"I thought I was trying to protect you." "Now I know the truth, Sarah Jane." "I am trying to protect the whole world from you." "That's a mighty pretty pair of shoes." "That's blood." "Hey, now." "Let's just find out where you came from, hmm?" "Easy." "I wouldn't do that, iffin' I was you." "Well, then the shoes were for you." "And I wouldn't do that neither, iffin' I was you." "What would you do, iffin' you was me?" "First of all, I'd hand me your gun, gentle-like." "Then I'd turn him over." "You kill him?" "Then what are you doing here?" "I saw that horse running loose." "I picked him up and followed his trail." "Why?" "Because I wondered if I wouldn't find something like this." "Why?" "Because there was blood on the saddlebags." "Well, it weren't your blood, was it, or blood of your blood?" "Is that what he was..." "blood of your blood?" "He be that, all right." "That's my pa." "Well, I didn't kill your pa." "I don't know who did kill your pa." "But I do know I'm getting a cramp in my leg, and I'm going to stand up." "It don't make no never mind." "I know who killed him... a Tyler." "And now I am going to kill me a Tyler." "A Tyler?" "Any Tyler!" " What about your father?" " What I aim to do is about my father!" "Oh?" "Well, a man doesn't have to be blood of my blood for me to do him the common courtesy of putting him into the ground." ""Any man's death diminishes me, for I am involved with mankind."" "Be those words from The Book?" "Well, they're words from a book." "It was written by a man named John Donne." "Words spoken over the dead should be from The Book." "The Lord my God is a jealous God." "God is love." "Honor thy father and thy mother." "Love thy neighbor as thyself." "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth!" "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy." "Don't you listen to him, Pa!" "I'll get me a Tyler." "I'll get me a Tyler for sure, and then you can rest in peace." "Well, where you think you're going?" "With you." "I don't need anybody, mister." "Sarah Jane, everybody needs somebody." "Well, Sarah Jane Darrow ain't everybody, Mr. Paladin." "And I said a dead man can't bite, hmm?" "Well, what I got to do, I got to do alone." "Sarah Jane, you can't go out all by yourself to kill a Tyler... any Tyler." "It's like saying you're going out to kill a rabbit..." " any rabbit." " Or a skunk!" "Or a skunk, and the species notwithstanding, you're liable to get yourself killed." "But it's all right for you." "It's all right for the likes of you to go out and just kill, even when you don't care." "I care." "And one of the things I care about is justice and the law." "The law." "Well, the Darrows don't have no truck with the law!" "Well, I am not a Darrow." "Well, I ain't holding' you blameful, Rock." "I know you didn't know you go to lame yourself like that on purpose." "No." "And that's the truth, yeah." "I'm going to go up in them rocks and hole up and make my stand." "You're going to have to go on home and fetch Clem and the others, iffin' there's still time." "You go on now." "I can't have you lolly-gaging around here." "Go on." "Get!" "Well, we can tell from the mark that his horse fell." "He can't be far now." " Who can't, Sarah Jane?" " A Tyler, that's who." "You can tell from that trail mark that a Tyler made it?" "Who else would be running?" "Well, now, Sarah Jane." "And which one do you think it will be?" "Oh, how do I know?" "I don't know any Tylers." "Oh, looky here." "Now he's afoot." "Looky here, Mr. Paladin." "Now he's afoot." "Sarah Jane, I'll take that gun now." "That's right." "You just talk about not wantin' to kill." "That's what you're going to have to do to get this gun away from me!" "That ain't no gun." "That's a play-purty!" " It's a gun." " Why?" "Why?" "Because I thought I had to protect you from others, and it turned out I have to protect the whole world from you!" "Oh, it just ain't fair." "It ain't fair." "Oh!" "See?" "See what you've done?" "Easy now." "Easy!" "I'll take that gun." "Oh, the good Lord, protect me from children!" "All right, Sarah Jane!" "Well, you've got him down." "What are you waiting for?" "All right, ask him who he is." "You heard the lady." "My name's Whit." "Whitney Tyler." "You see?" "He ain't no rabbit." "He's a skunk with a skunk's name." "Well, what are you waiting for now?" "I'm waiting to hear just a little bit more than a name." "All right." "Ask him if he just killed my pa." " Tell her I don't know." " Ask him, did he just kill a Darrow?" "Tell her yeah, I did." "Then you killed my pa." "Well, then your pa killed my pa!" "Well, you heard him, didn't you?" "I heard." "All right, then kill him or I will!" "She means it, mister." "It's not loaded." "Why for did you tell him?" "What in tarnation am I going to do with her, mister?" "You're going to have to use your own judgment." "Well, at least you two know each other." "We will camp here tonight for therapeutic reasons." "Tomorrow we'll ride into town and talk to authorities." "I am not asking for an opinion." "I am making a simple statement of fact." "Within 24 hours, you two will be the responsibility of the law." "I hope this snow doesn't get any heavier." "Sarah Jane, I'd say that's the best corn pone I've ever tasted." "Wouldn't you say so, Whit?" "Vittles is vittles." "When are you going to try 'em on, Sarah Jane?" "When it's time." "You know, you got to earn your purties." "Now from both of you, I want your word." "Whit, I want your word you won't try to run away." "Sarah Jane, I want your word you won't try to kill him." "Whit?" "I can't rightly do that, Mister Paladin." "Sarah Jane?" "I can't do that neither." "Well, the only alternative is to tie you up." "I reckon." "I reckon." "Well, the snow seems to have let up for the moment, anyway." "How many Tylers and Darrows have been killed in this feud?" "Well, my pa was the last one up till now, but you know about my pa." "You know about him, but if you'd known him..." "My pa... my pa was a fancying sort of man, you know, and the thing he fancied most was purties." "I used to see him cry man-tears when he couldn't buy purties for us all." "That's why we moved out West, so we could start a new life." "The one before that was my pa, but you didn't know my pa." "Some folks said he wasn't worth a hoot about making a living and things like that, but his time was plumb took up doing other things." "Well, you know what he could do, my pa?" "He could make up songs right out of his head." "They just come to him, he said." "That was my pa." "Them's the only two out in the West, but back in Kentuck'..." "The last one there was Uncle Willum." "He stomped a house down once at a stomping party, he surely did." "He killed my cousin Jesse." "Jesse killed Elmer Dean." "And Elmer Dean got Little Ned." "You should've seen that Little Ned, Mister Paladin... weighed 200 pounds before he ever thought of getting his growth." "And you know what he could do?" "He could take a chain and bust it around his chest by just breathing' hard." "Yeah, Little Ned, he killed Grandpa Alcey." "And Alcey, he got Grandpa Ben." "Sounds like the begats... only it doesn't have anything to do with the creation of life." "It's a litany for the dead." "How did it all start in the beginning?" " Some Tyler..." " A Darrow..." "You two don't know." "I can't rightly remember." "My grandpa knowed." "I heard him tell it once, but..." "No, it was a right long time ago, Mr. Paladin." "And you people have gone on killing one another when you don't even remember how it began?" "We know how it started." "He killed my pa." "Well, her pa killed my pa." "They're purty, sure enough." "My pa was bringing them to me when..." "Well, they're still purty." "That' s purty." "It was the last one my pa made." "Well... it's still purty." "You in there, Whit?" "It's Clem!" "Who's Clem?" "He's my brother." "Boy!" "Old Rock come home to fetch us." "Have the Darrows got you, boy?" "Is he alone?" "No Tyler ever comes by himself." "Well?" "He wouldn't be alone." "What are you gonna do, Whit?" "You gonna add Sarah Jane's name to the list of the dead, and then your name?" "It won't stop with her, and it won't stop with you." "It'll never stop at all unless you do something about it right now." "Can't you answer me, boy?" "Whit, if you ain't dead, get ready." "We're comin' in!" "Whit, I'm not going to just sit here." "Before this is over, we may all be names for the dead." "Stop shooting', Clem!" "There ain't no Darrows in here!" "Who's with you, then?" "Oh, just a drifter." "Well, then come on out, boy!" "Now wait a minute." "Sarah Jane, he killed your pa." "You say the word, and I'll do everything in my power to take him in for judgment." "He killed my pa 'cause my pa killed his pa, because his pa killed Uncle Willum, 'cause Uncle Willum killed Jesse and 'cause Jesse, he killed Elmer Dean." "And Elmer Dean killed..." "Oh, there's been too much killing'." "I don't want you to take him in." "I'm obliged to you." "Well, much obliged to you." "Whit!" "I'm coming!" "If you could give me the loan of that bay horse," "I'd see that he gets back to you." "Sarah Jane?" "I think you earned your purties." "Why don't you try 'em on?" ""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"