"It's a funny thing." "No matter how low you sink, there's still a right and a wrong." "And you always end up choosing." "You go one way so you can try to live with yourself." "Or go the other and still be walking around." "But you're dead and you don't know it." "I was coming through Texas on my way to Mexico." "I needed some time to hide out." "I had spent most of my life on the dodge." "Drunk or sober, I got no complaints." "Even if I did get my hands dirty on the way." "Jericho." "It was a jerkwater town maybe 50 miles from the border." "Dirt streets, ramshackle buildings." "And one thing for sure, you couldn't find it anywhere on the map." "For the most part, I was a big-city guy." "I like pavement under my feet and bright lights after the sun goes down." "I figured this burg was the kind of place you gassed up the car, got something to eat." "If you got stuck, maybe spent a night." "Then I got a look at her." "That's when all the fun started." "It's not a good idea to be looking at Mr. Doyle's girl that way." "I remember a guy once told me this is a free country." "Jacko." "This guy thinks it's a free country." "Now you're free to go." "Sheriff's office is right over there in case you wanna complain about anything." "Your light's out." "I seen it." "Right outside the window." "You know what I'm gonna do about it?" "Not a goddamn thing." "But I know what you ought to do." "You ought to get your spare, put it on your car and just drive on out of town." "Ain't that right, Bob?" "Hmm." "You gotta forgive Old Bob." "He ain't much for talk." "Oh, hold it." "Let me tell you something." "If you're really planning on sticking around don't be coming to me for help." "You're on your own here." "We already got a fella in the window of the undertaker." "Do yourself a favor." "First thing, get a firearm." "First customer I seen all week." "Want a whiskey or beer?" "Don't have much else to offer." "Whiskey." "What happened to Prohibition?" "We don't pay much attention to it here." " You got a phone in this place?" " Who you wanna call?" "My mama." "Sure." "We got phones." "But they ain't working." "You gotta have a switchboard operator to run them." " You got electricity?" " Yeah." "Got that." "Runs on gas generators." "Hope they stay working." "Nobody left to fix them if they go bust." "To tell the truth most of what they call decent folks been run off." "Really ain't much left here but a ghost town." "Some damn sheriff." "Making a profit just staying in the middle grafting off both sides." "I think Mr. Doyle bought him off first." "Or maybe it was Strozzi." "Who's Strozzi?" "That's the other gang here." "Strozzi and the Italian fellas." "Both gangs took over this town." "Run off all the regular folks." "Come from the same big city." "They don't like each other much." "Bootleggers." "You got Strozzi at the Sweetwater and Doyle's bunch at the Alamo." "They leave me be because I stay to myself." "Heh." "They think I'm crazy." "What the hell are you doing?" "Gonna go see the fellas who wrecked my car." "Have a little talk with them." "I hadn't gotten a real warm reception but I started thinking maybe this was my lucky day." "A crook for a sheriff and two bootlegger outfits that hated each other." "If I played it right, I could make some easy money and move on." "Ma'am." "I thought I made it clear who you can and can't be looking at around here." "That's Mr. Doyle's property." "I came here to see you." " Yeah?" " Yeah." "Did you get that car of yours fixed yet?" "I'm running a little low on cash." "I was wondering if you could maybe help pay the damages." "I guess maybe you'll have to kill me." "It'll hurt if I do." "Tell Mr. Doyle if he'd hired smarter guys, none of this would've happened." "It's all about booze." "Gets smuggled through here from Mexico." "We're a part of a family operation in Chicago." "So what we got here is close to a civil war." "Except now we got a truce." "What's my guess?" "This truce ain't gonna last." "Especially after Hickey gets back." "That's why you're here." "Who's Hickey?" "Hickey is Doyle's right-hand man." "He's a sweetheart, this guy." "Looks like somebody carved him up for dinner." "Talks like this." "Forget it." "Heh." "What about you?" "You got a name?" " Smith." " Smith." "What?" "Smith what?" " What, you got a first name?" " John." " John Smith." " Ha." " John Smith." "All right." " That's a good one." "You on the run, huh?" "Where you from, Mr. Smith?" "Back east." "John Smith from back east." "All right." "I heard you wanted to see me." "Yeah, that's right." "What's the matter?" "What, did I interrupt something important?" "She was doing her nails." "Well, this is Lucy." "Yeah, she's a real nice girl." "A real pretty girl." "Got a big mouth but she's gonna keep it shut and act very friendly now, right?" "Lucy, would you please take Mr. Smith to his room?" "So I guess Strozzi hired himself another bum." " You got it all figured out, do you?" " Yeah." "I'm a fortune teller." "Don't worry." "Working for Strozzi has its advantages." "You're gonna love your room." "The skirt was from just outside of Cicero." "Strozzi told me he had her sent down here to keep up his morale." "It was the first time I ever heard it called that." "But try and keep it down up here, okay?" "My room's right underneath." "I'll try not to make too much noise when I'm jumping up and down on the bed." "Sunday dinner was a real event." "Strozzi might've been small-time but he tried to run things like he was somebody important back in Chicago." "He had an army of 20 shooters." "As far as I could see, most of them were goofballs." "It was all right out of some dime novel." "You don't like pretty girls, huh?" " How's the food?" " Good." "I brought these mamas in from Chicago." "Food here is terrible." "It's good, huh?" " Yeah." "I like garlic." " All right." " What is this?" "Nobody waits?" " You're late." " I had important business." " While you were doing your important business, things are happening." "We now have a new employee." "Mr. Smith, this is Giorgio Carmonte." "He killed Finn." "That's Doyle's best guy next to Hickey." "No!" "I know all about it." "And you hire him?" " Yeah." "What do you think that looks like to Doyle in keeping the truce?" "You wanna tip Doyle off?" "Plus, who the hell is he?" "Doyle's guys are scared of him." "He was in town 20 minutes, he killed one of them." "Doyle ain't gonna do a goddamn thing with Hickey out of town." "The only thing that cockroach might try is to hire this guy for himself." "Yeah, well, I don't like it." "I don't like changes at the last minute." "And I don't like new faces..." "You got a problem with me, Giorgio, you take it up with your boss." "I just work here." "So I decided to give up my free room." "I had seen the real thing and these guys were a long way from it." "I wasn't sure if he was getting a box ready for me or if he just wanted to say thanks for the business." "Well, look who's here." "Last time I saw you you was gonna have a talk with some fellas." "Next thing I hear, one of them is dead." "Conversation sort of went downhill." "Ain't that right, Bob?" "He don't talk much." "But his ears work good." "You got a room you could rent me?" "Surprised you ain't staying with your friends at the Sweetwater." "There's a room upstairs." "Tell you the truth, I can use the money." "You got a name?" "Mine is Joe." "Okay, Joe." "You let me know when this runs out." "I'll give you some more." "Yes, sir." " Got girls for hire in this town?" " Hell, yes." "You're in West Texas." "Round the corner." "Third door on the left." "You can certainly afford them." "You remind me of this guy that used to come see me when I worked in New Orleans." "He looked a lot like you." "You ever been to New Orleans?" "He was nice." "He wasn't as quiet as you, though." "But you two almost look like brothers." "Except he had tattoos." "I think that he was in the Navy, but..." "No." "And he used to come and see me every Friday or Saturday night." "His name was Clarence." "I had a lot of fun in New Orleans." "Sorry I ever came to this lousy town." "There's nothing to do here." "I'd take every dance class imaginable because I wanted to be a dancer and so I came here because it's off..." "Aah!" "Let's go!" "Hurry up." "Let's get out of here, man." " Move!" "Move!" " Go!" "Go!" "Come on!" "Get out of the way!" "I didn't do it." " What?" " I didn't have nothing to do..." " Who set me up?" " Who?" " They forced me!" "They said they'd kill me." "I didn't have no choice." "Give me a name." "Give me a name, goddamn it." "A guy that works for Doyle." "It was Doyle's bunch." " Please don't tell them I told you." " Shut up!" "Please, I'm sorry." "Her name was Wanda." "Crossing me was nothing personal." "She was just trying to make a living in a world where big fish eat little fish." "Come on." "By the time the law showed up, I was long gone but the sheriff didn't let me down." "He investigated the whole thing then arrested the hooker." "I went down to the Red Bird, asked that old geezer who runs the place where I could find you." "Where are we headed?" "A juke joint outside of town." "Strozzi wants everybody there." "Is he gonna make another speech?" "He don't keep me too well-informed." "Giorgio's acting like he's in charge because he's the son of somebody important, Strozzi's boss in Chicago." "Strozzi and Giorgio are really cousins." "Strozzi don't admit it, though." "Not a family man." "Where does that leave you and him?" "Slim's was a fast 20 minutes out across the desert." "Two stories of wood in the middle of nowhere." "It was the kind of place that looked like the special was chicken-fried steak." "Strozzi told me Giorgio and the other guys got a real hot head about the kind of money you're getting." "Giorgio don't like you too much, in case you haven't noticed." "Why does a guy send his girlfriend to come find me?" "Strozzi figures I wouldn't be dumb enough to do anything out of line, so he sent me." "Well, that must make you feel real proud." "Quit being a shitheel, all right?" "I get enough of that from Strozzi, thank you." "You sure you're not dumb enough to do anything out of line?" "I'm just curious." "Your boyfriend got a first name?" "Yeah." "But only in the bedroom." "As usual, she was trying to act tough but anybody could see it was paper-thin." "Even with a second-rater like Strozzi, she was in way over her head." "Well, for Christ's sweet sake, it took you two long enough." "Kiss my ass." "It's raining outside, Giorgio." "Hard to drive in the rain." "Like he said, what took you so long?" "Maybe you don't hear too good." "It's raining." " Uhn!" " You know you're getting to be more of a wise-ass Polack every day and it ain't so cute no more." "You know what happens to wise-ass Polack dames?" "They get their wise asses kicked." "When I was in this whorehouse, Doyle sent a couple guys to visit me." " I had to kill them both." " You killed two more of Doyle's guys?" "Is that bullshit or is that true?" "Look, I don't give a damn about Doyle." "If he lost two men tonight, that's good news." "This Doyle, he's trying to outbid me with my own suppliers." "The mick bastard." "Yeah, I try to do business with him, it's bullshit." "Now, we got a shipment coming in from Monterrey next week." "Mr. Doyle has got one coming in tomorrow." "This is where you're gonna start to earn your pay." "There's five trucks." "Maybe 200 cases." "We deliver at 200 bucks a case." "That's 200 grand in our books." "Plus, you know what's really the frosting?" "We get Doyle's trucks." "You know how hard it is to buy a truck in Mexico?" "We crossed the border a couple hours before dawn." "Strozzi had a plan he thought would make him look good to the big boss back in Chicago." "It involved hijacking, murder, corruption of the military and sticking me right out front." "Who in the hell are you supposed to be?" "This might be a good time for you guys to give up." " What is this?" " Told you we couldn't trust Mexicans." "I'm gonna send Smith back with Santo to keep an eye on Doyle." "You stay with the trucks till they get to Matamoros." "It was a massacre." "Couldn't say I was real sorry but it was a rough way to check out." "Now, I don't know how reliable she's ever gonna hold up as a witness." "She's some kind of a vagrant." "Might even be here for immoral purposes." "How much to get her out?" "Well, a hundred will send her on her way right away." "I've been thinking about how Doyle's men knew I was at that whorehouse." "I figure your deputy here heard me last night at the Red Bird came over here and told you about it and you sold the information to Doyle." "How am I doing so far, sheriff?" "You are one suspicious fella." "Ain't he, Bob?" "Maybe I was a little rough on you last night." "Maybe I shortchanged you." "If I was you, I'd get out of here." "Doyle's men are gonna think you tipped me off." "You got a bus comes through this town?" "Yeah, at noon, every day." "Make sure she gets on it." "I got some information you may wanna sell to Mr. Doyle." "He's gonna find out soon enough, but you might be the one to give it to him." "A shipment of booze he had coming up from Mexico got hijacked by some bandidos." "Tip like that ought to be worth at least a grand." "You better be right because if Doyle should send Hickey after me he's coming directly for you." "I keep hearing about Hickey." "Sounds like a real scary guy." "Let me tell you just how scary." "It goes that when he was 10 years old gets a butcher knife and cuts his father's throat from ear to ear." "Then they stick him in an orphanage." "Fifteen years old, he burns it to the ground." "Heh." "You just make sure you mark me down for half of that thousand." "Think maybe you and I should talk." "I don't think these people appreciate you." "You gonna be my hero?" "I thought you were just a guy who did things for money." "Yeah." "I'm just a guy that does everything for money." "Anybody see you come up here?" "No." "Appreciate me?" "You don't know the half of it." "Let me tell you, I don't have to take it from these bastards." "Going back to Chicago on the first thing out of here that moves." "What's so funny?" "You're not going anywhere." "You're just blowing off a little steam." "Oh, yeah?" "You hear the way Strozzi talked to me?" "That grease ball?" "To hell with him." "You know, Strozzi's out of town for the day." " So is Giorgio." " So?" "Did Strozzi tell you he's paying me a lot of money?" "Well, there may be a way for you to get your hands on some of it." "You gonna tell me why you would do such a nice thing?" "Because I'm a nice guy a sweet guy." "Yeah, right." "Like I said I don't think they appreciate you." "See, I think you're a very smart girl." "You hear things the inside word." "I'm the kind of guy that likes to have all the information he can get so if you give me the inside word I'll give you an extra hundred or so a week just between me and you." "Strozzi and Giorgio were gonna be back the next day." "I smelled the real money was gonna come from working Doyle's side of the street." "They'd make the first move." "Mr. Doyle wants you to come work for us full-time." "I'm not sure he can afford it." "Try me." "A thousand dollars." "A week or a day?" "I'm surprised you're not mad at me." "I thought you might hold it against me, me killing three of your guys." "It's the only cure I know for being stupid." "Hey, dummy!" "Bring us your best stuff." "Yes, sir, Mr. Doyle." "Right away, sir." "I know you already got a job working for Strozzi but I figure you for the kind of guy that goes to the highest bidder just like those Mexicans that were supposed to guard my booze." "Strozzi was behind that, wasn't he?" "How would you like to kill Strozzi and that little punk Giorgio?" "From what I hear, a guy like yourself you only care about the money, right?" "I mean it as a compliment." "That's why we're all here." "Where's Hickey?" "You heard about Hickey, huh?" "I heard he talks kind of funny." "Yeah, well, that's the way you sound when somebody slices your face jams an ice pick in your voice box." "Hickey can get awful messy, though." "This should be an inside job." "We need somebody nice and neat like you." "I'll think about it." "You're making a mistake!" "Maybe you're just not very smart." "What the hell are you holding back for?" "You think the meek are gonna inherit the Earth?" "If they do, you won't be there to enjoy it." "I might have been a gun for hire, but I wasn't exactly an assassin." "Maybe Doyle figured there wasn't much difference." "Tell Hickey I say hello." "If I was going to get into Doyle's wallet, I needed something big to sell him." "Ha-ha." "You don't quit me." "Nobody quits me." "What is it?" "Doyle?" "What did he do?" "He offer you more money?" "Keep the 500 you owe me." "The rest is mine for the work I did down in Mexico." " You let him walk away?" "Nobody goes." " We don't need you." "Never." "You get back here, you yellow son of a bitch." " Get him, now." " Put those down!" "Berto." "Smith." "Something you wanna say to me, Giorgio, huh?" "Fucking kill you, bastard." "It's not your fault Giorgio's a halfwit." "You really wanna get killed for a halfwit?" "Let it go." "Put it down." "Hey." "Tell Mr. Doyle I turned Strozzi down." "What the hell you grinning about?" "Goddamn, that was great." "I guess you don't work for Strozzi no more." "You ever wash these, Joe?" "Working for Strozzi had about played itself out." "Until Hickey showed up, I was out of moves." "I decided to dry out a little." "Went two days without a drink." "For me, that's pretty good." "You know, sitting out here in the open just might not be a real good idea for a fella that's got as many enemies as you got." "I thought everybody liked me." "I'm such a nice guy." "This is Mr. Doyle's girl." "I'm bringing her back from church." "Going to church makes her feel better about keeping company with Mr. Doyle." "That right, honey?" "You don't wanna miss out on the big money." "This little war with Strozzi's gonna be over soon." "Hickey's back." "McCOOL:" "We got problems." "Strozzi broke the truce, hit our trucks in Mexico killed all our guys jacked the whole load." "Hey." "How's my car?" "Oh, I fixed that inner tube and I fixed that headlight." "She's good as new, except for that windshield." "I ordered new glass, but it's gonna take a while." "Will this cover it?" "Twenty dollars?" "That's way too much." "But I got some information I'll trade you for the change on it." "A fella come around here asking me about your car wanted to look at the registration and check your name." " What did you tell him?" " Nothing." "He just went on ahead and looked anyway." "But guess what." " He didn't find that registration, did he?" " That's right." "Heh." "You can keep that change." " This fella say what his name was?" " He didn't say, but I know who it was." "One of them Italian boys been hanging around town named Giorgio." "Thanks." "All right, so come on." "Jesus Christ!" "Somebody answer the goddamn phone!" "Maybe Chicago found a way to get through." "Yeah?" "Ah." "Looks like I struck pay dirt." "Who's this?" "Giorgio?" "Yeah." "Who's this?" "You remember me." "The high-paid nobody." "I got a message for Strozzi." "Yeah, well, we don't need any messages from jerks like you, all right?" "Don't be stupid." "Just because I don't work for you doesn't mean I can't be a friend." "I don't wanna see your boss get hurt." "Yeah." "You tell him that Doyle knows that he's the one that hijacked his shipment but maybe you got a bigger problem." "There's a rumor Ramirez is gonna go back on Doyle's payroll." "Who knows?" "Maybe it's all just bullshit." "You getting this, Giorgio?" "Yeah, I'm getting it." "All bullshit." "Yeah, good boy." "You tell your cousin to watch his ass." "The Italians were winning in New York and Chicago but they weren't doing too good in Jericho." "I don't care who said what, just take care of those cases before I get back." "A little past 9 that night, I got a look at Giorgio leaving town." "You could almost see the price tag hanging around his neck." "I just came by to tell you that me and Strozzi made it up this morning." "I got an investment there so we can forget about the other day like it never happened, right?" "I mean, it was just one time for fun, right?" "Business is business." "I don't wanna get myself in the middle of anything here." "Strozzi's gonna take care of me." "I saw that punk Giorgio sneak out of town." "Where's he headed?" "He went to El Mirado." "What's he doing down in Mexico?" "What he always does." "Drinks, messes around, goes to whorehouses." "I'm surprised Strozzi didn't go." " He must be getting pretty used to whores." " Goddamn you." "What?" "I think you're forgetting about our deal." "Now, why did Giorgio go to Mexico?" "He went to finish doing some business with Ramirez." "Pay him off, and the cop they got for security." "I gotta go." "We're quits now, right?" "We're quits." "That mouthy little cousin of Strozzi's, Giorgio he's on his way down to Mexico, see a friend of yours." "Fella named Ramirez." "You know a guy named Ramirez, do you?" "Gonna pay him back for the hijack." " How do you like the story so far?" " Good." "Keep talking." "He's gonna see a cop down there too." "This cop's responsibility was security on this side of the border." "I guess he's gonna get paid too." "They're probably all planning their next shipment." "Gonna use your trucks." "You know I don't want to be pushy but this kind of information's a little too valuable to be given away." "Giorgio's very important to Strozzi." "If something were to happen to him it would be very bad for Strozzi, don't you think?" "Take as much as you want." "You work for me now." "I'll just take the 2000 we agreed upon." "You work with us, you work with the winners." "Anything else is stupid." "I'll think about it." "What are you holding back for?" "I don't play this style." "What the hell are you holding back for?" "His name's Smith." "At least that's what he says." "This is Hickey." "I told you about him." "He told me all about you." "Been hearing about you all over town, actually." "I especially like that orphanage story." "He tell you about all them little kids burning up like candles?" "My favorite part." "You shot some of our guys." "I guess I did." "The ones that deserved it." "Well, you got Finn." "He's Doyle's best shooter." "I thought you were the best." "No, just the best-looking." "Enough of this bullshit!" "This game is finished." "Come on." "We gotta talk." "I guess you better go talk." "Yeah." "Don't believe everything you hear." "El Mirado was about 30 miles across the Rio Grande." "The whole town was celebrating some saint's day which meant everybody was either drunk or working on it." "Doyle took my bait and sent a car due south the next morning." "You didn't have to be real smart to guess who the passenger was." "No, thanks." "Looks to me you're a cop." "You wearing a gun, Red?" "Yes, sir." "That's good." "Maybe you're the kind of guy that'd shoot an unarmed man in the back." "Make your play." "We're taking you out of here, Giorgio." "Just don't shoot me." " Come on." " Okay." "Okay." "Okay." "She looks like her mother." "It's all right." "He's asleep." "I parked a couple miles from here and walked in." "Why do you come out here?" "Doyle lets me be alone here." "It's the only place they don't watch me." "Why do you stay with him?" "People don't own other people." "A year ago, my husband gambled with Mr. Doyle." "After he lost me, he went back across the border." "He was ashamed." "When Doyle took me from my daughter I went to sleep." "All I had left was to pray." "My fear is my curse." "What's yours?" "I was born without a conscience." "There's a fella here come to see you." "John Smith, meet Captain Tom Pickett." "He is the head ranger here in my district." "He generally just comes down when..." "Shut up, Galt." "Sit down, Mr. Smith." "Now, sheriff, Mr. Smith and I are gonna have a drink." "We got a lot to talk about tonight." "I'm here about a murdered policeman." "Got himself killed other side of the river in some crumby little Mexican town." "Few locals killed too and a double dealing comandante named Ramirez." "But the man I'm concerned about was an American on the border patrol." "Had a family." "Well-liked by his brother officers." "He strayed a little bit in some departments but he was an officer of the law just the same." "You know anything about his death, son?" " No, I don't think so." "That's odd." "Don't hardly seem possible." "Mr. Galt here says you're real well-informed on what happens around here." "You saying I did it?" "I asked if you knew anything about it, not if you did it." "The crime has been solved, son." "Mexican police picked up two armed drifters from the state of Florida across the border." "Handed them over." "They ain't confessed yet, but they will." "I just can't get past the idea that maybe one of these two bootleg gangs had something to do with it." "I learned a long time ago to trust my instincts." "Now listen real careful, because here is the point, son." "Things in this town are out of control." "Two gangs is just one too many." "I'm not an idealist." "I know a lot of things that people do are awful low but that's between them and God." "Do you believe in God?" "I believe in God, son." "But what I'm concerned with is keeping a lid on things." "And what we got here in Jericho is just way out of hand." "And Sheriff Galt here, he can't do much about it, right?" "Matter of fact, it might be fair to say he's part of the problem, right?" "Now, you been going back and forth playing both sides according to Mr. Galt here." "Making yourself a lot of money out of all this." "Well, it's over, son." "I'm coming back here in 10 days." "I'm gonna bring about 20 rangers with me." "I will tolerate one gang because that is the nature of things." "A certain amount of corruption is inevitable." "But if I find two gangs here when I get back then in a couple of hours, there will be no gangs here." "So it's simple." "One gang quits and goes home." "You boys work it out." "I don't give a damn which one." "Just so long as one side leaves, or maybe one side loses." "That's fine too, son." "Kill as many as you want." "Just don't kill no innocent people around here." "I wouldn't like that." "Been real nice talking to you, captain." "Likewise, son." "Only one more thing." "When I come back, if I was you I'd be gone." "You tell Strozzi we got his boy Giorgio." "Tell him he wants him back to bring 100 thou to the crossing at the five-mile road." " Tell him to make it 3 in the afternoon." " The trucks." "Oh, yeah." "And we'll give youse two days to give us our trucks back." "All the vultures showed up for the exchange." "If I was honest, I guess I'd have to include myself in the roll call." "But if there was a hundred grand being handed over for Giorgio I wanted to take a real good look at it." "Stick around." "You get the briefcase, you let go of the rope." "Don't shoot." "They got Giorgio." "We're even now." "You got one choice." " Give up your whole operation." " Santo." "Son of a bitch." "Until I get Giorgio back, she stays with me." "And I guess you know what I'm gonna be doing with her, right?" "Bring him across!" "Don't try anything stupid, Doyle." "Nice and easy, huh?" "You don't wanna get the girl killed, right?" "Go." "Get her back, now." "You all right?" "Did they touch you?" "They do anything?" "Strozzi!" "I'm gonna settle things with you, Strozzi." "I promise, you wop bastard." "I promise." "I promise!" "I had a visitor about 3 in the afternoon the next day." "She'd had enough of Jericho but was too broke to buy a bus ticket out." "I slipped her 500 bucks." "Usually, I wasn't such a sucker but somebody had smacked her around pretty good." "He's been in a real bad mood ever since his cousin got traded back for that girl." "He's been fighting with Giorgio, acting like a real jerk yelling at anything that gets near him." "I never seen him drunk before but he was really in the bag last night." "What'd you do?" "I called him a name." "So he slapped me, slugged me a couple times." "Threw my clothes out on the street." "So I figured I'd get even." "I told him about me and you." "Well, I guess things could be worse." "When you get back to wherever it is you're going maybe you should try and find yourself a better class of guy." "No guy's gonna ever wanna mess with me again." "Your face will heal up." "Your looks are all right." "How is this gonna heal up?" "Like he said, I got a big mouth." "He had three guys hold me down." "Told Giorgio to slice it off." "They were real drunk." "But everything you ever did to me, you did on purpose, right?" "Right?" "Did you finish all your business inside with the little princess?" "Just make sure she gets on that bus." "You know something, amigo?" "I think I just spotted a chink in your armor." "When you go down, it's gonna be over a skirt." "For most of my life, I made my own rules." "You don't do any favors." "You don't ask for any." "Watch the percentages." "But you can know the rules and still do the wrong things." "The only thing I knew for sure was this:" "Strozzi, Doyle, and every son of a bitch that worked for them..." "They were all gonna be better off dead." "There's somebody out here to see you, Mr. Doyle." "I thought it over." "I'll take the job." "You must smell a winner." "I get a thousand in advance." "Nobody's worth that much." "He's good." "Better than that?" "Put that goddamn gun away!" "Put it away!" "Save it for Strozzi!" "Suit yourself." "Buy him." "A thousand." "And a thousand more when we win." "It's settled." "Let's have a drink on it." "What about the girl?" " What girl?" " The one you keep." "Strozzi gets ahold of her again, he'll blackmail you right out of town." "Don't worry about it." "We got her in a safe place." "And eight guys out there on watch." "Eight's not gonna be enough." "Strozzi's got some new trigger men coming in town tonight." "Where'd you hear all this?" "Maybe it's just a rumor." "You want me to check it out?" "I want you and Hickey here with me." "If Strozzi's got new help coming in, chances are he's gonna try to rush us here." "You go out to the country, check on her." "She means a lot to me." "McCool can tell you how to get there." "The girl upstairs?" "You don't have to." " Don't come any closer." "I'll kill her." " Just put the gun down." "Keep away from her or I swear, I'll kill her." "No!" "Get dressed." "We gotta get out of here." "Gotta get you to Mexico." "Come on." "Move." "Here, take this money." "Take it." "I got it from Doyle." "I want you to use it." "Get across the border and don't come back." "Come on." "Get going." "Go." "Go." "I always liked sinners a lot better than saints." "She was real easy to look at but I hoped I never saw her again." "They're all dead inside." "I found them last night." "Where's the girl?" "I don't know." "Strozzi must have taken her." "All of them." "This is a slaughter." "You were right about those extra trigger men." "Must've taken 15 or 20 of Strozzi's guys to pull this off." "This whole thing is turning on us." "When you found them out here, why didn't you drive back and tell us instead of just waiting here?" "Figured the girl ran off when the fighting started." "I stuck around hoping maybe she'd come back." "She didn't." "This one hasn't been fired." "Must have got killed before he got a shot off." "Strozzi's jealous of me giving her a chance." "She grew up in some filthy little village." "Told me her mother was a Yaqui Indian." "Didn't know much about her father, except he was white." "She married some lowlife wetback." "The only thing he ever gave her was a kid." "Jesus Christ, she only had one dress till she met me." "The way she looked the way her eyes looked I couldn't help taking her out of all that." "We gotta hit Strozzi soon get her back." "We have to get this thing over with." "I'm gonna head back into town and see what I can find out." "Maybe Strozzi doesn't know I work for you guys yet." "We have to get this thing over with." "Hickey was suspicious Doyle was nuts and McCool was stupid." "Except maybe I was the dumb one." "If I had any brains, I would've kept on driving straight south into Mexico." "Keep her gassed up and ready to go." "Yes, sir, I'll do her, but pretty soon you're gonna be on your own." "Come next week I'm getting the hell out." "Ain't no business here." "This town is finished." "As usual, it was hot as hell and the wind picked up the dust so much you could taste it." "The whisky helped but I didn't wanna get sloppy so I switched to beer." "Somehow I had the feeling the walls were moving in on me." "It's funny how it all works out." "For one little second, you think you're gonna get away free and clear but you end up paying the price." "No exceptions." "Everybody pays the price, even a bum like me." "Take the guns." "What is it?" "Strozzi doesn't have Doyle's half-breed." "McCool went across the border looking for her down in El Mirado." "And run into a guy with an interesting story." "He'd seen her heading out." "She sold our car to some guy for a couple of hundred bucks." "Took a bus south." "So Strozzi didn't take her." "Maybe, if you believe the guy's story." "Why would a guy lie?" "Which leaves the question of how she got away." "Big question." "Not that we give a damn." "Indian girl, you know." "It's not like she was the Blessed Virgin, is it?" "Out there in the country only a real fine gunner could have nailed that many all by himself." "But you work for us." "Why would you do that?" "Maybe you don't work for us." "Maybe you take the money, do what you want." "Are you one of them?" "You an independent?" "Who you running from?" "Jericho's a good place to stop on your way to Mexico running from the feds." "For chrissakes, everybody's running from something." "No." "See, working for people like me and Doyle work for has an advantage." "The payroll covers a lot of ground." "You scared?" "Water's getting cold." "Where is she?" "He's nothing without a gun." "After a while, you stop hearing your bones break, your teeth rattle." "You just concentrate on holding tight to that little part right at the center." "The rest doesn't matter." "They're gonna take the rest anyway." "Must've crawled off." "Block the streets." "Wall him up!" "Wall him up!" "Find him for me." "Search this whole hick town." "Look over there." "Over there!" "There, there!" "Over there!" "Tear up every goddamn inch of this place!" " Find him." " Go on." "You guys, come with me." "Get those cars." "Wall up these streets." "Find him!" "Find him!" "Hey, come with me." "All right." "Come on around the back." "Now." "Clear." "Come on." "Over here." "Let's go." "Come on." "Find him." "Find him!" "Here!" "He's gotta be here." "Nobody in, nobody out!" "Search this place." "Upstairs, behind the bar." "Now!" "Find him!" "You, where is he?" "I know he's here." " Who?" " Smith!" " Oh!" " Don't hold out on me, you shitheel!" "I will stick a knife in your throat!" "Check the closets." "Nothing in here." "Not here." "I'm telling you, don't you mess with me." "This is not a game!" "Don't play around!" "You don't wanna talk to me?" "You won't talk to anybody anymore." "You think I'm kidding?" "Where is he?" "Little fella doesn't wanna talk to us?" "He came here, didn't he?" "Oh." " Hold it." "Goddamn it." "Hold it." "You hold it, John Law." "It's gone way past you." " This thing with Strozzi is over." " You know where he is right now?" "He's holed up with the rest of his gang waiting for new shooters that are coming to help him out." "Where's Smith?" "He's at Slim's Roadhouse." "We checked all over." "He ain't upstairs." "Come on." "Load it up." "We're going to the roadhouse." "You better be right." " What took you so long?" " I had to make it look good." "You know, my helping you out don't make a hell of a lot of sense." "But I'm betting on the ranger." "I know that the big-money days are just about done but don't kid yourselves, boys." "It could still come down real hard." "Mr. Smith I will help hide you." "But I prefer you'd be unarmed and on your way the hell out of this town." "That move you made for Doyle's little honey in this league that will get you broke and dead." "Both at the same time." "By the time we got to Slim's Roadhouse Strozzi's men were trapped inside the burning building." "The ones that made a run for it got shot." "The ones that stayed inside got cooked." "None of them were gonna make it home to Chicago." "Don't shoot!" "Don't shoot me!" "I know where the money is." "Don't shoot me!" "How about it, Strozzi!" "What's it gonna be?" "I give up." "You can have it." "You can have everything." "Take it all." "No!" "No!" "No!" "Kill him." "Let's go." "After the fire dies down, go inside." "Pull out Smith's body if you can find it." "He's gotta be dead." "He didn't come out." "Everybody in there has gotta be dead." "A little after dawn, Joe and Galt got me to the abandoned church." "The bill for helping the Indian girl included kicked-in ribs a broken nose one eye mashed up pretty good." "But all I needed was a gun and some time to heal." "Hey, Joe." "That's enough." "Get him inside." "Give him a little more." "He needs another drink." " No." "No!" "No!" "We know he ain't dead yet." "We counted the bodies out there." "Maybe you should take your shoes off and look at your toes." "Hickey gets back, we'll be cutting them off one by one." "I knew by the sound of the car it wasn't Joe." "It's a funny thing about people." "One time out of a hundred, they turned out better than you expect." "Just your old amigo." "Joe got caught making his daily run." "The food, the bandages, they just gave him away." "Hickey?" "No, McCool and a couple other guys." "Hickey and Doyle are in Mexico." "Doyle's still looking for that half-breed Indian girl." "I mean, is that a persistent little bastard or what?" "Where did they take Joe?" "They're all over at Strozzi's hotel." "Doyle moved them all over there after winning the war." "You really think that you're gonna fight anybody with that?" "I can get a gun with it." "That's the only help you gonna get." "I always hated it when I owe somebody." "But sometimes you just gotta play out a bad hand." "There were gonna be a lot more wooden boxes in Smiley's window." "But what the hell." "Everybody ends up dead." "It's just a matter of when." "Well, thank you." "God!" "Damn!" "Go back to the Red Bird." "Get my valise." "Bring another bottle of whiskey." "Yes, sir." "Right away, sir." "What's that?" "It's a message for Hickey." "Him and Doyle get back, you tell them I'm out at Slim's Roadhouse." "Slim's Roadhouse?" "It's burned to the ground." "It's gone, the whole place." "Are you all right?" "When is that ranger due back?" "Day after tomorrow." "That will give you enough time to get it cleaned up." "Cleaned up?" "I'm just gonna haul those bodies out of the hotel take them out in the desert and let the coyotes chew on them for a while." "Then I'm headed for Houston." "Even Frank the undertaker is leaving town, for chrissake." "What kind of town we gonna have without an undertaker?" "How about you, Joe?" "You're staying put, ain't you?" "No, sir." "Right now, I'm going with him." "Like hell you are." "I just wanna see this thing finished." "I earned it." "Joe and I sat up all night waiting for Hickey and Doyle." "When this thing got started, all I wanted to do was make some money." "Somewhere along the way, it all got personal." "You know for a guy with no principles, sometimes you act kind of peculiar." "Don't go getting mushy on me, Joe." "I was just trying to say thank you." "When I hear people thanking me, I generally start running." "How's your wound doing?" "Hurts like hell." "Closest doctor to here anymore is just across the river in Mexico." "I can show you the way." "Go on back there and hide." "Go find a spot." "Go on." "Stay hidden." "You had me fooled." "I really thought you burned up with the rest of them." "I knew better." "It was always gonna come down to something like this." "I want you thinking about me when you're dying." "Looks to me like you're the one bleeding." "Now, hold it." "We can get you a doctor." "Get you patched up." "You're gonna run this town with us." "I need you." "Give me a fair fight, you won't need a doctor." "Now, wait." "We don't need the guns." "You, me and Hickey, we won this war." "We're survivors." "We won!" "We won!" "I haven't found the girl yet." "You know, the girl." "You must know where she is." "You think we can still find her?" "We can go to Mexico." "She's up there in the mountains." "Some little village." "She had a kid." "A little girl." "I gotta get her back." "I'm telling you we can be partners." "That's for what he done to my town." "Ha-ha." "You're gonna have to kill me too." "No." "Don't worry." "I'm all done." "I'm just gonna watch." "I don't wanna die in Texas." "Chicago maybe." "You can meet me there if you want, and try and kill me." "Maybe you're the kind of guy that would shoot an unarmed man in the back." "Done worse than that." "I can't say it all went exactly the way I planned." "But I was right about one thing." "They were all better off dead." "Goddamn, I wasn't real sure this old gun would still shoot." "Looks like you got yourself a new car." "And that was it." "It ended about the same place where it started." "Out in the desert on the road to Mexico." "And I was just as broke as when I arrived." "But something would turn up." "It always does."