Original subtitles

These things are poison to Jessie.

And she only got stung once or twice that time.

Not dozens like now. She could even die.

Now, I've telegraphed Denver City for a zinc preparation I've read about in the

medical journal.

Should be here in the morning stage.

But will it work?

I don't know, Mr. McCann.

All you can do is keep drugging her to ease the pain.

You're scared, too, aren't you, Uncle Zip?

I don't think that doctor's going to be able to save Jesse.

Honey, I want to take you to the Arapaho village and have the medicine man look

at you. He's been dealing with stings and snake bites and...

poison toadstools and such as that further back than anybody can remember.

Whether we go or not, it's up to you to decide.

Take me, Uncle Zeb.

Uncle Zeb, you can't do this.

Sorry, Luke.

Please remember, your Uncle Zeb is not exactly your enemy, you know.

Well, enemy or not, Aunt Molly, we've got the right to bring Jesse back.

Before it's too late.

She

dies,

Uncle Zeb.

I'll kill you.

She dies, Luke.

You won't have to.

Where's Pa coming home?

Jesse. Uncle Zeb.

Fever's broke.

Uncle Zeb, is that dog meat they're cooking

over there?

Looks like it.

They'll eat anything if they eat dog.

So would you, Josh, if you didn't have any choice.

These people are starving.

Now, I ask you a question.

How come you're not out with the rest of the brave hunting?

Hunt for what?

Nothing out there but jackrabbits.

Jackrabbits cannot feed the Arapaho Nation.

You're going to bring longhorns up from Texas? Up across the Badlands and

through the Llano Estacado.

Except it can't be done.

After what they've done for our family, that's a chance I want to take.

Why can't I go on this cattle drive with you and Luke? I'm sure you could use

the help.

Who's going to look after the farm with Aunt Molly and Jesse off to Clearwater?

I know what some of you are thinking.

You could head out on your own.

Well, I think we gotta wrap the whole Braves here with more sense than that.

And more pride.

Let's head south.

Mind if I join you?

Please don't send me back, Mr. McCann. I got nobody who cares where I am.

I can't afford to have nobody along that's going to quit on me. I won't quit

you. I never quit on you.

Our chiefs say we must obey you.

If we do that, then no more.

I'll settle for that.

What's the matter with you two?

I not go.

Mister, if you don't have enough Arapahoe in you to catch up with us,

your bones on the way back.

We anywhere near Texas?

We've been in it for the last few hours.

You mean the worst is behind us? I figure the worst is ahead of us.

to have your back, Stonehenge.

All right, up and doing.

Another ten minutes, we're moving on.

Get them cinched.

and thank you for bringing me here. We had such a wonderful time. Oh, my.

Well, I only wish Laura would have been here.

Oh, I hope she likes her new teddy coat.

You know, now that you're all better, I think the three of us might take a trip

to, uh, St.

Louis or San Francisco.

You mean it?

Honest? Oh, I mean it.

Honest.

I just love to play at the opera house.

Mm -hmm.

And I never thought so many ladies would fall for that.

What's the delay?

The ladies are coming now, Deke.

Play at the opera house for 50 grand. Mm -hmm. I still think the funniest part

is when Sam came out and did that. I just couldn't stop laughing.

That was very funny.

Oh, dear.

I'll give you a hand there, man.

Thank you.

I think I can manage the rest, Jesse.

Come on, Charlie, let's go.

Just a few minutes, Steve.

Here you are, man.

Booth came on stage and gave his reading. It was so touching that I

cried.

Oh, you liked Edwin's performance. When I'm going to have to tell him about

that, he'd be real pleased.

You know Mr. Booth?

I'm guessing me and Edwin was up about half the night over a poker game.

I think I'd just die knowing anybody so famous.

Well, I don't think you'd find him much different than just ordinary folks.

Speak easily.

Jesse McCann.

I'm Molly Culhane.

Miss Culhane?

Oh, yeah, well, kind of figured you had a lot of offers, man.

How did you hurt your leg?

I kind of stepped on a rattler here, and this swelled up.

Rattler?

Yeah, I'm going to be all right. In about a week or so, I'm going to be out

dancing with the ladies again.

You, uh, you from up Colorado, wait?

We're homesteading.

Where about?

Elk Creek.

Oh, yeah. Some nice parcels up that way.

Mm -hmm.

Said your name was McCain. Any relation to, uh, Zeb?

He's my uncle.

Do you know him?

Yeah.

Yeah, I know Zeb.

Are you good friends?

Mm, well, yeah.

We've known each other quite a little while.

Have a nice trip, folks.

You got a soft way of looking when you're asleep, Miss Galang.

I beg your pardon?

I say you got a soft way of looking when you're asleep, Miss Galang.

Soft.

Invite.

You on your way home to your

husband? No.

I mean, I'm a widow.

Oh.

Well, it's too bad we didn't run into each other back there in town. I could

have showed you around a little bit, you and the young lady.

I'm... on the widower's side myself.

Oh, I'm sorry.

She is quite a woman, my wife.

I felt a powerful sense of loss when she passed on.

Oh, I'm sure.

I imagine you felt the same.

Yes, of course.

She had dark hair, you know.

Dark eyes.

But she had the same kind of soft skin that you got. I can tell.

And like a summer breeze sort of brushing your lips.

Yes, to some women it's natural.

Born to please a man.

You know, she used to do.

She's standing in front of the fire, you know.

Her fists on her hips.

Kind of daring me to take her, you know.

Like a rough man.

You're gentle, too.

You know what I mean?

Hey, I never met a woman who could undress like that.

I probably never will again.

It's too easy.

Things that you're saying and, well, the way that you're saying them is just too

personal.

Too what?

I mean, there's an intimacy about it.

Yes, ma 'am, yes, ma 'am.

I was an intimate woman.

Mr.

Peasley, are you toying with me?

What do you mean? Was I talking about my wife upsetting you, ma 'am?

Come now, Mr. Peasley, I think you know exactly what I mean.

No, I don't. You'd better explain it to me.

Don't pay him any attention, Aunt Molly.

Oh, yeah, well...

Howdy. Well, there's more than a leg -stretching time here, folks.

You'll be putting up with the night with that storm headed in.

Putting up with the night here?

That's company rules, ma 'am.

No stage on the ridge road.

Nights are when a storm's coming in.

And we got a dilly headed his way.

Hi, Deke.

Have your hand, Charlie?

Well, that won't be so bad, Molly.

Stopping over kind of gives travelers a chance to get acquainted.

of the proper facilities here.

And I would appreciate you not calling me Molly.

The name is Mrs.

Colhane.

Mrs. Colhane?

Yes. Yes, ma 'am. I'm sorry. I try to remember. I keep forgetting. I try to

remember. As far as the proper facilities go, the only thing they've

a dry skin under a roof. That's going to change once that storm comes in.

Better get in.

Come along, Jesse.

What is in this soup?

I put the gizzards in.

Don't think you'll find nothing strange.

At least, I hope not.

There's none more nourishing than gizzards.

Of course, it sort of depends on what time of day you kill the animal.

Isn't that right?

Yeah.

Please. Please.

A weak stomach, huh?

Sorry.

What are your sleeping arrangements here, sir? Please.

This is it.

This is it.

Well, knock on the stage out there. The driver's already bedded down on the seat

cushion. You got two places to sleep. One's in here.

The one we can't use.

Well, what's the other option, Mr. Peasley?

Well, it's the barn.

I wouldn't recommend that.

Rainy nights like this here, you generally find lots of Indians in there

sleeping it off.

Indians?

It just seems we'll have to find the driest place we can in here.

Yeah, well, it makes sense.

Or I'll be sleeping.

Now, I don't think you ladies would have been bothered by the mentions of the

barn.

Screw Molly.

I don't figure it'd be because they wouldn't want to lose their sleeping

for the work they do around the station.

Mr. Peasley, just what do you think you're doing?

I'm fixing my bed.

Sorry.

With the entire room from which to choose a place to sleep, you have to

spot right on top of us.

Molly, you can see how this part of the room is the driest.

Nonsense. I see other dry places you could sleep.

up with a more edgy female.

I tell you, Jessie, I'll be glad when this night is over.

Me too.

You know, I'm kind of a sound sleeper, lady, so if you hear anything creeping

across the floor in the dark, it ain't me.

Just what could be creeping across the floor?

Mr. Peasley.

Mr.

Peasley.

Yes,

I could do it.

I could kill him without a qualm.

There you go.

Best wait here.

Hey.

Howdy. What's your business, mister?

Thanks, McCahan.

Zeb McCahan.

Didn't ask your name, just your business.

I was talking to a freighter down the line, asking if we might buy some

He mentioned your name.

What are you doing riding with them engines?

They're my drovers.

Cattle herds for their people.

They wrap a whole tribe up in Colorado Territory. Got no cattle for sale.

We've been passing through your cattle for the last ten miles in here,

They all got your brand on them. That freighter told us you'd sell us all we

could use, 40 cents a head.

Well, he told you wrong.

I wouldn't sell those savages' cattle for 40 dollars a head.

I'll get him off my land before I put holes in him.

Professor, that's a good way to make your woman a widow.

That ain't much of a threat, McCann.

I got no woman.

You see, the Apaches took her a good time ago.

Took my boy, too.

Now, I ain't gonna tire you out by telling you what they did to him before

died.

But if you don't get your engines out of my sight damn fast, I promise you

there'll be some killing.

Sorry to hear about your family.

I understand how you feel. You better understand that no one else down this

is gonna sell cattle to benefit the likes of those murdering savages.

Well, that gives me somewhat of a problem.

You also got a problem in not thinking straight. You figure to drive a herd

the Good Night Trail this time of the year.

Don't figure on driving them up the Good Night. We're gonna head them straight

north into Colorado Territory.

Well, I know for sure that can't be done.

You'll lose a head every mile.

You believe that, do you?

Well, I know it. You'll probably lose half of your engines, too.

Well, that suits you just fine, wouldn't it, Mr. Appleton?

I got nothing personal against you, McCann.

But any misery coming to an engine suits me just fine. Yes, you said it. Well,

all right, then. How about selling us a couple of hundred head?

You could make yourself some money.

You could sit back here and get yourself a lot of pleasure thinking about all

the misery we're having out on the trail with them Indians.

And at the same time, I could use a small remote, eight or ten head, if you

ain't gonna charge me too much.

All right, I'll sell you cattle at 50 cents a head.

Only because I know their bones will be bleaching in the Badlands.

I'll have them corralled here within a week.

How about throwing in a lead steer to keep them headed north?

You're not too ignorant about what it takes to herd cattle, are you?

I'll throw in a lead steer.

I'll give you good range horses for $12 each.

Now, you got the cash money to settle up?

Cash on the barrelhead as soon as you got them rounded up here.

And, uh, Ebelton, I'm, uh, I'm sorry about your family.

I don't know. After a heavy rain like this, it could be a whole day behind

schedule.

Oh, I think I'll sleep for a week when we get home.

Of course you will.

Well, I'll tell you, I sure don't like the idea of waiting here a whole day.

Of course, I suppose I could ride with you ladies as far as Oak Creek.

A little bit longer that way, still.

Well, I guess I'll stay here.

Jessie?

Goodbye, Mr. Peasley.

Miss Colleen?

Goodbye, Mr. Peasley.

Well, I'll see you again.

Mr. McCann.

Oh, I reckon you're old enough to have a beer or two if you want to, Jeffrey.

Thanks, Mr. McCann.

Root beer.

Tough growing up, ain't it?

That's it. We're driving 200 head north to Colorado.

Looking for a cook? Don't need nothing fancy.

Mister, if the Apaches don't take your stock and your hair to the desert, well,

it'd take a fool to try it and an even bigger fool to hire on to a drive like

that. In any way, it'd be a cold day in hell for our ride with engines.

If I was a cook, which I ain't.

We're paying double wages.

You don't seem to understand, mister. Money can't hire that kind of a job. Not

around here, anyway.

Can I get a cook's job, bestello?

You know him, Uncle Zip?

You're a long ways back, Luke.

Bang and zap.

You're trying to drown me.

Tap, I think you're trying to drown yourself with all the whiskey you got in

you.

Took me all night long to get this drug.

This is a waste of good money.

I'll tell you something, Tap.

I got good reason for sobering you up.

I'll tell you something else. Good to see you.

Been a long time.

It's been forever.

I remember I had to go back to sea just to get away from that dang caterwaul of

yours.

You still think you can see?

Not as good as you can snore.

That's how I knew it was you in there. You're snoring.

Tap what you've been doing with yourself lately.

Oh.

My sailing days is pretty much be over.

Climbing around them rigging high seas takes a lot younger hands and

legs than I got.

Well, we're all getting a little older, Tap, but you didn't answer my question.

Tell you the truth, I ain't doing much of anything.

Well, now, it seems to me I recall that in the old days you was a pretty good

cook. How are you now?

Why?

Well, because I'm putting together a chuck wagon for a cattle drive, looking

a cook. A cook, huh?

I suppose you'd be having a supply of medication along in case a feller needed

it. Well, I might see my way clear to carrying enough so as you could sweeten

cup of coffee at night.

I'm kind of a two -coffee man at night.

Tap, you got a deal.

Jesse?

I'm all right. My head hurts, but I'm all right. The stage got wrecked and I

couldn't find Jetty.

Well, where is she? I don't know. I was unconscious.

I think she must have headed back for the weigh station to look for help.

Come on. We can pick her up on the way over there.

Let's hurry.

Oh, Laura, I'm so lucky to be alive.

at the stage depot in Elk Creek.

When the stage still didn't come this morning, we decided to ride out to the

weigh station and see what happened.

Ha! Get him!

Well, looks like you're trying to corner the whole Texas shop market, isn't

there? Yeah, I'm just trying to out -fit my drovers.

Well, I'll let you in on a little secret, friend.

Drovers ain't already got their own shops.

Ain't no drovers.

Sure do look mouth -watering, don't they?

I was a boy about your age. I had me a penny.

Sometimes it'd take me half a morning to make up my mind.

You too?

Now, these here jelly ones, my day why you'd get six of them for a penny.

And boy, was they good.

But they just wouldn't last.

No, sir, there just was no way you'd make them last.

Now, you take these here jawbreakers.

If you didn't bite down too hard on them, why, sometimes you could get one

them that would work for maybe half a day.

I believe them jawbreakers was my favorites.

Me, too.

Boy, ain't that a caution. You know, you sign on to be my helper, and the both

of us like jawbreakers.

Sure is.

I'm going to tell you a secret.

You know, in this store, when a fella spends more than $10, like old Zeb just

got through doing, why, he gets a whole penny's worth of candy free.

Now, why don't you just grab one of them jawbreakers and go over yonder and tell

Mr. Kern that he owes it to you and see what he says.

Thanks, Mr. Henry!

Why don't we just make it tap?

Go on.

Mr. Swenson, I'm willing to pay you whatever you ask.

Ma 'am, I just can't head off and leave to go searching.

I mean, it'd be worth my job if some thieving Indian or a prairie white trash

had decided to help themselves here.

You don't seem to understand.

It could mean that girl's life if she's out there wandering in that desert.

I can understand your worry, ma 'am.

But there's nothing I can do until that southbound stage comes in.

If it does come in.

Then we can get some word to Elk Creek.

Mr. Swenson, it'll be dark by then, and you know we can't go searching in the

desert when it's dark.

Now, we want to find Jessie, and we've got to find her now.

Besides, we'd get lost out there looking by ourselves.

More than lost, young lady.

Mr. Pacey.

Mr. Lane.

What did you mean by more than lost?

That accident happened out by Rim Canyon.

Well, I don't know. It was a long winding curve in the road with a sheer

off to the left.

Well, it sounds like Rim Canyon.

I see that little girl being too hurt to climb back up to the road and trying to

get out the other way.

But there's no way out.

All she'll do is wander around in circles getting her brains baked by the

You speak like you know this part of the country.

I've been through it a time or two, ma 'am.

Back in what I call my prospecting days.

You both are Zeb McCain's family?

Yes, sir. I'm Josh McCahan. This is my sister, Laura.

Do you know our Uncle Zeb?

Been close, a time or two.

Can you help us search?

Well... Young lady, looking at me with them big blue eyes, I don't see how I

refuse you.

Oh, thank you.

Thank you.

So when can we go in that canyon when he has four saddled horses?

Horses, I can get you.

Son, you'll find some water skins in that barn back there. You best fill a

half dozen.

Right.

Molly, there's some salt pork inside the station. Some good black bread, I've

seen. Do you have a good idea, you and the young lady? Fix up something for us

to take along.

Swinson won't mind you raising a larder.

You better clean that up.

Aunt Molly, I can see you don't like that man very much.

It's impossible.

Right now, I don't have any choice.

Swann, I'll take that dun color over there.

Yes, but he's a friend of Uncle Zeb. Well, he never said he was your uncle's

friend. Only that he knew him.

And I don't think Zeb would make friends with a man like that.

Well, it could be a nice ride.

No. No.

I must have been walking a long time.

I was on the stage with my aunt.

Went off the road.

That's all I remember.

You don't speak English?

I don't understand you either.

You want me to get on the horse?

Where

would

you be taking me?

All right.

I think that's the direction I should be going.

Didn't you hear me?

We're supposed to be going that way.

I said we're going the wrong way.

No, leave me alone.

No,

let me go.

Put your hands off of me.

Not non -cheating this, son!

I hope you're a little edgy, man, and be heading out after that little girl of

yours.

This wouldn't feel right, leaving old Charlie here for the wolves tonight.

Okay, son, that's fine, thanks.

Of course, I understand, Mr. Peavey.

But, well, my niece is lost out there somewhere in the desert, and night will

coming on.

Yes, ma 'am, that's my point.

Come sundown, critters will be here cracking open Charlie's bones to get the

mare if he wasn't underground.

Well, Charlie, you sort of took the liberty of throwing dirt on you

out here.

That was your final resting place.

Didn't see no sense in toting you into town.

You ain't got no kin.

Pine box cost $5 anyway.

Amen. Amen.

Lord, it's most likely that Charlie was a sinner.

He's no worse than the next man.

I don't see you did it hurt none. You sort of kept the latch out for him.

Amen. Amen.

All right, folks.

I'll be keeping your eyes peeled for any rocks, bushes, or light the body

crawled into for shake.

Don't be forgetting that any lost soul out here after a time, and I'd be

including your Jesse, jump into a snake pit just to stop the sun from cooking

the brains dry.

Yes?

I told you you'd be happy to see us.

I bet you boys thought I forgot all about that money I owed you.

Why, no, Tap. We never figured that.

We thought maybe something important come up, making you leave Brownville in

middle of the night.

Tell you the truth, Brant, I got a mic scared telling you boys that I was going

to have that money for you the next morning and knowing I couldn't deliver

But I always pay my debts, you know.

Shoot, you just can't get blood out of a turner.

It's going to take me a spell to get it, but I'll get it for you boys. You know,

I got me a job cooking over at Chuckwagon.

Why don't you put a notch in his nose so he remembers where that money got to be

sent? Oh, come on, boys.

Old Tap's ugly enough the way he is. You say you got a job as a Chuckwagon cook?

Yeah.

That mountain man that thinks he's gonna push them cattle across the Northwest?

Yeah, he's a friend of mine. A fella named Zeb McKay.

There's places where a white man can't live, let alone run cattle.

Well, now, old Zeb ain't one to start something that he ain't gonna finish.

Let's get back to talking about that money.

I'm gonna pay you.

I got a feeling that my luck's about to change. You know, that's the way it

generally is. You get a string of bad luck and a pinch of good.

We got us an agreement, boys.

You know an old tap's gonna see that you boys get every last penny of that

money.

We'll be in touch.

You can figure on it.

Yes, shucked out of an orphanage myself with nothing but the rags on my back.

You know, I went to sea when I was just 13 years old.

You were a sailor?

Yeah, my boy, if the truth be known.

I signed on a schooner around the horn to the East Indies.

Why, they ain't a speck of that in the ocean that I ain't seen.

They have engines out there like we do here?

Why, of course they do.

That's the reason they call them the Indies.

They're a queer lot of people, though.

Nothing at all like them Indians we got here.

Some of them wear dresses.

Dresses?

Man Indians wear dresses, too?

Yeah. Call them Sayrees and Sayrong.

But you know, it's a heathen in Africa that really takes the cake.

Why, there women folks go around with nothing on at all.

No.

Yeah, at least why it's nothing above the belly button.

I don't want to be accused of exaggerating.

When did you and Tap Henry meet, Uncle Depp?

Oh, back in the 40s. We were prospecting together up above the Western Range.

Yes, near three years, I guess, before old Tap decided to go back to sea.

Has he really been to all those places he's seen?

Oh, yeah, that and more.

Well, we got along real good in the gold fields.

Kind of looked out for one another. That was back in the days when it took two

to stay alive.

Yeah, we was real close.

If he gets a herd as far north as the Hob, yeah, they'd be worth four, maybe

five thousand.

Yeah, that mountain man, he's carrying a lot of cash on him.

Spent a lot on gear in that general store.

It'd be worthwhile if we met up with him.

I figure it couldn't take more than five of us.

At last.

C .J.

Mr. Peasley?

Uh -huh?

Can you still see a track left by Jesse?

Not exactly a track, Molly. It's more of a sign.

I don't see any signs.

You don't see any signs. You're saying there ain't any signs, or you don't see

any signs?

I just don't see any.

Well, get down off that animal. I'll educate you.

Did Uncle Zeb teach you anything by following a sign?

He's away a lot.

Huh? Where would he be by now?

There's no sign that Jesse passed through here.

Where's your Uncle Zeb at, I ask you?

Down Texas way.

Texas? What part of Texas?

Mr. Peasley, what do Zeb McKay and his whereabouts have to do with our finding

Jesse? Well, Molly, we're just stopping here chatting a while is all.

Hey, Molly, I don't see how anybody or anything could pass through here.

Now, son, that's the second time you question my scouting.

Don't do it again.

Now, look, if you have your eyes on the ground, instead of your nose stuck up in

the air, you could see that that was freshly broke, couldn't you?

Hmm?

You think a jackrabbit did it?

What makes you think it was Jesse coming through here?

You see a pretty face. I don't ever mind questioning me, Scott.

Well, we can't be sure, Missy, but we can take a chance, you know.

Besides, not many travelers out this way this time of year.

Well, unless we get some different opinion from Daniel Boone here, we can

moving on.

Didn't mean to question you, Mr. Peasley.

Oh, sure you did, son, but I'm not holding it against you.

Wouldn't hold anything against no kin of Zev's. I wouldn't want to do anything

to ruffle McCain's feelings.

Not the menfolk, anyway.

Mr. Peasley.

That's you, sonny, is that right?

McCain man?

Mr. Peasley, my niece may be dying. Now, I believe you said something about

moving on.

Moving on it is, Molly.

Well, let's go, Daniel.

your position.

out with a herd, trying to cut a new trail, sure does stir the blood. I gotta

admit to that feeling.

You owe me $220, McCann, including the horses.

My boys tell me there's 210 head down there.

She'll only be paying for 200.

In case of a poor count, then not being on your side.

I appreciate that, Appleton.

Like to throw in a few dollars, buy your men a drink?

I'll buy their drinks.

Can't see me or my boys drinking your whiskey when we're hoping you'll leave a

trail of bones all the way to Colorado.

So how do you feel that way?

It's an honest answer from a man who lives by the book.

Might be an honest answer, Appleton, but it sure ain't living by my book.

Anyway, hope to see you on a better day.

The beginning's easy enough. It's the end that counts.

Pull the check wagon out!

I'll wager they leave 30 dead before they get to their first watering hole.

Fresh sign.

Can't be far from here.

See that, Daniel?

Unshot.

Indian pony.

Just one Indian?

Don't take more than one, son.

Signed you a whole tribe moving south through here. This one buck's about a

ahead of us.

Mr. Peasley, are you saying Jesse's been captured by Indians?

See here?

Now he's on foot now.

Loaded Jesse on that pony.

You think that's the direction he took?

Yeah, we can figure it is.

Then he's not too far ahead of us.

Well, it depends if anything, he's occupying his time.

I want you to stop talking like that.

Why don't we stop all this talking and head on?

And heading on, Daniel, you're going to get a chance to earn your coonskin cap.

It's heading back time for me.

What do you mean, heading back time?

You don't follow an Indian sign without a damn good reason, Molly.

For goodness sakes, a child's life isn't a good enough reason.

Look, Molly, I don't think that you're understanding me.

I come with you this far by way of a favor.

There's a time a man's got to look to his own scalp, if you get what I mean.

But we can't look for Jesse ourselves.

No, you sure can't.

Well, my advice is to turn back right now, only.

But you were just saying there was only one Indian.

Yeah, well...

One Indian has a real bad habit of turning into six or seven bucks spread

It's nothing for a game.

Mr. Peasley, I know up to now you've been doing us a favor.

But I'd like to put this on a strictly business basis.

Suppose I offer you $100 to continue with us.

Molly, I can make $100 in a poker game.

All right, $500.

You got that kind of money on you?

Well, no, not here.

But you can trust me to have it waiting at the Elk Creek Bank when we get back

there.

Against my judgment, Molly.

Please, please.

waiting for you. You got yourself a paid Ron Scout.

Let's go.

I'm not hungry.

I said I wasn't.

Guess I was foolish for running away from you.

I would have died without your help.

I think we should at least know each other's names.

I'm Jessie.

Jessie.

Jessie!

I wish I could make you understand.

My aunt, she may be dead.

They'll all be looking for me.

And I don't know where you're taking me.

What is it?

What's the matter?

We're going to ride the horse someplace?

One night and we'll be somewhere.

Five days.

Where?

Boy, bend them down a little bit.

There's a place up ahead called Story Creek.

They call it that because half the time there's no water in it.

Yeah, well, they're getting the sound real thirsty.

Well, if there's no water up at Story, we'll go on to the bowling. Shouldn't be

no trouble there.

I'll ride on ahead and see what it looks like. Right.

20 paces.

He was a catch, you see, and he figured that me just bumping into him

accidentally like it was an insult.

Boy, you've done just about everything, too. Like Mr. McCann.

Well, just about.

Except in different places.

Boy, when I grow up, I hope I can do all the things Mr.

McCann can do.

Be an army scout, live in the mountains and trap, fight engines.

When you grew up, Jeffrey, I...

Whether for better or worse, can only bring a guest.

But Zeb is a man to be admired. Yes, sirree.

Well, that's a bolo, son.

Bring an animal down on a dead run with it.

Of course, the fella has to be an expert like myself.

Hey, looks like those Debs are coming back in an awful hurry. Whoa, whoa,

Too much alkali in the river up ahead, Tab. We're going to have to stampede the

cattle across before they get a chance to drink. Move the wagon out ahead, but

keep her off the side.

We'll handle her, Zeb.

Well, let's either do that or be a -driving a herd of bellyaches tomorrow.

Here they come.

Keep moving!

Well, how far ahead would he be now?

Well, it's hard to say.

Indian, you know, can walk a horse through these rocks as quick as he can

Anyway, nobody rides the rocks in the dark, so we'll camp here for the night.

No, we can't camp here for the night. Not with Jesse being out there with that

Indian.

Indian buckets, I'm on his mind, son. Day or night, it ain't gonna make any

difference, you know what I mean?

Mr. Peasley, there is an urgency here, you know.

Yes, ma 'am.

It certainly is.

First urgency is not to ride these horses through the mountains at night.

That's a good way for a horse to break a leg, and I think one bad leg in this

company is enough.

Don't you?

I mean, without horses, we aren't going to have much of a chance of finding

Jesse, are we?

I suppose that's true.

Oh. So I think we'd better stay here till daylight, don't you?

Hold that.

All right.

From back across the wide mountain with her lover

eyes.

Do you?

I'll offer you something warm to garlet, Molly.

No, thank you.

Mr. Peasley, about this Indian, do you have any idea what tribe he might be

from?

Meaning, would he be friendly?

My way of thinking, Molly, they're all friendly until you turn your back on

them.

Tribe, huh?

The direction he's taken now, I'd say he's headed to the Cimarron.

Cimarron?

That'd be a hundred miles to travel.

Yeah, at least that. It doesn't matter to an Indian traveling with the season.

Do you have some plan of action for when we meet up with him?

Well, he's still alone.

If he's no other bucks with him, then I'd move in and take him alive.

Yes, of course you'd take him alive, as you say.

Then we'd get Jesse's story from him. He's... Well, he's abused her. Mr.

Peasley, that's a terrible way to talk.

Mr. Peasley, I figure you can stop talking that way with my sister and Aunt

Molly here.

Hush, Josh, please.

Son, the more you talk, the dumber you sound.

We're talking about women being here and having to listen to you. Josh, don't

interfere.

Oh, you figure that's rough talk, do you?

Yes. What are you going to do when it comes to the doing?

I think things are going to get a little rough around here for you, son, so I

think you better put your saddle on your horse and move on now.

Go on, move!

Listen, I want you to stop annoying this boy.

Boy? Oh, well, I've got to apologize. I thought I was riding here with a full

-grown man. Sorry, son, I won't annoy you anymore. I wouldn't do anything to

displease your Aunt Molly.

But I'll tell you what I think you better do.

You better just get yourself out of my sight for a bit. I don't want to look at

you for a while.

Go on.

Go on, Josh. It's all right.

Josh.

who takes pleasure in annoying others.

He's only a child.

He knows he's no match for you, so leave him alone.

You better leave him alone, Molly. That's all he's ever going to be as a

never going to grow up. You won't let him.

Man, bullying and threatening. Well, that's part of it sometimes.

Yeah, that's the way it is.

Is there no element of compassion in you?

No place for tenderness at all?

Well, there's a place for it.

It's Ed McCann give you that scar.

Josh.

Josh.

I was afraid of him.

We're all afraid of him, Josh.

It's all right for you and Aunt Molly to be afraid.

But... Well, I made Luke a promise.

That I'd be the man of the family and... Well, I'm just not doing a very good

job of it.

Oh, Josh.

We think you're doing a very fine job of it.

Back there, when he was daring me to talk up, and then I had to pack down.

It's not being a coward not to look for trouble.

Besides, they're only words, Josh.

Words from somebody who doesn't matter.

Don't even think about it.

You're a very different man when you've been drinking.

Yeah, well, everybody's a lot of different people, Molly, you know what I

This is neither the time nor the place to dispute that.

My niece's life is at stake here.

As of right now, I'm raising your fee to $1 ,000.

You got that kind of money, do you, Molly?

Yes, as a matter of fact, I do.

I have certain funds in a bank in Chicago that I can draw on.

My husband left me a small inheritance.

Oh, that's real nice for you.

There are, of course, several conditions.

The first one being that you will locate Jessie and return her safely to the

McKay and family with a minimum of violence.

Yeah, I'm doing that for 500, Molly. What's the other 500 for?

You will... act.

Quite differently than the way you've been behaving.

You will behave respectfully towards my niece and my nephew and myself.

Do you understand me, Mr. Peasley?

No, Molly, there's only two things in life worth thinking about.

One's a woman, the other's money.

Meaning?

That means you got yourself a $1 ,000 understanding of this, Colleen.

Good night, man.

Sweet dream.