Original subtitles

Good evening, Mr. Hardie.

Good evening.

Oh, you gave me kind of a scare there for a minute.

I can see I surprised you a good deal.

Well, I was just in the neighborhood,

thought I'd drop by here for a visit.

Oh, I'm glad you did.

You mind, Mr. Hardie?

I'm kind of sensitive about who handles King David there.

You mind?

Well, certainly not. Your property.

No, King David isn't property,

he's a friend.

Don't you think that's sort of an odd name for a gun?

Oh, it's not so strange. If you remember right,

it was David who slew Goliath.

Yeah.

Yeah, I remember that story.

Care for a cup coffee?

Don't mind if I do.

Here, sit down.

You know...

you seem to know my name.

Have we met before?

No, this is our first

formal meeting, Mr. Hardie.

My name is Cather,

Wade Cather.

There you are.

I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, sir.

We've seen each other enough

in the last three days

to be old friends by this time.

I don't mind telling you, Mr. Cather,

I'm getting a little old to play hide and seek.

It seems to make me nervous nowadays.

Yeah, there's nothing personal

about this, Mr. Hardie.

If King David and I were after you,

you'd be dead by now.

That's a pleasure to know.

Mind telling me what it is you do want?

You don't know me, Mr. Hardie,

but I'm quite familiar about you.

You're a Wells Fargo agent.

Now about four months ago,

your company had a robbery.

A man by the name of Eli Fisher

held up a Wells Fargo stage.

Am I right?

You're telling the story.

Uh-hmm.

Your job is to track Fisher down and...

bring him to justice.

But now you see, I've been looking for him, too.

Looking, hoping for

three long years.

I see.

So in other words, you've been following me

hoping that I'd lead you to Fisher.

You a law man?

No, let's just say that I believe in justice.

But as soon as I found out that you were assigned to the case,

I knew that...

my hunt was practically finished.

Now, I'm not gonna interfere with you, Mr. Hardie,

since, like I said, I'm here to see that...

justice is done.

Well, that's a...

highly commendable attitude, sir.

However, you know there is a chance

that I might not find Fisher.

Oh, no.

You'll find him all right, Mr. Hardie.

Here,

here's to the end of a manhunt.

Well then I suppose I ought to be moving along.

Oh, no. You're welcome to spend the night here.

Thank you, but I figure

I can cover a good piece of ground

between now and daylight in the cool of the night.

Oh, I know. Well, you just suit yourself then.

Much obliged for the coffee.

And I'll see you around no doubt.

Oh, there's no doubt about that, Mr. Hardie.

No doubt at all.

That's a good way to get yourself killed.

Oh, I never figured

you wouldn't be expecting me.

Remember the story about the bad penny?

I've been following you all morning.

Naturally.

Oh, you didn't see me.

A trick I learned from an old...

buffalo hunter.

All right.

Now that you've demonstrated

your abilities to track a man,

turn around and get out of here.

Oh, no.

Getting rid of me isn't gonna be that easy.

I haven't done anything wrong,

and I don't intend to, Mr. Hardie.

What makes you think Fisher's here?

Oh, we both know

he's here, Mr. Hardie, don't we?

Could be he's not alone.

You might find you need me.

No. No, I won't need you.

Couldn't be you'll feel differently

before this is over.

Now, let's get one thing straight,

I've come here to take a man in for a holdup.

I wanna take him in alive

without a fight, if it's at all possible.

If it isn't, then I'm gonna take him in

one way or another, but I'll do it alone.

Well, this is your show, Mr. Hardie.

I'm just here to see that Eli Fisher

gets what's coming to him.

Fisher?

I wanna talk to you.

Time's up for talking, Hardie.

Well,

I cut down the odds for you some, Mr. Hardie.

I told you to stay out of this.

No sense in getting excited.

I can't understand you, Mr. Hardie.

Way I figure it,

I did you a favor.

Well,

isn't she the spunky one though?

He's still alive.

I wanna take him into the hotel.

It's all right.

We won't bother you or Fisher.

It's all right, Eli.

He ain't changed a bit.

What did you go do that for? I had him dead center.

I told you once,

I want Fisher and I want him bad,

but not bad enough to see him murdered.

Now, that might be hard for you to understand,

but that's the way it's gonna be.

You can take him inside now.

What do you plan now?

It will be getting dark soon.

I'll wait till morning.

Oh, no, you're making a mistake, Hardie.

Fisher is liable to run off on you.

I can read a trail sign, too.

From what I've seen, his horses couldn't make it

two more miles.

The next town's a two days ride.

He knows that.

We'll just let him sit all night

and think about it.

Well, I guess

there's nothing left for me to do but relax.

Come to think of it I've worked up a hunger.

I'll go rustle us up some eats,

how about it?

You rustle yourself out of something.

There's only so much my stomach can stand.

You ever served any time in jail?

No. So far,

it's always been the other way around.

I spent two and a half years in prison.

If a man makes a mistake,

he's got to expect to pay.

Now, this was an army prison.

There were 8,000 men there,

all paying for the same mistake I made.

And what mistake was that?

We fought on the wrong side.

I was wounded and captured

at Gettysburg.

And where does Fisher fit into the picture?

At the prisoner-of-war camp,

he was one of the officers in charge.

Capt. Eli Fisher.

All of the officers were mean and ornery, but...

he headed the list.

The ankle chains that rubbed your skin raw

till they bled and festered...

The slow starving,

dying by inches.

Nothing there but...

dirt and death, and...

he's walking around with...

With a clean uniform,

a full belly.

I looked at him every day

and I said to myself,

"When I get out of here,

"he's gonna suffer.

He is gonna suffer."

Did you ever stop and think

that you might be wrong,

that he was only doing his duty?

Duty?

Men dying of hunger and disease all around him?

That war was over three years ago, Mr. Cather.

You, like everyone else by this time,

should've made your peace.

I've made up my mind, Mr. Hardie.

Even if it took me to doomsday,

I'd get even with him.

So, guess I better turn in.

Oh, say, if you get sleepy,

you just wake me up and I'll stand some watch for you.

I'll be all right.

Suit yourself.

Good night

and pleasant dreams.

Who's there? Come out with your hands up

or I'll shoot.

Don't shoot.

Odd time of the night

to be taking a stroll, isn't it?

Are you the Wells Fargo agent? Yes.

I just wanted to be sure you weren't that other one.

I wanna talk to you.

Go ahead.

Well, it's chilly out here.

Couldn't we go inside?

We could.

But Eli Fisher might decide

to take a stroll and use my horse.

He might.

Except for one thing...

He wouldn't leave me behind.

No.

No, I suppose he wouldn't.

Everything all right, Hardie?

Everything's all right, Cather.

Go back to sleep.

I guess you're wondering what I want.

Did Fisher send you?

The man that was shot this afternoon,

Eli says he needs a doctor.

I thought maybe you could go for help.

Only way I can go back to town if Fisher goes with me.

Maybe you can go back and talk to him.

He wants to talk to you.

He wanna give himself up?

I don't know.

If he doesn't, I don't think there's very much

either one of us can do.

I love him, Mr. Hardie,

and I don't want him hurt.

Sorry. I must've sounded like

a lovesick schoolgirl.

No, there's nothing wrong with someone

showing good, honest emotions.

This isn't exactly the place for a confession.

They all look alike, don't they?

It's funny.

A whole town of empty buildings,

and we picked this one.

It just goes to show you can't get away from your past.

Yes, you can, if you really want to,

but it takes a good deal of effort

and you got to try.

Saying and doing

are two different things.

I guess I'd better go back.

I think I'll go back with you.

I'd like to talk to Fisher.

VERNA: Can he trust you?

JIM: He knows I've got to take him in.

But if I can talk to him first,

it might save both of us

a good deal of trouble.

You could trust him.

You have my word for it. Good.

CATHER: You are wasting your time, Hardie.

There won't be any trouble my way either.

Let's go.

While we're over there, you see to it

you stay put right here, Cather.

You understand that?

Oh, sure. Sure, Hardie.

Just like I say,

this is your show.

Thanks for the help.

Glad I could help.

Fever ought to go down now that the bullet's out.

That buffalo rifle really throws a hunk of lead.

Bet that thing weighs half a pound.

Well, he's got another one just like it.

Only he's got your name on it.

Yeah, he's been trying for three years.

So far he hasn't had much success.

Only this time you've got no place left to run.

I can offer you a safe way out.

All you have to do is give up your gun.

You're wasting your time, Hardie.

Even if you get past me,

there's still Cather.

I haven't forgotten him.

There hasn't been a day in three years

that Cather hasn't been on my mind.

Eli, listen to Mr. Hardie.

He's offering you a way out.

There's lot of worse things than jail, you know.

Not for me there isn't.

I'm an authority on jails.

Please, Eli.

I'm sorry, Verna.

So am I.

ELI: Hardie, wait a minute.

Before you go, I'd like to explain something to you.

Go ahead.

Even if I did turn myself over to you,

like you said, there'd still be Cather.

You let me worry about him.

You'd have to kill him, you know that, don't you?

Cather's all eaten up inside with revenge.

Funny thing is, he's already gotten more than even.

What do you mean by that?

For three years, I've wandered

from place to place and he keeps following me.

Every time I try and settle down

and live decently, he shows up.

That's when I took to stealing.

I had to get by somehow.

Maybe you should've stopped and had it out with him

a long time ago.

Kinda of hard to fight a man you're not angry with.

Even though I've told myself a hundred times

that I was just a soldier carrying out orders,

I still couldn't convince myself it's true.

VERNA: Mr. Hardie, maybe if you explain to Cather

he'd understand. It wouldn't do any good.

Get Cather to leave,

and Eli will give himself up.

Eli?

Funny thing, Hardie,

back in that prison camp,

Cather was just another soldier to me.

I didn't even know his name.

I see.

I'll be right back.

Cather?

Cather?

Cather?

What happened?

Verna!

Eli went out the front door as soon as you left.

Cather must have been across the street.

I heard a shot. Was he hit?

Yes. Where's Eli now?

He went out the back

and he told me to stay here.

If you're thinking about using that big gun of yours,

you won't have a chance. Oh, Hardie.

Oh, sure gave me a scare. I thought you was Fisher.

Nobody told you to start walking.

We got no quarrel, Hardie.

What's eating you anyway?

There's one place for a man like you, Cather,

and that's locked up with the rest of your kind.

It was Fisher's fault. I'd have been all right

if it hadn't been for him.

Do you think fisher singled you out of that prison camp

to make an example out of you?

He didn't even know your name.

Now I told you what it was like.

Fisher is responsible.

There were 8,000 other men in that prison camp.

How many of them do you think feel like you do?

I waited three years

to get even, Hardie.

You nor nobody else

is gonna stop me now.

ELI: Thank you, Hardie. You saved me the trouble.

Cather won't bother you anymore now, Eli.

I've seen to that.

No, he won't be bothering me anymore.

Neither will you. Eli.

Don't be a fool.

I could have taken you a while ago if I wanted to.

I knew you were in the building next door,

but I went after Cather.

I thought he was more dangerous and more important

to both of us right now.

So did I, that's why I let you.

You've been a big help to me, Hardie.

I see.

You are what he said you were.

He wasn't lying.

No, he wasn't lying.

And I wasn't lying when I said I didn't know his name.

But I knew his face.

I knew the face of every stinking one of them at camp.

I saw to it they suffered.

And I like the look on your face now

that you know that you're gonna die.

No, Eli! Shut up!

I could've killed you a little while ago

when you're walking up the street.

Now it's easier I got you both right here.

I'm sorry, Cather.

I've been wrong about people in my time, but...

Oh, no, you weren't entirely wrong

about me, Mr. Hardie.

I suppose I am some of the things

you said I was, but...

you was wrong about one thing.

You inferred I was a killer.

Oh, I've shot a few.

Me and old King David here, but...

I never killed a man in my life.

If you'll look after him,

I'll go and get the horses.