Original subtitles

The following program

is brought to you in living color on NBC.

♪♪

All right, men, we'll fan out here.

Now, move slow and comb behind every rock.

He's got a bullet in him, he can't be too far.

And remember, a rat is dangerous when he's cornered.

I know how to deal with rats.

I'll drag him in on the end of this.

Hartley, I'm going to tell you once more.

This is a posse, not a lynch mob.

This is a band of madmen we've been chasing.

They've killed, pillaged,

burned me out. They...

killed my wife.

Well, Cap Fenner and his band are gonna get

no better from us than...

than they've been giving.

Now, you can call this a posse if you want to, but...

we're gonna shoot on sight and we're gonna shoot to kill.

I just hope that...

old friends don't try to get in the way.

I don't like it, Ben.

I just hope that none of them

find that wounded man before we do.

I'll catch up with the others.

♪♪

Hold it right there. Don't move.

All right. Easy.

All right.

Come on.

Sit him down over there.

Who is he?

One of Cap Fenner's Comancheros. He's the one that had the money.

I'll saddle a horse and take him into town.

No, no. No, he stays here.

I want you to go to town and tell Roy Coffee

to bring the doctor out here.

Tell him to come out pronto.

Make sure you don't tell anybody about this

except Roy, you understand? Hey, now, wait a minute.

What's this all about? Now, just do as I tell you.

I don't want to argue about it, Joe.

Look, you don't want to argue about it, but I do.

Now, we both knew Jim Hartley's wife.

I got a friend right now in town with a bullet in him,

maybe dying, you're worried about taking care of this...

Now, Joseph, I just told you to do something.

Get into town, tell Roy to bring the doctor out here.

Do you understand? Now, move!

Mosquito, I ought to yank you off that horse

and beat your head against a rock.

How'd you let him get away from you?

They shot Amigo's horse out from under him

and put a bullet in him.

He was dragging himself along the ground.

Yeah, dragging the money with him, too.

I'll track him, Captain.

I don't care what happens to that...

dirty peon.

I just want to know where the money is.

I'll find out, Captain, and I promise you that.

I don't want your promises.

I want the money.

And don't bother to get back here

until you find out where it is.

Understand?

Yes.

Now, ride.

How is he?

Arm's in pretty bad shape, but I've done all I can do for now.

I still don't like covering up this sort of thing.

You'd rather see that posse bring him in face down

over his saddle, wouldn't you? That's your responsibility.

Look, Doc, all Roy's trying to do

is buy time for the mob to cool down.

Well, I hope you're right,

but I won't guarantee how the voters will react

when they find out about it. Or, for that matter,

some of my patients when they find out.

You try moving him out of here,

you'll find out that some of your patients

and some of your voters may get killed.

Doc, is it all right if I talk to him now?

Go ahead. It's all right with me.

What's your name, son?

Hey! What's your name?

Why do you waste time?

Why don't you kill me?

Ain't nobody going to kill you, boy.

Now, just tell me what your name is.

They call me Amigo.

What are you going to do with me, Sheriff?

Well, that'll be up to the court to decide.

The court?

I'm a Mexican,

Yaqui Indian.

What court is there for me?

Well, let me just say this. If you tell us where Cap Fenner

and the rest of his men are,

it'd be a mighty big help to you.

I do not turn on my friends, señor.

You're wasting your time, Roy.

Ben, regardless of what I think of him, he's still a patient.

I've got to get some food into him.

I'll get Hop Sing to prepare something.

I'll be right down, Ben.

Now, you think over what I told you, you hear?

Ben, I shouldn't risk taking this money into town.

Would you keep it in that safe of yours

for me for a couple days?

Yeah, I don't see why not.

Yeah, I handcuffed the kid to the bed upstairs.

There's the keys.

How's your friend?

He's badly hurt, but he'll pull through.

Good, just so he lives long enough to hang.

You're beginning to sound as bloodthirsty as Hartley.

Well, maybe that's 'cause I feel the same way Hartley does.

Do you mean that you'd turn that boy over to a lynch mob?

Yeah, why not?

Why not, Roy? It'll save us the bother of a trial.

The verdict's already in.

The man rode with Cap Fenner.

He was involved in the killing of Hartley's wife,

the shooting of Jack Marshall and robbery.

What more do you want?

Look, nobody questions the fact that he deserves a hanging.

But if a man is hanged without the benefit of a trial,

whoever puts the rope around his neck is guilty of murder.

I say give him what he deserves.

I don't care what the man deserves.

We're not talking about that.

It's still murder.

Now, if you want to put a rope around his neck,

go ahead.

If you want to live with a murder on your conscience

for the rest of your life, fine, go right ahead.

Look, Joe...

Take some food up to him, will you?

And stand guard.

The cook made you some soup.

How is it you bring it?

You, who hate me.

My pa said bring it, so I bring it.

Hey.

I heard what you said about me downstairs.

Yeah, well, then you also heard a good friend of mine

got shot in that holdup.

Now, just how do you think I ought to feel about you?

I did not shoot him.

Yeah, I figured you'd say that.

My people say the son is in the father's image.

Sometimes nature makes mistakes, huh?

You have a good father.

And this is a fine house.

Well, like those of the hacendados in my country.

Only there, I slept in the stables.

With the animals.

Where you would have me now.

Or on the filthy floor of the local calabozo,

staring through the bars at the gallows.

You're here, aren't you?

I am here, Si.

But not because of you.

I know you, young señorito.

Come on, come on, take it easy.

Just make the arm relax. Cuidado. Be careful.

Animals like me can bite.

That is what you think, huh?

I am a dirty Mexican animal.

You ever stop to think

maybe that's the way you want me to see you?

But how can it be otherwise?

You are the young patrén.

And I...

I have known hunger and cold.

I've been whipped and jailed.

And I become a thief and a murderer, just as you say.

Oh, you really bleed, don't you?

Yeah, you really bleed, not just from your arm.

What do you think, you're the only man

who's ever had hard times, the only one

who's ever known hunger and cold?

Well, I got news for you, friend.

I've known a lot of men like that.

But they didn't join up with a killer like Cap Fenner.

Perhaps they would have

if there was no place else to go.

Sheriff.

Yeah?

Fenner and his men hit Joe Benton's ranch here last night.

Burned the house and the barn right down to the ground.

Now, where were you?

I was chasing Fenner.

All by yourself, Roy?

Now, what are you getting at?

I'll tell you what we're getting at.

My wife and daughter had to hide in that brush out there

for over an hour.

Till Fenner and his cutthroats decided to leave.

Then Hartley and the boys and me came up, and...

my wife and my daughter's hands and arms were burned.

We brought her into town to see if Doc could patch her up,

but he wasn't here.

No, he was with you.

The two of you were seen riding out together.

Where'd you go, Roy?

Who was Doc patching up?

That Comanchero that's got a bullet in him.

The one that we couldn't find.

You're hiding him, Roy.

I'm doing my job.

And that's all I'm gonna tell you.

We'll find out where he went.

When we do, we're gonna hang that Comanchero.

And then we're gonna come back and talk to you.

All right, let's get out of here.

Feeling any better?

Does it matter, señor?

Amigo...

I'm gonna make you one promise.

You're gonna have a fair trial.

Now, I... Señor,

there's something you can do for me now.

Those wild horses you round up for your ranch,

they are hard to break, gsi?

Yes, they're hard to break. What about 'em?

What happens when you cannot break one?

You shoot him?

Sometimes...

you shoot 'em.

I prefer to set 'em free.

Señor Cartwright,

does a man have no more right

than a horse?

Has he less right to live

and be free,

respected?

Yes, every man has a right to that.

Then you can help me, señor.

Let me go!

That horse hasn't broken the law.

You have.

Now, I'm not judge and jury.

What you're asking me to do is impossible.

You are judge and jury here.

And you have just condemned me to die.

Pa,

Hartley and the posse are just riding in.

Stay here with him. Yeah.

You are happy now, señor?

We want to talk to you, Ben.

All right.

I'm listening.

Well, it, uh...

it seems the sheriff and the doc went riding last night.

We did some tracking. We figured that they, uh...

they came here.

We want to know who's sick in your house, Ben.

Hartley, I...

I don't think I have to account to you for...

who's sick in my house.

You don't have to, Ben?

Or you don't want to?

Now, you, uh, have something to say,

you go right ahead and say it.

'Cause I got things to do.

Like taking care of a wounded Comanchero, maybe?

Sheriff Coffee wants to question me, I'll talk to him.

We're gonna look around your place, Ben.

You're-you're going to turn me over to them, aren't you?

Go on. Get out the door.

I said get out the door.

You can't stand us all off, Ben.

And we're gonna search this place,

starting with that house.

Well, I...

sure wish you wouldn't do that. It's...

See, somebody's liable to get hurt.

I wouldn't want that to happen.

Neither would you.

Get a search warrant.

I got one right here.

I told you about old friends trying to get in the way, Ben.

And there's only one of you

and a whole lot of us.

You better get out of the way.

Who's gonna get it first, Hartley?

Pa.

Pa, let 'em in if that's what they want.

I know how you feel about men taking the law

into their own hands, but we got nothing to hide.

Make up your mind, Ben.

All right, let's go.

All right, look in there.

♪♪

Maybe we're wrong, Ben.

I hope we are, but, uh,

we're still gonna take a look around the barn

and the bunkhouse.

All right, let's go.

What'd you do with him?

I kicked him out the back door.

You kicked him out the back, just like that?

Yeah, just like that.

That posse would've killed you to get to him.

I didn't figure his life was worth yours.

Joe, we're talking about a man's life.

We got to get him back here.

I tried, Captain.

That old posse's everywhere.

Twice, I almost got shot out of the saddle.

But you did find his horse.

Sure. The horse was dead.

But he could steal another one.

I told you to find him.

Captain, that Amigo ran with the money.

Consuelo,

where's my dinner?

Coming, Capitén. Pronto.

I told you not to come back here without him.

And the money.

Captain, there were half a dozen posses around.

I could've caught Amigo.

But if I tried to catch up with him,

they'd have strung us both up.

You're a liar

and a fool and a coward.

I make you my Lieutenant

because I thought you were less a pig than the rest of 'em.

But you are even more stupid than they are.

Captain, it wasn't me

that tied the moneybag to the wrong saddle.

There was a day

when I had real men in my command.

Soldiers,

the finest Virginia ever produced.

Men who were...

proud to follow... a dream.

Men who... fought

and died well.

Even after the dream...

had gone.

We, too, are proud to ride with you, Captain.

And now...

I have the sweepings of the border gutters.

The unclean,

the filthy,

the illiterate.

And for a Lieutenant, I have a man so stupid,

he thinks I do not know a lie when I hear one.

Captain, I saw the tracks.

There were no tracks.

You invented them

to cover your mistake.

Consuelo.

This Consuelo here is Amigo's treasure.

He would not run off and leave her.

Carson?

Yes, Captain.

Shoot this fool.

It'll be a pleasure.

You don't want to kill me, Captain.

Captain, you don't mean it.

Amigo. Amigo.

Amigo. Oh.

Consuelo. Oh, you have come back.

How do you feel? 0h, fine.

How do you feel? Oh, fine.

You are wounded. No.

0h. It is nothing.

I-I have had a doctor.

Si.

Amigo.

Capitén, I... I got back as quickly as I could.

Amigo, where's the money?

I do not know.

I was a prisoner there.

Then there was a sheriff and a doctor. I...

Amigo, you say you were prisoner? Where?

A great rancho called the Ponderosa.

I've heard of it, Captain.

That's the Cartwrights' spread.

Cartwright?

Is that the man's name who owns the ranch?

Si, Ben Cartwright.

He also has a son named Jose, Joseph.

Hmm.

Well, Amigo, how did you... how did you get away?

This Joseph...

A posse came to search the house,

and he pushed me out the back door.

Why not give a little surprise party

for this Cartwright, eh, Captain?

A house burning.

Good idea.

Por favor, no, Capitén.

Señor Cartwright was very kind to me.

Had a doctor take care of my arm. He...

He gave me food and a clean bed like I have never seen before.

Please don't-don't burn his house.

Not getting soft, are you, Amigo?

No.

I do not repay kindness with a torch.

Now, Amigo, you're going back to the Ponderosa.

And you're going to find out where the money is.

No, Capitén. They...

They were keeping me for a trial and the gallows.

If I go back, I will die.

You have my word they will not take you to trial.

But even if I go back, they will not tell me where the money is!

You will go back!

And you will listen to every word they say.

What?

Now, sooner or later, they will talk about the money.

Who has it, and where it is.

When you find out,

you drop a white cloth out the window.

We'll come for you.

Capitén, please don't send my husband back to be killed.

Would you come and get her out of here?

No.

Capitén...

You make one false move, Amigo, and your wife won't live

to have that family you're waiting for.

Amigo...

Amigo...

we have many knives.

Now, you go back to the Ponderosa

and learn where the money is.

I will see that your wife is well cared for.

That is... unless you fail me.

I will not fail you, Capitén.

Well, I can't understand it.

I looked every place.

No trail, nothing.

He must have gone up into the rocks.

Well...

as soon as it's daybreak, we'll try again.

I'm sorry, Pa.

I was worried about you harboring a criminal,

and I let one go.

Joe...

go, uh, get some sleep.

Joe went looking for you.

When your life is in danger, you hide very well.

My arm, señor.

May I go to my room?

Gracias.

Sorry to disappoint you, señor.

Put your hands on the bed.

You do not trust me very much, do you, señor?

I don't trust you at all.

I came back.

Oh, sure, you came back.

You got a posse out there waiting to hang you.

You know this is the safest place you could be.

There are no bars on the windows,

but it is still a jail.

Soon you will take me to another jail and then to your court

and after that to the gallows.

Come on! Come on, what do you want me to do?

Feel sorry for you?

You ride with a bunch of killers.

You murder, you burn.

You're asking for a hanging.

What did you expect?

When you are hungry, that is bad.

But when those you love are hungry, that is worse.

I've had too much hunger in my life,

and that is why I joined Cap Fenner.

He gave me food.

So you ride with a killer because he gives you some food.

No, because I have dignity of a job.

A job?

What, is killing a job?

Did you ever think of getting some honest work?

If I were to come to your door asking for work,

would you have given it to me?

You know my father. What do you think?

A man can stand so much pain.

Only for so long can he stand

to see pain come to his loved ones.

I want a better life for my son.

Your son?

No, I...

If this were to be.

If I had a son.

You told me your people say

that a son is made in his father's image.

Let's be thankful you don't have a son.

Come on, get the cuffs on.

What did you do to your hand?

Nothing.

Yeah? Let me see it.

How'd you cut it?

On a rock.

It looks like it was done with a knife.

I did not expect you to believe me.

I couldn't believe that story he told me the other day

about cutting his hand.

I've seen too many knife wounds.

So I figured I'd come back today and have a look around.

There's the tracks I followed the other day.

They disappear up into the rocks.

Tracks of the two horses

and the other tracks leading back are fresh.

They weren't there the other day.

There's only one place he could have gone to get a horse.

Cap Fenner.

Yeah.

Cap Fenner.

♪♪

All right, men, we'll fan out here.

Now, move slow and comb behind every rock.

You been keeping those posses busy, Mosquito?

Our band will hit in five places at the same time.

All right, let's ride.

You know the next move, don't you?

Okay, let's go.

Hyah!

It all begins to fit into a pattern.

Fenner's Comancheros hitting a dozen different places

all at the same time,

sheriff's posses not able to keep up with any of it,

and none of the strikes in this immediate area.

Well, do you think Cap Fenner's trying

to draw attention away from the ranch?

He's an ex-cavalryman.

Sporadic raids to draw the strength

away from the main target.

It's an old cavalry trick.

Amigo must have got to Fenner's camp.

Fenner must have sent him back.

For a reason.

He must think that the money is still here.

If Fenner and his men hit us, we're going to need some help.

Yeah, we sure are.

Hoss must have got the herd

up to the North Forks meadow by now.

Joe, I want you to ride up there.

Tell Hoss to leave as many men as he needs there

to keep the herd from scattering.

Get back here as quickly as you can.

Right.

On the way back, I'll stop at the line camps.

I'll get as many men as I can. All right.

Hey, you keep a good eye on Amigo.

I intend to, Joseph.

You went out the back way, went up the hill

and you hid there till the posse went away.

Si, until I was sure they would not come back.

Mm-hmm.

You know, Joseph went out looking for you.

I heard someone.

The rabbit who lifts his head to see the hunter

often will get a bullet for his trouble.

Yes, isn't that true?

You, uh, begged me to let you go.

And Joseph let you go.

And you had a wonderful chance to escape.

And yet you came back.

Amigo...

I can't help wondering why.

Where else could I go, Señor Ben?

Who else would give me food and shelter?

Now, Joseph went to have another look around after you came back.

He found some very interesting tracks.

One set of footprints...

two sets of hoof prints.

Joseph was mistaken.

The footprints were leading south.

And the hoof prints came up from the south.

From the hard rock country.

Now, Sheriff Coffee and I think

that Fenner's camp is in that area.

I think you know exactly where it is.

I think that you went to Fenner's camp

when you were gone.

Ah, you have already made your mind up.

What can I say?

The truth.

Just say the truth.

Now, Sheriff Coffee told you he'd speak up for you

at the trial if you'd help us find and capture Fenner.

You asked for mercy.

Now, here's your chance to earn it.

Heard a horse riding away.

Joseph is not here.

Have you sent him for help?

Why? We're gonna need help?

Is Fenner going to raid the Ponderosa?

I have not seen Capitén Fenner.

I was not in the camp! Do not ask me!

You're really not a very good liar.

I was in the camp.

Now, where is that camp?

Where a man with a knife

holds it at the throat of my wife.

Even if I tell you where the camp is,

it will not help.

They're not there now.

Well, where'd they go?

To the hills to watch this house.

I was to find the hiding place of the money,

and then drop a white cloth from the window.

Have they been watching this house ever since you came back?

Si.

If I fail them,

the man with the knife will kill Consuelo,

my wife, and the child she carries.

Now, from which window were you supposed to drop that cloth?

From the bedroom window where I was a prisoner.

Get up there and do it.

Why are you doing this for me?

Get up there and drop that cloth.

It is done, Señor Ben.

What do we do when Capitén Fenner gets here?

Well, I'll give him the money,

and you'll... all leave.

You will do this for me?

You will drop your weapon, Mr. Cartwright.

I'm Captain John Fenner,

formerly of the Confederate Army.

We captured your son.

Oh, he fought well.

He's a brave lad.

But unfortunately, courage does not suffice

against a well-set plan.

No need to beat him like that.

No need.

Mr. Cartwright, you're holding certain valuable assets

that belong to me-- my money-- and I want it.

You'll have it.

But I want your word

that when you get it,

you'll leave here

and no further harm is done my son.

Or Amigo's wife.

Oh, so you and Mr. Cartwright

have been talking, huh, Amigo?

Did you also tell him what would happen

if you failed to locate the money?

Oh, no, Capitén, I...

It was the only way.

All right, Mr. Cartwright, we have a bargain.

The woman and your son for the money.

I'll get it.

You two outside-- both of you.

In case somebody happens to come in.

Yes, Captain.

It's all there.

All of it.

All right, now, I kept my bargain.

You keep yours.

Get them out of here.

There was nothing said about you, Mr. Cartwright.

You're going with us.

As our hostage.

If no one follows, we'll release you...

eventually.

Now, what about you, Amigo?

Whose man are you?

Cartwright's or mine?

No.

I am your man, Capitén.

I made him trust me.

So he would tell me where the money is.

No, I swear to you!

I give you my word.

And you have my word, Mr. Cartwright.

You wanted your son for the money.

And you will get your son.

But... dead.

Carson.

G Capitén?

Let me shoot the young señorito.

Shoot him?

I thought these people were your... your friends.

They are not my friends.

He tried to use me.

He wanted me to tell him where your camp was.

No, in his eyes,

I am a stupid Mexican peén.

Let me shoot him with his own father's gun!

Huh?

Oh, "with his own father's gun."

It's a good one.

Yeah, Amigo.

Yeah, but only one bullet.

Just one bullet.

Uno.

Aah!

Hey!

Get done with it, Amigo.

I have seen you do this with other prisoners, Capitén.

I wanted to be like you.

You stupid, illiterate peon!

Shoot!

Si, mi capitén.

Amigo!

Oh! Amigo... Consuelo.

Adios.

Oh, see...

I did not know my father.

Consuelo...

Perhaps he was one such as yours.

Consuelo...

She finally went up to sleep.

You know, I never cared whether Amigo lived or died.

I never thought there was a...

a thing about him that was decent.

You know, Joe...

...it's awful easy to see all the wrong things

that the other fella does.

It's a whole lot tougher to...

find out why he did them.

A man can do an awful lot of good with his life...

if he has an even chance.

Amigo never had that chance.

Well, his child will.

I'll see to that.

We'll see to that.

This has been a color production

of the NBC Television Network.