"So you wanna talk to this Huntoon?" "I was told he was here." "He's here." "What do you want with him?" "I am looking for a relative." "I was told he-- Huntoon worked with him." "Do I know you?" "No." "Do you know this Huntoon?" "No." "What's the name of this relative?" "Daniel Caine." "Danny Caine Al Meader Joe James and Huntoon." "Supposed to be working a gold claim together back up in the mountains someplace." "This Huntoon took an axe to Joe James." "And you want to talk to him." "Please." "He wants to see Huntoon." "Open up." "He's going inside?" "Open up." "Huntoon, you got a visitor." "You know my brother Daniel Caine?" "Mary's my sister." "What?" "You knew that...." "You another one for the gold, ain't you?" "You and Al and Danny and all that gang." "Please, you must help me." "I must find him." "Danny Caine's your brother?" "Yes." "My" "My" " My brother." "Please!" "Help me." "I'm sorry." "I'm sorry." "Please, I mean you no harm." "If you could only tell me where you last saw my brother." "I don't know." "He's up in the mountains." "Could you show me where?" "Sure." "Sure. I'll show you." "You get me out of here, and I'll show you." "Danny Caine and Al." "Sure, sure." "You get me out of here, I'll show you." "I'll take you there." "This is you, Mr. Caine?" "You're under arrest." "You'll be held pending notification of the Department of State." "Sgt." "Bedford?" "Yes, major." "This man is to be treated like any other civilian prisoner." "Why'd you walk into a place like this?" "It was necessary." "He'll be all right here, major." "Right, Huntoon?" "I'm holding you responsible." "Let's move it out." "Huntoon, you touch this man and I'll have you skinned alive with a bullwhip." "Do you understand?" "Mr. Caine, you are now a federal prisoner." "The rules are simple:" "You do what you're told to do when you're told to do it and you'll get along fine with me." "Huntoon, any disturbances and you'll go back on the wall after discipline." "What you doing in here?" "I came to talk to you." "Nobody ever came nowhere to talk to me." "You want the gold, don't you?" "l do not care about gold." "You want the gold." "You can have the gold." "I want Al, and I want Danny." "If you're Danny's brother, I should kill you." "I could." "Why shouldn't I?" "I have done you no harm." "Yeah, I wish you were his brother." "Yes." "Danny Caine and his friend Al Meader killed Joe James?" "No." "No, no." "Danny would do anything that Al said." "And Al killed Joe James, and Danny said I done it." "But I didn't kill Joe. I wouldn't kill him." "He was real good to me." "But I killed some other guys." "I did." "I do not believe you are a killer." "Yeah, well, they laughed at me, and I'll kill them!" "And if you laugh at me, I'll kill you too." "Why would I laugh?" "Look at me." "Look at me." "Look at me." "Look at the world you live in and this pool of fish." "There are twelve fish twelve worlds." "But only one pool." "Many." "The one you see the one I see and the world of each." "The world you live in is mysterious, exciting, unknown." "And mine is older, familiar and calm." "You will never know my world, or I yours." "Never?" "Can you see with my eyes?" "Think with my brain?" "But, master, you are one with the universe." "So am I." "We are one yet we are not the same." "Ten million living things have as many different worlds." "Do not see yourself as a center of the universe, wise and good and beautiful." "Seek, rather, wisdom, goodness and beauty that you may honor them everywhere." "Mr. Huntoon?" "Do you mean it when you say you can lead me to my brother?" "Sure." "Sure." "You think I wanna hang?" "You get me out of here, I'll take you to him." "Sure." "If you have possessions here gather them." "We will leave tonight." "Why didn't you yell for help?" "l tried, but I couldn't make a sound." "Will you please tell me how they could not only escape from the post stockade but manage to get out of the post compound as well?" "No, sir." "Two men chained together." "You cannot put out water with fire." "What you talking about?" "Stones will not break chains." "My foot hurts and I'm hungry." "Back at the fort, they'd be feeding me now." "Come." "I'm boss." "We go where l say!" "I'm boss." "Yes." "Will you take me to my brother in your own way?" "You think I'm dumb, don't you?" "Down there I'm dumb, but up here this is my place." "And you better not be fooling me, Caine." "Why would I be?" "We made a bargain." "Bargain?" "You gave your word?" "Just like the rest of them?" "I can give you a squad." "They'd get in the way." "lt took four men to get Huntoon locked up." "l can handle him." "Bedford, don't endanger yourself unnecessarily." "You are retiring in a couple of months." "The Army's choice." "l have a reputation." "Huntoon is dangerous." "He's a madman." "He's not smart enough to be crazy." "The state department wants Caine." "They want him back alive." "Do what you have to do with Huntoon." "l plan to." "I want meat." "Eat this." "Salmonberries up the hill, pine nuts." "And then your ankle." "It's good." "The white part." "You sure act like an Injun." "That feels good." "How'd you find out about this stuff?" "I listened." "We gotta get shed of them irons." "I know a place we can go, a trapper." "Anvil's in the barn." "We'll cold-chisel it." "You know this man?" "Johnson?" "He just lives here." "Come on." "Figured they'd have hanged you by now, Huntoon." "Would've been the best thing that ever happened to you." "Busted out, huh?" "Might be they got a reward on you." "Might be you too." "Just take it quiet. I'll turn you in alive, but not him." "Don't let him near me!" "Don't let him near me!" "He killed her." "Why don't you let me kill him?" "He's crazy. I didn't kill her." "Who died?" "My sister Mary." "She went out in a blizzard to get some wood when I was gone." "You dumb ox, I tried to tell you, I wasn't even here!" "Where is evil?" "In the rat whose nature it is to steal grain?" "Or in the cat whose nature it is to kill the rat?" "The rat steals." "Yet for him, the cat is evil." "And to the cat, the rat." "Yet, master, surely one of them is evil." "The rat does not steal." "The cat does not murder." "Rain falls, the stream flows, a hill remains." "Each acts according to its nature." "Then is there no evil for men?" "Each man tells himself that what he does is good." "At least for himself." "Grasshopper, a man may tell himself many things." "But is a man's universe made only of himself?" "If a man hurts me and I punish him perhaps he will not hurt another." "And if you do nothing?" "He will believe he may do as he wishes." "Perhaps." "Or perhaps he will learn that some men receive injury but return kindness." "You will not hurt Huntoon." "Huntoon will not harm you." "Caine!" "No." "No, Huntoon." "No!" "He killed my sister." "No." "He killed my sister." "He killed my sister." "He killed my sister." "How do you do it?" "What?" "Control that animal." "He controls himself." "He could've killed me." "Listen, let me give you a tip." "Now, you two busted out of that stockade." "That means Bedford will be after you, and he'll get you." "He's the best man-trapper I ever seen." "So you get out of here, both of you." "Go so far back up in those mountains he'll never see you." "He just wants the Utes to get us." "You got a chance with the Utes." "You got none with Bedford!" "You leave me like this, I'll starve." "Bedford will find you." "Hey, listen." "Don't trust Huntoon." "He's an animal." "He ain't right in the head. I know." "Flour's got bugs in it, and the bacon's moldy." "Why do you want it?" "Well, we gotta eat, don't we?" "We have been eating." "Oh, no." "We need that gun." "Why?" "Well, just because." "Your wound will not heal for weeks." "You cannot shoot, and I will not." "Leave it, Huntoon." "Well, where we're going is...." "He'll tell Bedford." "What can he tell him that he does not already know?" "I'm not going any further." "I'm not going any further." "We must keep going." "We must." "No." "No, I gotta rest." "Up there." "Only a little way." "Let me see." "It's no good." "There's Utes up there and Bedford's coming." "You promised you would take me to where you saw my brother." "We got no guns." "We're gonna run into Utes for sure." "Then we will run faster!" "Come." "When we are higher, there will be healing herbs." "Come." "Yes." "Them weeds?" "There is infection." "These will help." "Injuns use weeds." "I never thought they did no good." "Above the ridge, can you see?" "Fire?" "Them's Utes." "You know these hills?" "l know them real good." "It is necessary." "Now..." "...we wait." "No, we can't wait." "Bedford'll find us." "You need time." "We will wait." "You hungry?" "I'm always hungry. I been hungry all my life, as far as I can remember." "What do you remember, Huntoon?" "Mary." "Mary never laughed at me, never." "It was the rest of them." "Did you give them cause to laugh?" "Well, I didn't mean to." "Perhaps you gave them cause to fear." "I'm dumb, and I can't figure people but I'm big enough to make them stop laughing at me if I catch them." "If you plant rice rice will grow." "If you plant fear fear will grow." "If it hadn't been for that Chinaman, I would've killed him." "You say he's worth more than for Huntoon?" "That Chinaman did keep that big dummy from killing me, though." "Say, how much are they offering for him?" "$ 1 0,000." "$ 1 0,000?" "Dog!" "That's gonna be kind of tough on you, though, ain't it?" "What is?" "Well, I know you're coming up to retire." "How much pension you gonna make?" "$20 a month, 25?" "Something like that." "Well, that ain't hardly enough to live on." "I mean, that's pretty poor pay for 20 years' hard work, now ain't it?" "Now $ 1 0,000...." "Well...." "Course, you being federal, you ain't entitled to collect the reward, now are you?" "Which direction did they go?" "Now, sergeant." "Now, listen here." "What if I was to turn them in and collect the $ 1 0,000 reward keeping, say, a third for my trouble?" "They head up the mountain on foot?" "Yeah, yeah." "Now, look. 6 or $ 7000 would go a long way to stretching a paltry $25 a month, now wouldn't it?" "I been drawing Army pay a long time, mister." "Well, then it's time you got practical." "Now, you going after an animal like Huntoon and that Chinaman, all I say is:" "Why do it for nothing when you could pick up an extra 6 or $ 7000..." "...just by listening to common sense?" "lf l was you I'd head back down to the flat till the Utes calm down up here." "Army can't protect you this far out." "I thought you said you needed meat." "Well, that stuff you been getting it's all right." "Was the deer afraid of you?" "It was a deer." "I don't know what a deer thinks." "You know." "Let's get some more of them berries." "Good. I could find stuff like this." "You can do many things." "But I don't know nothing." "The deer was afraid." "Yet the deer knew you came to help it." "You know things, too, Huntoon." "No, I don't." "I can't read or write or nothing." "You know pain." "You know fear." "You know the laughter of the wind and the perfume of the earth." "I like it here, nobody around." "I owe that Meader a killing." "Why?" "For what he done." "Like they always done to me." "What of yourself?" "Do you not owe for what you have done?" "You want me to go back so I can hang?" "I would not ask that." "First you say one thing, then something else." "Now I don't know what you want!" "Ask not what I want but what path you yourself have chosen." "If we find Danny, I won't kill him." "Me and Joe James done the digging." "Nuggets big as your thumb." "Danny is not here." "How do you know that?" "No one is here." "No, Meader's here." "All that gold, he ain't going nowhere." "He's here." "No." "He's here. I know he's here." "That ain't fair." "Ain't fair." "It ain't fair, them Utes." "Rest." "I guess they got your brother." "No." "Meader was alone when he died." "How'd you know?" "I know." "You stay now." "Where you going, Caine?" "To bury him." "Caine?" "Where's Caine?" "l don't know." "He brung me here, and he left me." "You're not smart enough to be a liar." "Where is he?" "l told you." "We'll wait." "He's gone." "I got shot." "Take me back with you, Bedford, and get me a doctor." "Look." "You'll live." "We'll wait." "I'll kill you if you try it." "Them's mine. I dug for them." "Meader and Joe James is dead and Danny Caine ain't here." "And them's mine, Bedford." "What you gonna do now?" "Don't make a sound." "Watch him." "Where you going now?" "To find some sign of Danny." "Keep him here." "Why don't you shoot me and get it over with?" "Yeah, my back still hurts from his whip." "Huntoon will not hurt you." "So Al Meader really did kill Joe James." "l told you that." "Well, I believed you." "Trouble is there's a warrant out for you." "If I don't bring you in, somebody else will." "They'll hang you." "Shut up!" "I don't want you, Huntoon." "I want that Chinaman." "Well, you don't understand him." "He's different." "He wouldn't hurt nobody." "Now, why do you think I'm after him?" "Well...." "Hey, you remember what they did to President Lincoln?" "Yeah, you know how somebody killed him?" "President Lincoln, yeah." "lt's called an assassination." "Assass" "That's what Caine did." "He killed a member of the Chinese government." "No, he never told me" "He knew you wouldn't stand for it." "I mean, him killing a man like President Lincoln." "No, I wouldn't." "Huntoon." "Help me take him, and I'll let you go." "I'll tell them I killed you, left your body for the wolves." "And that bag of gold, 1 0 or $ 1 5,000, it's all yours." "Well, I already got the gold." "Yeah." "But when I tell them that I killed you, nobody will ever run after you again." "I can do that." "Nobody else can." "You'll have all that money." "You'll never need anything again." "All I could ever want." "Yeah." "But Caine out there checking that mine he could kill us both and take all that money for himself." "No, he said that he's just looking for his brother." "No, he's lying." "All that gold." "Wouldn't anybody?" "Wouldn't you?" "We have little time." "You do not trust me?" "I'm sorry, Caine, but you'd turn me in just like the rest of them." "The cobweb is made of silken thread so fine a puff of breath destroys it." "Yet to the spider, it is a secure haven." "Still to me, only a cobweb." "When the wind blows, a feather dances in its wake." "But the feather, much weaker than the wind, can do no other." "is this the way of men?" "There are strong and weak." "You do not see." "Which is stronger?" "These boards or your arm?" "The boards." "Strike the boards using your arm as a weapon." "Yet the boards resisting do not endure." "Can the weaker be the stronger?" "See the way of life as a stream." "A man floats, and his way is smooth." "The same man turning to fight upstream exhausts himself." "To be one with the universe, each must find his true path and follow it." "My friend." "What a hard path you have chosen." "President Lincoln, you...." "Caine." "President Lincoln." "Two other things." "Huntoon, I gave you my word." "You're free." "Leave it!" "You promised me!" "l'm giving you your life!" "I'll tell them I killed you, but don't actually make me do it." "lt's my gold." "Now, listen." "That's my payment for 20 years of chasing animals like you." "What did I ever get for it?" "Now, go on!" "Get out of here before I change my mind!" "That's my gold, Caine. lt's my gold." "Ain't it my gold?" "lf you send him out there alone, he will die." "And he'll hang if I take him back." "I'm doing more for him than I ever done for anybody else." "He cannot run." "He is sick and weak." "And there are Indians coming." "You're lying." "I saw them." "They're coming this way." "I gave him my word." "Now, you're gonna come with me." "He's nothing but an animal anyway." "Sgt. Bedford, we must go." "The Indians will have heard the shot." "You're lying." "Look at this." "Look at this." "You are as we are now." "You have no gun." "You are the pursued, not the pursuer." "You just go on." "You just leave me alone." "Who is the animal here?" "Huntoon or you?" "No one knows you there." "Perhaps you can make a new life." "Well, they'll probably laugh." "A strong man is always needed." "Mary's gone, and you'll be going too." "There's nobody left." "I'm gonna stay here, Caine." "Master, the silent one." "He is not one of us, yet he remains." "The river seeks its own level." "It will not fight the rock. lt flows around it." "The rock becomes a refuge in the river." "But here he is understood." "What if he were outside?" "is there an outside?" "Who understands the silent one more than a sparrow or a kid?" "Though nature has clouded his mind and silenced his tongue and twisted his body it gave a magic to his hands." "This the creatures know." "is it not a gift more precious than fame or beauty or the riches of a king?" "Yeah, the animals don't laugh, and you showed me how to get that food and there's a lot of work to be done." "Work?" "Yeah, I saw a beaver dam that was overrun with plaster tailings." "And the deer, you know, they sometimes starve in the wintertime." "They don't know how to find food." "When a man finds his way heaven is gentle." "Goodbye, Huntoon."