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Howdy, Hoss.

Howdy, Mr. Porter.

Jury's still out, looks like.

Yeah, over three hours now.

What's taking 'em so dang long?

Seems like to me it's a cut-and-dried case.

That Irishman just up and shot poor ol' Fred Demmer,

then robbed him.

Don't seem to me they got much to deliberate on.

Man's life at stake, Mr. Porter.

Don't reckon you make that decision

Without some pretty serious considerations.

Hoss.

I lay odds it's that brother of yours

that's holdin' up the verdict.

I don't hold with puttin' young fellas

like Joe on a murder jury.

You need men who think alike.

Men Who'll take an eye for an eye.

You know What I mean?

Mr. Porter.

Oh, Mrs. Demmer.

I was just tellin' Hoss Cartwright... I heard.

Do you mind if I trouble you for a cup of water?

That courtroom is-is... is like an oven.

Course, Mrs. Demmer, come on over to the store with me.

Town appreciates how you must be feeling,

What with the trial not Iettin' you

get your sorrows for one minute.

Hi, Ben.

Hey, Ben.

Oh.

Any sign of a verdict yet?

No. No, they're still in there.

What's bothering you, Ben?

Oh, nothing.

Oh, I was just thinking about Little Joe in there.

And remembering the first time

I sat on a jury in a murder trial.

Oh, What a responsibility.

Deciding Whether a man is gonna...

live or die.

It's like you're burdened

with the power of God.

All right, now, hold it, hold it.

Look, if we're all gonna talk at once,

we're not gonna get anything decided.

Now, now, wait a minute. Wait a minute.

We already decided.

Three hours ago, everybody here was set

to vote Terrence O'Toole guilty. Everybody exceptin' you.

All right, and I'll be ready, too.

As soon as we go over the evidence again.

We've already done that. Oh, sure we have, piecemeal.

Well, that's as good a way as any.

We talked it all out.

Anybody that's made up their mind ain't gonna change it

by going over the Whole thing again.

Maybe not, but there's a man sitting over in that jail cell

waiting for us to decide Whether he hangs or goes free.

Now, if I was that man, I'd like to know that this jury

was taking its time deciding.

Well, we've already taken a lot of time.

When I leave this room--

Whatever the verdict is--

I want to be able to live with it.

Let's go over it one more time.

Give me another drink.

Ain't you had enough?

You ought to be over at the courthouse with your mother.

She needs someone to St... Stepmother.

Nevertheless, she needs someone to stand by her

at a time like this.

She's no more to me than a housekeeper.

Anyway, who asked you to poke your big nose in my business?

Can I get another drink or not?

Hoss. Hi, Sam. Beer.

He's been drinking like that

ever since the jury started deliberating.

Yeah.

Well, it's sort of a hard time for ol' Jeb.

Losin' his pa like that

and this trial draggin' on.

What's taking that jury so dang long, anyway?

Swore on a Bible I saw O'Toole kill my pa, and...

Why don't they just string him up?

Jury's in!

All right, O'Toole, the court's ready for you.

The hour of judgment is at hand, is it?

That's right.

I welcome it, then.

You got a verdict?

Oh, we got one, Your Honor.

Well, What is it? What is it?

We say "guilty."

You got anythin' to say before the sentencing?

Well, perhaps a few words'd do no harm.

I'll not take long.

Well, get on with it.

'Tis, uh, many a land I visited

since leaving the old country, Your Honor.

Half of them are the devil's own,

let me tell you,

with no democratic processes of law as you have here.

I commend you, sir,

and the prosecutor

and the jury, as well.

'Tis a fair trial I've had.

I'm that grateful,

you'll be hearing no word from me against it.

But...

though these good people have deliberated fairly

and have rendered their verdict,

by the Almighty, they've made an error.

Terrence O'Toole has been falsely accused

and wrongly condemned.

I stand innocent of these charges.

I've said my piece, Your Honor.

I thank you kindly for the privilege.

The jury has found you guilty

of robbing Fred Demmer of $400

and shootin' him down in cold blood.

I sentence you to hang by your neck until dead.

Sheriff, you have a job to deliver this man

to the U.S. Marshal at Carson City tomorrow.

The hangin'll take place there.

All right, Your Honor.

All right, O'Toole.

That's all.

Well, Mrs. Demmer, justice was done.

Yes, I'm thinking it was.

Joe, you sure missed some good apple pie tonight.

OI' Hop Sing almost outdid himself.

Yeah, I'll bet.

Pa wants us to do some work on that barn roof tomorrow.

You want to haul the shingles out tonight?

Ah, it can wait till tomorrow, can't it?

Yeah, reckon so.

You're still bothered by that verdict, ain't you?

What if I am?

Just askin'.

Pa?

Hmm?

Pa...

I think you ought to talk to Little Joe.

What's the matter?

Well, he's worked himself up a real fret.

Yeah, I noticed it at supper.

That trial really has got him worried, huh?

Yeah.

Yeah, he's takin' a mighty big load on his shoulders.

Well, I'll talk to him.

See if you can make sense out of these figures, Will you?

Yes, sir.

Nice night.

Yeah.

Like some more coffee?

Oh, in a little While.

Ah, that trial sure upset everybody's schedule, didn't it?

That's all folks talked about.

Well, I guess the town Will get back to normal,

now that it's over.

Yeah, sure.

Everybody'll be happy now.

O'Toole'll hang and... justice Will be served.

You don't seem to think so, do you?

Well, I should think so.

I went over the evidence twice, I made...

I made all the jurors do the same thing. I wanted...

I wanted to be sure.

You brought in a verdict, Joe.

Yeah, we brought in a verdict.

The evidence was there.

O'Toole saw Demmer take the money out of the bank, the $400.

He saw... Demmer's Wife stay in town to shop,

figured he'd be out at the ranch alone.

He followed him out there, but he wasn't alone.

Jeb was there, saw the shooting.

Little While later, the sheriff catches O'Toole

and he's got about $400 on him. It all fits.

Did you believe O'Toole's story about

earning that money for passage back to Ireland?

No.

No, I don't believe that.

The-the only question was, What happened to the billfold?

And the first thing you got to figure is O'Toole threw it away.

What's troubling you, Joe?

I don't know.

Not the evidence.

It was just the way O'Toole looked at me.

When we brought in the verdict.

The way he stood up there

and looked every single one of us right in the eye.

Said we made a mistake.

I just can't believe that a man could look at you that way

and still be guilty.

Joe...

you made a decision.

And I doubt that there's a man alive

Who's never had a second thought

about any decision he's made.

But you were asked to do a job.

To serve on a jury.

And you accepted that responsibility

and you did your job conscientiously,

intelligently,

and that's all the... the law asks for.

You did your job well.

Breakfast is on the table!

Morning, Pa.

Good morning, Joe.

Listen, I wanted to ask you if, uh,

maybe I could go to work on that roof this afternoon sometime.

Why, do you have something more important to do?

Well, there's something I have to do, yeah.

What?

Well. it's just... just something personal

I want to take care of in town.

Oh, well, look, Pa, I can start that roofin'

by myself till Joe gets back.

Yeah, would you? Yeah.

Good, Okay. I'll be back.

Well, wait a minute.

Have something to eat before you go.

Uh, no, thanks, Pa.

I'm not hungry this morning.

Well, you be back for an early lunch, you hear?

Right. I Will.

I'll be back by noon, I promise you.

Hi, Little Joe.

Hi, Roy.

Wanted to ask a favor of you.

Well, I hope it's something that I can do for you now.

I'm leaving for Carson City with Mr. O'Toole Tore long.

Well, I wondered if I could go in

and talk to O'Toole for a minute.

You go right ahead, but don't take too long.

Better leave your gun right here, too.

Right.

My name is Cartwright.

I was on the jury.

Yes, I know.

All of your faces are mounted like portraits

on the walls of my soul.

That little act you put on in court yesterday

came kind of late, didn't it?

Would it have, uh, made a difference to you

before the deliberations?

Well. all the evidence was against you. I...

just couldn't understand Why you bothered denying it.

Would you have had me admit to murder, then?

Well, Why not?

It's not gonna make any difference now.

Ah.

So you've, uh, come to hear confession, have you?

'Tis the condemned man's immortal spirit

that concerns you.

You've, uh, come to offer God's grace, perhaps?

To help purge me soul of sin before the eternal sleep?

No. that's not Why I came. I...

Then I misunderstood you, sir.

All the While I was supposin'

it was for an admission of my guilt you came.

Here I was supposin' that you sought assurance

you'd sent the proper man to the gallows.

But you see. Mr. Cartwright...

I stole no man's cash.

And I'm innocent of murder.

So I'll not be administering that balm to your conscience,

badly in need of it as you'll continue to be.

Thanks, Roy.

Go on, Little Joe.

You say hello to your pa for me, Will you?

Yeah.

Hi, Sam. Joe.

Let me have a beer, huh? Sure, Joe.

Thanks, Sam.

Fellas are playing for pretty high stakes, aren't they?

Yep.

They ain't small-time gamblers, Joe.

Wonder What Jeb Demmer's doing in a game like that.

I don't know,

but he's been at it since yesterday after the trial,

on and off.

How's he doing?

Heavy loser.

But he keeps coming back with more money.

How 'bout a drink?

Ah, I could use one.

Give me a beer, Will you?

Gave you a pretty bad time over there, huh?

I'll Win it back.

Well, here's to that verdict you turned in.

And a good hanging.

Pretty anxious for that hanging, aren't you?

Well, you were on the jury.

That-that was the verdict, wasn't it?

Yeah, that's right.

How much money you say you lost over there?

Why, you backing somebody?

No, I just didn't figure you

for that kind of stakes, that's all.

Well, maybe you better explain What you meant by that.

I'm not gonna explain anything to you.

There you are, O'Toole.

Is it your plan to leave soon, Sheriff?

Well, we gotta be over in Carson City

early this afternoon.

Marshal'll be waitin', then?

Yeah, the marshal and the, uh,

the other official.

I was meaning him, too.

You better eat up.

It's a three-hour ride over there.

'Tis not the pangs of hunger

I was concernin' meself with, Sheriff.

Well, you can suit yourself.

Thank you, Jake.

Hi, Pa.

Hoss.

Ah!

Whew.

Boy, it's hot up there on that root.

Well, it's hot everywhere.

Long past noon.

Yeah, well, we'll be through this job in about an hour, Pa.

Oh, I wasn't worried about that.

Little Joe said he'd be back by noon.

You ain't worried about him, are you?

Oh. not worried about anything happening to him. I...

It's just that...

I'm wondering Why he went into town and wouldn't say.

Well, I just gotta remind myself over and over again

that I've got grown sons

and they have grown-up problems

which they have to solve by themselves.

That's right.

Like that roof.

Yeah. well... I'll get on that right now.

Nah. Come on, everybody.

Let go into the house, get something cold to drink.

Hmm? Good idea.

Come on, Jake.

Hello, Mrs. Demmer.

Good day.

Mrs. Demmer, I'm Joe Cartwright.

I sat in on the murder jury.

Yes, I know that, surely.

Well, I'm sorry to come out here

and bother you like this, but...

well, I just wondered if there was anything else

you could tell us,

anything that didn't come out at the trial.

Twas my not knowing anything

that kept me from testifyin'.

Yeah, I know.

There's nothing else you can add?

What would I be knowing,

shoppin' like I was in town when Fred was killed?

Well, there's a man about to be hanged for murder.

I just... wanted to be sure he was the right one.

Surely anybody can look in his face

and see he's the right one.

And weren't you given better reason at the trial?

Weren't ye yerself one of them that said Terrence was guilty?

"Terrence"?

It was Terrence O'Toole I was meaning to say.

There's many a chore here to be done before dark.

I'll thank you to be Ieavin' me about my work.

Mrs. Demmer, you know Jeb has been gambling

pretty heavy in town, the last few days?

I'll not be a party to your prying.

Leave the matter be as it stands, Why don't you?

What'd he want?

It wasn't much he asked

and I had little enough to tell.

Well, I don't want that Cartwright around

anymore, you hear?

Do you suppose he came on my invitation?

Well, you just make it plain to him,

the next time he comes snooping around,

that he ain't welcome.

I'm thinkin' it's for you to tell him that.

You do like I say

if you want to go on keeping house around here.

Are you thinkin' the ranch'll tend to itself

While you're off in town gambling?

Is that What Cartwright came to tell you?

And how is it you have the means to gamble?

I'm rememberin' you hadn't the money

and there wasn't a cent of ready cash in the bank.

Fred took it all out

to make payment on those cattle he fancied.

It ain't none of your affair Where I get my money.

It could set people to wondering.

What people?

It could set people to wondering

how a young man, with his pockets empty,

suddenly acquired sufficient to gamble

after his pa was laid in the grave.

Cartwright?

Is that Who's wondering?

It could set people to thinking that maybe

everything that should've come out in the trial... didn't.

Well, now, I know something

that didn't come out in the trial... Molly.

Something else that might start people to thinking.

You see, I saw you with O'Toole,

day before my pa was shot.

He was an acquaintance of mine from Dublin,

many years before,

recognizing me in town

and that's all there was to that.

Well, I seen you, Molly.

Seen you right out by the end of the pasture.

Talking.

Talking like lovers.

Like maybe all you could want is to get shed of your husband.

Seeing me in town,

he rode out to pay his respects.

But I barely recollected him.

And that's all there was to it.

Think anybody's gonna believe that?

Little good it'll do them not to.

See. I could...

I could do things with that information, Molly.

Then in heaven's name, do it,

and the devil take you!

I could talk up to the sheriff.

I could tell him What I seen.

What is it you're insinuatin'?

That it was me plotted Fred's death with Terrence?

I didn't insinuate that, Molly.

You just kind of set the thought in my head.

Looks like maybe you better quit

making such a big to-do over Where I get my money.

Then maybe I'll forget I saw you and your friend.

All right, O'Toole, it's time to go.

O'Toole, I said we're leaving.

By the Almighty, Sheriff, I didn't hear you.

I was that far lost in the fancies of the past...

Sorry, Sheriff.

I didn't mean anything of a personal nature.

Come and draw me a beer, Will you?

That's O'Toole.

O'Toole!

Hey, Sam.

The sheriff and O'Toole leave for Carson City already?

O'Toole broke out!

Sheriff's got a posse out to hunt him down.

O'Toole's not gonna get very far.

Wouldn't surprise me if one of them posse boys

didn't save the sheriff a long ride back to Carson City.

Ain't much fun huntin' a man down

in this kind of heat.

Yeah, and they're hunting down the wrong man.

Huh?

Go on!

Are you alone?

By the Almighty, Molly girl, are you alone?

I've no place else in the world to come

save this one, Molly.

It's me they're out hunting

like the hounds after a fox.

I'd not come troubling you, you understand,

but I'm hurt too bad to go on.

Can you help me?

Don't you hear me, girl?

I have need of you!

I had need of you, once, too.

It was just 21 years ago next month

that I waited at the church

for 3 Dublin lad who failed to come.

Twas a base deed I committed that day.

But Twas for you I done it.

For you sake alone, I didn't come.

For me, was it?

You'd have made a poor match for yourself, Molly.

You alas wantin' a house

and-and little ones...

and me, with the wanderlust deep in my bones.

I was that believin',

I waited all night

in my White gown and veil.

The pity of my friends.

Oh, I had a need of you.

Did you not hear my heart crying out to you?

My own heart answered it, Molly.

Many's the night I'd be sittin'

in some devil-cursed waterfront saloon

weeping bitter tears at the memory of her I gave up.

And many's the night I've Wished you dead.

Sure, you had reason to Wish me in my grave.

But now...

knowing Why your groom never came

and the torment he suffered for it,

perhaps now your pity wouldn't be amiss.

You have a queer way of reasoning it out, don't you?

I couldn't go off to die

Without telling you Why I deserted you, long ago.

Tell the truth, Molly.

Doesn't your heart soften a bit to me now?

Seeing all this pain and suffering I'm in?

Oh. I never had a hate in me for any man...

leastways, not for you, Terrence.

It was the hurt of your going off--

It was the pain of losing you--

That set the stone in my heart.

The Almighty bless you, Molly,

I-I know that.

Will you help me now?

Will you be tending my wound, Molly girl,

so I can make good my escape

before those baying dogs get the little fox in their teeth?

Jeb says I'm not to be receiving you anymore.

Mrs. Demmer, did this billfold belong to your husband?

Yes, it was Fred's, surely.

See? His intial's on it.

But how is it you've come by it?

Jeb had it.

Sure, then, Jeb lied.

It wasn't Terrence who killed Fred.

You mind if I talk to him?

It's the billfold he found.

It's the proof you'll be needing you're an innocent man.

Where did you get that?

Jeb had it.

Saw him throw it in the brush about a mile away from here.

You can forget that trip to Carson City:

there's not gonna be a hanging.

They'll be reopening the case now.

It's just a matter of time

before you'll be a free man.

I'd not count on that, Molly.

What are you sayin'?

I'd not be trusting the mood of a posse,

hangin' a man first and asking the questions after.

No.

I'll have no more of posses and juries.

Better to be ridin' back to the East

and book passage for Ireland.

O'Toole, that doesn't make sense.

You try to get away from here,

they'll have every lawman in the West on your tail.

All right, I'll go with you.

Would you give me a moment to say good-bye to Molly first?

Sure.

I'll be right outside.

When I get back to Ireland, I'll be sending for you.

Will you?

We'll be a lass and a lad in love again

and the years falling away.

We'll be wed in the same church.

Be inviting the same friends.

Sure, it'll be like I dreamed it a thousand nights since

and time not a minute older.

I'm Wishing it could be that way again.

But who can say nay to the years?

The young, fair, Irish maiden is long gone, you see.

I'm thinkin' it's of someone else you've dreamed,

not the Widow Demmer.

Then woe to those years

and to them that still dream.

Better not to have crossed the American continent.

Better never to have chanced upon Molly MacGregor

on the streets of Virginia City.

Better not to have known What that man had done to you.

A man that set you down in the Wilderness

to struggle with barren soil,

to carry the slop of pigs.

An evil man,

who took away your youth

and wore down your beauty

till What remained was... was flayed and lacerated.

I couldn't let a man like that go on living

Without paying for his sins!

Then it was you, after all.

Not Jeb.

Aye.

It was me.

Oh. Molly...

you were the star of beauty.

All my life, I carried the image of you

in my mind and heart.

And when we met that day in Virginia City,

my heart stopped.

It was all there in your face and your eyes,

What he'd done to you.

That brutal beast of a man,

destroying the beauty of your shining eyes.

And then...

to see him strike you,

there in the street.

Blast his eyes,

he deserved more than death!

You were always in my heart, Terrance.

Always.

It didn't matter What he did.

Even when the work was brutal hard

and the days longer than I could bear

and when he wouldn't buy food

or a piece of cloth for a new dress...

...always, through it all,

somewhere inside of me my heart sang:

"You're young, fair, Molly,

"and someday your lover Will be comin' back

and his heart Will be singing, too."

Bless you, Molly.

In all eternity, I'll not forget you.

The posse's coming.

Better let me have that gun.

I won't be going with you.

I'm afraid you're mistaken.

I didn't steal, but I did kill him.

We can still get away.

I'll be pretending I'm your hostage.

You wouldn't stand a chance out there.

You'd be a fugitive for the rest of your life.

Alone, I would.

Move.

Molly...

...I never stopped loving you.

Terrence!

He come out firing, ma'am.

He... he must've knowed we'd shoot back.

It was to spare me the lot of a fugitive's woman

that he done it.

He was thinkin' it was that or his life.

It was me

was his last thought.

You see, he always loved me.

Always.

Yeah.

But you did see O'Toole shoot your pa and then run off.

Now, that part is the truth, ain't it?

Well. when I come up to him and saw he was dead. I...

all I could think of was that

he was gonna leave that ranch to Molly.

'Cause he never gave me nothing While he was alive.

So I figured I at least ought to have the money.

So I... just took the billfold

with the $400 in it and...

figured they'd blame it on O'Toole.

But it was me. I...

I stole it.

I took it.

Just hard to believe

that I could've been so wrong about...

I guess I better learn to take everything

with a grain of salt from now on.

Hmm.

Well, Joe, I'll tell you:

I think it's much better to...

keep on looking for the good in a man,

finding yourself wrong,

than to be looking for the evil in a man

and finding yourself cynical.

Yeah, well, it did a lot of good,

looking for the good in this man.

Well, here's another way of looking at it.

Suppose you'd been right.

You'd have saved a man from hanging.

Don't let it sour you,

the first time you believe in a person

and find that you're wrong.

Next time, you may be right.

Come on.

Where we going?

Well, I'm not going anywhere.

You're going out to help Hoss

finish fixing the roof.

Okay.

Oh, Joe...

before you go, there's something I want you to know.

I'm proud of you.

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