Original subtitles

Heeyah! Heeyah!

NARRATOR: Tales of Wells Fargo.

I tell you, it's useless.

In the first place, I can't get to Tucson

before that boy leaves.

I'm telling you now, that if he gets

into those hills, we don't stand a chance

of finding him.

Remember, this boy's father is Floyd Schaeffer.

And Floyd Schaeffer owns a portion,

a very large portion, of Wells Fargo stock.

Now, you know the Superstition Mountains,

and if anybody can find the boy, you can.

You're right. I do know 'em,

and that's why I tell you it's useless.

Are you afraid, Jim?

Mr. Carter, those mountains have been sacred

to the Apaches for centuries.

It's forbidden land even to most of their own people.

I don't like to fight Indians,

but I will if it's my job.

But Wells Fargo's not paying me

to be a bloodhound for one of the stockholder's sons.

Besides that, I don't like fighting

something I can't see.

You really believe in these Indian superstitions?

No, but let's say I respect them.

I respect them enough to believe

that I'm not the man to find the Schaeffer boy.

When can you leave?

As soon as I'm packed.

JIM: It all started in 1864,

when a teamster named Adams and a party of miners

found a mine in a small valley hidden

in the vastness of the Superstition Mountains.

They found a mother lode...

But they were massacred before they could get out.

Only Adams escaped.

And now the old man roamed the southwest

trying to remember,

trying to get a stake.

But while people believed in his mine,

they quit believing in Adams.

From what Mr. Carter told me,

Tim Schaeffer had run off from school

to find the hidden valley.

My job was to find the boy and find him quick

because too many of the prospectors who went

into the Superstition Mountains

never came out.

I checked with the local Wells Fargo agent

in Tucson and learned that Mr. Schaeffer

was waiting for me.

Si, si, yeah.

We're liable to be up here

for quite a spell, Mr. Schaeffer.

Those hills are mighty rugged.

You're Jim Hardie?

That's right. I'm Floyd Schaeffer.

Good to know you, Mr. Schaeffer.

Won't you to sit down, please?

Thank you.

Well, you sure took your time, Hardie.

We hoped to get started yesterday.

This is Mr. Cartwright, Mr. Hardie.

He's Tim's roommate at college.

And he's just as anxious to find Tim as I am.

You see, he's Tim's cousin and I raised him.

He's just like a son to me.

Oh, this is Mr. Knudson, Karl Knudson.

Jim Hardie. Mr. Hardie.

How are you? Lester hired Mr. Knudson

to take care of our pack stock and help

in any way that he can.

I hope that's satisfactory with you.

We can get started now, can't we?

Not quite.

I've had a long ride,

little short of rations. Waiter.

Bring me a plate of beans with coffee.

I just don't think you understand, mister.

We are four days behind Tim right now.

If we ever gonna catch him, we got to start

to move and quick.

I don't think you understand either.

I'm a little like a mule.

I'm liable to balk on you if I don't get

a bellyful of beans.

You could be bringing me up to date, Mr. Schaeffer.

I'll be very glad to.

You see, Tim left about four days ago

in the company of an old prospector

called Claude Lanston.

Where did he meet him?

I went back to the school to pay a visit.

I'm making an endowment there, you see,

and I found that Tim had left the day before.

Lester here didn't know anything about it.

But upon investigation we found that

he had probably met this old Adams character

in Los Angeles last spring and borrowed enough money

to buy the map from him.

This Adams seems to make

a business of selling maps.

No two of them alike.

Of course, I know that every boy wants a fling

at adventure, but from what I've heard,

I realized that the Superstition Mountains

is not a place to have it.

And Tim has such bad judgment.

Well, the Indians are at peace now,

they shouldn't have much trouble,

and we shouldn't have any trying to find him,

Mr. Schaeffer.

How are they traveling?

Tried to buy a couple of horses at the livery stable,

but the kid didn't have enough money.

So they're walking, leading Lanston's burro.

Well, that's good.

We can travel a lot faster than they can,

we should catch them pretty fast.

I tried to hire an Apache guide

but no one was willing to go.

I'm not surprised.

Those mountains are forbidden to them too.

So we're in your hands, Mr. Hardie.

But I do think the sooner we get started,

the better we'd be.

All right. We're gonna need some

supplies and some pack mules.

It's all been taken care of,

the horses are saddled,

the mules are packed

and they're waiting right now.

Good. We'll leave just as soon as I eat.

Come on, Knudson, let's wait outside.

This old fellow has been trying

to tell us about the mine and the mountain.

I'm afraid that Lester was a little harsh with him.

He's really just a harmless old man.

Sit down. Muchas gracias.

What's your name?

Viejo.

El Viejo.

You speak English?

Si, Señor, a little.

You hunt for the lost mine of Señor Adams?

We hunt for this man's son.

And he's looking for the mine.

Both men and gold are very hard to find

in the rocks of the Superstitions.

JIM: We'll do the best we can.

We do have a little help, Mr. Hardie.

Tim left a copy of the map

with the Wells Fargo agent

and a letter addressed to me.

Can I see them?

Here's a copy of the map,

the letter is personal.

It was to be delivered to me

one month after Tim did not return.

I guess a father never knows

what his son really thinks about him,

but I must confess that Tim's opinion

was rather distressing and irritating.

Is this the map? That's so the letter states.

I wouldn't show that map around

if I were you, Mr. Hardie.

Are you looking for the gold or your son?

Well, the map may be authentic.

All right, show it to him.

I don't care whether the map is authentic or not.

Si. It is good.

This is very close, I think.

Señor, these mountains

and the mine are very old.

Many hunt for the gold

but few return.

It is good you hunt your son.

Thank you, Viejo.

Ah, muchas gracias.

Gracias, señor.

Well, I guess that's his business,

selling superstition for a peso or two.

Maybe.

There they are, Mr. Schaeffer,

the Superstition Mountains.

Lester,

get on your feet and go down

and get your horse unsaddled and watered.

In this country, he comes first.

Why don't you mind your own business, Hardie?

You take care of your horse

and I'll take care of mine.

Now let's get one thing straight.

I don't want to cause any trouble

and I don't intend to have any.

I've got a lot of things to do

without playing nursemaid to an overgrown kid with a rich uncle.

Now you get yourself straightened up and start pulling your own weight

or you can go back to town right now.

He'll be all right, Mr. Hardie.

He's just tired.

This is all new to him.

I unsaddled his horse.

It's all taken care of.

Now Lester, you just got to try

a little bit harder. I know this is not what

you're used to but for everybody's sake,

you've got to try and cooperate.

Jim, you figure we stand a chance

of finding the boy?

Maybe.

You know old Adams is a bit off.

A friend of mine talked to him when he came out

of these mountains in the 60s,

said his stories didn't make much sense.

But he had four gold nuggets with him

the size of walnuts.

I've just been thinking,

what if this map is the right one?

This is the canyon described on the map.

At least it starts out correctly.

How far behind him do you think we are now, Mr. Hardie?

I don't know for sure.

Say about two days.

It's my water. Are you going to try

and tell me when I can drink it?

I just want to tell you you've still got

about eight to ten hours left to ride.

That canteen of water is all you're gonna get

until morning, like the rest of us.

As long as you know that, I don't care

when you drink it or how much.

Have some of mine, Lester.

It's almost full.

I don't know what you're so worried

about water for.

The map showed four, five streams.

That map could be anywhere from four months old

to forty years old.

In this country, a river can dry up

in four hours.

You better not count on water until you swallow it.

If you want to use that again,

you better get it cleaned up.

Of course, I know you wouldn't be much

interested in money, Mr. Schaeffer,

you being a wealthy man and mighty anxious about your boy.

But me, I can't help thinking a bit.

They say there's a hundred million dollars in gold there.

They say all a man's gotta do is walk up,

pull out a handful of grass and sort of shake

the nuggets out of the roots.

I'm not a wealthy man, Karl.

I'm well off,

but a hundred million dollars in gold...

That's wealth.

You think there's a mine there, Karl?

I know there's a mine.

The Apaches have got a place they call

Valley of the White Metal.

That's gold to them,

figures in their stories and such.

None of 'em I ever talked to knew where it was...

At least if they did, they wouldn't tell.

But those Injuns have always got gold.

Whenever they want something real bad, they sneak it out...

Guns, ammunition, things like that.

They know where it is, all right.

It's like that silver mountain, the Comstock Lode...

Old Adams knew.

Oh, it's there, Mr. Schaeffer.

You can bet on that.

But that's not what we're after is it, Mr. Schaeffer?

No. That's not what we're after.

We're after my son.

But I would not turn down

a hundred million dollars in gold,

would you, Mr. Hardie?

We'll find Tim and then we're going to find that mine.

We're gonna find Tim and then we're gonna find

our way back to Tucson.

If you think anybody's gonna turn down

a hundred million dollars just because

you're worried about some Indian superstition,

you're out of your mind.

Now you understand this...

After we find that boy

and I get you people back to Tucson,

my job is finished.

You can do what you very well want to,

I don't care.

Wells Fargo is not paying me

to prospect on their time.

I understand, Mr. Hardie.

I hope you do, Mr. Schaeffer.

Now, we're gonna take watch,

two hours a shift.

You be first, Lester.

You take the first two hours,

I'll follow you.

Mr. Schaeffer, you follow me.

Karl, you take four to six. A watch?

What do you want to stand watch for?

There's no danger here. The Apaches are way over

there on the reservation, and they're at peace.

Even I know that.

I really don't see much reason for it, Jim.

Reason or not, we're gonna do it.

I don't want those horses getting fouled up

in the coral rope and putting us all afoot.

Take your rifle with you.

Mr. Schaeffer, mind if I have a look of that map?

No, no. Of course not, Karl.

Thanks.

Coffee's ready.

Karl, come on and have some coffee.

Wake up, Lester. We're getting close.

If we're gonna catch 'em, we've got to move.

Come on, come on, boy, come on.

Karl's gone. Gone?

So are two pack mules and a saddle horse.

Why, that dirty stinking thief!

Uncle, I told you, you should never

have shown him the map.

So, he didn't need it.

He studied it all night.

Now he's going to find that mine.

Yeah, I guess you're right.

I never should've shown it to him.

I don't think he went to find any mine.

Oh? What do you mean?

He didn't take those pack mules.

He didn't take his saddle or his blanket roll.

And he didn't take any food.

I think somebody took him.

This might be it, Mr. Schaeffer.

Can't tell for sure with the ground being dry as it is.

Sure have burrow tracks, all right,

two men walking beside 'em.

How far behind do you think we are?

A day maybe. Two.

Might even reach him tomorrow.

How far is the mine?

According to the map, we keep going

until we come to a cliff

with a Pinyon tree growing out of a crack in a rock.

Then we turn north.

If the map was right,

that's where we'll find them,

the lost Adam's diggings.

And how far is that?

Less than a mile in.

I think we're being watched, Mr. Hardie.

I think you're right.

And I think you're both worried about something

that just doesn't exist.

I hope you're right, Lester.

Sun-up.

Come on, Mr. Hardie.

Time to get started.

Lester. Come on, Lester.

Wake up. Start a fire, come on.

Oh, it's gonna be a beautiful day.

No one in sight. How's the boy?

He's dead.

Why should he have to die?

Who'd want to kill him?

I don't know.

There's somebody been following us all the way,

trying to warn us to stay away

from that mine.

We better take care of the boy.

He was like a son to me.

He was more of a son to me than my own boy.

I loved him, Mr. Hardie.

I understood him.

Come on, Mr. Schaeffer.

We'll find your boy and get out of here.

We'll find my boy

and then we'll find that mine.

Hardie, isn't that the Pinyon tree

that was mentioned on the map?

That's right.

Well, how far is the mine then?

It should be just up ahead.

Come on, let's go.

Looks like it might be the old miner

that was with your boy.

Any signs of Tim?

There's some tracks leading

down towards that draw.

He might have made a run for it.

I think he made it.

Hardie, look, look.

Don't you understand? That...

That leads to the old Adam's diggings.

On the other side of the ridge is the mine.

That map is authentic.

Don't you understand, man?

We're millionaires!

But your boy didn't go in there.

The tracks lead that way.

All right, you'll find him

and bring him down there to me.

I'll be standing down there

on a hundred million dollars' worth of gold.

I'll find him and when I do, I'm going back to Tucson.

If you're smart, you'll go back with me.

You go in there, you'll never come out alive.

You fool.

Look, look. It's true.

There are millions of it here.

Millions. We found it.

We've got to get out here, Mr. Schaeffer.

I told you to find my boy.

Why aren't you doing it?

I'm gonna go look for him and I'm gonna take you

with me when I do. I don't want to come back here

and find you dead.

You're not gonna take me out of here, Mr. Hardie.

Not now or any time.

Have some water, boy.

Sorry, there wasn't more of it.

They killed Lanston.

We'd found the cave.

We would've found the mine too,

I know we would have found it.

But they killed him and I ran.

You think you could find it again?

I could never find that place again

and I never want to try.

I don't regret not having found the mine,

as funny as that may seem.

I just regret what's going to happen

when I have to face my father and my cousin.

They'll never let me forget this.

Maybe they will, boy.

Maybe they will.

Get on. We're going to Tucson.

Get some sleep, Tim.

All right, Mr. Hardie.

And thank you.

You did all you could.

Don't worry about my father.

His grave is a hundred million dollars in gold.

He should be very happy.

Give me a beer.

There ain't no reason why we shouldn't go.

The Apaches are on the reservation.

Adam's drawing of the map was good.

But I don't like the idea.

There have been too many people killed

back in that country.

Oh, just a lot of rumors.

I tell you we got a chance.

Do you realize that there's a hundred

million dollars in gold back there?

I just came back from hunting for that mine.

There were four of us started out.

I was the only one that came back.

Did you find it? Did you find it?

What happened to the other three?

They're dead. Indians kill them?

I don't know. I didn't stop to find out.

What did kill them?

This.

What's that?

That ain't no Indian arrow.

I never seen one like that before.

Señores, many years ago

when the Spaniards came here to hunt

for their cities of gold,

they had a crossbow that shot those arrows.

When was that?

That was 300 years ago.

Three hundred years?

Three hundred years?!

You know there's gold up there

and you don't want anybody else hunting for it.

Maybe I don't.

Hey, there's blood on that arrow.

Never mind that.

Come on.

Come on, let's get out of here.

You think they'll go, Viejo?

If they don't, others will.

Some will find it, but most will die.

Thank you, Viejo.

And good luck to you.

A year later,

seventy-five men led by Captain George Clavin

went into the Superstition Mountains to clear up

the mysterious killings.

They found that the ghosts

supposedly protecting the valley

where seven desperate men guarding what later became

Arizona's richest gold strike,

thus ending the fable

of the Superstition Mountains.