you or you heal up." " It's the first time you didn't say it." " Say what?" "That I'd be back." "That's right." "Do you know why?" "'Cause you don't give a damn any more." "I do." "But this is the first time I haven't been sure you'll be back." "Cards, dice and anything else, you're never sure of it." "One thing is:" "I give a damn about you." "A big damn." "Strange about Rudd." "He could've kept this place going." "So what was he before he was a preacher?" "Maybe he always was a preacher." "Lily, I'll see you in Denver in about a week, you know where." "If I'm not coming, I'll send you a four-flush." "Why must you be the first to say goodbye?" "I don't know if this is goodbye." "I'm used to the truth from you, a yes or a no." "This time the truth is maybe." "Give me a kiss." "That'll last me a week." " What if you don't show up?" " That'll mean the kiss wore off." "If you're not made of iron, I'll see you in Denver." "You sure didn't feel like iron."