"If I was you, feller, I wouldn't even twitch." "Come on over here." "I've been expecting somebody." "A Texas feller." "If you come from Texas, I'm a city boy." "I was fixing to open me a can of beans." "You're a cook?" "No." "Too bad." "If you cooked, why, you might be able to help me out some." "You can join me if you're a mind to." "I will sit with you." "Reckon you wonder why I was so unfriendly." "I rode over to Medford Junction, picked me up a little bit of news." "They tell me that Captain McNelly's boys are three days out of Texas and heading this way." "Oh, no, thanks." "I reckon you never heard of Captain McNelly." "He died real recent." "Used to head up a company of Texas Rangers." "He was the kind that used to shoot a feller then find out if he's guilty or innocent afterwards." "The meanest lawman I ever seen." "Word is that his son's just exactly like him." "You fear a lawman?" "Hold it!" "Real still, now." "McNelly?" "That's who I am." "All right, on your feet." "Both of you." "Chinaman, got me a notion that you set me up." "All right, now, on the ground." "Quick, now." "Both of you, on the ground." "Face down, arms out." "You." "On your feet." "Keep your hands up now, you hear?" "I know who he is." "Who are you?" "l am Caine." "McNelly, you couldn't know who I am." "You never laid eyes on me in your life." "My grandma did." "She just moved into your town." "You're Bart Fisher." "You and your kin are wanted for high crimes in Texas." "Well, this ain't Texas!" "You sit a Dick Hay saddle." "There was nine of them taken in a raid on his place." "My papa tracked down all but one." "That one." "That was a long time ago." "What gives you the right to come after me now?" "This, here." "This makes me the law." "Why do we have laws?" "To help us live in harmony." "The law of the fast seeks to strengthen the spirit by purifying the body." "A man may die from a hunger of the body but whole nations have fallen from that of the spirit." "Discipline." "Discipline cures." "The fruit of this tree is delicious but in the discipline of our fast no one may touch it, not even I." "Then why show it to us, master?" "It is already difficult for us to fast." "To be certain you know and understand the law." "It will test you." "Do not break it." "All right, Fisher, get up." "Get on your horse." "You too." "Let's go." "Why?" "You're with him, you likely done something wrong." "Stay away from him!" "He is hurt." "What did I tell you?" "A McNelly would shoot a man just for grabbing up his canteen." "You were going for your gun." "My gun is over yonder." "I carry a book, Fisher." "My papa's outlaw book." "And in it, under each man's name it tells what he did, when he did it and how he operated." "Under your name, there's a little note saying you always carry a backup gun in your saddlebag." "I just wanted my canteen." "You're just like your old man a killer with a badge." "Can he ride?" "He will be in pain." "Can he ride?" "Yes." "Then he rides." "Come on." "Bart, what happened?" "He's my prisoner." "He shot me, Charlie, for no dang reason at all." "Sheriff, I'm Clyde McNelly, Texas Rangers." "He's a wanted man under arrest." "You'd better get him to the doc." "All right, let's hold up, now." "All right, Fisher, get on down." "Take these horses over to the livery." "Tell them the name's McNelly." "A day or so, Bart, and that old shoulder should be good as new." "You got yourself another wrinkle, that's about all." "I sure am much obliged to you, doc." "Good morning, doctor." "Hello." "Howdy, judge." "Bart, what is this all about?" "What's it about?" "Would you please stop playing?" "He shot me, that's what it's about." "Pure and simple." "And I never give him no call for it, neither." "Ask the flute player." "He seen it all." "All right, Bart. I'll look into it." "McNelly, by whose authority are you a Texas Ranger?" "My papa, Captain Leander McNelly." "His company was disbanded three years back." "That's the word I got." "My papa retained his commission." "But why did you arrest this man?" "He's a wanted criminal." "I'm an honest man, judge." "Shoot, I ain't even had a crooked thought in years." "That's right. I granted him a judicial pardon myself and I have not regretted it." "His name's right here in my papa's outlaw book." "Captain McNelly's book." "That's a list of the men he murdered or was planning to." "My papa was the best lawman in Texas or anyplace else, for that matter." "Yes." "Everyone has heard of your father, McNelly." "But tell me what gave you cause to fire at Bart." "He was going for his saddlebag." "He's known to keep a backup gun there." "I was afraid he'd grab it, try to shoot his way out." "Bart?" "l was just reaching for my canteen." "l told you to get on your horse." "l was thirsty!" "He made a suspicious move, Your Honor." "I ain't packed a pistol in that saddlebag of mine in years, judge." "You know that." "Was he going for his saddlebag or his canteen?" "I did not see." "May I use this room, please?" "Certainly." "Come with me, please." "Some men have a way of making people afraid of them." "I want you to know that if you tell me the truth, I will protect you." "You will come to no harm." "l am not afraid." "Good." "Then tell me what happened." "I saw the ranger fire." "I turned, and the big man was shot." "Tell me, McNelly before you fired at Bart, did you caution him or fire a warning shot?" "Well, I couldn't take that chance, Your Honor." "He's a criminal." "He's the one that's a criminal, judge." "McNelly, I'm not prepared to rule on your authority outside of Texas or for a crime eight years old but Bart Fisher here is not a criminal in my jurisdiction." "Now, I can't seem to establish just what he was doing but regardless of what you thought he was reaching for you clearly failed in your responsibility to give him proper warning before you shot." "Therefore I am forced to take this." "You can't do that." "I'm sworn to close out this book!" "Around here, McNelly, you'll conduct yourself as a private citizen and not as a law officer, and that is a court order." "Do you note that, sheriff?" "Yes, sir." "Oh, Charlie, would you hand me my rifle?" "Because of you...." "Because of you, I had to deal with them strictly according to the letter of the law." "I hope it was justice." "Bart, how you feeling?" "He's all right." "He's walking, ain't he?" "Oh, it's just a crease." "Nothing serious." "Hi there, little brother." "How you doing, Bart?" "So that's the McNelly that shot you?" "Yep, that's him." "There he stands, free as a bird." "Hey, McNelly, you want to tell my little brother why you shot me?" "We'd like to hear it, McNelly." "Yeah, come on." "Speak up." "Now, hold it, boys." "We all lived a lot of years here peaceful." "We're gonna keep it that way." "Sheriff's right, boys." "Come on, let's get out of here." "Hey, you cost me my badge." "Now, why didn't you tell that judge what happened?" "I told him what I could." "If you had, that criminal would be where he belongs right now." "I thought he was forgiven." "His name's in the book." "You don't seem to understand what that means." "But you're gonna understand." "So there goes a real, live McNelly." "That's what it is." "Hey, McNelly, you look kind of small without that badge." "He looks downright naked to me." "How's it feel, boy?" "What you gonna hide behind now?" "McNelly." "McNelly!" "What do you do on your own?" "Just yourself?" "Man-to-man?" "You know, I never known the McNellys was Chinese." "You know, he used that Chinaman, is what he did." "Used him to set me up." "He could have killed you, Bart." "Judge told him to lay off of me, though." "Well, a little thing like a judge never stopped a McNelly." "That's a fact." "We're still in that book, though, ain't we?" "My son, captain..." "An oasis strip state of Texas." "Hold that." "There was no law when he came." "He created law." "He and his men took inventory of all the murderers and thieves." "He put the names down in his book." "You got that book, Clyde?" "Clyde." "Before he took sick, he'd accounted for every one of those names except four the Fishers:" "Bart, Luwaine Jason and the young one, Joe Billy." "Those are the names that will be crossed out with them." "Grandma, the judge took my badge." "He didn't take that book, did he?" "No, ma'am." "He can't take it, boy." "You hear?" "Yes, ma'am." "You live by this book?" "Ma'am, you know I do." "Then what the devil happened?" "Bart Fisher looked to resist your arresting him, did he not?" "Yes, ma'am, he did." "Then why isn't he behind bars?" "That fool judge wouldn't take my word against Fisher's and Caine here wouldn't back me up." "Sir you stood in the way of Clyde's sworn duty to complete his father's work." "I could not say what I did not see." "You had to see, you were there." "I can see you're a man who has no respect for the law." "Does not the law serve the truth?" "Bart Fisher's an outlaw." "All the Fishers are outlaws." "That's the truth." "My son, Leander scourge of anybody who broke the law in Texas." "When he died, I moved here." "He loved that Texas soil." "Everywhere I looked, I saw his ghost." "It's the church bells." "Time for church." "I'll pray for you, Chinaman." "I'll pray you find the courage to stand with the law not agin it." "Thank you." "Clyde." "Now, don't you let him run off." "It's his duty to speak up." "I reckon he'll see the light soon enough." "Grandma, how am I gonna make that judge see the light?" "You're the captain's son, and you swore to do your duty judge or no judge." "There'll be no names in that book without a line through them." "No, ma'am." "Admiring my tree, Kwai Chang?" "Yes, master." "What is my duty to the law?" "You must assist the law to serve justice." "I have seen a law broken." "Would I serve justice if I let it go unpunished?" "What is the purpose of this law?" "Discipline." "And who is served by this discipline?" "Each one who obeys the law." "Then, to break a law of self-discipline denies justice only to oneself." "is it the same with all laws?" "Consider:" "If you break them do you deny justice only to yourself?" "Yeah!" "Not bad." "Not bad at all." "How's that arm there?" "Shoulder." "Good a time as any, seems to me." "I'm all for giving him a whupping, Joe Billy but I'd sure hate to see you stop a bullet like I did." "You don't think he'd shoot an unarmed man, do you?" "With all of us around as witnesses?" "Hell, he's a McNelly, ain't he?" "Yeah, but even a McNelly's not that crazy." "Well, why don't we go and find out." "McNelly!" "Hey, McNelly!" "I hear you got my name written down in that book of yours." "Your name Joe Billy Fisher?" "That's me." "Then you heard right." "Luwaine, your name's down in that book, now, ain't it?" "It is." "I ain't even so much as carried a gun in years, like none of us have." "Once a man gets his name writ in it no matter what he does, he can't get it out." "McNelly, you shot Bart when his back was turned to you." "Must have learned that from your daddy." "I'm gonna give you the same chance at me." "Now, ain't you as good as your daddy?" "Go get him." "Stick it on him." "Joe Billy." "Joe Billy!" "Joe Billy!" "Joe Billy!" "What's the matter with him?" "His neck's broke." "He's dead." "My little brother's dead." "It's all your fault." "I'm gonna see that the two of you pay for it." "There they are." "There they are, the murderers!" "They killed my little brother, is what they done." "They ought to be hanging from a tree right now." "Joe Billy never did nothing." "Go sit down." "And I say it's a waste of time, that's what it is." "Quiet!" "These men are on trial for their lives, and this court will be silent." "And this tribunal will be conducted properly and fairly." "McNelly, how do you plead?" "Not guilty, Your Honor." "What do you mean, not guilty?" "And you?" "Not guilty." "To the charge of murder on the body and person of Joe Billy Fisher pleas of "not guilty" have been entered by the accused." "You know you're entitled to a jury if you want one." "We'll have Your Honor hear the case." "So be it." "Sheriff, start with the witnesses who made these charges." "Yes, sir." "Bart, may as well start with you." "Well, sure, sheriff." "Well, sir" " Your Honor you knew my little brother, Joe Billy." "Well, he had kind of a temper and he was pretty concerned about what McNelly here did to me." "Joe Billy said he wasn't just gonna sit around and let McNelly here kill him like he tried to do me." "That's a lie. l-- -lt ain't a lie!" "Now, McNelly, this is a court of law and you'll get your turn to speak." "So Joe Billy and the rest of us, we went up to where the two of them was." "What did Joe Billy have in his mind?" "He was gonna go up there and call him out have it out with him, man-to-man." "I ain't gonna lie to you, judge." "He was pretty upset about the whole thing." "He knew his name was in that book of McNelly's and that's what got him riled." "And that's when the fight started." "Right." "Yeah, well, McNelly, he comes out and he says that Joe Billy's name is in that book of his and then he just hauled off and hit him for no reason at all." "And then they started flip-flopping down the stairs and the rest of us got into it, especially that Chinaman." "Who killed Joe Billy?" "Well, the Chinaman and McNelly both." "That Chinaman, I've never seen anything like him." "He's got the fastest hands." "Why, he was whipping us all pretty good." "We was trying to shake him loose and get away." "Then, all of sudden, they just picked up poor Joe Billy and they carried him up the stairs and threw him over the railing." "We seen it. lt was deliberate." "Had Joe right over the rail and onto that table." "If you don't stop them, they're gonna kill us all." "Sheriff, were there any other witnesses to this fight?" "No, Your Honor." "Have you two anything to add to what your cousin just said?" "No, sir." "That's the way it happened." "Just the way Bart said." "You." "Caine." "Have you any light to shed on this for us?" "It is as he said except for the last." "Joe Billy climbed to get his gun and fell." "Well, that don't make sense, judge." "If Joe Billy was gonna use a gun, he'd have brought one in the first place." "Quiet!" "I will have quiet here." "McNelly, tell us what you know about this." "Caine's telling the truth." "He picked his fight with us, and Caine was whipping him pretty bad and I reckon Joe Billy climbed up to try to get my gun." "I didn't see him climbing up, but I saw him fall." "We was both on the ground, so we couldn't have hauled him up there." "I reckon he must have broke his neck when he fell." "Well, that's it." "That's the truth on my oath as a lawman to uphold the truth." "You ain't no lawman!" "You're a murderer just like your old daddy was!" "Quiet!" "Your Honor, Joe Billy died from that fall trying to go for my gun, and that's the truth." "So we seem to have the word of three men against two." "And you've showed no hesitation this time, Caine in telling us what you know." "I told what I saw." "McNelly is the name of Joe Billy Fisher written down in your father's outlaw book?" "Yes, sir, it is." "And is this book in court?" "Yes, Your Honor." "McNelly, this entry on Joe Billy is 8 years old, same as the others." "In Texas, they'd have been in jail eight years ago." "If we'd stayed in Texas we'd been hung by your daddy and that pack of murdering" "He cleaned up the whole state of Texas." "He made it a law-abiding place to live." "Yeah, he sure would have" "Enough!" "The rendering of a sentence is never a simple task for a magistrate who is human, and therefore realizes he could be wrong." "And yet there is an overriding demand of law:" "The demand that there will be law and that it will be enforced." "Now, a man is dead and I must believe someone about how it happened." "Now, the Fishers here, to a man have never stepped out of line never once since they settled here in Dos Rios." "Never once." "Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for you, McNelly." "You started off by shooting Bart Fisher for a highly doubtable cause and without proper warning." "And then, even after I took your badge from you, you made it quite clear that you still intended to carry out your father's work." "All things considered I can only believe that you and your partner took advantage of Joe Billy's anger and changed what should have been a simple fistfight into an act of deliberate murder." "And that is exactly what your father would have done." "It is, therefore, the judgment of this court that at midday tomorrow you will both be taken to a place of execution and hanged by the neck until you are dead." "And may God have the mercy on you that I, by the law am not entitled to show." "You saw me take the plum?" "Two times now." "And you said nothing?" "I said nothing." "My young friend is almost strong enough to fly away." "You broke the master's law." "I thought the fruit of a love tree would be better for my little friend." "Was I wrong to break the law?" "Disgrace, that's what it is." "A crime and a disgrace." "Son of the greatest lawman ever in jail." "Aren't you ashamed?" "Yes, ma'am." "Wouldn't dare do this to his father." "Grandma." "Didn't even bother my bones to sit in on that fool trial." "Couldn't take it serious." "Still can't." "There's no real law in this state." "If there was, Clyde would be a hero right now." "True son of your father's." "It's led many a man into trouble, ma'am." "I'll tell you what kind of a man Clyde comes from." "Best saddle maker in all of West Texas was a man named Dick Hay." "One night, outlaws stole nine of his saddles." "Captain left orders for the Little McNellys" " That was his company." "Shoot any man they saw sitting a Dick Hay saddle right out of it." "Ask questions later." "You know how many of those saddles Dick Hay got back?" "l expect a lot more than was taken." "You got the truth of it." "Out of the nine saddles that was stolen, 1 4 was returned." "Men was afraid to sit them." "That's fear of the law for you." "Fear of the law or fear of Captain McNelly?" "They were both the same thing." "Grandma." "What am I gonna do?" "You honored the captain's memory." "You honored the law." "Grandma they're gonna hang me." "I don't believe it." "They'd never hang a son of Captain Leander H. McNelly." "I always thought the law was the most important thing." "Now it's gonna kill me for something I didn't even do." "And it's legal." "Trial was legal." "Judge did what he thought was right." "Put it all together, and it's the law." "I lived by it." "I sure don't wanna die by it." "That wife of mine can sure cook." "They're out." "Get the boys." "Two horses with riders." "Those rocks!" "Let them go." "We gotta keep moving, or they'll find us." "If we are still, perhaps they will not." "I'm being-- l'm being hunted." "McNellys was always on the side of the law." "You have told the truth." "I escaped." "I broke the law." "My papa always taught me to uphold the law." "If they catch you, they will hang you." "is that justice?" "It's the law." "I broke the law." "I have broken the law, master." "l ask forgiveness." "As I do." "Why did you not come and tell me of your injured dove?" "I have broken your law, master, and you told me, "Do not break it."" "Then the wrong that was done was to yourself." "Young Caine, when you observed Yet-Sen take the plums you presumed they were for himself." "I did, master." "Then the wrong you did was to Yet-Sen." "And to you, master, by not telling you." "And I have done a greater wrong to you both." "How?" "By leading you to attend only to the letter of the law and not respect its meaning." "I bow to you both." "Hold it!" "Now, one warning's all you get." "That's more than you gave Bart Fisher." "Now, over by the Chinaman." "Keep your hands high." "How'd you find us so quick?" "Before I was a sheriff, I was a tracker." "You wasn't hard to find." "Now, on the ground." "Face down." "You're wrong, sheriff. I'm not a criminal." "I'm a lawman like you." "Not like me." "You're an escaped murderer fleeing from justice just like your partner here." "Oh, you're wrong." "We're innocent." "Joe Billy died from a fall." "The judge didn't see it that way." "That's good enough for me." "What if you're wrong?" "l'm not wrong." "The law says you're guilty, so you're guilty." "That's what my papa used to say." "Your father was a man that gave law officering a bad name so I won't enjoy hanging you, but I won't be too upset neither." "Now, on your feet." "is he dead?" "He will die if we do not get him to a doctor." "We can't do that." "They'll hang us." "If we let him lie here, we will be murderers." "There's a lump under the skin and some bleeding." "That Chinaman put a poultice on it." "I'd like to know what that was." "Anyway, he'll live." "Well, that's a relief." "He wouldn't have if he'd been left very long." "A hard head can only help a man so much." "Yes." "Wait outside. I want to talk to them." "You could have kept on running." "Why didn't you?" "We have told the truth." "All of it?" "About Joe Billy, yeah." "Now, the first time when I shot Bart he may have been right." "I don't know. I just don't know." "Your father never would have admitted that." "He is not his father." "Yes." "I based my conviction on credibility." "You two versus the three Fishers." "I may have passed judgment on the wrong McNelly." "People never appreciate a great man till he's long dead." "Grandma what I did was wrong." "What Papa did was wrong too." "The greatest lawman ever lived." "Captain Leander H. McNelly." "Caine." "l" "You owe me nothing." "I don't want it." "What about them?" "You're the law here." "Judge?" "It would be proper if you'd bury this with Joe Billy." "I loved my father."