"Check." "Your move, sir." "Hmm." "A gentleman wants to see you." "I've heard that one before." "I beg your pardon?" "Called away on urgent business." "Just when I have you with your back against the wall." "Madame, I haven't left the table yet." "He say you better come right away." "Oh, does he?" "You have bet a hundred dollars on this game, sir." "And you're not going to leave until it's finished." "Who is this impatient gentleman, hey boy?" "He say major, but not in major uniform." "Mister." "I have a witness." "If you try to duck out of this game," "I shall call a gendarme." "If you'll permit me..." "Check." "And the queen's sacrificed, naturally." "Checkmate." "Hey boy," "This major of yours had better be worth at least..." "A hundred dollars." "Excuse me." "Is this the man?" "Yes, sir." "Major leonard ferber, army intelligence." "Can you identify yourself?" "If you don't mind, we'll talk up in your room." "After you, major." "It's the peacetime army, hey boy." "Up the stairs and to the right." "Col. Benjamin nuñez." "I only met him once." "Heard enough about him, of course." "He was almost legendary as an indian fighter." "A sort of inspired lunatic who loved the army" "Almost as much as he hated everybody in it." "I never could quite picture him" "As a peacetime officer." "Neither could he." "He was married to an apache woman, you know." "Now, what did that have to do with it?" "Unfortunately, everything." "One day while he was away at douglas," "A couple of drunken sergeants broke into his house." "His wife was there all alone." "We all dreaded what would happen when he came back." "But he didn't say a word." "He rode straight over to the post hospital," "Got his wife up out of bed." "She was in a bad state, but he'd have killed anybody who tried to stop him," "And rode off with her." "That's the last anybody heard about him." "Until now." ""army fears apache uprising."" "What makes you think he's behind it?" "Reports, rumors, warnings about a white war chief" "Who was trying to organize them like a modern army." "How do they fight now, major?" "Like indians or like the army?" "Still like indians." "We sent a peace party to the white chief." "He was supposed to be training his army" "Just east of a place called alamogordo in new mexico." "They find him?" "He sent them back wrapped in their own white flags." "We'll have to fight him." "But my superiors felt that one more attempt ought to be made." "By a civilian." "Why?" "Because it might prove to be necessary to..." "Kill him in cold blood." "I can't ask an american officer" "To execute a man without a proper trial." "But if you hire a gunman, it's all right." "I can only impress upon you" "That averting this war by any means" "Would be saving several thousand lives." "Good day, sir." "I may no longer be an officer and a gentleman," "But I am not an assassin." "I'm not interested in your methods, only in results." "If you can bring nuñez back to stand trial" "For high treason and desertion, so much the better." "All right." "You'll leave at once." "Major..." "I'll expect a report from you within ten days," "If you're still alive." "Major, haven't you forgotten something?" "What?" "Well, civilians usually get paid for their work." "If and when you return, you will submit a detailed report" "Along with a list of your expenses." "As soon as we get an authorization to reimburse you..." "I was beginning to think the army had changed." ""death be not proud." ""though some have called thee mighty and dreadful," ""for thou art not so." ""one short sleep past, we wake eternally" ""and death shall be no more." "Death, thou shalt die."" "We're going to the white war chief, you understand?" "Yeah, we rest here." "Now, son, that's a hundred-foot drop off of there." "Nuñez!" "Col. Nuñez!" "May I speak to your husband?" "Why?" "Man's business." "Or has nuñez grown so old that he's lost his teeth" "And needs a woman now to chew his words?" "Throw your belt up to me." "Who are you?" "You are col." "Nuñez, aren't you?" "I am." "My name is paladin." "We were on a patrol together once." "Mckenzie's expedition against the comanche." "No longer with the army, are you?" "So they've hounded you out, too, have they?" "No." "I left by choice." "Nonsense." "A man doesn't choose to leave the army" "Any more than he'd deny his own mother." "You've come to join with me, then." "You've come to spy on me." "The army sent you." "Of course." "They wouldn't dare put troops in the field against me." "They want to snare me." "With haunted words." "With treachery." "They sent you, didn't they?" "Yes." "The army knows you have a fair grievance." "They also know if you're really interested in justice" "For your wife or yourself," "You'll never get it this way." "Justice!" "Do they expect me to beg for it, cap in hand?" "I've gone too far for that." "I'll write my own verdict of justice..." "With their blood." "And the blood of your wife's people?" "They're used to bleeding." "My wife says the army sent you to kill me." "The army sent me to try and head off" "A useless slaughter on both sides." "It will not be useless." "It will give these poor devils a chance" "To get some of their own back." ""vengeance is mine." "I will repay,"" "Saith the lord." "That's the message you want me to carry back?" "I'm sorry, mister." "But you're not going back." "Colonel, I've been sitting here one long day." "You killed the other two peace emissaries the army sent here." "How long did it take you to make up your mind about them?" "I never even saw those two men." "So we were on the mckenzie expedition, huh?" "What's happened to general fremont?" "He's gone into politics." "He's doing pretty well." "Certainly did him no harm" "To be married to a senator's daughter," "Instead of a squaw." "My brother was right." "You didn't leave your people for my sake," "But for the sake of your own pride." "You never loved my people." "You only hated your own." "And now your blood is too thin," "Even for that." "It was a grand gesture I made," "Giving up everything for her." "You haven't gone so far that you can't turn back." "Trying to get around me with words now." "Is that the game?" "Because they have no belly for honest combat?" "You once had a reputation" "For never risking a life unnecessarily." "Yes." "And where did it get me?" "When the battle was done, who got the plums," "The promotions, the political appointments?" "If that's all you were fighting for, the army didn't lose much." "Show me a soldier who never cared for recognition, honor, respect." "And your wife never entered into it." "She was just your excuse for quitting." "It wouldn't be the first time" "A man like me had to go his own lonely way." ""oh, that I were in the wilderness," ""that I might leave my people and go from them," ""for they are an assembly of the traitors." ""they bend their tongue," ""their bow of falsehood." ""and they are grown mighty in the land." ""but not for truth!" ""and they proceed from evil" "Unto him."" "Jeremiah." "Only 22 chapters later, he also said," ""and they shall come back from the land of the enemy," ""and there is hope for thy future," "Saith the lord."" "I tell you there was no hope" "In that cesspool of politics and corruption" "For a fighting man!" "What did they know of loyalty, tradition," "Respect for rank?" "Unlike the apache." "Colonel, man for man," "These apaches are the finest soldiers in the world." "Did you really believe they'd let you lead them?" "Has it occurred to you" "That they're using you as a traitor to the army," "To learn army tactics?" "They trust me." "They believe in me." "Have they ever let you lead them in combat?" "The time wasn't right." "You're not their leader." "You're their prisoner." "Shut up!" "And the army thought of you as a threat." "They tracked you in here." "Three, maybe five ponies." "What are you so nervous about, nuñez?" "You have only to do what your wife tells you to do" "Or let the apaches do it for you." "Maybe they'll let you live a little longer" "In the comforts and satisfaction of your old age." "They'll begin by peeling my forehead down." "I know what they'll do." "Give me my gun, old man." "You can't stop them from doing it to me." "And you can't stop them from doing it to you either." "I am their general officer." "They are my army." "Give me my gun, old man." "It won't work." "Stand there next to the ladder and put your arms up." "You wanna die right now?" "Move over." "Serafina." "Might have known it was your brother." "Found an indian boy you killed, you swine!" "Like a woman!" "She'll use that knife on you when the time comes, old man." "Leave him!" "This is a military prisoner." "We'll have military order and discipline here." "We've got to question the prisoner." "You are brave and you win all the little fights." "But the army wins the war because you fight like animals." "This man knows everything we need," "Where the troops are, what they plan to do." "You throw all that away for the pleasure of torturing him to death." "And the army wins the war because they fight like men." "Now, get out." "I'll question him in my own way." "You may have him when I'm done." "But not until I'm done." "Get out and let me get on with it." "Well, old man, you handled that beautifully." "Now you can save your life" "By doing to me what they surely will do" "If you don't." "You will let him live?" "Your heart is still with them." "What do you know of a man's heart, you bloody savage?" "Make up your mind, general of the apache armies." "My army." "Mine." "Fremont..." "Fremont in politics." "Fremont." "Why, the poor fool thought he was a king in st." "Louis." "Like a little boy playing a game." "They murdered his army, the confederates." "Fremont running for president." "And nuñez is leading a gang of apache." "Wake up." "What happened?" "My wife." "She went off during the night." "Back to her people." "Why didn't you kill me?" "That would have convinced them they can still trust you." "Maybe I'm tired of living on the edge of a knife." "Maybe I don't want their trust anymore, not that way." "If I'd wanted to skunk my way through life," "I'd have stayed on and turned the other cheek" "And maybe gotten rid of my half-savage squaw" "And smiled my way into the heart of some..." "Nice little society gal" "And drank and sported" "With staff officers and politicians" "And showed 'em" "What a nice, housebroken major general I'd make." "You think the army would take me back" "After I had my court-martial?" "Maybe." "I know they'll never give me back my command." "I'll do well enough if I don't get the rope." "They've cut us off." "Any other way out of here?" "I said I wasn't about to run from my own troops." "Those aren't your own troops anymore, colonel, if they ever were." "Your wife's with them." "Gone back to her brother." "Treacherous, ungrateful savage." "After all I've sacrificed for her." "Maybe she did get tired of hearing about it." "By thunder, this is more than I will take..." "Stay down." "Stay down." "Lie still in ambush for that pack of mutineers?" "By heaven, what do you take me for?" "Don't be a fool." "You said they wouldn't trust me to lead them?" "If you go down there, there's nothing can stop those people from murdering you." "You go down there and I won't be able to help you." "Always when the chips are down," "I have to do it myself." "Go back!" "Go back to your units until I've sent for you!" "You pack of undisciplined recruits!" "Back with you!" "Do you hear me?" "Mutineers!" "Disorderly savages!" "I'll drill some discipline into you," "If I have to do it at the point of a bayonet!" "Savages!" "Renegades!" "Dismount!" "Take cover, men!" "Take cover, blast your hides!" "Concentrate!" "Go back!" "Delilah!" "Jezebel!" "Ungrateful savage!" "Nuñez!" "This part of my husband," "You take back." "There'll be no written report, major." "Tell them he died in the uniform of an american officer." "What about your wages?" "Just ask them to put a headstone over this." "¶ "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 ¶"