"Smollett, where this man comes from, your town would seem like a peaceful paradise." "Now leave him alone... or take your chances with me." "This, my dear, is really a very simple trick." "Put your spoon and the dull side of the knife..." "Well, um, meet Miss Viola Nasby." "Uh, Viola, this is Miss..." "Oh, my name is Shotness." "Rivka Shotness." "I, uh, I am disturbing you?" "Not a bit." "Mr. Paladin is delighted." "Oh." "Oh, you are Mr. Paladin, then?" "Uh, well, Miss Shotness, would you care to, uh, join us for dinner?" "Oh, yes, thank you." "Excuse me." "A glass of water." "Thank you." "Oh, I tried to send you a telegram, but the operator in Calabasas was afraid to send it." "Do you dress like this in the daytime?" "Oh, no, it is very beautiful." "Afraid to, uh, send a telegram?" "Why?" "Yes, they are all afraid." "All except my father." "I thought if I came to you and-and explained everything, perhaps you would not be afraid to help us." "It, uh, it was your name that appealed to me." "In the holy tongue, it has a very favorable meaning." "Pala- "wonder."" "Din- "judgment."" "Well, perhaps I should raise my fee." "What about your father, dear?" "Well, he reported the murder, naturally." "And this is what started all the trouble." "He is the leader of a gang." "What you call "outlaws."" "Your father?" "No, the murderer." "Billy Buckstone." "My father saw him shoot the man." "When my father reported it to the sheriff, the sheriff only tried to arrest my father." "Why?" "Every time that fellow is on trial for murdering somebody, the witnesses are struck blind, and the jury men, they are afraid for their families." "And your father?" "They offered him $2,000 for his horse and wagon if he would leave town for a week." "And by that time the trial would be over and Billy Buckstone would be a free man." "Do you know our town?" "Very well." "Oh." "Well, why stay in such a hopeless place?" "Bring your father to San Francisco." "Oh, but it is not so bad, really." "Why, in the old country, we are surrounded by murderers." "In Calabas, why, less than a dozen men are murdered in a year... and no women or children." "Why, my father says the, the improvement is enormous." "Your father must be a remarkable man- if he is still alive." "Oh, uh..." "I, uh, I am sorry to interrupt, but, uh, you are very beautiful." "Honey, don't you know you are, too?" "Well, go on, help her." "I take care of myself." "Whoa... whoa!" "Will you stable my horse for me?" "Thank you." "There it is." "There's what?" "Our wagon." "$2,000." "They must hate money." "Where is your father apt to be now?" "Oh, he will be in the bar for his afternoon beer." "Miss Shotness, will you excuse me, please?" "Hey, Nathan." "Hey, Nathan?" "Want to buy some old clothes?" "How much will you give me for this shirt?" "I carry mail for the United States Government." "You got something to sell, go wash out the stink from it first." "Well!" "You boys hear what Nathan said?" "Said I stink." "Boy." "Hey, Nathan, you got so much money, you wouldn't take 2,000 U.S. dollars for that horse and wagon outside." "How about buying me a drink, huh?" "Hey, you boys ever see this old skinflint buy a drink for anybody but himself before?" "You drink with your friends," "I'll drink with mine." "Hmm." "But you got no friends, have you, Nathan?" "Except me." "Ain't I your friend, Nathan?" "Another friend." "You, uh, making out in front of all these fine folks that my friendship ain't good enough for you, Nathan?" "You don't even carry a gun, do you?" "Maybe somebody would like to loan him one." "How come you so anxious to see Billy Buckstone get hung?" "I'm not interested in Billy Buckstone one way or the other." "Leave the law take care of him." "Oh." "I don't know about that, Nathan." "You, uh, you ever see one of these up real close before, Nathan, hmm?" "Careful now." "That thing might go off in the wrong direction." "I'll bet you wish you had enough guts to point that at me, huh?" "Whoever sold you this, he's still laughing." "Look at that." "The bore is all pitted." "Your hammer is loose." "About the only thing it's still good for is driving nails." "This boy wants to be a gunman." "Doesn't know even have to buy himself a working piece of equipment." "But these children, they throw away their money on fancy silk shirts." "But when it comes to their own life, they begrudge another dollar." "With that kind of equipment, lowlifes like you terrorize half a county." "Oh, believe me, boychick in the czar's army, may he rot in the ground." "They would have feed you to the horses for straw!" "What say, boychick?" "What are you laughing at, jackass?" "All right, Nathan, we'll, uh, see each other again, huh?" "We'll find out who gets the last laugh." "Hmm?" "What kind of a thing is that?" "Running away without leaving me note?" "If I told you, would you have let me go?" "No." "Who is he?" "This is Mr. Paladin." "I hire him to protect you." "A man with ten dollars worth of hardware, right away he's bigger than the law." "I take care of myself." "Papa..." "For that we came to Columbus's country?" "To hire killers and be as bad as they are?" "Mr. Shotness, I'm not a hired killer." "You're not?" "If I say I give you a thousand dollars to kill that little Cossack for me, you wouldn't do it?" "I would not." "It's a good thing because I haven't got a thousand dollars." "You know, they offered me $2,000 for that broken-down horse and wagon?" "Some business, huh?" "Why didn't you take it?" "A good question." "The Mishnah says, "Pray for the welfare of the authorities." ""If not for the fear thereof, men would swallow each other alive."" "Why stay here?" "Doesn't your Mishnah also say..." ""Where this is no law, there is no bread"?" "It also says, "Where there is no bread, there is no law."" "What are you standing there like a fool?" "Go home." "Make the man something to eat." "You've forgotten how to treat a guest?" "Excuse me." "I've got to make more deliveries." "I'll be home, God willing, before sunset." "Yes, Papa." "Mr. Shotness, you can't go out of town right now." "It'd be an open invitation to get yourself dry-gulched." "What kind of business can't wait till this trial's over?" "Mr. Paladin, I'll tell you." "The Almighty and I, we are in the same business." "I carry the mail, he carries the world." "Now, your daughter brought me here at a considerable inconvenience to both of us." "Do you want my help, or don't you?" "Sure." "Their tongues are hanging out." "They could drown me in a spoon of water." "Mister, please don't be insulted, but for bloodthirsty murderers, you've got nothing to compare with Chmielnicki's Cossacks, may their name and memory be blotted out." "Mr. Shotness, in our small, backward country, uh, we may not have bloodshed on the grand scale to which you're accustomed, but I see no reason for making it any easier for them." "You think I would be better off sitting at home?" "I do." "The Angel of Death doesn't need an excuse." "When your time comes, either you meet him or he meets you." "Well, do you mind if I come along?" "All right, mister." "Come." "Stop making bargains." "Get up!" "Fine place for an ambush, huh?" "You play chess?" "A little." "Good game." "Good for the mind." "Now we are going to play chess." "Well, Nathan, you aren't such a fatalist after all." "I got once a medal for marksmanship from the czar himself, may the cholera take him." "My father, rest in peace, used to say," ""Don't rely on miracles alone." "Say a couple prayers, also."" "Now it's his move." "¶ ¶" "Nathan!" "Hey, Nathan, where are you?" "!" "I'm going to kill you!" "Nathan!" "Oh, if we were only heathens." "Everything would be so simple." "One, two, three, no more trouble." "Nathan, you made a fool out of him." "You've got an enemy there that won't forget until that's wiped out." "So I've got an enemy." "So let him be healthy." "What's life without a little opposition?" "There is a saying, "If everybody pulled in the same direction, the world would tip over."" "Well, I'm afraid that one doesn't share your enlightened philosophy." "Suppose I spend the night in your house." "Uh..." "Mr. Paladin," "I have a small house." "My daughter sleeps in the kitchen." "And even our saintly King David was not above temptation." "But come at 8:00." "You'll have a bite to eat, huh?" "Thank you." "¶ Taught Solomon his little ABCs ¶" "¶ Was first man to eat Limburger cheese ¶" "¶ And while floating down the bay with Methuselah one day ¶" "¶ I saw his whiskers floating in the breeze ¶" "¶ About 24 feet long, they were ¶" "¶ Queen Elizabeth, she fell in love with me... ¶" "They took her." "What?" "Rivka." "They took her." "They leave any message?" "Who message?" "What message?" "I know what they want." "Tomorrow when the trial starts, if I'm a hundred miles away, maybe they'll send her back alive." "Now, slow down, Nathan." "You're sure that Rivka just didn't go off visiting someplace?" "The whole house was upside down." "Why didn't we take them this afternoon, in ambush, when we had them?" "Maybe their way is the right way." "Nathan." "Now, you know that Jacob could never step into Esau's skin." "He tried it once and what did his father say?" ""The hands are the hands of Esau, but the voice is the voice of Jacob."" "Then what shall I do?" "How can I stand up in court and open my mouth when I know that by doing that, I am killing my own daughter?" "Not necessarily." "What do you mean?" "Well, wherever they've got Rivka, sooner or later, somebody's going to have to come from the courthouse to tell them what you've done." "So?" "So I'll be outside the courthouse and I'll follow the messenger." "Suppose he sees you?" "He'll wish he hadn't." "Nathan, I promise you I'll find your daughter." "I have had some experience in putting forth the hands of Esau." "Come on." "I'm betting Nathan don't show." "Come on." "Somebody make a bet with me." "I got five dollars that says he won't show." "Come on!" "¶ ¶" "¶ ¶" "¶ ¶" "So, he's going to make them hang Billy after all, huh?" "Well, he's not going to gloat over it." "Get the horses." "Your daddy's going to be a hero back there." "Well... he's going to be hero without no kin." "I seen your daddy butcher a cow once." "You people got some special way of doing that, ain't you?" "Now, hold it!" "Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha'olam borei pri ha gafen." "Amen." "Mr. Paladin, are you sure you could not stay overnight?" "What's your hurry?" "Your business will run away?" "You have your customers and I have mine." "Customers, he calls us." "Well... now, if the rich could only hire people to die for them, the poor would make a nice living." ""The good die young, that they may not be corrupted." ""and the wicked live on, that they may have a chance to repent."" "Now I ask you." "In what other country could you find a hired killer who could quote you the words of the holy Zohar?" "Nathan Shotness, for the last time, I am not..." "¶ "Have gun will travel," reads the card of a man ¶" "¶ A knight without armor in a savage land ¶" "¶ His fast gun for hire heeds the calling wind ¶" "¶ A soldier of fortune is the man called Paladin ¶" "¶ Paladin, Paladin, where do you roam?" "¶" "¶ Paladin, Paladin, far, far from home. ¶"