"It's Willie." "I need a drink." "Well?" "I got bad news, King." "Jacob Wade's pulled out." "He left Monolith last Monday." "Where did he go?" "That's just it, King." "He, he lit out from under." "You lost him?" "I left you to keep a mark on him." "You'll kill him!" "You find Jacob or I will." "Do you hear me?" "Find him, or I'll kill you in his place!" "A man'd go loco working on a bullet like that all the time." "Would you forget it if a man had put this piece of lead a half-inch from your heart?" "I'm gonna send this back where it came from:" "To Jacob Wade." "Give me three." "Three for the dealer." "Hello, Jacob." "Been a lot of years since you stepped foot in this part of the country." "Yeah." "Heard about you from time to time." "How you been, Bryant?" "Can't kick." "Got yourself a big reputation since you left Bridelow." "Yeah." "Big, but not good." "Well, it don't scare us none, Jacob, so, you got any business in this town, you see it's finished by tomorrow noon." "I'm looking for Riley." "You come to the right place." "You looking for something?" "Can I buy you a drink?" "Oh, anybody can buy me a drink." "Well, who are you?" "I'm your father." "Where's your mother, Riley?" "Where's your mother?" "Don't you know?" "Well, come on, I'll show you." "She's down there someplace." "People say she jumped." "I say you pushed her." "When, Riley?" "Five years now." "A killer's wife doesn't have friends." "The women walked around her, the men were afraid to talk to her." "She stood it as long as she could." "I wish it was you down there, instead of her." "I guess you do." "How do you make your living?" "Well, uh..." "I count money at the bank." "What do you do for a living, Riley?" "Nothing." "I get along." "It's yours." "What's that, your cut of the Fargo job or the mail train massacre?" "Get this place fixed up." "Get it working again." "I wouldn't touch your blood money no more'n this town'd touch me." "Maybe you... maybe you'd better not stay here." "Maybe you'd better come with me." "I'd sooner go with the devil." "What brought you back here, anyway?" "Your conscience been bothering you?" "Just don't come back after 14 years of killing without there being some reason." "You're my son." "I wanted to see you before it was too late." "Help you." "The way you "helped" my mother?" "Maybe I'm thinking of her, the way she would've wanted you to turn out." "That's good." "Now you're thinking of her." "Well, I want you to keep thinking of her all the time." "I don't want you to ever forget her... or what you did to her." "I look like her, don't I?" "All right, Jacob Wade..." "I'll go with you." "I want to, so you'll keep on remembering what makes you ache, so that every time you look at me, you'll remember that you killed my mother." "Get your gear." "My gear." "I got all I want." "All right, Lon, what did you see?" "Guess you shot the fella:" "Three times." "That's where you're wrong." "He only shot him twice." "I shot him the first time." "I don't get it." "The idea is the hand's quicker than the eye." "Like slipping a cold deck into a poker game." "Now, take that baldheaded eagle that just grabbed that rabbit over there." "You see him?" "What baldheaded eag?" "Like that." "They'll all be watching me while Faro guns him down." "Up against a cold deck." "I'm a gambler, Lon." "A gambler's got to have an edge." "It might still be dangerous trying to kill Jacob Wade." "Now matter how s..." "smart we figure it." "You think so?" "That's him." "Where are you going?" "Feed myself." "Man feeds his horse first." "Well, I guess I got a lot to learn... not from you." "What can I do for ye?" "Feed 'em and cool 'em for the night." "I'll handle this." "Is that livin' quarters back there?" "There's a kitchen and a bed." "But not better than my horse stalls." "How many horses you own?" "I count nine." "Wagons to go with 'em?" "Six of 'em out back, includin' the wedding surrey, with wheels o' red." "Do your own shoeing'?" "That were my first trade, blacksmithing." "You be a man what knows my business." "Well you thinkin' of selling out maybe?" "I been workin' this stable more'n ten years now." "I'm hopin' to go on working it for the same." "I'll make it a good price." "And I'd have but one answer for ye:" "How good, mister?" "Three thousand?" "Fair enough." "In gold?" "Yeah." "Stay right where you are." "Keep your hands where we can see 'em." "It's not often we're honored by such famous company." "Are you Jacob Wade?" "Take his gun, Matt." "We don't want any trouble here." "Just get out of town." "Wasn't aimin' to make trouble, mister." "Judge." "Judge Hart." "I administer the law in this region." "He wants to buy my place." "Offered good money for it, too." "He's not welcome here, Mr. McGregor." "What happened, Sheriff?" "He wouldn't move fast enough when I came after him." "He wanted to finish his grub first." "Where I come from, a sheriff wears a badge." "And you gun monkeys use 'em for target practice." "You're in bad company, son." "You've got to expect rough treatment." "Get their horses, Mr. McGregor." "Get movin'." "There, Wade." "Take it and shake the dust." "Pick it up." "Pass the word along to Blackburn, Ryerson, and the rest of your friends:" "Keep out of Bonneville." "We don't want any gunfighters here." "We'll fight 'em, ten to one and shoot 'em in the back." "So, if they know what's good for 'em, they'll stay away." "Now, get along." "Got any more ideas?" "I said I'd find you a place." "I didn't say it'd be easy." "Another town, maybe." "It might be better." "It might be worse." "Yeah... it might be." "Cold?" "Get up." "You're sick." "I have to get you under cover." "Come on." "Get up." "Where are you taking me?" "I know a place." "They'll just kick us out, like all the others did." "Not this place." "Jacob!" "Hello, Ada." "Open the door." "Who's he?" "He's my son." "He'll be better by tomorrow." "I never knew you had a son." "Come to think of it, I never really knew too much..." "Ada..." "I didn't mean to come back and start things over again, only... there was no other place to take the boy." "This is your house, Jacob, all of it." "No, I gave it to you, Ada." "I'd just like for us to stay awhile." "Where's his mother?" "She's dead." "He isn't easy to get along with." "He hates everyone." "I can't say I blame him." "You knew she was dead when you left?" "No." "That's the reason you couldn't marry me... 'cause you thought you had a wife." "I never expected to come back here, Ada." "It doesn't matter." "You're here now." "I never realized how much you... you were part of this house." "It's just nothing without you." "It's just... empty, Jacob." "Don't make too much of it." "When I saw you coming, I was so glad." "It's no use, Ada." "I came back because I had to." "That's the way you looked the first time I saw you, sitting in King's place alone, staring at the bottom of a whiskey glass." "What's so terrible about the way people look into empty whiskey glasses?" "I..." "Oh, Jacob, don't you understand?" "This is your home!" "I got to make a place for him." "I'll help you do it." "Jacob, you've come home again." "Hold your fire, Jacob." "A man can get killed coming through a door like that." "Didn't expect to find you here." "Ben rode in yesterday." "Do a beat old waddy a favor and get me a cup of coffee?" "Good to see you, Jacob." "What are you doing in Monolith?" "Mmm, ain't it a place to like?" "A man gets tired of being run out of towns, and I remembered this spread of yourn." "I was hunting wild horses with Jacob the first time he ever laid eyes on this place." "I was going to ask Ben to run the ranch for me." "Well, thank you, ma'am." "Thank you very kindly." "I'll just take a nibble." "You hiding out, Ben?" "I been law-abidin' and peaceable ever since you broke up the bunch." "Where's Blackburn?" "I hear him and the boys is hiding' out along the upper Platte somewhere." "I'm through triggering'." "You know that, don't you, Ben?" "Sure, Jacob." "You quit outlawin' to settle down and break wild horses." "I could do with a few myself." "You break a good, strong, wild one, you can run away from any posse horse in the county." "There'll be no running away from posses in this county." "Mm, naturally, you bein' a peaceable man nowadays." "You're lyin', Ben." "You never could fool him none." "The fact is, I got in a little trouble and needed a place to hide." "I'm up at Yankee Draw with the sheriff out this way, and he's an old friend of Jacob's." "That won't buy any special favors." "He leaves us alone if we leave him alone." "I don't aim to tangle with the law no more." "Gettin' too old for that." "You ought to take more rest, Riley." "I'll get you some warm food." "Don't bother." "I won't be here that long." "Why, you're Jacob's boy, ain't you?" "I knowed it the minute I laid eyes on you." "You weren't no more than that high when old Ben Ryerson lived next door to you." "Knows your ma, too." "She's dead, Ben." "That's too bad." "Right pretty woman, your ma was." "'Course, she was always a little strict for my taste." "I like a woman who laughs a lot." "Shut up!" "You mention my mother in this house again and I'll kill you." "Jacob?" "I'm sorry, I thought it was your father." "Does Jacob know you're going?" "I'll leave it to you to tell him." "It's me you're running away from, isn't it?" "That's right, it's you." "You wouldn't put up with any woman your father liked." "Women like you?" "Maybe you'd better go." "You might learn the truth and stop hating your father." "That wouldn't do." "You'd have to stop feeling sorry for yourself." "Only one person I ever felt sorry for." "Not your kind." "What do you know about my "kind"?" "Go on, run." "It's better for Jacob." "I wouldn't want to do anything that was better for Jacob." "Maybe I will stay awhile." "Who's that?" "Willie?" "It's your brother." "Well, it's about time you got here." "Didn't I tell you to keep off your feet?" "Yeah, sure, you told me." "When's this thing gonna stop aching'?" "When you give it a chance to heal." "Sit down, King." "You've got to keep quiet for a couple of weeks." "I've been quiet for six months." "A man who hates the way you do makes him evil." "Look, I didn't get you down here for preaching'." "I'm your brother." "I've got to try to make you see things." "Yeah, sure, sure." "You've tried that before, too." "Yes, King, I've tried." "You were always were a fancy talker... only I always get in the last word." "You hear that, Faro?" "The doc says I've got to be quiet." "Let me tell you somethin':" "If Willie was to come through that door right now," "I'd be out of here in a minute." "How long am I supposed to wait for Willie?" "!" "What about Jacob's girl?" "Maybe she knows where he is." "She ain't Jacob's girl." "Don't hurt yourself, King!" "Ada ain't anybody's girl, Lon." "You want to remember that." "This is Echo Canyon." "Best wild horse country in the territory:" "Good water, plenty of grass, and no cowboys riding by." "You'll find, oh, maybe 70, 80 mustangs in these hills, any day you look." "A man could make a good living just catching and breaking 'em." "Look!" "I'd sure like to throw a saddle on him." "He's like..." "he's like a white cloud." "Think he'd lead us to his herd?" "No, he's too smart for that." "Let's run him into the ground." "You ride after him first." "When your horse gets tired, you head him back this way, and Ben'll go after him." "Well, you show me how." "I'll start him out." "Go, boy!" "I'll take him now." "Anybody else would be honored to have Jacob show him the ropes." "I'm not anybody else." "Yeah, you're special." "You know, I was just thinking... you're not Jacob's age." "You're more my age." "I'm a thousand years older than you." "I'll bet you've learned a lot, too." "Let me tell you something." "Jacob is a man." "That's something you're not." "Suppose you teach me." "Peter!" "Jacob'll be waitin' for us!" "He's almost got him penned!" "I can get him now." "Thanks for the lesson." "You'll learn one before the day's over." "You'll learn we don't quit." "Jacob, look!" "The bay!" "Let's get 'em." "Hold him!" "We'll start busting 'em tomorrow." "Give us a chance to see if you can sit a wild one." "You all right?" "Now you mount him." "Oh... you like it so much, you stick with it." "Not me." "Riley!" "I'll break you like I'd break any other wild horse." "I'll break you or kill you." "You want to run away, I can't stop you, but if you stay here, I'll make a man of you." "You talk pretty big, especially about running away." "You hurt, Jacob?" "Get me some water." "Here's your water." "What's happening?" "It's the bronc; he shook me up." "It's more than that, isn't it?" "You walked into that chair as if it wasn't there, as if you didn't even... see it." "Things just blurred for a minute, that's all." "What's wrong with your eyes, Jacob?" "Nothing." "There's nothing wrong with them." "You're keeping something from me." "Oh, it's happened before." "It'll go away." "How long now, Jacob?" "What difference does it make?" "We'll find help." "We'll get a doctor." "I saw a doctor." "He..." "Is that why you went away, Jacob?" "Don't you think I'd want to know and help you?" "Nobody can help me." "Will it get worse?" "I don't know." "I have to do something for that boy while I can." "He hates you." "He's part of me." "Hate, no pity." "I don't ask for pity." "Maybe if he knew." "No!" "If he wants to hate me, let him." "What I'm trying to do is to stand him on his own two feet." "Don't tell him anything." "Is that the last one?" "Not enough mustangs to pack canvas into Echo Canyon now." "Mm, look good, too." "We go for the herd dawn tomorrow." "Oh, no more." "Time to get movin'." "Riley... we'd best go out and saddle up the horses." "Hello, Jacob." "Hello, Ben." "I'm Blackburn, ma'am." "Me and Jacob's been friends a long time." "The lady's not interested in your life history, Blackburn." "Well, maybe we're interested in her." "Lean off, Bode." "We're guests here." "Heard you were around, Jacob." "Thought we'd drop in for a little visit." "Right friendly of you." "It's got its business side, too." "You setting' 'em up, Jacob?" "We need horses, Jacob." "Posse after you?" "Not yet." "I told you I quit." "Told you that some time ago." "Them dogs we got, we couldn't outrun a Shetland pony." "Got a right smart saddle band out in the corral, Jacob." "Tell you what." "You let us use 'em, we'll give you a share of the clout." "What clout?" "Why, there's a bale of gold up at the Golden Nugget Mine..." "Shut up!" "Clarence never could keep his tongue still." "Them horses got my brand on 'em." "That mine's less than 20 miles from here." "Makes it real handy." "This is the only place left where I can live peaceable." "I got my son with me now, and I aim to do it." "I need them horses, Jacob." "I wouldn't try to take 'em." "I took orders from you for a long time." "I give the orders now." "There's six of us." "Ben come up ahead of us." "I hate to tangle with an old friend but this is business." "I got this 'un covered, Black." "That's good thinkin', Bode." "If Jacob draws on me you put a bullet right in that kid's head." "There ain't nothing to worry about, ma'am... not 'less'n Jacob wants trouble." "Well, how 'bout it, Jacob?" "You want him whole?" "All right, Bode, bring him out." "Don't try to stop 'em." "I got to... or we'll never take root again." "Jacob..." "I can't let them run us out." "They'll kill him!" "I said I'd find him a home." "I meant what I said, Blackburn." "No horses." "I guess you don't value your kid over a mustang." "Get off that horse." "Okay, boys." "No sense in looking for trouble." "Take your dead and git." "Don't bury them on my ground." "He had to kill 'em, didn't he?" "You hear a lot of things about your father." "It isn't the way you thought it would be, is it?" "Did you think he liked using a gun?" "It wouldn't have happened if he'd led a decent life." "He's always been decent to me." "You had that same look on your face the first time you saw me." "I guess I did." "The first time I saw you you were living in Jacob's house." "You're still living there." "Yeah, and we met in a gambling hall, and he shot a man on account of me." "Well, I'll bet he did." "Uh, what were you doing in a gambling hall, teaching Sunday school?" "Looking to make my fortune, like my pa before me." "He was King Fisher's piano player." "When he died, I took over." "Do you know how we made our fortune?" "With coins they throw on a saloon floor." "King thought he owned me because I worked in a gambling hall." "He found out how wrong he was." "Why, because you liked Jacob better?" "Yeah." "From the first time I saw him, sitting alone in the Bonanza... staring into an empty glass." "Do I need a drink." "Where is it?" "I hope you earned that drink, Willie." "He's back in Monolith." "I had a hunch he would be." "He's living at Ada's." "Just the two of them?" "They got some kid with him and Ben Ryerson." "Saddle the horses." "We'll stake out the canvas along this line." "Benato's here." "You and Ben stay here." "I'll circle around behind and head 'em back this way." "You hear 'em coming, shimmy 'em down the middle." "Ada, get your horse and come with me." "You workin' or lookin'?" "Thinkin' of cutting out Jacob?" "Guess you could get back at him that way." "You're just like your ma, ain't ya?" "I been waitin' for this." "Hyah!" "Hyah!" "You should have known better, Ben." "We get back to the ranch, you pack up your things and get out." "Ben?" "Can I ask you a question before you go?" "There's something I got to know." "Why did Jacob leave Red Bluff?" "Well, he killed the sheriff." "You kill a badge-man in this country, they'll hang you quick." "Look, why would a man married to a woman like my ma kill anyone?" "Because she was a woman like your ma." "All right?" "Now you're going to hear it." "There was a drought." "Big outfits fenced off the water, leaving our cattle to die." "We had to cut the fences... or move on." "You know what your ma said?" "Now, you listen to me." "She "wasn't moving nowhere," Ruth said." "She wasn't leaving our house and comforts... your fine ma." "So, Jacob and I drove our herds down to the creek and cut the fences." "Then somebody started shooting at us." "We shot back." "Well, he could have come back for my ma, couldn't he?" "That's exactly what he did do." "Only they shouldn't have named your ma "Ruth."" "She only read that part of the Bible where it says" ""Thou shalt not kill."" "She never read where it says" ""Where you go, I'll go."" "I don't believe you." "Jacob begged your ma to go with him!" "Things had've been so different if only your ma had come with him." "Three times he went back for her." "And three times she said, "no."" "You're a... a liar." "Man calls me a liar, I'll kill him." "You're not a man." "You're a boy." "Ben..." "Where you going to go?" "Don't rightly know." "Can't go back to Red Bluff, that's for sure." "Can't go back with Blackburn." "He's dead." "Guess I just ain't going nowhere." "Rider coming." "It looks like Ben Ryerson." "Faro." "Thought you was dead, King." "You guessed wrong." "Pick the wrong card, you lose, don't you?" "You're about as stinking wrong as that pig friend of yours, Jacob Wade." "You wouldn't let anybody talk like that about your friends, would you, Lon?" "Sure wouldn't." "You're in my way, Ryerson." "Worked fine." "Willie, when we get to town, have somebody tell the sheriff there's a dead man out here." "That'll get Yankee out of the way." "All right, let's get on." "He wouldn't leave like this, Jacob." "Not without saying anything." "Then where is he?" "I don't know." "I'll tell you where he is." "He's running... 'cause he never had it in him to do anything else." "He's no good, Ada." "You're wrong." "I did everything I could for him." "Now I'm through." ""Everything you could for him"?" "Starting when?" "He's had a bad time of it, Jacob." "Maybe he doesn't do things the way you'd like him to." "Maybe he's trying and he can't." "He's proud, just like you." "That's why I know he isn't running away, because he is just like you." "Where are you going?" "To look for him." "Riley!" "Pull up!" "He came out of Echo Canyon." "Riley!" "Go up that way." "Riley!" "Riley!" "Riley!" "Riley!" "Riley!" "Riley!" "Oh, Riley..." "Well, I got him." "You're a fool." "Maybe I was." "Ben told me about my mother before he left... things I didn't know." "Well, you have to understand about her, she she wasn't strong enough for pioneering." "She tried." "But she never tried to forgive you." "Well, now... forgiving didn't come easy to her." "You see, she..." "Pa?" "It wasn't you who killed that sheriff, was it?" "It was Ben." "It was me killed the sheriff." "I killed a lot of men." "Hello, fella." "Come over here." "Proud of him, aren't you?" "Yeah." "Took a lot of courage." "I got a..." "I got a funny kind of a feeling in my bones today." "The first time in a lot of years I feel hopeful." "Of course you do." "Maybe there's a chance for us yet." "Just like old times, huh, Faro?" "King!" "Go get her, Willie." "Hello, Ada." "Old friend of your'n in town." "Wants to see you." "Come here, Ada." "Sit down." "You look real natural, setting there by the piano." "Why'd you come back?" "I got old friends in this town." "I'd kind of like to see them again." "I was hoping you weren't looking to make trouble." "No trouble for me." "Jacob doesn't want any, either." "Suppose he went away, King." "Suppose we left town." "You'd kind of like that, wouldn't you?" "You and him going away together." "All right." "I won't go with him." "I'll come back here and play for you again." "Just like I used to." "Just like it used to be, King." "The lights and the people all talking at once." "Three-deep at the dice table." "I still have my gowns, King." "The red one, remember the red one?" "Willie... you tell him, Willie." "It's bad business to open a place with a killing." "People will stay away." "They'll be afraid." "Lon..." "Faro?" "We had a good thing here once." "We could do it again." "You talk to him." "Tell him to be reasonable." "He'll listen to you." "It'll be just like old times." "The old times are gone, Ada." "You can tell Jacob I said so." "Tell him I want to see him." "Please, King..." "Tell him Ben is dead." "That'll bring him." "Come on." "That-a-baby." "Come on." "Here, hey, come here." "Come here." "Here, here." "Jacob!" "Jacob!" "What's wrong?" "Ada?" "King's back." "He and his men are just sitting in his place waiting." "They killed Ben." "Jacob!" "Listen to me." "We don't have to stay in Monolith." "There are other places..." "better places... far away from here." "Not now." "You said we had a future." "Don't let King spoil that." "There's only one way to stop him." "We could leave now and start a whole new life." "No starting over for me." "Jacob... you're walking into a trap." "There are four men there... four men with good eyes against one who can't see." "What chance will you have?" "I'm going to try." "Don't I mean anything?" "Or Riley?" "If I don't finish the job they'll be hanging over us the rest of our lives." "What do you mean, he can't see?" "He's going blind." "Stop him." "Blind?" "Why didn't you tell me?" "Riley, if he goes to meet King, he'll never come back." "Faro, get behind the bar." "Open the cash drawer, and put your gun in it." "Keep both hands on the bar top where he can see them." "Willie, you tie back those swinging doors." "Lon, take the roulette table." "Faro, when he makes that lean, gun him down." "He's coming." "Hello, Jacob." "I heard you were looking for me." "Any special reason?" "What would you think?" "Sitting here like I am, still alive?" "I'd think I was lucky." "And I'd let it go at that." "I'm a gambler, Jacob." "Always willing to try my luck again." "I told the boys you would come." "It's like I said." "Jacob plays according to the rules." "Always ready to give the other fella a chance to get back what he's lost." "I'm no gambler." "That's where you're wrong, Jacob." "You're staking your neck on this game." "Yeah." "They come a long way for nothing, King." "You've stacked your last deck." "Behind you!" "Can't see him." "Give me the gun." "Was that King?" "Yeah." "He's gone." "Where is he?" "Where is he?" "On the balcony." "Which way fr... from the tree?" "To the left." "About ten feet." "Lower!" "You got him." "Pa!"