"Mr. Paladin." "Mr. Paladin." "What are you doing?" "All alone?" "Well, this is a hypothetical chess game between Napoleon and Hannibal." "I've studied the two men and apply the strategies they'd probably use in opposing one another." "How do you keep from cheating?" "Well, that is the difficult part- to block out the opposition plan once the move has been made." "They've played, uh, 38 games so far." "Who wins?" "Oh, Hannibal's ahead 24 to 14." "What do you have there?" "A telegram." "Hmm." ""Bud Battle serving six months robbery term here." ""If you can identify him with Wheeler murder" ""before release, can pick up $2,500 reward." "Regards" " Wilson, Sheriff, Santa Fe."" "Hmm." "Hey Girl." "Hey... dead yet?" "Did a bear get him?" "Let's have a look." "Yeah." "A mountain lion could have grabbed him from the back." "Held him down with his front claws, while he ripped up his back with his hind ones." "Yeah, well, how would you know all this?" "There ain't no bear around." "Lion got him, all right." "I never saw a man die before." "Well, it's like watching a big stag or... or three coyotes or... a hundred rabbits." "All about the same amount of meat." "Shouldn't we... shouldn't we take him in?" "Ah, what difference does it make whether he dies here or half a mile down the trail?" "If you hadn't let them Indians steal our horses and our guns, we'd have been back in Prairie Orchard right this very minute." "Ah, well, we got his horse now." "Well, don't stomp up on a horse like that." "You'll spook him right into the next county." "Here, let me get him." "He has a rifle back here." "Let's see what's in his saddlebag." "Eh, there's some jerky." "Money." "We got nothing to worry about." "Uh, what about those birds?" "Those are buzzards." "The storm will get to him before they do." "That's a bad death." "Yeah, you can think of a better one?" "Look, I missed that train out of Piedmont." "I want to get back home, before that Ronson beats me to it." "But-But leaving a man- I-I don't know." "He's gonna die anyway, ain't he?" "Ah, but he's still alive." "You want to stay here and watch him die, you got a free ticket." "You're talking about trail scum." "I'm talking about money." "Now if it'll make you feel better to beat his head in with a rock, go ahead, or I'll do it, if it'll keep you from griping to me all the way back to Prairie Orchard." "Well, a man should die alone in his own good time." "Come on, now." "Let's get on this horse." "You get on the saddle." "I'll get behind." "Go on." "¶" "Mister, you're really a mess." "That's why I'm here." "Fall in the dead oaks?" "I fell into a puma." "Puma?" "You're lucky." "Yeah, well, if this kind of luck holds out, you can send my bill for the bath and the shave to the poorhouse." "Bath and shave's four bits." "You got that much?" "Here's one bill they missed." "You know a man wears Mexican high-top boots," "Spanish rowel spurs, a green jade ring?" "No, nobody like that." "You answered that pretty quickly." "You know a man with a German accent, miner's boots, rabbit ear pulls, about 50?" "No." "No, I-I'm new around here." "Oh?" "Your name Forbes?" "Y-Yes." "Well, Mr. Forbes, if you're new around here, why is the paint on your name on that sign outside peeling off?" "My brother owned the place." "Uh, he, uh... died." "Oh?" "Well, more like a cousin." "Hmm." "I'd like to report a theft." "Say something." "What's the matter with you?" "Five days ago, a mountain lion jumped me." "Two men found me, stole $1,800 and my horse and guns and left me to die." "One of them was wearing that ring." "One year ago, we had an epidemic in this town, and a man come through selling these amulets to guard against the cholera." "There's more than a hundred of them around." "Now, what's all this about a theft?" "What are their names?" "I don't know." "What did they look like?" "Well, I don't know that, either." "What proof have you got that you had that money?" "Wire Wilson, the sheriff in Santa Fe." "He paid me a $2,500 reward a week ago." "So, you're one of them." "You won't pin on a badge and stick around to do the hard part of the work." "You just hang around on the fringes- cop off the cream." "I have made a legal claim with you." "Well, I don't like your legal claim." "You know, this wouldn't be the first time that a man met someone on the trail, gambled away his money and then hollered for the law." "Well, in that case, I would know their names, wouldn't I?" "!" "I'd have some idea of their description, what they look like." "And I certainly wouldn't fight any mountain lion just to build up my case." "I'll see what I can do." "So will I, Sheriff." "I want to look in the eyes of a man who'll stand over me and write my epitaph like I was a skinned buffalo." "There's a law for the trail, there's a law for the town." "And a common law of decency that covers both." "Now you're confusing law with the story of the Good Samaritan." "Well, Sheriff, does the Bible ever say what happened to the Bad Samaritans?" "Not one word." "Well, before we're through here, we may just write some added verses." "Why don't you ride out of town?" "Well, for one thing, I don't have a horse." "Like to send a message." "The inkwells are dry." "It's been that way the better part of the week." "Do you mind stepping out here?" "Come on." "If this is a holdup, look, I-I don't have any money." "I haven't sent a message in two weeks." "Believe me." "I..." "You don't know me?" "Well, no." "And I promise to forget you, too." "I-I-I don't have more than ten dollars here." "Where were you five days ago?" "Well... well, I was in jail." "Well, good for you." "Well, you see, the old demon barleycorn kind of got to me." "Mm-hmm." "Well, I'm looking for a man who wears those high-top Mexican boots like yours and Spanish rowel spurs, just like yours." "I can find you a lot of men like that." "North of the border?" "Well... right here in town." "You see, we have a-a Mexican fiesta week." "It don't start till the day after tomorrow, but I-I kind of got myself a week's start, and it-it kind of got me in trouble." ""Kingston Bank, San Francisco." ""Wire me $200 to this station immediately" " Paladin."" "You read very well." "W-Well, I have to read it to send it, uh..." "How much?" "Well, I have to charge you." "Minimum's four dollars." "Now, where's the express station?" "Well, it's just five doors down the block, but it's not open." "How do you know?" "Well, I can see the station agent coming here." "Good morning, Rack." "Well, now..." "I presume from your boots and your spurs that you also are prepared for the fiesta." "Jawohl." "Olé." "And the, uh, ring." "That is for the cholera epidemic." "Mm-hmm." "How many German families are there in this community?" "Thirty." "30 families?" "Hmm, give or take a few." "I'll be in the hotel when my money gets here." "What can I pour you, mister?" "Beer, please." "Anything else?" "I need a little credit." "Credit?" "Mm-hmm." "Well, that's something we're fresh out of." "And, uh, free lunch is only for the paying customers." "Topaz, you get back to work." "Cash drawer doesn't know where a quarter came from." "Thank you, Topaz." "Paladin?" "Now, I am Paladin." "I am aware of that." "How does it happen that you also are aware of it?" "Two men from here left you on the trail to die." "You've come here to kill them." "Been quite a bit of speculation as to which of our neighbors wouldn't be with us very long." "How do you know I'm going to kill them?" "Are you?" "I don't know." "You told the sheriff." "How do you know what I told the sheriff?" "Since you hit town, every word you've said, probably a few you haven't, have been common rumor." "As this conversation will be." "Those might be friends of mine you're looking for." "Well, I'd say they must be friends of the whole world, the way they've been protected." "Hidden." "A man doesn't have to be any good to be worth something to somebody." "Those men didn't help you because they didn't think they could." "If they'd stayed there they'd have died, too." "Tell me, would it make a grave any warmer if you shared it?" "Well, they could've left me my horse and my food." "They probably didn't think you needed the food." "And would you leave a horse hitched to a tree to starve to death?" "My horse was saddled and free." "Free to trip on the reins and break its neck." "Well, I was particularly impressed with their concern for the welfare of my money." "I'm sure they took that to keep it from falling into the wrong hands." "Oh, you survived." "Leave it alone!" "I survi...?" "!" "Topaz, I survived... because the cat that clawed me, I shot and fortunately, it died near enough so I had the meat to eat and a skin to wrap myself up in at night." "That's why I survived." "You, uh... in love with one of them?" "Wrong." "Then why are you protecting them?" "Oh, why do you have to complicate things?" "Topaz, I want to ride out of this town on my own horse with my money, my own guns and my own saddle." "Now, is that complicating things?" "Will you settle for that?" "I don't know." "Well, thank you." "¶" "You leaving now, Paladin?" "Still a matter of $1,800, my handgun and a score to settle." "Score to settle?" "If you oughtn't hadn't gotten so mad at them two men out there, you'd be laying dead right now." "I've got some cash on the way, and I owe a few debts around this town." "I'll settle your debts." "I'll settle my own debts." "What are you doing here?" "What do you know about this?" "Well, I, uh..." "I walked down when I saw a crowd gathering." "All right, why did they gather?" "The, uh, horse's head." "Same as the one on the card you left at the bathhouse." "Is there anything this town doesn't know about me?" "when you're leaving." "Well, they might just as well know that." "Not yet." "Paladin." "Somebody left this at the saloon for you." "Only left the gun, didn't leave his name." "Here's your money, Mr. Paladin." "Is this one of the men?" "You gonna kill him?" "Maybe." "Well, I-I-I didn't want to leave you." "I-I-I meant to stay with you." "Did you?" "This is only $200." "But that is all you wired for." "Boggs works for the telegraph company." "I want the money that was in my saddlebags." "Well, I didn't have anything to do with that." "Uh... we..." ""We"?" "Who is the other half of "we"?" "I am." "Now, let's get on with this." "Cull, don't be an idiot." "He'll kill you." "I'm trying not to." "Maybe if you came up with my money?" "I haven't got your money." "And I know your type, and thinking what you're thinking, my life ain't worth a lead dime as long as you're alive." "He'll live." "You call that a fair fight?" "It ain't loaded!" "That's right." "You rob a corpse, leave it." "Corpse gets up and walks into town, and you try to get it to lie down again by giving it an empty gun, challenging it to a shootout." "That is just about as worthless a man as I've seen in a long time, and yet this town was willing to hide him, protect him." "Why?" "Well, Cull is no darn good, but he's awful slick." "He owed almost everybody." "Then when he showed up with that money he said he won in a card game, we all descended on him and he paid off." "There's an old saying... uh, "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth."" "Mm-hmm." "There's also an old saying..." ""None is so blind as he who will not see."" "Now, do I get my money, or do you get me?" "There was no cholera epidemic, was there?" "No, the ring just traveled fast." "And no Mexican fiesta?" "No Mexicans." "How many Germans?" "Two." "Topaz..." "I owe the hotel a dollar and a half." "Did you pay them?" "I didn't know it was empty, Paladin." "He gave it to me." "I didn't know." "¶" "¶ "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."