Original subtitles

Can't you see what I'm talking about, Doc? Don't you understand?

Coming up onto Mile High Turn, folks.

Prettiest view in nine states.

You see, that law feller didn't have to...

Hush up and look at the view.

Look out ahead!

We hit something!

You all right?

It's nice of you to care.

Help! Doctor!

Festus, stay here.

I think I got one.

Hold your fire. Put the guns up.

Yes, sir.

The Indians aren't attacking.

I don't want anybody firing unless they do.

Marshal, the tracks ahead have been blocked.

I know it.

- Doc, how is she? - I don't know yet.

You'll be making a big mistake

if you don't get those trees off the track.

The will stay!

Anybody leaving train will be killed.

Are you about, uh, six months along maybe?

Yeah, just about that, Doctor.

Doctor, I... I lost my other baby.

If they're aboard this train, I'll find 'em.

You have my word on it.

- The men will hang? - They'll be charged with murder.

If they're found guilty, they'll be punished.

We will talk to others.

- What do they want? - They got some scalpin' on their minds...

Now just sit down and be calm and I'll try to explain it to you.

Now, these are Sioux Indians out here.

Now, they claim that two men sold 'em poisoned whiskey.

Three of their braves are dead and five of 'em are blind.

What's that got to do with us, Marshal?

Well, they claim that the two men got on this train in Denver.

They don't know who they are.

What do you mean, don't know who they are?

They want us to turn 'em over to 'em.

Yeah, but how do we know they're telling the truth?

Maybe they just wanna board the train,

do some robbin', get hold of the women.

All right, that's enough now.

I'm not gonna turn 'em over even if I knew who the men were.

But I'll tell you one thing.

All of you folks are gonna have some explaining to do

about where you were just before you got on this train.

But you're not settling for any standoff?

What you're really saying is we're trapped here.

I'm not sure you know what it means to be stranded up in this country

this time of year, Marshal.

When the sun goes down, so does the temperature.

Drop of 40, 50 degrees during a single night is not unusual.

We're just gonna have to make the best of it.

They're getting guns.

I hope you're not planning on using those.

Just keeping 'em handy in case we need them, Doctor.

Give me that gun!

Festus!

Aah! Aah!

What's happening?

All right, everybody get down.

Stay down.

What'd he say, Matthew?

Gave us until morning to turn over those two men.

I once spent three nights up here, Marshal,

a rock slide blocking the tracks.

The doctor took off two of my toes.

We can get along without that kind of talk.

There'll be help.

When the train doesn't come in time, there'll be help, won't there?

Mister, they call this a snow train.

A two-day delay is not unusual.

Ask questions in Dodge, Marshal?

You better start asking right now.

And then what?

And kick their worthless souls right out of this train.

Festus, here. Take this.

There's over a hundred Indians out there.

If I don't make it, you're gonna need every gun you can get.

Marshal, it's gonna be like daylight out on that snow.

I know it. I plan to be long gone before the moon comes up.

Now who else wants to speak up?

Mr. Wickes here can vouch for me.

That's very true. We're narrowing it down.

Narrowing what down?

Simply trying to identify the guilty men by process of elimination.

All right, what are you gonna do if you find 'em?

Turn 'em over to the Indians?

I'll tell you this, Marshal.

If it comes down to them or us, it ain't no choice at all.

Well, we've got a choice, and I'm taking it.

So happens up here at the next relay station there's a telegraph.

I figure I can get there in four or five hours.

If I can, I can be back here by morning with soldiers.

How you gonna get off this train without them seeing you?

Well, we just have to divert the Indians' attention

for a few seconds while I jump off the back end.

He thinks he's dying. He's asked for you.

I can't go that far.

Why not?

I work the trains.

Confidence man.

Regardless of that...

you go over there and you do what any decent man would do.

We're gonna get caught.

Sure as we're sitting here, we're gonna get caught.

We will if you keep talking like that.

I wonder about the marshal.

Could he have gotten through?

Mr. Coleman. How's your wife?

Well, the doctor says all right.

He's not saying much about the baby's chances, though.

Oh, I'm sure everything's gonna be fine.

Don't you worry.

Thank you, ma'am.

Ma'am.

What?

He called me ma'am.

What should he call you?

There's a way of saying ma'am to a woman that doesn't remind her

another year's gone by.

Today, in fact.

What?

My birthday.

Oh.

You, uh, thought I'd forgotten, huh?

No, I wanted you to pick it out yourself in Dodge.

Diamond ring.

What's wrong with a plain gold band?

Only if you'd, uh... marry me.

Well, here we all are.

Not knowing whether that marshal's dead or not.

Not knowing whether the sun's rising

is going to be warming our dead bodies in the morning.

Now, you just hold on there, Mister.

Marshal Dillon told you to hush that kinda talk.

Oh, come now, Deputy.

You saying we can't even talk among ourselves?

I ain't saying that at all.

Thank you, Deputy.

I'm not sure what point I'm trying to make here.

But we've got about two hours till first light.

It seems to me essential we examine our alternatives.

Tell me, Mr., uh... Billy. Only name I got.

Well, Mr. Billy, you seem to be the type of man

who knows about this country we're in.

I think we should hear from you.

Yeah.

Well, come day,

we could all just go rushing out there with guns and fight.

Now, that's one thing.

I'm willing to fight.

- So is Bud here. - You bet.

Well, that's just what they'll be expecting.

They'll have both sides of the train covered.

And whoever isn't just gunned down'll be...

Well, if them Sioux live up to their reputations.

Whoever's left alive'll wish they hadn't been.

You must be exaggerating, Mr. Billy.

You can ask that deputy standing right there.

Looks like he's accustomed to bedding down on hard ground.

The only thing I got to say is that Marshal Dillon's gonna get back,

and when he gets back, he's gonna do all the deciding around here.

If he gets back.

That's a pretty big if.

Let's find 'em and throw 'em off.

Well, what are we, animals? Acting like this?

Why, we're not even sure the men those Indians are looking for

are really on this train.

We only have the word of those savages.

Mister...

if you got any more of your blabbering to do

to get these folks all worked up, just keep it to yourself.

Is that right, Deputy?

Just one more peep out of you and I'm gonna slap some irons on you

and put you under arrest. You hear me?

I think you're exceeding your authority, Deputy.

First they break the windows so we freeze to death.

Now we don't even have a stove.

All right, everybody, just be easy now.

Stay calm.

You're the one that's gonna stay calm.

Foreman, get his gun.

Don't do it, Clay. Stop him.

Stop him? Those Indians are still takin' scalps.

Has he got handcuffs?

Chain him to the seat.

Mr. Wickes, you're putting yourself outside the law.

Maybe so, ma'am, but disarming a deputy marshal

calls for a jail term or a fine.

Now, that surely wasn't necessary.

It certainly wasn't.

I don't like it any better than you do, ma'am,

but when a group of people are facing death,

they have a right to determine their own fate.

Now, perhaps the two men the Indians are accusing are not aboard this train.

Fine, well, and good.

We'll all go down together.

But I propose we decide among ourselves that they are aboard here.

Now, let's have a show of hands.

I agree.

You've got your wife to think about, brother.

That makes three.

I consider this as valid as a court of law.

As Mr. Wickes says, people do have a right to determine their own fate.

You two boys disagreeing with us?

Billy?

I'll have to think on it some more.

How do you make your living, mister?

Yeah, who are you?

Son, that ain't none of your business.

You two ladies have a choice.

No.

Mae.

I think the truth should be told. That's all.

Miss?

The vote is still overwhelming.

What happens when you come up with two men

that can't account for their time or their business?

I don't believe those two men deserve to be aboard this train.

All right.

Let's get on with it.

"I had fainted, unless I believed

to see the goodness of the Lord

in the land of the living.

Wait on the Lord, be of good courage,

and he shall strengthen thine heart.

Wait, I say, on the Lord."

Easing a man's mind sometimes can be the...

the difference between life and death.

I just felt immoral reading those psalms.

Except you weren't.

Far from it.

You know...

I don't know how to say this, but...

if we get back to Dodge,

I'll just board another train.

And I'll just go on.

Do what I've always done.

I guess I'm just a little man.

Just a very little man.

But when you are small, I mean...

I don't mean physically. I mean just small.

Well, you just do what you can. I mean...

to live is the thing, isn't it?

Well, I never judge anybody.

Thank you.

For what you've done.

The name's Dillon.

I'm a U.S. Marshal.

The snow train was attacked by Indians

20 miles down the track.

Get on the key. We gotta get help out there.

Marshal, I can't. The line's dead.

I just been sitting here hoping it'd get patched up.

What are the chances?

Well, not very good.

Last I heard there was a blizzard coming in.

Lines are probably down.

Ain't likely it'll get fixed up before tomorrow.

Tomorrow's gonna be too late.

Way too late.

Sure don't understand this.

They're after a couple of men that sold 'em bad whiskey.

So that's what this is about.

I got a wire here from Cheyenne.

Come in yesterday when the lines was still up.

It... It's got the names of two men on that train you're supposed to pick up.

You gotta give me your horse.

My horse?

Marshal, I live 11 miles from here.

At least you're safe, mister.

Those 25 people on that train are gonna die

unless I can do something.

All right, Marshal.

But it don't look like to me you're in any shape to go over that pass again.

I'll make it.

You might need this.

Thank you.

Good luck.

You say what's in that jug is homemade, but that's not the question.

It didn't poison you, did it?

Seems to me you might do a little selling

on the side at the Stone Ridge Reservation.

I make it for the train crew and that's all.

I think I can bear that statement out.

All right, all right, let's not get emotional.

We haven't heard from you.

Gonna be hearing from the marshal when he gets back.

Billy?

Oh, I've traded whiskey with the Indians from time to time.

Except not in this case.

Can you prove that?

Nope, I can't.

Been working a claim up beyond Boulder.

My partner bought me out for the price of a ticket to St. Louis.

Spend the rest of my days there.

My sister, she runs a boardin' house there.

Sure ain't nailin' anything down, old timer.

All kinda loose.

Kinda life I lead, son.

Well, now.

I don't believe we've heard from you two.

Well, his name's Al. Mine's Bud.

Just traveling into Dodge. Looking for work.

Where you've been, I believe, is what we're more interested in.

We hunted some.

I mean, we worked a ranch here and there for stake money.

Sure ain't nailin' anything down, young timer.

Kinda loose.

You boys board the train at Denver?

That's right.

Working at a ranch near there?

- That's ri... - No, we...

You are traveling together.

Listen, we ain't hardly old enough to drink,

let alone sell whiskey.

I mean, if you're traveling together,

you must know where you been and what you been doing.

Workin' ranches.

Your answer too?

Yeah, sure.

Minute ago you said no.

You boys better get together with the facts.

Or the lack of 'em.

We've been doing a lot of things.

I think you two should be more specific if a vote is to be taken here.

You'll be voting yourself right into jail, is what you'll be doing.

Frankly, Deputy, I wish I were in a nice, warm cell in Dodge this very moment.

Look, we don't have to answer any more questions.

'Course you don't.

You're entitled to silence.

What was the name of the ranch you boys were working at?

It's crazy what's going on here.

Look, maybe... maybe me and Al will vote for, uh, the gambler there.

Not 'cause he's guilty, but maybe we just don't like him.

I'm going in to stay by my wife.

You got a vote here too, young man.

Lot to lose, a wife with child.

Well, I'm not pointing a finger at anybody.

I know how that boy feels.

I'm sure we all do.

But if any of us are gonna get out of here alive,

we've got to keep going.

None of us are above suspicion.

Here, now. Now, just be quiet.

- What's happened? What's happened? - No, no, no, no, no.

We have to keep you warm. Nothing's happened.

Ada. Ada.

Gonna lose the baby...

No, nothing like that. No.

She's having cramps. That's not unusual under these circumstances.

Don't you worry.

Don't you worry.

I have made so many mistakes.

Well, if you can admit that at your age,

you're way ahead of a lot of us older folks.

She wanted us to settle on some land.

Have sons.

Watch them grow with the land.

I was looking for something else.

Now I don't even know what it was.

My father, he... he wanted me to stay with the land he worked.

Almost 40 years he worked that land to make it pay.

I just... just walked away from it.

Then he was gone.

Took some years to know what he meant.

Way he was always saying

a man that was buried on his own land

had the peace of knowing he was leaving more behind than just his bones.

Sounds like your father was a smart man.

I wish there was some way we could be born smart.

No, that wouldn't be very good.

Life wouldn't be very interesting.

It's the mistakes we make...

it's the low points.

They make us feel good when we're right.

Doctor?

What in thunder's going on in there?

- Nothing. - Well, listen to it.

Well, they're just arguing if the marshal's coming back.

Don't leave her, Doctor. Please.

I don't know what you're so upset about.

Everyone else has accounted for their whereabouts...

You're crazy, Wickes.

Do you really think that my brother and me

would be carting a pregnant woman around an Indian reservation selling whiskey?

No one is accusing you, mister.

We're just trying to find out your whereabouts before you boarded the train.

Mr. Wickes, why don't you stop all this?

Why don't you leave Mr. Coleman here alone?

I'm not about to leave anyone alone till I find out who's guilty.

I'm not about to die for someone else. Are you, Reverend?

Oh, I don't wanna die at all,

but I believe what you're trying to do here is wrong.

You know what I believe?

I believe we're running out of time.

They're coming.

Billy, help me get loose here!

Now, the way I see it, there are only two men aboard this train

who can't account for their whereabouts.

And I'm not about to die to save their hides.

Now, don't you think it's about time you two ceased your lyin'?

- We told the truth. - You can't pin this on us.

We had nothin' to do with it.

The morning I boarded the train in Denver,

I saw you and your friend drive a wagon into the livery at the railroad depot,

and there you sold that horse and wagon.

All right. All right, we lied. We lied.

But we had to. We're on the run from the Army.

It's true. We're deserters. Army deserters.

We couldn't tell anybody, or they'd arrest us.

You gotta believe us. We didn't sell no whiskey to no Indians.

What about the wagon?

We sold it. We stole it so we could get train fare back home again.

- We don't believe ya! - Oh, please. Please.

Get some water. Quickly.

Get your guns out, everybody.

Get your heads down.

Please! Please!

We're deserters!

Army deserters!

There they are!

They're all yours!

Hold your fire, or I'll kill the chief!

All right, you boys, back to the train.

All of you.

It was our lives or theirs, Marshal.

Yeah, except I know who the men are, and it's not them.

Now, get back in the car with the others.

All right, go on.

I know who the men are.

They will be punished.

We... didn't know the... whiskey was bad.

Brother and me...

bought it from somebody else.

We never wanted...

- Matt, you all right? - Yeah, fine, Doc.

- Well, wait a minute. What's that? - It's all right. Never mind.

Everything's all right.

Will the train be moving?

It'll be moving.

I love you, Ada.

I... love you very much.

Scott, you don't have to tell me that.

Yes, I do.

It's something I want you to remember.

Where's this Scott Coleman?

He's in the baggage car with his wife, I think.

Hold on just a minute, mister.

You're just about to see the inside of that warm jail you been talking about.

My brother and I bought that whiskey...

We... thought we could make some money selling it on the reservation.

We... didn't know it could hurt anybody.

My... My brother's dead.

You... you can kill me,

but please let the train move on.

There are innocent people.

My wife, baby.

Tell your father that I'm sorry for what's happened.

I'm sad for his dead warriors.

But this man is my prisoner.

The other man he sought is dead.

There's a woman on the train carrying a baby

that needs attention in Dodge.

If you try to take this man from me,

there will be more bloodshed.

Tell your father I think the Sioux have more honor

than to let innocent people suffer.

My father says...

as the sun melts the snow,

so too melts the anger in the Sioux.

You are man of honor.

Take your people.

And go. In peace.

You're gonna be all right, Ada.

Isn't she, Doc?

I think so.

Doc?

You know something, Doc?

Between you and that preacher, I got a feeling I'm gonna make it.

You bet you will.

Got through, Marshal.

He'll send the wire onto Dodge.

Tracks are clear, Marshal. Steam's up.

All right, why don't you go on and tell the passengers we'll be moving on?

Yes, sir.

I ain't gonna have a bit of trouble firing, Matthew,

if Hap there can run the engine.

All right, I'll go and tell Doc we're just about ready.

Be underway again in a matter of minutes, folks.

Well, soon be in Dodge.

Picking out that ring.

I don't think so, Clay.

I'll be going on to St. Louis.

Alone.

Alone?

Well now, look, Donna, I know you're upset,

but that's understandable.

You'll feel better when we get in Dodge.

No. No, Clay. I won't.

It's those boys, isn't it?

All right, maybe we were wrong.

But we had to do something.

I thought I knew you.

And then I saw the look on your face and the others'

when you threw them off the train.

I'm sorry.

Yeah. So am I.

Anything I can get for ya, Reverend?

Oh, no, no, no. Thank you.

I should think in your line of work you'd know that by heart.

Yeah, I see what you mean.

Well, I did hear it said once that a man could read

this particular book for his whole life and...

still find something new on every page every time he opens it.

Like this for instance. I was just reading in, uh, Matthew.

"In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren,

ye have done it unto me."

You make a valid point, Reverend.

I mean, we were about one minute away from being skinned alive.

Now, you think about that.

Don't remind me.

How much stockade time you think we'll be putting in?

Well, Marshal giving us the right to turn ourselves in'll make it easier.

But I don't care how much time it is.

Nothing'll ever scare me from here on in.

I have a feeling of deep shame.

Well, you needn't, ma'am.

It all seems so unreal.

I think you say things you just don't mean

because it's so hard to collect your thoughts.

Well, don't you even think about 'em, ma'am.

I've seen plenty of like situations in my lifetime.

The animal just comes out in a man.

We're all of the animal breed, you might say.

And it don't seem likely that the nature of things'll be changing

any time soon.

Peg your pardon, ma'am.

We'll be leaving any minute, Mr. Wickes.

Fine. You might ask Mr. Foreman if he'd like to continue our game.

We had no choice, Marshal. None at all.

You had a choice, mister.

And you made it.