Original subtitles

I don't like gunslingers.

Maybe it's because I know them too well.

And I don't try to understand what makes them tick,

because by the time I tangle with them,

the damage has been long done.

Take Bill Longley.

The Rangers called him

the most dangerous man in Texas.

He came along during the Smokey '70s

and soon built for himself a reputation

as a walking instrument of death.

The folks with a hankering for excitement

tried to prod John Wesley Harden

into a shootout with Bill.

But Harden left town suddenly,

and no one ever found out who was the faster.

One thing about Bill Longley,

he never went back on his word.

I found myself fighting side by side with him,

even though Wells Fargo had a price on his head.

It all started late one night

in the Fork City, Wells Fargo office

near the Texas border.

Yes?

Which one of you is Milt Jones?

Well, that's me, son. What can I do for you?

Could I speak to you alone?

Well, this is Mr. Hardie

from our San Francisco office.

We have no secrets.

Jim Hardie?

That's right.

How are you?

Are you still interested in Bill Longley?

He robbed a lot of our stagecoaches, didn't he?

That $5,000 reward, is that still on the level?

Absolutely.

Now, if I was to bring Bill Longley in,

how long would it take me to collect the reward?

You know where he is?

Well, I might.

Anyone who captured Bill Longley'd

be the biggest man in Texas.

I ain't interested in being any hero.

All I want's the money.

Now, how long will it take me to collect it?

MILT: Well, we'd have to get in touch

with San Francisco and...

Too long, mister.

Your big chance is tonight.

You bring Bill Longley in tonight,

the $5,000 will be here.

Now, wait a minute, Jim.

I'll take the responsibility.

All right.

You wait right here. I'll be back.

What do you make of it?

I don't know.

We'll see.

It's Longley, all right.

Hello, Bill.

All right, Longley, get down.

Inside.

Did he give you much trouble?

JESS: Not after I got the drop on him.

Well, wait till folks hear about this.

Get the sheriff, Jim. We'll have to jail him.

Wait a minute, mister. Wait a minute.

You're forgetting something, the reward.

We've got the money, right here.

Hold it.

What is this?

You fellas are too trusting.

I almost called it off, Jim,

when I found out you were gonna be here.

Never figured you'd fall for it.

Standing by while I picked up my own reward.

Well, maybe next time

it'll be twice as big.

Jim, you're never gonna live this down.

Tie him up, Jess.

What'd you do that for? Now, get out.

Jim!

That was like taking candy from a baby.

Boy, that Hardie, he's gonna have a lot

of explaining to do.

$5,000.

He'll have to work a hundred years

to pay that off.

Think I'll get my gun. I feel naked without it.

Bill, put your hands up

if you don't wanna get plugged.

Now, don't get ambitious.

All right, now hand over the money.

Are you hard of hearing all of a sudden?

Look, Bill, I don't wanna use this.

All right, Billy.

Now step back, way back.

Hyah!

Why'd you wait until we got out here?

You could've left me at the Fargo office.

I got nothing personal against you, Bill.

What I wanted, I got.

Oh, yeah, Marge.

I'll keep your date with her.

I don't think you'll really mind, will you?

I'll kill you for this.

Bill, you don't understand.

Marge does things to me.

When I'm with her, I feel big as a mountain.

He'll be all right.

How do you feel? Mad.

I don't think I've ever been this mad in my life.

Well, you sure don't look it.

You don't look worried about that money.

Would it make you feel better

if I jumped up hard and made a lot of noise?

What about it, Sheriff, you gonna put together

a posse, or aren't you?

Kind of, hard at this hour, Jim.

By morning, they'll be in Vinegar Wells.

Take an army to get 'em out of there.

Besides, if we did catch up with them,

they'll have plenty of company.

You don't know what it's like.

I know there are two killers loose in your county,

and you refuse to help.

Make sure that's in your report, Milt.

Where are you going, Jim?

There's $5,000 that belongs to Wells Fargo.

Right now, it's in the wrong hands,

I'm gonna try to get it back.

Marge!

Marge!

Marge.

Where's Bill?

Bill? Is he all right?

Don't you worry none about Bill. He's all right.

Just had a little business to take care of.

Wants us to meet him at the shack.

Vinegar Wells?

Bill said we were going over the border.

Get married, start a new life?

Now, you don't believe that stuff, do you?

Bill wouldn't lie to me.

Well, now, it seems, uh, pretty late for Bill Longley

to start changing his colors.

I tell you, he wouldn't lie to me.

All right, Get your horse.

We better start going before there's some company.

You're not fooling me, Jess.

Bill's all right?

You don't know me very well, Marge.

When you know me better,

you'll find out I won't lie to you, either.

I'm gonna take good care of you, Marge.

The best.

Come on, boy.

Come on.

Here we go.

JIM: The initials on the grip were W.L.

It was Bill Longley's,

and I knew something was dead wrong,

for Bill would never take a dozen steps

without his handgun.

Still it might be a trap.

If it was, maybe I'd wish

I had listened to that sheriff.

JIM: My head was aching from Jess' gun butt.

I had to get out of the sun and stretch.

The trees down below looked a million miles away.

BILL: Hold it, Jim.

I'm unarmed.

Might as well throw in with you.

I'm no good to myself this way.

I'm clean, Jim.

I give you my word.

All right.

You must be plenty peeved at me.

You can bet on that.

Wells Fargo is out $5,000,

and you made me look like a chump.

Yeah, well,

I'm out $2,500,

and my girl maybe.

Oh, that ol' Jess sure double-crossed me.

I'm beginning to think I'm a bad judge

of human nature.

You, uh, got any water to spare?

Help yourself.

You know, we ought to do something about ol' Jess.

I'll make you a deal, Jim.

You'll make a deal?

I'm the one who's got the water,

and your horse, and your gun.

Yeah, but you don't know where Jess is,

and I do.

A little while ago, you mentioned

something about your girl.

Let's just talk about Jess and the Fargo money.

Seems to me we're talking

a lot about everything.

You're in a bind, friend.

I'm gonna call your hand.

I think you're bluffing.

You want that money almost as much as you want me,

and you want Jess,

'cause every time you take a step,

your head hurts and reminds you of him.

Supposing I got that money for you.

Would you turn me loose?

So you could come back and steal it again?

No, thanks.

I'm not a complete fool.

All right, I'll give it you straight.

I sided in with Jess,

pick up a quick bankroll.

You see, I... I got a girl.

We wanna get married,

go to Mexico and make a fresh start.

That's gospel, Jim.

You help me find my girl,

and I give you my pledge word,

I'll get over across that border,

and that's the last that Wells Fargo will ever see of me,

and I don't go back on my word.

I believe you,

but I can't help you.

There's always ways of working things out if you want to.

All right. Keep talking.

BILL: All right, We got the money

and Marge.

Supposing you take me in.

Maybe you could sweeten the sentence a little bit,

because of my help.

Maybe you could even fix it up

so I wouldn't get but a year or so.

I can't promise you

what a judge is gonna do or say,

but I can promise you

I'll do what I can to help you.

Is that a deal?

It's a deal.

You know, it's noon, and I haven't eaten

since last night.

Let's do something about it.

What beats me is how a fellow like yourself,

smarter than most,

gets started off the wrong way.

Believe me, I didn't sit down and plan it.

If I had my way,

I'd be back in Evergreen working a farm.

My father was the only Union man in Washington County.

The kids used to call me all kinds of names,

because I was a Yankee.

I used to walk down the main street at night,

no one smiled or said hello.

No, they just looked past me and hated me till it hurt.

Then the Carpetbaggers come to town.

Things got worse.

I had to kill a Yankee to show where I stood.

I hid out in the hills for a couple of months,

then I went down to see my folks.

Yankees surrounded the house.

I shot my way out,

and I was on the loose again.

My time's running out, Jim.

If I don't settle down pretty soon...

I'll hang.

Yup, I expect you will.

Well, let's get to work.

JIM: So I went on a manhunt with Bill Longley,

as deadly a gun as ever rode in Texas.

I was after Wells Fargo money.

He was after his sweetheart

and the man who had double-crossed him.

Somewhere along the line,

someone was gonna die.

I hope it wouldn't be me.

You better turn back, Bill,

if you know what's good for you!

It's Jess Evans.

He must have been worried I'd come.

I'm warning you, Bill.

Jim, give me a gun.

JESS: Hey, who's that with you?

Jim Hardie!

Hardie?

Hey, Bill, you don't really care

what kind of company you keep, do you?

I'm gonna go after him.

You keep me covered.

Now let's see how tough you are.

All right, now, where is she?

What makes you think I'm gonna tell you that?

She's my insurance.

Where's the money?

It's insurance, too.

I'm gonna turn around, Jess,

let you and Bill talk.

Maybe when I turn around again,

you won't be so interested in insurance.

Well?

All right, come on.

I'm tired of fooling with you, man.

Where is she?

At the shack.

The money's there, too.

I should've killed you

that day when I had the chance.

You ain't gonna kill nobody.

Shack's in Vinegar Wells.

You can get in all right, Jim,

but if they recognize you, you'll never get out alive.

Who else is there?

JESS: Pete Morgan, Jed Ayres, Lester White.

The others aren't back.

I never heard of any of them.

They recognize you, you're dead.

And he can't go in there unarmed.

They'd know something was wrong.

Maybe you're right.

So we rode into Vinegar Wells,

hideout and base of operations

for every outlaw in the panhandle.

As Bill said,

anyone could ride in.

Riding out was the trick.

Watch yourself, Jess.

Hello, Shell.

Howdy, Bill, Jess.

I'd like you to meet a friend of mine, Jim.

Howdy, Jim.

JIM: Howdy.

Is Marge upstairs?

Yup.

She ain't been down.

Pinin' for you, boy.

Well, I'll take care of that, yeah?

Come on, Jim. Let's go upstairs.

Yes?

BILL: Open up, honey, it's me.

Bill.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Honey, this is a friend of mine.

Listen, you get your things together.

We're gonna get out of here.

All right.

Where's the money, Jess?

Now, you keep playing game,

and I'm gonna march you out in back,

and I'm gonna put a hole in you

where it ain't gonna do no good.

Now, what's it gonna be?

This was Bill's chance.

He had a gun.

His pals were downstairs.

It must have been an awful temptation...

The money, the girl.

He had only to get the drop on me,

take off for the border.

All I could do was wait.

It seemed like a hundred years.

Here you are, Jim.

Thanks.

Are you about ready, honey?

MARGE: Yes. Then let's go.

Leaving already?

Well, there's nothing to hold me here now.

Watch him! He's from Wells Fargo!

Let's go.

Is he really from Wells Fargo?

Yeah.

You're not going back with him.

Come on, honey. Let's get out of here.

JIM: I knew what Bill Longley was thinking,

and I could read the girl's mind too.

Behind was freedom,

ahead lay trial and imprisonment.

Jail for Bill would clip Marge's wings,

and she didn't know if she could take it.

An avalanche! Get out!

Is he dead?

Jim?

He's still breathing.

Maybe this was how it was supposed to be.

We could leave for Mexico now.

Be nothing to worry about.

Bill, this is what we've been waiting for.

We can take his horse with us.

I know he says he's gonna try to get you off,

but it isn't up to him.

They could give you life,

hang you.

They could.

MARGE: Bill, you've kept your promise.

You went back to Vinegar Wells,

you helped him get the money.

Now think about yourself and me.

You go on over and get that canteen off the horse.

Go on now.

It's all right.

Thank you, Bill.

Don't thank me.

You don't owe me nothing.

I'm just as anxious to get my life cleared up

as you are to take me in.

JIM: I kept my word and Bill got off

with a light sentence.

But his luck had run out.

Sometime later on September the 3rd, 1877,

he was tried for murder and found guilty.

There's been a lot of talk about Bill Longley.

Maybe only time can judge him.

But I've got to take them as they come.

In my book, he was a man of honor,

no matter what else, he may have been.