"My, my." "Comanches?" "It would appear so." "I daresay the Texas Rangers will enjoy a bit of sport today." "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "Hyah!" "Go with Escute!" "Go!" "It's a hell of a time to be singing." "It's his death song." "They all compose one for such a time as this." "_" "Pete." "There's something terrible about to happen, and I need you to help me stop it." "Okay, tell me." "We appreciate you making the trip down here, Mr. Bates." "Yeah, well, last time your daddy sent for me on short notice, it was the day you was born." "So I figured it had to be important." "Look out!" "Texas Rangers are here!" "Eli!" "You old son of a buck." "You don't look a day over 60." "That's very kind of you to say." "Whiskey is a great preservative." "You know, the first person to ever at shoot me was a Texas Ranger, probably your grandpa, Bigfoot Wallace himself." "You know..." "I don't think so." "Old Bigfoot... he never fired a gun, he didn't kill something." "Sit down, take the weight off." "My boy Pete was tipped off about a stash of tools out there where the Old Indio Ferry used to run." "Pete?" "There was a whole load of mallets and picks and iron bars, where the Del Rio line runs along the river." "We figure they mean to derail the train." "Son of a bitch." "How many was killed when they derailed that train from Brownsville?" "Couple dozen." "Passenger line runs twice a week." "Next one's tomorrow." "Pete, where you gettin' all this crackerjack information?" "Reliable source." "How reliable?" "I saw it all myself, Hiram." "Well..." "I reckon we ought to gather us up a posse." "Do you really think this is a good idea?" "Stopping innocent people gettin' killed by the sediciosos?" "I think it's fairly necessary, to say the least." "I'm talkin' about you." "This is a job for the sheriff or the Army." "Well, this is how we're doin' it." "The other night..." "You scared me." "You shouldn't have followed me." "It was none of your business." "All right." "I'm sorry I scared you." "Stay home." "Please." "They can do this without you." "You think I want this?" "I don't have a choice." "Why not?" "I'm his son." "You ladies ready?" "!" "Let's kill some bandits!" " Missed your first shootout?" " Yeah." "Yeah." "Still, I'll be saving your ass." "That's only 'cause he's got the Lewis gun." "Hey." "Hold up there, Charles." "Where do you think you're going?" "I'm going with y'all." "I know what's going on." "You got a posse." "Giddyap!" "You ain't going nowhere." "Come on, Dad." "No, get back in that house." "Yes, sir." "I ask you, what has the Mexican improved?" " Nothing." " What lies south of our blood-slaked border but a mass of indigents whose only avocations are popery and violence?" "Show me the Mexicans' contribution to civilization." "What is the Mexicans' cotton gin?" "Where might I find the Mexicans' lightbulb?" "Who is the Mexicans' Socrates?" "Abandon hope, fellow travelers, for now we trespass upon the unimproved acreage of Señor García, who sits in his manse, hoarding his gold like some toothless old dragon." "Niles, shut your damn mouth." "That goes for everybody!" "Zip it up!" "I'd like to live out the week." "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "Your people are not welcome here." " Go on!" " It's a free country." " I said go!" " Ignacio!" "Ven acá!" "You people are murderers!" "_" "Pedro, I'm so sorry." "My son didn't mean to stare." "And we are very sorry for what youe going through." "You're not sorry!" "You killed him!" "iCállate la boca!" "No, we are sorry, Mrs. McCullough." "Forgive my child." "This is a difficult time for us all." "Mama, you're hurtin' my arm!" "Jeannie, come on." "We're going home." "Jeannie." "Charles!" "Oh, shit." "Get those guns down." "It's my boy." "What the hell is wrong with you?" " Daddy, it's okay." " It's okay?" "I nearly put a bullet through your heart." "You think that's okay?" "Huh?" "You think that's okay?" "Get down." "What the hell are you thinking?" "Huh?" "Huh?" "You're gonna get back on that horse and you're gonna ride home." "It's too late for him to ride home alone." " You're kidding me." " We're on García land now." "Half the García vaqueros are in with the sediciosos." "It's safer for him here than to get bushwhacked riding home in the dark." "Go water your horse." "We gotta get that boy's head on straight." "Even when you were half his age, you knew better than to walk into a goddamned ambush." "Well, it ain't an accident I'm teaching him different." "Well, there you have it." "Everything you need to derail a train." "These are the only shallows for a couple of miles." "They'll cross in the morning before the train comes through." "We'll dig in up along the ridge there, make camp about a half a mile back." "We'll catch 'em in the water." "The fires of Hell ought to dry 'em off nicely." "Enough jawing." "Let's get to work." "Come on." "_" "_" "It's broken." "_" "_" "You sure you don't want some help?" "_" "_" "_" "What?" "Is it your back?" " Yah!" " Shh." "Shh." "Shh." "Shh, shh." "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "You're a good horse." "You didn't deserve this." "Just lay still, and it'll be over, okay?" "Shh." "Think about all those girls you got back there waiting on you." "There'll be a line of 'em waiting to nurse you back to health." "What is it?" "_" "Okay, don't stop." "You gotta stay awake, Escute." "_" "That's a good idea." "Keep singing." "You gotta stay awake, Escute." "_" "Keep singing." "Keep singing." " Boys have been working fast." " They're the best men in Texas." "You get Sullivan and Neptune to put one more foxhole up there." "I think we should build through up there." "Hey, one more." "That's it." "I'm worried about Charles." "Oh, relax, Son." "We got pickets posted in every position." "Pizaña shows up early, we'll be ready for 'em." "It ain't exactly Pizaña I'm worried about." "Who was it told you about the attack?" "Cesar?" "No." "Hmm." "You back with that García girl again?" "What?" "We're here because of something she told you." "Ain't that a fact?" "No, it is not." "Anyhow, all that ended a long time ago." "Pete." "She has got nothing to do with any of it." "You just put that out of your mind." "Everything all right at home?" "It's fine." "I feel some responsibility." " Do you now?" " Mm, hell, yeah." "If you hadn't married Sally, you would have ended up with Maria." "I know that." "Things would have turned out a whole lot different." "Well, they didn't." "You wanted me to marry Sally, so I did." "You could have said no." "What's behind all this, Daddy?" "What are you gettin' at?" "It's such a surprise I care what happens to you?" "I do." "My mother taught me how to sew and to cook." "Maybe you can mend Sullivan's panties while you're at it." "Sullivan sews his own panties." "You know I do." "When I get done massacring this jacket," "I'll take a nickel a sock." "Oh, me." "You ain't sitting' here." "Nonsense, Louis." "Neptune here is a comrade in arms." "A brother in blood." "You take a load off, Neptune, please." "Thank you kindly, Mr. Gilbert." "Pass that bottle on, Louis." "Manners, Louis." "Niles and them was sharing battle stories." "You know, Neptune fought with the Army down in the Philippines." "A real-life Buffalo Soldier?" "Yes, sir." "Ninth Cavalry." "How many Moros you kill?" "Six I know about." "Whoo!" "Such derring-do." "Runs in the blood, I guess." "Tell me about your people, Neptune." "Back in Africa." "Are they savage as reported?" "Don't know the first thing about Africa." "Oh." "What about your people, Mr. Gilbert?" "They savage as reported?" "The Gilberts?" "We're, indeed, fightin' stock." "First to defend against Northern aggression when Sumter lit up." "And how'd they fare after the war?" "Oh." "Yankees took everything." "Sharecroppin' is a fixed game, as rigged and treacherous as any roulette wheel." "Hell you say." "My people were sharecroppers, too, after they was finished being slaves, of course." "Mm-hmm." "Curious world, ain't it?" "Sherman burns everything, and your family and mine come out equal in poverty." "'Course, that changed the day the Colonel came along and started paying my daddy a decent wage." "I daresay it elevated our station." "Oh!" "I like you, Neptune." "Oh!" "You and me..." "We stand on the same footing." "We're the working poor." "We can't all of us be high-born." "The McCulloughs fought for every last thing they got." "Oh, Lord, don't mishear me." "We all revere the McCulloughs." "Just a name to live up to." "Good for you, Charles." "Good for you, coming to defend what's yours." "I ain't done nothing yet." "And that makes you pure potential, son." "Unlit dynamite." "Charles." "Let's go." "Time to feed the ponies." "Stay away from Niles Gilbert." "Why?" "He seems harmless enough." "He's far from harmless." "He's only here 'cause he likes the idea of shooting Mexicans." "Hell, I like the idea of shooting Mexicans." "It hurts me when you talk like that." "You understand?" "Yeah." "Yeah." "Good." "The stuff your granddaddy and I did still keeps me up at night." "Well, if the people you did it to deserved it, who cares?" "You're gonna keep your head down tomorrow." " No, Da..." " Listen to me, Charles." "I want you to stay behind at camp." "You've got too much family buried out here already." "Charles?" "Charles?" "Have either of you seen your brother?" "He was supposed to feed the animals." "I'll feed 'em." "I can't read with this racket." "Well, I don't like playing it any more than you like listening to it." "Listening to it's way worse." "Be kind, Jonas." "All that practice will pay off when she finally masters the instrument." "I ain't mastering squat." "Jeannie!" "That's enough for your lessons." "Go find a book to read." "Okay, Mama." "Honey?" "Do I have to?" "Relaxes me." "All right, what do you want to hear?" "Something gentle." "Mama?" "Hmm?" "Why do the Garcías think we killed Cesar?" "Well, when bad things happen, it's human nature to look for someone to blame." "We need to be like Jesus and turn the other cheek." "But why do they pick on us?" "We must have done something." "Don't talk stupid, Jonas." "Maybe granddaddy did something to them we don't know about." "The Colonel spends all his time working to make a good life for us." "You say one word against him, I'll bust your nose open." "Bug!" "Don't talk to your brother that way." "I just don't like to see him upset you, Mama." "Escute!" "_" "Escute!" "Shit." "_" "Yeah." "Can't sleep." "Thank you." "For what?" "Escute died." "But you tried to help him." "He could have died alone or been desecrated." "If they had scalped him, he couldn't enter the next world." "Now... now he's in a better place." "You did yourself a great honor today." "Tomorrow, when we bury Escute," "I want you to push him from his horse." "Smoke with me." "Shh, shh." "Shh, shh, shh!" "Shh." "_" "Shh." "Shh." "Shh, shh." "_" " I'm out, I'm out, I'm out, I'm out!" " Okay." "Hey!" "Go, go!" "Don't let 'em cross that river!" " Keep 'em on the other side!" " You got it!" "Jack!" "No!" "What, you expect them not to shoot back?" "Get in it, Louis!" "I'm out, I'm out!" "Two behind the horse!" "Right over there, two behind the horse!" "Too low!" "Give 'em hell, Neptune!" "Yeah!" "Attaboy, boys!" "Yee-haw!" "Goddamn!" "Sullivan, you son of a gun, you!" "I saw..." "Sullivan!" "Sullivan!" "Come on, Sullivan!" "You can't go down!" "Come on, Sullivan!" "Come on, get up, get up." "Come on." "Oh, my head hurts." "Sullivan, your head's so hard, the goddamned bullet bounced clean off." "It sure don't feel like it, Neptune." "Yeah, just about scalped you, but you ain't dead." "Well, who's the son of a bitch that shot me?" "Greaser girl." "Pete got her." "Thanks, kid." "Owe you one." "It's all right, Son." "You had to." "You see that one's holster?" "Give it here." " But you rob a man, Louis." " A shame to let it go to waste." "Whoo, look at that!" "I know it's rough, Son, but you did the right thing." "Charles, turn that señorita's head this way." "Come on, come on." "Come over here." "Do you really think that what the world needs is more people like us?" "It's a war, Son." "That's all it is." "It's just a war." "It's a war we're helping to start." "Makes my head hurt is what it does." "How's that head there, Sully?" "Oh, I tell you what." "thank God for a thick skull." "It's thick, all right." "Only I have to wake up to your ugly face." " Are you okay?" " Yeah." "I'm fine." "What happened out there?" "Maybe ease up." "I am on your side."