Godless (2017) s01e02 Episode Script
The Ladies of La Belle
[CHARLOTTE.]
"Since Mr.
James Sloan took over Quicksilver Mining", a beneficial change has taken place in the mines.
Industry, order, and respect for the constituted authorities prevail.
Every man knows his place and performs his duty.
Mr.
Sloan is said to be fair, honest and good-humored.
This reporter can also attest that he is a tall man, rather handsome, with a beautiful baritone.
And if all that isn't enough, "he writes the most beautiful poetry.
" Sonnets.
Just like Shakespeare.
Least you coulda done is put on a dress.
[SIGHS.]
Well it's not very often that a gentleman is greeted by such a passel of fine-looking ladies.
[CHUCKLES.]
Now, which one of you would be Mayor Cummings' charming widow? Mary-Agnes.
And you're Mr.
Sloan? No, ma'am, I'm J.
J.
Valentine, Mr.
Sloan's humble number two now made a surprised number one by unfortunate circumstance.
What happened to What unfortunate circumstance? Mr.
Sloan was murdered by vicious outlaws.
[WOMAN GASPS.]
[BABY GRIZZLES.]
This is Mrs.
Charlotte Temple.
And Miss Callie Dunne.
A divine pleasure, ladies.
[CHUCKLES.]
This here is Colonel Farnsworth, from the Colorado School of Mines.
How do you do? Colonel? Of what, may I ask? [LAUGHS.]
Whether Colonel Farnsworth came by his title in any military manner is doubtful, but I assure you, he is a real mining engineer.
My new head of security, Mr.
Logan.
Ladies.
[MUTTERS.]
Oh, my God.
[CLEARS THROAT.]
Shall we go inside? How was your trip, Mr.
Valentine? [VALENTINE.]
I always say, ma'am, that a trip on the stage is something to look back upon with pleasure in the afterlife.
[INSTRUMENTAL THEME MUSIC PLAYS.]
[MAN.]
Now, how was it exactly you came to realize that you were facing the vile Roy Goode? By descriptions I had read in your newspaper.
[GRUNTS.]
That captures him exactly right.
I saw him, and with rather crushing vividness, the phrase, "No virtuous woman is safe near Roy Good" came back to me.
Well, that must have been very frightening.
Yes.
But I made an act of contrition and I concentrated my thoughts on the presence of God.
Now, do you recall was his pistol black-boned in the handle? [PRESS CLATTERS.]
[CLEARS THROAT.]
[CLATTERING STOPS.]
And did he carry it on his right or on his left side? - His pistol? - Mm.
I really couldn't say.
I was too busy paying attention to the coffin.
And you're sure it was a coffin? [COFFIN DRAGGING.]
[NUN.]
Yes.
For some time later, I saw him in our church graveyard, digging up a grave.
He took the bones from the dirt and he put them into the casket he brought with him, then re-buried them.
And what town did you say this was? Moses.
Which, until then, had always been such a tranquil place.
Now, do you recall the name on the grave that he dug up? There was no name, just a stick for a marker.
But that weren't the worst part.
[METALLIC CLATTERING.]
[WHISPERS.]
He took the clothes.
He took the old rags from the dirt and he put them on.
[GASPS.]
It was as if I had seen the devil himself.
[WOMAN.]
Good day to you, Sheriff.
Who's your, uh Who's your prisoner, Sheriff? Never you mind, Sarah Doyle.
OK.
[CHILDREN GIGGLING.]
[WOMEN CHATTERING.]
- Where are all the men at? - [MCNUE.]
Dead.
Mine took them.
All of them? Anyone able worked underground.
[CHILDREN LAUGHING.]
You understand, Sheriff if word gets out Roy Goode's here there's gonna be no stopping Frank.
Well, you ain't gonna be here that long.
Know why they call me Whitey Winn? It's because I always do.
[CHUCKLES.]
Now, you weren't expecting that, were you? Or that.
[CHUCKLES.]
All right.
All right.
Both of them.
Jesus Christ, Whitey! Put the damn cannon away.
When was the last time you bathed, son? A few days ago.
You sure it wasn't longer than that? You're about as ripe as a human body can get.
A black coach come into town today with a full escort of firepower.
Yeah, I saw.
Must be them mining folks.
Where are the damn keys at? Do I know you? No, I don't think so.
[WHITEY.]
What's your name? Whitey Winn, this here's, uh Mr.
Ward.
- Ward? - Lock him up.
All right? No visitors.
Why? He dangerous? Just do it.
What did he do? What'd you do? Robbed a stage.
Really? Where? Up in Alamogordo.
Just lock him up.
I'm gonna go check on my children.
Well, he don't look much like the stage-robbing type.
Looks more like the pissing-in-public type to me.
[BIRD CALLS.]
[GATZ.]
"Perhaps there is some decency in Roy Goode after all" as he continues to thwart Frank Griffin and his gang at every turn most recently in Creede, Colorado "where Mr.
Goode intervened in a payroll robbery at the Tomboy Mine.
" That's enough.
I want you all to clean up for town tomorrow.
[GATZ.]
Where we going? Taos.
We're gonna intervene with this Mr.
A.
T.
Grigg.
Get the man next to some facts.
[GASPS.]
[GASPS.]
[SPEAKS IN PAIUTE.]
[SPEAKS IN PAIUTE.]
Mama? You all right? [IYOVI SPEAKS IN PAIUTE.]
[IYOVI SPEAKS IN PAIUTE.]
[SIGHS.]
[PANTING.]
[HORSE WHINNIES IN DISTANCE.]
[CHATTERING.]
Such a fine meal would have done honor to the best hotel in New York.
Well, thank you.
Good taste good order handsome children and domestic happiness are the necessary consequence even in a wild place such as this.
- Hear, hear.
- Hear, hear.
Hear, hear.
Miss Dunne I don't believe I ever had me a marm as pretty as you are.
Thank you, sir.
But may I ask, have you always had a fondness for teaching children? No, sir.
I'd always been a whore.
I just sort of fell into teaching after Magdalena's closed.
Then the schoolhouse got struck by lightning and burned down.
Took the old marm with it.
I see.
[CLEARS THROAT.]
So, tell me, Mrs.
Cummings - [MARY-AGNES.]
McNue.
- Excuse me? I've returned to my maiden surname.
Albert's dead.
There's no reason for me to keep carrying his name like a bucket of water.
He's got a brother in Missouri for that.
How independent of you.
[CHUCKLES.]
So, tell me, Miss McNue, how has the lovely town of La Belle fared these past two years without any men around? We've done all right.
[CHARLOTTE CHUCKLES.]
Well It's It's been difficult.
[CHUCKLES.]
It's been quite difficult.
As you can well imagine, a town full of ladies is ripe fruit for the wicked.
It seems that, since the accident, everyone who's come through town has tried to take advantage.
[VALENTINE.]
Mm.
Well, we at Quicksilver aim to help you ladies all we can.
You've got a mine with some value to it, and I got the men to work it.
But first, before we strike any kind of deal we need to determine how much value there actually is.
Colonel Farnsworth.
Suppose you educate us about the mine here at La Belle.
Of course.
[DOOR OPENING.]
[HORSE WHINNIES.]
[LOGAN.]
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Goddamn it! Goddamn it! What are you doing? Goddamn! What are you doing? Come here.
Come here.
[HORSE WHINNIES.]
Get over here.
Get up there.
[DOOR OPENING.]
[WHITEY.]
So, is it true? Alice Fletcher really shot you? Because I-I wouldn't doubt it seeing as the woman was a widow twice before she was even 21.
First one died in a flash flood, and then, uh, she disappeared for a bit.
I don't know, six years later, she shows back up on the ranch with a child and some Paiute husband, claiming that the property was still rightfully hers.
The trouble is, Asa Leopold, the drygoodsman [DOOR CLOSING.]
him and his sons, they was squatting the land while she was gone.
They claimed they paid a $200 relinquishment, and so the land was theirs.
What happened? Well, Sheriff McNue, he got into it with the Leopolds.
Told them Alice's deed was still good and they had to vacate.
Got into it how? Well, the Leopolds was waiting for Bill when he went to the ranch to show them the deed, and they bushwhacked him.
Bill took a bullet in the hip, but still managed to get up, shoot, and killed all three of Asa's boys.
The same sheriff who brought me in? He shot all three? Yes, sir.
He didn't monkey around none, either.
He just walked right up whilst they was all still shooting and put them all down.
[MIMICS GUNSHOTS.]
[CHUCKLES.]
There was a time when Bill was quite the gun.
He taught me everything I know.
So, um Alice and her family moved into the property, and then, one day her husband winds up dead on the street, shot in the back.
The old man? Well, nobody knows.
Don't matter, though.
Two weeks later, Asa's wife dies of rheumatic fever, so [ROY SIGHS.]
The folks around here, they like to say that Alice and the old Indian woman conjured up a spell that brung all the bad luck.
I just say it goes to show that, eventually, we, all of us, gonna find the dirt, one way or another.
The chloride ores reach from the surface to a depth of 60 or 70 feet.
Then comes a barren streak, extending down 20 to 30 feet to the water level.
It's this unproductive stratum that makes your mine not as fertile as it might be.
That's true, Colonel, but you go below the water level you'll see that the vein remains unbroken.
We believe it'll keep its promise for as far down as you can dig.
It's our feeling, Miss McNue that the lode is far more ordinary than that.
That perhaps, in the very beginning it was salted to make the deposit look richer.
Now, you should know there have always been rumors to that effect.
Mr.
Valentine, La Belle is no "ordinary lode," but a goddamn mountain of quartz.
You know it and I know it, and I would wager that there drunk pinhead you brung with you knows it, too.
Mary-Agnes But if you don't want to talk sensibly, there's plenty of other outfits we can go to.
Mr.
Valentine we do want your help.
[CHUCKLES.]
We really do.
- We need you.
- We're not gonna give it away, either.
[VALENTINE.]
Give what away, exactly? Do you ladies know what they say about La Belle? That it's more a place of note than importance.
A place of many houses but few souls to live in them.
As you well know, those houses were all full not that long ago.
Well, actually, Miss McNue, I don't know.
The railroad is closer to Lordsburg than here.
So, to my way of seeing, they had already robbed you of your population before the accident.
We got enough ore here to bury Lordsburg.
So you say.
Yet your deepest shaft is, what, 86 feet? We have one finished that goes down 103 feet, and another just about so that goes down 160.
Before the men died, we had plans to build a 40-stamp mill and a 30-ton smelter to keep up with all the ore they were pulling out.
We know how to run the mine.
We want to be partners.
Fifty-fifty.
[MAN.]
I spit more than you pour in this place.
[PIANO PLAYING.]
Tickets? Where'd these other boys come from? One of them cattle outfits.
They come through now and again.
Less and less since we lost the whorehouse.
[BARMAN.]
Eighty-three good men gone in less than five minutes.
Tragic.
Let me ask you something, ladies.
What's the strongest building in this town? Well, that's easy.
It's this one.
What makes it so strong? It's built of iron and brick.
My husband Theo insisted on it.
And iron and brick comes from where? The East.
Rifles, nails, gunpowder, flour, coffee, ammunition, all of it comes from the East.
Quicksilver Mining has been based in Pittsburgh for 22 years.
If you allow us, we'll build your whole town out of iron and brick.
Metaphorically speaking, of course.
[CHUCKLING.]
In a month's time, I can have 50 good men here.
A hundred the month after that.
A hundred and fifty men all here to work hard and take care of all of you.
[SARAH.]
Well that sounds real nice.
Oh, I'm sure by now you ladies have all got to be nostalgic for the scent of a man.
A real man.
Now, Quicksilver will take just 90% of the claim and bear 100% of the costs.
Maybe you didn't hear me before.
- We want half.
- I heard you, Miss McNue.
While you may possess a working knowledge of the mine, you are naive when it comes to the business of running it.
Certainly not on your own.
I think you, sir, are naive when it comes to understanding just what we all been through, and just how changed we are on the other side.
Some of you more than others.
[CHAIR BANGS.]
There was nothing but a dozen tents when Albert and I got here.
One was a saloon, another was a whorehouse.
You remember that.
So do you.
So do all of you.
We built this place together.
We gave up our old lives to build something new.
Yes.
But then we lost everything.
We lost our husbands and a few horses.
We're still here.
Your children are still here.
The silver's still here.
And it's still our goddamn silver, and that means we still got choices.
Mister, we're a lot fucking stronger than you think we are.
I'm sure that's so, but they say it takes a mine to work a mine.
You don't have the capital.
You don't have the men.
- We'll go to the Paiutes.
- [CHUCKLES.]
You can't be serious! [MAN.]
I could work it.
[VALENTINE.]
Who might you be, sir? Um That's That's John Doe.
- John Doe? - What's all this, then? [CHARLOTTE.]
Yes, he, um He was the only man to survive the accident.
Doesn't anybody know his name? It was his first day on the job, so I suspect that the foreman knew his name, but he's he's no longer with us.
I can I can work the mine.
- Come on, baby, let's get you home.
- I can work it.
[SADIE.]
I know, honey, I know.
[JOHN DOE.]
Please.
Please! - [DOOR OPENING.]
- [JOHN DOE GRUNTS.]
Well, a few dozen more like him and your troubles are over.
[VALENTINE CLEARS THROAT.]
That's a cashier's check for $20,000.
And I will give you the time it takes for me to put on my hat and my coat to decide whether you and your lovely town want the money and the men or not.
[VALENTINE HUMS TUNE.]
- Ladies, we deserve - Sarah.
We deserve this.
[CONTINUES HUMMING.]
[STOPS HUMMING.]
I suggest you put it to a vote.
[RESUMES HUMMING.]
I say we take the deal.
Me, too.
[WHISPERS.]
I'm sorry.
[VALENTINE.]
A wise decision, ladies.
[CHAIR CREAKING.]
You know what I want? A million dollars, I suppose? A little curly-headed girl.
Well I'll do the best that I can.
[CHUCKLES.]
[GUNSHOT.]
[FOOTSTEPS.]
Pa, I heard a gunshot.
That you did, son.
Mind your sister until I get back.
[MEN WHOOPING, GUNFIRE.]
[WOMEN SHRIEKING.]
[HORSE WHINNIES.]
[GUNFIRE AND WHOOPING CONTINUES.]
[COWBOY.]
We're wild wolves, and we're gonna kill any man who carries a weapon! [GUNFIRE CONTINUES.]
[HORSE WHINNIES.]
[WHISTLING.]
[WHISTLING.]
[MCNUE.]
Evening, fellas.
What can I do for ya? We came here to see Magdalena.
[MCNUE.]
She cleared out of here months ago.
Now, I'm sorry you rode all this way for nothing, but I have to ask you boys to ride on out of here.
[COWBOY.]
Or else what? [MCNUE.]
Or else what? Don't be like that.
There are women out here.
[GROANS.]
Well, I'd best get on out there.
[MCNUE.]
Come on, boys.
I know you don't want no trouble.
You ain't gonna be no trouble.
No trouble at all.
Now, you listen [COWBOYS LAUGH.]
[LAUGHTER CONTINUES.]
[MCNUE.]
Boys Hey.
[ONLOOKERS GASP.]
You shot me in the damn shoulder, boy! Name's not "boy.
" It's Whitey Winn.
[COWBOY GROANS.]
Next one spoils your face.
Now, I think y'all heard the sheriff.
- Yes, sir.
- [WHITEY.]
I suggest you get.
[COWBOY.]
Come on.
You all right there, Sheriff? [ONLOOKERS MURMURING.]
Now, don't worry, folks.
Ain't none of them gonna bother you again.
[WHITEY.]
All right, come on.
Let's go back inside.
[MURMURING.]
Well, well [LAUGHTER IN DISTANCE.]
Did you enjoy that? I I suppose you'd have shot them two.
Either way, I'm sure you think I'm a coward, just like everyone else around here.
I don't judge another man unless I've walked in his shoes.
What's the matter with your eyes? I had a horse once, lost his sight.
He had the same heedful walk you do.
I've been losing it bit by bit since my wife died a few years ago giving birth to my daughter.
Hell the way things are going, I figure I've got maybe another six months before I go completely blind.
I'm sorry.
I don't need your pity.
Why don't you tell me about Frank Griffin? Where do you figure he's hiding? Frank ain't hiding, Sheriff.
He's out there spilling blood from hell to breakfast, trying to make me feel bad.
For what? Stealing from him? Leaving him.
He always thought of me as kin.
Well, Frank don't like it much when kin abandons him.
Why did you abandon him? It ain't so simple, Sheriff.
It's personal.
Not after a whole town gets lynched it ain't.
I tried to stop that.
But you didn't.
No, sir, I didn't.
Griffin will probably go back up to that canyon where you shot him try and pick up your trail.
He more than likely did just that.
Which means you more than likely just led the man right here.
He ain't ever finding me, Sheriff.
A man alone can be invisible if he knows what he's doing.
Griffin's riding with 30.
Thirty men wouldn't at all be invisible, now, would they? No, sir, they would not.
So, if someone rode up to Doubtful Canyon they ought to be able to pick up on his trail without too much trouble.
Sure.
If that "someone" had proper eyesight.
I ain't blind yet.
[LIGHT SNORING.]
[FLOORBOARDS CREAKING.]
[LIQUID POURING.]
[GENTLE FOOTSTEPS.]
[FLOORBOARDS CREAKING.]
[CLOCK CHIMING.]
[DOOR CREAKS.]
[CLOCK STRIKES FOUR.]
Fellas.
Mr.
Griffin.
I'm a big admirer of your work.
I just wish it was more accurate.
The way it sounds in your paper, Roy Goode's making a fool of me.
Well he did best you at Creede.
From the sweet end of a rifle.
Are you crying, sir? No.
It's just my eye.
Old war wound.
You fought in what war? I fought my wife.
May she rest in peace.
And on the last occasion, she broke a bottle of liniment across my cheek.
That's true.
[LAUGHTER STOPS.]
Now, what is it I can do f-for you gentlemen? Well, let's just say you're gonna give me immortality, and I'm gonna let you live longer than you might have.
I want you to write me a story, only as I prescribe it to you.
Well, I'm sorry, I'm not for hire.
I print the truth only as I see it.
Could have fooled me.
Hell, The Daily Review don't even come out but once a week.
That's a lie right there.
[GRIGG CHUCKLES.]
I print the news of the day.
Well, sir, the news of today is that the crybaby editor of The Daily Review was found this evening in a puddle of his own piss and brains.
[CHUCKLES.]
You're Gatz Brown.
Amos Green.
[CHUCKLES.]
And that's Alonzo Bunker.
There's Floyd Wilson.
Bill Chick.
And Dyer Howe, of course.
Mr.
Ledbetter.
[SIGHS.]
And the naughty the naughty Devlins.
[CHUCKLES.]
I want you to write that Roy Goode betrayed me and that I will kill any man, woman or child who harbors him.
The good people of Creede let him walk their streets and now they don't have no streets.
Or people for that matter.
[HORSES WHINNYING.]
[TRUCKEE.]
Are you sure you know how to do this? I watched your father do it lots of times.
There's watching and there's doing.
Too bad Roy ain't here.
"Isn't" here.
And we don't need anybody.
[WHINNYING.]
[GRUNTS.]
[WHINNYING.]
[GRUNTS.]
[GRUNTS.]
[PANTING.]
[SIGHS.]
- [HORSE WHINNIES.]
- [MAN YELLS.]
[HOOVES CLATTERING.]
[HORSE WHINNIES.]
[DRIVER.]
Whoa! [KNOCKING.]
Maggie? You in there? [FOOTSTEPS.]
[SIGHS.]
Morning, Sheriff.
Miss Dunne.
Hi, William.
Trudy.
Is, uh Is my sister about? She's out yonder, trying to shoot some quail for breakfast.
All right.
[CALLIE.]
Oh! I'm sorry.
How's that spelling coming, William? Just fine, Miss Dunne.
Miss Dunne.
Children.
[QUAIL CALLS.]
[GUNSHOT ECHOES.]
[MARY-AGNES.]
Morning, William, Trudy.
You want to tell me what Callie Dunne's doing over at your place? I assume her morning toilette.
Jesus, Maggie.
I get lonely same as you, Bill.
Where are you running to this time? I ain't running nowhere.
I'm gonna help Marshal Cook bring in Frank Griffin.
[SCOFFS.]
Don't you look at me like that.
I've been known to kill a man or two.
So has lightning.
Well, I'm gonna see if I can't do one last thing right as a lawman before the whole damn world goes dark on me.
[SHELL LOADS.]
Are my children gonna be all right with you? Why wouldn't they be? Look at you.
You know, you ain't the same.
What's different about me? Well you're not maternal no more.
Maternal? Well, yeah.
Bill, I loved my husband, may he rest in peace, and I love William and Trudy, too.
But I'm done with the notion that the bliss of me and my sisters is to be found in childbearing and caregiving.
I'm gonna go say my goodbyes.
You best make it a good one.
Sheriff.
Just dropping off something for Mr.
Ward.
Sheriff.
Take your pick, sweet or savory.
Pass me my damn rifle.
You know, it's interesting how the women around here all seem to believe that a man's emotions ebb and flow right along with his digestive juices.
Where you going? I'm gonna bring in Frank Griffin.
Well, stop sitting there with your mouth open like a flytrap and pass me a box of them shells.
Now, hold on.
Shouldn't I at least go with you? No, you should not.
Marshal Cook's on his way up to Olegrande to fetch the army.
Once I pick up on Griffin's trail, I'll meet up with them and we'll go after him together.
I think you're already full, Sheriff.
In the meantime you keep an eye on Mr.
Ward here until we get back.
- You understand me? - Yes, sir.
All right.
I'll be a week or two at the most.
You boys try not to eat yourselves to death.
[WHINNYING.]
Hey, girl.
Good girl.
[WHINNYING IN DISTANCE.]
Returning your horse along with a few others you seem to have lost.
Thank you.
You going somewhere? The rest of your herd's up in the hills by the creek.
Whitey and Hiram will help you fetch them all.
Why don't you come inside, Bill? Have a cup of coffee.
I'd better not.
I won't be in your road no more, Alice.
You take care now.
I'll be back later.
[CONVERSING IN NORWEGIAN.]
[MAN LAUGHS.]
[CONVERSING CONTINUES.]
[TWIGS SNAPPING.]
[SPEAKS IN NORWEGIAN.]
[CHILDREN CHATTERING.]
[WOMAN SHUSHING.]
[CHUCKLES.]
[SPEAKS IN NORWEGIAN.]
[LAUGHTER AND CHATTERING.]
[HORSE WHINNIES.]
Hey, there.
[FOOTSTEPS.]
[DOOR OPENING.]
Why, Miss Fletcher, what a nice surprise.
Open up the cell.
Oh, no.
Sheriff said Mr.
Ward ain't supposed to have any visitors.
Mister who? You can leave any baked goods you might have brung with me, though.
That's all.
I didn't bake anything.
I want to take him home with me.
[WHITEY LAUGHS.]
Yeah, you and every other lady in this town, but I'm sorry, ma'am, I can't Take off your gun belt.
Ma'am, please.
Now, hold on.
Take it off.
All right.
All right.
There's one.
Hold on.
Now, open up the cell, Whitey.
Do it or you're gonna be awful damn sick from a bullet in your chest.
[CELL UNLOCKING.]
Now, Mr Ward you come on out of there, and, Whitey, you go on in.
- Ma'am? - Do it.
Uh Whitey, you're gonna have to show me which key.
I don't know.
It's this one.
[CELL LOCKING.]
[KEYS CLATTER ON TABLE.]
[DOOR CLOSING.]
[SLURPING.]
[SIGHS.]
That's some delicious coffee, ladies.
I thank you.
[SNIFFS.]
Why, you're no bigger than a minute, are you, little fella? [CHUCKLES.]
Come on up here.
Come on.
[GRUNTS.]
Here.
Up, up.
There you go.
There.
That leg over there.
What did you folks say your names were? I'm Nicholas Gustavson.
[FRANK GRUNTS.]
And this is my brother, Jacob.
- Where are you all from? - Norway.
Well, I admire you making the journey west.
It's a hard run.
I know.
I done it.
I came out West on a wagon train from Arkansas.
I was just a boy.
Not much more than your age.
[CHUCKLES.]
The trip was going just fine until we all came to a little knot in the road in Utah.
A place called Mountain Meadows.
See, my mammy and pappy and almost everybody else were all killed.
By Indians it looked like.
Except when these Indians washed their faces, their skin was white.
Turns out they all came from the Great Salt Lake.
"Men of religion," they said.
[SCOFFS.]
Well, some of these religious men applied themselves to my sister before they killed her.
Got their pretend war paint all over her real skin.
My baby brother, Liam, wouldn't stop fussing while they was raping and killing my family, so they grabbed him by the feet and smashed his head on a wagon wheel.
Like that one there.
They killed over 100 people that day including my mammy and pappy and Liam, older sister, Lorie my aunt and uncle and their little girl, cousin Phoebe.
One of them, Mr.
Isaac Haight, was all the time preaching to the men doing the killing how about how all things are purified with blood.
How without the shedding of blood, there is no remission.
He said how they was giving us all eternal salvation, spilling our gentile blood in the dirt.
I heard him say how killing gentiles was a means of grace and a virtuous deed.
And I thought to myself "Hm.
" Well, after he saved my family, Mr.
Isaac Haight became my new pappy, and one of his wives my new mammy.
My family, like all of the families we was traveling with, had a considerable amount of gold and personal property, all of which my new family took right good care of.
Mr.
Haight gained ten pounds just so he could fit into my old pappy's clothes.
I remember seeing one of his 14 wives wearing one of my mammy's skirts in church.
But the image I have of my family is looking back at them as Mr.
Haight took us away.
Their bodies left to fester and corrupt in the hot sun.
I learned to love Mr.
Haight.
He taught me with the stick and the bullwhip and the knife how to love.
Same as I love Roy Goode now.
For he's my son.
I chose him.
And that is a more powerful bond, a more powerful love than being born into it.
I aim to show him that love when we meet up again.
We know he came through this way.
A skinny little fella.
The kind you might mistakenly underestimate.
We've not seen anyone.
Hm.
Of course, he may be dead.
But then he's been dead before, so [CHUCKLES.]
Well, now I think that tonight, we're just gonna bed down over there.
In the morning, we'll, uh, move on, leave you folks be.
But before we do I need you two gentlemen to decide which of your lovely wives is gonna visit me in my blankets.
[SPEAKING IN NORWEGIAN.]
[SPEAKS IN NORWEGIAN.]
[FRANK.]
Of course, if you both want to come along you're more than welcome.
[HORSES WHINNYING.]
Ma'am.
The Paiutes say you either live with the land or you die.
Well, I can't seem to live with this land, but I'm stuck.
Look, I don't know who you are or what you've done but I've got 30-something animals need to be broke and no one to help me do it.
Truckee's still just a boy.
And he won't admit it, but he's afraid of horses.
Seems his father died before he could teach his son how to be a proper Indian.
Anyway, I'd go to the Paiutes, but then Chief Narrienta would send me one of his sons, and there'd be well, certain strings attached.
I can't pay you but I'll give you the best horse when you're through.
An animal strong enough to carry you all the way to California.
Lady, I don't mean no offense but you don't want me anywhere near you or your boy.
Because you're so dangerous? You were right the first time you told me I couldn't stay.
You don't know me.
You're the terrible Roy Goode.
You got a letter with the man's name on it.
But then again, it hasn't even been opened, so maybe it's not yours.
I don't know.
I look you in the eye, and you don't seem so stone cold to me.
You just seem lost.
Maybe a little sad.
Oh, I am who I say.
And it ain't gonna be long before someone comes looking for me.
Like who? Bill's gone for a while.
That deputy ain't gonna wake up happy.
- I'll handle Whitey.
- Ma'am I'm bad luck.
Well we have that in common, then.
Do we have a deal? [SIGHS.]
No, ma'am.
If I was to stay here and break them horses for you there'd be something else I'd be wanting from you.
And what might that be? Teach me how to read.
I could do that.
[KNOCKING.]
[GRUNTS.]
Morning.
Mr.
Law! - Morning.
- Coffee? Thank you.
[COFFEE POURING.]
What's for breakfast? [GRUNTS.]
I'll have, uh I'll have whatever's good.
Nothing's good.
But you can't go wrong with fried eggs and grits.
I'll have that.
Bacon? Sure.
Why not? It's Saturday.
Sweet Jesus! That's strong enough to float an egg.
So they say.
Hang on.
Large party of men come through here any time recent? Sadly, no.
Truth is, nobody much comes through here.
Unless it's Wednesday and the train's coming.
Of course.
Thank you, anyhow.
[FOOTSTEPS.]
[MAN.]
Friend? Edward Solomon.
Oh, that is one fearful conglomerate.
[LAUGHS.]
Myself, I made it three sips and abandoned all hope.
You may have seen my rig out front.
Or not, given your condition.
I believe I have just the thing.
There you go, Sheriff.
Try those on.
Go on.
Your life's about to change.
[GRUNTS.]
I'm a bit dizzy.
Well, they are rather powerfully magnified.
That's why I'd only wear them for reading and such, and even then, not for too long.
How much? For you, an officer of the law, a virtual human barricade between chaos and civilization? - How much? - Twenty-five cents.
Half the cost of your breakfast, and they'll last you twice as long.
Thank you.
You know, I was in Trinidad recently, maybe about a month ago.
- Trinidad? - Colorado, just over the border.
I was playing cards, a vice that I'm prone to, I'll admit, when a large group of gentlemen came into the saloon.
Well, how large? Oh, I'd say about well, 25, at least.
Most of them went upstairs to the whorehouse.
They have a good one there.
Another vice you're prone to? [CHUCKLES.]
Well, I'm a married man.
[MCNUE.]
Mm-hm.
Anyway, one of the gents came over and sat down at the table.
I didn't know him, of course, but I could see that all the others were suddenly afraid to win.
Did he say anything to you? Uh He had some unusual thoughts on religion.
I was particularly amused by his assertion that the original Garden of Eden, according to him, is to be found in Independence, Missouri.
I assume you didn't share your amusement with the man, or you wouldn't be here to tell me.
[CHUCKLES.]
I did not.
[MCNUE.]
Hm.
Well, he say where he was headed? No, but he did speak at some length as to the beauty of a place called Bald Knob.
One had the feeling he was anxious to get back there.
Bald Knob.
You have any idea where that might be? No, I can't say.
I didn't ask.
I sensed a broody turn in the man at that point, so I bid the table good night and got the hell out while I could.
[MCNUE.]
Hm.
Well, thank you.
Thank you.
"To Marshal John Cook.
" Stop.
Have R.
G.
in custody in La Belle.
Stop.
Will meet up in Olegrande.
"Stop.
" Signed "Bill McNue.
" Who's "R.
G.
"? [CLEARS THROAT.]
Just send the damn thing.
[CHILD SCREAMING.]
[HOOVES BEATING.]
[GUNSHOT.]
[SCREAMING CONTINUES.]
[GUNSHOT.]
[SCREAMING CONTINUES.]
[GUNSHOT.]
Papa! [GASPS.]
[BUZZING.]
[PANTING.]
[WOMAN GASPS.]
[SOBS.]
Dear Lord.
[GRUNTS.]
[FLOYD.]
If he came this way he didn't leave no trail.
So what you're saying is you ain't got no idea which way he's headed? Well, maybe if we had come before the rains.
[FRANK PANTING.]
[CHILD SOBBING.]
[BEES BUZZING.]
Call yourselves husbands and fathers? Why ain't neither of you dead, or at least beat some around the face? Why don't you fight? Good Book says, "A man who lays down like a lamb stays down.
" You are no man of God! [CHUCKLES.]
God? What God? Mister, you clearly don't know where you are.
Look around.
There ain't no higher-up around here to watch over you and your young'ns.
This here's the paradise of the locust the lizard the snake.
It's the land of the blade and the rifle.
It's godless country.
And the sooner you accept your inevitable demise, the longer you're all gonna live.
If you think about it [GUNSHOT.]
- [GUNSHOT.]
- [JACOB YELLS.]
[WOMAN YELLS.]
[YELLING CONTINUES.]
You know, if you think about it the same God that made you and me also made the rattlesnake.
That just don't make no sense.
All a man can count on is hisself.
That's the truth.
[CHUCKLES.]
[BUZZING.]
What What is with all these infernal bumblebees? [BUZZING CONTINUES.]
Floyd what town is that way? North? Olegrande.
Well, then [GRUNTS.]
let's go to Olegrande.
"Since Mr.
James Sloan took over Quicksilver Mining", a beneficial change has taken place in the mines.
Industry, order, and respect for the constituted authorities prevail.
Every man knows his place and performs his duty.
Mr.
Sloan is said to be fair, honest and good-humored.
This reporter can also attest that he is a tall man, rather handsome, with a beautiful baritone.
And if all that isn't enough, "he writes the most beautiful poetry.
" Sonnets.
Just like Shakespeare.
Least you coulda done is put on a dress.
[SIGHS.]
Well it's not very often that a gentleman is greeted by such a passel of fine-looking ladies.
[CHUCKLES.]
Now, which one of you would be Mayor Cummings' charming widow? Mary-Agnes.
And you're Mr.
Sloan? No, ma'am, I'm J.
J.
Valentine, Mr.
Sloan's humble number two now made a surprised number one by unfortunate circumstance.
What happened to What unfortunate circumstance? Mr.
Sloan was murdered by vicious outlaws.
[WOMAN GASPS.]
[BABY GRIZZLES.]
This is Mrs.
Charlotte Temple.
And Miss Callie Dunne.
A divine pleasure, ladies.
[CHUCKLES.]
This here is Colonel Farnsworth, from the Colorado School of Mines.
How do you do? Colonel? Of what, may I ask? [LAUGHS.]
Whether Colonel Farnsworth came by his title in any military manner is doubtful, but I assure you, he is a real mining engineer.
My new head of security, Mr.
Logan.
Ladies.
[MUTTERS.]
Oh, my God.
[CLEARS THROAT.]
Shall we go inside? How was your trip, Mr.
Valentine? [VALENTINE.]
I always say, ma'am, that a trip on the stage is something to look back upon with pleasure in the afterlife.
[INSTRUMENTAL THEME MUSIC PLAYS.]
[MAN.]
Now, how was it exactly you came to realize that you were facing the vile Roy Goode? By descriptions I had read in your newspaper.
[GRUNTS.]
That captures him exactly right.
I saw him, and with rather crushing vividness, the phrase, "No virtuous woman is safe near Roy Good" came back to me.
Well, that must have been very frightening.
Yes.
But I made an act of contrition and I concentrated my thoughts on the presence of God.
Now, do you recall was his pistol black-boned in the handle? [PRESS CLATTERS.]
[CLEARS THROAT.]
[CLATTERING STOPS.]
And did he carry it on his right or on his left side? - His pistol? - Mm.
I really couldn't say.
I was too busy paying attention to the coffin.
And you're sure it was a coffin? [COFFIN DRAGGING.]
[NUN.]
Yes.
For some time later, I saw him in our church graveyard, digging up a grave.
He took the bones from the dirt and he put them into the casket he brought with him, then re-buried them.
And what town did you say this was? Moses.
Which, until then, had always been such a tranquil place.
Now, do you recall the name on the grave that he dug up? There was no name, just a stick for a marker.
But that weren't the worst part.
[METALLIC CLATTERING.]
[WHISPERS.]
He took the clothes.
He took the old rags from the dirt and he put them on.
[GASPS.]
It was as if I had seen the devil himself.
[WOMAN.]
Good day to you, Sheriff.
Who's your, uh Who's your prisoner, Sheriff? Never you mind, Sarah Doyle.
OK.
[CHILDREN GIGGLING.]
[WOMEN CHATTERING.]
- Where are all the men at? - [MCNUE.]
Dead.
Mine took them.
All of them? Anyone able worked underground.
[CHILDREN LAUGHING.]
You understand, Sheriff if word gets out Roy Goode's here there's gonna be no stopping Frank.
Well, you ain't gonna be here that long.
Know why they call me Whitey Winn? It's because I always do.
[CHUCKLES.]
Now, you weren't expecting that, were you? Or that.
[CHUCKLES.]
All right.
All right.
Both of them.
Jesus Christ, Whitey! Put the damn cannon away.
When was the last time you bathed, son? A few days ago.
You sure it wasn't longer than that? You're about as ripe as a human body can get.
A black coach come into town today with a full escort of firepower.
Yeah, I saw.
Must be them mining folks.
Where are the damn keys at? Do I know you? No, I don't think so.
[WHITEY.]
What's your name? Whitey Winn, this here's, uh Mr.
Ward.
- Ward? - Lock him up.
All right? No visitors.
Why? He dangerous? Just do it.
What did he do? What'd you do? Robbed a stage.
Really? Where? Up in Alamogordo.
Just lock him up.
I'm gonna go check on my children.
Well, he don't look much like the stage-robbing type.
Looks more like the pissing-in-public type to me.
[BIRD CALLS.]
[GATZ.]
"Perhaps there is some decency in Roy Goode after all" as he continues to thwart Frank Griffin and his gang at every turn most recently in Creede, Colorado "where Mr.
Goode intervened in a payroll robbery at the Tomboy Mine.
" That's enough.
I want you all to clean up for town tomorrow.
[GATZ.]
Where we going? Taos.
We're gonna intervene with this Mr.
A.
T.
Grigg.
Get the man next to some facts.
[GASPS.]
[GASPS.]
[SPEAKS IN PAIUTE.]
[SPEAKS IN PAIUTE.]
Mama? You all right? [IYOVI SPEAKS IN PAIUTE.]
[IYOVI SPEAKS IN PAIUTE.]
[SIGHS.]
[PANTING.]
[HORSE WHINNIES IN DISTANCE.]
[CHATTERING.]
Such a fine meal would have done honor to the best hotel in New York.
Well, thank you.
Good taste good order handsome children and domestic happiness are the necessary consequence even in a wild place such as this.
- Hear, hear.
- Hear, hear.
Hear, hear.
Miss Dunne I don't believe I ever had me a marm as pretty as you are.
Thank you, sir.
But may I ask, have you always had a fondness for teaching children? No, sir.
I'd always been a whore.
I just sort of fell into teaching after Magdalena's closed.
Then the schoolhouse got struck by lightning and burned down.
Took the old marm with it.
I see.
[CLEARS THROAT.]
So, tell me, Mrs.
Cummings - [MARY-AGNES.]
McNue.
- Excuse me? I've returned to my maiden surname.
Albert's dead.
There's no reason for me to keep carrying his name like a bucket of water.
He's got a brother in Missouri for that.
How independent of you.
[CHUCKLES.]
So, tell me, Miss McNue, how has the lovely town of La Belle fared these past two years without any men around? We've done all right.
[CHARLOTTE CHUCKLES.]
Well It's It's been difficult.
[CHUCKLES.]
It's been quite difficult.
As you can well imagine, a town full of ladies is ripe fruit for the wicked.
It seems that, since the accident, everyone who's come through town has tried to take advantage.
[VALENTINE.]
Mm.
Well, we at Quicksilver aim to help you ladies all we can.
You've got a mine with some value to it, and I got the men to work it.
But first, before we strike any kind of deal we need to determine how much value there actually is.
Colonel Farnsworth.
Suppose you educate us about the mine here at La Belle.
Of course.
[DOOR OPENING.]
[HORSE WHINNIES.]
[LOGAN.]
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Goddamn it! Goddamn it! What are you doing? Goddamn! What are you doing? Come here.
Come here.
[HORSE WHINNIES.]
Get over here.
Get up there.
[DOOR OPENING.]
[WHITEY.]
So, is it true? Alice Fletcher really shot you? Because I-I wouldn't doubt it seeing as the woman was a widow twice before she was even 21.
First one died in a flash flood, and then, uh, she disappeared for a bit.
I don't know, six years later, she shows back up on the ranch with a child and some Paiute husband, claiming that the property was still rightfully hers.
The trouble is, Asa Leopold, the drygoodsman [DOOR CLOSING.]
him and his sons, they was squatting the land while she was gone.
They claimed they paid a $200 relinquishment, and so the land was theirs.
What happened? Well, Sheriff McNue, he got into it with the Leopolds.
Told them Alice's deed was still good and they had to vacate.
Got into it how? Well, the Leopolds was waiting for Bill when he went to the ranch to show them the deed, and they bushwhacked him.
Bill took a bullet in the hip, but still managed to get up, shoot, and killed all three of Asa's boys.
The same sheriff who brought me in? He shot all three? Yes, sir.
He didn't monkey around none, either.
He just walked right up whilst they was all still shooting and put them all down.
[MIMICS GUNSHOTS.]
[CHUCKLES.]
There was a time when Bill was quite the gun.
He taught me everything I know.
So, um Alice and her family moved into the property, and then, one day her husband winds up dead on the street, shot in the back.
The old man? Well, nobody knows.
Don't matter, though.
Two weeks later, Asa's wife dies of rheumatic fever, so [ROY SIGHS.]
The folks around here, they like to say that Alice and the old Indian woman conjured up a spell that brung all the bad luck.
I just say it goes to show that, eventually, we, all of us, gonna find the dirt, one way or another.
The chloride ores reach from the surface to a depth of 60 or 70 feet.
Then comes a barren streak, extending down 20 to 30 feet to the water level.
It's this unproductive stratum that makes your mine not as fertile as it might be.
That's true, Colonel, but you go below the water level you'll see that the vein remains unbroken.
We believe it'll keep its promise for as far down as you can dig.
It's our feeling, Miss McNue that the lode is far more ordinary than that.
That perhaps, in the very beginning it was salted to make the deposit look richer.
Now, you should know there have always been rumors to that effect.
Mr.
Valentine, La Belle is no "ordinary lode," but a goddamn mountain of quartz.
You know it and I know it, and I would wager that there drunk pinhead you brung with you knows it, too.
Mary-Agnes But if you don't want to talk sensibly, there's plenty of other outfits we can go to.
Mr.
Valentine we do want your help.
[CHUCKLES.]
We really do.
- We need you.
- We're not gonna give it away, either.
[VALENTINE.]
Give what away, exactly? Do you ladies know what they say about La Belle? That it's more a place of note than importance.
A place of many houses but few souls to live in them.
As you well know, those houses were all full not that long ago.
Well, actually, Miss McNue, I don't know.
The railroad is closer to Lordsburg than here.
So, to my way of seeing, they had already robbed you of your population before the accident.
We got enough ore here to bury Lordsburg.
So you say.
Yet your deepest shaft is, what, 86 feet? We have one finished that goes down 103 feet, and another just about so that goes down 160.
Before the men died, we had plans to build a 40-stamp mill and a 30-ton smelter to keep up with all the ore they were pulling out.
We know how to run the mine.
We want to be partners.
Fifty-fifty.
[MAN.]
I spit more than you pour in this place.
[PIANO PLAYING.]
Tickets? Where'd these other boys come from? One of them cattle outfits.
They come through now and again.
Less and less since we lost the whorehouse.
[BARMAN.]
Eighty-three good men gone in less than five minutes.
Tragic.
Let me ask you something, ladies.
What's the strongest building in this town? Well, that's easy.
It's this one.
What makes it so strong? It's built of iron and brick.
My husband Theo insisted on it.
And iron and brick comes from where? The East.
Rifles, nails, gunpowder, flour, coffee, ammunition, all of it comes from the East.
Quicksilver Mining has been based in Pittsburgh for 22 years.
If you allow us, we'll build your whole town out of iron and brick.
Metaphorically speaking, of course.
[CHUCKLING.]
In a month's time, I can have 50 good men here.
A hundred the month after that.
A hundred and fifty men all here to work hard and take care of all of you.
[SARAH.]
Well that sounds real nice.
Oh, I'm sure by now you ladies have all got to be nostalgic for the scent of a man.
A real man.
Now, Quicksilver will take just 90% of the claim and bear 100% of the costs.
Maybe you didn't hear me before.
- We want half.
- I heard you, Miss McNue.
While you may possess a working knowledge of the mine, you are naive when it comes to the business of running it.
Certainly not on your own.
I think you, sir, are naive when it comes to understanding just what we all been through, and just how changed we are on the other side.
Some of you more than others.
[CHAIR BANGS.]
There was nothing but a dozen tents when Albert and I got here.
One was a saloon, another was a whorehouse.
You remember that.
So do you.
So do all of you.
We built this place together.
We gave up our old lives to build something new.
Yes.
But then we lost everything.
We lost our husbands and a few horses.
We're still here.
Your children are still here.
The silver's still here.
And it's still our goddamn silver, and that means we still got choices.
Mister, we're a lot fucking stronger than you think we are.
I'm sure that's so, but they say it takes a mine to work a mine.
You don't have the capital.
You don't have the men.
- We'll go to the Paiutes.
- [CHUCKLES.]
You can't be serious! [MAN.]
I could work it.
[VALENTINE.]
Who might you be, sir? Um That's That's John Doe.
- John Doe? - What's all this, then? [CHARLOTTE.]
Yes, he, um He was the only man to survive the accident.
Doesn't anybody know his name? It was his first day on the job, so I suspect that the foreman knew his name, but he's he's no longer with us.
I can I can work the mine.
- Come on, baby, let's get you home.
- I can work it.
[SADIE.]
I know, honey, I know.
[JOHN DOE.]
Please.
Please! - [DOOR OPENING.]
- [JOHN DOE GRUNTS.]
Well, a few dozen more like him and your troubles are over.
[VALENTINE CLEARS THROAT.]
That's a cashier's check for $20,000.
And I will give you the time it takes for me to put on my hat and my coat to decide whether you and your lovely town want the money and the men or not.
[VALENTINE HUMS TUNE.]
- Ladies, we deserve - Sarah.
We deserve this.
[CONTINUES HUMMING.]
[STOPS HUMMING.]
I suggest you put it to a vote.
[RESUMES HUMMING.]
I say we take the deal.
Me, too.
[WHISPERS.]
I'm sorry.
[VALENTINE.]
A wise decision, ladies.
[CHAIR CREAKING.]
You know what I want? A million dollars, I suppose? A little curly-headed girl.
Well I'll do the best that I can.
[CHUCKLES.]
[GUNSHOT.]
[FOOTSTEPS.]
Pa, I heard a gunshot.
That you did, son.
Mind your sister until I get back.
[MEN WHOOPING, GUNFIRE.]
[WOMEN SHRIEKING.]
[HORSE WHINNIES.]
[GUNFIRE AND WHOOPING CONTINUES.]
[COWBOY.]
We're wild wolves, and we're gonna kill any man who carries a weapon! [GUNFIRE CONTINUES.]
[HORSE WHINNIES.]
[WHISTLING.]
[WHISTLING.]
[MCNUE.]
Evening, fellas.
What can I do for ya? We came here to see Magdalena.
[MCNUE.]
She cleared out of here months ago.
Now, I'm sorry you rode all this way for nothing, but I have to ask you boys to ride on out of here.
[COWBOY.]
Or else what? [MCNUE.]
Or else what? Don't be like that.
There are women out here.
[GROANS.]
Well, I'd best get on out there.
[MCNUE.]
Come on, boys.
I know you don't want no trouble.
You ain't gonna be no trouble.
No trouble at all.
Now, you listen [COWBOYS LAUGH.]
[LAUGHTER CONTINUES.]
[MCNUE.]
Boys Hey.
[ONLOOKERS GASP.]
You shot me in the damn shoulder, boy! Name's not "boy.
" It's Whitey Winn.
[COWBOY GROANS.]
Next one spoils your face.
Now, I think y'all heard the sheriff.
- Yes, sir.
- [WHITEY.]
I suggest you get.
[COWBOY.]
Come on.
You all right there, Sheriff? [ONLOOKERS MURMURING.]
Now, don't worry, folks.
Ain't none of them gonna bother you again.
[WHITEY.]
All right, come on.
Let's go back inside.
[MURMURING.]
Well, well [LAUGHTER IN DISTANCE.]
Did you enjoy that? I I suppose you'd have shot them two.
Either way, I'm sure you think I'm a coward, just like everyone else around here.
I don't judge another man unless I've walked in his shoes.
What's the matter with your eyes? I had a horse once, lost his sight.
He had the same heedful walk you do.
I've been losing it bit by bit since my wife died a few years ago giving birth to my daughter.
Hell the way things are going, I figure I've got maybe another six months before I go completely blind.
I'm sorry.
I don't need your pity.
Why don't you tell me about Frank Griffin? Where do you figure he's hiding? Frank ain't hiding, Sheriff.
He's out there spilling blood from hell to breakfast, trying to make me feel bad.
For what? Stealing from him? Leaving him.
He always thought of me as kin.
Well, Frank don't like it much when kin abandons him.
Why did you abandon him? It ain't so simple, Sheriff.
It's personal.
Not after a whole town gets lynched it ain't.
I tried to stop that.
But you didn't.
No, sir, I didn't.
Griffin will probably go back up to that canyon where you shot him try and pick up your trail.
He more than likely did just that.
Which means you more than likely just led the man right here.
He ain't ever finding me, Sheriff.
A man alone can be invisible if he knows what he's doing.
Griffin's riding with 30.
Thirty men wouldn't at all be invisible, now, would they? No, sir, they would not.
So, if someone rode up to Doubtful Canyon they ought to be able to pick up on his trail without too much trouble.
Sure.
If that "someone" had proper eyesight.
I ain't blind yet.
[LIGHT SNORING.]
[FLOORBOARDS CREAKING.]
[LIQUID POURING.]
[GENTLE FOOTSTEPS.]
[FLOORBOARDS CREAKING.]
[CLOCK CHIMING.]
[DOOR CREAKS.]
[CLOCK STRIKES FOUR.]
Fellas.
Mr.
Griffin.
I'm a big admirer of your work.
I just wish it was more accurate.
The way it sounds in your paper, Roy Goode's making a fool of me.
Well he did best you at Creede.
From the sweet end of a rifle.
Are you crying, sir? No.
It's just my eye.
Old war wound.
You fought in what war? I fought my wife.
May she rest in peace.
And on the last occasion, she broke a bottle of liniment across my cheek.
That's true.
[LAUGHTER STOPS.]
Now, what is it I can do f-for you gentlemen? Well, let's just say you're gonna give me immortality, and I'm gonna let you live longer than you might have.
I want you to write me a story, only as I prescribe it to you.
Well, I'm sorry, I'm not for hire.
I print the truth only as I see it.
Could have fooled me.
Hell, The Daily Review don't even come out but once a week.
That's a lie right there.
[GRIGG CHUCKLES.]
I print the news of the day.
Well, sir, the news of today is that the crybaby editor of The Daily Review was found this evening in a puddle of his own piss and brains.
[CHUCKLES.]
You're Gatz Brown.
Amos Green.
[CHUCKLES.]
And that's Alonzo Bunker.
There's Floyd Wilson.
Bill Chick.
And Dyer Howe, of course.
Mr.
Ledbetter.
[SIGHS.]
And the naughty the naughty Devlins.
[CHUCKLES.]
I want you to write that Roy Goode betrayed me and that I will kill any man, woman or child who harbors him.
The good people of Creede let him walk their streets and now they don't have no streets.
Or people for that matter.
[HORSES WHINNYING.]
[TRUCKEE.]
Are you sure you know how to do this? I watched your father do it lots of times.
There's watching and there's doing.
Too bad Roy ain't here.
"Isn't" here.
And we don't need anybody.
[WHINNYING.]
[GRUNTS.]
[WHINNYING.]
[GRUNTS.]
[GRUNTS.]
[PANTING.]
[SIGHS.]
- [HORSE WHINNIES.]
- [MAN YELLS.]
[HOOVES CLATTERING.]
[HORSE WHINNIES.]
[DRIVER.]
Whoa! [KNOCKING.]
Maggie? You in there? [FOOTSTEPS.]
[SIGHS.]
Morning, Sheriff.
Miss Dunne.
Hi, William.
Trudy.
Is, uh Is my sister about? She's out yonder, trying to shoot some quail for breakfast.
All right.
[CALLIE.]
Oh! I'm sorry.
How's that spelling coming, William? Just fine, Miss Dunne.
Miss Dunne.
Children.
[QUAIL CALLS.]
[GUNSHOT ECHOES.]
[MARY-AGNES.]
Morning, William, Trudy.
You want to tell me what Callie Dunne's doing over at your place? I assume her morning toilette.
Jesus, Maggie.
I get lonely same as you, Bill.
Where are you running to this time? I ain't running nowhere.
I'm gonna help Marshal Cook bring in Frank Griffin.
[SCOFFS.]
Don't you look at me like that.
I've been known to kill a man or two.
So has lightning.
Well, I'm gonna see if I can't do one last thing right as a lawman before the whole damn world goes dark on me.
[SHELL LOADS.]
Are my children gonna be all right with you? Why wouldn't they be? Look at you.
You know, you ain't the same.
What's different about me? Well you're not maternal no more.
Maternal? Well, yeah.
Bill, I loved my husband, may he rest in peace, and I love William and Trudy, too.
But I'm done with the notion that the bliss of me and my sisters is to be found in childbearing and caregiving.
I'm gonna go say my goodbyes.
You best make it a good one.
Sheriff.
Just dropping off something for Mr.
Ward.
Sheriff.
Take your pick, sweet or savory.
Pass me my damn rifle.
You know, it's interesting how the women around here all seem to believe that a man's emotions ebb and flow right along with his digestive juices.
Where you going? I'm gonna bring in Frank Griffin.
Well, stop sitting there with your mouth open like a flytrap and pass me a box of them shells.
Now, hold on.
Shouldn't I at least go with you? No, you should not.
Marshal Cook's on his way up to Olegrande to fetch the army.
Once I pick up on Griffin's trail, I'll meet up with them and we'll go after him together.
I think you're already full, Sheriff.
In the meantime you keep an eye on Mr.
Ward here until we get back.
- You understand me? - Yes, sir.
All right.
I'll be a week or two at the most.
You boys try not to eat yourselves to death.
[WHINNYING.]
Hey, girl.
Good girl.
[WHINNYING IN DISTANCE.]
Returning your horse along with a few others you seem to have lost.
Thank you.
You going somewhere? The rest of your herd's up in the hills by the creek.
Whitey and Hiram will help you fetch them all.
Why don't you come inside, Bill? Have a cup of coffee.
I'd better not.
I won't be in your road no more, Alice.
You take care now.
I'll be back later.
[CONVERSING IN NORWEGIAN.]
[MAN LAUGHS.]
[CONVERSING CONTINUES.]
[TWIGS SNAPPING.]
[SPEAKS IN NORWEGIAN.]
[CHILDREN CHATTERING.]
[WOMAN SHUSHING.]
[CHUCKLES.]
[SPEAKS IN NORWEGIAN.]
[LAUGHTER AND CHATTERING.]
[HORSE WHINNIES.]
Hey, there.
[FOOTSTEPS.]
[DOOR OPENING.]
Why, Miss Fletcher, what a nice surprise.
Open up the cell.
Oh, no.
Sheriff said Mr.
Ward ain't supposed to have any visitors.
Mister who? You can leave any baked goods you might have brung with me, though.
That's all.
I didn't bake anything.
I want to take him home with me.
[WHITEY LAUGHS.]
Yeah, you and every other lady in this town, but I'm sorry, ma'am, I can't Take off your gun belt.
Ma'am, please.
Now, hold on.
Take it off.
All right.
All right.
There's one.
Hold on.
Now, open up the cell, Whitey.
Do it or you're gonna be awful damn sick from a bullet in your chest.
[CELL UNLOCKING.]
Now, Mr Ward you come on out of there, and, Whitey, you go on in.
- Ma'am? - Do it.
Uh Whitey, you're gonna have to show me which key.
I don't know.
It's this one.
[CELL LOCKING.]
[KEYS CLATTER ON TABLE.]
[DOOR CLOSING.]
[SLURPING.]
[SIGHS.]
That's some delicious coffee, ladies.
I thank you.
[SNIFFS.]
Why, you're no bigger than a minute, are you, little fella? [CHUCKLES.]
Come on up here.
Come on.
[GRUNTS.]
Here.
Up, up.
There you go.
There.
That leg over there.
What did you folks say your names were? I'm Nicholas Gustavson.
[FRANK GRUNTS.]
And this is my brother, Jacob.
- Where are you all from? - Norway.
Well, I admire you making the journey west.
It's a hard run.
I know.
I done it.
I came out West on a wagon train from Arkansas.
I was just a boy.
Not much more than your age.
[CHUCKLES.]
The trip was going just fine until we all came to a little knot in the road in Utah.
A place called Mountain Meadows.
See, my mammy and pappy and almost everybody else were all killed.
By Indians it looked like.
Except when these Indians washed their faces, their skin was white.
Turns out they all came from the Great Salt Lake.
"Men of religion," they said.
[SCOFFS.]
Well, some of these religious men applied themselves to my sister before they killed her.
Got their pretend war paint all over her real skin.
My baby brother, Liam, wouldn't stop fussing while they was raping and killing my family, so they grabbed him by the feet and smashed his head on a wagon wheel.
Like that one there.
They killed over 100 people that day including my mammy and pappy and Liam, older sister, Lorie my aunt and uncle and their little girl, cousin Phoebe.
One of them, Mr.
Isaac Haight, was all the time preaching to the men doing the killing how about how all things are purified with blood.
How without the shedding of blood, there is no remission.
He said how they was giving us all eternal salvation, spilling our gentile blood in the dirt.
I heard him say how killing gentiles was a means of grace and a virtuous deed.
And I thought to myself "Hm.
" Well, after he saved my family, Mr.
Isaac Haight became my new pappy, and one of his wives my new mammy.
My family, like all of the families we was traveling with, had a considerable amount of gold and personal property, all of which my new family took right good care of.
Mr.
Haight gained ten pounds just so he could fit into my old pappy's clothes.
I remember seeing one of his 14 wives wearing one of my mammy's skirts in church.
But the image I have of my family is looking back at them as Mr.
Haight took us away.
Their bodies left to fester and corrupt in the hot sun.
I learned to love Mr.
Haight.
He taught me with the stick and the bullwhip and the knife how to love.
Same as I love Roy Goode now.
For he's my son.
I chose him.
And that is a more powerful bond, a more powerful love than being born into it.
I aim to show him that love when we meet up again.
We know he came through this way.
A skinny little fella.
The kind you might mistakenly underestimate.
We've not seen anyone.
Hm.
Of course, he may be dead.
But then he's been dead before, so [CHUCKLES.]
Well, now I think that tonight, we're just gonna bed down over there.
In the morning, we'll, uh, move on, leave you folks be.
But before we do I need you two gentlemen to decide which of your lovely wives is gonna visit me in my blankets.
[SPEAKING IN NORWEGIAN.]
[SPEAKS IN NORWEGIAN.]
[FRANK.]
Of course, if you both want to come along you're more than welcome.
[HORSES WHINNYING.]
Ma'am.
The Paiutes say you either live with the land or you die.
Well, I can't seem to live with this land, but I'm stuck.
Look, I don't know who you are or what you've done but I've got 30-something animals need to be broke and no one to help me do it.
Truckee's still just a boy.
And he won't admit it, but he's afraid of horses.
Seems his father died before he could teach his son how to be a proper Indian.
Anyway, I'd go to the Paiutes, but then Chief Narrienta would send me one of his sons, and there'd be well, certain strings attached.
I can't pay you but I'll give you the best horse when you're through.
An animal strong enough to carry you all the way to California.
Lady, I don't mean no offense but you don't want me anywhere near you or your boy.
Because you're so dangerous? You were right the first time you told me I couldn't stay.
You don't know me.
You're the terrible Roy Goode.
You got a letter with the man's name on it.
But then again, it hasn't even been opened, so maybe it's not yours.
I don't know.
I look you in the eye, and you don't seem so stone cold to me.
You just seem lost.
Maybe a little sad.
Oh, I am who I say.
And it ain't gonna be long before someone comes looking for me.
Like who? Bill's gone for a while.
That deputy ain't gonna wake up happy.
- I'll handle Whitey.
- Ma'am I'm bad luck.
Well we have that in common, then.
Do we have a deal? [SIGHS.]
No, ma'am.
If I was to stay here and break them horses for you there'd be something else I'd be wanting from you.
And what might that be? Teach me how to read.
I could do that.
[KNOCKING.]
[GRUNTS.]
Morning.
Mr.
Law! - Morning.
- Coffee? Thank you.
[COFFEE POURING.]
What's for breakfast? [GRUNTS.]
I'll have, uh I'll have whatever's good.
Nothing's good.
But you can't go wrong with fried eggs and grits.
I'll have that.
Bacon? Sure.
Why not? It's Saturday.
Sweet Jesus! That's strong enough to float an egg.
So they say.
Hang on.
Large party of men come through here any time recent? Sadly, no.
Truth is, nobody much comes through here.
Unless it's Wednesday and the train's coming.
Of course.
Thank you, anyhow.
[FOOTSTEPS.]
[MAN.]
Friend? Edward Solomon.
Oh, that is one fearful conglomerate.
[LAUGHS.]
Myself, I made it three sips and abandoned all hope.
You may have seen my rig out front.
Or not, given your condition.
I believe I have just the thing.
There you go, Sheriff.
Try those on.
Go on.
Your life's about to change.
[GRUNTS.]
I'm a bit dizzy.
Well, they are rather powerfully magnified.
That's why I'd only wear them for reading and such, and even then, not for too long.
How much? For you, an officer of the law, a virtual human barricade between chaos and civilization? - How much? - Twenty-five cents.
Half the cost of your breakfast, and they'll last you twice as long.
Thank you.
You know, I was in Trinidad recently, maybe about a month ago.
- Trinidad? - Colorado, just over the border.
I was playing cards, a vice that I'm prone to, I'll admit, when a large group of gentlemen came into the saloon.
Well, how large? Oh, I'd say about well, 25, at least.
Most of them went upstairs to the whorehouse.
They have a good one there.
Another vice you're prone to? [CHUCKLES.]
Well, I'm a married man.
[MCNUE.]
Mm-hm.
Anyway, one of the gents came over and sat down at the table.
I didn't know him, of course, but I could see that all the others were suddenly afraid to win.
Did he say anything to you? Uh He had some unusual thoughts on religion.
I was particularly amused by his assertion that the original Garden of Eden, according to him, is to be found in Independence, Missouri.
I assume you didn't share your amusement with the man, or you wouldn't be here to tell me.
[CHUCKLES.]
I did not.
[MCNUE.]
Hm.
Well, he say where he was headed? No, but he did speak at some length as to the beauty of a place called Bald Knob.
One had the feeling he was anxious to get back there.
Bald Knob.
You have any idea where that might be? No, I can't say.
I didn't ask.
I sensed a broody turn in the man at that point, so I bid the table good night and got the hell out while I could.
[MCNUE.]
Hm.
Well, thank you.
Thank you.
"To Marshal John Cook.
" Stop.
Have R.
G.
in custody in La Belle.
Stop.
Will meet up in Olegrande.
"Stop.
" Signed "Bill McNue.
" Who's "R.
G.
"? [CLEARS THROAT.]
Just send the damn thing.
[CHILD SCREAMING.]
[HOOVES BEATING.]
[GUNSHOT.]
[SCREAMING CONTINUES.]
[GUNSHOT.]
[SCREAMING CONTINUES.]
[GUNSHOT.]
Papa! [GASPS.]
[BUZZING.]
[PANTING.]
[WOMAN GASPS.]
[SOBS.]
Dear Lord.
[GRUNTS.]
[FLOYD.]
If he came this way he didn't leave no trail.
So what you're saying is you ain't got no idea which way he's headed? Well, maybe if we had come before the rains.
[FRANK PANTING.]
[CHILD SOBBING.]
[BEES BUZZING.]
Call yourselves husbands and fathers? Why ain't neither of you dead, or at least beat some around the face? Why don't you fight? Good Book says, "A man who lays down like a lamb stays down.
" You are no man of God! [CHUCKLES.]
God? What God? Mister, you clearly don't know where you are.
Look around.
There ain't no higher-up around here to watch over you and your young'ns.
This here's the paradise of the locust the lizard the snake.
It's the land of the blade and the rifle.
It's godless country.
And the sooner you accept your inevitable demise, the longer you're all gonna live.
If you think about it [GUNSHOT.]
- [GUNSHOT.]
- [JACOB YELLS.]
[WOMAN YELLS.]
[YELLING CONTINUES.]
You know, if you think about it the same God that made you and me also made the rattlesnake.
That just don't make no sense.
All a man can count on is hisself.
That's the truth.
[CHUCKLES.]
[BUZZING.]
What What is with all these infernal bumblebees? [BUZZING CONTINUES.]
Floyd what town is that way? North? Olegrande.
Well, then [GRUNTS.]
let's go to Olegrande.