Original subtitles

♪

Hooooo!!!!

What's up, Major?

Cheyenne! Circle up!

Those smoke signals up there are talking about us!

That first one says that "the wagons are heading that way,"

and the second one says he'll be "waiting for" us.

Get everybody forted up right away!

I don't want any fires or lanterns burning after sundown!

The men in every other wagon stand the first watch!

Get a-moving! Hurry up!

♪

Mrs. O'Malley, you just stop worrying.

Everything's gonna be all right.

Sure quiet out there tonight.

Yep, I just hope it stays that way.

Major Adams.

Yes?

Isn't there some way we could move around them?

Mr. Mason, I'm not taking any chances with this Medicine Mark.

Medicine Mark?

He's chief of the Cheyenne.

Hates white men... any white men.

I've sent McCullough on to get a military escort.

That means we'll be losing a lot of time.

It's better than losing our scalps.

Anybody ever try to make peace with this Medicine Mark?

Peace?

As far as I know, no white man's ever set eyes on him

and lived to tell about it.

It's a funny thing...

Most Indians won't attack at night, but not this fella.

He'll attack any time at all he's got a chance to kill a white man.

Those gol-darn owls give me the creeps, especially this kind.

Why? This kind different?

Yeah, this kind don't fly.

What do you think, Major?

Oh, I don't know.

Ought to be daylight in about another hour.

I don't think they'll jump us...

I'm looking for a fella named Francis Mason!

Well, you better show yourself, mister...

or you'll be dead before you get a chance to lay eyes on him!

I'm Bije Wilcox.

Are you out of your head,

comin' through a Cheyenne war party at night

up to a wagon train that's waiting to be attacked?

Them Cheyenne don't want this tough old hide.

They like white meat, fresh and tender, from the East.

Scalps is a lot nicer, too...

They ain't been burned to shoe leather.

You ram-roddin' this outfit? I am.

Coulda been right in the middle of this whole wagon train without you knowing it.

You coulda tried. I expect you're doing the best job you know how.

We do all right.

Now, sir, where is this Francis Mason?

I'm Francis Mason.

I writ you a letter.

I didn't expect to meet you until later.

What you're looking for is around these parts,

so we can get started right now.

Started for where?

It's a great big country, mister,

man can't tell where he's gonna end up.

The Cheyenne don't give you much choice.

I'm alive, ain't I?

Got a long ways to go. Let's get started.

I'm not going anywhere yet.

With your permission, sir, I'd like to talk to Mr. Mason alone.

Go ahead.

You didn't seem very anxious.

You didn't write me much proof.

If I'd have told you all I knowed in my letter,

you'd knowed more than me.

Now, maybe you think you don't need me,

but you need me, Mister Mason.

You couldn't stay alive out there two hours without me.

I'm not going out there with you

unless you give me some good reasons.

You want to find your brother, don't you?

That's what the advertisement said.

And you offered $5,000 reward.

To the man who takes me to him.

Not a cent till then? That's right.

I ain't so young anymore. I got the rheumatism.

Settin' in the sun's a lot easier than settin' in the saddle.

And I ain't risking aches and pains

and my scalp for just a ride in the hills.

I want that $5,000, Mr. Mason,

and I intend earning it by taking you to your brother.

You seem very sure.

Just as sure as I know Medicine Mark is setting up in them hills

waiting to massacre every man, woman and child on this wagon train.

All right. I'll go with you.

I want to see the $5,000. I've got it.

I said I want to see it.

The rest of my life is in there, Mr. Mason.

Major?

The driver will take my wagon to the fort.

What about you?

I'm going with Mr. Wilcox.

Mason, you're a fool.

You can't stop me.

No, I don't reckon I can, unless I tie you down.

But do yourself a favor, will ya?

What's that?

Wait'll the cavalry gets here.

They can tell you where the Cheyenne are the thickest

and where you're gonna get the most trouble.

Ah! I been hunting and trapping these hills for 25 years. Mm-hmm.

Lookie here.

It's all there, every hair of it.

And that's the way it's gonna be

till it gets put in a pine coffin with the rest of me.

Quickest way I know of getting killed

is getting mixed up with them thick-headed soldiers.

I'm going now, Mr. Mason. You want me to help you, then catch up with me.

Detail, halt!

Confound the luck.

Always poking their blue noses into other people's business.

I know a way to lose 'em. Come on.

No. They mustn't waste time.

The wagon train's depending on them.

Had my say, I'd set them Cheyenne on that whole wagon train.

Yeah... might even lift a couple of hair locks myself.

Howdy, Mr. Mason. Hello, Flint.

You shouldn't be this far from the wagon train. It's too dangerous.

I'm looking out after him. Why?

What are you up to, Bije?

Just doing a good turn, that's all I'm doing.

Good for who? Bije Wilcox?

For me, perhaps.

I don't like to butt into your affairs, Mr. Mason,

but I know this part of the country...

I know Bije Wilcox,

and there's nothing he wouldn't do for money.

That includes murder, gun-running to the Indians,

horse stealing... You name it, Bije has done it.

Then how come you ain't hung me yet?

How come you haven't been scalped yet?

Ain't nobody slick enough to catch me.

There's your answer, Mr. Mason.

Now, do you still propose to go out there alone with this man?

Yes.

There's nothing I can say or do to stop you?

No.

You can stop Bije Wilcox.

You can arrest him for trying to swindle Mason.

Wait a minute. Ain't no swindle.

You're leading him right into the heart of Medicine Mark's country.

I know where I'm leading him.

No white man can go in there and live.

Hmm... I've lived there. Maybe I've got a secret.

All right, Bije.

But I'm sending a couple of men along with you.

No, you ain't, Captain. You ain't trackin' me, neither.

You have much money on you, Mr. Mason?

Enough.

Don't ever take your eye off this man, Mr. Mason,

because he's liable to rob you and leave you in the hills to die.

He might even sell you to the Indians.

Twenty years ago you wouldn't have said that to me and lived.

Twenty years ago I might not have had a reason.

Good luck, Mr. Mason.

You don't have to believe what that thick-headed soldier told you, Mr. Mason.

I do, but it's not important.

I intend to live until I see my brother's face.

So do I... until I get ahold of that $5,000.

The smoke signals are gone.

Been gone for some time.

Maybe they left when they saw the cavalry.

No, they're still following us.

There's some out there less than 100 yards from us now.

How do you know? I can smell 'em.

Don't watch for 'em.

Let's make out like this is just a Sunday ride to church.

Come on, Mr. Mason.

We're stopping here.

Couldn't have picked a more exposed spot.

Been looking for it all afternoon.

Get down off your horse, Mr. Mason...

you're fixin' to become bait.

Bait?

Yes, sir.

I'm aiming to let ourselves get catched.

Just a minute, friend.

Medicine Mark's the only man alive can take you to your brother.

Medicine Mark?!

That's what I said.

Now, you wanna run along, go ahead.

I don't understand.

You mean my brother's a captive?

Your brother's got a scar on his face.

Yes, a terrible scar.

Something like a cut?

More like a burn.

Red. No beard will grow over it.

Like a burn? Yes.

It was a burn. Made with a hot coal from the fireplace.

Did you do it?!

How long do you think we'll have to wait?

Just as long as he wants us to wait...

Him with his war shirt covered with scalps!

Brave as the eagle, wise as the owl,

that's what they sing about him!

Sent by the Great Spirit to save 'em from the white man.

Great Spirit...

with all his hate and all his glory,

he'd never catch old Bije Wilcox.

Exceptin' when I let him.

So come on, let's build a fire.

Build a big 'un, big enough to light up a mountain,

big enough to warm all them Cheyenne

who'll be watching us all night long

from behind them rocks.

Why do you hate him so?

Can't think of a white man who don't.

Yours is a different kind of hate...

Almost as if you were jealous.

Jealous?

I had more and better chances than him to turn Indian,

but I stayed with my own people.

Are you telling me that...

Medicine Mark is a white man?

As white as you are, he was.

Wanting to live where no white man ever lived before.

Oh, I teached him how to live off the land,

how to hunt, how to keep his scalp...

Teached him everything he knowed.

He come out here white-faced and weak as a baby chick.

Oh, he was a quiet 'un.

What little he spoke was against all man.

And a hundred times, at night, in his sleep,

until I knowed the words myself

he'd moan...

"Cain said to the Lord,

"'My punishment is more than I can bear.

"'I must go straying and stumbling all over the world,

and everyone that catches me will kill me.'"

Shh.

I think one's coming in closer, Mr. Mason.

Tell Medicine Mark I bring him his blood brother

who's been searching for him these past 20 years!

Varmints.

Guess they ain't ready yet.

"And the Lord set a mark on Cain...

"to prevent anyone catching and killing him.

And Cain left the presence of the Lord."

Sure did, Mr. Mason. He sure did.

That's just some little ol' night critter out there.

Indians don't make no noise, Mr. Mason.

You look around, and all of a sudden

they're right in front of you.

Then your insides get to whipping around like a snake in barrel.

What is it?

The horses are gone.

Second nature for a Cheyenne to steal a horse, but...

They didn't even leave any hoof marks.

They sure were quiet about it.

Make less noise than a ghost sometimes.

Now that heathen brother of yours got us pinned down like we was locked up.

You afraid, Wilcox?

Of nothing I can see, hear, or smell.

It's just that I...

I never did think I'd live to see the day

when somebody steal old Bije Wilcox's horse

right out from under his nose!

Yeah, they make less noise than a ghost.

Now there's no chance of our getting away even if we wanted to.

We never did.

It's just... I don't like to be made a fool of...

Especially by him!

You sure it's Medicine Mark's doing? Sure I'm sure!

I teached him how to steal a horse, didn't I?

He's out there probably laughing at us.

Tell me more about him.

Tell you what?

He ever say he hated me?

He never mentioned you. Never mentioned nobody.

Mostly said things that I didn't understand...

You know, big talk, big words,

and sometime in a foreign language.

Go on, keep talking.

Not much more to talk about.

I had my knowledge and he took it from me as fast as I could show him.

You must have been a good teacher.

In a year he knowed more than I did.

And then he left?

Mm-hmm. He left.

Why?

He didn't tell me.

He never talked much when we were kids, either.

He was different from the other boys, and from me.

He stayed by himself...

asked only to be left in peace.

They said my brother had no fight in him.

My father tried to make what he called a "man" of him.

And I was ashamed of him.

You never did tell me, Mr. Mason, was it you who put that mark on him?

No, I didn't tell you.

Confounded heathens.

They don't act like sensible human beings.

Tell Medicine Mark I bring him his blood brother!

I know you're out there!

My brother learned hate very young.

He believed we were all against him... and it was true.

No man was kind to him.

Except you. You were kind to him, weren't you, Bije Wilcox?

Well, he come to me and I teached him all I know.

I told you that. What haven't you told me?

What else is there to tell?

If I'd done him harm he'd have killed me by now.

He's had plenty of chances.

Then why are you afraid? Because you are.

I told you I'd take you to your brother, Mr. Mason.

Now, I could change my mind.

And lose $5,000?

Mm-hmm. And maybe lose you.

You black-hearted heathens!

That's all the water we got! You want us to die of thirst?!

Tell my brother I come with love

to atone for the wrongs I've done him.

Tell 'em!

Tell 'em you're Medicine Mark's...

Are you my brother?

Tell him! You got the mark!

I seen it when you first...

The Cheyenne are my people.

I was born and became a man with them.

I have no other people... no other brothers.

I cannot see your face.

See it, and you'll never see again.

I have searched many years to find my brother.

When I have seen him, there is nothing else I wish to see.

What's the matter, Major? Your liver bothering you?

No, and it never has, and you know it.

It's just too gol-durn early in the morning

to have to look at that silly grin on your face.

I'm a happy man, Major.

I got nothing to do around here for a few days,

so I've decided to strip down my horse,

throw the pack in the supply wagon

and sleep like a baby for a week.

Maybe you'd like to have Wooster serve your meals in bed for you.

That's a pretty good idea.

How the devil can you think about sleeping

when that man Mason is out there...

Good morning, gentlemen.

Good morning, Captain. Good morning, Captain.

We're ready to start any time you are.

What about the Cheyenne?

My scouts tell me they've faded back into the hills.

They haven't faded very far, Captain.

The Cheyenne stick with a wagon train,

even with an escort, waiting for a break.

Well, it could be that Medicine Mark

has got something else on his mind.

I suggest we get started as early as possible.

Tell me one thing, Captain.

What do you propose to do about that fellow Mason?

Mr. Mason is no longer our business.

Our job is to get this wagon train safely to the fort.

Do you need my help, Captain?

If I do, I'll call on you.

Yes, sir, Captain, sir.

You still look pretty worried, Major.

Well, I'm not very happy.

McCullough... in your humble opinion...

If you ever had a humble opinion...

Which is the more dangerous, Medicine Mark or Bije Wilcox?

To Mason? Yep.

From what I hear,

when Bije Wilcox smells money, there's nobody as dangerous.

Hmm.

If you really want my humble opinion...

You don't get paid for your opinions,

you get paid for being out in front there

telling me what's gonna happen to us!

You heard what the captain said.

Who's paying you, him or me?!

Now go on out there and do your job, will ya?

Yes, sir, Major. Sir.

Charlie, give me another cup of coffee.

Then go find Bill Hawkes,

tell him to have everybody ready to pull out

as soon as it's daylight.

Yes, sir, Major, sir.

Charles.

You say you are Medicine Mark's brother?

Yes. I know him by the mark on his cheek.

I've been looking for you, Charles, ever since Father died...

To bring you home.

Where the Cheyenne go, there is my home.

I do not know your father...

therefore I cannot mourn for him.

If I die for it... he is my brother.

Untie him.

Are the bravest warriors of the Cheyenne nation

so afraid of an old man that they keep me tied up like a dog?

A dog is a dog.

The mad dog must be roped and tied until cured by death.

He allowed himself to be taken,

to bring me to my brother.

I got other reasons, too.

They will be lies. We will not hear them.

Sit down.

My father Bull Man, greatest of the Cheyenne, is old.

Therefore, listen and remember

that you may tell your children and they, theirs.

Tell how you lost your brother.

When we were boys,

my brother was kind and gentle.

And while he read his books,

I thought only foolish things.

I was jealous of him.

It seemed to me my mother loved him more than me.

She saw in him the gentleness that my father and I took for weakness.

She protected him from our cruelty.

But she died too soon.

I do not understand how a father or mother

can love one son more than another.

Our father was a strong man... too strong.

His hand was of iron.

His slaves hid from him when he came into the fields.

He was angry with you, Charles...

when you spoke against slavery.

My brother stood alone

and said God would not have given any man life

if he did intend him to be free.

But his own people turned against him.

They said he wanted to destroy his brothers,

and we called him Cain.

Because I was ignorant, I hated my brother.

And then one day we brave young men bound him...

and burned the mark of Cain on his cheek.

And even then he defied us.

And suddenly I realized how brave he was,

and I was ashamed.

You didn't tell him of your shame.

No. Why not?

I did not know how... not then.

Among the Cheyenne,

a man who harms his brother is put away from the people.

Were you sent away?

No, my brother was sent away...

by a father who did not understand.

Did you try to stop your brother from going?

No.

Why?

I was afraid of my father.

It is a bad thing to be afraid,

but telling about it cleanses the heart.

Then came the war.

Many men died... among them our father.

No man fought more bravely.

I held him in my arms as he was dying,

and he said, "Find Charles, and beg him to forgive me."

Will you forgive him, Charles?

And... and me?

And come home?

My father is Bull Man,

wisest of the Cheyenne.

I wear the war shirt.

He who wears it is first into battle, last to leave it.

You are my brother.

White man kills the buffalo...

my people go hungry.

He shoots my young men,

and our women wail in the lodges.

Our children have no fathers to make meat.

He who wears the war shirt must take care of his people,

give them what they need.

Once I went to war with only a lance

to show I was not afraid to die.

Now I go to war with guns to keep my people from dying.

I wear the war shirt, and it is a heavy burden.

I would put it off... but my people need me.

I will wear it... as long as I can.

Your people are in Virginia.

Come home.

The white man throws away his son.

The white man betrays his own brother.

The white man steals from his own kind,

leaves him to die in the desert.

It was your fault. You was the devil tempting me.

You had $5,000 in gold to take into the wilderness

where it wouldn't do you no good!

You was mad, anyway... Mad with hate.

I shoulda killed you dead

instead of just leaving you there.

You think to help a brother?

You come too late.

Charles, what can I do?

Tell him you're his brother, Cain.

He'll give me the $5,000, and I'll give it to you!

You'll have back what I took from you!

And I'll go to sleep one night

without wondering why you don't kill me...

Even if it's my last night on earth.

Cheyenne does not crawl before those he has harmed,

for he harms only his sworn enemies.

I am not your enemy.

You are a white man. Your brother.

The Cheyenne are my brothers!

I died... They helped me to be reborn.

Then I, too, will die, to be reborn as your brother.

I have no more words, my father.

It will be for you to decide.

Who wishes to make medicine with the Spirit

cannot be denied.

We will not deny him, then.

Gimme my money, Mason, before they kill you! Give me that $5,000!

Once I have fixed these to your skin,

the leather thong will attach them

to the rawhide on the tree.

And after that,

you will walk four times to the left,

and then you will turn and go four times to the right.

Four to the left, four to the right.

Three times before the sun goes down

you are permitted to rest against the tree for a brief period.

But you may not eat, you may not drink.

And when I have heard the Spirit?

If you have heard the Spirit,

then try to break free of these.

If you cannot, I will cut you loose after sundown.

What you dream will come true.

I saw myself living to an old man

among my brothers the Cheyenne...

That was my dream.

The tree is ready.

The Cheyenne do not show pain.

The Cheyenne honors the brave man.

We will return you to your people.

It is not necessary that you swing from the pole.

It is necessary.

Your spirit may be different from ours.

He may not hear you from this place.

He will hear me.

Faith is the first commandment, Love the second.

I am ready.

Kneel.

Four times to the left,

four times to the right.

It's a long journey.

Your brother has the blood of a warrior.

He is stubborn.

He is not yet my brother.

Not once has he rested.

I tell you again, if you have forgotten...

You may rest three times before sundown.

I would be proud to call this man brother.

I hated you from the first minute I saw the mark of Cain on your face.

And I hated you more when I seed you had more money

than I had ever seed before...

and the brains to learn in a year

what it took me a lifetime to learn.

But I hate you now for cheating me out of a chance to get even with you!

I curse the day I left you out there to die

instead of finishing the job myself.

Now I curse you for denying your own brother!

I curse you for being the devil...

He's your brother! You're killing him!

"In my father's house are many mansions."

Medicine Mark!

My rifle is pointed at your heart.

You will be the first dead, even if we all die.

No one will die...

Not today, nor in the days to come.

We live in peace from now on.

The warrior Medicine Mark only talks of peace.

It was his dream.

My brother's dream must come true.

Your brother?

Carry my brother to the horses of the white men.

See they make their journey safely.

Is he dead? No, he will live.

My children will sing of him to their children.

I hope the warrior Medicine Mark

is as great in peace as he has been in war.

It will take no greatness to lead in peace

once we have learned to live without hatred.

I will call him my second son.

And you will call him brother.

Can I tell him you called him brother?

He knows.

What can I say to you?

What you say to yourself is more important.

Hold up! Ho!

Hey, Captain, look there.

You see what I see?

There's a couple of Indians with two white men with 'em.

That's Flint McCullough, ain't it,

and Bije, by golly.

Mr. Mason, I...

I know, Bije. You kept your promise.

Mm-hmm. And I'll keep mine.

The money's in my wallet.

I think you know where it is.

Five thousand. Yes, sir.

Well, go ahead and take it.

You earned it.

Sure do thank you, Mr. Mason.

Good luck to you, sir.

Now, what could I do with $5,000?

Well, Captain, good luck to you.

So long, Major. I'll see ya.

Detail, forward ho!

Well, Mr. Mason, how ya doin'? Fine, Major.

You goin' back to Richmond right away?

No, I think not.

I rather like this part of the country.

I want to begin a new life,

and this seems like a good place.

Nice and... peaceful.

Peaceful?

Ha ha ha ha!

Wagons, ho! Giddyup!

♪ Roll along ♪

♪ Wagon train ♪

♪ Rollin' over prairie where there ain't no grass ♪

♪ Pullin' over mountains where there ain't no pass ♪

♪ Sittin' on a board, eyein' the weather ♪

♪ Prayin' to the Lord we stay together ♪

♪ Side by side on the wagon train ♪

♪ Wagon train ♪

♪ Roll along ♪

♪ Pickin' up a passenger in every town ♪

♪ Wonderin' if he's ever gonna shoot you down ♪

♪ Lookin' for a pal, ain't it a pity ♪

♪ Lookin' for a gal, needn't be pretty ♪

♪ If she'll ride On the wagon train ♪

♪ Wagon ho! ♪

♪ Gotta keep 'em on the run ♪

♪ Time to go ♪

♪ And follow the sun ♪

♪ Roll along ♪

♪ Wagon train ♪

♪ Never had a cabin near the general store ♪

♪ Only had a wagon and a .44 ♪

♪ Sittin' on a board, eyein' the weather ♪

♪ Prayin' to the Lord we stay together ♪

♪ Side by side ♪

♪ On the wagon train ♪