The Big Valley (1965) s01e02 Episode Script
Forty Rifles
Hyah! Hyah! Hyah! Hyah! - Heath! - Hyah! Hyah! Hyah! Hyah! Hyah! Hyah.
! Hyah.
! Hyah! Hyah! Hyah! Hyah! Hyah! Hyah.
! Hyah.
! Hyah.
! Hyah.
! Hyah.
! Lillard, Brown, let's go.
Flank those cattle.
Barrett, take up the drag.
Let's go! - Today, Barrett.
- You got a horse.
Get back to that herd.
I gave you an order.
I take my orders from Barkleys, not from a b- Not from what? Not from what, Barrett? You hop on that herd, or you're tramping the flats.
You wear that brand- his rump and your'n.
That "B" don't stand for "Barkley"- not on your hide.
You're through.
Pick up your pay and get out.
Anybody else feel like lookin' for work? Hyah! Get over here.
Ah! Nick, I swear, you're the only man I know who can step out of a bath and look like he was dragged by a horse.
- It might do you good to eat a little dust once in a while.
- I'm a lawyer, remember? - I only eat crow.
- Yeah.
Uh-huh.
- Is the herd all in? - What? Don't tell me I'm here too late to help.
Help? Great.
The stack yard-we need a man.
- I thought you had a full crew? - I got it.
- Down one.
I fired a man.
- And I hired him back.
Hey, Berber go and tell 'em to take it easy with those fires.
I don't cotton to havin' any stack piles goin'up, huh? What happened, Heath? I gave an order.
He didn't obey it fast enough to suit me.
- Well, handle him.
- I handled him.
- Give him the sack.
- Seemed to be the way.
You got a job for a man to do, he doesn't do it, you get him to do it.
That's handling him.
Now you go out and tell Mac to put a double guard on that hold tonight.
That herd's restless.
- Nick- - Yeah? - Wrong, Nick.
- I've got 3,000 head of cattle, 550 miles to drive in 24 days with 40 hands that know which end of the cow to prod.
And not just our cows, Jarrod, but Carr, De Koven, Royce and Fries- still biting their nails because they had to throw their cattle in with us.
- Nobody gets fired.
- Nick, you chopped his legs off right at the knees.
- I'd have done it to you, and you'd have done it to me.
- It's not the same.
- We're all Barkleys, aren't we? - We were born to the name, Nick.
That gives us immunity.
I've got 24 days, Pappy, so know this: That herd comes first.
So I told Nick- I said, "I can't hardly work flank when I've been told to pick up my pay!" So old Nick, he bursts, see? He says, "Pick up your pay?"he says.
- McColl- - Yo? Nick wants two more men to ride guard on that herd tonight.
Rodale, Schad- I'll be takin' it with Barrett.
Whose thought is that? Mine.
Well, I've had me a day.
I 'spect I'll pass.
- McColl- - Yeah? Get the men outside.
All right, everybody.
Move it.
Barrett, sit down.
- Son, don't do- - The cook too.
Come on, Sal Li.
Close the door on your way out.
Barrett you're gonna ride guard on that herd tonight, if I have to carry you out.
I have had it with you, boy.
Now you can diddle 'em all you want up there in that high house but to me you're trash- up outta the dirtjust like Lillard and Brown or Schad or me.
You're no better and you're a sight less to be givin' orders.
I ain't takin' no bossin' from a dead man's dirt! Hold it, Browney! All right.
Get him outta there.
Go on.
There's a fire in here! Fire! Wait a minute.
Barrett's in there.
Come on.
Get outta there.
Go up to the house.
Get help! Hurry up and get some buckets.
Come on! Come on.
Get it in there.
! Get away from there.
Get that help fast! Get the water in there.
Hurry up with that water! Did anybody see him? Who is he? What happened? - McColl, what's goin' on here? - Barrett's in there.
Somebody- Will somebody get this man a blanket? - I don't believe it.
- Who is he? Do you know him? You people-you three- get this man outta the dirt.
Audra, your room is a disgrace.
Oh, he's the most fabulous thing I've ever seen.
A general! - Nick says he practically won the war by himself.
- Change clothes before dinner.
So you were with 104th at Benton's Crossing.
Six days.
Pinned down for six days in that lousy swamp with nothin' to eat but bark and moss.
- But you held that swamp.
- Until you broke through.
You held it so that I could break through.
An act of supreme heroism.
Oh, Mother.
Mother, this is General Wallant.
- Mrs.
Barkley.
- My son has admired you for years.
You've justified your reputation.
Oh, hardly, madam.
I was just passing south and, um trespassed quite uninvited to gain my bearings.
The rest, coincidence- the mark, I suspect, of most heroics.
I suspect otherwise.
You're staying the night, of course.
- Well, I-I hardly- - My room.
Silas! - I'll tell him! - I'll bunk in the guest room.
Excuse me.
I must see to dinner.
I, uh- I assume you'll be dining with us.
Well, the last I heard of you, General - you were on the frontier.
- Six years.
- What brings you west? - To California? - Still with the army? - Forever the army.
Well, you have me more than intrigued, sir.
Well, then I apologize, because there is nothing as rude as to intrigue and then be forced to remain silent.
My horse- never quartered so well, I'm sure- has an injury to his shin.
- Do you mind if I have a look at him before dinner? - Yes, of course.
- I'll, uh, see to the wine- Haut-Brion, '55.
- Fifty-five, really? That's not hospitality.
That's homage.
Quite a guy.
Oh, he could sure raise Ned with the brass- but he could win battles- and men- better than any man I ever met.
Um, what happened out there today, well- Well, it's you and me on this drive.
I got nobody else.
The men don't know the country.
I've only walked it once.
Uh I'm gonna need your head.
We'll bury the thing, all right? All right, Nick.
That horse- I've seen it before.
- Wallant's horse? - The last two weeks- since I've been here.
Well, now how could you? I- You heard him say he was just passin' through.
From where? None of your business or mine.
General.
Barrett.
Let's have a look at that arm.
- Well, that's not so bad.
- No, sir.
- Reb? - Four years with Johnston.
- Pioneer Ridge? - You bet.
You boys were really something.
It's the only time I ever took a ball in the back of my chest running away from musket fire.
How'd you get that? Private? - It ain't private.
- Oh? This mongrel, Heath, rides in here about two weeks ago.
- Heath? Heath Barkley? - Barkley? He's no Barkley- any more than I am.
Old man whelped him in a minin' town.
Yeah.
He started in givin' orders like he owned the mint.
I thought, um, Nick ran things.
- Nick, yeah.
- He's fine.
Squashed him like a boot heel on a tater bug.
Ol' Nick, he knows.
First time there's a duster, I'll make a bet: Heath makes tracks.
Heh-heh, he gave you what for.
- Oh, yeah? - Wait, wait, wait.
Wait a minute.
This man was at Pioneer Ridge.
He gave what he got.
What about the rest of you? - Sir? - The war, I mean.
Any of you in it? - Bull Run.
- Vicksburg.
Well, I make that most.
'Cept ol' Spock, here.
Still tryin' to hoke us that Mexican coyote shoot back in the '40s was a fight.
Well, it was a fight.
It was, and I ain't forgot what I know.
- What do you know, Spock? - How to take a Yaqui with my bare hand or blow a bridge or gut a town.
You sound like you miss it.
Man'd miss anything he does well.
I know what you did- peppered tails.
- What about you? - Ordnance.
- Telegraphing.
- Artillery.
- Cohorn mortars? - Cohorns, Dahlgren.
- Anybody here know how to take out a train? What do you use? - Yeah.
- Blasting powder and coffee gun.
- What if you got no powder? Log jam her on a turn.
- Put some ice on that.
It'll cut the pain.
- Good night, General.
- Good night, sir.
- Thank you, sir.
We'll bed down here at the Kern River for a day and then up over these mountains, and it's home free to San Diego.
Those mountains are quite a climb.
There's a slight grade for about 10 miles or so, but nothing cattle can't take.
- Water? - Prettiest lake you ever saw right up here on top.
I like it.
It's good.
I- I like it a lot.
In other words, you want out.
Right, Sam? - Jarrod, I didn't say that.
- Now we went all through this two months ago.
We told you then the army had offered $15 a head more than the Kansas City price for all the steer we could deliver to San Diego.
We talked to you, Sam.
You and all the others said you wanted in.
- Royce and Carr? - And Fries- in this morning, penned and tallied.
- If I lost that herd, Jarrod- - It'd be over my dead body.
- Run 'em in.
- McColl, you ride gate horse and, Heath, run Sam's herd in.
Well, it's aces over.
Let's howl at the wind.
Nick, that, um- that lake there at the top? - Greatest coffee water you ever drank.
- It's not a lake.
- What? - What do you mean, it's not a lake? - It's a runoff.
- Why, I was there.
That was spring, Nick.
This is August.
That's high desert country.
Well, there's not a particle of water in those hills- not for a hundred miles.
Your lake, Nick, is nothing but barrel cactus and sage.
- Travel along here till we get to the Kern River, and, uh- then we, uh, go due east.
Would you excuse us, gentlemen? I sense the conversation's about to become masculine.
- I don't mind.
- Audra, will you get my sewing basket? There seems to be a button missing at the top of your dress.
- Yes, and east along the base of these hills.
- Sir, that's all desert.
You can't go over the mountains.
You gotta go around them through Mint Canyon.
There's water there.
It's longer, but you can make up the time.
- Boy.
- I thought you knew this territory, Nick.
- Well, not this territory.
- Surely some of your men- - None of my men been south of Fresno.
- I think what my brother is subtly trying to suggest is that since - you're traveling south yourself in the morning- - That I go along with him? Oh, no.
I'm sorry, gentlemen.
I'd be nothing but a nuisance.
Well, that's hardly the word, General.
Well, if you can tolerate a man who doesn't know a drag from a flank, done.
Good.
Wonderful.
I'll get in touch with McColl and have him set you up for tomorrow morning.
It's going to be lonely here the next few weeks- you and Nick on the drive and Jarrod back to San Francisco, Eugene off to college and Audra- well, who ever knows where Audra is.
- Yes, ma'am.
- Oh, now we're going to have to do something about that.
I've been many things to many people, but never "ma'am.
" What's wrong, Heath? - Nothing.
- Oh, no.
Not that.
Not to me.
- Trouble with the men? - I can handle the men.
Heath, you don't have to prove anything to anybody.
You proved who and what you are two weeks ago in that fight against Coastal and Western.
Now how many men did they have? Sixty, 80 hired gunmen against a handful of farmers and my sons.
You fought with them, and we won.
- That horse.
- What are you talking about? That horse was there.
- Wallant's horse? - At Sample's place with those hired guns.
Are you sure? - You don't forget a horse like that.
- Have you told Nick? No.
Nick wouldn't believe it.
He thinks Wallant's a saint.
And you can't prove otherwise.
No.
Nor can I.
Oh, take care, Heath.
Take care.
Hyah! Hyah! Hyah! Hyah! Hyah! Hyah! Hyah! Barrett, keep that beef movin'! You're late, friend.
"General.
" In my country, when a man is no longer in the army, he is no longer a general General.
- You have them? - Of course.
- How many? - Thirty.
- Henrys.
- That's what I could get.
- I want Winchesters.
- And so I would like to be president.
It's impossible.
So it's impossible.
General, I'll talk to my people.
- Tell them I want 40, not 30.
- Forty? You have so many men as 40? I'll have them.
Against the Arikaras you had 200- all dead.
When are the 40? When you have the Winchesters.
They'll be there for you at the Kern.
- With all the rest of it? - Of course.
Something more? I want you to kill a man.
The Kern! - Nine days.
That's good.
- Feels good, Nick.
Hey, Heath! Heath, don't unsaddle yet.
I want you to- My leg.
My leg.
My back.
My back.
- Don't shoot.
- Lillard.
Schad.
Up here.
- He was helpless.
- Helpless? Except for what he could tell.
Every snake has two fangs.
Remember that.
All right.
Here we go.
- Oh, no.
I'm not gonna lay down.
You can put me up front.
- I figured that.
Easy.
One lousy bullet from a drunken Yaqui.
Not a lousy bullet, Nick.
It's in the bone.
Well, there's doctors in Bakersfield.
You'll be there by mornin'.
- Well, it's- it's all yours, Heath.
- I won't forget that, Nick.
- General.
- Nick, we'll see each other again.
- Jeb.
- Let's get outta here, huh? - Take a circle, will you, Mac? Close 'em in? - Yeah.
I'll lay out a route.
You'll want to leave early in the morning.
- We're not leavin' in the morning.
- Beg your pardon? - I figure we'll stay over another day.
- What for? Scout that lake- up that grade, on top of those mountains.
- I believe I told you, that lake is- - I know what you said: There's no water.
Kinda believe there is.
Why would I lie? Well, maybe to make yourself necessary.
- To whom? - To the men, in case anything happened to Nick.
They're your men.
That's a fact.
You see that, huh? Look at that.
You saw when he drunk it- coal oil! You rotten, flea-bit Georgia skunk! Yeah, well- Hey, now wha-what do you think you're gonna do here? - I'm gonna roast ya, boy! - Hey, now- - You're the fella that likes fire, as I recall.
- I was only funnin'.
Now look, Schad- - Schad! - I'm a-have to give it to you, boy- - a hundred yards to make the river! - Ah! Sch- Drop it, Schad.
Put it down.
Put it down.
Well, you two fellas got all that energy.
Let's just ride guard tonight.
- We rode guard.
- Last night- four hours.
I'm not talkin' about four hours, Barrett.
- I'm talkin' about eight.
- All night? Now you got one hour to get your dinners and get back to that herd.
Anybody else feel like extra detail? Let me know.
Well, that rips it! I have had it up to here! You understand that? Who goes with me? Lillard? Spock.
Schad? What are you- a pack of stock for him to beller and prod at? Him? - You ain't had enough, Brown, huh? You want more? - Where do you want them to go? Well, I ain't stayin' with this.
There are other spreads.
Eight or $10 a month.
How much do you make? - Twelve.
- Top pay, unless- Unless what? - Unless you're a man who can take out a train.
- What are you talkin' about? - More money in a month than you make in a year.
- For what? Man who knows how to run a mortar, telegraph key and gut a town, blow a bridge.
Dinner? Suddenly I've found that I have developed an appetite.
All right, it's a day.
Lillard, Schad, there's a pack of strays downstream.
Pick 'em up.
Spock, saddle up.
We're gonna scout this ridge for water.
Okay, let's move it.
- Now! - You heard him.
Move out! Move out? Oh, we're gonna move out, all right.
We'll move.
Well, what do we got here? What did he offer you, Schad? - What they fought through four years of war to find.
- That's right.
No ordinary men satisfied to return to their farms and their ranches, their jobs and live a small, insignificant life.
- You hear that? - Dissatisfied men, Barkley- yearning and searching for a place- a place of their own, and rightfully so, because they had the courage to seek it.
- And you're gonna give it to them? - Yes, he is! - Where? - Diaz in Mexico.
- Right.
Mexico.
- Diaz.
So that's what it's all about- hired assassins! - Volunteers.
- Off to fight for a Mexican terrorist.
Patriots.
- And for what? - Half we get, that's what.
Oh, no.
No.
More than land, boys.
A province.
My province- yours and mine.
All that you've ever dreamed of owning for yourselves- not working for somebody else- and what's more 100 square miles of water and green- - That'd spoil me.
- The run of the land.
And how much of that do you think you're gonna see? - Listen.
We've had all we want to hear from you.
All of it.
A six-by-three-foot grave! You follow him and you go to your death.
That's all the value you are to him! No? Ask him why he was at Sample's place with the Coastal and Western Railroad.
Fought against us.
He fought against us! Oh, no.
He never fought against us.
Ask him why Nick was shot! - Because he ordered it- - Ordered it? knowing you'd never break away from Nick as long as he was here.
Ya hear that, boys? - I save men from the swamps and the fires to have 'em shot.
I offer you freedom.
I offer you manhood.
I offer you everything that a courageous man can achieve.
Are you with me? Barrett, I need 10 men to come with me.
You others pick up the rest of the men at the herd.
We'll meet you at the Camino Real crossing at noon.
Oh, and, um, nothing stolen- - Not even a calf.
- Right.
I'll need a wagon.
I think a 20 should cover it Barkley.
Wait here.
Hold your fire.
Don't shoot.
This place is a powder keg.
I'll kill you, Wallant, if I have to.
- Unless? - I want those men back.
- Men are not given, Barkley.
They're earned.
- Or stolen.
Oh, Barkley, what a lot you've got to learn.
Some people want to be stolen.
Don't you know that? Relieves them of all responsibility for their impotence and weakness.
Men are sheep, Barkley.
These men are all sheep- going willingly to the slaughter preferring it rather than facing their own inadequacy and failure.
Wallant, what are you? Take you, for example.
What a curious place to make one's stand- in a coffin.
Think about it.
- Is that Barkley? - Yeah.
Barrett, Spock, you draw his fire.
Schad, you come in from the east, the sun to your back.
They'll keep him occupied.
- Take him through the door- - Sir? and keep your fire high.
- Where the devil do you think you're going? - To get him back.
- Brown, Lillard, you two men, fan out.
- Sir.
- On my shot, take him.
- Take him? Head on.
- Brown, how is it? - Yeah.
"Take him," he says.
- You okay? - No! You can do better than that, boys.
This is no good.
There's only rebs out there on that line so it's yells and musket fire and up! 'Cause never- not once, not now, not this one Pioneer Ridge- are they ever gonna say that Wallant was stopped.
So we take 'em- and then it's letters to your sweethearts and your wives and medals, boy! And whiskey from the officers' table.
I always did that for you.
You know that I did.
So we take 'em now, boys- and then it's cheers.
Charge! Ten more yards, boys.
That's all it is- just 10 more- Wallant.
Give me the gun.
Please.
After we do what we gotta do here, I figure we can still make the cattle up that grade Mr.
Barkley.
Not only water in that dry lake, but you oughta see the trout- the size of yer feet.
- Uh, is that with or without his boots on? - You were saying about the steer.
- Yeah.
Listen.
We got this lophorn- - Oh, that crazy red.
Well, anyway, all the way down somebody always had to be hazing him back to the herd.
When we get to San Diego- wouldn't you know it- we couldn't get him on- - That's a mighty big cloud he's on in there.
- He did a mighty big job.
- And burst a big bubble.
- Yep.
Nick, there's always something tragic about a fallen idol because the tragedy, you see, is that it makes us wonder how we could have been so wrong.
Worship idols, Nick- all do and must- but never, never believe their light is brighter than your own.
This ranch is yours, Nick- yours to rule so are the men, by your choice and your decisions.
Well, now you're quite a doctor, aren't you? Oh, I've cured an ego or two in my day.
- Fish as long as my foot.
- What? Heath? How long did you say that fish was? Boy, howdy, Nick, I tell you, as long as your arm.
Cure that, Doctor.
! Hyah.
! Hyah! Hyah! Hyah! Hyah! Hyah! Hyah.
! Hyah.
! Hyah.
! Hyah.
! Hyah.
! Lillard, Brown, let's go.
Flank those cattle.
Barrett, take up the drag.
Let's go! - Today, Barrett.
- You got a horse.
Get back to that herd.
I gave you an order.
I take my orders from Barkleys, not from a b- Not from what? Not from what, Barrett? You hop on that herd, or you're tramping the flats.
You wear that brand- his rump and your'n.
That "B" don't stand for "Barkley"- not on your hide.
You're through.
Pick up your pay and get out.
Anybody else feel like lookin' for work? Hyah! Get over here.
Ah! Nick, I swear, you're the only man I know who can step out of a bath and look like he was dragged by a horse.
- It might do you good to eat a little dust once in a while.
- I'm a lawyer, remember? - I only eat crow.
- Yeah.
Uh-huh.
- Is the herd all in? - What? Don't tell me I'm here too late to help.
Help? Great.
The stack yard-we need a man.
- I thought you had a full crew? - I got it.
- Down one.
I fired a man.
- And I hired him back.
Hey, Berber go and tell 'em to take it easy with those fires.
I don't cotton to havin' any stack piles goin'up, huh? What happened, Heath? I gave an order.
He didn't obey it fast enough to suit me.
- Well, handle him.
- I handled him.
- Give him the sack.
- Seemed to be the way.
You got a job for a man to do, he doesn't do it, you get him to do it.
That's handling him.
Now you go out and tell Mac to put a double guard on that hold tonight.
That herd's restless.
- Nick- - Yeah? - Wrong, Nick.
- I've got 3,000 head of cattle, 550 miles to drive in 24 days with 40 hands that know which end of the cow to prod.
And not just our cows, Jarrod, but Carr, De Koven, Royce and Fries- still biting their nails because they had to throw their cattle in with us.
- Nobody gets fired.
- Nick, you chopped his legs off right at the knees.
- I'd have done it to you, and you'd have done it to me.
- It's not the same.
- We're all Barkleys, aren't we? - We were born to the name, Nick.
That gives us immunity.
I've got 24 days, Pappy, so know this: That herd comes first.
So I told Nick- I said, "I can't hardly work flank when I've been told to pick up my pay!" So old Nick, he bursts, see? He says, "Pick up your pay?"he says.
- McColl- - Yo? Nick wants two more men to ride guard on that herd tonight.
Rodale, Schad- I'll be takin' it with Barrett.
Whose thought is that? Mine.
Well, I've had me a day.
I 'spect I'll pass.
- McColl- - Yeah? Get the men outside.
All right, everybody.
Move it.
Barrett, sit down.
- Son, don't do- - The cook too.
Come on, Sal Li.
Close the door on your way out.
Barrett you're gonna ride guard on that herd tonight, if I have to carry you out.
I have had it with you, boy.
Now you can diddle 'em all you want up there in that high house but to me you're trash- up outta the dirtjust like Lillard and Brown or Schad or me.
You're no better and you're a sight less to be givin' orders.
I ain't takin' no bossin' from a dead man's dirt! Hold it, Browney! All right.
Get him outta there.
Go on.
There's a fire in here! Fire! Wait a minute.
Barrett's in there.
Come on.
Get outta there.
Go up to the house.
Get help! Hurry up and get some buckets.
Come on! Come on.
Get it in there.
! Get away from there.
Get that help fast! Get the water in there.
Hurry up with that water! Did anybody see him? Who is he? What happened? - McColl, what's goin' on here? - Barrett's in there.
Somebody- Will somebody get this man a blanket? - I don't believe it.
- Who is he? Do you know him? You people-you three- get this man outta the dirt.
Audra, your room is a disgrace.
Oh, he's the most fabulous thing I've ever seen.
A general! - Nick says he practically won the war by himself.
- Change clothes before dinner.
So you were with 104th at Benton's Crossing.
Six days.
Pinned down for six days in that lousy swamp with nothin' to eat but bark and moss.
- But you held that swamp.
- Until you broke through.
You held it so that I could break through.
An act of supreme heroism.
Oh, Mother.
Mother, this is General Wallant.
- Mrs.
Barkley.
- My son has admired you for years.
You've justified your reputation.
Oh, hardly, madam.
I was just passing south and, um trespassed quite uninvited to gain my bearings.
The rest, coincidence- the mark, I suspect, of most heroics.
I suspect otherwise.
You're staying the night, of course.
- Well, I-I hardly- - My room.
Silas! - I'll tell him! - I'll bunk in the guest room.
Excuse me.
I must see to dinner.
I, uh- I assume you'll be dining with us.
Well, the last I heard of you, General - you were on the frontier.
- Six years.
- What brings you west? - To California? - Still with the army? - Forever the army.
Well, you have me more than intrigued, sir.
Well, then I apologize, because there is nothing as rude as to intrigue and then be forced to remain silent.
My horse- never quartered so well, I'm sure- has an injury to his shin.
- Do you mind if I have a look at him before dinner? - Yes, of course.
- I'll, uh, see to the wine- Haut-Brion, '55.
- Fifty-five, really? That's not hospitality.
That's homage.
Quite a guy.
Oh, he could sure raise Ned with the brass- but he could win battles- and men- better than any man I ever met.
Um, what happened out there today, well- Well, it's you and me on this drive.
I got nobody else.
The men don't know the country.
I've only walked it once.
Uh I'm gonna need your head.
We'll bury the thing, all right? All right, Nick.
That horse- I've seen it before.
- Wallant's horse? - The last two weeks- since I've been here.
Well, now how could you? I- You heard him say he was just passin' through.
From where? None of your business or mine.
General.
Barrett.
Let's have a look at that arm.
- Well, that's not so bad.
- No, sir.
- Reb? - Four years with Johnston.
- Pioneer Ridge? - You bet.
You boys were really something.
It's the only time I ever took a ball in the back of my chest running away from musket fire.
How'd you get that? Private? - It ain't private.
- Oh? This mongrel, Heath, rides in here about two weeks ago.
- Heath? Heath Barkley? - Barkley? He's no Barkley- any more than I am.
Old man whelped him in a minin' town.
Yeah.
He started in givin' orders like he owned the mint.
I thought, um, Nick ran things.
- Nick, yeah.
- He's fine.
Squashed him like a boot heel on a tater bug.
Ol' Nick, he knows.
First time there's a duster, I'll make a bet: Heath makes tracks.
Heh-heh, he gave you what for.
- Oh, yeah? - Wait, wait, wait.
Wait a minute.
This man was at Pioneer Ridge.
He gave what he got.
What about the rest of you? - Sir? - The war, I mean.
Any of you in it? - Bull Run.
- Vicksburg.
Well, I make that most.
'Cept ol' Spock, here.
Still tryin' to hoke us that Mexican coyote shoot back in the '40s was a fight.
Well, it was a fight.
It was, and I ain't forgot what I know.
- What do you know, Spock? - How to take a Yaqui with my bare hand or blow a bridge or gut a town.
You sound like you miss it.
Man'd miss anything he does well.
I know what you did- peppered tails.
- What about you? - Ordnance.
- Telegraphing.
- Artillery.
- Cohorn mortars? - Cohorns, Dahlgren.
- Anybody here know how to take out a train? What do you use? - Yeah.
- Blasting powder and coffee gun.
- What if you got no powder? Log jam her on a turn.
- Put some ice on that.
It'll cut the pain.
- Good night, General.
- Good night, sir.
- Thank you, sir.
We'll bed down here at the Kern River for a day and then up over these mountains, and it's home free to San Diego.
Those mountains are quite a climb.
There's a slight grade for about 10 miles or so, but nothing cattle can't take.
- Water? - Prettiest lake you ever saw right up here on top.
I like it.
It's good.
I- I like it a lot.
In other words, you want out.
Right, Sam? - Jarrod, I didn't say that.
- Now we went all through this two months ago.
We told you then the army had offered $15 a head more than the Kansas City price for all the steer we could deliver to San Diego.
We talked to you, Sam.
You and all the others said you wanted in.
- Royce and Carr? - And Fries- in this morning, penned and tallied.
- If I lost that herd, Jarrod- - It'd be over my dead body.
- Run 'em in.
- McColl, you ride gate horse and, Heath, run Sam's herd in.
Well, it's aces over.
Let's howl at the wind.
Nick, that, um- that lake there at the top? - Greatest coffee water you ever drank.
- It's not a lake.
- What? - What do you mean, it's not a lake? - It's a runoff.
- Why, I was there.
That was spring, Nick.
This is August.
That's high desert country.
Well, there's not a particle of water in those hills- not for a hundred miles.
Your lake, Nick, is nothing but barrel cactus and sage.
- Travel along here till we get to the Kern River, and, uh- then we, uh, go due east.
Would you excuse us, gentlemen? I sense the conversation's about to become masculine.
- I don't mind.
- Audra, will you get my sewing basket? There seems to be a button missing at the top of your dress.
- Yes, and east along the base of these hills.
- Sir, that's all desert.
You can't go over the mountains.
You gotta go around them through Mint Canyon.
There's water there.
It's longer, but you can make up the time.
- Boy.
- I thought you knew this territory, Nick.
- Well, not this territory.
- Surely some of your men- - None of my men been south of Fresno.
- I think what my brother is subtly trying to suggest is that since - you're traveling south yourself in the morning- - That I go along with him? Oh, no.
I'm sorry, gentlemen.
I'd be nothing but a nuisance.
Well, that's hardly the word, General.
Well, if you can tolerate a man who doesn't know a drag from a flank, done.
Good.
Wonderful.
I'll get in touch with McColl and have him set you up for tomorrow morning.
It's going to be lonely here the next few weeks- you and Nick on the drive and Jarrod back to San Francisco, Eugene off to college and Audra- well, who ever knows where Audra is.
- Yes, ma'am.
- Oh, now we're going to have to do something about that.
I've been many things to many people, but never "ma'am.
" What's wrong, Heath? - Nothing.
- Oh, no.
Not that.
Not to me.
- Trouble with the men? - I can handle the men.
Heath, you don't have to prove anything to anybody.
You proved who and what you are two weeks ago in that fight against Coastal and Western.
Now how many men did they have? Sixty, 80 hired gunmen against a handful of farmers and my sons.
You fought with them, and we won.
- That horse.
- What are you talking about? That horse was there.
- Wallant's horse? - At Sample's place with those hired guns.
Are you sure? - You don't forget a horse like that.
- Have you told Nick? No.
Nick wouldn't believe it.
He thinks Wallant's a saint.
And you can't prove otherwise.
No.
Nor can I.
Oh, take care, Heath.
Take care.
Hyah! Hyah! Hyah! Hyah! Hyah! Hyah! Hyah! Barrett, keep that beef movin'! You're late, friend.
"General.
" In my country, when a man is no longer in the army, he is no longer a general General.
- You have them? - Of course.
- How many? - Thirty.
- Henrys.
- That's what I could get.
- I want Winchesters.
- And so I would like to be president.
It's impossible.
So it's impossible.
General, I'll talk to my people.
- Tell them I want 40, not 30.
- Forty? You have so many men as 40? I'll have them.
Against the Arikaras you had 200- all dead.
When are the 40? When you have the Winchesters.
They'll be there for you at the Kern.
- With all the rest of it? - Of course.
Something more? I want you to kill a man.
The Kern! - Nine days.
That's good.
- Feels good, Nick.
Hey, Heath! Heath, don't unsaddle yet.
I want you to- My leg.
My leg.
My back.
My back.
- Don't shoot.
- Lillard.
Schad.
Up here.
- He was helpless.
- Helpless? Except for what he could tell.
Every snake has two fangs.
Remember that.
All right.
Here we go.
- Oh, no.
I'm not gonna lay down.
You can put me up front.
- I figured that.
Easy.
One lousy bullet from a drunken Yaqui.
Not a lousy bullet, Nick.
It's in the bone.
Well, there's doctors in Bakersfield.
You'll be there by mornin'.
- Well, it's- it's all yours, Heath.
- I won't forget that, Nick.
- General.
- Nick, we'll see each other again.
- Jeb.
- Let's get outta here, huh? - Take a circle, will you, Mac? Close 'em in? - Yeah.
I'll lay out a route.
You'll want to leave early in the morning.
- We're not leavin' in the morning.
- Beg your pardon? - I figure we'll stay over another day.
- What for? Scout that lake- up that grade, on top of those mountains.
- I believe I told you, that lake is- - I know what you said: There's no water.
Kinda believe there is.
Why would I lie? Well, maybe to make yourself necessary.
- To whom? - To the men, in case anything happened to Nick.
They're your men.
That's a fact.
You see that, huh? Look at that.
You saw when he drunk it- coal oil! You rotten, flea-bit Georgia skunk! Yeah, well- Hey, now wha-what do you think you're gonna do here? - I'm gonna roast ya, boy! - Hey, now- - You're the fella that likes fire, as I recall.
- I was only funnin'.
Now look, Schad- - Schad! - I'm a-have to give it to you, boy- - a hundred yards to make the river! - Ah! Sch- Drop it, Schad.
Put it down.
Put it down.
Well, you two fellas got all that energy.
Let's just ride guard tonight.
- We rode guard.
- Last night- four hours.
I'm not talkin' about four hours, Barrett.
- I'm talkin' about eight.
- All night? Now you got one hour to get your dinners and get back to that herd.
Anybody else feel like extra detail? Let me know.
Well, that rips it! I have had it up to here! You understand that? Who goes with me? Lillard? Spock.
Schad? What are you- a pack of stock for him to beller and prod at? Him? - You ain't had enough, Brown, huh? You want more? - Where do you want them to go? Well, I ain't stayin' with this.
There are other spreads.
Eight or $10 a month.
How much do you make? - Twelve.
- Top pay, unless- Unless what? - Unless you're a man who can take out a train.
- What are you talkin' about? - More money in a month than you make in a year.
- For what? Man who knows how to run a mortar, telegraph key and gut a town, blow a bridge.
Dinner? Suddenly I've found that I have developed an appetite.
All right, it's a day.
Lillard, Schad, there's a pack of strays downstream.
Pick 'em up.
Spock, saddle up.
We're gonna scout this ridge for water.
Okay, let's move it.
- Now! - You heard him.
Move out! Move out? Oh, we're gonna move out, all right.
We'll move.
Well, what do we got here? What did he offer you, Schad? - What they fought through four years of war to find.
- That's right.
No ordinary men satisfied to return to their farms and their ranches, their jobs and live a small, insignificant life.
- You hear that? - Dissatisfied men, Barkley- yearning and searching for a place- a place of their own, and rightfully so, because they had the courage to seek it.
- And you're gonna give it to them? - Yes, he is! - Where? - Diaz in Mexico.
- Right.
Mexico.
- Diaz.
So that's what it's all about- hired assassins! - Volunteers.
- Off to fight for a Mexican terrorist.
Patriots.
- And for what? - Half we get, that's what.
Oh, no.
No.
More than land, boys.
A province.
My province- yours and mine.
All that you've ever dreamed of owning for yourselves- not working for somebody else- and what's more 100 square miles of water and green- - That'd spoil me.
- The run of the land.
And how much of that do you think you're gonna see? - Listen.
We've had all we want to hear from you.
All of it.
A six-by-three-foot grave! You follow him and you go to your death.
That's all the value you are to him! No? Ask him why he was at Sample's place with the Coastal and Western Railroad.
Fought against us.
He fought against us! Oh, no.
He never fought against us.
Ask him why Nick was shot! - Because he ordered it- - Ordered it? knowing you'd never break away from Nick as long as he was here.
Ya hear that, boys? - I save men from the swamps and the fires to have 'em shot.
I offer you freedom.
I offer you manhood.
I offer you everything that a courageous man can achieve.
Are you with me? Barrett, I need 10 men to come with me.
You others pick up the rest of the men at the herd.
We'll meet you at the Camino Real crossing at noon.
Oh, and, um, nothing stolen- - Not even a calf.
- Right.
I'll need a wagon.
I think a 20 should cover it Barkley.
Wait here.
Hold your fire.
Don't shoot.
This place is a powder keg.
I'll kill you, Wallant, if I have to.
- Unless? - I want those men back.
- Men are not given, Barkley.
They're earned.
- Or stolen.
Oh, Barkley, what a lot you've got to learn.
Some people want to be stolen.
Don't you know that? Relieves them of all responsibility for their impotence and weakness.
Men are sheep, Barkley.
These men are all sheep- going willingly to the slaughter preferring it rather than facing their own inadequacy and failure.
Wallant, what are you? Take you, for example.
What a curious place to make one's stand- in a coffin.
Think about it.
- Is that Barkley? - Yeah.
Barrett, Spock, you draw his fire.
Schad, you come in from the east, the sun to your back.
They'll keep him occupied.
- Take him through the door- - Sir? and keep your fire high.
- Where the devil do you think you're going? - To get him back.
- Brown, Lillard, you two men, fan out.
- Sir.
- On my shot, take him.
- Take him? Head on.
- Brown, how is it? - Yeah.
"Take him," he says.
- You okay? - No! You can do better than that, boys.
This is no good.
There's only rebs out there on that line so it's yells and musket fire and up! 'Cause never- not once, not now, not this one Pioneer Ridge- are they ever gonna say that Wallant was stopped.
So we take 'em- and then it's letters to your sweethearts and your wives and medals, boy! And whiskey from the officers' table.
I always did that for you.
You know that I did.
So we take 'em now, boys- and then it's cheers.
Charge! Ten more yards, boys.
That's all it is- just 10 more- Wallant.
Give me the gun.
Please.
After we do what we gotta do here, I figure we can still make the cattle up that grade Mr.
Barkley.
Not only water in that dry lake, but you oughta see the trout- the size of yer feet.
- Uh, is that with or without his boots on? - You were saying about the steer.
- Yeah.
Listen.
We got this lophorn- - Oh, that crazy red.
Well, anyway, all the way down somebody always had to be hazing him back to the herd.
When we get to San Diego- wouldn't you know it- we couldn't get him on- - That's a mighty big cloud he's on in there.
- He did a mighty big job.
- And burst a big bubble.
- Yep.
Nick, there's always something tragic about a fallen idol because the tragedy, you see, is that it makes us wonder how we could have been so wrong.
Worship idols, Nick- all do and must- but never, never believe their light is brighter than your own.
This ranch is yours, Nick- yours to rule so are the men, by your choice and your decisions.
Well, now you're quite a doctor, aren't you? Oh, I've cured an ego or two in my day.
- Fish as long as my foot.
- What? Heath? How long did you say that fish was? Boy, howdy, Nick, I tell you, as long as your arm.
Cure that, Doctor.