"People did not give it credence that a young girl could leave home." "And go off in the winter time to avenge her father's blood." "But it did happen." "I was just fourteen years of age when a coward by the name of Tom Chaney shot my father down." "And robbed him of his life, and his horse." "And two California gold pieces that he carried in his trouser band." "Chaney was a hired man." "And Papa had taken him up to fort Smith to help lead back a string of mustang ponies he'd brought." "In town, Chaney had followed to drink." "And cards, and lost all his money." "He got it into his head he was being cheated." "And went back to the boarding house for his Henry Rifle." "When Papa tried to intervene." "Chaney shot him." "Chaney fled." "He could have walked his horse." "For not a soul in that city could be bothered to give chase." "No doubt Chaney fancied himself, Scott free." "But he was wrong." "You must pay for everything in this world, one way or another." "There is nothing free." "Except the grace of God." "Is that the man?" "That is my father." "If you would like to kiss him," "It would be all right." "He's gone home." "Praise the Lord." "Why is it so much?" "The quality of the casket." "And of the embalming." "The life like appearance requires time and art." "And the chemicals come dear, the particulars are in your bill." "If you'd like to kiss him, It would be all right." "Thank you, the spirit has flown." "Your wire said fifty dollars." "You did not specify that he was to be shipped." "Well sixty dollars is every cent we have." "It leaves nothing for our board." "Yarnell you can see to the body's transport to the train station, and accompany it home." "I'll will have to sleep here tonight." "I still have to collect father's things and see to some other business." "Your mama didn't say nothing about you settling no business here." "It is business mama doesn't know about." "It's all right Yarnell, I dismiss you." "I am not sure." "Tell mama not to sign anything until I return home and see that Papa is buried in his Mason's apron." "Your terms are agreeable, if I might pass the night here." "Here, among these people?" " These people?" " I'm expecting three more souls." "Sullivan, Smith, and Histongue in the rain." "Ladies and gentlemen, beware." "And train up your children in the way that they should go." "You see what has become of me." "Because of drink." "I killed a man." "In a trifling quarrel over a pocket knife." "If I had received good instruction as a child..." "Can you point out the sheriff?" "Him with the moustaches." "I would be with my wife and children today." "I do not know what is to become of them." "But I hope and pray that she will not slight them, and compel them to go into low company." "Well." "I killed the wrong man, as the which of why I'm here." "Had I killed the man I meant to." "I don't believe I'd have been convicted." "I see men out there in that crowd, that's worse than me." "Okay." "Before I am hanged, I would like to say." "Although..." "No, we haven't arrested him." "Haven't caught up to him, he lit out for the territory." "I would think that he's thrown in with Lucky Ned Pepper, who's gang robbed a mail hack yesterday on the Poteau river." "Well, why are you not looking for him?" "I have no authority in the Indian Nation." "Tom Chaney is the business of the U.S Marshall's now." "When will they arrest him?" "Not soon, I'm afraid, the Marshall's are not well staffed." "And I'll tell you, frankly, Chaney's at the end of a long list of fugitives and malefactors." "Could I hire a Marshall to pursue Tom Chaney?" "You have a lot of experience with bounty hunters, do you?" "That is a silly question." "I am here to settle my father's affairs." " All alone?" " Well I am the person for it." "Mama was never any good at sums." "And she could hardly spell "cat"." "I intend to see Papa's killer hanged." "Well, nothing prevents you from offering a reward and so informing the Marshall's." "It would have to pay real money though, to be persuasive." "Chaney's across the river, in Choctaw nation." "I will see to the money." "Who's the best Marshall?" "I'd have to weigh that." "William Waters, is the best tracker." "He's half Comanche, and it is something to see him cut for signs." "The meanest, is Rooster Cogburn." "He is a pitiless man." "Double tough." "Fear don't enter into his thinking." "Hmm, he loves to pull cork." "The best is probably, L.T. Quinn." "He brings his prisoners in alive." "Now he may let one slip by," "Now and again, but he believes that even the worst of men, is entitled to a fair shake." "Where can I find this, Rooster?" "The jakes is occupied." "I know it is occupied Mr. Cogburn." "As I said, I have business with you." "I have prior business." "You've been at it for quite some time, Mr. Cogburn." "There is no clock on my business." "To hell with you!" "How did you stalk me here?" "The sheriff told me to look in the saloon." "In the saloon, they referred me here, we must talk." "Women aren't allowed in the saloon." "I was not there as a customer." "I am fourteen years old." "Well, the jakes is occupied." "Will be for some time." "Good evening." "If you would like to sleep in a coffin, it would be alright." "How much are you paying for cotton?" "Nine and a half, for low and middling and ten for ordinary." "We got most of ours out early, and sold to the Woodson Brothers in Little Rock for eleven cents." "Then I suggest you take the balance of it to the Woodson Brothers." "I did take the balance to Woodson." "We got ten and a half." "Why did you come here to tell me this?" "I thought we might shop around up here next year but I guess we're doing all right in Little Rock." "I'm Mattie Ross." "Daughter of Frank Ross." "Aw, tragic thing." "May I say, your father impressed me." "With his manly qualities." "He was a close trader, but he acted a gentleman." "My proposal was to sell those ponies back to you, that my father brought." "Well that I fear, is out of the question." "I will see that they are shipped to you, at my earliest convenience." "We don't want the ponies now, we don't need them." "Well that hardly concerns me." "Your father brought the ponies, and paid for them." "And there's an end to it." "I have the bill of sale." "And I want $300 for Papa's saddle horse that was stolen from your stable." "You'll have to take that up with the man who stole the horse." "Tom Chaney stole the horse while it was in your care." "You were responsible." "Yeah, I admire your sand." "But I believe you will find I'm not liable for such claims." "You were the custodian." "If you were a bank that were robbed." "You could not simply tell your depositors to go hang." "I do not entertain hypotheticals." "The world as it is vexing enough." "Secondly your evaluation of the horse is high." "By about two hundred dollars." "How old are you?" "If anything, my purse is low." "My Judy is a fine racing mare." "I've seen her jump an eight rail fence with a heavy rider." "I am fourteen." "Oh, it's all very interesting." "The ponies are yours, take them." "Your father's horse was stolen by a murderous criminal." "I have provided reasonable protection for the creature as per our implicit agreement." "My watchman had his teeth knocked out, and can take only soup." "I will take it to law." "You have no case." "Lawyer J. Noble Daggett of Dardanell Arkansas" "May think otherwise." "As might a jury." "Petitioned by a widow and three small children." "I will pay two hundred dollars to your fathers estate." "When I have in my hand a letter from your lawyer, absolving me of all liability from the beginning of the world to today." "I'll take two hundred dollars for Judy, plus one hundred for the ponies." "And twenty five dollars for the Grey horse that Tom Chaney left." "He was easily worth, forty." "That is three hundred and twenty five dollars, sold." "The ponies have no part in it." "I will not buy them." "And the price for Judy is three hundred and twenty five dollars." "I would not pay three hundred and twenty five dollars for a winged Pegasus." "As for the Grey horse, it does not belong to you." "The Grey horse was lent to Tom Chaney by my father." "Chaney only had the use of him." "I would pay two hundred and twenty five dollars." "And keep the Grey horse." "I don't want the ponies." "I can't accept that." "There will be no settlement after I leave this office." "It will go to law." "All right, this is my last offer." "Two hundred and fifty dollars." "For that I get the release, previously discussed." "And I keep your father's saddle." "The Grey horse is not yours to sell." "The saddle is not for sale." "I will keep it." "My Lawyer Dagget will prove ownership of the Grey horse." " He will come after you with a writ of replevin." " A what?" " Writ of replevin." " All right, now look, look." "Listen very carefully." "As I will not bargain further." "I will take the ponies back, and the Grey horse." "Which is mine." "And settle..." "For three hundred dollars." "Now you must take that or leave it." "And I do not much care which it is." "My Lawyer Daggert would not wish me to consider anything under three hundred and twenty five dollars." "But I will settle for three hundred and twenty." "If I am given the twenty in advance." "Now here's what I have to say about that saddle." "Frank Ross's daughter." "Oh, my poor child." "Oh, oh child." "Now you going to stay with us, or you hurrying back home to your momma?" "I'll stay here, if you can have me." "I just had my stay at the undertakers." "In the company of three corpses." "I felt like Ezekiel." "In valley of the dry bones." "Then, God bless you." "Now you will be rooming with, Grandma Turner." "We've had to double up, with all the people in town come to see the hanging." "This was in your poor father's room." "That is everything." "There are no light fingers in this house." "If you need something for to tote the gun around?" "I can give you an empty flour sack for a nickel." "Well what did you see when you arrived?" "A woman, was out in the yard." "Dead with blow flies on her face." "An old man was inside with his breast blown open by a scatter gun." "His feet burned." "He was still alive, but just was." "Said those two Wharton boys had done it." " Rode up, drunk." " Objection." "Hearsay." "Dying declaration, your honor." "Objection's overruled." "Proceed Mr. Cogburn." "Now them two Wharton boys, Odus and C.C. throwed down on him." "Asked him where his money was, when he wouldn't tell them." "They lit pine knots, held them to his feet." "He told them the money was in the fruit jar." "Under a Grey rock at the corner of the smoke house." "And then?" "Well he died on us, passed away in considerable pain." "What did you do then?" "Me and Marshall Potter went out to the smoke house." "And that rock had been moved, the jar with the money in it was gone." " Objection, speculative." " Sustained." "You found a flat Grey rock, in the corner of the smoke house." "With a hollowed out space there." "If the prosecutor is going to give evidence, I suggest he be sworn." "Mr. Cogburn." "What did you find, if anything, in the corner of that smokehouse?" "Found a flat Grey rock with a hollowed out space under it, nothing there." " Well what did you...?" " No jar or nothing." "What did you do then?" "Well, rode up to the Wharton's near where the north fork strikes the Canadian...." "What did you find?" "...branch of the Canadian." "I had my glass, spotted them two boys and their old daddy Aaron." "Down in the creek bank with some hogs." "They killed a shoat." "Had a fire built up under a wash pot for scalding water." "What did you do?" "Announced we was U.S. Marshall's, I hollered out to Aaron." "I needed to talk to his two boys." "He raised an axe." "Commenced to cussing us and blackguarding this court." "What did you do then?" "I backed away from the axe." "Tried to talked some sense into him." "While this was going on C.C. he edges over to the wash pot there,behind the steam." "Picks up a shot gun." "Potter seen him, but it was to late." "C.C. Wharton pulled out on Potter with one barrel." "Turned to do the same for me and I shot him." "And the old man raised the axe." "And I shot him." "Odus lit out, and I shot him." "C.C. Wharton and Aaron Wharton was dead when they hit the ground, but Odus was just winged." "Did you find the jar with a hundred and twenty dollars in it?" " Leading." " Sustained." "What happened then?" "Found a jar with a hundred and twenty dollars in it." "What became of Odus Wharton?" "There he sits." "You may ask, Mr. Goudy." "Thank you Mr. Barlow." "Mr. Cogburn." "In your four years as a U.S. Marshall." "How many men have you shot?" "Never shot nobody that didn't ask for it." "Well that was not the question." "How many?" "Shot or killed?" "Let us restrict it to "killed", so that we may have a manageable figure." "About twelve." "Fifteen stopping men in flight, defending myself, et cetera." "Around twelve he says." "Or fifteen." "So many, you cannot keep a precise count." "I have examined the records, and can supply the accurate figure." "Uhh..." "I believe them two Wharton boys makes it twenty three." "And how many members of this one family, the Wharton family, have you killed?" " Immediate or..." " Did you also shoot Dub Wharton, brother?" "And Clete Wharton, half brother." "Well Clete was selling ardent spirits to the Cherokee." "He come at me with a king bolt" "A King bolt?" "You are armed, and he advanced upon you." "With nothing more than a king bolt?" "From a wagon tongue?" "I've seen men badly torn up with nothing bigger than a king bolt." "I defended myself." "Returning to the other encounter." "With Aaron Wharton, and his two remaining sons." "You sprang from cover." "With revolver in hand." " That would be it." " Loaded and cocked." "Well if it isn't loaded and cocked, it don't shoot." "And like his son, Aaron Wharton advanced against an armed man." "Well he was armed, he had an axe raised." "I believe you testified you backed away from Aaron Wharton?" " That's right." " Which direction were you going?" "I always go backwards, when I'm backing up." "Very amusing." "Now he advanced upon you much in the manner of Clete Wharton." "Menacing you with that little old King bolt, or rolled up newspaper, or whatever it was." "Yes sir, he commit to cussing and" " Laying about a threat." " And you were backing away?" "How many steps before the shooting started?" "Uh, seven to eight steps." "Good, Aaron Wharton keeping pace." "Advancing away from his campfire." "Seven, eight, steps." "What would that be?" "Fifteen, twenty feet?" "I suppose." "Will you explain to this jury, Mr. Cogburn." "Why Mr. Wharton was found immediately by his wash pot, one arm in the fire." "His sleeve and hand smoldering." "Did you move the body after you shot him?" "Why would I do that?" "You did not drag the body over to the fire and fling his arm in." " No, sir." " Two witnesses." "Who arrived on the scene will testify to the location of the body." "You do not remember moving the body." "So it was, a cold blooded bushwhack, while poor Mr. Wharton was tending to his campfire." "Objection." "If that's where the body was, I might have moved him." "I do not remember." "Why, would you move the body, Mr. Cogburn?" "Them hogs, rooting around, they might have moved him." "I do not remember." "Pencil neck, son of a bitch." " Mr. Cogburn?" " What is it?" "I'd like to talk to you a minute." "What is it?" "They tell me you're a man with, True Grit." "What do you want, girl?" "Speak up, it's suppertime." "Let me do that." "Your makings are too dry." "I'm looking for the man who shot and killed my father, Frank Ross in front of the Monarch boarding house." "The man's name is Tom Chaney." "They say he's over in Indian territory, and I need somebody to go after him." "What's your name, girl?" "My name is Mattie Ross." "We're located in Yell County." "My mother is at home looking after my sister Victoria and my brother Little Frank." "You best go home to them." "They will need help with the churning." "There is a fugitive warrant out for Chaney." "Government will pay you two dollars for bringing him in plus ten cents a mile for each of you." "On top of that, I will pay you a fifty dollar reward." "What are you?" "What have you got there in your poke?" "My God, a Colt's Dragoon." "You're no bigger than a corn nubbin." "What are you doing with a pistol like that?" "Well I intend to kill Tom Chaney with it." " Kill Tom Chaney?" " If the law fails to do so." "Well that piece will do the job for you." "If you can find a high stump to rest it on, and a wall to put behind you." "Nobody here knew my father and I'm afraid nothing is going to be done about Chaney except I do it." "My brother is a child, and my mother is indecisive and hobbled by grief." "I don't believe you have fifty dollars." "I have a contract with Colonel Stonehill, which he will make payment on tomorrow, or the next day." "Once our lawyer countersigns." "Don't believe in fairy tales or sermons or stories about money, baby sister." "But thanks for the cigarette." "Isn't your Mama expecting you home, dear?" "My business is not yet finished." "Mrs. Floyd, have any rooms opened up?" "Grandma Turners, the bed is quite narrow." "The second floor in the back did open up." "But uh, that gentleman on the porch, has just taken it." "Oh but don't worry yourself, dear." "You're not disturbing Grandma Turner." "My name is laboeuf." "I've just come from Yell County." "We have no rodeo clowns in Yell County." "A saucy line will not get you far with me." "I saw your mother yesterday morning." "She said for you to come right on home." "What was your business there?" "This is a man I think you know." "You called him, Tom Chaney." "I believe." "Though in the months I've been tracking him he has used the names, Theron Chelmsford," "John Todd Anderson, and others." "He dallied in Monroe, Louisiana, and Pine Bluff, Arkansas." "Before turning up at your fathers place." "Then why did you not catch him at, Pine Bluff, Arkansas or Monroe, Louisiana?" "He is a crafty one." "I thought him slow witted myself." "That was his act." "It was a good one." "Are you some kind of law?" "That's right" "I'm a Texas Ranger." "That may make you a big noise in that state." "In Arkansas you should mind that your Texas Rangers trappings and title do not make you an object of fun." "Why have you been ineffectually pursuing Chaney?" "He shot and killed a state senator named Bibbs in Waco, Texas." "The Bibb's family put out a reward." "How came Chaney to shoot a state senator?" "My understanding is there was an argument about a dog." "Do you know anything about the whereabouts of Chaney?" "He is in the territory, and I hold out little hope for you earning your bounty." " Why is that?" " I'm going to beat you to it." "I've hired a deputy Marshall." "The toughest one they have." "And he's familiar with the Lucky Ned Pepper gang they say Chaney's tied up with." "Well, I will throw in with you and your Marshall." "No, Marshall Cogburn and I are fine." "It'll be to our mutual advantage." "Your Marshall, I presume, knows the territory." "I know Chaney." "It is at least a two man job to take him alive." "When Chaney is taken he's coming back to Fort Smith to hang." "I'm not having him go to Texas to hang for shooting some Senator." "It is not important where he hangs, is it?" "It is to me." "Is it to you?" "It means a great deal of money to me, it's been many month's work." "Well I'm sorry that you are paid piece work and not on wages." "And that you have been eluded the winter long by a half wit." "You give out very little sugar with your pronouncements." "While I sat there watching you, I gave some thought to stealing a kiss." "But you are very young and sick, and unattractive to boot, but now I have a mind to give you five or six good licks with my belt." "That wouldn't be as unpleasant as the other." "If you wet your comb, you might tame that cowlick." "Mattie, I wish you would leave these matters entirely to me or at the very least give me the courtesy of consulting me before entering such agreements." "I am not scolding you, but I am saying your head strong ways, will lead you into a tight corner one day." "I trust the enclosed document will let you conclude your business and return to Yell County." "Yours, J. Noble Daggett." "I was as bad yesterday as you look today." "Of course you don't share a bed with Grandma Turner." "I'm not acquainted with Grandma Turner." "She's a resident of this city, it does not surprise me that she Carries disease." "This malarial place has ruined my health." "As it has my finances." "I owe you money." "You have not traded poorly." "Oh, certainly not!" "I'm paying you for a horse." "I do not possess." "And I brought back a string of useless ponies." "Which I cannot sell again." "You're forgetting the Grey horse." " Crow bait!" " You are looking at the thing in the wrong light." "I am looking at it in the light of Gods eternal truth." "Your illness is putting you down in the dumps." "You will soon find another buyer for the ponies." "Well I have a tentative offer for ten dollars per head." "From the "Pfitzer Soap Works" of Little Rock" "It would be a shame to destroy such spirited horse flesh." "So it would." "I'm confident the deal will fall through." "Look here, I need a pony and I will pay ten dollars for one of them." "No that's a lot price, no, no, I." "Wait a minute." "Are we trading again?" "This one is beautiful." "He don't know he got a rider." "You're to light." "He thinks he has a horsefly on him." "He's very spirited." "I'll call him 'Little Blackie'." "That's a good name." "What does he like for a treat?" "Well ma'am, he's a horse." "So he likes apples." "Thank Mr. Stonehill for me." "No ma'am, I am not suppose to utter your name." "See?" "sleep." "That is fine, I will wake him." "Marshall Cogburn?" "It is I, Mattie Ross, your employer." "How long 'till you are ready to go?" " Go where?" " Into to the Indian Territory in pursuit of Tom Chaney." "Oh, you're the grieved girl with the stories of El Dorado." "Huh, how much money you got there?" "I did say fifty dollars to retrieve Chaney, you did not believe me?" "I did not know." "You are one to figure." "How long for you to make ready to depart?" "Well uh, hold on sis." "I remember your offer, I do not remember agreeing to it." "If I'm to go up against, Ned Pepper." "Then I'll need a hundred dollars." "That much I can tell you." "A hundred dollars." "To retrieve your man, a hundred dollars." "Will take a fifty dollar advance." "It'll be for expenses." "You are trying to take advantage of me." "I'm giving you the children's rate." "I'm not a sharper." "I'm an old man sleeping in a rope bed." "In a room behind the Chinese grocery." " I have nothing." " You want to be kept in whiskey." "I don't have to buy that." "I'd confiscate it." "I'm an officer of the court." "Ah, thank you." "Hundred dollars, that's the rate." "Then I shall not niggle." "Can we depart this afternoon?" "We?" "You are not going, that is no part of it." "You have misjudged me if you think I'm silly enough to give you fifty dollars and watch you simply ride off." "I'm a bonded U.S. Marshall." "That weighs but little with me." "I will see the thing done." "Goddamn ducks, I can't go after Ned Pepper, and a band of hard men and look after a baby at the same time." "I am not a baby." "Won't be stopping at boarding houses, where there's warm bed and hot grub on the table." "I'd be grabbing the saddle, eating light." "What little sleeping is done would only take place on the ground." "Well I have slept out a night before." "Papa took me and Little Frank coon hunting last summer on the Petit Jean." "We were in the woods all night." "We sat around a big fire and Yarnell told ghost stories." "We had a good time." "Coon hunting?" "This is no coon hunt." "It is the same idea as a coon hunt." "Don't come within forty miles of being a coon hunt." "You are just trying to make your work sound harder than it is." "Here's the money." "Now I aim to get Tom Chaney, and if you are not gamed, I will find somebody who is game." "All I've heard out of you so far is talk." "I know you can drink whiskey, and snore and spit and wallow in filth and bemoan your station." "The rest has been braggadocio." "They told me you had grit, and that is why I came to you." "I'm not paying for talk." "I can get all the talk I need and more at the Monarch boarding house." "Leave your money." "Meet me here at seven o'clock tomorrow morning and we can begin our coon hunt." "Dearest mother," "I'm about to embark on a great adventure." "I have learned that Tom Chaney has fled into the wild." "And I shall assist the authorities in pursuit." "You know that Papa would want me to be firm in the right." "As he always was." "So do not fear on my account." "Though I walk through the valley, of the shadow of death." "I shall fear no evil." "The author of all things watches over me, and..." "I have a fine horse." "Kiss little Frankie for me, and pinch Violet's cheek." "My Papa's death will soon be avenged." "I am off for the Choctaw Nation." "Where is Marshall Cogburn?" "Went away." "Left this." "Here inside is a train ticket for your return home." "Use it." "By the time you read this, I will be across the river in the Indian Nation." "Pursuit will be futile." "I will return with your man, Chaney." "Leave me to my work." "Rueben Cogburn." "Is that Rooster Cogburn?" "That is the man." "Who's he with?" "I do not know." "Well take me across." "So, you're the runaway." "Marshall told me you'd show up." "I'm to present you to the Sheriff." "That is a story, let go of my horse." "I have business across the river." "If you don't turn around and take me across, you may find yourself in court where you don't want to be." "I have a good lawyer." "HEY!" "Go, Little Blackie." "Come on." "That is quite a horse." "I would give you ten dollars for him." "From the money you stole from me?" "That was not stolen, I'm after your man." "I was to accompany you." "If I do not there is no agreement and my money was stolen." "Let's put this child back on the ferry" "It's a long road and time's a wasting." "If I go back it's to the U.S. Marshals office to report the theft of my money." "And futile Marshall Cogburn?" ""Pursuit would be futile"?" "It's not spelled, F-U-D-E-L." "It's time for your spanking." "Now you would DO as the grown ups say." "Or I will get myself a birch switch and strap your leg." "Are you going to let him do this, Marshall." "No, I don't believe I will." "Put your switch away, laboeuf." "I aim to finish what I started." "That'll be the biggest mistake you ever made." "Let's check this brass popper." "you Texas brush-popper" "Hoorawed by a little girl." "I am not accustomed to so large a fire." "In Texas, we will make do with a fire of little more than twigs or buffalo chips, ... to heat the nights rations of beans." "And it is Ranger, policy never to make the camp in the same place as your cook fire." "Very imprudent to make your presence known in unsettled country." "How do you know Bagby will have intelligence?" "He has a store." "That makes him an authority on movements in the Territory?" "We have entered a wild place." "And anyone coming in, wanting any kind of supply." "cannot pick and choose his portal." "That is a piece of foolishness." "All the snakes are asleep this time of year." "They've been known to wake up." "Well let me have a rope, too." "Likely not bother you." "You are to little and bony." "You should fetch the water, for the morning, put it by the fire." " The creek will ice over, tonight." " I'm not going down there again." "If you want anymore water, you can go fetch it yourself." "You're lucky to be traveling in a place where a spring is so handy." "In my country you could ride for days and see no ground water." "I have lapped filthy water from a hoof print." "And was glad to have it." "If I ever meet one of you Texas waddies." "Who says he had never drank water out of a horse track." "I think I'd shake his hand and give him a Daniel Webster cigar." "You do not believe it?" "Oh, I believe it, the first twenty five times I heard it." "Maybe, maybe just true." "Maybe lapping water off the ground is Ranger policy." "You're getting ready to show your ignorance now, Cogburn." "I don't mind a little personal chaffing." "But I won't hear anything against the Ranger troop from a man like you." "How long you boys been mounted on sheep down there?" "My white Appaloosa will still be galloping, when that big American stud of yours is winded and collapsed." "Now make another joke about it." "You are only trying to put on a show for this girl, Mattie." "With what you must think is a keen tongue." "This is like women talking." "Yes, that is the way." "Make me out foolish in this girls eyes." "I think she has you pretty well figured." "Would you two like to hear the story of The Midnight Caller?" "One of you is going to have to be The Caller." "And I will tell you what to say." "And I will do all the other parts myself." " Good morning, Marshall." " Morning." "Where is Mr. laboeuf?" "Down by the creek performing his necessaries." "Marshall Cogburn, I welcome the chance for a private parley." "I gather that you and Mr. laboeuf have come to some some sort of agreement." "And as your employer I believe I have a right to know the particulars." "The particulars?" "Is that we bring Chaney down to the magistrate, in San Saba, Texas wherein there's a considerable reward on him for which we split." "I did not want him brought to Texas, to have a Texas punishment administered for a Texas crime." "That was not our agreement." "What you want is to have him caught and punished." "I want him to know he's being punished for killing my father." "Well, you can let him know that." "You can tell him to his face." "You can spit on him." "Make him eat sand out on the road." "I will hold him down." "If you what." "I'll flay the flesh off the souls of his feet." "Find you Indian pepper you can rub in his wound." "Isn't that a hundred dollar value?" "No, it is not." "When I have bought and paid for something, I will have my way." "Why do you think I'm paying you, if not to have my way?" "It's time for you to learn." "You cannot have your way." "In every little particular." "If you find I failed to satisfied your terms." "I'll return your money at the end of this expedition." "Little Blackie and I are ridding back to the U.S. Marshall's office, this is fraud." "God damn it!" "What's going on?" "This is a business conversation." "Is that what you call it?" "It sounds to me like you're still being hoorawed by a little girl." " Did you say hoorawed?" " That was the word." "There is no hoorawing in it." "My agreement with the Marshall antedates yours." "It has the force of law." "The force of law?" "This man is a notorious thumper." "He rode by the light of the moon with Quantrill." " And Bloody Bill Anderson." " Them men was patriots, Texas trash!" "They murdered women and children in Lawrence, Kansas." "That's a God damn lie!" "What army was you in, Mister?" "I was at Shreveport." "First with Kirby Smith, then with..." "What side was you on?" "I was in the army of Northern Virginia, Cogburn." "And I don't have to hang my head when I say it." "If you had served with Captain Quantrill." "Captain!" "Captain Quantrill." "That...indeed." " You'd had best let this go, laboeuf." " Captain of what?" "Good then." "There's not sufficient dollars in the state of Texas, to make it worth my while to listen to your business." "Our agreement is nullified." "That suits me." "It's each man for himself." "Congratulations, Cogburn." "You've graduated from a marauder, to wet nurse." "Adios." "We don't need him, do we Marshall?" "Going to miss his Sharps Carbine." "It's apt to get lively out here." "HEY!" "Go on." "You stay here, sister." "And I'm going to see Bagby." "Has Chaney been here?" "No." "Coke Hayes was, two days ago." "Coke rides with Lucky Ned." "He brought supplies with this." "Well this is Papa's gold piece." "Tom Chaney here we come." "Not the worlds only California gold piece." "They are rare here." "They are rare." "But if it is, Chaney's." "It could just as easily mean that Lucky Ned and his gang fell upon him as he fell in with them." "Chaney could be a corpse." "That would be a bitter disappointment Marshall, what do we do?" "Um, pursue them." "Ned's unfinished business for the Marshall's anyhow." "When we have him, we'll also have Chaney." "Or we can know the whereabouts of his body." "Bagby didn't know which way they went." "But now that we know they come through here." "They couldn't have gone but one of two ways." "Heading north, towards the Winding Stair Mountains." "Or pushing further west." "I suspect north, there is more to rob." "I found an eating place, called The Green Frog." "Started calling myself, Burroughs." "But my drinking picked up." "My wife did not care for the company of my river friends." "She decided to go back to her first husband." "He was a clerk in a hardware store." "That was when she said, "Goodbye Ruben"." "'A love of decency, does not abide in you."" "There's your divorced woman talking about decency." "I told her, goodbye Nola." "Hope that little nail selling bastard will keep you happy this time." "She took my boy with her too." "He never cared for me anyway." "I guess I did speak awful rough to him." "I did not mean anything by it." "I've never seen a clumsier child than, Horace." "I'll bet he broke forty cups." "Is it, Chaney?" "I would not recognize the souls of his feet." "Well, you'll have to clamber up and look." "I'm to old and to fat." "Now the Green Frog had one billiard table." "Served ladies and men both, but... mostly men, had been running it for myself for a while, but couldn't keep good help." "Never did learn how to buy meat." "Is that him?" "I believe not." "Well, cut him down." "Why?" "I might know him." "That was when I went out to the staked plains of Texas." "Shoot buffaloes with Vernon Shaftoe and a flathead Indian name Olly." "The Mormons had run Saftoe out of great Salt Lake city." "But don't ask me what for." "Thought it was a misunderstanding and leave it go at that." "Ah, the Big Shaggies." "They're all gone now." "Damn shame." "Give three dollars right now for a pickled buffalo tongue." "Why did they hang him so high?" "I do not know." "Probably in the belief that it'll make him more dead." "I do not know this man." "Why is he taking the hanged man?" "Did he know him?" "He did not." "But it is a dead body." "Must be worth something in the trade." "Now my second wife, Edna." "She got the notion, She wanted me to be a lawyer." "Bought this heavy book called, "Daniels on Negotiable Instruments"." "Set me to reading it." "Never could get a grip on it." "I was happy enough to set it aside and leave Texas." "There aren't six trees between here and Canada, Nothing else grows that has stickers on it." "As for..." " I knew it." " Knew what?" "We're being followed." "I asked that injun to signal me a shot if someone was on our trail." "Should we be concerned, Marshall?" "No, Mr. laboeuf is using us as bird dogs." "In hopes of cutting in once we've flushed the prey." "Well, perhaps werhaps we could double back over our tracks and confuse the trail in a clever way." "No, we will wait right here." "Offer our friend a warm hello." "Ask him where he's going." "You are not laboeuf." "My name is, Forster." "I practice," "Dentistry in the nation." "Also veterinary arts." "And medicine." "On those humans that will sit still for it." "You have your work cut out for you there." "Traded for him with an Indian who said he came by him honestly." "I gave up two dental mirrors and a bottle of expectorant." "Do either of you need" "Medical attention?" "No." "Say, it is fixing to get cold." "Do you know of anywhere to take shelter?" "I have my bear skin." "You might want to head over to the Original Greaser Bob's." "He notched a dugout into a hollow along the Carrillon River." "If you ride the river." "You won't fail to see it." "Greaser Bob, the original." "Greaser Bob, is hunting north of the picket wire." "and would not begrudge its use." " Much obliged." " Now, I have taken his teeth." "I will entertain an offer, for the rest of him." "Take my jacket." "Creep up onto the roof." "If they're unfriendly I'll give you a sign to damp the chimney." "Who is out there?" "We're looking for shelter." "No room for you here." "Ride on." " Who all's in there?" " Ride on." "I'm a federal officer." "Who's in there?" "A Methodist and a son of a bitch." "This is Rooster Cogburn." "Columbus Potter and five other Marshall's is out here with me." "We've got a buck of coal oil." "In one minute we will burn you out from both ends." "There's only two of you." "Go ahead and bet your life on it." "How many of you is in there?" "Just the two of us." "But my partner's hit." "And he can't walk." "Is that Emmet Quincy?" "You said it was a man on the roof." "I thought it was Potter." "You were always dumb Quincy, and remain true to form." "Seems an awful lot of sofky." "You boys looking for company?" "That is our supper and breakfast both." "I like a big breakfast." "Sofky always cooks up bigger than you think." "And a good store of whiskey here as well." "What are you boys up to outside of cooking banquets?" "We were just having our supper." "We didn't know who was out there, weather like this." "It might have been some crazy man." "Anyone can say that he is a Marshall." "My leg hurts." "I bet it does." "When was the last time you see your old pard, Ned Pepper?" "I do not know him." "Who is he?" "I'm surprised you don't remember him." "He's a skinny fellow, nervous and quick." "His lip's all messed up." "That don't bring anybody to mind." "There's a new boy." "Might be running with Ned." "He'll have a powder mark on his face, black place." "Calls himself Chaney." "Or Chelmsford sometimes." "Carries a Henry rifle." "That don't bring anybody to mind." "Black mark, I would remember that." "You don't remember nothing right now, do you Quincy?" "What do you know, Moon?" "We don't know those boys you're looking for." "I don't know those boys." "I always try to help out the law." "Know by the time we get to Fort Smith, that leg will be swelled up tight as Dick's hat band." "It'll be mortified." "Then they'll have to cut it off." "Then if you live, I will get you two or three years in the federal house," " up in Detroit, there." " You are trying to get at me." "They'll teach you how to read and write up there." "The rest, won't be so good." "Them boys, they can be hard on a gimp." "You are trying to get at me." "Now." "You give me some good information on Ned." "I'll take you down to Bagby store tomorrow, and get that ball taken out of your leg." "Then I'll give you three days to clear the territory." "We don't know those boys you're looking for." " It isn't even his leg." " I was..." "Don't go flapping your mouth now, it's best you let me do the talking." " I would say if I.." " We are weary trappers." "Who worked you over with the ugly stick?" "The man Chaney with the marked face, killed my father." "He was a whiskey drinker like you and it led to killing in the end." "If you answer the Marshall's questions, he will help you." "I have a good lawyer, and I know he will help you too." "I'm puzzled by this." "Why is she here?" "Don't go jawing with these people, Moon." "Don't you go jawing with that runt." "I don't like you." "I hope you go to jail my lawyer will not help you." "My leg is giving me fits." "A young fellow like you don't want to lose his leg." "Easy, now." "He's trying to get at you." " With the truth." " We seen Ned and Hayes two days ago." "Don't you act the fool!" "If you blow, I will kill you!" "I'm played out, I need a doctor." "We met Ned and Haze two days ago." "God damn it." "Oh Lord." "I'm dying." "Do something." "Help me." "I can do nothing for you, son." "Your pard has killed you and I have done for him." "Don't leave me lying here." "Don't let the wolves rip me up." "I'll see you're buried right." "Tell me about Ned." "Where did you see him?" "Two days ago." "Bagby's store." "They are coming here tonight to get remounts and sofky." "They just robbed the Katy Flyer at the Wagoner's switch." "I'm gone." "Send the news to my brother, George Garrett." "He is a Methodist circuit rider in South Texas." "Shall I tell him you was outlawed up?" "It don't matter." "He knows I am on the scout." "I will meet him later, walking the streets of glory." "Well don't be looking for Quincy." "What will we do when they get here?" "When they ride up, what we want is to get them all in the dugout." "I'll kill them the last one that goes in, then we'll have them in a barrel." "You will shoot him in the back?" "Mmm, It'll give them to know our intentions are serious." "Then I'll call down." "See if they'll be taken alive." "If they won't." "I'll shoot them as they come out." "I'm hoping that three of their party being dead will take the starch out of them." "You display great poise." "Aw, it's just a turkey shoot." "One time, in New Mexico, we was being pursued by seven men." "I turned Bo around and taken them reins in my teeth, rode right at them boys firing them two navy sixes I carry in my saddle." "Well..." "I guess they was all married men who loved their families, as they scattered and run for home." "That is hard to believe." " What is?" " One man riding at seven." "Well, it's true." "You go for a man hard enough and fast enough," "He don't have time to think about how many is with him, he thinks about himself." "And how he might get clear of that wrath that's about to set down on him." "Why were they pursuing you?" "I robbed a high interest bank." "You can't rob a thief, can you?" "Never robbed a citizen." "Never took a mans watch." "It is all stealing." "That's the position they took in New Mexico." "One man." "Did not figure them to send a scout." "Damn" "It is laboeuf." "We have to warn him, Marshall." "Too late." "What do we do, Marshall?" "We sit." "What does he do?" "Him in the woolly chaps is Lucky Ned." "Well, that's that." "Well that didn't pan out." "You managed to put a kink in my rope, pardner." "I am severely injured." "Yes, you got drug some." "I was also shot." "By a rifle." "That is quite possible." "The scheme did not develop as I had planned." "You've been shot in the shoulder, but the bullet passed through." "What happened to your mouth?" "I believe I bit myself." "A couple of teeth loose and... ah yeah." "The tongue, bit almost through." "Do you want to see if it will knit, or should I just yank it free?" "I know a teamster." "Who bit his tongue off being thrown from a horse." "After a time he learned to make himself more or less understood." "I'll just yank it free." "What's that now?" "Knit." "Let it knit." "Ah, very well." "It's impossible to bind a tongue wound." "Too bad, we just run across a doctor of sorts." " Marshall?" " of sorts, but I do not know where he was headed." "I saw him too, that's how I came to be here." "Neither of these men are Chaney." "I know it, I know them both." "That ugly one is Coke Hayes." "Him uglier still is Clement Parmalee" "Parmalee and his brothers have a silver claim in the Winding Stair Mountains and I bet that's where Lucky Ned's gang is waiting." "Well, we'll sleep here." "We'll follow in the morning." "But we promised to bury the poor soul inside." "Ground is too hard." "If them men wanted a decent burial, they should have gotten themselves killed in summer." "Sleep well, Little Blackie." "I have a notion that tomorrow we will reach our objective." "We're hot on the trail." "It seems that we will overtake Tom Chaney in the Winding Stair Mountains." "I would not want to be in his shoes." "As I understand it, Chaney, or Chelmsford, as he called himself in Texas." "Shot the Senator's dog." "When the Senator remonstrated." "Chelmsford shot him as well." "Now you could argue that the shooting of the dog was merely an instance of Malum prohibitum." "But the shooting of the Senator is indubitably an instance of Malum in se." "Malla-men what?" "Malum in se." "The distinction is between an act that is wrong in itself." "And an act that is wrong only according to our laws and mores." "It is Latin." "I'm struck." "that laboeuf." "has been shot, trampled." "and nearly severs his tongue." "And not only does he not cease to talk." "But he spills the banks of English." "I was within three hundred yards of Chelmsford once." "The closest I have been." "With the Sharps carbine that is within range." "But I was mounted, and had the choice of firing off hand." "or dismounting to shoot from rest, which would allow Chelmsford to augment the distance." "I fired mounted, and fired wide." "You could not hit a man 300 hundred yards if your gun was resting on Gibraltar." "The Sharps carbine is an instrument of uncanny power and precision." "I have no doubt that the gun is sound." "Greer County Bachelor, that was." "I do not believe he slept." "Fort Smith is a healthy distance, laboeuf," "But I would encourage the creature you ride, to heads over." "Out here a one armed man looks like easy prey." "And a one eyed man who can't shoot." "Why don't you turn back, Cogburn?" "I'll do fine." "I know where the Parmalee's claim is." "I'm uninjured, well provisioned and we agreed to separate." "In conscience you cannot cite our agreement." "You're the one who shot me." "Mr. laboeuf has a point, Marshall." "It is an unfair leg up in any competition to shoot your opposite member." "God damn it." "I do not accept it as a given that I did shoot laboeuf." "There were plenty of guns going off." "I heard the rifle, and I felt the ball." "You missed your shot, Cogburn, admit it." "Missed my shot!" "You are more handicapped without the eye, than I without the arm." "I can hit a gnat's eye at ninety yards." "That Chinaman is running them cheap shells on me again." "I thought you were going to say, the sun was in your eyes." "That is to say, "your eye"." "Two at one time!" "I'm going to chuck one high." "Go far." " There." " There?" " My bullet." " Your bullet?" "If you hit what you aim at, explain my shoulder!" "Gentlemen, shooting corn bread out here on the prairie is getting us no closer to the Ned Pepper gang." "One more." "This will prove it." "Please hold fire." "Find our way back!" "Lucky Ned?" "LUCKY NED!" "Very good, Cogburn." "Now what?" "Oh, god damn it." "Cogburn did not want me eating out of his store." "That is silly." "You have not eaten all day, and it is my store, not his." "Let him starve!" "He does not track!" "He does not shoot." "except at food stuffs!" " That was your initiative." " He does not contribute." "He's a man, who walks in front of bullets." "Mr. laboeuf drew single handed upon the Lucky Ned Pepper gang, while we fired safely from cover." " We?" " It is unfair to indict a man, when his jaw is swollen, and tongue mangled and who is therefore unable to rise to his own defense." "I can speak for myself." "I am hardly obliged to answer the ravings of a drunkard." "It is beneath me." "I shall make my own camp  Elsewhere." "It is you who has nothing to offer, Cogburn." "A sad picture indeed." "This is no longer a man hunt." "It is a debauch." "The Texas Ranger." "Presses on, alone." "Take the girl." "I bow out." "A fine thing to decide once you brought her into the middle of the Choctaw nation." "I bow out, I wash my hands." "Gentlemen we cannot fall out in this fashion." "Not so close to our goal, with Tom Chaney nearly in hand." "In hand?" "If he is not in a shallow grave somewhere between here and Fort Smith, he is gone!" "Long gone!" "Thanks to Mr. laboeuf, we missed our shot." "We have barked, and the birds have flown!" "Gone, gone, gone!" "Lucky Ned and his cohort's gone." "Your fifty dollars, gone!" "Gone the whiskey, seized in evidence!" "The trail is cold, if there ever was one." "I'm...." "I'm a foolish old man who's been drawn into a wild goose chase, by a harpy in trousers, and a nincompoop." "Well, Mr. laboeuf." "He can wander the Choctaw nation for as long as he likes." "Perhaps the local Indians will take him in." "and honor his gibbering by making him Chief." "You sister, may go where you like." "Our engagement is terminated." "I bow out." "I am going with you." "Oh, that is not possible." "Have I held you back?" "I have a Colt's Dragoon revolver which I know how to use," "And I will be no more of a burden to you, as I was to the Marshall." "That's not my worry." "You've earned your spurs." "That is clear enough." "You've been a regular old hand on the trail." "But Cogburn's right." "Even if I would not give him the satisfaction of conceding it." "The trail is cold." "And I am, considerably diminished." "How can you give up now." "After the many months you've dedicated to finding Chaney?" "You have shown great determination." "I misjudged you." "I picked the wrong man." "I would go on in your company, if there were a clear way to go." "But we'd be striking out blindly." "Chelmsford is gone." "We chased him right off the map." "There's nothing for it." "I'm bound for Texas." "Time for you to go home, too." "The Marshall, when he sobers," "Is your way back." "I will not go back." "Not without Chaney, dead or alive." "I misjudged you as well." "I extend my hand." "Mr. laboeuf, please." "Adios." "I know you." "Your name is Mattie." "Why you're little Mattie, the bookkeeper." "Isn't that something?" "Yes, and I know you, Tom Chaney." "What are you doing out here?" "Came to fetch some water." "No, what are you doing in these mountains, here?" "While I have not been formerly deputized, but I'm acting as an agent for, Marshall Rooster Cogburn, and Judge Parker's court." "I have come to take you back to Fort Smith." "Well I will not go." "How do you like that?" "There's a posse of officers up the hill that will force you to go." "That is interesting news." "And how many is up there?" "Right around fifty." "They're all well armed and they mean business." "What I want you to do now, is to come on across the creek and walk in front of me up that hill." "I think I will oblige the officers who's come after me." "Well if you refuse to go, then I will have to shoot you." "Oh." "Well you had better cock your piece." "All the way back." " Until it locks." " I know how to do it." "You will not go with me?" "No, it's just the other way around." "You're going with me." "I'm..." "AAAH!" "I did not think you would do it." " What do you think now?" " One of my short ribs is broken." "You killed my father when he was trying to help you." "I have one of the gold pieces you stole from him." "Now give me the other." " Things aren't going right for me." " MATTIE!" "I'm down here." "Now I'm shot by a child." "Chaney's taken into custody." "Help me." "MATTIE!" "Marshall." "Take them horses you got and move!" "Tom, get up on that hill, don't you stop." "Who all's down there?" "Marshall Cogburn and fifty more officers." "You tell me another lie and I'll stove your head in." "Just the Marshall." "Rooster." "Cogburn!" "You hear me?" "You answer me, Rooster!" "I will kill this girl." "You know I will do it." "The girl is nothing to me, she's a runaway from Arkansas." "That is all very well." "Do you advise that I kill her?" "Do what you think is best, Ned!" "She's nothing to me but a lost child." "Think it over, first." "I have already thought it over." "You get mounted double fast!" "If I see you riding over that bald ridge to the northwest." "I will spare the girl." "You have five minutes!" "There will be a party of Marshall's here soon, Ned." "Let me have the girl and Chaney and I will mislead them for six hours." "Too thin, Rooster." "Too thin." "Your five minutes is running." "No more talk." "Get on up that hill!" "Farrell, see to Tom's wound." "Can I have some of that bacon?" "You can help yourself." "Have some of the coffee." "I do not drink Coffee, I am fourteen." "Well we do not have buttermilk, and we do not have bread." "We are poorly supplied." " Where is she?" " What are you doing here?" "I ought to ring your scrawny neck." "You let that go." "What happened, huh?" "I will tell you, and you will see that I am in the right." "Tom Chaney there shot my father to death, at Fort Smith and robbed him of.." "two gold pieces and stole his mare." "I was informed that Mr. Cogburn had grit, and I hired him to find the murderer." "A few minutes ago, I came upon Chaney watering the horses." "He would not be taken in charge and I shot him." "If I had killed him I would not now be in this fix, but my revolver misfired." "That will do it." "It will embarrass you every time." "Most girls like to play pretties, but you like guns, do you?" "I do not care a thing in the world about guns." "If I did I would have one that worked." "I was shot in an ambush, Ned." "The Horses were blowing and making noise, it was that officer that got me." "How can you sit there and tell such a big story?" "That pit is a hundred feet deep, and I will throw you in it, and leave you to scream and rot." " How do you like that?" " No you won't." "This man will not let you have your way." "He's your boss and you have to do as he tells you." "Aw, nothings going my way." "Was that Rooster that waylaid us the night before last?" "It was Marshall Cogburn and myself." "You and Cogburn." "Quite the posse." "Let us move, Ned." "In good time, Doctor." "What happened to Quincy, and the kid?" "They are both dead." "I was in the very middle of it, it was a terrible thing to see." "Please, let us move, Ned." "The Marshall's gone." "Do you need a good lawyer?" "I need a good judge." "What happened to Coke Hayes?" "The old fellow shot off his horse." "Dead as well." "His depredations have come to an end." "Your friend Rooster does not collect many prisoners." "He is not my friend." "He has abandoned me to a congress of louts." "You do not varnish your opinion." "Are we off?" "Let us cut up the winnings from the Katy Flyer." "There will be time for that at The Old Place." "I will mount the Grey." "I have other plans for you." "Must I double mount with the doctor?" " No." " Nope." "It will be too chancy with two men up if it comes to a race." "You will wait here with the girl." "When we reach Ma's house I'll send Carroll back here with some fresh mounts." "We'll be out by dark." "We'll meet you at the old place." "I do not like that." "Let me ride with you, Ned." "Just out here anyway." "We are short a horse." "The Marshall's will come swarming." "Hours, if they come here at all." "They'll think that we've all gone." "I am not staying here by myself with, Tom Chaney." "That's the way I will have it." "He will kill me." "You heard him say it." "He's killed my father, and now you will let him kill me." "He will do no such thing." "Tom, you know the crossing at Cypress Forks near the log meeting house?" "When you are mounted, you take the girl and leave her there." "Do you understand, Tom?" "Any harm comes to that child, you do not get paid." "Harold, let me ride up with you." "Farrel!" "I will pay you fifty dollars out of my winnings." "I am not heavy." "Do the calf again, Harold!" "Mooooo." "Everything is against me." "You have no reason to whine." "You act as the bandit Chief instructed and no harm comes to me, you will get your winnings at The Old Place." "Lucky Ned has left me, knowing I am sure to be caught when I leave on foot." "I must think over my position and how I may improve it." "Where's the second California gold piece?" "What have you done with Papa's mare?" "Keep still." "Are you thinking about The Old Place?" "Look here, if you let me go." "I will swear to an affidavit... and once you are brought to justice, it may go easier on you." "I tell you I can do better than that." "I need no affidavit." "All I need is your silence." "Your father was a busybody like you." "In honesty, I do not regret shooting him." "He thought Tom Chaney was small." "And you..." "You will give me an affidavit." "You're all against me, everybody...." "So that is Chelmsford." "Strange to be so close to him at last." "Mr. laboeuf." "How is it that you are here?" "I heard a shot." "Went down to the river." "Cogburn outlined a plan." "Mind your foot, there's a pit there." "His part," "I fear is rash." "He returns for Lucky Ned." "Well, Rooster!" "Will you give us the road?" "One against four, it is ill advised." "He would not be dissuaded." "Hello Ned, how many men is with the girl?" "Just Chaney." "Our agreement is in force." "She was in excellent health, when last I saw her." "Farrel, I want you and your brother to stand clear." "You as well, Doctor." "I have no interest in you today." "What is your intention, Rooster?" "You think one on four is a dog fall?" "I mean to kill you in one minute, Ned." "Or see you hanged at Fort Smith at Judge Parker's convenience." "Which will you have?" "I call that bold talk." "For a one eyed fat man!" "Fill your hand, you son of a bitch." "Shoot them Mr. laboeuf." "Too far, moving too fast." "Well, Rooster?" "I'm shot to pieces." "It seems neither of us, gets to see Judge Parker." "0h Lord..." "Woohoo!" "Some bully shot." "That was four hundred yards at least." "Well, the Sharps carbine, is a..." "Stand up, Tom Chaney." "M..." "Mr. laboeuf" "Are you alive?" "Mr. laboeuf!" "Mr. laboeuf!" "Mr. laboeuf!" "Are you there?" "I'm here!" "Can you clamber out?" "I cannot." "There are snakes." "Are they awake?" "Yes." "I'm bit." "Does Mr. laboeuf survive?" "He does." "Even a blow to the head could silence him for only a few short minutes." "Where are you bit?" "Look away, Mattie." "I have her." "Up with us." "We're up, Mr. laboeuf." "Take her." "She's snake bit." "We are off." "I'll send help for you as soon as I can." "Don't wander off." "We are not leaving him." "I must get you to a Doctor, Sis." "or you are not going to make it." "I'm in your debt for that shot, pard." "Never doubt the Texas Ranger." "Come on." "Ever stalwart." "We must stop." "Little Blackie is played out." "We have miles yet." "Come on, you!" "No!" "No." "That's it." "Come on, now!" "No!" "Stop!" "He's getting away." "Who's getting away, sis?" "Chaney." "No..." "No!" "No, no, no!" "Oh no!" "No. stop!" "I have grown old." "A quarter century is a long time." "By the time we reached Bagby's store, my hand had turned black." "I was not awake when I lost the arm." "The Marshall had stayed with me, I was told." "until I was out of danger." "But he departed before I came around." "Once home." "I wrote him with an invitation, to come by, the next time he found himself near Yell county." "And collect the fifty dollars I still owed him." "I did not hear back from Marshall Cogburn, and he did not appear." "Then one day I received a note from the Marshall, with a flyer enclosed." "He said he was traveling with a Wild West show." "Getting older and fatter." "Would I like to come visit him when the show came to Memphis, and swap stories with an old trail mate?" "He would understand if the journey were too long." "Brief though his note was." "It was rife with misspellings." "Yes mam.." "I am, Cole Younger." "This is Mr. James." "It grieves me to tell you that you have missed, Rooster." "He passed away three days ago." "When the show was in Jonesboro, Arkansas." "Buried him there in a Confederate cemetery." "Reuben had a complaint what he referred to as, "Night hoss"." "And I believe the warm weather was too much for him." "We had some lively times." "What was the nature of your acquaintance?" "I knew the Marshall long ago." "We too had, lively times." "Thank you, Mr. Younger." "Keep your seat, trash." "I had the body removed to our plot and I have visited it over the years." "No doubt people talk about that." "They say, "Well, she hardly knew the man"." ""Isn't she a cranky old maid"." "It is true, I have not married." "I never had time to fool with it." "I heard nothing more of the Texas officer, laboeuf." "If he is yet alive." "I would be pleased to hear from him." "I judge he would be in his seventies now." "And nearer eighty than seventy." "I expect some of the starch has gone out of that cowlick." "Time just gets away from us."