Original subtitles

Josh?

How are you?

Fit.

Except for that.

They cut it off up there.

I'm glad you came back to Dodge.

You're a liar, Deputy.

She's still here, Josh. Why don't you go on home.

Sarah Jean?

Papa?

Oh, Papa!

Just like your mother's...

- All nice and shiny. - Oh!

It's so good to have you home.

Where's your man? You... You wrote me and told me you got married.

I didn't want you to know.

He ran away.

Well, he must have been a fool.

How you been getting along? How you been keeping yourself?

I took a job working for Miss Kitty over at The Long Branch.

You're a saloon woman?

Don't say it like that, Papa.

I just wanted you to grow up decent and proper, is all.

I am decent.

Oh, Papa!

I know you are, honey. I know you are.

When I get...

Just takes gettin' used to.

It was just a scratch until it all got festered.

- Remember, Papa? - Mm-hm.

You was just weed high when I gave it to you.

Place don't seem the same without your mother.

It seems they got a rule against lettin' a man out of prison

to see his wife buried.

Last thing she said before she died, she said,

"Take good care of your papa when he comes home."

That's just what I'm gonna do.

How about something to eat for a start? You must be hungry.

Coffee.

Fix me up a cup of good, hot coffee.

All right, Papa.

Burn! Burn, burn!

Dirt scratchers are burning!

Just ashes and smoke! Ooh, ashes and smoke!

Get rid of dirt scratchers. You Wilsons!

This here is Coley Remick!

Burn! Burn!

Thank you.

You know, I knew you was gonna go that way.

Forty years,

and you still plan on the same trap.

Jed, will you just play?

You know, that reminds me of an article I read here in The Bulletin

about an old boy up in Hays City.

Why, he...

Cal.

You still look the same, mean and ornery.

- Jed, how are you? - Josh Stryker.

You still over at the Feed & Grain?

Well I sold out a couple of years ago.

I got a little old to be totin' those feedbags.

No such thing as a man getting too old to do a job he set his life to.

Even if he has to give something.

Mr. Stryker, how about a drink?

What'll it be, sir?

Well now, Sam, it hasn't been so long you forgot, has it?

Set up one for Cal and Jed, and these boys here.

- Yes, sir. - Thank you.

Still got a tight hold on you, huh, Louie?

- Sam, pour Louie one. - Yes, sir.

Miss Russell, Dr. Adams.

- Josh. - Hello, Mr. Stryker.

- Can I buy you a drink? - No, thanks.

Having coffee, Josh, thank you.

I want to thank you for giving Sarah Jean a job in this place of yours.

Sarah Jean's a very good 21 dealer, Mr. Stryker.

You know what I was just thinkin' about?

No, I don't.

What were you thinking about, Josh?

I was thinkin' about the night them Grady boys busted into your place

all liquored up and loaded for bear.

Yeah, I sure do remember that night.

You know, they almost tore the roof off.

You walked right in there,

looked 'em right in the eye,

never said a word.

And they started dropping their gunbelts.

And then the trouble you had cartin' them off to jail!

One'd fall down, you'd get him on his feet.

Boom! Down would go the other one.

And the big old Grady fell right in the horse trough.

Looked like a big wet pig too drunk to move.

Took about two dozen of us

to pull that big, old sow out of that trough.

It was like pullin' a full-grown bull out of a sump hole, is what it was.

Of course, everybody remembers Coley Remick.

That night,

when I caught up with him out at the Wilson place...

it was too late for me to do anything about Jim, Ellie...

and two little kids inside that burning house.

Remick was standing outside

watching it burn, laughin'.

Laughin' like a man gone crazy.

No matter how it's been told...

If he hadn't tried to escape, I wouldn't have killed him.

And you two know me better than anybody ever has.

You believe I'd shoot on an unarmed man?

Jed?

Well, I... don't know, I...

- Well, do you? - I don't know, Josh!

Just isn't clear. I'm like the folks at the trial.

Then Marshal Dillon got on the stand and he said that...

My deputy told it different than it was.

Josh!

That was 15 years ago.

Don't you think it ought to be dead and buried by now?

You talk like my deputy, Dillon.

All I want is to clear my name.

Maybe that's all I'm askin' of this town.

Don't try to clear your name by dragging Matt's through the mud.

Only two men know what happened out there that night,

me and the deputy.

Matt Dillon's story on that witness stand took 15 years off my life,

and this arm by a prison butcher that called himself a doctor.

You gonna blame him for that too?

Your inference is plain enough.

You're inferring that Matt lied on that stand.

Josh, there's not a man, woman or child in this town that would believe

that Matt Dillon would lie under oath.

Only if he wanted something bad enough.

What do you mean by that?

A US marshal's badge.

You know, in some twisted kind of a way, I think you really believe that.

Josh, I went out there myself that night. I examined Remick.

There were three bullet holes in him, and one would have killed him.

When a prisoner's escaping, a man don't count how many times he shoots.

All right, wait a minute.

Everyone knows that Jim and Ellie Wilson

were your closest friends.

And you hated Remick for what he did to them and the kids.

Now, isn't it just possible

that you took it upon yourself to save the court a lot of trouble

and execute him yourself?

There you are, Josh.

In one blind moment of rage, you'd kill a man.

What are you two doing here in Dodge?

We got an idea you ain't gonna like, Stryker.

First things, as they say, is hotel and eatin' money.

- We need a stake real bad. - A stake for what?

Just bed and grub is all.

If you got ten, maybe 20 spare dollars you could spare,

we'd appreciate it.

You came all the way down from Lanson Prison for a handout, did you?

Not exactly.

We could use some cash money.

Being as we didn't have no money-payin' job

in that prison like you did.

Well...

You must have made more than $500 bossin' that prison rail gang.

Well, it was while we was working that prison rail gang, Josh,

listening to your jawing with that old miner around the baggage car,

the one that knew you from the old days when you were wearin' a badge and all.

Now, Jessup and me figured that that old man could hardly turn you down

if you were to, say, uh,

turn up at Abilene and not have the fare to Fort Hayes,

where you had a job waiting for you or something.

I ride the baggage car and let you two on, is that it?

We found out something, Joshua Stryker!

Payroll comes into Fort Hayes end of every month.

That's the last of this week.

No.

I ain't got but one thing on my mind here in Dodge.

The marshal.

Are you still bad-mouthin' that Dodge City marshal?

"Dillon sent me up, Dillon took my badge away."

Well, all right, Josh, just forget it!

Reager and I'll take care of Dillon.

Throw it in as part of the deal.

We'll take care of Dillon and throw it in as part of the deal?!

Evening, missy.

Good seeing you again, Josh.

Who were those men, Papa?

Just men I've known in the past.

- In prison? - In prison.

- They was looking for a handout. - A handout.

Money enough to get them where they're going.

- And you gave it to them? - Yes, I gave it to them.

I heard about what happened between you and Dr. Adams.

Why, Papa?

Why did you do it?

Look at me!

Why did you have to do that?

Jessup, he ain't gonna come on with us, he's too old.

He didn't say no.

Fifteen years in prison addled his brain. Huh?

- He didn't say no. - But he...

No time to argue.

We kill this marshal, like I said.

Believe him.

What's old Ace Reed a-squawkin' about this time, Matthew?

Oh, he claims Hound Dog crouched his sheep for grazing on his land again.

Grazin' on his...

You know there ain't been a blade of grass on that old pile of rock

since the upheaval of creation.

Yeah, I know, but I still gotta ride out and check it over.

Well just let me tell you something,

if you're fixin' to go out to Ace Reed's house, now you be careful.

- Why is that? - Well, because, that old he-goat,

why, he's so blamed near-sighted he can't see past the brim of his own hat.

Yeah, well, thanks for the advice, Festus.

You bet.

- See you later. Thanks, Dish. - Okay, Marshal.

Now you be careful, Matthew, you hear me?

Dish. Come here.

Ace Reed's place, where is it located?

Ace?

Ace?

Ace Reed, you in there? It's Matt Dillon.

You know something, Louie,

I got the uncommonest itch in my big toe.

It's just been a-pestering me all morning.

It's right there in that knuckle

where it kind of joins up with my foot bone, don't you see.

Oh, it's terrible.

That supposed to mean something, Festus?

Louie, there's times when you just talk like a plumb ninny.

No offense intended.

What does it mean?

It means that it's a-fixin' to rare back and storm up, don't you see?

That's what it means.

Like my Grandma Tupper used to say,

folks that believes in signs don't never get theirselves wet.

Do tell.

Take that, Festus.

Golly be, what happened, Matthew?

Well, I got ambushed out at Ace Reed's place.

There were two of them. The other one ran off.

Who in the tarnation is he... was he, anyhow?

I don't know, I never saw either of them before.

All right, folks, it's all over. Nothing else to see.

Let's break it up now, move along.

All right, you heard Matthew, now go on about your business.

Matt, look at that.

Yeah, I know, I saw those.

Festus, get him over to Percy Crimp's, will you?

You betcha.

Those sores on his legs were caused by leg irons, you know.

Yeah.

Maybe you can tell me why a man that's been in prison,

never saw you before in his life, would want to kill you.

Unless maybe somebody hired him to do it.

Somebody that wanted you dead awful bad.

Doc, that's all I've been thinking about all the way in here.

I know what you're getting at.

I... I just can't bring myself to believe that Stryker would...

Well I think you're wearing blinders, maybe.

I know what he meant to you in those days, Matt,

and I know how hard it was for you to get on that witness stand.

Testifying against him was the toughest thing I ever did in my life, Doc.

I know it. So does everybody else in town.

But Stryker knows your testimony put him in prison.

And it's been eating on him for 15 years.

And if I was you,

I'd want to know an awful lot more about that fella out there.

Whoa!

Papa.

Somebody tried to kill Marshal Dillon.

- What do you mean? - Two men.

They didn't kill him, but one of those men is dead.

Papa...

He's one of the two men that was at the house last night.

Why are you looking at me that way?

- You don't think I... - Did you, Papa?

I never once tried to hide my feelings about that deputy...

Papa, he's not your deputy anymore. Can't you understand that?

He's the marshal now, and he has been for 15 years.

- I know about those years. - You didn't answer me.

Did you hire those men to kill Marshal Dillon?

I want you to believe I didn't have anything to do with it.

I love you, Papa.

Don't take that away from me.

Get! Get out of here!

Diggin' and spoilin!

Burn, burn! Burn!

You dirt scratchers are burning!

Just ashes and smoke! Ashes and smoke!

Burn!

You Wilsons!

This here is Coley Remick!

You have been charged to go to the devil by fire!

And this fire gonna take you!

This fire gonna take you, James Wilson! Ellie Wilson!

Go to the devil and burn!

Burn! Burn!

Josh.

What is it you want out here, Deputy?

I just got a wire from the warden.

I sent him a description of those two men that tried to kill me.

Turns out they were both from Kansas State Prison.

What are you trying to say?

They were in the same cell with you, Josh.

There was a parcel of them in that cell with me,

crawling all over each other like rats in a sewer.

Just a coincidence, that what you're trying to say?

Got it all figured out, don't you?

You think I hired them old boys to kill you.

It's too bad you don't have no proof.

Maybe you could send me back up there.

Josh, I didn't think that 15 years in prison or losing an arm

or anything else would make you sink low enough

to try and have a man ambushed.

Come in.

Can I see you a minute, Miss Russell?

What can I do for you, Mr. Stryker?

There's $500 there.

For Sarah Jean. Will you see she gets it?

Can't you wait until the bank opens in the morning?

I don't figure on being here in the morning.

Um... does Sarah Jean know that?

No.

I'll take care of it for you.

I'm much obliged to you.

Mr. Stryker...

I'd like to buy you a drink.

Papa, what in the world...?

Your father, where is he, missy?

He's not here.

What do you want?

Don't... No...

He's got a lot of money in that writing desk.

Now, let's get it.

I don't know anything about any money.

Open the drawer.

Oh!

Something's in there.

- Where is it? - I don't know anything about it!

You got beautiful hair, missy.

I'm gonna keep cutting on it till you remember where the money is.

Oh!

Oh, no! Oh, no!

Oh, no, stop, please!

Oh, no!

Stop it! Papa!

Who did this to you?

I wouldn't, Josh.

This little girl doesn't know where the money is.

I guess you're gonna have to tell me.

I gave it to the lady at the saloon.

If you leave here or call out,

then that woman that runs the saloon, she's dead.

- Understand? - Yeah.

Missy.

Here we go, fellas! Dig in!

What can I get you, mister?

- Where can we talk? - We can talk right here.

I'm for real, missy.

Now, where can we talk?

Inside.

The money Stryker left with you. Where is it?

Don't know what you're talking about.

The money. Now.

Sarah Jean...

Get away.

Go on, Papa, why don't you leave?

This time you won't be leaving anything behind.

Get out.

Go on!

Sarah Jean.

The marshal. Gotta get the marshal!

I'll take the rest of it.

You're a pig.

All of it.

- Kitty, you all right? - Yes.

- Better go get Doc. - All right.

Sam, give me a hand here.

Another couple of weeks, you'll be all right.

Papa, I said things to you that I didn't mean.

Sometimes a man looks inside himself...

- and he don't like what he sees. - Sh...

Everything's gonna be all right now, Papa.

Miss Russell,

she says you're a pretty good 21 dealer.

Best in Dodge City.

- It'll grow back, Papa. - Sure it will.

All nice and shiny.

You run on home now.

Would you tell Matt that I'd like to see him?

Sure, Papa.

Marshal Dillon, Papa wants to talk to you.

Josh?

I just wanted you to know...

I didn't set them fellas on you.

But maybe I could have stopped them.

Well, we did stop them, Josh, and that's what counts.

That's right.

That's what counts, Marshal.