"Hello." "My name's jackson." "Jackson." "What's going on over there?" "It's the watson boys having their Saturday fight." "That happens every Saturday?" "Yeah, usually about lunchtime." "Does this one always win?" "The first time in three weeks." "Howdy, stranger." "Howdy." "I'm judge wesson." "Judge?" "That horse..." "I'd like to buy him." "Aren't there any horses around here?" "A couple, but the indians steal 'em" "As fast as somebody rides 'em in." "I'll give you a price and a half for him." "Sorry, no thanks." "Is there a circle j ranch anywhere around here?" "Not that I know of." "Unless, of course, old circle jibes" "Wanted to call his claim a ranch." "Just a couple hundred yards square." "Circle jibes?" "I didn't name him." "Well, is he in town?" "Yeah." "Can you tell me how far it is to borrasca bend?" "Come over here." "I reckon you're standing" "Right in the geographical dead center of it." "This is quite a city." "No, this is only a town." "Nearest city is juniper, 13 miles north." "There they got a bank and a store," "And a bar with a mirror in it." "Now if you'll just tell me where I can find circle jibes." "He's right in the saloon." "The saloon?" "Right there." "Thank you." "I want to talk to him." "Nothing's to stop you from doing that." "He's dead!" "We noticed that." "Is he a friend of yours?" "No." "No, he isn't." "But he must have had a pretty good claim." "What makes you say that?" "I just made an observation." "Well, you didn't know him." "You knew he had a good claim." "How?" "It's perfectly simple." "I can explain." "Anybody recognize this?" "Mine." "Lent it to him last week." "You better get your hands up." "Swede, look in his saddlepacks." "Wait a minute!" "I can explain this." "You want to confess?" "I got nothing to confess!" "Then why did you bolt?" "Here." "$4,000 here in dust." "That's a good motive." "Search him!" "Let me see that." "That's circle's all right." "Search him, jackson." "Now wait a minute!" "I told you I can explain!" "All in good time." "What are we waiting for?" "Let's get on with the trial." "The trial!" "There's nothing else on him." "You go ahead with the trial." "I'll get the rope." "Hear ye, the court will now come to order." "Hang him." "I said, "hear ye." that means listen." "You be still." "Now then..." "Everybody on this side of the line..." "You be the jury." "You be quiet, or I'll clear the court!" "Patterson, you're the bailiff." "Swear him in." "Justice is fairly summary around here." "It's got to be, we got no jail." "I'd like to see your authority for jurisdiction." "Right here." "I've got it and you ain't." "You know that jury is prejudiced." "Last month when red stanley was killed," "We didn't think nothing of it." "But in the last couple days since you killed circle jibes," "Everybody around here's been sleeping with one eye open." "The last month." "Last month I was in santa barbara." "Can you prove it?" "If I have some time." "Ten minutes enough?" "Certainly not!" "That's too bad." "Swear him in." "We can get a conviction just trying you for circle jibes." "This is a travesty." "We don't have any trimmings." "This is not a walnut bench," "And I don't have a big flag behind me." "And if you're found guilty, ain't gonna be no fancy gallows." "We'll just string you up from the limb of a tree." "But I'll tell you something." "You'll be just as dead," "And just as harmless as if you'd been tried" "By the supreme court." "Now swear him in." "Do you swear to tell the truth?" "Wait a minute, where's the bible?" "You can't swear him in without a bible." "Well look here, you gonna tell the truth?" "I am." "I think he's lying." "Now, supposing you give us your version" "Of what led up to the murder." "So an indian ran off and you didn't chase him, huh?" "No, I didn't." "I backtracked him to circle jibes' place," "And then I rode on in here." "I thought jibes would rather have his gold back," "Than to have me chase somebody off into indian territory." "You were going to give it back?" "I was!" "That's a funny thing." "You hadn't mentioned it before I caught you." "I didn't have a chance." "If I did it, how do you account for the fact" "That I didn't have any of his other things?" "Now you've trapped yourself." "If you didn't do it," "How'd you know there was something else missing?" "Circle had a diamond ring." "And a gold watch, a derringer and a rifle Wallet, none of them found in his camp." "I saw the indian pick up a lot of things." "Would I keep a 20 cent bandanna," "And throw away a gold watch and a diamond ring?" "That's a logical point." "We're not interested in logic." "What we want is justice." "yeah, yeah!" "Come to order!" "Or I'll declare a mistrial and there won't be no hanging!" "If an indian killed old jibes," "Why didn't he scalp him?" "There are no scalping' indians here." "No." "Nor killing' tribes neither." "Only thieves." "I say let's hang him!" "And I say you be quiet or I'll hold you in contempt." "And in my court, that's a hangin' offense!" "Would I kill a man..." "Rob him..." "Take a poke with his name on it," "And then ride into this town looking for him?" "I'm beginning to think this murderer might be innocent." "Now you jurors stop talking." "Now we're gonna hang this man legal," "Or we're not going to hang him at all." "I'd like to weigh the evidence." "Circle jibes is dead, and you've got his poke." "Any more incriminating evidence?" "I told you exactly what happened." "The indian..." "We don't have an indian." "But we do have you." "It's true, they do steal." "And we do string one up once in a while," "On a quiet weekend." "Like this one." "Oh now, don't go getting mad before we convict you." "Look, I'm not saying you can't hang me." "I know you can." "The law is only enough people to enforce it." "But I'll tell you one thing..." "Yahoo!" "Hey, there's a woman up in juniper!" "A real live woman up in juniper." "Dick's got a woman up in juniper." "She sings, dances." "She's got long yellow hair." "long yellow hair?" "Let's go!" "Come on, hurry up." "Hold it!" "That'll be two pieces for transportion." "Go ahead and walk." "Go ahead." "Boys!" "What about this hanging?" "We're a lot longer on hanging material" "Than we are on women material." "let's go to juniper!" "You take care of it, judge." "You got our proxy." "Well, what happens now?" "Case dismissed." "He wasn't shot." "He was hit in the back of the head with a rock." "I knew you were innocent." "How?" "In the first place," "Anybody willing to take on our whole camp," "Wouldn't sneak up on a runt like jibes." "And the second place?" "Well, in the second place..." "I found this in your saddlebag when they were tying you up." "Santa barbara papers." "Shows you were telling the truth." "Then why the trial?" "Well, you know..." "The watson brothers was all through fighting." "Sugie hadn't gotten back from juniper with the whiskey." "Things were dulling down a little." "We hold a kangaroo court on all strangers." "Just in your case, we had a little evidence." "Just funnin' a little, you know." "That fun could have wound up with you dead." "Did you have that all the time?" "Just waiting for you to pronounce me guilty." "Now, I'll be on my way." "I should be back in civilization in a week or 10 days." "Anybody should wire about jibes?" "No, he left nobody." "Say, if jibes didn't leave anybody..." "What's going to happen to the gold?" "Goes to the town authorities." "And the town authorities are..." "Me." "There is a murderer loose in your community." "I think jibes would have been interested" "In seeing him brought to justice." "How interested?" "Oh, I'd say half that poke." "Mister, who are you?" "We better get a fire ready." "This ground's hard digging." "And I tell you, mr." "Jibes has got to be put away." "Well, that takes care of swede." "Now what about the one that drives the wagon?" "Sugie?" "Um hmmm." "He came here with a shovel, and some barrels of whiskey." "Set up his claim over there." "He made more money selling whiskey" "Than he did digging for gold." "He put a tent over his claim and turned merchant." "He does all the banking for the boys, you know." "Takes the dust into juniper when he goes to get the whiskey." "He's honest." "How about the one who was yelling for a hanging?" "Jackson?" "He's a mean drunk." "Pretty mean sober too." "He's got a fair claim." "Pulls out $200 a week." "And the others?" "Patterson's a fallen riven salesman." "Mike's a devout pickpocket." "The watson brothers just gunfightin' farmers," "And curly's a triple bigamist." "Just run-of-the-mill types." "And they're all looking to strike it rich?" "Well, most of 'em." "When are they coming back?" "Sometime tomorrow." "Half the poke?" "If you bring him in, half." "That's deep enough." "I'll go get jibes." "Well, judge..." "I'll see you in the morning." "Where you going?" "I'll be nearby." "I'm going to bed down." "Why don't you stay here by the fire?" "Well, I know I didn't kill those men." "But judge, I don't know you didn't." "Home is the sailor, home from the seas." "Everybody off." "Come on, get off." "You'll have this load 'til noon." "Give me a hand and I'll give you some advice." "What?" "Help me get these monkeys off this wagon and light out." "They always hold court on a newcomer around here." "Didn't they tell you?" "I've been initiated." "All the way into juniper they talked about the woman." "Coming back they couldn't talk about nothing." "What's your usual procedure?" "We just roll 'em off in the water." "They can't buy whiskey if they're asleep." "Like this?" "Come on!" "Come on!" "Sugie..." "You lose many customers that way?" "I got the only store around here." "They're married to me." "Until death do you part." "That's happened a couple of times lately." "Went downstream night before last to pick one up." "Circle jibes." "Yeah, I..." "Downstream, sugie?" "You went downstream to pick jibes up?" "Sure, that's where his diggings are." "Well, were." "The camp I rode into was upstream." "I just assumed it was jibes' but it couldn't have been." "You familiar with the claims around here?" "I grubstake the boys." "I couldn't do that without looking at the claims." "No, of course you couldn't." "Want to take a ride with me for an hour or so?" "Who do you think did it?" "I don't know." "I thought it was the indian." "Then I figured it had to be whoever didn't" "Come back from juniper, but they all came back." "So now you and I will just have to go and see." "Ain't no way to lock up your valuables around here." "Can't carry 'em with you." "Boys come in for the weekend," "They usually hide their valuables under a tree trunk," "Or under some rocks or something." "Sugie!" "Come here!" "Sugie, come here and look at this." "Yeah, by golly, this is where it was." "You see, the indians watch the boys bury their stuff." "Wait for 'em to leave camp," "Then move in and make off with it." "Stuff they can't use they throw away real quick." "By golly, that's hernando there." "Red stanley." "This hernando's camp?" "No, he disappeared about two months ago." "This spread belonged to a fella named jackson." "Jackson?" "Yeah." "Yeah, jackson." "He wouldn't phase at a killing or two." "Say he killed circle sometime Thursday..." "The indian watched him bury the loot," "And made off with it when jackson went into town yesterday." "No wonder jackson wanted to see me hung." "He didn't even know he'd been robbed" "Until I showed up in town with jibes' poke." "He figured hanging me would clear the slate for him." "Why in the world did he come back?" "Well, he probably didn't figure to." "The boys were drinking pretty good," "And come time to leave I just loaded the ones on" "That couldn't walk or talk and lit right out." "Jackson." "How did you get loose?" "You ever seen these before?" "No." "They were found up at your place." "That's what he says, is it?" "Then he must have sorted them there." "You been banking 20 to 30 ounces a month." "Well, I got meself a good claim." "Your equipment ain't been used for months." "Your claim's burned out." "I haven't been washing, see?" "I got myself a dry stake up in the hills," "Above the river." "Where?" "Ho!" "I'm not going to tell you." "I'm not telling nobody." "I haven't filed a claim for title yet." "Dry mining gives you nuggets." "You been banking dust." "He did it." "That one." "We got to hang him." "Just like we started to do yesterday." "He's the one that did it." "Him!" "He killed circle, and he killed stanley," "And he killed old hernando." "Hernando's dead?" "I hope you haven't got a deep attachment to this horse." "Hold it!" "You crazy?" "That's a very lethal weapon you've got." "I've seen those things blow up." "That one won't blow up." "Won't even go off, it's wet." "You had it in your pocket when you went in the river." "Don't you try anything." "They can't hang me any higher," "If I prove you wrong." "Oh, my leg!" "It just opened him up a little bit." "He's all right." "It's only going to hurt a little while." "Trial shouldn't take too long at all." "I'd have bet $1,000 that thing wouldn't go off." "You bet more than that." "You bet your life." "They aren't very accurate over 10 feet." "That's why I moved out before I called him." "Hmmm?" "Oh!" "That's right, isn't it?" "They were even?" "Come on boys, get the bench." "Why don't you stay on?" "After we hang jackson, I'll play you a nice game of pinochle." "Well, I'm not quite sure about the rules of the game here." "Winning might be a capital offense." "Judge." "Come on boys, let's get on with the trial." "Charlie, get movin'." "¶ 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?" "¶"