"You think you're alone, Curley?" "You think you've looked virtue in the eye and thumbed your nose?" "Just remember this:" "Even Satan has to pay his dues." "Hello in there!" "Nobody here." "Ashburne." "That buscadero Salazar could be lurking in the tules." "Sod busters... they have a stench all their own." "You may not believe this- in my entire career, I've never kicked a dog but what it netted me at least a thousand dollars." "And look at what honest labor got." "Light somewheres." "Red-letter day for you, Marshal." "Green River Gang put to bed with pick and shovel, its leader captured." "That's what legends are made of." "Don't try that again, hear?" "You all right?" "Yeah." "What'd you stir up?" "Nothing." "That stable's empty." "Not even a memory of a horse." "Well, that takes the aces out of your deck, doesn't it?" "It's over 20 miles to Tascosa." "You'll never make it afoot in this weather." "There's still Huggins." "Paperback deputy." "You'll never see him again." "I'm not saying he's yellow." "But he sure has cultivated a well-developed bump of caution." "They're sure to question him when he hits town." "Somebody'll send out a search party." "After the snow... that's when they'll send out a search party." "Huggins folded before we lost the horses." "He doesn't even know we're here." "I don't know what you're so cheerful about." "If we freeze to death out here, it'll be a group effort." "Salazar's still out there, you know." "He won't forget me." "Come on, McKendrick." "Come on." "There we go." "More guts than you could string on a fence." "And what's it got him?" "Marshal's done all right." "Providing success is measured by the size of a hole a man leaves when he dies." "But we use a different yardstick, don't we?" "We do." "You and McKendrick are cut of two kinds of leather." "He's here because he's duty-bound." "I still haven't figured out why you're here." "The railroad threw my name into the pot." "Whatever they're paying you to ensure my capture," "I'm prepared to double." "You are?" "I've got bank deposits scattered all over the country." "I'll make out a draft, you fill in the amount." "And what then?" "Once over the crest line, I'm home and dry." "Curley, you had a real fat lead on us." "You could've made it to the ridge easy before we closed the gap, but you didn't do that." "You turned back and ran smack into us." "Now, why?" "Why, I suddenly remembered" "I'd, uh, forgotten to pack a toothbrush." "¶ ¶" "You must have a price, Paladin." "Every man has." "Only Satan's incorruptible." "You really believe that?" "Well, virtue's a matter of degree." "Or convenience." "Everyone pays his dues in some form." "Everybody but Satan." "You know, the way you keep mentioning that name," "I think I detect a note of hero worship." "Well, why not?" "If you're going to model yourself after somebody," "I'd say pick a winner." "I learned a lesson when I was knee-high." "Evil walks alone." "It's self-sufficient." "You say every man's got his price." "Well, here's a man right here whose very existence shoots that theory full of holes." "Take a look at this face." "Look at it." "That's 30 years of frontier law enforcement, and he never touched a dime of tainted money or lost a prisoner." "I take that as a challenge." "You claim that that rooster can't be had?" "Watch." "Before there's a crust on that snow outside," "I'll have him in my hip pocket." "Ashburne, you take satisfaction in seeing this?" "You've Salazar to thank for that one." "I will someday." "You'll be meeting him." "It's cold in here." "Yeah." "Try and keep covered up." "I'll get some wood and..." "What's this?" "You don't even read your own mail?" "It's from the U.S. Marshal's Office in Washington." "Twice a week, some politician that ain't never been west of Boston sends out suggestions on how to handle things out here." "And twice a week, I file 'em in the wastebasket." "You keep covered up." "I'll get some wood." "McKendrick, I made an interesting wager with Paladin." "I said before we quit this cabin," "I'd own myself a marshal." "He thinks different." "I hope the stakes aren't too steep for you, Curley." "They don't come any steeper." "I'm betting my life." "Keep an eye on our mutual friend." "I'll be right back." "Get up." "Come on." "Get up." "Keep an eye on this one, too." "Only a runt kid." "Can't be more than 16." "Paladin!" "What's the matter with you two?" "Can't you see she's blue as a wet stone?" "Let her cozy up by the fire." "I seen what happened." "What happened?" "In the gulch below, all that shooting' and killin'." "I watched you from the ridge, and when I seen you comin', I run and hid." "Mama says I wasn't to have nothing to do with strangers." "Where's your mama now?" "Out behind the barn." "I couldn't bury her deep as I should've." "The ground's too hard, now winter's come." "But I did pile stones around her, and they say if you do that, then the wolves can't get at her." "You all alone here?" "What about your father?" "Had a hired man, but he run off." "Took all the livestock with him." "He would've took me, too, only I cut him with my knife." "Here." "That's Mama." ""Ellen Langford, 1867."" "That's your name, Langford?" "Cassandra." "Well, Cassandra, you should've started to hike out of these hills into town before the snow fell." "Didn't you know you couldn't make it out here by yourself all during the winter?" "Ah, I ain't never been out of the hills afore." "Ain't you had no schoolin'?" "Oh, only what Mama taught me." "Oh, I can read print." "That's something she learned me from a catalogue." "Paladin?" "This raises a blister." "It's not only us now." "We gotta puzzle some way to get her safely out of here." "You kill somebody?" "That why you're chained up?" "Oh, I'm chained, missy, because they can't kill me." "And what won't play dead, they hang." "Well, that don't make any sense." "It's a senseless world, missy." "Instead of lying with my face in the dirt, like everybody else," "I choose to climb the tree and pick my own apples." "They don't like that." "It makes 'em nervous." "Nervous?" "The world favors little people." "They'll try to make you like that, missy." "Try to shape you in their image." "Don't you let it happen." "Oh." "I ain't never been around folks." "I wouldn't know what to do." "Then come along with me." "There's a schooner waiting soon as I shake these shackles." "We'll swing a loop around Europe, you and I." "We'll paddle a canoe down the canals of Venice." "You keep your filthy hands off her!" "You can't stay here alone, child." "Me and the missus'll take you in." "On $40 a month?" "He'd have had a family before, except he can't afford it." "We just never got around to it." "I was always on the move." "And I was always on the dodge." "Curley, are you saying that you do have a family?" "No, but at least when I ran, it wasn't from the truth." "The truth?" "What truth?" "You're a failure, McKendrick... for all your fame and glory." "You risked your life protecting other folks' property." "Yet you have none of your own to show for it." "And I risked my life attaching other folks' property." "I wear an $80 hat." "$80, McKendrick!" "That's two months' sweat for you." "We'd manage." "I'm not dipped in gold, but I got a little put by." "Against the day of your dying." "Well, that could be tonight, and then what?" "The girl can speak for herself." "He can't have her, Paladin." "I'm outbidding him." "That locket, missy" "I'll give you $5,000 for it." "Oh, wait a minute, Ashburne." "Now, why are you doing this?" "The girl doesn't mean anything to you." "The marshal's free to top my offer, if he chooses." "You know I ain't got that kind of money." "Well, you could." "You could have that and more." "I've got a duty to do." "May that be a comfort to you in your old age." "$5,000, missy." "Think of all the fun that could buy." "You could live anyplace you wanted to." "$5,000." "I could go to St. Louis." "New York." "Why, there ain't hardly nothing I couldn't do with $5,000." "You'd like my missus." "She's a fine woman." "Get me that envelope, missy... and I'll make you out a bank draft." "We got a good school in Tascosa." "Two churches." "There's lots of activities for young folks." ""U.S. Marshal Lyle McKendrick." "Tascosa, Colorado Territory."" "You did that real good." "Why don't you open it and read it to me?" "Can I?" "Sure." "Go ahead." ""Re..." "Recent..." "discussions... indicate the im..."" ""Imminent."" "Yeah, "...imminent..." ""ad-admission of territorial Colorado to full state..."" ""Statehood." "...statehood." ""Owing to the administrative" ""reorganization of this depar... partment, necess..."" ""Necessitated by this development... "...sitated by..." "Devel..."" ""...your services will" ""no longer be required." ""Pending the arrival of your replacement," ""Deputy Earl Huggins" ""is to temporarily assume the duties of interim marshal." "With kindest regards, Milton L. Bascomb."" "The Mighty McKendrick- a political casualty." "That's enough, Ashburne." "Somebody scribbles his name in Washington, and 30 years of doglike service is broken up for kindling." "You say virtue's its own reward?" "Oh, right, brother." "Its only reward." "Earl Huggins- a greasy little grafter." "He left us here." "They'd trade me in on a man like that." "The world prefers a Huggins, McKendrick." "When you get right down to it, it's not the villains they're afraid of." "It's the saints." "Thank you just the same, but I..." "I reckon I won't be needing that money, after all." "Won't be needing it?" "Child, I..." "I..." "There's some turnips and taters in the barn." "I reckon you folks must be famishing by now." "That's a good idea." "I'll go with you." "Tell you what, McKendrick." "Just to show my heart's in the right place," "I'm gonna treat you and the little lady to a tin cup and a box of pencils." "I assume those will be the tools of your new profession." "Over here in the bin." "I'll get it." "Let me give you a word of advice, señor- don't." "Salazar?" "Hmm." "I see I've been expected." "Bien." "Drop it, señor." "You do more damage with those teeth of yours than most people do with a load of buckshot." "Look!" "Two of 'em!" "There was a man in the barn, and Mr. Paladin shot him with his little gun." "And that ain't all." "Horse- we got two horses now." "Who says the devil doesn't take care of his own?" "Get his gun, missy." "Uh, Mr. Paladin's gun." "A-And the little one." "Now, bring 'em over to me." "He-He slipped the cuff somehow and took me by surprise." "How much?" "The preliminary haggling was very interesting, but I missed the final price." "How much?" "!" "$10,000." "That's all that he asked." "Just enough to buy a tidy little cattle spread." "$10,000?" "It'd take me 20 years to earn that on a marshal's pay." "Well, I put in those years and more." "And they tossed me aside with empty pockets." "And now they're gonna put you in prison." "What becomes of me don't matter." "It's the missus and this child here- that's all that counts." "Mr. Paladin is known for his rash nature." "I'm counting on you to detain him long enough for me to pack the horses and get away from here." "It'll be done." "There was no other way it could end." "I tried to tell you that." "I'm going after him." "If you accept the responsibility of high places, then you have difficult decisions to make." "Show me the man who'd have acted any different in my boots." "There aren't very many." "Men like Marshal McKendrick." "They set a mark for other men to shoot at." "Not very many of 'em ever hit it, but at least they've tried." "Are you gonna shoot me in the back?" "All right, you go ahead and do it." "Paladin." "You'll be needing this, I suppose." "But that don't mean nothing." "If I was younger, if I still had time," "I'd lean my weight in Ashburne's direction." "Knowing what I do now, I'd have to." "You'd throw in with the devil?" "I tell you, we've lost, Paladin." "Even if you get him, it'll be because you've... you're laying a gun on him." "It don't mean everything he said isn't right." "Ashburne?" "All my life, I-I been my own man." "Whatever I did, it was the way I wanted it." "You're lying, Curley." "You could have gotten away, and you turned back here." "Why?" "Was it that girl?" "Was it the girl, Curley?" "Who is she?" "She-She's my daughter." "Tell me something." "Don't let that muddleheaded old driveler throw away the money in a... in a sudden burst of conscience." "Use it for the girl." "So you weren't your own man, after all." "I couldn't even tell her who I was." "I..." "I was ashamed." "Imagine, Curley Ashburne ashamed." "And even the devil must pay his dues." "I wish you hadn't a-said that just when I was looking forward to meeting him." "¶ "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. ¶"