"Your land runs a thousand rods to the left of that big tree... then it follows the creek." "You keep this paper good." "You want to stay with us a spell?" "Sure be obliged." "Thank you." "Good luck." "Listen to me, you hear?" "You people from Louisiana, ain't ya?" "There's plenty of good work for ya back there... choppin' cotton, cutting' cane." "Good jobs with people who know you." "You was born there." "You was raised there." "You don't belong out here." "You couldn't last the winter." "You ain't got no place to live." "No farm tools, no sheep." "So you're gonna turn around and go home." "Hey, you." "Come here." "Where's Buck?" "I'm looking for your wagonmaster name of Buck." "No Buck here." "Don't know nobody named Buck." "He's the one that brought you here." "So where'd he go?" "Where'd you hire him, and where's he staying'?" "He had a name something else." "Ain't no Buck!" "Where is Buck?" "He's near here, Floyd." "You're gonna go outside, wave to your old man." "If you holler, I'll kill everything around here that moves." "Everything." "Get them horses!" "Floyd!" "Get goin'!" "Howdy do!" " I need a horse." " I can see that." "I'll pay you $20." "That's a handsome price." "But I ain't in the horse-trading business, brother." "I got to travel fast." "I sure do wish I could be of service to you, but..." " I don't want to have to take him." " Who says you have to?" "Hold it." "Any objection if I get into my drawers?" "Or do you need them, too?" "Just gettin' my boots, brother." " You're eatin' my rabbit." " What you doin' out here?" "Gettin' into my drawers." " You gonna take my horse!" " Drop your drawers." " Wait a minute!" " Drop them!" "Damn!" "You forgot your coffee!" "There's two mountains pointing' up to the sky." "Beyond that there's a valley, green... with cool water." "I can see it's there." "Called Colorado." "But don't turn back." "That valley is going to be our home." "We're going on." "All right." "Night riders hit Pappy Whitlock and his people here two weeks ago." "3 days later they burned a wagon train supposed to meet me at Sulphur Flats." "About here." "Then they got the Deep Smith County people... at the water hole this side of Clayton." "They're headin' this way." "You got to move out tonight." "Mornin', sir." "Could you get me a bottle of whiskey out here?" "You could go inside." "My man, good liquor is best enjoyed in the open firmament." "Anyways, my heart yearneth for the dusky company of my own emancipated people." "Where are the colored folks around here, son?" "Where do you live?" "My mammy and the rest at Mr. Logan's place ten miles out." " Do all the colored live there?" " No, sir." "We just passin' through." "We made a crop for Mr. Logan." "Boy!" "The whiskey." "Forty cents a bottle, cash money." "Oh, yeah." "Where'd you get that horse?" "That animal was delivered to me in the wilderness." "Where's the man who rode that horse?" " I don't know." " What do you mean you don't know?" "A man cometh and a man goeth." "In this trackless wilderness, who shall know but the Lord?" "Don't play with me." "There's nobody back there, Uncle Beau." "Where's Buck?" " Is his name Buck?" " Where is he?" "I'm lookin' for that miserable... no good, lowdown sinner myself." "When I find him, I'll smite him hip and thigh." " How come you got his horse?" " On account he stole mine." "And left me out there to perish." "He's lyin'." "As God is my judge!" "I swear on this Bible!" "What you doin' out here?" "Just wandering' as the Lord wills, spreading' the word of the gospel." "I'm doin' like you gentlemen." "I'm just fighting' sin." "Hear me." "We want this Buck." "We want him bad." "You see him, you tell us where he is... there's $500 for you." "You remember that?" "Five hundred dollars." "That's easy to remember." "I don't suppose for that kind of money you particular whether he dead or alive." "Either." "And if in my search for this sinner, I finds him... where do I finds you gentlemen?" "Copper Springs." "Ask for Deshay." "Mr. Deshay." "So you a wandering' preacher ministering to your people out here?" "Yes, sir." "Though they's few and far between, the need for salvation is everywhere." "Best thing you can tell 'em." "Turn around." "Go back home." ""Turn around and go back home."" "Young man!" " Pleasant afternoon." " Yes, sir." "You walk home every day?" "No, sir." "I sleeps under the bar." "But they finished with the crop for Mr. Logan... and they goin' to have roast pig and chicken." "That a fact?" "Who's your preacher?" "We ain't got none." "Then who gives thanks to the Lord?" "Old Uncle Cudjo." "He's more conjurer than preacher." "That a fact?" "May I prevail upon you to share my beast of burden?" "The horse, son." "Who's that with Toby?" "Blessings in His name." "I'm the Reverend Willis Oakes Rutherford... of the high and low order of the Holiness Persuasion Church." " Where you from, Reverend?" " Sunflower County, Mississippi, mostly." "Where you headin'?" "In the vastness of God's green earth, there is no corner... that does not challenge my ministry." "I'm headed there, and I could be there tomorrow." "Where you from, brother?" "We all from St. Anne Parish, Louisiana." "My name is Kingston." "Pleased to meet you, Brother Kingston." "Well, well." " Sister." " Reverend." " You've come a long way." " And we goin' further yet." "I do admire to meet a good Christian congregation." "Yes." "And if you'll permit me... after a bit of supper..." "I would like to offer a prayer for your safe guidance here... beneath the wonders of God's creation." "How'd you find me?" "I asked your horse." "It's all right." "It ain't nothin'" " What's on your mind?" " My horse, amongst other things." "You get your horse." "What are you doin' 'round here?" "Spreading the sweet word of the gospel." "You a preacher?" "The Reverend Willis Oakes Rutherford... of the high and low order of the Holiness Persuasion Church." "You can take supper here." "That'll square for the rabbit." "You can rest a while, and then you move on." "Buck." "Fifty, 60, 70, 80, 90." "Four hundred, 410, 420." "Four mules, a litter of pigs." "Right on the barrelhead, fair and square." "That's right." "If you folks want to stay and plant another crop, we'll make the same deal." "No." "We better be movin' on." "But much obliged to you anyway, sir." "All right." "Which way you ridin', Preacher?" "I've not exactly settled my mind yet." "You've got three possibilities:" "North, south or east." " What happened to west?" " We goin' west." "There's a lot of room out in the West." "It's not elbow to elbow out that way." "You got your horse." "Don't press your luck." "Tell me something, Buck." "What you got against me?" "Nothin'. 'Cept it's a fool farmer let the weasel travel in the chicken coop." "I know an Eastman when I see one." "These people ain't for pickin'." "I told you I ain't no Eastman." "I'm a preacher." "On the other hand, you could say it's a might stuffy out there to the west." "Amen, brother." "Fivefold, amen." " You double your watch tonight, hear?" " I'll do that." "I'll be back tomorrow by sundown at the latest." " You can find water holes on the map?" " Yeah, they're plain." "Indians!" "Buck, Indians!" " What are you doing?" " Get off your horse." " Have you looked behind you recent?" " Get down!" "Don't tell me you done took to praying'." "Preacher, you do as I say." "Hunker down and keep your mouth shut." "Sweet Jesus." "Lord of mercy, look at that." "If you don't be quiet, you're gonna be dead." " Do you have good health?" " Yes." " Things go well?" " Some things, some days." "What do you want, Sergeant?" "I got a wagon train comin' through." "Forty head of people, not including children." " What kind of people?" " Black." "I want them to get through safe to the pass... north of the salt wales on the west bank of the Pecos." "You have five days to pass." "That's pressing." "They've got sorry horses and worn-out mules." "Five days." "All right." "Ten dollars each one." "I was thinking on $6." "Eight." "They've gotta live through the winter, and they got children." "Tell him children ain't worth eight." "Eight." "Children nothing." "They gonna need food." "I can get by if I kill three buffalo." "One buffalo." "My husband say two buffalo if you must." "Thank you." "Brother, you're a man of many parts." "How do you know how to dicker with Indians?" "Why were you tracking' me?" "Me?" "Fact is, I got lost." "I praise God I found your tracks or I might've perished here like a heathen." "Toby?" "My God!" "Okay." "It's all right now." "Get me some water." "The money's gone." "All $1400." "How we gonna live through the winter?" "Where we gonna get food and seed?" "Ain't no use." "We done been turned around." "Penny." "Suzanna." "Tom DeCooper." "Joseph." "Rachel and Toby." "All dead." "But the valley is there." "Green and wild." "It's there." "We gonna go on." "You ain't got no supplies, no food." "You can't make it through the winter." "Then we dies in the snow." "No, you ain't gonna die in the snow." " The old man said we're goin' on?" " Yeah." "Then we're goin'." "But you know we ain't got the money to pay what we owe you." "Don't matter." "You paid for safe passage through the Indian land." "You'll cross north of the salt wales." "You only got five days to pass." "I'll find you somewhere north of the Pecos." "Ain't nothin' left here for you, Eastman." "You can come or go." "It don't matter." "You ever hear of Copper Springs?" "Ten riders, boss named Deshay." "How you know?" "They catched me with your horse in a stop called Frenchman's Ford." "They asked a lot of mean questions." "Now I know why." "Copper Springs?" "I heard 'em say they holes up there." "And I remember every one of them faces." " Deshay, hold up a minute." " Ollie, how are things?" "I wanna talk to you." "Delighted." "Floyd, get me a bourbon." "You ran into a couple of wagon trains out yonder." "We just had a little talk is all." "You listen to me, Deshay." "Nobody's gonna be gunned downed, whipped or burned out in this town... as long as I have a say so." "That goes for the coloreds as well as anyone else." "Ollie, I just rode in to pick up my mail and spend a little time at Esther's." "Never mind." "I'm tellin' ya." "Those folks can come and go as they like." "That's the law." "Sheriff, you got an official complaint against me and my boys?" "We are bona fide labor recruiters... employed by the Delta Planters Association in Louisiana." "There's a whole way of life back there goin' down the drain." "We don't intend to see it frittered away." "I don't care who you're workin' for." "This ain't Louisiana." "You walk soft in my town." "That's them." "Deshay is the one with the hat." "There's only eight of 'em in there." "The other two are in the saloon." "You taking eight of 'em in one gulp?" "Five." "Three of 'em busy upstairs." "They ain't tied down forever." "I just gotta catch 'em off guard." "Let me talk to 'em." "You catch 'em off guard." "Blessings on this house!" "I am Reverend Willis Oakes Rutherford of the Holy Persuasion Church." "Get out!" "You do recollect we've encountered each other previous." " It's that old preacher." " Yes!" "I run a selective house." "This ain't a New Orleans crib." "Shut up." "What you want?" "You do recall there was a mean old silly... you was interested in by the name of Buck." "You know where he is?" "They have eyes that see not until they are open!" "Don't trifle with me." "I ain't trifling, sir." "But I do seem to remember that there was a sum mentioned." "$500 to be exact." "Where is he?" "Yea, though he flees as a shadow, yet will I lead thee to him... but for $500." "I ain't gonna bargain with you." "You tell us where he's at, and maybe we talk money." "Get him out!" "I've got my reputation." "Thy suffers that woman Jezebel who calleth herself a prophetess... to teach and seduce my servants into fornication." "Revelations, chapter 2." "What is he doing here?" "He's preachin'." "That's right, brother, I'm preachin'." "And my text is fornication." "He that committeth fornication sineth against his own body." "Corinthians 1." "That's you, Esther!" ""That's you, Esther!"" "Fornication!" "That's the way to ruination." "That's the way they's taught the nation." "Go, Preacher!" "You keep up that fornicatin', it'll take you to ruination." "This man there he just fornicates." "Yes, sir." "He's comin' and he's waitin', got no time for fornicating'." "I'm Buck." "I put my faith in the Good Book." "Ain't no more than $100 here." "I got about $30." "Where's the money?" "Where is it?" "The money!" "I'm talking to you." "Where is it?" "Buck, we've got to move!" "Come on, Preacher." "Stick to me, Jesus." "Will you hurry up?" "Are they gonna track us through four miles of sheep-dip?" "They don't have to." "They know where I've got to go." "They've been there." "$157!" "They drunk up and screwed away more than $1,000!" "That's a lot of drinkin'." "And they didn't even have my $500." "What $500?" "What they was gonna pay me to deliver you." "Well, I'm here, ain't I?" "And they's dead, ain't they?" "Yeah." "Jesus!" "You all right?" "I ran to Aunt Pennybeggers, and she took me in." " They didn't hurt you none?" " Cuff me on the head, that's all." "That's all." "They hit the Saint Anne Parish people." "They killed some, and they burned 'em out." " You better rest." " I ain't got no time." "I didn't know if you was alive or dead." "I couldn't come back." "They might've been waitin'." "I know, I know." "Horses are in the thicket." "That's Ruth." "Ruth, this is Preacher." "Your servant, ma'am." "Y'all sit down." "I get you something to eat." "Where can we get some horses around here?" "Elias Pennybegger has horses." "We can trust them." "She's my friend." "How many horses?" "At least one for you." "You've got to come." "They've been here once, they can come again." " They still after you?" " Not all of them." "Some dead." "Eight to be exact." "We goin' north like we said, to Canada?" "No, we can't." "Not yet." "Why not?" "Where we goin'?" "You done what you could in this country, and it all end on fire in a grave." "I ain't gonna live in this land no more." "You hear me?" "The war ain't changed nothing or nobody." "It's a poison soaked into the ground." "They gonna give us nothing." "Not no 40 acres and no mule." "And not freedom, neither." "It's a poison soaked into the ground." "The time is going." "I don't wanna spend my life washing other people's clothes." "I wanna live somewhere with you, Buck, like natural people." "I wanna have your children... and raise them someplace where there ain't a shadow of slavery." "I think about sewing, making pretty things for my family... while my hands are still steady." "I wanna go someplace with you, Buck." "I wanna have your children." "But I won't have 'em here." "I am going somewhere..." "They won't have us in Canada..." "I'll go to the edge of the ocean and I'll walks on away from here." "Saint Anne Parish folk... they're heading out there and they ain't got no food, no seed." "And they starve when the winter come." "Buck, honey, you just one man." "But I gave my word." "Eat your food." "I'll go see about the horses." "What you studying?" "Troubled about all that killing." "I killed men before." "I just don't know which way to turn no more." "I think they beat me." "Couldn't drivers do it in slavery days, nor the rebels in the war... but now I think... they beat me." "You're just tired." "When it's dark, looks like the heart just gets to hurting sometimes." "You gonna keep on fightin' best way you can." "Looks like there just ain't no other way." "I love you, Buck." "Where'd you get them cannons?" "Gunsmith in Fort Leavenworth." "Where'd you get that funny Bible?" "That my inheritance." "Before the war when I was a boy... my mama and me was sold to this traveling preacher." "I'd fetch for him, and take up collection." "And when he got drunk, I'd haul him off to bed." "He traveled in these little towns preaching sin and hellfire." "And when he got them gals full of the Holy Spirit... when they're ready to repent, he'd jig 'em." "Between while... he'd take my mama to bed." "I'd sleep out with the horse." "By and by, about 16, he sent me to town for a jug of whiskey." "When I come back, my mama was gone." "He sold her for a couple hundred dollars." "He got drunk that night, and he said..." ""Boy, put me to bed."" "So I lead that man into the tanning yard by the lime pit." "I put him to bed right there." "I hold him under with a cedar fence rail." "There was no next of kin." "So I got the cart, the horse... preacher clothes and this funny Bible." "Where are you gonna find that money?" "I don't know." "If it was me, I'd look for money where money's kept." "Like in a bank or an express office." "We gonna walk in the bank and just take it?" "That's right, brother." "And I know just the place... where they ain't got no sheriff, no deputy, and hardly any menfolk... 'cause they out around the countryside chasing two poor field hands." "You're crazy." "Yeah." "What you want, boy?" "You make a sound and you're a dead man." "We ain't got all day." "What's in the box?" " What's in the box?" " U.S. Government shipment." "Shipment of what?" "What?" "Gold." "Gold." "Sweet God Almighty, that's gold." "Where's the paper money?" "There isn't any." "I sent the cash deposit to the bank." "Get off that." " That's a whole mess of gold." " You can't carry it on a horse." "Where's the key?" "There's got to be a key!" "In Texas." "They always send the key separate." "He's telling the truth, but there's got to be paper money." "I'm gonna ask you for the last time." "Where is that paper money?" "I told ya." "At the bank." "I sent it over there." "What do you think?" "What the hell?" "Otherwise we done wasted the whole morning." "Posse's riding by." "Sheriff's with 'em." "That's it." "Let's get outta here." " I'm going to that bank." " It's across from the sheriff's office." "There's a lot of money there." "Otherwise we done wasted the whole morning." "You're the one that's crazy." " Mornin', Miss Esther." "How you feelin'?" " Better, thanks." "Thing like that's not easy to forget, but life goes on." " My money good enough for your bank?" " Money's money." "Hard earned, too." "Wages of sin." "Just so as I get three percent of 'em." "Someone stuck me with Ohio banknotes." "Are they any good?" "That depends on the solvency of that particular bank." "They're gonna get away!" "Yeah." "You shoot that rifle, boy, and we're dead!" "You gonna quit?" "Remember that wagon train you shot up?" " Yeah." " They never did come back." "I wonder if they're planning on joining up with 'em." "He say he will not fight them for you." "I understand." "Tell him I just need help to get through to my people." "They need supplies." "I can pay." "Dried meat as much as he can sell them." "Horses, powder and shot." "Five horses." "No powder." "No guns." "Ask him again." "Tell him we're all brothers." "He will not give you guns." "They come too hard." " Food." " Dried meat." "Flour." "Corn." "Do not ask for more." "He stopped that posse because he gave his word to let you through safe." "He will do no more." "Ask him again." "Tell him they looking for a land for themselves... and they'll have to fight their way to find it... 'cause they can't live back there no way." "Before the yellow hair, my father, my grandfather hunted buffalo... raised pony, and took women on the land... where Fox River crosses the grassland at place of skull." "Now Copper Spring Fort Sheridan." "Now we are here with our backs against Snow Mountain." "And yellow hair send wagon, soldier and speaking wire." "Tomorrow we will be like ghosts... like the spirits that come in dreams with no earth to walk on." "But we will fight." "We will fight ten tens of years, and our children's children will fight." "We need our guns, bullets and powder for our own fight." "Tell him his enemies are our enemies." "He say you black people fought with that enemy against our people." "I ain't in the army no more." "He knows, Buck." "No guns." "No bullets." "Eighteen hundred dollars." "That's your share." "For what we have just received, we give thanks in Jesus' name." "Amen." "I'm goin' back east to Illinois." "And I'm gonna buy me a tent." "I'm gonna have the biggest revival meeting' since King Solomon... preached to his wives and concubines." "And you, brother... you got a good woman there." "Take that money and buy yourself a livin' and do like she want." "Go to Canada." "All right, brother." "One question." "How do I get outta here?" "To Illinois?" "One or two ways." "Back the way we come and across Kansas." " There's a posse with a trigger hitch." " Yes, there is." "What's the other way?" "Keep on west across the Pecos to where I'm going." "Up into the mountains and north along the Idaho Territory... and back by the Canadian border." " How long that take?" " All winter." "All winter." "What's my chances of sneaking past the posse?" "Not much." "When I first catched you eatin' my rabbit..." "I should've gotten me a rock, busted you upside your head and left you for dead." "Scout come in." "That posse did not go back." " They went tracking the wagon train." " How close are they to the train?" "One day ride from the big river." "How long will it take us to catch them riding straight through?" "Maybe two days." "He will give you guides to take you through the high pass." "Remember, they will not fight for you." "I know." "Well, looks like the back door's open." "Figure I can "skeet" on through and take my chances." "Brother, you done walked more than half the journey with them Saint Anne folk." "That's all a normal man can do." "What do you wanna die for 'em for?" "What happened?" "Somebody close the back door?" "If they're gonna join up with 'em, they oughta do it before sundown." "Let's finish off that wagon train." "Ain't broke any laws." " We gotta turn 'em around." " What you got against them folks?" "You on their side?" "You soft in the head for them murderers?" "They killed Uncle Bow." "They robbed the bank." "They didn't!" "Buck and that preacher did." "That's all we're after." "You don't understand." "I gotta turn them field hands around." "If we leave them fields go fallow now, we done lost it all." "We gotta keep it goin' like it was, the way they rightfully belong." "You got 16 white men down there." "Just give me half of 'em, and I'll finish that job." "As far as I'm concerned, that wagon train can go anywhere it likes!" "You make one move against those people..." "I'll take you back to Copper Springs tied under the belly of your horse." "Where's Ollie?" "Went to cover the pass." "Says you're in charge, Marcus." "Don't let that Buck come through." " What does he want us to do?" " Take the wagon train." "If that's what he said... let's go!" " You gonna have to take it to 'em." " What you gonna do?" "We can draw them south." "You go with the wagon train." "I'll come to you later." "Get up on top." "Go in front of 'em and cut 'em off." "I run out."