"Mr. Paladin?" "Hmm?" "They have answered your telegram." "Oh..." ""Confirmed news story- reward for Isham Spruce is $5,000."" "Isham Spruce must be most feared to have someone pay to see him dead." "Isham Spruce has more to fear, himself." "Why?" "Well, whoever he is, he has the most valuable hide in the West." "Hunters will be after him like he was an animal." "No." "I've always thought it was a bigger challenge to bring the game in alive." "You got my telegram?" "Yeah, I did." "I kind of hoped you'd get here sooner." "Time hasn't been exactly standing still for us, you know." "What does that mean?" "That means somebody got here ahead of you, that's what." "Yeah, there was four bounty hunters showed up here and took off after him a couple of days back." "I deputized all four of them." "How about deputizing one more?" "No, I can't do that." "Why not?" "Now, mister, don't you understand?" "Them four boys I deputized is kind of a hairy bunch." "They ain't much particular what they have to do to get that money." "Why, if they thought you was going to get underfoot," "I'm afraid they'd leave you laying someplace like you'd been chewed up and spit out." "That's the kind of men you deputize to do your job?" "My job?" "Mister, I've been keeping my job for 17 years because I know my limitations." "And going after this man is sure one of them limitations." "I'd do it quick enough." "Sure you would." "You can't wait to try out that new toy of yours, can you, sonny?" "I wish you'd shoot you a couple of rabbits and get it out of your system." "Mr. Paladin, my advice to you is go on home and count your blessings." "Why?" "Because Isham Spruce happens to be the best natural hand with a gun- you mark my words- that this territory ever seen." "And if he didn't shoot you in the face, them headhunters" "I deputized would shoot you in the back." "That's why." "You got a picture of Isham Spruce?" "You don't need no picture of him." "What does that mean?" "It means go home." "Ah!" "All right." "Get up." "On your feet." "Go ahead and shoot me." "They pay you just as much for me dead as alive, don't they?" "Get up." "Get up and turn around." "I will knock you to your knees!" "Now, you stand up there!" "You ain't too soft to look a man in the face while you're shooting him, are you?" "Put your hands out behind you." "Put them out there." "Now, you stand there." "We'll move away from the river for a while." "You're taking the long way around, ain't you, Mr. Slave Catcher?" "My name is Paladin." "Well, I ain't hurt your feelings, now, did I?" "Never mind my feelings." "You're free enough to break the law, you're also free enough to pay for it." "The law." "I seen your law." "All the way from Georgia to Wyoming, I seen it." "The man with the most money in his pocket or the most notches on his gun, he's the law." "I might not have no education, mister, but I learned quick." "All right, you've learned the lesson." "But you're still innocent till you're proven guilty." "Now, who'd believe that?" "A jury, maybe." "I'm guilty enough to hang ten times over." "Why don't you make it easy on both of us and put a bullet in my neck?" "You're really that anxious to die?" "I reckon I'm as glad to be alive as the next man." "Isham... if you want me to," "I'll try and get you the best lawyer I can." "Oh, no." "You ain't going to buy off your conscience as easy as that." "Besides, it might not be so long before you wish you had shot me." "Oh?" "You think I don't know about them four headhunters?" "I've been watching them for three days now, going around like a dog chasing his own tail." "I wouldn't want to be in your boots when they find out that you done snatched their $5,000 prize away from them." "I have no intention of their finding out." "Yeah, well, just don't you go expecting no help from me, mister." "I reckon you're about to find out just how it feels to be a hunted man." "How do you like it?" "Rare?" "Well done?" "Can't say I've had much chance to become partial one way or the other." "You haven't been free very long, have you?" "Free?" "Now, what you mean by that?" "Oh, yeah." "One day, a government man come around with a big book and he say, uh," ""Sam, this is your day of jubilo." ""You're free now." "Free as I am." ""Yeah, no more hard times now." ""You're free as a toad frog." ""And if you ain't got no food to eat, you're free to go without."" "And then them Yankees run off and there we were, left to root hog or die." "Freedom can make you proud, mister." "But it don't put no food in your belly." "How come you to turn outlaw?" "What else..." "What else am I fit for?" "Hmm?" "I'm a farmer, mister." "That's all I know." "And to farm, you have to have land." "Yeah, you got it." "Well, there's plenty of work out here for those that want it." "Yeah, when I first come out here," "I got me a job." "A good job." "A lumber camp." "And for a while, it looked like everything was going to be fine." "But there was one man in that camp... just couldn't leave me alone." "And one day, I couldn't take it no more." "And I raised up my arm against him." "And I reckon he didn't get up no more." "After that, I was a outlaw." "Yeah." "And you're still going to have to stand trial for it." "Hey... you want to do something for me?" "All right, if I can." "I wish you'd..." "I want you to write a letter." "All right." "All right, write it like print, so she can read it easy." "Miz Mary Spruce," "Tibbitsville, Georgia." "Dear wife..." "I am well at this time..." "And I hope these few words will come to hand and find you and our little girl enjoying the same blessing." "Don't be disturbed if you don't hear from me... maybe for a long spell... as I... had some bad luck..." "I done some bad things." "And now I got to pay for them." "But remember only that if I didn't live my life the way I should've... whatever I did," "I did for you and for our dear daughter who I pray will not grow up to be ashamed of me." "Mister, you a honest man?" "Isham, I hope so." "Well, there's some money." "It's wrapped up in a oilskin, in my saddle blanket." "Ain't a fortune, but it'll keep 'em from starving through the winter." "I want you to put it in that letter when I..." "Well..." "Yeah." "Ought, uh..." "Ought to get the fire out." "I'd like to be in Cheyenne by tomorrow night." "Now... it'd be a lot more comfortable trip for both of us if I could untie your hands." "Yeah, I reckon it would." "Now..." "I got your word if I untie your hands, you're not gonna try and break loose on me?" "You got my word that you ain't taking me back alive." "Not if I can help it." "Gonna be a long ride." "A long ride." "¶ Poor man... ¶" "¶ Poor as a man can be ¶" "¶ I'm gonna keep on traveling' ¶" "¶ Till I'm a long way from home. ¶" "Whoa... ho." "Howdy, mister." "Howdy." "Looks like you had better hunting than we did." "I reckon there's advantages to being a loner." "Eh, reckon there's disadvantages, too." "One of you and four of us." "Oh, don't get alarmed." "The others aren't here yet." "If they was, there wouldn't be any need for, uh, all this talking." "What do you want?" "I want Sam there, that's what I want." "Mister, I don't particularly want to kill you." "You give me no other choice, and I will." "What's all this talk about killing?" "I want to make you a friendly proposition, seeing as we're both engaged in the same line of endeavor." "You got Sam there." "We got the firepower." "Neither one of us is gonna collect that $5,000 unless we, uh, combine forces." "A thousand dollars for ya." "You turn him over to me, I'll pay you in advance." "You keep your hands where I can see 'em." "Now, mister, you got no deal." "Mister, I don't think you understand this-this position you're in." "You don't think you and him are gonna get to Cheyenne alive?" "I'll take the chance." "I'm only one man at the moment." "Wouldn't be good business for me to try and force you, would it?" "That's fine; you just be on your way, then." "You answer me one question?" "What are you keeping him alive for?" "Guess you're the kind of degenerate that gets a boost out of seeing a man dance at the end of a rope." "Now, I told you to be on your way." "I won't say it to you again." "No offense." "Be seeing ya." "Maybe sooner than you think." "Now, don't you let this man impose on you, boy." "Might have been smart for you to accept his offer." "Maybe." "You'd have had a thousand dollars to go home with... alive." "I know." "Why didn't you?" ""He was a man, take him all and all." "I shall not look upon his kind again."" "Hmm." "Tell me, how does it feel to be a hunted man?" "Huh?" "Now, this is as far as I go, mister." "Now either you..." "Look out!" "That was a bad one." "You better put a tourniquet on that, fast." "Here, you better do it." "Isham..." "I gotta get going." "You better fix that arm, mister." "I gotta go!" "You see that, don't ya?" "Look, I'll-I'll do one thing for you, if you want." "Thanks." "I'm just as anxious to stay alive as you are." "Isham..." "I may not get a chance to mail this letter... send the money home for you." "You gonna give it back to me?" "Why not?" "You... brought enough misery to your... family without my adding to it." "Put it right down there." "And don't try nothing." "Now, I know you're clever, but you don't trick me twice." "How do I know you wrote what I said?" "You don't." "You don't know unless you get somebody to read it for you." "Somebody you can trust." "Trust." "You don't trust anybody, do you?" "¶ ¶" "Thank you, Sheriff." "There, you look better now." "For a while, I wondered if you was gonna come to or not." "How'd you know I was here?" "We was told, that's how." "By whom?" "Well, now, just..." "just who do you think?" "He come into town all by himself to tell you?" "Now, it wasn't quite as simple as that." "But he did send us a message." "Message?" "Yeah." "A kid from a ranch near town came in and told us you was laying out here, bit by a snake." "Well, I can't really say I'm sorry that..." "Isham Spruce got away." "¶ ¶" "We didn't have no trouble at all tracking him." "Seems like he didn't have no more sense than an old hound dog." "Instead of heading right straight out for them hills over there, he just, uh... oh, I don't know, kinda hung around like he was waiting for us to get going." "Blame if I know why he did that." "Ah, but we catch him." "I get him right over there, just when he was getting ready to go across that river." "I put three shots in him with this new rifle of mine." "200 yards." "That's pretty good shootin', ain't it?" "Sheriff, I don't unders..." "Sheriff here says that I don't get no reward, 'cause I was just doing my job." "But, you know, I think if there's any decency in you at all, you'd, you'd share that with me." "Paladin..." "I'll see he gets a decent burial." "Isham..." "I'm sorry." "¶ "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. ¶"