"Reagan." "Time hasn't made you any prettier, Paladin." "I saw him earlier today, hanging around with an old man." "They met me at that old way station." "The old man's dead." "Well a man sends for help in this town, he don't keep it secret from his friends." "Have to sooner or later." "Why not now?" "'Cause his hands are tied and he doesn't have a gun." "I don't know, Paladin, maybe you like the fit of a pine box." "Don't fight your friends, Reagan." "Ed Buhl, my deputy." "Paladin." "I'm glad you came." ""Paladin, if there is value in the life I saved for you" ""that day in Claremore, I now claim the forfeit." "Reagan."" "There is value in the life." "And I do pay my debts." "Reagan." "You want to tell me now?" "You've never met Monica." "She's a beautiful woman, Paladin." "And she's my wife." "This is her hometown;" "it's, uh..." "Ben Turner's hometown, too." "That's how it started." "Texas Ben Turner?" "Uh-huh." "He's coming home after six years in Yuma prison." "Ten days ago, he... sent me this." ""Reagan, in ten days, I'm coming back for Monica." ""If you're still there, I'll enjoy killing you." "Ben Turner."" "I took this job a couple of years back." "Well, marrying me instead of waiting for Turner was her choice." "I guess he can't believe that." "And this one." "Any more like him coming in to help?" "Oh, there'll be more." "Six, ten... who knows?" "Texas men drifting in, waiting for Ben Turner to take up where he left off." "Well, you sure ain't much of a start." "I've seen him kill better than you, Sheriff, left-handed." "Those friends of yours... those Texas men that'll be drifting in... will they die for Ben Turner's cause?" "Oh, all of us may die for Ben Turner's cause." "Keep an eye on him, Buhl." "Come on." "Even a condemned sheriff gets a last meal." "Hey, Sheriff..." "Ben'll have four bullets in you before you even think about drawing." "This is Paladin." "Yes, I think I would've known you, Paladin." "Thank you for being here." "Oh, he always pays his debts." "Meantime, he could stand some food." "It's ready;" "I'll put it on the table." "Well?" "She is beautiful." "And she's a woman." "Please, sit down." "Mrs. Reagan?" "We might just as well discuss this now." "Now, Reagan... with your deputy, there are three of us." "Who else in this town will help?" "Nobody." "I told you, this is his hometown." "Oh, we've asked." "Well, Mrs. Reagan, your husband is the sheriff." "This town remembers Ben Turner as a pink-cheeked kid who stole apples from its orchards and kisses from its girls." "Well, maybe he didn't steal the kisses." "I'll get some coffee." "Reagan, you say Ben Turner left this town six years ago." "Now, every man in this town couldn't possibly have known him." "Every man in this town knows the reputation of Texas Ben Turner." "He killed 40 men." "Don't you understand?" "They're afraid." "And with reason." "He's death on two legs... ice-hearted, walking hate." "You hate pretty well yourself." "Think how good I could hate if I'd known him before." "Nah." "You want to go back now?" "Coffee would choke me." "Reagan..." "Thank you." "You didn't finish." "I'll bring some sandwiches down later." "Paladin..." "I don't suppose you can stop it." "Monica, the shadow a man stands on at noon seems to rise up and meet him at evening." "I don't know whether I can stop that." "Well, don't judge him by what he appears to be now." "He's a good man." "Which one?" "More strangers?" "No." "But they might wait outside town." "Ride in with him." "Where's your gun?" "It's inside." "What does that mean, Buhl?" "That I ain't begging to die." "Oh, you did pick a good time to decide that." "Reagan, I've got three kids!" "You took pay for wearing that badge!" "Well, this is different!" "This is between you and Turner!" "And your wife." "Now you crawl out of my sight." "I mean crawl." "You like to wear this badge, Paladin?" "No." "You're right... no man'd like wearing this badge." "His shotgun might've kept us alive." "Even saints must hate good-weather friends." "Hey, mister." "How comes you're so anxious to die?" "I owe that man something." "Son, what's Ben Turner to you?" "Is he a relative?" "Yeah, you might call him that." "I never had a last name till I met him." "Just Dink." "Then, one night, Ben Turner picked me off a saloon floor, and patched up some bullet holes in me, and..." "I just sort of took his last name." "Dink Turner." "Texas Dink Turner, Sheriff." "So, alley cats pay their debts, too, do they?" "His kind sort of smells up your Holy Crusade, Paladin." "Do they, Reagan?" "Sheriff, Ben Turner's a wolf tamer." "He don't need no help to kill a... a puppy dog." ""He who sharpens the tooth of the wolf, dies by its bite."" "You might think on that, Dink." "And they keep coming." "Well, they could just be riding through." "I'll take a walk and see." "You could just keep walking." "Yes, I could." "What does this town pay you for wearing that badge?" "$110 a month." "The least they could've done was stand with you." "Paladin are you ever... afraid?" "You've had a long ride." "Yeah." "All the way from Texas." "Where's your badge, Deputy?" "Here." "I do hope you'll be around when Ben gets here." "Oh, I shall be, and longer." "Hey, Sheriff... did I ever tell you about the time that three lawmen stepped out around Ben Turner, and each of them carrying a shotgun?" "You know, Ben had already drawed and killed the first two before that third, uh, puppy dog could swallow his surprise." "No, sir, I never seen a man as fast as Texas..." "Shut your mouth." "They're from Texas, all right." "They're not ready to fight yet." "A man should kill his snakes where and when he finds them." "Might have saved a lot of blood out there in the street." "I can... smell it already, soaking into the dust." "Hey, mister... me and the sheriff figured you'd be about five miles out of town by now and walking pretty fast." "But since you ain't, it seems like the least you could do is go outside and practice a little bit with that, uh, pistol you got." "Boy, you know any reason for an old eagle to stretch his wings?" "Well, now." "So she's the one?" "What the devil is that?" "That is a coffin I ordered built for Ben Turner." "Why in the middle of the street?" "Because I want every person in this town to see it... and think about it." "Oh, ho, how you stink, mister." "But it ain't gonna be Ben Turner laid out in that coffin." "Even the Ben Turners die sometime, boy." "Four more." "He's not one of them." "That's six we know about already, not counting Turner." "What kind of a chance are we gonna have?" "A slim one." "Reagan... you don't have to be here when he comes." "Neither do you, Paladin." "And you, Monica?" "Well, if I'm here, he won't have to look any further, will he?" "Reagan, I've said it once before..." "I'll say it again:" "She is a woman." "Well, Charlie, you are a fast worker." "Well, with fear nipping at my heels, I am." "Like a good man and an honest carpenter." "Mister... maybe this is the way you make your living." "If so, it's..." "it's a sinful waste." "I knew Ben Turner when-when he was just called a wild kid, and I liked him." "Now I like you." "I... well, I just don't want to see you die." "Well, as far as this is concerned, here." "It's... it's for free." "Charlie, I thank you." "Now, why don't you get out of here." "It's a little late for that now." "Paladin..." "I'm not holding you to that debt." "This whole thing's stupid." "You understand." "It's stupid." "I'm... walking away from it." "She's not worth dying for." "Paladin... you said, "the shadow a man stands on at noon rises up to meet him at evening..."" "I guess it's the same for a woman." "Monica... it's the same for all of us." "Monica... you were a pretty girl, but you're a beautiful woman." "Turner, leave this town." "Leave this town and Monica in peace." "Mister..." "I've come a thousand miles to see this town." "I've lived through a thousand years of hell with the memory of one woman keeping me alive." "Now, do you really believe that there's anything on God's green earth that can make me turn around?" "No." "No, I suppose not." "There was a time, Monica, when you'd have come that thousand miles to me." "No more, Ben." "That makes it less pleasant, but it don't change anything with me." "Now, you... step aside." "Mister!" "Mister." "Paladin?" "Don't judge him... too harshly." "He's a good man." "Mister?" "Charlie, let him out of there." "A friend of his died out in that street." "He'll want to bury him." "The memory of Monica kept Ben Turner alive for a thousand years." "I do hope you're more fortunate," "Reagan." ""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" "Paladin, Paladin, where do you roam?"