Original subtitles

Well?

It ain't long past due now, just you wait.

You told me you had a time device, didn't you?

I do.

Nitric acid, it burns down the trigger spring.

When? What time does your time device work?

You just can't pin it down to the minute.

Well, the hour or the day or the month?

Time device to blow dynamite and acids.

The day I met you,

I should have had my brain weighed.

I'm leaving.

Wait, look. I tell you it'll work.

You all right?

[ coughing ]

I don't know.

But I know something...

she works.

Hocus-pocus and all, she works!

I told you so.

Hoo-whee! [ laughs ]

Partner, we're gonna have us that robbery,

one they'll remember in words four to the pound.

[ laughs ]

He's firming to be a proper man, Sarah.

Is he?

Or is he just dying slowly, like his father before,

trying to bend the land that won't bend.

You know, I told you that fretting is what turns you old.

How do you suppose I'm to be happy marrying an old woman?

I'm sorry, Bob.

It's just that seeing him out there...

in this old homestead.

It might as well be covered with snow

for all we get off it.

It just seems so hopeless.

That's 'cause hope starts with money.

And money is what I aim to bring you.

Ain't I been telling you this from time to time?

You know, Oregon's the talk now,

we could go there with money.

But how?

They won't give you money on a promise.

Well, they will on an invention, Sarah.

This time I know, me and a friend we got--

An invention?That's right.

And it's sure fire to make money,

plenty, money and a preacher.

Now you just give me a good kiss, young lady.

And you set calm for a day or two

while I make the deal.

Well, howdy, son.

I ain't your son, Mr. Murkland.

Peter...

That's all right.

Good man takes time to know, Sarah.

Things are gonna be better around here, son.

Slight easier.

Be an end to chicken scratching, you'll see.

Yes, sir.

Just a couple of days, Sarah...

and there'll be money.

Bye.

He carries power guns, Mr. Murkland does.

You should be nicer, Peter.

He's only trying to help.

Lord knows we can use it.

Now wait a minute, I didn't mean it that way.

No boy could do more than you've done, Peter.

But it takes more than what we can do together.

It takes--Do you love him, Ma?

Do you?

Oh, well, Mr. Murkland is...

is security.

Now every mother has to love that, Peter.

I guess I see,

but I can't help thinking of what Pa used to say.

A man don't carry a gun

who don't aim to shoot it at another.

Are you sure of this man Tenney, Jess?

There's not a better man in the West for the job,

Mr. Wilcox.

You might say I'm staking my life on him.

Yes, I suppose you are,

and I suppose you could say

this town is staking its life on the both of you.

Well, let's go meet this Mr. Tenney and his men, eh?

[ laughing ]

Hey, Neely, hurry it up.

You've been in there long enough to polish you bare.

Not if you want me to get five months of dirt off

in 5 minutes.

Who's got my boots?

Oh! Harley, what are you doing?

Shaving or plowing?

Harley, you got a towel?

No, I'm sorry, I've got-- but you boys,

I'm out of soap, I'm out of towels, I...

Give me a towel!

Oh, give him mine, Harley, came to me, well recommended.

Here, take it.

Jess!

Speak of the devil, what do you know?

How are you? Good, good.

I want you to meet our bank president, Mr. Wilcox.

United States Marshal Jim Tenney.

Pleasure, Mr. Wilcox.Marshal Tenney.

Couldn't have picked a better man to ride shotgun, sir.

Shipment's halfway there with Jess in the box.

Well, Jess seems to have a correspondingly

high opinion of you.

[ men laughing ]

Your-- Your men, Marshal...

Just peeling off trail dust, sir.

You, know I'd be a lot less than honest

if I didn't tell you I never would have sent for you

if Indian trouble hadn't depleted our law force

here in town.

Sheriff Corey won't be back for at least another week.

Jess mentioned that in his letter.

Marshal, this is a shipment of $50,000

for redeposit in Denver.

It represents the lifeblood of our town.

Now if anything should happen,

most of us would be wiped out.

I can understand that, sir.

Yes.[ men laughing ]

But do your men?

My men?

Marshal, they sound like they're getting ready

to go on a picnic.

Men who enjoy life, Mr. Wilcox...

Are particular how they give it up.

It's still my motto, Jess.

And a good one.

Well, I...

I guess I never thought of it that way.

They have, sir.

The joking stops when the guns strap on.

They've come up against the toughest hard cases

in this country, Mr. Wilcox, and they're still here.

No trouble, is it, boss?

No, no trouble.

This is Mr. Wilcox, president of the bank.

And, Mr. Wilcox, these are my picnickers.

Dan, you want to take a last check on that equipment?

Yes, sir.

Well, should we go over those plans, Mr. Wilcox?

Yeah, yeah, fine.

What's more, we'll do it over a bottle of napoleon brandy.

You all go ahead.

I got to send some equipment out to the ranch.

Save a drink for me.

All right, Jess. Marshal.

Hey. It's a long night to recall,

but you haven't forgotten us already, have you?

Miss Curtis to strangers. Strangers?

Well, you can't hardly call us strangers,

seeing as we nearly drank you and that saloon of yours dry.

Oh, yeah, the guards with the shipment. Yeah.

You were singing under the tablecloth.

And you were showing how Washington

crossed the Delaware to greet his troops at Bull Run.

And you...

Like I said, Katie, it was a long night.

As I recall, you spent most of it

sleep under the tablecloth.

What are you boys doing out here

in the daylight anyway?

Business. We're gonna be back through here in about a week.

Five men, good and true, with full pay.

Well, if you want to lighten your pockets,

you know where the casino is.

Hey, you don't seem very impressed with us, girl.

Why should I be?

This town's got no shortage of good guys.

Take that one who's coming, for instance.

You take him, Katie, we've already got him.

Excuse me.

Katie, would you do me a favor?

I'd be glad to, Jess.

I'm in kind of a hurry.

See if you could run down Willard Smith

and give him this list of supplies for me

to take out to the ranch.

Sure, Jess, I'd be glad to.

This really your idea of a man, Katie?

I'd never look any further.

Then you've missed a lot.

I guess it's all a matter of choice.

Why don't you stay in town, Jess?

They've got enough guns for one little bitty stage.

Well, that's an important shipment, Katie,

about the most important ever left this town.

I think the lady's got a good point, Harper.

Why don't you stay in town?

What are you getting at?

I'll be simple enough.

Tenney and us, we work together as a team.

We've all taken enough lead in us to bottom of boat.

There ain't a man amongst us

don't know what the man next to him is gonna do

when the smoke starts.

Oh, we don't know nothing about you,

nothing that's any good.

Meaning what?

Meaning a man's been on a wanted poster

don't usually ride with the law.

That was a long time ago.

I suppose you've never been part of a gang, huh?

I said it was a long time ago!

What I did, I paid for!

Now if you don't want me riding with you,

you tell Tenney.

I'll take his say so, not yours.

It was Wilcox demanded you, not Jim.

I got me a history of reading men right, cowboy,

and I read you as being yellow as mustard

without the bite.

JIM: Hold it!

Pardon me, ma'am.

Now you keep this up and someone's gonna

get a wrinkle in their spine.

Anybody want to be first?

Dan, did you check that gear?

Right away.

Well, I guess I better deliver your list, Jess.

Thank you, Katie.

Now come on, ain't often

we got a banker waiting for us.

Jim...

what about it?

Was it Wilcox or you that asked for me?

Oh, pay him no mind, Jess.

They just worked together so long, that's all.

Ain't no one I'd rather have in the box than you.

What about it?

Yeah, it was Wilcox,

but he knows you, and he don't know me.

That makes sense, don't it?

I don't know.

Sure you're not recalling

what happened to me and Prescott,

like Garnes is trying to do?

You were proved innocent, weren't you?

You know I was.

All right, then why should I call it to mind?

Come on, napoleon brandy, remember?

[ knocking on door ]

Who is it?

Ulysses S. Grant.

The surprise better work.

I just seen Tenney and his men in the street

as I rode in.

Yeah, the same Tenney and the same men

that near stopped the Lincoln County War

all by their selves.

Eh, won't be many be fighting this time.

Be a bomb like the end of the world

or the beginning, take your pick.

What time she set to blow?

Ah, about midnight.

I figure that they'll be at the Three River relay station

for the night by then,

and we'll move in without being seen.

And when she blows, we'll have

a flat path to the loot, then we move in and--

And then we'll be fatter than a fox in a hen's pen.

We'll ride two men in front of the stage,

two men to the rear, two men inside of the shipment.

Jess, you're up on top with the driver.

Carry no passengers and only the lightest freight.

Mm-hmm. Well, what about your stops?

Only at the relay stations and only at night,

at which time we'll run the stage inside the stables,

changing guard around the clock.

Mm-hmm.

Well, Jess, how does all this sound to you?

Good by me, sir.

To Denver.

Uh, it's too big.

Oh, please, mister, these are the only effects

left of my wife's.

You see, I lost her.

She was killed in an Indian raid

down in Twin Bukes.

I'd like to send these to her sister.

It was a bad raid, Mr. Garnes.

It's tender.

I mean, see, I ain't much on wrapping

and, well, I'd just as soon take my chances on the stage,

that is if you don't mind.

Don't seem heavy, Mr. Garnes.

All right, stuff it in.

I hope your sister-in-law will be pleased

with the effects.

She will.

All right, Jess.

Go.

Ho!

I'll check the cabins.

Unhitch the horses.

Hey, hey, it's about time now.

All right, let's close in.

When's it going off?

Anytime now, anytime.

[ footsteps approaching]

What are you doing out here?

Garnes, Jim was right.

It's a long ride to Denver.

We ain't gonna make it any easier

quarreling all the time.

I'm willing to let it lay if you are.

I'll be honest with you, I ain't no saint,

I don't figure you're one either.

No argument there. Yeah.

Tenney spilled it out for me a little while ago, I...

found out all about you and your past.

Sorry I was so mule stubborn.

Forget it.

[ gunshots ]

See if they got the money, Neely.

Burnt but alive, Jim.

So is this one but Lord knows how.

The money's gone, boss!

I'm gonna round up the horses.

Right.

Dan, give me a hand getting these men into camp,

start patching them up

and Jess and I'll start trailing.

You ain't leaving me here.

Somebody's got to stay with them.

There'll be a stage through here tomorrow,

get them on it, see they get to a doctor.

Yes, sir.

Murkland?

I can't make it.

Oh, we got a start on them, let's rest.

Ain't any use.

I feel the life leaking out of my body.

Come on, take some water.

Ain't any use I tell you.

Bob...

Why do men take sort of frothing over money?

[ gasps ]

Ha! Ha!

They've split up.

Then so will we.

You trail that one, I'll take this one.

[ horse neighing ]

I caught one.

How bad?

Not too bad.

He was waiting up there for me.

They split us up on purpose.

I found my man dead in his saddle.

Yours must have run him up the trail

so as we'd split up.

How about the money?

Must be on the other one.

Then we'll find it and take it off him.

It's gonna be me doing the finding, Jim.

Why?

You're going back.

You do any long riding and that's gonna worsen

and you know it.

I can ride.

Yeah, but not far enough and not fast enough.

You'll slow me up, Jim.

I tell you I can ride!

[ groans ]

Maybe you're right.

I better get moving.

Jess, you get him, I don't care how or when,

but you get him.

I'll get him.

[ hollow clang ]

[ horse neighs ]

[ gunshots ]

Are you a lawman?

If I was, you'd be tied across that saddle

right now, wouldn't you?

Not if I wasn't all you come for.

I seen you once when I come to.

You were searching for something.

Yeah, and I found it...

in your pocket.

[ scoffs ] Found it.

I happened to be at a relay station last night

when a bank shipment was stolen.

And bank shipments use nice new bills like these.

Then you are a lawman.

No, I'm just a windmill monkey

to the dog that will trail to the end

if the stakes are high enough.

I got a swap for you.

Swap?

You need doctoring real bad.

I'll get you to one for a share of this money.

I ain't sharing nothing.

[ coughing ]

That bullet's in pretty deep, it's gonna have to come out.

Can you get it out?

Maybe...

with plenty of hot water and bandages.

And I'll tell you where you can find them.

There's a cabin to the end of this north ridge.

You take me there and patch me up

and I'll swap you a share of the money.

Oh, I couldn't. You need a doctor.

In town I don't know what you do,

there's a cabin.

You either fix me up or all the money

you'd end up with is just what you got in your hand.

Well, what do you say, doctor?

You got yourself a deal.

[ horses approaching ]

What happened?

He stopped some lead, ma'am.

You better get a bed ready for him.

Give me a hand, boy.

Is he going to be all right?

I hope so.

Is he your husband?

No!

Sorry, Ma.

He's my fiancé.

I better start working on him while he's still unconscious.

What are you gonna do?

If I don't get that lead out of him,

he'll be dead by nightfall.

He's liable to anyway.

Get me some boiling water and some clean rags.

Do you want your fiancé alive or dead?

Oh, I'm sorry.

I'll get it.

You his business partner?

You could say that.

The two of you gunmen, most likely.

Most likely it takes all kinds.

You got a poker around here, boy?

Yeah.

Stick in that stove and get it red hot for me.

Why should I help him?

'Cause he's a human being and he's in pain!

Now do what I tell you.

I reckon I can stay up with him, Ma.

Thank you, Peter.

Thank you most deeply, but this is my duty,

but thank you.

I saw some deer sign coming down the valley today.

When he wakes up, he's gonna need some real meat broth.

You reckon you could take me where they are?

I think so.

The best time for hunting is early in the morning.

Best you get some sleep.

Goodnight, Ma.

Goodnight.

Boy.

I appreciate your help.

It took a man.

Thank you, sir.

Did I hear you say you were Bob's business partner?

No, I just said that to ease the boy.

I never saw the man before.

You didn't even know Bob?

No, I found him on a trail.

He'd been shot.

He mentioned this cabin.

And you brought him all this way and tended him so.

Well, that's a right Christian act, mister.

What we've been through and I don't even know your name.

My name's Sarah Hodding.

My son's name is Peter.

Jess Harper, ma'am.

It was a proper Christian act, Mr. Harper,

we're most beholden.

Man ought to do what he thinks is right.

His pulse is strong.

I think he's gonna be all right.

You aiming on marrying him?

A woman needs a man to stand by.

A man her son don't like?

Peter's young.

And the young are truthful.

I'm sorry, I had no call to say that.

I'll be honest, Mr. Harper.

I'm getting older.

Bob Murkland was a, was a chance to,

to leave this...

to leave this land

that took from me the man I loved.

When Bob came here with his talk of inventions and money

and a fresh start, well...

Oh, what's the use of talking about it.

There's no money.

I guess deep down I knew there never would be.

You could be wrong.

Maybe whoever shot him was after the money.

And maybe he hid it when he was holding them off.

I heard a lot of shooting when I rode up.

I'd like to believe in it.

You know, Bob's got a mark of Cain about him,

something my husband used to call the, the devil's shadow.

I never realized it until tonight.

Tonight?

Yeah, the difference of feelings between you and him.

Bob never would have come all this way

and fought for a stranger's life and won,

took hold of Peter quiet and sure.

It was a man's way...

a man complete.

Such a man could do most anything.

It touches folks around him.

I, I didn't mean to sound so forward, Mr. Harper.

Please excuse me.

I'm honored, ma'am.

But a man ain't always what he seems.

I'm gonna get me some sleep.

You call me if he worsens.

There's one.

No, you take it.

I'm still out of breath.

Missed.

Yeah, you stopped your rifle.

You got to follow through with your swing

before you squeeze your shot off.

That's all right, there'll be another one along.

Come on, let's sit.

I reckon I ain't shot much.

Pa wasn't strong on it.

With him, it was a cause of trouble.

Trouble is not in the gun, Peter,

it's in the man behind it.

Pa might have said that.

Same as he might have said about

helping a human being in pain, no matter what your feelings.

Sacrifice, giving no mind in return.

I reckon you're a lot like Pa except...

Except what?

Except you can do what you say, Pa could only say it.

He was a dreamer I guess.

Least that's what Ma said.

Then you should have been proud of him.

It takes two kinds of people to make up a country, Peter.

Doers and dreamers

and the doers don't have anything to do

unless the dream's there first.

I never thought of that.

What's that make Mr. Murkland then?

He's either one or none.

That's hard to tell.

You got to know a man first.

Yeah, I suppose so.

But I'm glad you and him wasn't business partners

like I thought.

Ma told me.

I guess he aims to make her happy and all but...

well, I'm just glad.

I suppose it isn't right to give the quick of your feelings

but, well, when I'm with you, Jess, it's like,

like there couldn't be nothing wrong with living, ever.

Thank you kindly, Peter.

Easy, drink it slow.

Sarah, Peter.

Oh, you can't know

what it's like to be amongst friends.

I had a little dream.

Went something different.

Oh, you remember Mr. Harper.

At least you should, he brought you here.

He took the bullet out of you and doctored you proper.

It's an act of pure Christian sacrifice.

You owe your life to him, Bob.

Pure Christian sacrifice.

How upright of you, Mr. Harper. Right.

I got us some money, Sarah, invention paid off.

Oh, really?

I hid it back on the trail when bandits tried to get me.

Oh, Bob, I-- I doubted you so.

It don't matter, Sarah.

It's a new life for you and Peter

that's important.

You got that now.

Leave me.

I got to talk to Mr. Harper.

Drink this.

Now you know why I done it.

They need money.

It takes money to get a fresh start.

Yeah, I can see that.

I figured you would as soon as I got you down here.

Maybe you can see this too.

It's gonna take all the money that's hid back there

to get to Oregon and all.

I can't split it, Harper.

Oh, I could, I could give you something for your--

Get this straight.

There's only one thing to see

and one thing to say, Murkland.

I'm taking everything that's coming to me, everything.

In case you hatch up any ideas why you're mending, don't,

because you were unconscious when I brought you here

and I'm the only one who knows the trail back.

And on top of that, there's only two guns in this cabin

and they both belong to me.

So I ain't giving, I'm taking.

You got a surprise coming.

Well, now, Peter, two more of these

and you can take her past the moon

without spilling a box.

Cut that other sapling in two for me, will you?

Oh, you bet, Jess.

Here, Jess.

Jess, what's-- what's Oregon like?

I hear it's so nice that even the sun is green

and you can grow things just by smiling at them.

It must be pretty though.

It will be a sight prettier after you get there, Sarah.

There you go.

Always know the right thing to say and do,

don't you, Mr. Harper?

Maybe I should have said if you get there.

If I get there, what do you mean?

Well, there ain't nothing that's certain

except night and day.

Can't pin your hopes on just one thing...

'cause something can always rise up and change them.

Nothing's gonna rise up and change my hopes...

except of course if there's wasn't any money,

but that's all taken care of.

Yeah, that's taken care of.

Besides, even if I had to stay here,

it wouldn't be the same place.

It'd be the place where I met you...

and found out what decency and kindness

and strength can become in a man.

Man ain't always what he seems, Sarah.

You said that once before

and I still don't change my opinion.

I hope you won't ever have to.

I won't.

That's the only thing that's certain,

except night and day.

[ chopping wood ]

Hey, we won't even get a start to Oregon

if your son doesn't cut that sapling in two.

I better help him.

Just like lightning, Jess,

never strikes twice in the same place.

You're coming down too hard, throws your aim off.

Let the axe fall easy, the blade does the cutting.

Here.

Ain't there nothing you can't do?

Sure, there's lots of things I can't do.

It took me a whole box of shells

before I got my first deer.

Come on, let's get that wagon fixed.

[ gasps ]

Who was you expecting?

You've been drinking.

Well, now I reckon that's more like a wife.

Where did you get it?

I brought a couple of bottles back in the last trip

for celebrating.

It's time for celebrating, ain't it, girl?

I done healed, I got money and I'm taking myself a wife.

Come on, it ain't often we're to ourselves.

Stop.

Oh, I ain't got enough decency

or kindness or strength, is that it?

You were listening to us. Yeah.

Yeah, and it near turned my stomach,

decency, kindness, Christian acts.

Anything he's done has been for his self, you hear?

What are you saying?

I'm saying that Mr. Harper didn't do no sacrificing.

All he done was a make a bargain

with a dying man.

He'd tend me, sure,

so long as I'd share that money with him

when I got well.

That's our money, Sarah.

Well, that's not true.

Oh, it's true.

It's true, all right, as certain as night and day.

Well, that's a lie!

It's a lie, you hear?

Hold on, Peter.

He can't go on saying that.

Yes, he can 'cause it's true.

You mean you did all what you done for the money?

That's right.

[ laughs ]

Peter, listen to me.

Leave me be.

Look, it's not the way you think--

Leave me be, I say.

All right, let's hold it up.

We can walk to it from here.

Well, kind of like coming back to your grave.

You might say it came close enough

to be in a grave, wouldn't you, Harper?

Just get the money.

The money?

Near forgot.

But that'd never happen to you, would it, Harper?

I reckon you've been living with the thought of that money

ever since we left here.

Well, it wasn't too far.

Near as close as a hand to a glove.

Ah, they look as good as new.

Except maybe what a trade rat might've packed at.

That's right.

That's the gun I took off of Boyd.

Maybe you remember Boyd, Harper.

Maybe you trailed a horse carrying a dead man.

I'd say you remember.

'Cause I had a chance to do me some recalling

while I was mending.

And I done recalled your face.

He was crossing the street with Jim Tenney

the day I rode into Laramie.

That makes you a law-dogger smelling most the same.

I was riding shotgun on that stage

you blew up and robbed with your invention.

That invention of yours almost killed five good men.

Huh, then I ain't finished yet.

What's he saying, Bob?

Just stay set, Sarah.

I'm saying that money belongs to the people of Laramie

and you're gonna marry a no good thief, Sarah.

You're wrong there too 'cause I ain't marrying nobody.

I never planned to.

What I got, I'm taking lonesome.

You expected different?

A prune with a kid

that can't scratch his self without a guide.

You had a proper hideout, that's all I wanted.

That and this...

He'll be all right, Sarah.

It's just a flesh wound.

Oh, thank the Lord.

[ groans ]

Is he...?

Yeah, he is.

I figured if, if I...

Sacrificed a little.

You're gonna be all right, Peter.

In fact, you're gonna be plenty all right.

It was very nice of you

to share your Sunday supper with us, Mrs. Cooper.

Oh, we enjoyed having you.

I hope you and Peter will have a safe trip.

Write to us soon.

Thank you. We will.

I wish you'd listen, Sarah.

Oregon's a long way off with that load you got to go on.

I know, Jess.

I suppose we're foolish but we've talked it over.

We figured we couldn't go back to the cabin to stay.

It's what it amounts to, Jess.

I reckon I understand.

Jess, our wagon, it's gone.

Well, so it is.

But our wagon, that's all we had in the world, Jess,

I wouldn't say that, Sarah.

[ horses approaching ]

Easy, boy.

I don't understand.

Well, the new wagon was Marshal Tenney's idea.

And, well, Jess and I talked the stage line

into donating those horses.

But why?

Well, ma'am, if that money hadn't been recovered,

I'd be back to skinning mules.

And, Sarah,

besides all your personal belongings in there,

there's everything you could possibly want on the trip.

Including a dog for Pete.

[ barking ]

Plus a $1,000 reward.

One? Oh, Jess, you were the one that--

Jess tells it differently.

If it hadn't been for your son here,

Murkland might never have been taken.

We're real proud of you, boy.

Oh, I don't know what to say.

Well, there's nothing left to say, except goodbye.

If it sounds like we're hurrying you a little, we are.

See, there's a wagon train coming to the forks

in a couple of minutes.

We arranged for you to go along with them.

[ barks ]