"Mai Chi, she is here?" "Mai Chi?" "What spirit calls my name?" "No spirit. I am here before you in life." "Deceitful ghost." "Why ghost?" "lf you were real, I could see you." "Mai Chi it is said you have the gift of prophecy." "Who were you in life, poor ghost?" "I am Kwai Chang Caine." "I serve only those who pursue illusions." "It is such a question that makes me seek you out." "I, too, may be pursuing an illusion." "Tell me." "For two years and longer, since I came to America I have sought the man who is my brother." "I remain in doubt if he's alive or if he was ever alive." "Do you have hands, ghost of Kwai Chang Caine?" "The man you call brother, the man named Danny Caine is waiting for you at the end of this journey." "But it would be better for him, and for you, if you would not find him." "Why?" "Others seek him as you do, and will find him." "And death will be close behind." "Can you tell me nothing more?" "How can I answer, ghost, when I neither see nor hear you?" "Wait." "Beware, Shaolin." "You, too, are not above illusion." "Your tread must be light and sure as though your path were upon rice paper." "It is said a Shaolin priest can walk through walls." "Looked for, he cannot be seen." "Listened for, he cannot be heard." "Touched, he cannot be felt." "This rice paper is the test." "Fragile as the wings of the dragonfly, clinging as the cocoon of the silkworm." "When you can walk its length and leave no trace you will have learned." "Well?" "l asked him for directions got a real good look at him." "You were right." "That's him." "I thought so." "Turned into a farmer." "Woman's his wife." "More likely his widow, give or take a day or two." "What's the next move?" "Keep an eye on him." "See he stays put." "Wait for Curly Bill." "Why wait?" "I can handle it." "You're too anxious, Slade." "Maybe so, but I'm here and I'm ready." "How old are you?" "I'm old enough." "You're out of knee pants how long?" "Eight years?" "Listen, Forbes, I could take him." "Mr." "Forbes to you, sonny." "No, this is Curly Bill's play." "Maybe you'll make it one day, if you're smart." "You're here to watch and to learn." "What can I do for you?" "Excuse me." "I am looking for the farm of Daniel Caine." "Right down there." "Thank you." "Master, of man's roots, which is the stronger?" "It is the Shaolin belief that the paternal line controls." "What is a man without roots?" "What is a tree without roots?" "The deeper into the earth the roots reach the stronger the tree." "A name, a face in my mind, a place...." "It is all I know of my father." "One half of myself an emptiness, a mystery." "Seek to discover it, then for it is this thread which holds you to the past and binds you to the future, to fix your place for all time in eternity." "Yes?" "I am seeking Daniel Caine." "Are you a friend of his?" "Not exactly a friend and not a stranger." "And you?" "I'm Danny's wife, Ada." "l should" "No." "Thank you, I can manage." "But you never told me who you are." "A relative." "I'll get him." "My father is dead." "So is my mother." "Brothers?" "Sisters?" "I have none." "You have one." "Brother." "Half brother, I guess." "Your father was married once before." "He'd be about three, four years older than you." "What can I do for you?" "You are the son of Thomas Henry Caine?" "Who are you?" "I am Kwai Chang Caine your brother." "But you're Chinese." "Half brother." "Our father is the same." "When your mother died, he went to China where he met my mother." "I was never told." "Nor was I until I came to our grandfather's house." "He gave me these." "The letters you wrote him." "He never answered them." "I stopped writing." "He asked me to find you." "We have a common bond of blood." "You know a lot about me from these letters." "I don't know anything about you." "What do you wish to know?" "There's time." "You're welcome to stay, of course." "I can fix you a place to sleep by the fire." "We don't have much room, but" "Thank you." "I do not wish to unsettle you." "Perhaps I could sleep in the barn." "Whatever you say." "Supper will be ready soon." "l have eaten." "I have come a long way." "You'll wanna get some rest." "We'll talk in the morning." "You didn't give him a very warm reception." "I didn't know how to greet him, Ada." "After all, I don't have a full-grown brother materializing on my doorstep every day." "Particularly Chinese?" "l didn't mean that." "Hey, don't do that." "I thought I told you not to lift anything heavy." "Oh, Danny, stop babying me." "I'm not babying you, I'm babying the baby." "It's good to see you, Curly Bill." "What did you find out?" "He's down there in that farmhouse." "Put himself out to pasture, huh?" "It's a good place to hide out." "Well, maybe not because we found him." "I've been looking forward to meeting him for a long time." "No sign of him yet." "Just that Chinese flunky down there doing chores." "Don't worry." "He's there." "You know, it's funny, he's always been kind of like a hero to me." "I'm real anxious to meet him." "I know." "Did you do all this?" "Thank you." "Would it not be more convenient to have a well near the house?" "It would be wonderful." "The only thing is that there isn't any water near the house." "Oh, but there is." "How do you know?" "Certain plants do not grow but over water." "Danny?" "There are too many other things I gotta do first." "I would be happy to dig the well." "We've gotten along without it so far." "As you wish." "Look what do I call you?" "Kwai Chang." "Kwai Chang." "It is my name." "Well, if you're looking for work, there's always something to do around a farm." "I would be grateful." "All right." "Come on." "Breakfast will be ready in half an hour." "This will be as good a place to start as any." "I haven't had a chance to clean it up lately." "What kind of work did you do before you came to this country?" "I was a priest." "A priest?" "Yes." "What kind of priest?" "Shaolin." "That is a Buddhist sect." "Look, that can wait." "The work?" "I can get it later." "I do not mind." "You're a strange man, Kwai Chang." "Yes?" "You don't even know me and yet you don't mind doing a dirty job like.... lt is honorable work, Daniel, to be a farmer." "Even a pigsty?" "Even a pigsty." "Daniel?" "Yes?" "Do you know there are men watching the farm?" "Two of them." "They've been there the last couple of days." "Now there are three." "They mean you no good." "They're not on my land." "Besides, it's no crime to look." "Do you know what they want?" "I'm no mind reader." "Besides, I've got other things to think about." "You once told me my present is rooted in my past." "And it is through those roots we draw our nourishment and strength." "Do not the roots, then, also form the future?" "Uprooted, can the tree flourish and bear fruit?" "Without the fruit, what may bear the seeds of future generation and thus fulfill the ordained cycle of eternity?" "Then my future is rooted in my past." "And half my roots are across the sea in America." "How will I find my place?" "Time, and your Tao, will tell you that, grasshopper." "Anything happening down there?" "Farm work." "He knows we're here." "I think it's time we push him a little." "Danny, what are they doing up there?" "Target practice." "No concern to us, long as they keep off our property." "Danny what do they want?" "Who?" "Those three men." "Who are they?" "I don't know." "Can't we make them go away?" "How?" "We could notify the sheriff, ask" "No, Ada." "Are you all right?" "Come here, sit down." "Easy, easy." "Easy, Ade." "It's gonna be all right." "Just lay back." "Easy." "Come morning, it'll be all right." "Easy, easy." "Listen, if they're still there tomorrow, I'll go talk to them, okay?" "Danny, who are they?" "I don't know. I honestly don't know." "I'll find out tomorrow." "Afternoon." "Ma'am." "I hope you don't mind us dropping by." "Your friend here lose his way again, did he?" "No, nothing like that." "My associates, Mr. Slade and Mr. Curly Bill Graham." "Yeah, I been looking forward to meeting you." "Must be about two years now." "All of that." "Been through so many towns I can't remember the names, asking about you." "Always heard the same story, Mr...?" "Caine." "Danny Caine." "Yeah, well the story goes that you're a pretty fast gun." "Maybe the fastest." "No, you've made a mistake." "Well, that's what I'm here for, to check that out." "You can stop checking." "Only weapons I use here are a plow and a hoe." "Wasn't always that way." "I appreciate your modesty, friend but when opportunity knocks a wise man's gotta listen." "Allow me to be immodest for a while." "I think it might sweeten things up for a bit." "My talent is words." "Newsprint." "I can build a legend the way Ned Buntline did for Buffalo Bill." "It could be your legend or mine." "Ada, get back on the porch." "And there's a fortune involved." "So we've come here to offer you an invitation to meet me over in Medwick." "You've got the wrong man, friend." "As I've tried to tell you, I'm just a farmer." "He doesn't even own a gun." "I am ready." "Had you good cause to risk this danger?" "My purpose was to prove my agility and my courage." "I had hoped such qualities were already yours." "I sought to test them." "For yourself or them?" "is it not better to see yourself truly than care about how others see you?" "If I look truly, will I see truly?" "I don't want this." "Not the right feel, huh?" "I can understand that." "But you best dig out your own." "He has told you." "He is only a farmer." "Who asked you, Chinaman?" "Please, let him be." "Now, hold on, now, Curly Bill!" "We don't want the showdown here." "And certainly not with a chore boy." "Listen, there's to be no more shooting on that hill." "You can put an end to that easy enough, mister." "I'll be waiting for you, whenever you're ready." "Don't make it too long." "Could've got yourself killed." "But I am alive." "Be better if you got out of here." "You wish me to leave?" "Yes." "It's not your fight." "Danny, he only wanted to help." "I don't want his help." "l'm gonna drive you into town." "There is no need." "I told Danny we owed you that, and much more." "He agreed." "I would have liked to say goodbye to him." "He asked me to say it for him." "They are gone." "What did they want?" "l don't know." "Did not Danny tell you?" "He doesn't know." "I wish I could have come to know him better." "I don't know him that well myself." "I mean, what he did before we were married." "How long have you been married?" "Two years." "But he doesn't talk about his past." "He says the future is all that matters." "It is clear you have a great love between you." "You are one." "I don't want anything to change that." "Ever." "I'm sorry you're leaving, Kwai Chang." "I will remember you and Danny." "Well, look who's here." "What are you doing?" "Where's your husband, ma'am?" "He come in with you?" "No." "And he isn't coming." "He's no gunfighter." "I don't believe the little lady knows." "That man you're tied up with, he's just this side of famous." "It's a fact, ma'am." "He's right up there with Jesse James and Cole Younger." "He done it legal, of course, with a badge, but he's a killer just the same." "You're wrong." "He can tell you." "He's his kin." "Like a polecat is to a horse." "Exactly how much do you know about your husband, ma'am?" "Enough to know he's not a killer." "Show her the picture." "This is how he looked three years ago, before he started sporting a mustache." "They're the same man." "This was taken right after he gunned down Hobie Durant and two of his gang." "It's just a picture." "It doesn't prove anything." "Oh, ma'am, this little picture was taken from the files of the Benson Gazette." "A newspaper doesn't lie." "Please, release the horse." "We ain't finished with her yet." "Leave him alone, Slade." "Go ahead, Slade, draw." "You angling for a reputation?" "I'll see you get it." "As a punk!" "Style and class of a pack rat!" "l got as much class as anybody." "ln a street brawl with a Chinese flunky?" "You want respect, you earn it." "is it true, Danny?" "Are you what they said?" "Ada, if you don't know what I am by now, you never will." "What are you going to do?" "What I have to." "No!" "I want you alive!" "Ada, I don't wanna go." "Then don't!" "Please!" "Ada, listen." "I can't let them come out here again." "You could be hurt." "Danny, I can't lose you." "I thought you left." "I will leave when we have talked together, Danny." "About what?" "You." "I knew you would agree to meet this man Graham." "Like you knew there was water in the ground?" "As I know you are not my brother." "When Graham flipped me that gun and I caught it, that's what tipped you?" "No." "I knew before." "When you received me it was not as a brother." "is my brother alive?" "I don't know. I don't know what happened to him." "A picture of the world we live in." "Now you will tear your papers, thus." "When you are finished, you will reassemble the pieces in their proper place." "Master Kan?" "l have finished, master." "So swiftly?" "It is correct in all respects." "How did you do it, my son?" "lt was not difficult, master." "On the other side was a picture of a man." "I put the man together and the world was remade at the same time." "The man, the world." "The wholeness of each seems related." "And all men added together, do they not make up the world we live in?" "We met during the war." "Served together." "We talked, as soldiers do between the battles, when there's nothing to do but wait." "He told me about himself, his family." "I listened, remembered." "When I was marshal of Benson, Danny came to see me." "He asked me to hold a package for him, no questions asked." "Six months at the most, he said." "Two years passed, he didn't come." "And you did not see him again?" "After that last gunfight in Benson I just got sick of the killing." "I knew I couldn't stand that anymore." "It wasn't a matter of upholding the law it was whether I was fast enough to outdraw all those young bucks who kept coming to test me." "That badge I wore it's become a target." "I had to kill just to stay alive." "See, Danny had given me his past and a whole new future." "Even the deed to his farm." "So I took it. I had to." "Happy New Year, honorable demon." "Why do you not tremble before me?" "is the student Caine, then, so fearful?" "How did you know?" "Your chi is not that of a demon, Kwai Chang, only a mask." "Thus, while you appear to be a demon your inner energies betray who you really are." "I suppose the trouble is I don't really want to be a demon." "You have hit on a profound truth." "Can you not tell me what it is?" "I must first decide who and what I want to be." "And then, in order to achieve that ideal?" "I must become one with it." "Possess and be possessed by it until you are what you will to be and not merely a mask, attempting to deceive yourself and others." "Danny gave you a mask behind which to rebuild a life." "I think he would have understood that too." "If you go against this gunman will you not be revealed?" "Will you not lose all you have worked for?" "And will not the testing go on?" "You know, I tried to bury Lightning Luke." "I thought I had." "Then some young buck comes along trying to dig him up and kill him again." "You have not touched your gun for a long time." "The lightning may be gone from it." "You may die." "I've never been afraid of dying." "I'm only living in hell, being hunted and hounded." "The life of a farmer is good." "Helping the earth to bring forth fruit." "I know." "You cannot go." "Why should it matter to you?" "I'm not your brother." "Luke." "Lightning Luke." "I always wondered why they call you that." "You gonna show me?" "With a gun in your hand already, son?" "Well, now, the way I heard, a man needs a little edge against you." "He does not wish to fight." "He's got a crown on his head." "It's gonna fall to the man who takes him." "That man's gonna be me." "Danny!" "It isn't finished." "There's still Curly Bill." "But you can't!" "l have to." "What will you do?" "Meet him." "Wounded?" "l'll make it." "He will not meet you." "He wishes your crown." "He will wait until you are ready." "is this not the code?" "Take him home." "Forbes I'm tired of waiting." "Mr. Graham." "Where's your brother?" "The Luke Haskell you seek is no more." "I'll find him." "No." "Curly Bill?" "He's over there." "Two guns against a chore boy with a plowshare." "What do they say when a man is finished?" ""He threw in his hand"?" "Well, that's exactly what he did." "It's over, Danny." "ls it?" "Luke Haskell is dead." "Not before he killed another man." "He would have killed you." "Yeah, there is always that." "Nope, this was the last one." "If anyone else comes looking for me, they'll" "No one else will come." "You know, when I first saw you, I thought my brother, my executioner." "And now?" "And now, Kwai Chang, I'd like to think we are brothers." "We are."