"[gun cocks]" "For a horserace with no rules, 10 miles out of sight of any witnesses, survival is more important than speed." "Is that why you hired a gunfighter instead of a jockey?" ""Canst thou bind the sweet influence of the Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion?"" "Hmm?" "Orion." "Do you see it?" "Love it." "And the Milky Way?" "Marvelous." "I don't want you to miss anything." "I won't." "[knock on door]" "I'll be back." "I know." "Mr. Paladin." "Aren't you a little big for a jockey?" "Hey Boy, I'm offered $1,000 to ride in a horse race." "But you went to horse races yesterday." "Not like this one." "Hi." "Bye." "Hey Boy, pack the bags." "[men speaking native language]" "Sam, I think your man's here." "That's him, all right." "Take over." "Sam Crabbe here." "Paladin." "What do you know about "Mully" racing?" "Anything goes, get across the finish line first." "Anything else I should know?" "Right, cross the finish line first." "We'll run it in an hour." "How's that with you?" "All right." "What's the hurry?" "Let's just say I got a lot of riding on this and I'm anxious to collect it." "I'll be the richest man this side of the Brazos if you win for me." "Well, you don't look like you're hurting too bad right now." "Yeah, it ain't bad." "Some day I'll tell you what it's worth, and I made every cent of it single-handed." "I got started by winning a "Mully" horse race." "What do think of that?" "Why don't you ride this one yourself?" "Know what my motto is, Paladin?" "Hire the right man to do your work for you and you'll wind up with more money in the long run." "You're the one that's trying to carve out an empire." "What do you think of it?" "I think I hired me the only man that could take my place in this race." "Winners get their bets back and divide the loot, is that right?" "That's right." "Have a look." "Maybe you'll wanna bet some for yourself." "A man to bet his saddle, he must want money awful bad." "Can't imagine what the Indians will do with it if they win it." "What kinda talk is that..." ""If they win it"?" "I imagine they've got some confidence in their contestant, or they wouldn't be in this." "You don't wanna think like that." "It's bad luck." "Well, it's worse luck to underestimate our opponent." "How can you put a price of $1 on an object that took hours of work and skill and talent?" " Most of it's junk anyway." " Oh?" "This is junk, eh?" "Well, Crabbe, you're a man of very definite opinions." "Where's this race to be run?" "I'll show you." "Starts and finishes right here between those two poles." "Straight out through the timber here into Grass Valley." "Then you go down the edge of the timber, at the end of the valley, there's a sluice." "You cross that sluice, there's a big dead tree laying there." "You can't miss it." "You go right around that tree, then it curves around and feeds right back into the east side of the land." "Comes right back up through this timber, right back out between these two poles." " What do you think?" " How far is it?" "Oh, seven, eight miles." "Seven or eight miles." "That's a long time to be out of the sight of any witness of two men beating each other's brains out." "That's why I'm paying you $1,000." "And that's why I hired me a gunfighter, a man that can take care of himself no matter what." "What's the matter, Chief?" "Is that all the confidence you got with this little ante?" "He's a gambling fool, this redskin." "Mully not race with broken rider." "[Paladin] I didn't know he was being trained for the race." "What happened to your rider was my fault, and I'm sorry." "Mully want return of paper." "Mully ain't gonna get return of paper." "No race." "We need time to make rider to face one like him." "You got lots of bucks." "What about this big fella here?" "Return paper to my people." "What paper?" "A little private deal me and the Chief cooked up, he's trying to weasel out of." "I told you there was a lot riding on this race." "If the stakes are that high, maybe he's entitled to a postponement." "Yeah, and maybe he ain't." "That paper's locked up in the bank and goes to whichever side crosses that finish line." "Now my man here's gonna cross it right on schedule." "You wanna give up without a fight, that's up to you." "Crabbe, I'd like to know what's on that paper." "An agreement saying if he loses, he pulls out with his tribe leaving about" "50,000 acres to me, that's all." "How would you like to be cut in on something like that?" "How do you risk the hunting ground of your people on a horserace?" "He ain't risking nothing." "The Indian's getting squeezed out and he knows it." "He's willing to go for broke trying for the deed to my land sooner than die by inches." "If you understand that concept, then you certainly can understand the loss of those hunting grounds means death to these people." "It don't see where that's any problem of mine, Mr. Paladin." "Crabbe, don't make any mistake about that." "It's every man's problem." "What's digging you?" "I'm taking the same gamble." "Where do you think I'll be if I lose?" "The white man can live anyplace." "You can start over if you lose." "He can't." "Did I lose the war for them?" "The Indian nation is dead, Paladin." "Ask the Chief." "He knows." "What do you think he's in this for?" "See what I mean?" "I ain't putting nothing over on him." "He's on his way out." "Either I move in or someone like me does." "It's just that simple." "And you're the new man, the new world." "All I know is I need room to spread." "And I need it bad enough, I risk all I got to get it." "There's not a whole lot of risk involved since he doesn't have a rider." " That ain't my fault." " Well, it is mine." "And I'd have to be crazy not to take advantage of it." "All right, Crabbe, you do that." "You take advantage of it." "I don't want any part of it." "You get yourself another rider." "All right, I'll ride it myself." "What do you think of that?" "It's gonna be a runaway anyhow." "Who you gonna put up against me, Chief?" "Or do you wanna let it go without a fight?" "You name it." "Well, I might as well get it over with." "Here comes the Indian lover to watch the fun." "I'll ride for the Mully." "Chief, don't let your anger and your hatred blind your judgment." "This race would kill you." "White man would not win for Indian." "I will not lose." "Crabbe, bet my horse and my saddle on the Mully." "You're betting on the wrong side, Paladin." "Perhaps not." "'Cause I hire bums to do my work for me, don't get the idea there's a man alive that can beat me in a race like this." "Well, that's what we're here to find out." "They got no money." "They can't pay you." "What are you in this for?" "They have no rider, and it's my fault." "That mean you have to side with the redskins?" "It means I won't turn against myself." "Does the Chief accept my offer?" "Why don't you bet your gun, Paladin?" "Then maybe the redskins will believe you." " [gun cocks] - [Chief] Wait!" "I'll do without it if you will." "You got the wrong pig by the ear, Paladin." "Men with weapons are tempted to use them." "You got that right." "And you'll see what happens to a man that turns against his own kind, too." "Ready!" "You bet I'm ready." " Ready!" " [gunshot] [crowd shouting]" "[shouting]" "I fought for what I got." "Alone I did it." "Nobody helped me." "And nobody's taking it from me." "This race was your idea." "I built up this land." "I watered it with my sweat." "These people work for me." "I pay their wages." "Without me, they'd starve." "I earned it, and I'm keeping it." "You hear me, gunfighter?" "Get on your horse." "[Man] Hold it!" "Go ahead, boss." "We'll handle this." "You're smart with your mouth, Paladin, but you got no brains." "[shouting]" "[shouting]" "[shouting]" "If I cross this finish line first," "I will delay for one day, two days, one year, two years, the annihilation of the Mully." "But these people will lose their homes and their work." "There'll be anger, fighting, killing." "And sooner or later, a stronger force will come and the Mully will retreat mile by bloody mile." "I cannot in my heart and my conscience, allow Sam Crabbe to cross the finish line first." "But you people, Indians and white people can live here together, develop this land together, and that's the only chance you have, for as I cannot let Sam Crabbe cross the finish line first, no more can I cross the line first" "and win for the Indians." "Who won?" "How long will it take you to train another rider, Chief?" "A month?" "Two months?" "How long?" ""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"