Original subtitles

Smell of this coffee, Friar, just about magnetized

me.

Nothing but regs left.

Oh, it suits me fine.

You from hereabout?

Born and raised.

Hits a man just where he lives, don't

it?

Where you heading?

The town below.

Ah, that town.

All them folks squeezed in together there.

You know the railroad come spoiled it all.

Progress.

Apple knockers, turkey-necked sodbusters.

Man can't find a place to fun in

no more.

Ah, you got this mountain here.

Man gets lonely up here.

I said lonely, not friendly.

Unless you want something besides that coffee, I'll

be packing.

Got a long ride ahead for me.

Longer for me.

If you want to get where you're going,

it's best you take the old trail.

The mountain don't like no strange folk poking

around.

Thanks for the advice.

Mm-mm.

Expect you'll run into Charlie Ross and Burt

Shaftoe coming up, and you tell them that

old Cedary is waiting for them, you hear?

I'll do that.

There's one thing about this old mountain.

Everything's fair game.

That fair game wouldn't include a man.

Like me, for instance.

Relax, mister.

I'm the sheriff.

My deputies, you just came from up trail.

So?

Run into anybody up above?

Yeah, a man dropped in for coffee this

morning.

Is that the man?

That's the man.

You have any notion which way he went?

No, I didn't even see him come.

He just was there.

And I turned my back, and he was

gone.

That's old Cedary.

He told me that I'd run into some

friends down trail.

Fellow named Ross?

That's me.

And my deputies.

Merv.

Howdy.

Shaftoe.

Lucas.

Hi.

Merv and Lucas, they're regular deputies.

Shaftoe, he's just temporary.

Mr. Shaftoe runs a store and the council.

What are you doing up here, anyway?

I'm on my way to town.

I need a job.

You got one now.

My posse pays $5 a day.

What's he done?

He broke the law.

You ever take a law job before?

Yeah, I have.

Then you know the words, duly sworn, huh?

Let's go.

Hey, wait a minute now.

This isn't exactly the kind of job that

I'm looking for.

You said you needed a job.

Now you got one, deputy.

Simple job, huh?

Where a man's paid not to think or

choose.

You just point his gun, and he fires

in that direction.

Is that it?

What is your name, mister?

Colton.

William Colton.

Well, now, Mr. William Colton, this count is

going to be paying you $5 a day

to help bring in a man, alive.

That suit you?

That suits me now.

Hey, Shaftoe, where do you think you're going?

My own way.

You do what I say.

You do what the town council says.

That's me.

Well, suit yourself, Shaftoe.

Merv, stick along with me.

Lucas, tag after Shaftoe.

Something bothering you, Colton?

Yeah, that shotgun he's carrying.

It's made for just one thing, ripping a

man apart at close range.

That bothers you, huh?

A man overly fascinated with a gun always

bothers me.

Good.

Suppose you tag along with Mr. Shaftoe.

Come on, Chester.

Come on!

Come on!

He seems to know where he's going.

Him and Seadry?

They're just about the only ones who know

these high lines.

How many passes has this Shaftoe been on?

None.

Never threw down on a man before.

And he ain't got the bottom to do

it this time, either.

No.

Well, this time a badge makes the difference.

How come?

This time he's got a license to kill.

You sure do know where you're going, don't

you, Mr. Shaftoe?

Big question is, what you gonna do when

you get there?

Man ain't no spooky big-horned goat, no,

sir.

Especially not a natural man like old Seadry.

Yes, sir.

Natural man.

He ain't no runny-nosed tad playing engines.

Bang, bang, you're dead.

Shut up!

You ain't chairing no town council now, Mr.

Shaftoe.

You just a plain old deputy, like us

two.

We'll be coming back down.

I'd say that depends on old Seadry, don't

you?

Man up, Pop.

Sure enough, five dollar a day, man.

The way I see it, some fellas got

it and some ain't.

Now, this here five dollar a day man,

he figures you got it, Mr. Shaftoe.

Me, I figure you don't.

I don't care what anybody figures.

Just don't nobody try to stop me from

my sworn duty.

Nobody.

Now, what you might consider sworn duty, I

might just consider gunning a man down in

cold blood.

If you don't like it, roll up and

roll out.

They sheriff hired me.

I hired the sheriff.

Just be careful how you use that thumb

buster, huh?

You wouldn't be threatening me, would you, mister?

No, I never just threaten.

My sworn duty is to help bring back

Seadry alive and talking.

I intend to do that.

Believe it, Mr. Shaftoe.

Evening, howdy, friends.

And howdy again to you, mister.

Do you mind putting down that handgun by

the fingers?

Well, how do you like this little gathering,

$5 a day man?

Kind of chummy, ain't it?

A spot of hot mud, Seadry?

Yeah, you pour me some.

That's it.

I need this.

Set it down, then back off.

That's right.

Hee hee.

Hee hee.

I see you're coming back up the mountain

again, huh?

Join the posse, Seadry.

$5 a day, man.

All that fuss over me.

Mmm.

This sure tickles a man's gizzard, don't it?

Why did you come here, Seadry?

I got lonely, bird.

You know, you know how the quiet hollers

out at you when you're alone up here?

Yeah, I used to know.

That's all dead and gone now.

Sure was a bust you went on.

Hoo wee.

Yeah.

I heard Teller cut me a wide patch.

Too wide this time.

I told you not to touch that rot

gut again.

I ain't never gonna drink no more.

Never no more.

Too late, Seadry.

I know that doggone old town and that

railroad and them telephone poles.

It's the new folks done it, you know?

You done it.

Same old Seadry.

Bird, I ain't never changed nothing.

That's the trouble.

There's no place in this world for them

that doesn't change with it.

You're a natural man, Seadry.

You could live up here, away from that

old town.

No, a man gets lonely.

A man gets that hunger for old friend

talk.

And sooner or later, I go right back

down there.

And when you do, you gotta get yourself

drunk and tear up the town again, huh?

The time was when you called it just

fun and two.

No more.

You can't do that anymore.

How you gonna pay for $2,000 store

-bought goods, huh?

Well, I didn't mean no harm.

Mean don't count.

Deeds do.

That's the law.

I guess if you say.

You know, but I keep thinking of all

the things that we done together.

Like hunting Bobcat for bounty.

You remember the first time we come up

on this old mountaintop?

It was just tads.

And we come down with cabin fever.

But we was $100 richer each.

I remember that time myself.

Some bust you went on.

Hoo-wee!

You sure treed the town.

He treed the town with you and others

like you.

I put my share down in that store.

I didn't mean to cause no trouble.

I gone and done it again.

It's best if I stay off by myself.

Do what?

Oh, I could, uh, like, hunt some buffalo.

Nah.

No more big herds around here, Cedri.

You know that.

I guess you're right.

Why don't you just come on down with

us, huh?

Him?

Cedri?

Give himself up?

Get it up with.

Serve your sentence.

I can't do that.

He wasn't born for caging.

You stay out of this!

Come on down now, huh?

Make it easy on yourself.

You remember, Birch.

You just remember.

Ah!

You gonna let him get away?

Useless to go after him right now.

Nobody can track that cat man.

We can at least try.

That's what we're getting paid for.

I'm not getting paid for being killed stumbling

around out there in the dark.

Leave him be!

He's mine.

You really think he's gonna use that cannon

come morning?

Lucas!

Hey, Lucas, you all right?

Slip out around here.

No, put a couple of half inches in

it.

All right.

Watch it.

Here we go.

Come on.

He never shied before.

Always was a smart horse.

Don't blame it on that horse.

The saddle just doesn't fall off.

That girth was cut.

Shaft toe.

He's gone.

You still figure that he doesn't have enough

bottom to use that gun?

Well, I ain't about to find out.

All right, suit yourself.

You still going on?

That's right.

Yes, sir.

Five dollar a day, man, for sure.

It's my job.

Making hard for me, Cedric?

Nobody never comes up here.

Nobody never comes up here but you and

me.

Don't make me do it.

Ever since we was kids.

We carved our names up here together.

We come up here was no bigger than

this.

We put our names...

All right, all right, no more talk.

I'm asking you for the last time.

Put your gun down.

I don't want to use this.

What side you got this time?

We've got to choose.

Cowboy or Injun.

This ain't no game, Cedric.

I was Injun last time.

That was over 40 years ago.

Hung up for Injun again?

All right, you got the drop.

Make your play.

We ain't playing cowboys, Cedric.

You know what this gun can do to

you?

I ain't about to be put in no

cage.

I ain't gonna die in no cage.

You remember.

You just remember.

I remember.

All right, I'm the Injun.

Kill me.

Go on, kill me.

You yellow dog, go on, kill me.

Kill me.

Stay out of this.

Drop that shotgun.

You think that badge gives you a license

to kill?

You don't understand.

I'm his friend.

That's why I had to get to him

first.

And kill him, huh?

He promised.

You promised.

You don't kill a man for shooting up

your main street.

Wasn't our main street.

What do you mean?

You said that he ruined $2,000 worth

of your merchandise.

No, this time it wasn't my store.

He busted up another store in another town.

You promised you wasn't gonna let nobody put

old Cedric in a cage.

You don't know how many times he come

down off this mountain...

and got drunk and busted up our town.

You don't know how many times he wrecked

my store.

And I paid off over and over.

Almost bled me dry keeping him out of

jail.

This time it was different.

People in that other town, they don't know

Cedric.

Our sheriff got orders to pick him up...

and turn him over to their law.

I got my orders too.

You promised when we was kids.

Cedric's a natural man, mister.

The last of a dying breed out here.

The sky and the mountains, a running stream.

That's all he really knows.

Strangers, they don't know.

They don't care.

I just couldn't turn him over to strangers.

Get on your horse.

It's gonna be all right, Cedric.

You'll see.

No, it ain't.

Then they're gonna put me in a cage.

You said you'd kill me before you'd let

that happen.

Yeah, let me see that.

Let him kill me, mister.

I want him to.

You'd do the same for an old bobcat

caught in a trap.

If he was gonna die anyway...

Hi.

Wild things die slow in the cage.

He's not a wild thing.

He's a human being.

And as a human being, he's entitled to

the protection of the law.

And the law says bring him in alive.

Cedric don't know anything about any law.

Maybe not, but you do.

And you can't make up your own laws

about killing...

even if you do think it's an act

of mercy.

Now, come on.

Give me your hand.

It's still yours, Cedric.

And it'll all be here when you come

back.

Lead out now, Shaftoe.