"As quickly as you can, snatch the pebble from my hand." "When you can take the pebble from my hand, it will be time for you to leave." "Please excuse me." "Time for you to leave." "Where are you going?" "After them." "They are on horseback." "You are on foot." "I can find them." "You have no food." "No water." "They took her." "Your mother?" "How is it they spared you?" "l hid." "Young man, where are your parents now?" "Both dead." "Your grandparents?" "l am alone, venerable sir." "You have no one else?" "An aunt." "My father's sister." "Where?" "In Perrysville." "Up north." "You should have this." "Your only hope of freeing her lies in your own survival." "My way lies through Perrysville." "If you wish it, we could walk together." "l am Caine." "l am Peter." "The rabbit feels rage." "The tiger, pity." "The dragon, pain." "All creatures, the low and the high, are one with nature." "No life is insignificant." "If we have the wisdom to learn, all may teach us their virtues." "This is Sun, master of the white crane system." "From the crane, we learn grace and self-control." "The snake teaches us suppleness and rhythmic endurance." "The praying mantis teaches us speed and patience." "And from the tiger, we learn tenacity and power." "And from the dragon, we learn to ride the wind." "Life sustains life." "And all living creatures need nourishment." "Yet, with wisdom, the body learns to sustain in ways that all may live." "Someone's coming." "Two men, leading animals." "Not horses." "Well, look who we got here." "Pilgrims." "Pay your respects, Amos." "Prospectors, me and Amos, looking for the mother lode." "Trick is to find it." "Smells good." "There isn't enough." "Listen to the boy." "As if we'd come busting in." "Your partner ain't said nothing." "He speak English?" "We better ask him." "There is enough." "Christian charity from a heathen." "We can all learn something." "Amos you don't suppose these good people might be carrying around a little cash to spare, do you?" "I wonder if the Chinaman might be carrying some on him." "Maybe he wouldn't mind if we had a look." "Master, do we seek victory in contention?" "Seek rather not to contend." "But shall we not then be defeated?" "We know that where there is no contention there is neither defeat nor victory." "The supple willow does not contend against the storm, yet it survives." "Go ahead, Amos." "Man's easy to get along with." "He ain't gonna mind." "See what's in the sack." "Leave him alone." "You heard what the boy said, Amos." "We ain't looking for any trouble." "Besides, I think they're poorer than we are." "No hard feelings, boy." "I guess this is yours." "You wish me to leave?" "You may need help to find your aunt." "l can find her." "You know what she looks like?" "Where she lives?" "How will you find her?" "Ask." "ls there nothing I can do for you?" "You?" "From a single action you draw an entire universe." "Could you not see I had nothing to protect?" "Your food." "I do not eat meat." "You have borne your sorrow well." "I will not forget you." "Jennie McCoy?" "You related?" "Half, maybe three-quarter mile, heading west." "Ask anybody for the McCoy place." "Please get up." "Why have you come?" "To confess my unworthiness, honorable sir." "I have disgraced my teachers and shamed this holy place." "Tell me how." "I have senselessly ended a life." "You speak of the nephew of the emperor." "It was he, was it not, who killed our Master Po?" "Wasn't Master Po wounded but still alive when you struck the fatal blow?" "That is so." "Would you have wished to desert Master Po while he lived?" "I could not find it within me, honored sir." "The sin would have been to desert Master Po." "Or to remain to senselessly accept your own death." "Death does no one honor." "The shame of his death does not lie on you but on the nephew of the emperor." "So shall it be recorded into eternity." "Now go." "For you may no longer remain here." "Well?" "I'm Peter." "Peter Gideon." "Andy's boy?" "You got any money?" "Shut up." "Where's your pa?" "Dead." "Dead?" "Killed by Indians." "Ma got carried off." "What's in the sack?" "Some things I saved from the fire." "Dump it." "Around his neck, Pa." "Where's the rest of it?" "Rest of what?" "The money!" "Your pa was mighty careful of it." "There is no money." "Pa, I see him before." "In town." "He come in with a Chinaman." "A Chinaman?" "Looked like one to me." "Where'd you meet up with him?" "He came by the cabin." "l reckon we know where the money went." "l know where to find him, Pa." "Let's look him up." "You're Mr...?" "l am Caine." "I'm Amy Allender." "Mr. Poole says you're looking for work." "Yes." "You know anything about ranch work?" "What is ranch work?" "Working with stock." "Horses, cattle." "You seem to be able to handle a horse." "I can handle a horse." "Well, I can't pay much." "Food, a place to sleep." "I'll try to manage a little money." "I raise cattle, run a few horses, grow my own fodder." "That him?" "Yep." "You've got something belongs to the boy." "What is it I have?" "For you to tell me." "Does the boy say so?" "No." "You may satisfy yourself, I have nothing." "Probably got it hid by now." "Will you not believe the two of us?" "Believe a Chinaman?" "ls this your uncle?" "Yes." "And entitled to whatever was stole from that cabin." "l have said there was nothing." "Let me open him up, Pa, a little." "Talk, Chinaman." "Do you wish to stay with these people?" "No!" "is there room at your ranch for the boy?" "Yes." "Then, if you wish, I will do your ranch work." "Wait." "He's out again." "The latch is loose." "He just bulls it open whenever he pleases." "You wish him inside?" "Yes." "Watch out for him." "He's not broken." "What is broken?" "Tame." "Weakness prevails over strength." "Gentleness conquers." "Become the calm and restful breeze that tames the violent sea." "There are at least that many again." "They've gotta be rounded up, brought back in, fences repaired." "Grass is dry." "Yeah." "They should be moved from field to field." "Give this part of the range a chance to recover." "Tell your pa he'll get his cut." "When?" "When I'm ready." "Looks to me like you're ready now." "What do you do for a living?" "Lots of things." "Anything that comes to hand." "Well, mostly." "Jack of all trades." "That's right." "Suppose you leave this to a professional." "I saw the light. lt's very late." "is it?" "You never seem to get tired." "But I do." "I still don't know what to call you." "You know my name." "Caine." "is that your first name or your surname?" "What is surname?" "There's so much you don't know." "And so much you do." "What is this?" "Well, you've earned it." "How?" "You've worked hard." "You know, for the first time, I feel like the place can earn money." "What would I do with it?" "You're entitled to wages." "Isn't there anything you want?" "Food." "Place to sleep." "Work." "Nothing else?" "I'll...." "l'll put it aside for you, and it'll be there when you want it." "Master, our bodies are prey to many needs." "Hunger, thirst, the need for love." "In one lifetime, a man knows many pleasures:" "A mother's smile in waking hours, a young woman's intimate, searing touch and the laughter of grandchildren in the twilight years." "To deny these in ourselves is to deny that which makes us one with nature." "Shall we then seek to satisfy these needs?" "Only acknowledge them." "And satisfaction will follow." "To suppress a truth is to give it force beyond endurance." "Yeah?" "I got something I want you to make for me." "You'd better come back in a couple weeks." "I got more work than I can take care of." "Look at him." "I like to watch him." "My father used to say that otters are happy even when they're alone." "Alone." "Alone." "Alone...." "You sit by yourself, grasshopper." "What do you think of?" "My mother, my father." "Both gone." "I am alone." "You hear the flock of birds flying overhead?" "You hear the fish?" "The beetle?" "In this crowded place, you feel alone." "Which of us is the most blind?" "Close your eyes." "What do you hear?" "I hear the otter." "Some birds." "l hear a horse." "A swarm of bees?" "Yeah." "To know nature is to put oneself in perfect harmony with the universe." "Heaven and earth are one." "So must we seek a discipline of mind and body within ourselves." "Anyone still hungry?" "There's lots of beef left." "l don't eat meat." "Look." "Hey!" "Look." "Who is he?" "What does he want?" "He wants me." "You're leaving." "Yes." "Why?" "To stay would be to bring danger here." "To be alive in this world is to risk danger." "You think I'm looking for safety?" "And the boy?" "There has to be a way." "If there were...." "l'll go to the sheriff." "He'll stop him." "The sheriff will not protect a wanted man." "The man on the mountain is acting according to your laws." "Must I lose you too?" "Peter." "Where have you been?" "Up on the mountain." "I knew you wouldn't use it." "Kill him!" "You can." "Are you afraid?" "You can't leave, Caine." "He told me to give you a message." "He said that if you tried to leave, he'd burn down the ranch and everything in it." "Peter?" "He won't come out." "It's like seeing someone he loves killed all over again." "What's gonna happen?" "He will try first to take me alive." "That can be the only reason he has waited this long." "And if he can't?" "Then I must assume, rather than lose me, he will try to kill me without mercy." "Will you fight him?" "lf l can." "Will you kill him if you can?" "The taking of a life does no one honor." "But he'll take yours." "People will remember what was done here." "They will think of it with respect." "The taking of a life does no one honor." "What will you do?" "Work." "Wander." "Rest when I can." "Caine!" "Well." "Throw that pouch down here." "Turn around slowly." "Your hands in the air." "Apart." "Poster says you're worth $ 1 0,000." "Alive." "Five thousand, dead." "I'd say we got what you call a community interest." "Keep you alive." "Keep you alive and get you to the Chinese legation." "Now, it might take a little doing but we'll give it a try." "You got 1 0 seconds to put those on." "Turn around." "Kwai Chang Caine." "People back there must want you pretty badly." "And if it is unjustified?" "I'm not interested in justice." "I deal in bounties." "You deal in the sale of bodies." "If you wanna put a name on it." "I have." "The cobra seeks to fix the eye of the bird before it strikes." "In that moment of looking at each other, each accepts his role." "Predator and prey." "Fear creates the victim." "Yet something in the bird makes it seek the eye of the cobra." "I've seen it." "A wish to die." "Yeah." "Tell me how it feels." "But you know how it feels." "I will survive if I can." "But you it is you who feels the fear." "I'm the one who's got his finger on the trigger." "Facing death yet one more time." "Yours." "Mine." "It's the death that fascinates you." "Looking into its eyes." "You are the bird." "The cobra is death." "Paper says your feet and your hands are deadly weapons." "I'd say we got your feet pretty well under control." "Now I'll ask you to put these on." "You know nothing has changed." "Where there has been one, there will be others." "But there's a difference." "We'll know you're alive." "What do you hear?" "I hear my own heartbeat." "And I will not forget you."