"As long as we're betting, Jim, let's make it worth while." "The piano player and the $8,000 he lost... against the girl." "Why did you answer my advertisement?" "Won't you sit down?" "To tell you the truth, your advertisement amused me." ""Since San Francisco police" ""fear to walk their own streets" ""to search for my fiancé," ""I am forced to appeal for help," ""to anyone with courage enough to venture south of Pacific Street."" "How long has your fiancé been missing?" "Three months." "Albert would be a loss to the world, Mr. Paladin, as well as to me." "An outstanding musician, student, composer, one of the most promising and exciting men I've ever known, but his father wanted him to go into business to make a man out of him." "He gave him $8,000 to invest in real estate." "Albert has $8,000 on the Barbary Coast?" "A lamb in a slaughterhouse has a better chance." "I'm not sure I'd want a man like you to help me." "Miss Eubanks, Miss Emily Eubanks, it's been my pleasure." "How did you know my name?" "I didn't tell you." "Well, occasionally some small touch of culture does reach us out here in these vast wastelands." ""Would I not, sweet Orpheus, follow thee" ""Down to that livid chamber of eternal Night" ""Where melody plucked from a broken heart," "Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheeks."" "Then you do understand." "Miss Eubanks, shall we go and try and find Albert?" "You wait here." "I'll change." "Get 'em out of town!" "Well, this is Pacific Street." "It's the roughest gutter in the Barbary Coast." "We might as well start here and work our way up." "I think I can hear him." "Where is it?" "It is Albert." "I didn't know there were this many music lovers in the entire city of San Francisco." ""Music lovers"?" "It's a wager we've got going here." "Would you like to place a little on the outcome?" "The outcome of what?" "Big Nellie there bet me a thousand" "I couldn't keep Albert playin' the piano for 36 hours straight." "I couldn't be much of a sportsman if I refused a wager like that." "How long has he been sitting there?" "Well, let's see now." "It's just under 18 hours." "Any minute now you're going to be reaching the half-way point, and from then on it'll be downhill all the way." "So keep playing, Albert, if you want to live to see daylight again." "And not have it shinin' through." "He plays pretty enough to melt your heart, doesn't he?" "This boy spent four years at the Conservatory in Boston." "I said he plays pretty, didn't I?" "Who's the lady?" "She's a friend." "And how good a friend?" " What does that mean?" " I'm just askin'." "How much is she worth to you?" "She's not for sale." "How do you know unless you try?" "Although to tell you the truth," "I wasn't thinkin' of buyin' her." "Emily!" "Now, nobody told you to stop." "Keep playing!" "I said to play the piano!" "Listen." "Play or play dead." "You ain't costing me money." "It's too late!" "He's already stopped for over 20 seconds." "You lost your bet, Jim." "Come on, you bad sport." "Pay me." "Pay me." "Oh, Nellie, this is your lucky day." "Oh, Albert." "Albert, what have they done to you?" "You spent it?" "On that?" "I don't even have the satisfaction of having been wicked." "Then why in heaven's name..." "Albert, $8,000." "I've never been any good." "I'm weak, Emily." "Since when is it a weakness to be sensitive to beauty, and beauty alone?" "Emily." "Albert..." "Albert, this is Mr. Paladin." "He helped me find you." "Albert." "How did you end up in a place like this?" "Well, I came down here one night, as I told you, and the next morning" "I woke up in a cellar on a greasy straw mattress, empty pockets." "Big Jimmy had it fixed up to sell me to a crimper for delivery to a vessel bound for..." "Shanghai." "Paladin, is this possible?" "In San Francisco?" "Very possible, especially in San Francisco." "Well, what softened Big Jim's heart?" "Uh, someone stabbed the piano player, and Big Nellie needed another one in a hurry." "She offered Jim more money for me than the crimper did," "$35, to be exact." "Well, the four years you spent in the Conservatory didn't go for nothing, at any rate." "All right, Albert, let's get your clothes and get out of here." "My clothes?" " This is everything I own in the world." " All right." "Wait a minute, mister." "You're forgetting something." "Paid good cash for this boy." "He belongs to me." "All right, how much do you want for him?" "Oh, mister, ain't you said yourself that there's some things in life that ain't for sale?" "You won't sell him?" "Nope." "Now, I understand that you are a man who will bet on anything, any game, any stakes." " That so?" " Right, the first time." "Will you put that piano player up as your stake?" "Him?" "And what will you bet against him?" "You wait here, Albert." "Well, would you like to win your thousand dollars back?" "A thousand dollars." "And I thought you was a gamblin' man." "All right, you name the stakes, anything." "First of all, what kind of contest are we betting on?" "Anything you name." "You name the game, and I'll beat you at it." "Mister, are you sure you know what you're sayin'?" "There's one way to find out." "All right." "Punch for punch, and one minute to get up off the floor." "And we keep trading them until one of us don't make it." "All right, if that's what you want." "Aye." "Now, what do I put up against the piano player?" "Her." "On the hoof, as she stands." "The winner gets a matched pair, just like canary birds." "Oh, bless my teeth, if she don't look good enough to eat." "She is not mine to wager." "No." "Now, how about $2,000?" "Don't you worry about me collecting', mister, but I'll give you a thousand on top of the piano player just 'cause I'm an old softy, and she appeals to me something powerful." "No." "Mister, I don't think you're in much of a position to haggle." "But tell you what I'll do." "I'll throw in any gal in the place, no exceptions, including Big Nellie herself." "No." "No deal." "No." "Yes." "If those are your terms." "Emily..." "It's not your decision to make." "It's mine, and I've made it." "Her against him." "That's what I said, ain't it?" "And the $8,000 he lost." "Now, what's the matter?" "You're not worrying about losing, are you?" "Hey, Jo-Jo, come here." "Fetch it for me a room." "You know where it is?" "Call it." "Tails." " Heads, it is." " Now, wait a minute." "Have a look at it." "Too late now, Honey." "Don't say I didn't warn you." "Right you are." "All right, get back." "Give 'em room." "Come on." "You people there, against the wall, get back." "Give them room." "You..." "Forty." "Come on, Big Jim." " Phew." " He's getting up." "He's getting up." "Get up, Big Jim!" "Now look what you done." "All right, now, no more tricks." "We stand up and take it like a man." "Look out back there." "He's coming through." "Are you ready?" "Come on, 20 more on him." "Hurry up." "Boy, you done." "Fifty seconds to get on his feet, if his back ain't broke." "Opposition." "That's the difference between a lady and your kind of trash..." "Aah!" "Go on." "Where's me music maker?" "Play more music, Albert!" "Play more music." "Now, while you still got the use of your fingers, play the piano." "Thirty." "Twenty." "Hey, do you know the "Wedding March?"" "Ten." "Nine." "Eight." "Seven." "Six." "F... ohhhhh." "Come on." "Come on, there." "A bottle of whiskey, please." "Look at your watch!" "Oh, Albert, you're free." "Get away from that boy!" "There's still another 50 seconds left." "Get up!" "Well, the time must be up!" "It is." "You mean you'd really leave ol' Nellie for that dried-up little string bean after all I've done for you?" "Yes, he will." "If you'd just give us our $8,000." "Your what?" "Give us the money." " What money?" " The money you put in the box." "You must be dreamin'." "Now, I'm gonna count three." "You'd raise your hand in cold blood against a female?" "You're going to have a real good chance to find out." "One..." "Yeah, I always like to know where a man stands." "Mm." "Here's a thousand dollars." "That's for three months' consumption of liquor." "We're square now, huh, Nellie?" "Huh?" "Come on, honey." "Em." "Emily, wait just... just one minute, please." "Albert." "Excuse me." "That is my money." "Could you..." "Could you leave me a little?" "$200." "A hundred dollars." "Please?" "Chips." "Deal, deal." "I'm sorry, Emily." "You better go home." "Albert." ""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"