"Mutiny's a big word, Hodges, but panic I understand." "But mutiny?" "What gave Colonel Burgess life-and-death autonomy over these people?" "It's my brother Courtney, Mr. Paladin." "He's vanished." "I want you to find him." "I don't care what it costs." "Find him." " Drink?" " No, thank you." "Thank you, no, Hey Boy." "You suspect violence?" "Hmm." "With brother Courtney the victim?" "It's hardly likely." "How can you say that?" "Because I've encountered hundreds like him." "This nation has produced a bumper crop." "The bad check fraternity, brotherhood of the I.O.U." " That's not being fair!" " I'm being honest!" "That's what Mr. Paladin needs, honesty at this end... if not at the other." "The quick smile, the empty promise, the moist handshake, that's what you look for." "And when you feel the sudden thrust of a knife between your shoulders, that's when you know you've found Courtney Burgess." "My husband's merchant mind fails to acknowledge that some men are born special, destined for more than keeping ledgers." "It's what she wants, Mr. Paladin." "Give her what she wants." "Courtney wrote last from Sacramento to tell me he was heading north in search of the future." "This time he said he was determined to make good for himself." "Well, I don't see that you really need me at all, surely the Sacramento police." "I don't think you understand, Mr. Paladin." "Courtney disappeared seven years ago." "Hot enough for you?" "It'll do." "Emmett Wilhoit, Grand Rapids." "Paladin, San Francisco." "Who shot you?" "Indians, up trail." "In case your going what way." "It'll be all right." "A little rest is all I need." " Sure." " You best turn on back." "They even burned old Burgess' fort up ahead, so they say." " Burgess?" " Know him?" "I've been looking for him for two months." "Well, he ain't hiding, not Colonel Burgess." "Colonel?" "Burgess never spent a day in the army in his life." "No, not our army, his own army." "His own fort." "This country's his... unless the Indians take it back all from Colonel Burgess." "They shoot good, too." "You look out now." "Yeah." "I'll look out now." "Anybody here?" "Hello?" "Uhh!" "You must be fond of that gun." "I've grown attached to it." " Are you going to kill me?" " Should I?" "If you're taking a ballot, I vote no." "It's the Colonel you've come for, I suppose?" "Now how would you know that?" "Well, mister, everybody comes looking for the Colonel." "It's a regional sport, like lacrosse." "He'd tell you so himself, if he weren't presently indisposed." "That's Courtney Burgess?" "What's left of him." "Me, I'm the ever-faithful Sam Hodges, the Colonel's dog-robber." "Can I get up now?" "This man isn't drunk, he's ill." " Typhoid." " Typhoid?" "That would account for the empty water barrels." "But what about those three in the orderly room?" "Now typhoid didn't take them out." "Would you believe it?" "Out of a company of 12, all but those three defected." "You know, once nature turns on man, it' ain't but a hop, skip, and a jump until man turns on himself." "Why were they shot, and where are the others?" "Well, it's a long story." "Have you got a minute?" "Well, I do, but I'm not so sure about your Colonel." "He's not going anyplace." "Chief Tamasun and his war party arrived ten days ago." "They didn't even bother to attack." "They knew they didn't have to." "Thirst was on their side, thirst and fever." "What stirred them up?" "Well, a slight misunderstanding between Tamasun and the Colonel." "You know, when it comes to progress, you can depend on the Chief to be on the conservative side every time." "Well, the Colonel had only 12 men to keep order." "There was near to 80 settles." "They were rubbing each other raw." "Food was running low, then the water turned." "Six cases of typhoid in one day." "Four of them buried out behind the stables." "Yes, sir." "That's what started the mutiny." "You know, it was just as if a mad dog had been set loose in the fort." "The Colonel tried to reason with them." "They wouldn't listen." "They were going." "There wasn't nobody going to stop them." "They'd rather take their chances with the Nez Perce Indians than stick and risk the fever." "Mutiny, Hodges?" "Mutiny's a pretty strong word." "Panic I can understand." "But mutiny?" "Against what?" "What gave the Colonel and his private militia life-or-death autonomy over those settlers?" "When Moses led his people out of Egypt, did anybody challenge his qualifications?" "Well, that's a pretty ambitious analogy." "Mister, when the Colonel came here, this was wilderness." "Everything you see here he made happen." "Because of a dream." "When a man sets up housekeeping in another man's dream, the Colonel figured the landlord had the right to set up a few rules." "That's fair enough, but what rules?" "Colonel Burgess put a roof over their head, clothes on their back, vittles in their belly." "And if he taxed them, if he demanded strict obedience and a share of their crops, it was his rightful due." "And you stuck with him." "Why?" "Typhoid doesn't worry you?" "Of course it worries me." "But abandoning the Colonel to die alone, that worries me more." "You couldn't take him with you?" "Oh, the Indians." "They let the others through." "All they want is the Colonel." "Well, this man's sick." "He needs a doctor." "He needs medicine." "And folks in hell are needing ice water." "Maybe there's something in the stores, I don't know." "We can see." "Don't let them kill me!" "Now, nobody's going to kill you, I promise." "Please, I don't want to stay." "Ask him to take me with him." "When you're better." "You never did say who it was who sent you." "Was it Floyd Miniver, Denver Mine and Ore?" "Nope." " Hope you brought a horse." " Only as far as the woods." "I don't hear anybody laying railroad track." "How are you planning to bust out of here?" "That's a good question." "How are you?" "As long as Tamasun doesn't attack, there's hope." "I'm still alive." "Well, he knows this fort is unprotected." "What's holding him back?" "A healthy fear of typhoid." "That's my little ace." "I ain't played the big ace yet." "No horses, no water, 200 miles from nowhere, besieged by hostile Indians and fever." "What are you saving it for?" "You play your hand, I'll play mine." "Was it the Merchant Trust in Abilene?" "Nope." " Luke Frost sent you." " Nope." "Then it was the Colbert brothers." "The way you keep rattling off names, one might get the impression that your Colonel had left a fairly spotty back trail." "A man in a hurry's bound to pick up a few enemies." "You know, you don't just plant a seed and up pops a fort." "It takes planning, sweat." "Indian sweat?" "Like the Colonel always says, it wasn't kindness that built the pyramids." "So a few savages die." "What of it?" "The end result, that's what counts." "Apparently, Chief Tamasun doesn't share your Colonel's opinion." "Here's some choral hydrate." "That ought to ease his pain a little bit." "What did they tell you about him?" " They?" " Whoever sent you." "They told me never to turn my back on him." "On anyone, friend." "Now what is this going to buy you?" "One less complication." "Oh, no, you're gonna need me before long, friend." "Against a hundred Nez Perce?" "Uh-uh." "All I need is the Colonel." "He's my property." "Oh, no!" "If he's killed, we're finished!" "I knew it." "Here he comes, Tamasun." "Stay away!" "This is my ace, and here's where I play it!" "Palau!" "Tamasun will talk." "It took you long enough!" "All right, I'm listening!" "But talk fast!" "It's hot out here!" "Speak true, Ametsun." "Plenty hot here." "Tamasun make trade." "Give us Oak Leaf chief, we go." "No more blood." "That's no bargain." "Like maybe Tamasun burn fort, huh?" "You won't do that." "You want the Oak Leaf chief alive." "The dirty heathens, they want to torture him!" "Maybe Tamasun come get him." "Into the camp of the big fever?" "Not likely." "Face it, Chief, your braves are bored and restless." "For ten days they've been cooking in this hot sun." "They want to get back to their squaws." "Two ponies, a fresh supply of water, guaranteed safe passage, those are my terms." "For Oak Leaf chief?" "Signed, sealed and delivered." "You wait." "I'm not going anywhere." "I told you I had the big ace!" "You can't turn this man over to them to be tortured, no matter what he's done." "Look at him." "There's not much left of him." "A few minutes off his life, that's all I want to borrow." "The Colonel's jacket's hanging in his office." "Get it." "Why stand on ceremony?" "Just throw him out like he is." "There's a lot you don't understand about Nez Perce logic." "To them, the uniform is the authority." "The same as a tribal chief's known by his bonnet." "It's the uniform they want to punish." "If I hung those oak leaves on your shoulder, you'd be the Colonel to them." "Now, you get that jacket before I take it into my head to do just that." "You ain't going nowhere." "Over here." "All right, fun's over!" "Give me the jacket!" "No sale." "Over your dead body then." "Awful place to shoot a man." "I've been hoping all day you wouldn't force me do that, Mr. Burgess." "You knew." "Was it Sy Ingersoll?" "Did he send you?" "You can't let a fellow check out with a puzzlement on his mind." "It was your sister." "You're supposed to bring me back." "No, she just wondered what was happening." "She was concerned." "I bet I know who it was who told you never to turn your back on me." "That stiff-necked brother-in-law of mine." "He always said I'd come to a bad end." "This fort, this business, it wasn't so bad." "Mr. Burgess, you and I are both near dead." "I got use for you yet." "Give me the jacket." "I got no time to argue!" "Put it on." "Put it on." "When you get back, and you better get back, mister, this is the part I want you to tell them." "Tell my brother-in-law the kind of end I came to." "Do you understand?" "I understand." "He's dead!" ""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"