"C'est beau!" "Ooh, c'est élégant!" "Oh!" "Taisez-vous!" "Ooh, c'est élégant!" "Girls, girls!" "Et la moustache!" "Les yeux!" "A tout à l'heure, mademoiselle." "You speak that stuff same as them Tahitian?" "The language is French." "Anyway, it's Greek to me." "I use the sign language when I talk to them." "Uh, name's Werner" " Saul Werner, booking agent." "Mr. Werner." "Uh, this is my act- won it off an Aussie." "This is an act?" "Well..." "Well, let's see here." ""Three Tahitian Mermaids." ""Fresh from their triumphal tour Down Under." ""Reward Offered For Water Bugs." ""The plague of poisoned water" ""left by the three diabolic Brent Brothers," ""often called the Water Bugs because of their stealthy trade," ""may be about to end." ""Ranchers near Phoenix in Arizona," ""led by Ezekiel Tyler, a man of courage," ""have raised a fund to reward the man" ""who can bring the Water Bugs to the gallows and end the poisoning of waters."" "I'd offer you a free ticket, but this ain't exactly no SRO attraction." "Thank you." "Hey Girl." "Yes?" "You-You pack my things, please?" "Uh, wait a minute." "You look like a man who knows his way around town." "I was gonna offer you a job of shilling tickets." "Well, thank you very much, Mr., uh, Werner, but I don't think it would be seemly in the eyes of, uh... three such impressionable young ladies." "Excuse me." "¶" "Hello there." "My name's Fred Kessler." "This is my ranch." "Old Barney Dorsey, my wood chopper." "That's his shack, over there." "Eh, he was ready to die, anyhow." "This man looks like he's been poisoned, Mr. Kessler." "That's a hard death for any man." "The Brents did it." "You either shell out or you get your water poisoned." "Take your choice." "You refused to shell out?" "Not me." "It was my wife." "I wasn't here when this happened." "She ain't too bright." "Most people around here feel the same way you do?" "Pay and keep quiet?" "Sure they do." "There's three of these Brent boys." "Not more than one of them ever shows hisself at the same time." "Usually, it's the young one." "The other two lays back to start the poisoning, if anybody lays a hand on the kid." "I was just back at Smith's Trading Post, and he tells me Tyler's taken the kid and holding him prisoner." "Tyler?" "A farmer hereabouts." "I'm on my way over to Apache Junction to find out what it's all about." "You want to come along?" "Sure." "As soon as we bury this man." "Can't take him over to the county seat till tomorrow, Tyler." "Stagecoach won't be in till morning." "Now, you listen to me." "A public whipping is all this kid needs." "You just touch me, mister." "Touch me." "Mr. Kessler, the boy is going to go to jail and stand trial." "We're getting rid of the Brents once and for all." "Are you plumb sunstruck?" "!" "Now, this kid's got two brothers out there somewhere, with a sackful of nightshade." "If you go through with this, there ain't gonna be one drop of pure water this side of Tucson." "I say it's time that decent folks started acting with the courage of their convictions." "Acting like free men." "We still got to hold him all night and deliver him to the county seat." "We'll deliver him." "Brents have been rubbing our noses in the dirt long enough." "I say it's time we stood up for our rights." "You'll get a bucketful of arsenic in your well tonight, that's what you'll get." "You shut up, boy." "Now look, just put some raw stripes on his back and turn him loose." "Now, you can't take the Brents one at a time." "I don't like to pay any more than you do, but I got stock and a family to think about." "You touch me." "Go on, hit me!" "And your fat family will be retching green bile before morning." "Don't you back sass Fred Ke..." "You turn him in or turn him loose." "You don't whip him." "Is it your business?" "It could be." "He's a hired gun." "He come for your reward, Tyler." "Mr. Paladin, my name is Tyler." "I'm glad you got here, sir." "Will you watch this boy until the stage comes tomorrow morning?" "I might." "How much?" "If you have to ask, you can't afford it." "There's $600 in the public fund." "We all agree he's my prisoner?" "We agree." "How about his brothers?" "No changes, no additions." "I watch this boy, and I take him in." "And that's all." "That's fair enough." "One condition." "What's that?" "Once I start, I don't stop, no matter who wants to call it off." "We wouldn't want it any other way, sir." "I hope I don't have occasion to remind you that you said that." "You won't." "Why should we want to call off anything as right as this is?" "This is going to be a long night." "Before it's over, the difference between right and wrong may not be quite as clear as it is now." "Now, you all know what poisoned beef is worth." "Are you going to allow this thing to happen?" "All right, we're agreed." "Set a close watch on your water." "The Brents aren't amateurs." "They won't wait for an invitation." "We'll have a watch on our wells for 24 hours, Mr. Paladin." "Here's the key." "Ross, Linc, John, you hear that?" "Me too, Pa?" "Yes, you too, Mike." "Put your shirttail in, son." "I'm the only doctor hereabouts, Mr. Paladin." "My office is over next to the hardware." "Thank you." "I'll need a place tonight." "You can put him in our stopover keep, if you want to." "It's not much." "Hardly ever been used." "Well, it'll be better than the street." "Where is it?" "Right over this way." "You gonna put me in this bake oven?" "That's right." "Well, I always wanted to stay in a jail that don't have no door." "Get you some supper?" "Don't do me no favors, Mr. Paladin." "Alvah have old Kessler and his neighbors busting me out of here before daybreak." "You got a lot of confidence in your brother." "Mm-hmm." "Alvah knows well poisoning." "Kessler and Tyler- they don't know nothing." "But now it's just you and me." "Now, we ain't meaning no trouble, Paladin." "Just a little talk." "Alvah, I'm sure glad to see ya." "Easy does it, mister." "Don't let the name spook ya." "There, you see?" "Course, you might keep in mind that my brother Theo is out there somewheres watching us." "Theo's a pure wonder with a rifle." "I been telling him you were coming." "And you know what?" "He didn't believe me." "Well, now, don't you worry none, Bobby Joe." "We'll all be back together soon enough." "This fella looks reasonable." "I'm a man of peace and persuasion." "I have looked into the face of evil many times, but this is the first time" "I've ever looked into the face of a man who would poison pure water." "That's a misconception, Mr. Paladin." "We make our living by not poisoning water." "I'm sure if I explain things, why, you'll see it different." "Tell him, brother Alvah." "Tell him how it was in the black days and the hard times, and how it ain't our fault!" "Those were bleak days, Bobby Joe." "Mr. Paladin, I was only 12 when I was forced to fix a well." "I had no choice at all." "Twelve?" "I sprung my leg when I was 11, and then Daddy joined up in the war, as a forager for the wrong side." "Got hisself caught." "And you know what happened to him?" "He fell through a platform at a public meeting." "Platform with a trapdoor in the center of it?" "And there I was, 12 year old... with a cryin' leg, so I couldn't work... no luck to gamble... trying to keep little Theo and Bobby Joe together." "Yahoo!" "Tell him, brother!" "Mr. Paladin, was this old miser was willing for me and Theo to do his ranch chores, but come first frost he'd taken a whip to us and drove us out." "Yahoo!" "Meant to keep Bobby Joe." "Probably gonna chain him up like a slave and tell him how lucky he was to have a home and e-enough work to keep him out of Satan's hands and a Bible to read, hmm?" "But that old miser man never reckoned on Brent blood." "Let him know, brother!" "He's listening now!" "So, you poisoned his well?" "No, sir." "Called him out." "And there, sitting on his well guard, was this big can of wolf bait with a big red skull and crossbones on it." "I just left it there, empty, with the lid off." "And I said... "We might be leaving now, mister."" "Ain't that grand, Mr. Paladin?" "He give us our wage, and he give us Bobby Joe, and he give us some extra to keep away." "And ever since then, we've been making our living off of folk that would just let us starve!" "Murder and extortion is not earning a living." "It's the only way we could stay alive!" "Tell him, brother!" "Let him know!" "It's us three boys against the world." "The three Brent boys." "We stick together, mister!" "And now..." "I come for Bobby Joe." "Give it up, Brent." "That boy's blood'll be on your head." "I can put a double dose of strychnine in the right place, or I can... turn Theo's rifle loose." "Either way, these folks don't stand a chance." "Now listen, Alvah, don't forget that it was me that brought you here." "You better be working on your churchified neighbors." "Buzzards won't pay 'em for the dead critters on their range." "Theo?" "Hey, Theo?" "!" "Yeah?" "Night's my time." "Alvah says I got cat eyes." "Scares the farmers green when he tells 'em what I can do in the dark." "Well, that Alvah is just full of little stories, isn't he?" "You try me." "You ever try learning a trade, Bobby Joe?" "Water doctoring', that's my trade!" "You know, you've got your whole life ahead of you." "It's not an impossible task." "Save the sermons for the lambs, killer." "I'm my own man." "Not anymore, you're not." "You gonna leave me in chains all night, like a dog?" "I told you I had cat eyes." "No, you don't have cat eyes." "But I sleep very lightly." "You remember that." "I want you to stay inside." "Bobby Joe, I'd hate to kill you." "Don't, don't shoot, Mr. Paladin." "I quit." "Whoa, now, boy." "One way or the other, you'd better do something about that boy in there, before this town just dries up and blows away." "Doc, you look like you been working." "Cows dying all over the range." "Most cases, not much I can do." "Poison?" "If you don't give him up," "I just hope it ends when you get him out of here." "Well, I'm not going to give him up." "Doc!" "Doc!" "Whoa." "Just leave him there, till I have a look at him!" "Get up." "Get over to the window." "Put your hands out the window." "What's going on?" "Put the hands out the window!" "It's Tyler's boy." "He's sick." "Must be my brothers." ""Poison sown, secret and wild..."" ""...for beast or man, mother or child, a monstrous crime."" "This better stop, Mr. Paladin, before anybody else gets hurt." "Turn Bobby Joe loose." "I gave you my answer on that, Tyler." "Nothing's changed." "Then we'll turn him loose ourselves." "We lived with the Brents before, we can do it again." "Now, Mr. Tyler, what happened to your decent folks now?" "What happened to free men?" "What happened to courage and conviction?" "I didn't know then!" "It's too late now!" "It's gotta stop!" "Well, I knew then." "Are you gonna give us Bobby Joe?" "No." "I told you you'd never get me on that stage!" "I'll put you on that stage, I'll put you in that county jail, and then I'll come back here for your brothers." "Give him up, Paladin!" "It don't do you no harm!" "Stop your shouting', Kessler." "What is it?" "!" "What's going on here?" "!" "You go on about your business, Doc!" "This is my business." "Don't any of you care that this boy is fighting for his life?" "!" "Now, you other men, you have children!" "Now go on, get!" "Go home!" "And watch after them!" "One poisoned child is all I can stand in one day!" "Let's get him up to the office." "That's it, Bobby Joe." "Let's go." "Looks like your law-abiding friends ain't gonna help you much." "Nor your brothers." "Oh, they're out there somewhere." "I ain't worried." "Theo's rated gun-quick, and Alvah?" "Alvah can point a scattergun." "Bobby Joe, you're gonna go into that courtroom, if I have to carry you on my back." "This whole town'll be rottin' and drying' in the sun before that happens." "Alvah ain't never gonna let me down." "Always told me, "Bobby Joe, you stand by me and I stand by you."" "We always stick together." "Let's go." "And don't try to run." "Oh, I ain't gonna run." "I'm gonna wait till they cut you down." "And I'm just gonna walk away." "Take the gun and run!" "Don't run, Bobby Joe." "Get him, Alvah, get him!" "Where's Alvah, Theo?" "He... he never meant nothing he ever said to anybody." "Is he gonna run out on Bobby Joe?" "He tried to." "I killed him." "Don't tell the kid." "Break his heart." "He'll never know." ""And what doth the Lord require of thee..." ""but to do justice and love mercy... and walk humbly with thy God?"" "¶ "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."