Original subtitles

In almost every war that has ever been fought, there have been men who continue

to fight long after their leaders had surrendered or their cause been lost.

Some fought on out of stubborn pride.

Some out of the bitterness of the wasted years and the graves of those who had

fallen for a principle that had still not been won.

And some, the fewest of all, for reasons far, far more tragic.

Billy, get the tripod and put it over on that embankment down over that log at

the end of the creek.

Sure thing, sir.

Luke, will you get off that horse for a minute?

Just cause you're a guide for this survey party.

That don't mean we have to get over that mountain ahead of the wind.

Steep enough to make a man look like a fool trying to climb up it.

What are you looking at?

Nothing, I guess.

Where's those birds?

It's like someone flushed them out up there.

He is getting jumpy, Luke.

Okay, bring that leg down there a little bit.

All right, sir.

What the...

Billy!

He's been shot!

Whoever it is knows how to shoot.

It's got to be Indians.

They'd be on us by now.

Sergeant!

He's still alive!

Billy's still alive!

I'm going after him. Now you know we're going together.

Jonas! Just keep shooting at the top of that ridge up there.

Come on.

Take it easy, son.

Take it easy, Dave. You'll be all right.

Oh, my God.

Who are you?

Why? Jonas, cover yourself.

Keep some shots firing up at that ridgeline.

Jonas. What did he look like?

I don't know.

Just a shadow.

Now, look.

You ride into Teton. Tell Doc Gunnarsson to get to the McCain Ranch as fast as

he can.

Then telegraph the fort and tell him what's happened.

Now, go on.

Sure.

Well, it aren't good, Josh. It's liable to come off in the next storm.

Yeah?

I'm liable to come off in the next storm if Laura and Jesse don't stop shaking

this ladder.

It's just the wind, Josh.

What's the matter? You're afraid you're going to fall off?

Luke's coming.

Looks like he's got somebody hurt with him.

What happened?

The survey team I was leading got bushwhacked and Molly up on the

Sergeant Worth is still there.

He's dead.

I sent a soldier into town to get Doc Gunnarsson. Oh, dear God.

What reason would anyone have for doing that?

No reason from what I can tell.

But he's just a boy.

Old enough to know a pretty girl when I see one.

Oh, with that attitude, you'll recover quickly enough.

Take him inside and into bed, boys. Sorry to be such a bother, ma 'am. It's

bother. Now consider the matter closed.

Breathing stopped.

Internal bleeding.

I tried.

No one could have done more, Doctor.

I can't believe what happened up on that mountain.

Oh, no.

Molly, he's not.

Yes, I'm afraid Billy's dead.

There were complications.

I'm sorry, son.

He was so young.

Give him months' pay to get my hands on that bushwhacker.

It's almost first light. I'm going after him.

After who, Luke?

The one who did this.

Luke, I know how you must feel, but truly this is a military job.

She's right.

It's strictly army business.

I'm making it mine.

Luke, I just can't see you riding up there alone.

If not it, Molly, I'm going with him.

Fair enough.

I'm not taking no for an answer, Luke.

What did you say?

I said I'm glad for the company.

I'll go saddle the horses.

I wish your Uncle Zeb were here to ride along with you.

It would be a comfort.

Now, there's a killer on that mountain, Luke, and Josh is... Josh has grown up,

Aunt Molly.

He did real fine out in that street with Uncle Zeb facing down Henry Cole.

You see who it was did the shooting?

No, I just caught a glimpse of someone slipping off into the trees. I think it

was just one man, though.

And he was firing a musket.

A musket?

Yeah. I thought I recognized the sound of powder and ball at the time.

See, during the war, we used both muskets and breech loaders. It wasn't

before we knew which was which by the sound.

Come on.

This is it.

Where were you when the shooting started?

Over there across that stream bed there.

Sergeant Worth's body. I don't see it.

Josh, up your horse!

That's a musket, all right.

All I know is you have to muzzleload them.

That's right.

Takes an expert to fire off a round in less than eight to ten seconds.

He's an expert.

Cover me.

One.

Four.

Five.

Six. Seven.

Eight.

So much as move.

Let go of the musket.

Come back for another try, did you?

I ought to blow your head off, mister.

Well, if you're going to shoot, shoot. I ain't afraid.

You'll kill people.

Good people. Friends of mine.

Yankee Bluebellies.

Had the chance, I'd do it again.

Well, you just run out of chances.

You're going back with me.

You make one wrong move, it'll be tied over a saddle.

You gotta take me first.

Well, come on, Yankee. I'm waiting.

Come on.

Spantrix, watch yourself.

Hello?

Josh?

Josh, you all right? Yeah.

I just got the wind locked down.

Luke!

Not just who are you, mister.

And what are you doing wearing that uniform?

I'm a Confederate soldier doing my duty.

That's who I am.

A soldier?

What do you take us for?

Nobody's worn that uniform for more than four years.

I think he's mad.

What are you looking at me like that for?

Come on.

The horses are over that way.

I got a lot of reasons to bury you right here.

So just give me an excuse.

Aunt Molly, Luke and Josh are back.

Is that him? Yeah, that's him all right, M. Molly.

Admitted to the killings.

He's the one that bushwhacked Billy and the sergeant. That murderer. Easy, easy,

Jonas.

He's wounded bad.

What happened to him?

He hit his head on something.

Forced Luke to shoot him.

Pretty.

My wife.

Call Ville, never ask her.

Tell her I'm alive.

Been to prison.

His wife?

He's out of his head, Aunt Molly.

Come on, let's take him in the bar and wait for the army to come and get him.

No, Luke.

We'll put him in the house.

Now, I don't care who he is or what he's done. That man is hurt very badly.

Can't leave him out here in the damp and cold.

Jonas, I assume you'll be riding into Teton to telegraph the fort about this.

Would you be so kind as to ask Dr.

Gunnarsson to get out here as quickly as he can?

Yes, ma 'am.

Then I'll be getting on back to the fort.

And, Molly, you sure you want to do this? Yes, Luke, I'm sure. I'm sure.

Tell you something, Doctor.

I think all those years on that mountain must have affected that man's mind.

Do you know, he wouldn't even let me put on a clean shirt over the bandage. He

insisted on putting back on that dirty uniform.

Well, Molly, this wouldn't be the first time I've seen loneliness drive a man a

little mad.

Trappers snowbound from month on end come back sometimes mad as hatters.

Is that a fact?

Well, usually it's just a temporary condition.

Well, will he be all right?

He won't die, will he?

Oh, I don't think so.

The bullet came out easy enough.

He did lose a lot of blood, and it'll be a good week before he can be moved.

Aye.

Well, thank you, Doctor.

I hope it's a while before we have to bring you out here again.

So do I, Molly.

So do I.

Duty of every Confederate soldier when he's taken prisoner to try to escape

Confederate soldier Maybe

you could look the other way while I write off You don't look

like you're in any condition to ride anywhere and why would I let a killer go

off, huh?

Maybe because

I'll let you go off after you've done a bit of killing.

What?

You think on it, Yankee.

If you were smart, you'd stick close to that bed.

Let that wound do some healing for a while.

Smart or not, mister, remember one thing. You're in a house full of people

love. You try anything, I'll kill you.

I'm a soldier.

I wouldn't hurt women or kids.

I wouldn't hurt nobody that was helpless.

You ought to know that.

You keep saying you're a soldier.

Don't make no more sense than that talk you did back at the barn.

You mean about you owing me?

Heck, you're only alive now because I didn't kill you.

It wasn't for lack of trying.

I don't mean up on that mountain.

You still don't remember, do you?

That we met before?

Well, I was looking close at you at times.

Thought I recognized you.

Wasn't sure.

Am now.

You were at Shiloh in 62.

In a Yankee uniform.

How do you know that?

Shiloh.

Second day.

Close to sundown.

Hiding in bushes near a creek.

Heard some shooting and someone screaming.

It's beginning to come back to you now, ain't it?

You're wounded in the side.

Left side, just below the ribs.

Bet you're still carrying a scar.

I couldn't see what was going on.

I kept hearing shooting.

Done my way to see what was going on when I come nose to nose with you.

Limping through the woods.

Bleeding looking like you'd just seen the gates of hell.

You were hurting.

Maybe hurting too much to remember, but... I saw you.

And you saw me.

You could have killed me.

That's why I said maybe you could look the other way while I rode off.

But those people up in the mountain that you killed, why?

I'm a Confederate regular, in uniform and under orders.

Yankees got to expect to be shot at, don't they?

Are you trying to tell me you actually think the war is still being fought?

Don't you think for a minute I can't see what you're trying to do?

You tricked me into believing the war's over.

So I'll tell you everything I know.

Didn't anybody tell you that Lee surrendered at Appomattox in 65?

General Lee?

Surrender?

Never.

He not only surrendered.

Well, Abe Lincoln's been shot. Ulysses S. Grant is president now.

That's some story.

Ulysses Grant is the biggest drunk in the Yankee army.

Who'd make him president?

The war has been over for more than four years.

Look.

What's that?

It's a newspaper.

Maybe a month old, but it's proof that you've been living in the past.

Here, look.

There's an article at the bottom of the page.

Statue's being erected at General Lee in honor of his heroism during the war.

Well, go on, read it.

You won't find a single casualty list in that paper.

But one thing about battles being won or lost, what you will find is that for

the past four years, mister, you've been killing innocent people.

I didn't know.

Them soldiers I killed.

I didn't know.

They helped me God. I didn't know.

I thought I was doing my duty.

I was ordered to stay up there.

Not let any Yankees come by me.

Ordered to stay up on that mountain.

To do what?

Makes no difference now.

Well, mister, by your own admission, men died because you were up there.

Seems to me the why makes one whale of a difference.

He spared your life?

That man up there in your room?

And he really thought the war was still going on?

That seems awfully hard to believe.

About as hard as it was for him to believe the war's been over for more

four years.

Then he's not what we thought at all.

A murderer.

He's a victim.

Oh, my God, how terrible.

What is it, Luke?

Soldiers out in our field.

You're in charge.

In case you weren't aware, this is our land.

Colonel Roland Craig.

Attached to General Headquarters staff.

I think what my aunt wondered was those soldiers on our land.

Your name, sir?

Luke McCann.

Oh, yes.

The man that caught that gorilla.

To answer your unspoken question, madam, I am bivouacking my men on this meadow

with the permission of the McCanns, of course.

Well, yes, I suppose.

And as to why we're here, I've come to establish the extent of gorilla activity

in this area and to execute the gorilla that Mr. McCann had the good fortune to

apprehend. Colonel, we learned a few things about this man. His name is

Willow.

Instead of being a Confederate guerrilla, he was a soldier, thinking he

doing his duty.

Doing his duty?

Killing military personnel assigned to survey work?

I know this is going to sound strange, Colonel, but he didn't know the war was

over.

Well, actually, Mr. McCann, that doesn't sound strange to me. Not strange at

all.

There are very few rational lies left to those caught in the act of killing

other human beings under the guise of never having heard of Appomattox.

Although I must confess, with more than four years having passed, Mr.

Willow's story would strain the credulity of a moron.

Is the prisoner still being held in the house?

Yes, indeed he is, Colonel, but he's in no condition to be moved.

Oh? Why not, may I ask?

He's laid up with a bad wound. Still in some considerable pain.

Is he indeed?

Well, the hangman's noose will shortly relieve him of that inconvenience.

Perhaps you'll be good enough to show me to the prisoners so I can have him

moved to the bivouac?

Colonel, I just told you that he's in no condition to be moved.

And I have no intention of letting you come into our house to abuse that man.

Madam, I have no intention of abusing him.

But I hope you will allow me an immediate interrogation of the prisoner.

He's still asleep.

Then we'll just have to wake him, won't we?

You may leave, Mr. McCain.

Colonel, it'd be in my room.

I think I'll stay.

As you wish.

All good things must come to an end, must they not, Mr. Willow?

What are you talking about?

Come now, Mr. Willow.

Were you the only one up on that mountain?

Or are there others like you still up there?

What do you mean, others like me?

You don't know.

I told you, Colonel. He's just somebody who thought the war was still on, that's

all. Well, it's the truth, Colonel.

I thought the North and South were still fighting each other.

Well, I was ordered to stay up on that mountain, not let any Yankees come by

I see.

Then tell me, Mr. Willow, if you really thought the war hadn't ended, I mean,

knowing now that it's over, why were you, as you put it, ordered to stay on

mountain all those years?

Tell him, Andrew.

Nothing else to say?

I believe you.

I don't think there is anything else to say.

No, for once the man's telling the truth.

And as soon as you're able to stand, Mr. Willow, it'll be in front of a military

hearing. Colonel, the war is over.

That would make Willow here a civilian. Seems to me you lack the authority to

bring him to a military hearing. Mr. McCann, I have since the end of the war

been invested with power and authority by General Thomas Gates of the United

States Army to deal with guerrilla matters as I see fit.

And I declare this to be strictly a military matter.

It's real nasty to help me clean up a little bit, Miss Laura.

Quite a chore taking off all that hair.

I lopped it off now and again as much as I could, but you can only do so much

with a bayonet.

Prudy, you shaved me for a whole month once when I...

Hurt my hand plowing.

Prudy, it's your wife, isn't it?

Yes, ma 'am.

That's why I wanted to get a shave and cut my hair.

When she gets here, I want her to see me the way she used to remember me.

She's coming here?

Yeah. I had Josh send a telegraph.

She should be arriving on the noon stage.

Got me a little one, too.

I don't know if it's wearing boots or lice.

Prudy was still carrying when I went off to war.

They were the only things that kept me going all those years on the mountain.

Andrew, about all those years... I don't know what you're going to ask, Luke.

Don't.

I've got nothing else to say.

You wouldn't by any chance be Prudence Willow, would you?

Yes. Oh.

I'm Luke McCann, ma 'am.

Oh.

And this... This must be that little one her daddy keeps talking about.

Her name is Stacy, Mr. McCann.

Nice to meet you, Stacy.

They told me my husband was missing in action in 64.

Later, they sent word that he was presumed dead.

Yeah, ma 'am.

Let me get your bags down, all right?

Hey, bud, want to throw down your bags for me?

Okay.

All right, this way, ma 'am.

You've all been decent to me, and I want to

thank you for it.

Staying in a room like this is a lot different than being on a mountain.

You know, I was wondering, Mr. Willow, just where did you stay on that

Where does someone stay on a mountain?

Wherever he can get to keep the rain off his head and the wind off his back.

I just sort of staked me out a piece of land.

Just lived on it.

Does that make it legally mine?

That piece of land?

I don't know.

Reckon you'd have to file a claim for it.

But why would you want it?

Nothing up there except brush and rabbits.

A man can get attached to wherever it is he's at. Is there long enough?

You have company, Mr. Willow?

It's been a long time.

Yes, Andrew.

It has a very long time.

You look pretty as ever.

Josh.

You two soldier, you're not needed here at this moment.

Mrs. Culhane, I have my orders.

Oh, he's not going anywhere. He's manacled.

Besides, you already got someone guarding the yard.

But I take full responsibility.

Prudy?

Stacy, your daughter.

Stacy.

Hello, Pop.

Come here.

So, looks like I got me a little bit late.

I'll bet you got a smile that could light a whole world.

Let's see.

Hope you're not too disappointed in seeing what your bar looks like for the

first time.

Oh, no.

I like you.

Are you hurt, Pa?

Was hurting real bad.

Till you and your Ma came.

You and Stacy must be tired after the trip.

Trip was wearing, Andrew.

And maybe you could use the rest, too.

We'll have a lot to talk about.

A lot of things to catch up on.

Nice night.

It all seems so strange, seeing Andrew again.

After thinking all these years, he was... Yes, I understand.

Mrs. Culhane.

Mrs. Culhane, I... What is it?

There's something I need to tell someone.

I can't hold it in any longer.

Well, if it's any help, I'm very good at keeping confidences.

I've remarried, Mrs. Culhane.

When Andrew didn't come home from the war, I still didn't give up hope that

maybe somehow, even when they presumed him dead in 65, finally I

got tired of trying to fool myself.

I met a man, Lehi Killip.

Married him.

Stacy needed a father.

She didn't think she had one.

At least not live in.

You shouldn't torment yourself.

You did what was right. You couldn't know.

When the telegram came saying that Andrew was still alive, I told Daisy

that these things happen sometimes.

And that she has two fathers now.

I told him not to say a word about her new pod, Andrew.

What with all he has gone against him.

If no one were remarried, it would break his heart.

Yes, I think it probably would.

Morning, Mrs. Willow.

Luke.

You're up so early.

Just came down to watch the sun break across the hill.

Andrew and I used to get up every morning and watch that yellow sun come

together.

It was just something we did.

He'd known yellow was my favorite color.

He'd been planted a whole bed of bright yellow flowers outside of the house on

my birthday.

There's a chance that you can have some more of those special times.

If someone could convince Andrew to tell us why he was up on that mountain for

all those years.

Those special times are gone, Luke.

Forever.

Andrew can never come home with us.

He can never go home with you?

I don't understand.

I'd rather not go into it with you.

Or explain, please, Luke.

Mr. McCann, good morning.

Mrs. Willow, Mr. Cohen, I've decided to begin your husband's hearing

tomorrow.

Tomorrow?

But, Colonel, the doctor had said that Andrew Willow should not be moved for at

least a week. My time is limited, Mrs. Cohen.

So is Willow's.

Yes.

I would expect the hearing to take several days. It could, of course...

be held out in the bivouac area, but I'd rather not move the accused back and

forth like a sack of grain.

So I wonder if we might have your permission to hold the hearing here in

house?

Of course, if the hearing must be held, then yes.

It would be preferable to moving that man in there back and forth like a sack

grain, as you say.

Your father's done some bad things, child. He's hurt people.

And when somebody hurts someone, they must be punished.

He never hurt Mama, and he never hurt me.

If he hurt anybody, it's because of the war.

Didn't you hurt anybody in the war, mister?

There's something you forgot to say, Mr. Culhane.

You like Appaloosa, Colonel?

Oh, well, I... I hadn't noticed.

How much do you notice?

I'm afraid the significance of that question eludes me, madam.

Well, what I mean is that...

Sometimes a person can, well, harden themselves to something so much that

fail to see the beauty or the goodness in anything else.

Oh.

Well, I had two sons that I used to see a world of good and beauty in.

One of them was killed during the war.

The war?

Almost without exception spared few of us some personal tragedy, did it not?

Personal tragedy, madam?

No, as a soldier, I accept warfare as being impersonal.

I mean, sorrows come our way, don't they?

Impartially proffered by the hand of fate?

It's the after -war tragedies that become very personal indeed.

When we've all supposedly put aside the horror to live in common peace.

It's the day of the vulture, if you will.

I'm not sure I understand you, Colonel.

Gorillas, Mrs. Culhane.

A handful of them broke into my son's house just after the war.

My only remaining son.

And they... They

bayoneted him to death.

Killed his wife.

Gorillas, Mrs. Culhane.

Just like your Mr.

Willow in there.

Good day, madam.

Why, Andrew, why? Why won't you tell?

Luke's been after you to talk to me.

But all of it's one and the same for you, for you to go free.

Prudence, I've done nothing wrong.

They're not going to hang me. They've got to set me free.

But suppose they don't.

Suppose they say, Andrew Willow, you're hiding something.

And if you don't tell us what it is, well, that proves you're the gorilla we

you are.

Forrest Costas, hasn't it pretty?

We're like two friends talking.

Not like it was.

You always laughing, wanting to be kissed, be squeezed tight in my arms.

Don't want to slip these around you.

Wouldn't seem right.

Only one thing is important, Dad.

And that's having you free again.

Just me being free?

More than that now, Prudy.

You, Stacy, and me, we've all had something taken away from us.

Why, I want you.

I made up my mind to do what I have to do.

And, Prudy, there is something you can do for me.

Maybe I can do it myself if they let me go, but... There's this piece of

land I sort of lived off on the mountain.

It's in the high gorges.

Spent so much time on it, I kind of come to see it as being ours.

When you happen to get into town, maybe you could look into the particulars of

getting it filed for.

Filing for mountain land.

But what could the land gonna be if you... Hang?

Said you want to see me, Pa.

Forever and ever.

But if I can't, I want to at least make sure you and your Ma are happy for the

rest of your lives.

What do you mean, Pa?

Well, I got something I can't show to your Ma.

Afraid she might show it to Luke or to that army man, Colonel Craig, and that'd

spoil everything.

I want you to keep it safe for me, Stacey.

A map?

It's showing the way to the mountain land where I was living.

I want you to hide it from me.

What's your doll's name?

Charity.

Can Charity keep a secret?

Uh -huh.

Good. Can you?

As good as Charity.

Well, then it's to be our secret.

Now, if they let me go...

I'll take you and Prudy up there and show you the secret.

Maybe we could even stay there, up in the mountains.

You'd like it, Stacy.

It's right up in the sky.

You could chase the butterflies through the wildflowers on the slopes and

rabbits scampering around thick as grass.

Now, what's on that land will keep you and Dolls and your ma in fine clothes

the rest of your lives.

The blazy yellow that lit the north wall will crown what's to be yours.

Wrote that on the map.

What's it mean, Pa?

Well, your ma'll understand.

I had to write it that way so that if somebody else gets a hold of the map,

won't know where to find what's hidden.

What is hidden?

Our secret's big enough already, don't you think?

Add any more to it, it'll be too hard.

Too big for a little girl to keep all inside.

I don't want you to go away, Pa.

I want you with Ma and me.

I'll be happy wherever I go.

As long as I know you and your Ma are taken care of.

You'll be happy so I can.

Isn't that a fair bargain?

Now remember, what I told you is our secret.

I will, Pa.

You promise?

Uh -huh.

You've got to say it.

I promise.

My girl.

Andrew Willow, you are charged with murder in connection with the wanton

slayings of Private William Twiggs and Sergeant Chester Worth on the fifth day

of March, 1869.

How do you plead, Mr. Willow, innocent or guilty?

Well, I shot him, all right.

But I didn't kill nobody without cause, Colonel.

I thought the war was still on. You'll not have every opportunity to defend

yourself, Mr. Willow.

But properly?

Indeed, we would all love to hear you break that silence, Mr. Willow.

Now, you have stated that you did not know the war was over.

And if I'm correct, you have also stated previously that you were placed in the

mountain. Under order.

Well?

Yes, sir.

Am I also correct in assuming that you are now very much aware that the war is

over?

Yes, sir.

If, Mr. Willow, you were acting under orders, as you claim you were, would you

be so good as to tell us what kind of orders would keep a man on a mountain

half a decade?

And who it was that so ordered you?

You wanted your chance, Mr. Willow. Here it is. Speak up.

Or were you perhaps a deserter from your own ranks who took to the hill? I'm no

deserter, Colonel.

I believe you, Mr. Willow.

How could I for a moment have suggested otherwise?

On the contrary, the passion that you just exhibited would seem to confirm...

The one and only motive for so long a sojourn on that mountain.

One that would most certainly explain your keeping silent. I mean, especially

here in the presence of soldiers in blue uniforms.

A mountain's a good place to hide, isn't it?

A good place to ambush people.

Especially Union soldiers.

Something that a guerrilla...

with an intense passion and hatred for northerners who'd relish more in life

itself.

Mr. Willow.

I seem to have proved a point.

You pushed him into it.

One does not push a man like this into violence, Mr. McCann. It is inherent in

his nature. All one needs to do is give him the opportunity to display it.

Andrew's not what you say he is. He is a good man, and he was a good soldier.

I am not contesting the fact that he was a good soldier, Mrs. Willow. On the

contrary, he was so dedicated to the Confederacy that he kept his own war

after more than four years.

Ask Captain Jethro Clay, who Andrew served under, or any soldier from the

Texas Cavalry.

They'll tell you what kind of man Andrew is.

That there's no one alive with more feeling for others than him.

Why don't you telegraph the War Department?

See if they can get a hold of this Captain Clay.

request and hope for an immediate answer.

I declare this hearing to be recessed until further notice.

Pretty night, huh, Stacy?

to scare you.

That's all right, Luke. I'm not scared.

I guess you know I've been trying to help your pa.

Uh -huh.

I think a lot of him.

Like I do you and your ma.

But you know something, Stacy?

I think I've just about run out of ways to help him.

You wouldn't happen to know a way to help him that I don't, would you?

Papa says he knows what's best.

McCain, I'm beset by a few curiosities.

You might help me with one of them.

Help you in what way?

I believe it's something on that mountain that holds our answer to

is that Willow's concealing. And I want to find out what that is.

If for no other reason than to clarify the evidence.

When I sentence someone like Willow, I don't want any mysteries left hanging in

the air.

I want the man dead.

Buried and forgotten.

Why tell me all this?

Because at first light, I'd like you to accompany me to the mountain.

You're familiar with the area?

Those are mighty big mountains, Colonel.

Hard to tell where to start looking first.

That's another reason I want you with me.

Because you're as interested as I am in finding out what the man's keeping

secret. Maybe more.

So you'll be looking very hard.

Hmm?

As if Mr. Willow's life depended on it?

What is it?

Just about right here where we ran into those man traps.

The way I see it, Colonel, somebody alone wouldn't just lay traps anywhere.

You put them where they lived or stayed so nobody would come creeping up on them

while they were asleep.

Your reasoning's faulty, McCann.

Gorillas never stay in any one place. It makes them too vulnerable to capture.

So they move about constantly.

That might be where Willow lived. A trapper, perhaps, but not Willow.

Now, what makes you so sure?

I told you before, Mr. McCain, gorillas don't build cabins.

Their tracks would too easily give away their positions.

Well, it won't hurt to take a look.

A picture of Andrew Willow's wife.

That's proof enough he's been staying here.

Andrew said she was the only thing that kept him going.

It just doesn't make any sense.

It makes perfect sense if Willow is not a gorilla.

But you're still not prepared to admit that, are you?

In spite of all of this.

Thank you not to make judgments about what I think or don't think, McCain.

But if Willow didn't follow the pattern of every gorilla I've ever known, it's

because...

Because he couldn't. Because he had to stay here.

Why?

I have no immediate answer. Perhaps to protect something?

Something that he couldn't easily carry away?

What's it?

What are you

making of it, Colonel?

Sergeant Worth's cab.

He's inscribed their names and the dates they died.

Almost all of them after the war had ended.

Well, it seems we have our answer as to why Mr. Willow

was so reticent about what he'd been doing up on this mountain.

Slaughtering unsuspecting Union soldiers.

Stealing their valuables. I can't believe it.

You can't believe the evidence of your own eyes.

A murderer wouldn't bury his victims and mark their graves with their own

headgear. He'd be signing his own death warrant.

Which is exactly what our Mr. Willow has done.

Well, Mr.

Willow, in light of the fact that you will not tell me why you were ordered to

stay on that mountain, Why you built that cabin?

Or what it is that you're hiding? Winters were cold.

Needed a place to keep out of the weather.

He's telling the truth.

He's not hiding anything about his cabin. He built it to live in. Is that

strange? For a gorilla, yes.

They'd never live in a place they thought to be enemy territory.

Andrew wanted that land for the future, for us.

He wanted to file for it.

Tell him, Andrew.

You wanted to file for the land, Mr. Willow?

Figured someday it might be worth something to my wife and daughter.

But did you feel that they'd be comfortable living on land inhabited by

men?

I told you why I shot those men.

We back to that again, Mr. Willow?

I gave them Christian burials.

And next, I suppose you're going to tell me that you kept the personal

belongings, the watches, rings, money, medals, thinking to return them to their

families after the war. That's why I kept them.

Made sure I marked the graves proper, too, so Ken could send the bodies home

again if they'd have mind to.

Did you indeed.

I received this telegram this morning from the War Department in regard to

Captain Clay, who was to speak for Mr.

Andrew Willard.

Jethro Catlin Clay, Captain, Confederate States of America, and a 15 -man patrol

were killed to the last man in two separate actions on consecutive days in

No word on what Clay's mission was.

So it seems, Mr. Willow, that there is only one man who knows what Captain

Clay's mission was.

Have you anything, Mr. Willow, to offer in your defense?

Tell him everything.

The truth, Andrew.

Please.

For Stacy's and my sake, if not your own.

the truth, Andrew.

I beg you.

Well, Mr. Willough?

Madam, would you kindly return to your seat?

Seems I have no recourse but to credit you with guerrilla activity in

with the murders of the hitherto aforementioned soldiers, and to find you

as charged.

Andrew Willow, I hereby sentence you to be hanged by the neck until dead,

two days hence, at a place to be determined.

Soldier.

I'd take it as a favor if Andrew could stay here at the house till the time of

execution.

For the benefit of his wife and daughter, they haven't so little time

You may stay.

Stacy and I will be leaving before the

sentence is carried out.

I don't want her to be here when they come for you.

Neither do I.

I've never loved anyone but you.

What's the matter, Stacy?

I don't want my pot to die, Luke.

I know you don't, honey.

None of us do.

Why, we've been trying so hard to help him.

But what, Stacy?

Stacy, what did your pa mean when he said he knows best?

You know, if you told me, you might feel better.

Paul made me promise not to tell.

Oh.

Well, if it could help him, it'd be worth telling, don't you think?

He... He knows what's best.

I'm sure he does.

But, Stacy, what's best for him right now is to get free of the trouble he's

Right?

To the land my pa won.

Blaze of yellow that lit the north wall will crown what's to be yours.

Stacy, you know anything about this?

I think there's like a treasure there.

Consider it keep me and ma happy for a long, long time.

Goodbye me dolls and ma pretty dresses.

Stacy, I'm not sure what this is all about.

One thing I am sure of.

You did the right thing by showing me.

Uncle Zeb.

Luke.

Excuse me, ma 'am.

Uncle Zeb, this is Prudence Willow.

Prudence, this is my Uncle Zeb. Hello.

Ma 'am.

Luke, what's all them soldier boys doing there?

Uncle Zeb, why don't you ride with us?

We're going up the mountain.

A man's life may depend on what we find up there.

I'll explain everything on the way.

All right.

That's the saddleback you was talking about, the one overlooking the ravine?

That's it, Uncle Deb.

It's not far from his cabin.

You figure out what Andrew meant by the blaze of yellow that lit the north wall

we'll crown what's to be yours?

Andrew knew yellow was my favorite color, but as for the rest, no.

Now that saddleback runs on a piece. Let's go over there and take a look.

What is it, Uncle Zip?

Well, Luke, I ain't rightly sure, but I'm thinking about what her husband said

about yellow being her favorite color.

We just passed us a bunch of yellow wildflowers growing on the hillside

Now, it strikes me that they was a mite far up in this meadowland for them to be

growing natural.

You're saying those kind of flowers don't grow that high up.

That's about it.

Unless someone were to plant them up there and tend them.

The place of Yellow Bill at the north wall.

The place Andrew built when we was first married. He planted a whole bed of

bright yellow buttercups the north side of the house.

What do you think?

I think we ought to find out.

Uncle Zeb?

Rudy?

Look, there's a Confederate insignia on the lid. That's it, all right.

Whatever's in it sure weighs a plenty.

It's locked, Uncle Zeb.

All right, stand back.

Looks to me like Mr. Willow was guarding himself a bunch of Confederate gold

here. I'd say he was a soldier performing his duty.

Had to drag it back here on a driveway.

Where was this chest hidden? In one of the ravines near his cabin.

No!

You did this to me?

Did nothing.

Just trying to help you.

You spoiled it, Luke.

You spoiled it.

I did what I had to do, Andy.

Sold your daughter.

I'm sorry, Pa.

Happen to be people who care about you even if you don't.

Just what is in the box?

Gold bar.

Would you care to explain this, Mr. Willow?

It was a garden in the chest for the...

Captain Jethro Clay's detachment, just like my wife said.

We were supposed to get it to Missouri.

Sterling Price needed it to buy guns.

Well, we ran into Yankees.

Got shot up pretty bad.

Had to turn tail.

Captain Clay decided he'd fight his way back to Fort Hub and bring back help.

Given a lot to gone with him.

But the captain wanted me to stay because he knew I'd stick.

He told me to guard this with my life.

There's more than a man's lifetime treasure in this chest.

A dozen men's lifetimes.

Why, Mr. Willow, didn't you divulge this little truth when you, as you say,

suddenly realized that the war was over?

Tell it all, Andrew.

Please, please, Andrew.

That's why I was thinking of filing for that mountain land up there.

So is everything on it, including the gold, would be mine.

So you were planning on keeping the gold for yourself?

Not till after I found out the war was over.

Confederacy didn't need it anymore.

I figure I earned it.

Staying up there on that mountain, watching over it all those years.

Years I could have spent with my wife and daughter.

I wanted to give it to you, Prudy.

You, waiting for me all that time.

I had nothing else in the world to offer you.

I figured it'd set you and Stacey up for a long time to come.

Very touching, I'm sure.

Can't you see he is telling the truth?

What I see, Mr. McKeon, is someone who has not only bushwhacked innocent

but who's been hoarding government gold to boot, and who has been using this

woman and that child to play on my sympathies and yours. That woman and

child happen to be this man's wife and daughter, Colonel.

To all intents and purposes.

You better explain that, Colonel.

Yeah, just what are you saying?

I'm talking about a very interesting little piece of information a native of

mine happened to come up with a short while ago.

I became suspicious of Mrs. Willow when I overheard her talking with you one

morning, so I decided I would just investigate her past a bit. Just what

trying to say, Colonel?

Simply, Mr. Willow, that Mrs.

Willow here is in fact Mrs.

Lehigh Killip. She remarried to a wheelwright in Nebraska more than four

ago.

Tell him he's lying, Prudy.

Mrs. Killett, did Willow happen to promise you some of this gold if you'd

and plead for him?

No, that's not true.

Prudence told me on the very first day she arrived at the ranch about being

remarried. Now, she told me in the strictest confidence, afraid that if

else knew, they might let it slip to Andrew.

She couldn't tell Andrew because he was laboring under enough pain as it was.

Just that I... I thought you were never coming home.

They told me you were dead and Stacy and me... I understand.

You've done the proper thing, Trudy.

Well... All said and done, the verdict still stands.

Return the prisoner to his room, Private.

Colonel?

What is it now, Mr. McCann?

There's something here.

It's a letter.

I think we ought to read it here.

Mr. McCann, I've played about all the little games I want to with you.

Colonel, I don't play games with people's lives.

It's a letter, Colonel. Let's read it. It might be evidence.

Well, then, read it.

The gilded lead bars.

Lead?

No.

No, it can't be.

Not all those years.

Garden a box of lead.

They look like gold.

Easy way to see for sure.

It can't be.

It can't be!

It's lead, all right.

I knew it, man -garden.

The gilded lead bars in this chest are the responsibility of Captain Jethro

Catlin Clay.

11th Texas Cavalry, CSA.

If they should fall into the hands of the enemy, be it known they were

to divert attention from the actual shipment of Confederate gold ingots to

Quinlan by other means.

The defense of this chest by Captain Clay and his patrol was an act of

extraordinary heroism since he was fully aware that he was risking his life for

something he knew to be worthless.

We've beseeched the Union Army to inform the Secretary of War for the

Confederacy if Captain Clay is killed or captured so that his dedication and

that of his men may be appropriately recognized.

General Adrian Forbes, 11th Texas Cavalry CSA.

All them years.

The lives of those men.

That lid came to here.

Mr. Willow, there's still the small matter of your plan to keep that gold

yourself.

But, Colonel, it isn't gold. It's lead.

You can't hold a man for hoarding a box of lead, Colonel.

That's right.

He did not know it was lead, so felonious intent could still be charged.

However...

Finally, and I think eminently clear, that Private Willow was indeed ignorant

the cessation of hostilities and was, in his own mind, carrying on

in the tradition of a good soldier doing his best for five long years to fulfill

the orders given him by his commanding officer.

That's a truly extraordinary...

Dedication to duty.

So for these reasons, I find him innocent of the charges of murder lodged

against him.

And I declare this hearing to be closed.

Release the prisoner.

take good care of your Ma now.

You hear?

I will, Pa.

What do you do now, Andrew?

Prudy and Stacy belong to another man now, Luke.

All I got left is that mountain.

Guess that's where I'll go.

It's beautiful up there.

Outside of Prudy and my little gal.

It's closest to heaven I've ever been.

Maybe I'll see y 'all sometime.

You can count on that.

I'll be cooking some good meals with an extra plate in mind. You better drop by

every now and again. We don't want to let good food go to waste.

I'd cross a mountain barefoot during a snowfly to see that it didn't.

Bye, Mr. Willow.

Bye. Goodbye, Andrew.

Bye.

Yes, dear.

We never... We never gonna see my pa again.

You making it, Andy?

Huh?

Been doing a little experiment.

See what the ground will give me up this way now that I got me some seeds to

plant.

You set making a trip somewheres?

Nope.

Supplies are for you.

Supplies for me?

Well, I appreciate the thinking behind it, but... Well, looks like you got

enough there to feed a passel mouse over the winter.

I don't know about a passel mouse, but I figure...

We'll do about three.

Pa!

Pa!

Pa!

Pa!

We've come to be with you, Pa.

You mean you come for a visit?

No, for forever.

What's she saying, Prudy?

You'll have to add on extra rooms for us.

You're coming to stay?

Here with me?

If you'll have us.

You married to that other... Was married.

Yes!

This cabin of mine, ours, is in bad need

of a housewoman.

Would you two like to do the honors?

What's a housewoman, Pop?

It's you and your ma.

Luke, you come inside, too. You hear?