"Blandings." "Blandings." "Coffee." "I was dreaming." "Come on." "It's getting cold." "It's still dark." "Are you really in such a rush for mr." "Hanley's reward?" "It'll be dawn, and I wanna get across the strada before noon." "Strada?" "The river." "In st." "Louis, before you caught up with me," "I used to sleep every day till noon." "And then two servant girls would come in" "With silver breakfast trays." "The plaza." "A fresh shirt." "Music." "Shade." "Cool drink." "And then the nights." "But you want your money," "And hanley and company wants its pound of flesh." "But for a little while, I lived where an emperor once slept." "I'm sure you did, blandings." "Roll up this gear." "Hello!" "Passengers for the ferry!" "Looks like we're gonna have a wait." "Ow." "I haven't got any money left." "Ask him." "If it was money he was after, he'd have killed us before this," "Quietly and efficiently like the boatman." "The little gun, please." "Look, it's all gone." "Ow!" "Don't!" "Don't." "I'm a very nervous man." "You better tell him not to make any sudden moves like that," "Or he won't be alive when the man who hired me gets here." "Get me back to san francisco!" "I'm your prisoner!" "You've got to!" "It's your duty!" "Shut up!" "What he say is true?" "You are a lawman, huh?" "A gunman, huh?" "That's better." "Paladin, huh?" "My name is devereaux." "It's not tinsly." "Over there." "Is he..." "Is he outside?" "Who?" "My husband." "He's about my height." "He's more like this." "He's got a scar on his cheek and dark eyebrows." "And he's got a sea captain's cap." "He's out there, all right." "He's trying to make us sweat." "And he's gonna watch" "While you do his dirty work." "Just keep back over there." "We got a right to know what you're doing." "Remember the boatman?" "Carl, he's gonna pull the trigger." "He'll pull the trigger." "He means business." "Sure." "You remember the boatman." "We should have taken passage on that boat." "He'd have never caught us." "It's too late for that now, carl." "How long you been here?" "Since morning." "He killed that man at the ferry." "He put us here without telling us anything" "Except we was to wait until somebody was to come." "Then he come." "And then you." "Ambush you here at the ferry, too?" "That means they've trapped everybody" "That came up the trail trying to cross the strada." "What'd he tell you?" "Devereaux?" "Just that he's being paid to hold us here for somebody." "Your husband was a sea captain?" "A sea captain?" "He hauled garbage from galveston to the breakwater" "And he'd come home smelling'." "Where were you going?" "We was going to st." "Louis." "Have you ever been there?" "Carl told me all about it." "He said there was a theater with gold pillars" "And seats covered in velvet." "And the women came to the theater at night," "And they wore lace shawls and long taffeta dresses" "And suede boots with little pearl buttons on them." "That's the first thing I was gonna get was a lace shawl" "With tagging on it and lillies maybe..." "Or roses." "Ah." "Do you know how old I am?" "I'm 28." "Twelve years like a stone he could kick" "If his meal wasn't hot enough" "Or his bed wasn't made" "Or there was a ten-cent piece missing I couldn't account for." "But he could come home drunk." "He could gamble our food away." "He could fall down on the porch and get sick" "All over his fancy gold braid." "Sarah..." "I'm never going back to him." "I don't care if he kills me." "Don't say that, honey." "You can tell him that..." "Tell him what?" "Tell him it was a mistake." "Carl." "Oh, carl." "Why doesn't he come and get it over with?" "He will." "But you don't really know who it is that's coming." "They don't, but I do." "Blackfoot." "An indian?" "No." "He's a white man." "But he lived with the blackfeet." "He thinks like they do and he kills like 'em, too." "What's he want with you?" "Just a crazy savage, that's all." "Look at him." "Watch him how he grins." "Look at the way his finger keeps tapping on that gun." "He ain't killed us yet 'cause blackfoot told him not to." "That's how I know who's coming." "Then you know more than I do, soldier." "You don't know?" "I don't care!" "I get paid." "I do a job." "If you think I'm gonna wait here, you're not very bright." "Remember the finger" "And don't push your luck, trooper." "Oh, if I'd got across the strada," "I'd been halfway to denver by now." "First hitch, I had me an old colonel I used to dog rob for." "Used to get himself a suite down at the brown palace" "And just live like pure royalty." "That's what I was figuring on." "Whoo-ee!" "I'd have had me a snorting' time." "You think blackfoot's gonna pay you?" "That's what he told you, sure, but he ain't." "'cause he ain't got nothing to pay you with." "I'm tellin' you the truth." "$140 trapping money is all he had." "You let me go and I'll take you to it." "What's the difference whether I pay you or he does?" "It don't matter none to you." "The money's in santa fe." "I mailed it ahead of me there." "Blackfoot told you I messed with his squaw, didn't he?" "Well, it ain't true." "I never laid a hand on her." "She came in on me while I was getting the money." "I had to kill her." "There wasn't nothing else I could do." "It was her fault." "You see that." "You never seen the way the blackfeet kill a man." "A man's dead, he's dead." "See him itching'?" "He's gonna kill every one of us." "Well, there's one of him and five of us." "You said you were a gambler." "Those are good enough odds, aren't they?" "Now, hold it!" "You ever see the pattern a gun like that makes?" "He's got two shots in there." "He'd cut you all three down" "Before any of you took another step." "What are we gonna do, nothing?" "That's right." "Nothing." "I know your sort, paladin." "And I guess maybe you know mine." "They've all got something to be scared of." "They're all running." "But not you." "You're going to take your time." "You're going to pick the soft spot in me" "And then make your move, huh?" "Let's settle it now." "Yeah." "Yeah, go ahead." "Go ahead." "No stomach for it, huh?" "Well, now, devereaux," "I have found your soft spot, haven't I?" "It has to play off your way, doesn't it?" "But you won't turn the wheel unless it's fixed." "How many alleys you waited in, devereaux?" "How many men you shot in the back?" "This time you may be miscalculating." "I never miss." "That's why I'm alive." "Oh, you won't miss this time." "You'll hit me." "But I'm fast, devereaux." "I'm very fast," "And there's just a chance" "My finger might close over that trigger while I'm falling." "Maybe, just maybe..." "A shot will hit home." "Odds are all on your side, but it isn't foolproof." "Not like clubbing a man to death." "Not like putting your gun to the back of his head." "He's here!" "You..." "You get behind me." "No!" "He'll kill me, but you can tell him I made you come along." "Oh, carl, you wanted me." "Oh, I thought it was just..." "At least I'm a woman." "You're my woman." "What life do you think I'd have by myself?" "Together maybe we got a chance." "Get behind me." "Where?" "Over there." "Five of them." "That's all that came through." "Turn me." "Bring me the one." "Pa, I'm not sure." "You say you see him." "You say he takes trail to strada." "Which one?" "Maybe they missed him, pa." "Maybe he got past him." "Nobody got past me." "We can't just kill a man, pa." "How do you know that willie never started it himself?" "Maybe there was a woman, pa." "You know what..." "You don't talk woman to me." "Son who marry from the town." "From a dung heap." "Don't say things against sophie." "Slop from the gutter is not a wife." "Willie kept my ways." "How do you know what he was doin'?" "You couldn't see him." "I see..." "What I need." "Which one?" "That one." "He looked a little like him." "No!" "whoever the man is you're looking for," "It isn't blandings." "But you know that, don't you?" "Bring me the one." "You're wrong about me, whatever it is you think." "What are you?" "Blandings." "My name is blandings." "Gunder." "You hear that name?" "Gunder!" "Pa..." "Shut up!" "What are you?" "I ask," "What are you?" "He's a thief." "He's telling you the truth." "I'm a thief." "That's all." "I haven't done anything else." "I have papers." "Here." "Daniel," "Put the gun in my hands." "I know what it is." "I know now." "Some of the stories I make up." "But they're all lies." "No!" "Please!" "But I'm sure now, pa." "He ain't the one." "Get the rifle." "It was all lies!" "Lies!" "It's all done, pa." "He's the one killed willie." "I can see that now." "Why?" "'cause his face is smeared with blood?" "Because he's dead?" "You wanna get yourself killed, too, mister?" "That what you're trying to do?" "You lie to me, I tear the truth out of you." "Ain't there enough death yet, pa?" "You gotta..." "You gotta soak yourself in blood." "You think that's gonna bring willie back?" "I'll tell you something straight out." "He ain't worth taking any man's life for." "Willie, he keeps our ways." "But you don't know what else he was doin'." "You no talk lies no more." "You point gun at which one now." "I don't know which one." "None of them!" "There's a way of making sure." "Kill all of us." "That's what he means." "Why don't you draw lots, huh?" "I'll draw for it." "You think that'd satisfy either one of them?" "No, but it'd satisfy you, wouldn't it?" "You could just crawl away" "And wipe it all right out of your mind." "Blandings." "Me." "Any one of us." "Just a body." "Just enough blood to wipe away all the traces." "Why don't you tell him I killed willie?" "That'd satisfy you, wouldn't it?" "Well, blandings didn't do it." "Now, what about me?" "No, please." "This is the one." "Ya!" "Ya!" "Tell him!" "Point the gun." "Pa." "You're gonna pull that trigger," "Not him." "And you're gonna look me right in the eye" "When you do it." "point the gun!" "No, pa." "I killed him." "You understand it?" "I killed willie." "Willie." "Always willie." "No matter if he..." "If he takes the crop money and throws it away in saloons." "No matter if he wants my wife, it's always willie." "Because you're a..." "A blind, selfish, old man." "And the only thing you care about" "Is people lying to you and telling you how right you are." "I'm done with lying." "I killed him!" "You." "Bill!" "Daniel." "Daniel." "My..." "Son." "Your son's all right, old man." "Come on." "There's a ford on west near danville." "No." "I'm afraid to try it now." "Afraid?" "I'm afraid there really isn't any other side." "Don't you understand, carl?" "If it hadn't been the strada, if it hadn't been this river," "It might have been another one." "Well..." "Do you understand?" "No river is shallow to a man who can't swim." "¶ "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 ¶"