Original subtitles

♪ Rollin', rollin', rollin' ♪

- Hyah! -♪ Rollin', rollin', rollin' ♪

♪ Keep movin', movin', movin' ♪

♪ Though they're disapprovin' ♪

♪ Keep them dogies movin' ♪

♪ Rawhide ♪

♪ Don't try to understand them ♪

♪ Just rope and throw and brand 'em ♪

♪ Soon we'll be livin' high and wide ♪

♪ My heart's calculatin' ♪

♪ My true love will be waitin' ♪

♪ Be waiting at the end of my ride ♪

♪ Move 'em on, head 'em up, head 'em up, move 'em on ♪

♪ Move 'em on, head 'em up, Rawhide ♪

-(whip cracks) -♪ Cut 'em out, ride 'em in ♪

♪ Ride 'em in, let 'em out, cut 'em out, ride 'em in ♪

-♪ Rawhide...! ♪ -♪ Rollin', rollin', rollin' ♪

♪ Rollin', rollin', rollin' ♪

- Hyah! -♪ Rollin', rollin', rollin'. ♪

(whip cracks twice)

[MAN WHISTLES]

[YELLS]

FAVOR: Let's keep moving there.

JOSH: Yeah!

- It'll snow? - Oh, why not?

Everything else has happened on this drive.

Hey, Quince, keep them closed in.

[MEN YELLING]

Hey, Yo Yo, don't let that shorthorn twist back on you there.

Josh, wake up, man. Come on, keep them moving there.

Aah. Yaah! Uhn.

Oh, boy, you got a crick again.

Thanks, boy.

Towns. Squaw ways, store-bought.

Hog in a sty's got more room to breathe.

Ain't like being out, out on a move.

You always been on the move, huh, Josh?

Near ways, and I've done it all.

Set traps, hauled pelt, run buffalo, then steer.

I'll live to see the end of that too.

And when the last drive comes I'm gonna be there to ride in it.

You wait and see.

Oh, boy. Oh, boy.

You tear every rib, you bust every gut

to get them in somehow with a paste-and-patch crew,

one of them old enough to be Andy Jackson's granddaddy,

another as green and dumb as spring grass,

washout at Bent's Crossing,

dry holds from Harlan's Point to Coyote Ford,

and somehow you'll finally get them here, and what?

No train.

You get the feeling we've been jinxed on this trip?

[FAVOR GROANS]

You nearly let that little old longhorn get away from you, didn't you? Huh?

Well, now, what'd you figure I was gonna do, just fall off and dog him?

That's what he'd have done. Ain't that so, Pap?

Never saw a steer I couldn't dog.

Look, I got me 5 hard dollars to see you do it right now.

- How much you got? - I got the same.

All right, get out your money.

- They're trying to rile you, Josh. - You just stay out of it, Mushy.

I'm sorry, Favor, but till I know when the train's due,

I can't set any kind of price with you.

Why, that herd of yours could eat half the profit out of it in a week.

Not at 36, 37 dollars a head.

And they're worth that or more at the slaughter yards.

But I gotta ship them to the slaughter yards first.

No, you can take them to another broker

or you can pay to keep them here. That's up to you, I'm sorry.

He's sorry?

A hundred miles of drought, a hundred of mud...

[MEN CLAMORING]

[MEN LAUGHING]

Hey, Josh, don't let him stick his horn in.

[COW MOOING]

[MEN CLAMORING]

Well, of course, that's $10.

[COW MOOING]

He did it.

[COWS MOOING]

MAN: I got a little one, Josh.

That tears it.

- Well, you done it, Josh. - Collect the money.

I'm gonna get washed.

FAVOR: Hey, Josh?

Come on, get those kids back from here.

If they break loose we're really in trouble.

Rowdy, take over. Get everybody out of here.

- Get them quieted down. - Where you going?

I'm going to get rid of that jinx you was mentioning.

[GROANING]

[BREATHING DEEPLY]

Dry holds, floods, no train. That ain't enough for you, huh?

You're gonna horse around until we really lose the herd,

just because you're a stubborn old man

what ought to be snoring at flies in a poor farm.

Well, no more, old man.

You can pack off, and I mean right now.

You firing me? You can't.

I quit on better men before you were bite-weaned, 40 years back.

Forty years back. I know, I know. What was it? The...

- You broke trail through... - The Apache land. Yes, I did.

- Took a herd across the Rockies. - Rode them to Pike's Creek.

I've heard them all 20 times.

Save them to swap at the old folks' home.

Wait a minute, listen. You gotta listen to me--

[JOSH GROANS]

Josh.

Josh, you all right?

Leave off me.

- Hey, somebody, give a hand here. - Leave me be.

All right, all right, look, I had to blow up at something.

You can stay on. I'll put you on the tote wagon on the ride back.

We're gonna clear out of here.

- Get up. - Look, I said I was sorry.

I don't want your sorries or anybody else's.

Maybe I don't have a home or a family or a trade,

but I still got one thing: I got a belly full of pride.

Clean pans and pick rags.

I'd rather root for stinkweed first.

I don't want nothing from you.

And if you ever hunker down on me ever again,

I'll settle if it takes the last breath I've got.

Come on, Mush.

JOSH: You smell that? Mountains.

There ain't no mountains around here, Josh. This is plains land.

They're out there, all right, humping up against the clouds.

Land out there a man can breathe in. Ain't run over with no Gil Favors yet.

And that's where we gonna hire ourselves, boy.

Now you stop in again, Mrs. Pitman. Come next town's day, huh?

Goodbye. Thank you.

No, young man, you don't have to tell me your name again.

Morning meal.

Oatmeal, gruel, mush, mushy...

Mr. Mushgrove, you see?

I've never lost track of a single letter yet.

Sure, ma'am, Harkness Mushgrove Ill.

And I'm expecting a letter from Ms. Teya Vassily from Abilene.

- Or thereabouts somewhere. - Is that what you dragged us here for?

Get a letter from some skittery female you got the moon-pines for?

I wouldn't put it like that, Josh. I mean, I like her and all that.

Matter of fact, I like her a lot.

And she's the only real girl I ever had.

And Teya, she's the kind of girl that likes you back too.

Her and her folks got one of those traveling shows,

with jugglers and knife throwers. It's very exciting.

Well, when I get a better job someday and more responsibility,

I mean, when I can handle a better job, I'm gonna go back and get her.

I'm sorry, young man. There's no letter for you.

Why, are you sure, ma’am?

I mean, I put it down so she could write to general delivery here.

Well, maybe she send it care of your grandfather there.

- What's his name? - The name is Josh Breedon, auntie.

And I ain't his or anybody else's grandpap,

and I got no future plans to be either.

Breedon. Breedon. Breed.

Spring, summer, fall, winter. That's it.

You hear me, auntie? Letter.

Last time a letter come for me was sometime during the war.

Advertisement circular for some kind of a bile tonic.

- Here it is. Winter, dead file. - Couldn't be for me.

It most certainly is. Plain on the top here's written "Mr. Joshua Breedon."

It was mailed here in Union City, only there was no return address on it,

so it was put in the dead-letter file a year ago April.

Well, open it and read it, Josh.

My threading glasses is a little fuzzy.

You letter it out for me, huh?

If you don't mind, would you please just step aside?

I like to keep the counter clear for business.

- Sure, ma'am. - Can't even stand by the counter.

Favor probably, spreading tales about me.

No, he wouldn't do that, Josh.

- I mean, he's a very nice man. - You don't know his kind.

I want you to be a friend of his, Josh.

I mean, sure, he yells at you. He yells at me too.

Why, a year ago on a drive,

he yelled at a tree stump that was in the way of his horse.

Well, he yells because he has to. Because he's the boss.

- You gonna read that letter? - I'll read it for you.

"Dear Josh, I am sending this off.."

Whoever wrote this has got a good hand.

"I am sending this off to the postal at Santa Fe

on the chance of reaching you there."

You know, I didn't even go to school. I got a big book on words.

"I guess you remember old Lazarus, the Greek.

- Well, just this last Wednesday--" - I remember him.

He use to run cattle through Apache country

over the other side of the border.

- He got him a herd of goats. - Herd of goats?

Yeah, he used to sour up the milk from them. Go ahead.

"Well, just this last Wednesday,

sad word came to me that he has passed beyond.

Since he did not have neither no family or any people in this country,

he has left and bequeathed his ranch and land to you and me.

Since because of the way it is law-worded,

the land and goods are left to both of us together,

so I'll wait here until you come or send word ahead to me."

If that don't prove our fate. Yeah.

Eat dark meat today and white meat tomorrow.

It turns. Look at that, see how that glittered up?

Something nipped me yesterday to shine that up.

You don't believe in that old Indian charm thing, do you?

Well, them Chiricahua, they got something.

They know things.

I saw a man once stick his hand right into a fire

and take it out without a single mark on it.

Oh, I don't mean I believe it exactly, but there's that letter for example.

- Who is it from? - I don't know.

The first name starts with an A and the last one's Seton.

- I don't know any Seton. - Well, the signature is kind of scrawly.

It's not written like the rest of the letter.

Yeah, I do. I do. Aaron Seton. Bigger.

Why, it's 30 years since I heard from him last.

We used to ride the range together. Sam Clintock.

Out in the Dakotas, west toward Wyoming land.

Whoo. The stories I could tell you about him.

He had a hide on him that was tougher than a wild boar.

He was bigger than a longhorn. That's how he come by the name.

Old Bigger. Hmm.

Oh. Where's it say he's at?

It don't say. In fact, it don't say where that ranch is or what's on it.

Cattle, of course. Yeah.

And maybe there'll be a hacienda too, if it's over the border.

You wait a year from now.

Yeah, it'll be Gil Favor who'll be whimpering to us for a job.

It was my lucky angel that was whispering in my ear

when I told Favor off and quit him.

I guess so. Now we gotta find out where that friend of yours is.

I'll find him quick enough.

You go on, peel off, join the boys and have some fun.

Maybe I ought to go see Mr. Favor and get our trail pay first.

Nope.

Well, he won't mind if we're not lined up formal-like. We earned it.

Forget it and go join the boys.

How we gonna have any fun without our pay?

- I don't want nothing from Favor. - But he owes it to you, Josh.

I don't wanna spend the rest of my life behind bars.

And if I were to meet up with him now, I'd hurt him.

All right, I'll be seeing you.

Fort Union to Dodge. I'll be driving out next 15th.

I'll pay a day for a week trail bonus for any drovers signing up with me now.

Here, put your names or your marks in the book there

and who you drove for last.

Now, any flat-river man or any bummers, just keep on moving by.

I don't want you.

No, no one by the name of Seton here, or ever was.

He's a big man, red hair thicker than buffalo fur,

and a mustache that bristled down into his beard.

- Wanna look for yourself? - Bigger was a high liver.

May just be that this ain't the best hotel in town.

Maybe not, but it's the only one.

There's some board-and-keep houses across the way in Upper Town.

- You might ask around up there. - Yeah.

Yeah, this will not reach. Grease down the axels.

- Mr. Favor. - Mushy, why aren't you with the men?

I seen them up the street. They're heading somewheres.

I don't mind. I kind of like being by myself today.

- Yeah, yeah, sure. - Well, can I give you a hand?

Look, Mush, you got some time off. Take advantage of it.

First off, get yourself to a barber shop and then go on down to the saloon,

watch the rest of them making fools of themselves.

Pick yourself up a restaurant meal.

Hey, you haven't even picked up your paycheck yet.

MUSHY: Not yet.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Take Josh Breedon's down to him too.

He won't be any problem to find.

He'll be standing on some street corner shouting to everybody

about the good old days when everybody was 9 feet tall,

Except him, of course. He was 10 feet tall.

I don't think Josh will be needing his pay, Mr. Favor.

You better hold on to it for him for a while.

What happened to him? He fall into a bucket of gold?

Oh, Mr. Pine, any word yet?

But your credit's still good with me. You see your herd's still in my pen.

But don't take it too hard.

I think I'll go down to the saloon.

Sometimes they get to fighting down here.

Carry on, Mush. I got to take it hard. Too many people to think about.

The drovers and their families and all the people counting on them.

Yeah, it's all right to worry about them, but don't make yourself sick over them.

- Now, you take this fellow Josh-- - Oh, yeah.

I'm afraid he was just the handiest thing to come down on at the time.

I got to do something about him.

What's an old boy like that gonna do with no kin,

no money saved up, no job?

Oh, trail driving is a young man's work, you know that.

Old fellow like him ought to get himself a stay-put job,

like counting head, for instance.

You know, I've had three of them drift off on me just this year.

Say, what about Josh? Maybe you could use him.

Well, maybe, you know,

if he knows cattle and he can scribble and count some, yeah.

Anyway, you know it ought to quiet him down

- when he finds out you got him a job. - No, no, no.

Let's not mention my name. His pride is rubbed too raw as it is.

Well, anyway you say, but I still need a man, any age, any size.

But not one that's gonna drift off on me.

I'd say Josh is just about drifted out.

Well, there's one load off my mind.

I think I'll go in town, check at the telegraph.

Oh, wait a minute, telegraph's been out a week.

You know, they only got it as far as Fort Barker.

Fort Barker. Well, they probably know about the train there anyways.

Where's the best saloon in town?

Oh, there ain't but two left now the Short Dollar burned down. Why?

Well, the best saloon would have the prettiest girls,

and the prettiest girls would have Mr. Rowdy Yates,

and Mr. Rowdy Yates is gonna be my personal telegraph.

[BOTH LAUGH]

[ROWDY GRUNTS]

What was that for now?

I was getting to know those two girls.

Don't like to see a man ever have any pleasures in life, do you?

You've had enough pleasures for right now,

especially since you're going on a nice little ride.

I don't want on any drive anywhere. Where?

Well, the telegraph line is still in to Fort Barker.

At least they'll know if the train is going...

How many drinks did you set up for those two little things?

Those little things, I only just kept up with them, that's all.

I can see that now that we're out in the light.

- How many have I got up? - How many what?

Yeah, I thought. Well...

[KNOCKS]

- Mrs. Arnold? - No, Nellie. Oh.

How do? Why didn't you tell me there was a gentleman here?

Well, go on, go on. Don't just stand there twiddling.

There's the dining table to dust and trash to empty.

Come in, come in.

Girls you get these days. No sense of responsibility.

Well, I guess you've come to see our vacancy.

It's a nice airy room just right for a man of your age,

downstairs so you don't have to climb.

First to climb the Raton, and I could do it again this year.

That's near Denver, ain't it, Raton? Had a sister lived there, Denver.

Now, there's a wash stand down the end of the hall

and fresh linen twice a month.

- Mrs. Arnold, I-- - No, no, no, I'm Mrs. Moyer.

Mrs. Arnold went back to Boston

to live out the last days of her life with her daughter.

I never could see the reason to go to the expense of a new sign.

- Mrs. Moyer-- - I usually ask for references,

but I can see you're a gentleman.

One thing I do make a rule on though, $25 deposit.

- Ma'am, I-- - It's not for me.

It's to cover undertaking and embalming fees

in case a sad occurrence should take place.

Well, now I'll show you the room.

I didn't come to look at a room. I'm ain't fixing to stay on in this town.

I come to find my friend Bigger.

I understand he keeps and boards here.

Aaron Seton is his proper name.

Well, why didn't you tell me that straight off?

I'll fetch him right in to you.

MOYER: I don't know his name. You better ask him for yourself.

MAN: What? MOYER: Ask him for yourself!

MAN: What?

[MOYER GROANS]

You're gonna have to talk into his good ear. It's the other side.

That ain't Bigger Seton. Not the Bigger Seton that I mean.

Oh, he's the only Seton in this town.

Oh. He was big-- He was-- He looked different, younger.

Well, we all was once.

Now I'm gonna leave you to visit with your friend who's come to take you off.

You didn't tell me nobody was coming.

Now I'm gonna miss my nap.

MOYER: Now, don't you get into one of your crotchety moods.

It ain't polite when people come to call.

And you make yourself complete to home.

[DOOR CLOSES]

I know you.

I remember...

Some place.

Bigger, it's me, Josh Breedon.

My eyes water some. I don't see as good as I did.

Bigger, it's me, Josh Breedon.

I knew I knowed you.

Like a root chuck come up for air,

takes me a few minutes to get my sight.

Josh Breedon.

I knowed you'd come.

You ain't changed one day to 10 years.

It's the same with you, Bigger.

[CHUCKLES]

You don't see her around no place, do you?

I got a little something for you and me.

[BIGGER CHUCKLES]

Nice young fellow sneaks it in to me every week.

It ain't much good, but it'll wet you some and kill off the hunkers.

[CHUCKLES]

- Go ahead. - Hmm.

- Ahh. - Heh-heh.

[SNIFFS]

It's better than that slew mix that you used to churn up

when we had those diggings out on the Placer.

I weren't there. I never got to go to the goldfields.

No? Well, maybe there was some another fellow.

Some days I get all muddled up on my names.

I know.

The last roundup on Wind River Creek.

That's where we first met up, wasn't it?

- Uh-huh. - Ha-ha.

That was a hooter, wasn't it?

You and Jed Coombs. All one day and half the next.

[BOTH LAUGH]

Best fight I ever saw.

They were good days, Josh.

Good days.

How's it come you happened to be here?

The letter that you writ.

About the old Greek who died and left his land to us.

I guess I figured you was dead and wouldn't show up.

I ain't dead or got any plan to be. It just took so long to catch up.

Tell me about the spread. What kind of land is it?

It's all graze land and just as green as the day the sun first shone on it.

Six days' ride across, ten up and down. Wells are dug and a trail runs through.

Hey, that sounds even better than I expected.

Land like that, a man could raise herd enough to feed St. Louis.

Hey, is there any flowing water on it? A creek, maybe?

- Oh.

- A river. - What about stock?

Purebred. Hereford and shorthorn reds.

Herefords. Yoo-hoo!

[WHOOPING]

And they're bringing $18 a head at Abilene.

All we gotta do now is sit back and count the money.

You suppose there's a little herd of mangy goat around here somewhere?

That old Greek would never go no place without them.

[JOSH LAUGHS]

What did he pass on from, finally?

He was at the Chiricahua massacre at Cedar Wells.

They found three flint hatchets in his body when they found him.

Cedar Wells Massacre?

Why, that was before Kearny came through.

- That's more than 40 years ago. - Oh, no, no. Just happened last year.

Young bucks got all whiskeyed up, broke the Mex treaty,

and start raiding anything they seen.

Maybe drifting around like I've been, I haven't heard about it,

but, say, just exactly where at is this land of ours, exactly?

Well, some of it is the other side of Dead Man's Pass.

- You mean, Shoshone country? - No.

South of the Platte. Halfway on to Fort Cooper.

Oh, but there ain't any more open land out there.

Why, that's all fenced in.

Towns everywhere. The train goes through to Denver.

- You don't mean there. - It is right where I said.

I been there, I seen it. It's green as far as you can see.

But you couldn't have. All that land was grazed to dust 30 years ago.

Don't say that to me. I'm telling you, it's waiting for us, just you and me.

But I've been through there, with the trains blackening up the sky.

Towns wherever you can spit.

You're remembering back that long, long time ago.

Don't say that to me!

It's there.

It's there!

Now, I just want you to stop that shouting.

I told you about that before. Now you just go back to your own room.

Go on. Or I'll lock you in again and you won't get no dinner tonight.

BIGGER: It's there.

It's there.

I know it's there.

Oh, he just gets more trouble every day.

Putting and fetching for him and trying to keep him halfway clean and decent.

And writing off crazy letters for him

every time he gets a notion in his head.

- You writ the letter? - Oh...

And even that little dab of money used to come from his niece

or whatever every month, quit showing up.

Hell you, I'm frazzled to an end with him.

And I just can't keep him here anymore and that's all there is to it.

Well, where else will he go to live?

Well, I thought you was coming to take him off with you. Oh.

I might have known that was just another one of his pipe dreams.

Well, this isn't no charity home and he's no blood to me.

And I can't keep him on for free.

Now, there's a poorhouse over in Cooperstown--

No, Bigger don't belong in a place like that.

If, uh...?

I was to give you some money for him...?

Now, you know...

It isn't very much, but it ought to keep him for a while.

And if you would tell Bigger for me...

If you would tell him...

I guess there ain't nothing really to tell him.

Get me out of here.

I'm already cleaner than the day I was born

and my skin's half boiled off.

Mm-mm. I'd say you're still at least a good 20 proof.

Look, Rowdy, you got a hard long ride ahead of you.

Whether we go broke or not on this herd may depend

on how fast and how well you ride.

[GASPS]

Even the Kiowas got the decency to scalp a man before they boil him.

Look, I'm not going anywhere expect back to that saloon.

I couldn't ride over to Fort Barker and get back in the same day anyway

without riding 12 horses into the ground.

Besides, I'm unreliable. You know that.

Get yourself an older man, a man like Josh.

Yeah, and he wouldn't stop and dawdle on the way.

And you could make your peace with him

and give him a job at the same time.

Just leave Josh out of this, huh?

- What you got against him, anyway? - Nothing.

It's just that he ain't the man he thinks he used to be.

Now look, you don't even gotta ride as far as the Fort,

just as far as Pico's Suttler Stop.

What they know at the Fort, they'll know at Pico's.

I don't give a darn what they know or don't know there.

I ain't going anywhere except to that saloon.

- Now just keep cool. - Cool.

Just keep cool.

[GASPS]

I'm froze. You've frozen me.

All right, I'll go anywhere, anywhere. Just get me out of here.

Get me my clothes. Anywhere.

[PLAYING LIVELY TUNE]

Give me a thumb pour of rye.

Dime a glass, four bits a bottle.

You could keep tab on me till I get my trail pay.

He one of your bunch?

Who, Old Pappy there?

Not since Favor cut him out of the herd, he ain't.

Sorry, old-timer, no mark except for the ones Gil Favor put his word on.

Favor. You don't need his word, you got mine.

- No, I got my rules, sorry. - Sorry?

I don't need nobody being sorry for me. Nobody.

We all came in on the same drive.

He earned his keep just like everybody else.

Only he's been too busy to get his pay. Give him what he wants.

Rules is rules.

Well, maybe Favor has got you and them whipped, but not me.

I come 70 years without bending to nobody yet,

and I won't scrabble dirt for him or you or nobody.

I can't siphon it back anyway. Here.

I'll go you a dime glass, but only one.

I don't want it. Nothing!

WOMAN: Oh!

Josh, you goat, we ought to dump you in the town well for that.

Hey, he fixed a lame horse for us once.

Best you just stay out of here, old-timer.

A man can't get a drink, hunker where he wants.

Can't even spit unless Gil Favor says.

Well, I ain't gonna bend to it no more.

They don't know what they're doing in there.

Well, they'd been drinking too much.

[GRUNTS]

FAVOR: Mushy. Psst!

Mr. Favor, you better go speak to that bartender.

They won't give Josh a drink.

Mushy, I want you to try real hard to keep a message straight.

Think you can handle it?

- Yes, sir. - Good.

You tell Josh, Mr. Pine has a job for him.

That's wonderful, Mr. Favor. I'll go tell him.

Mushy, but do it after I'm gone, huh, Mush?

- Yes, sir. - Good.

- Oh, Mushy? - Yes, sir.

I'm gone.

Yes, sir, Mr. Favor.

You wait a couple years. You'll be a foot taller.

You boys wanna split a dime between you?

- Walk this horse down and water him. - Sure.

You haven't by any chance seen Gil Favor around here?

Yeah, he's over at the shed store with Mr. Pine.

- Across there. - Thanks.

Is that the best you can do, Mr. Pine?

Sixteen coils of ten-gauge and eight of the 15.

No best to it.

Half the price of the herd when the train gets here, or $5 a head now.

ROWDY: I'd take the 5 dollars if I was you.

The train's not gonna make it in this run

or next one, as far as that's concerned.

- You sure about the train? - Yeah, I'm sure.

See, a flash flood has wiped out the trestle bridge

up there at Dead Snake Gorge.

They got the track fixed as far as Cooper Wells.

The train will be in there Thursday, but no chance of it making it here.

Guess I should have waited till you took the $5 before I shot my mouth off.

I've never gone back on my given word yet.

- I made a deal and I'm sticking by it. - I know that, Mr. Pine, thanks.

So the train should be pulling out of Cooper Wells about Friday noon?

That's right.

Say, you're not thinking of driving the herd over to Cooper Wells, are you?

Because if you are, let me remind you it's a three-day drive

and you haven't got a guide, supplies,

or drovers, for that matter. Not sober ones, anyway.

I think you ought to take the 5 dollars. That's better than no dollars at all.

Fifteen dollars a head is a lot more than 5, fella.

- Where are you going? - To sober me up some drovers.

You know, I wouldn't try that if I was him.

Well, if you was him, you'd probably have been smart enough

to stay home in the first place.

If I was him, I wouldn't take advice from you or me.

[LAUGHS]

- Hey, mister. - Huh?

That's a real Indian silver neck thing you got on, ain't it?

- Sure, it's real. - Is it Apache?

Chiricahua. You see the sharp part there like a claw?

That's to keep away the evil luck.

And the circle part, that's to hold in the good luck.

- Where'd you buy it? - Buy it?

That come off the neck of a Chiricahua chief.

It was gave to me by General Phil Kearny

for showing him a trail through the Mesquite Flats.

I used to run cattle through there when it was all Mex land

so I could hide out and not get shot at

by the Federales or cut open by Chiricahua.

That's how I knowed about the land and I was able to advise the general--

You kids better get down off that fence before you get yourselves hurt.

JOSH: Here. - You better watch out there too.

I was the one that came about the job.

If you could tell me where he's at, the head man?

- Who, Mr. Pine? - Uh-huh.

Well, that's him coming right over there.

Oh, thank you.

You can leave that. I got posts for you to stack.

JOSH: Mr. Pine? - Yes?

- You got some business with me? - I wanna see about a job.

- Oh, you're the one that Favor let go? - I quit on him.

- And if you have to do with Favor-- - No, Favor don't hire for me.

As a matter of fact, Mr. Favor and I aren't doing any business together now.

Yes, yes, the job's still open.

Now, if you know steers good enough to tell prime beef from gristle

and you don't mind waiting here a bit--

Waiting is something, I've had a lot of practice at.

I was once taking two fighting bulls from the boat at Mazatlan

up to Santa Fe for a Spaniard fella.

We got across the brush country all right,

and we got all across through Colorado

and come to the Piute Range and it started to snow.

- Fine, you wait here for me, then. - That's exactly what I'll do, I'll wait.

Hey, mister, what happened to you then?

What? Oh, you mean about the fighting bulls?

You hunker down here and I'll tell you all about it.

They was three times as big as any longhorn

and a hundred times meaner.

And there wasn't nothing for them to do except try to chew on me,

nothing left for me to do but try to eat them.

Well, they didn't swallow down very easy, but I'm still here.

And don't I suppose I was more than twice your age.

But that don't in any way compare to the drive

I took up into the Oregon territory once.

- We traveled for so many days-- - Sorry to keep you waiting, old-timer.

- Now, what was your name? - Josh Breedon.

Fine, Mr. Breedon, I can use a man, but not one with a drifting itch.

Don't worry about that. I've been most every place that's worthwhile.

Well, good. How well do you know steers?

He knows everything about them. Don't you?

Yeah, guess I ought to after 30 years on the trail.

If I don't know cows, I don't know what man does.

Well, fine. You come along with me, then.

All right, tick them off.

Over there, number two short Red.

Ought to trim out a nice marble haunch.

Kind of scraggly, though, in the flank on account of the Mexican strain.

That white one over there, half bloat. Been eating drought weed.

That one, well, you won't get any better than 12 pounds a hand.

I'd say 11-odd.

You know, Mr. Breedon, you got a close eye.

You just show me which way the bull twists its tail,

and I'll tell you whether to buy it for breeding or for eating.

That's what I'm here for.

Here, you mark me out a count on that bunch feeding right over there.

All right.

You mean scribble on it? I won't need that.

- I carry it in my head. - Well, maybe,

but when I make a deal with a slaughter yard agent,

I gotta have black-and-white figures, not guesses.

- Uh... You can write, can't you? - Sure, I can write.

Well, sure.

Well, it's just that my threading spectacles has broke.

Well, make the numbers big. That's all right.

[GROANS]

Um...

- He can't even cipher. - I can too.

Did Favor put you up to this to shame me down?

I don't want the job.

I'm a steer man. I don't wanna be a bank clerk.

I'm sorry, old-timer.

You don't have to be sorry for me.

You lied. All them stories. You just made them up.

Never.

Seventy-one years come thaw time, and I never had to lie yet.

I never killed a man or even a savage if I knew he did me no harm.

I never took anything that wasn't mine by rights.

I never asked for sup, not if I starved.

No man I ever owed. I never begged.

I never took keep, except my own.

And I never took a hiding from no man, ever.

And I won't be shamed down like I'm nothing but dirt.

I won't.

Mr. Parks, you're taking on men for a drive, ain't you?

That's why I came straight over to you. I'd like to hire off to you.

Yeah, well, I got a cook.

Well, I ain't looking for that kind of a job. I'm a drover.

There ain't a man or steer I can't stand up to,

and there ain't a trail I ain't ridden.

Yeah, I'm sure. But you look a little old to be driving trail.

Well, I wasn't fresh-born yesterday, I admit.

Gray hairs, but that no reason for man to crawl off somewhere

like a hurt possum and just die, is it?

I got a lot of years left, good years.

And I know that trail you're going over, Mr. Parks.

I've taken steer over that trail 30 times or more.

And if when that drive is over, you ain't satisfied, just pay me half.

Or don't pay me nothing at all. That's fair enough, ain't it? Hmm?

- You need men, don't you? - Yeah, that's a fact.

When's the last time you run a herd?

I just come off a drive.

- You've been working for Gil Favor? - That's right.

Well, now, that's different.

If Favor says you're all right. Gil?

Oh, Sam, tell me you got me some more men.

Well, you've latched on to enough of mine.

This time I'm gonna take one of yours.

I told him if you said he was a good trail man, he's hired.

Oh, Josh? Yeah.

Oh, well, Josh sure knows that trail you're going on.

Hey, I bet you he could chart it for you in the dark.

Yeah, well, I know the trail and I can chart it in the dark.

What I need is some plain, hard saddle drovers.

The old fellow claims he rode herd for you. Did he?

Sure did. Just come off 200 miles of it.

But you're not hiring him back on now. Why not?

He can't cut it? Is that why?

I'm sorry, Josh, I just ain't got the right to lie to the man about it.

- Maybe next trip. JOSH: Yeah, next trip.

What good is that gonna be to me?

It's him, Favor.

He set out to blacken me, to drive me into the dirt.

Like I told you, Favor won't hire you on, then I ain't about to.

Josh, Josh, wait a minute.

You could find a place for him on the drive with us, couldn't you?

Look, I told you, you can come on the tote wagon.

I really need a man for that job, man like you that knows the trail lands.

You going on that drive with him?

Well, I thought you had a job with Mr. Pine.

JOSH: You going on that drive with him?

You wasn't content until you done me out of it all, was you?

Turned the boy against me.

All right, you go with him. I'm sick of wet-nosing you, anyway.

And you understand this, Mr. Favor, and you understand it good:

You ain't rid me into the ground yet.

- Not yet. - Josh.

Mr. Favor, he ain't got nobody to look after him.

No family, no place to go.

He ain't got nothing left.

Except pride, and I think we ought to let him hang onto that, huh?

MUSHY: Josh, here you are. I been looking all over for you.

We're about ready to move those cattle out of those pens and get going,

so I brought all your gear over for you.

You'd have sure been in a fix if we'd had all this with us.

Where'd you get that?

[MUTTERING]

You don't have to get it in a saloon. You buy it on the street.

Some people, respectable people,

they make it and bottle it and peddle it to folks

who don't care to waste their time in saloons.

[MEN YELLING]

- Well, I'm late, Josh. - Hey.

Cows heading for a train, and I never even been on one myself.

Bye, Josh.

Yeah, trains, blind-pens to waddle hogs into.

You listen to me, I been up this land and down

more times than you or Gil Favor got years

and I didn't have to do it choking up with coal soot.

Well, I sure enjoyed listening to all your stories, Josh.

Josh, get out of the street before you get tromped on.

You pushed me far enough. I ain't leaving here till you face me.

Josh, you can't do it!

You keep out of this. This is between me and Favor.

FAVOR: All right, hold them up! Get them down!

Get out of the way, Josh, or I am gonna move you out of the way.

Oh, no, you don't.

One of us is gonna walk away, but only one.

- I'm not gonna draw on you, Josh. - I'm gonna make you draw.

You're gonna kill me like a man.

Not like a sack of innards that's been thrown out of the slaughterhouse.

I'm gonna count to three. One...

two...

Let me draw.

No, Josh.

- Get out of the way! - No.

[MOANS]

Looks like the old fellow finally tuckered out.

Never even got his gun out.

When he's 100, he'll be ten times the man you are, boy. Come on.

Give me a hand with him, Mushy. We'll take him to the store.

Easy, easy, easy.

- It's not like me, that face. - Josh, you all right?

More like looking at Bigger. Yeah, I'm all right.

But it is me. I just hadn't got a close look at me lately.

But I shouldn't have done what I did outside.

There's no point in it.

Well, sometimes a man's gotta do something, anything,

- just to make sure he's still alive. - But it isn't enough.

Don't go on that drive, Mushy.

I don't want you to go on that drive, boy.

But, Josh, I got to now.

I mean, you wait here for me and I'll come straight back.

Don't go. It isn't because I wanna hang on to you.

It isn't that.

It's that I just don't want you ending up dozing on charity

in a boarding house somewhere.

Or staring at a face like this someday.

One day there won't be any more cattle trails.

They'll go like the beaver trade did.

The trains will come where the trails is now.

And then they'll pass away too.

You go back to that girl.

Get yourself something to hold onto.

A woman, children, and a piece of land.

Something that don't blow away like pride and youth.

They don't last, son.

I don't know, Josh. I don't know if that's right.

Josh is right, Mushy, partly. Partly he's wrong too.

Because pride is something a man can hang onto.

Of course, sometimes it's got to bend with the wind a little bit.

If a man got real pride inside of him, he can afford to bend a little bit,

because he knows the roots of it go deep enough that it'll last out his time.

That job on the tote wagon is still open, Josh.

I guess I'd sure enough have to bend to hunker into that, wouldn't I?

Well, yeah, some, I reckon, sure.

But not too much, least ways not inside.

Head them up! Move them out!

[MEN YELLING]