Well, there she is. Tucson.
Tucson ahead!
- Where? - There.
It ain't exactly pretty, is it?
- Protection from Indians. - Yep.
Sure feel good to stretch out in a hotel bed.
- Come on. - What?
Sure is nice to see some peaceful Indians.
Them is Papago.
Hate Apaches worse than I do.
Lookee yonder. The town's growing all the time.
Back home they'd have called that making a house out of mud pies.
What do they do with the hole when they're done?
Well, they...
Well, just leave it, I reckon.
Lookee yonder.
Too lazy to make their own bricks.
Fellas like them are destroying evidence...
of the only walled city in United States territory.
Old-timers used the wall for fighting off Indians?
Yep. Built when all this belonged to Mexico.
Whole town inside the walls, soldiers guarding it day and night.
Well, the way that wall looks now, I'd say Tucson's bust its britches.
Seems like that water would make you dirtier.
Stay around here long enough, you'll wind up drinking it.
I'll take a look at California first.
Haircut and shave. Shave and a haircut. Haircut and shave.
Well, here you are...
the sweetest little city this side of a rat hole.
Camp in the Plaza!
Sure is a tired-looking outfit, Grant.
More restless people.
Where do you say they're from, Pete?
Judging by their rigs, I'd say no further east than Missouri.
What's he saying?
He wants to water your horse in the Plaza for 15 cents.
Why, sure.
He says you are a great man.
My name's Grant Oury. Where you from?
Missouri. Name's Peter Muncie.
You guessed right, Pete.
This is Estevan Ochoa, Pete Kitchen, and Bart Massey.
- Pleased to know you. - Howdy.
Looks like your outfit got whittled down some on the trail.
Yep, we started out from Missouri with 45 people and 15 wagons...
but the Indians took to pot-shooting. Couple of brand new orphans in the outfit.
Yeah, that's why there's always legroom in the West.
Say, what's a good hotel here?
Sir, the hotels to be found in Tucson are neither good nor bad.
They are non-existent.
- You mean there ain't one? - That's right.
What's the trouble, Phoebe?
Who's she?
Phoebe Titus, the only American woman in Tucson.
Think she's going to need help?
Offhand, knowing Phoebe, I'd say no, but we'd better be sort of handy.
Stop that music.
Timmins, Longstreet, stand up and reach.
Now, listen.
I've got no quarrel with anybody but these two here...
so the rest of you better clear out.
These might be in the way.
Much obliged.
Some day this town will get tired of being kicked around by Ward's men.
It'll run the whole gang of you out of town.
Till that happens, though...
and as long as Ward keeps bragging there's no law around here...
I'll settle things my own way.
What's ailing you now, Phoebe?
These two playmates of yours stole $1,100 out of my house.
I'm not saying you put them up to it, Ward...
but I'm here to get my money back. Right now.
What do you say to that?
- Us? We did not. - We never saw no $1,100 in our whole life.
Then you'll wish you had.
'Cause there is going to be two holes dug in the new cemetery that you'll just fit.
You heard them, Phoebe. Have you got proof?
Yeah, I heard them.
Now if I don't start seeing my money I'm going to shoot.
- There'll be no killing in my place. - Since when? Since this morning?
All right, put that money on the table or get ready to feel lead.
You better do what the lady says.
Count it, somebody.
I'd like to oblige.
Keep digging, boys.
I'll get this off my chest.
Before I came to Tucson...
I never dreamed a place could stomach such off-scourings and scum...
as you and your crowd.
You wouldn't say that without these others backing you up.
I'm talking for myself.
It's not enough that you charge twice what it's worth to haul freight into here...
but you've collected the doggonedest bunch of lawbreakers...
in the whole territory of Arizona.
Pardon the interrupting, but you're $225 short.
Tell your banker to pay back what they lost.
Everybody knows it's stolen money.
All right, Joe.
Timmins, take that whip...
and give Longstreet five of the best lashes you got in you.
Longstreet...
you do the same to him.
And if either of you eases up, I'll make it 20.
But you got your money back.
Why don't you let us be, Miss Phoebe? We didn't mean no harm.
- Get started. - Maybe I got something to say...
about what can be done in my own place.
You better do what the lady says.
Get going.
Ward, you've got an idea you run this town...
so I'll set you right about one thing.
I've got my livestock and a pie business to take care of.
That don't leave me much time for chasing thieves.
Keep your men away from my place...
or I'll double-load this gun...
and blow a hole in you they could drive a team of mules through.
- Yeah? Now, listen here... - Longstreet!
Give him as good as you got.
- Here's your money, miss. - Thanks.
- My name is... - Harder!
Just got in to town a few minutes ago. My name's...
That's more like it.
And remember...
I'm still keeping my money in my house.
Thanks, fellas.
Well, do you still wonder whether she can take care of herself?
Brother, there goes a female army.
And after all that fine talk, she went and took my hat.
Be with you in a minute.
- Trouble, Miss Phoebe? - No trouble.
We've been waiting. I've got to go to work.
Any man that don't think the pies are worth waiting for is free to leave.
Everything is fine. I watch pies all the time you're gone.
Thanks, Hilario.
There will be a special pie for you in the next batch.
Sorry to keep you waiting, but I had a little business to take care of.
Got a peach today?
Yep, I got a peach right here.
Mind the heat.
Can I get one of them?
You sure can.
Take your pick, as soon as I see your dollar.
It's the last one, quince.
Much obliged, but I come to get my hat.
Oh, it was you.
Doggoned if I didn't walk right off with it. Be right back.
Say, I never seed a woman pay less attention to me than you did in that saloon.
Well, I had plenty on my mind.
You're new here.
Got in a little while ago.
Help yourself to some pie. Come on in.
How come you got yourself into my argument over at the saloon?
Well, where I'm from, women is supposed to need protection.
I'm obliged for the use of your hat, stranger...
but I don't ask nor get favors for being what I was born.
Yep, that's what I found out.
Where you from?
Freeport, Illinois.
I'm from Saint Louis.
What brought you here?
My father and I were going to California.
We got this far and he died.
I see how it is.
Living alone in a place like this, you couldn't afford to be a woman...
unless you met the right man.
Eat your pie.
Anything left out of that last batch, Miss Phoebe?
They are all sold, Judge.
- How long before the next batch? - Maybe an hour.
Seems as though a newly elected justice of the peace...
ought to have some special rights.
Who elected you?
Oh, some of the boys.
Hey, Joe Briggs.
I got some time on my hands, Joe, and there's a charge against you.
Might as well hold court out here where it don't smell so bad.
Are you ready to stand trial?
I ain't got much time. Can you hurry it up?
Sure enough.
Just step in a little more where it's shady.
Now, prisoner at the bar, the charge against you is...
that you up and blowed the head plumb off of Gus Modesto...
in consequence of which said shooting, said Gus is deader than blazes.
Are you guilty or not guilty?
No, Judge, I don't reckon I can say not guilty...
when everybody seed me do it.
Now, what in tunket made you act like that, Joe?
Drinking. Just drinking.
Well, the verdict of this here tribunal is...
that Joe Briggs is fined $5...
for disturbing the peace.
Court is hereby adjourned...
to Lazarus Ward's bar, where said fine will be duly disposed of.
Some day, Judge Bogardus, the law will come to Arizona...
and half of you will be hung.
Miss Phoebe, you belittle us. Not half, 90%.
Maybe the government forgot us now...
arguing about what should be free and what slave...
but the time will come...
and when it does, this will be a territory to be proud of.
Quite right. Quite right. A territory to be proud of.
Meanwhile, Mr. Briggs, there is a fine to be paid.
Any of you gentlemen that feel up to it may participate in the first round.
I mean any one of you gentlemen.
You got the $5, ain't you, Joe?
Mighty nice talk you give.
Probably won't do much good, though.
Somebody has to tell them off, whether it helps or not.
You're sure doing a man's work around this town, ain't you?
I keep busy.
Do you wear them jeans all the time?
Why?
Well, I packed a banjo all the way from Saint Louis.
Thought I might serenade you tonight, if you'd put on a dress.
You'll serenade me the way I am.
I mean...
I'll be busy tonight.
Music's for idlers anyway.
Thanks for the pie.
Keep the oven hot.
I don't want any serenading, now.
No serenading.
Haircut? Shave?
I could use a shave.
Fix you up in a jiffy.
You play a nice fiddle. I got a banjo.
Finest fiddle in the West.
I packed her 1,500 miles. She never done bust a string.
Say, does Miss Phoebe Titus live at her pie stand?
Yes, sir. Fine girl, Miss Phoebe.
Figuring on doing a little courting?
Maybe.
Let's fix you up sweet then.
Good close shave.
Some vanilla extract on your hair.
Yes, sir! Plenty of vanilla.
Don't shave me too short.
Who is that? Do you want I should send him away?
Go on back to bed.
Can't you hear? I'm being serenaded.
- Was it good? - I don't know.
I guess so, I've never been sung to before.
You look kind of pretty standing there.
Lots different than you did in that saloon.
I suppose it would please you more...
if I'd walk around town all day in my nightshirt.
I think I could get used to them britches if I stayed around long enough.
You figuring on leaving?
Sometime.
This Arizona Territory is worth looking into for a man with ideas.
Maybe if you studied it some you'd decide to stay.
Might be I'd settle down, if I could get a job to suit me.
You mean one with something doing all the time, to keep you on the move?
Yeah.
Say, how did you know that about me?
The way you go poking into other people's troubles.
The way you talk. The way you wear your hat.
Well, you sort of took an interest in me.
Yeah.
Arizona could use fellas like you right now.
Maybe something will turn up.
You sure are a calculating woman.
I wouldn't say what I said...
if I didn't like you some.
Much obliged.
Same to you.
Play some more music.
- Fancy or courting? - Just music.
Howdy, Johnny.
Howdy, Miss Phoebe.
- Morning, Solomon. - Sorry I missed the commotion yesterday.
It wasn't much.
Need some needles and another sack of flour for those gol-darned pies.
Those gol-darned pies are making you a good living.
Better ways than that to get ahead.
How much are your needles?
Quarter apiece.
25 cents?
Why, you old Scotchman.
What do you have to do, find them in a haystack?
Well, you know the cost of hauling over land.
Especially when freighting men like Ward charge us twice what it's worth.
What about Ochoa? He's bringing in goods at fair prices.
Well, he can't supply everybody.
There's a business for you. Freighting.
Plenty of room for another honest outfit.
Yeah, I reckon so. Well, how many needles you want?
Two's plenty.
Johnny, take a sack of flour over to Miss Phoebe's right away.
Wagons, oxen, mules...
and plenty of good strong men that aren't afraid of hard work.
Also Indians.
That's part of living here.
I own a wagon that's fit to haul anything anywhere...
four horses...
and I got enough money to buy oxen and another wagon.
Solomon, I wouldn't be surprised to see myself in the freighting business.
Why, I thought you was aiming to own the biggest cattle ranch in Arizona.
That's right, and here's a better way of getting it than selling pies.
You're forgetting you'd be bucking up against Lazarus Ward.
- He don't like to play. - Ochoa's doing all right against him.
Two wagons.
You'd always have to be waiting for somebody else's train to set out...
so as you could join for protection.
Four wagons would do the trick.
Four wagons could travel alone.
I'll get along with two.
Phoebe...
you and me think lots alike.
We both got confidence this country's going to grow.
Now, I didn't drive no mule teams across here...
with every cent I had...
without figuring that more people are going to be coming here all the time.
Being the man who opened the first store in Tucson...
you ought to know which way the wind's blowing.
Phoebe, it looks like you got yourself a partner.
Shake.
Now, I'll put up money enough for two more wagons and some oxen. Then...
Say, where are we going to find a good man...
to head the outfit on the trail?
- They're darn scarce. - Yeah.
Leave it to me. I'll get him.
See you later, partner.
Got all day.
Good morning, Mr. Muncie.
Good morning.
I was hoping to buy a pie for breakfast, but you was out.
- Hello, Phoebe. - Howdy.
There's something that might be worth talking about, Mr. Muncie.
Yes, ma'am.
Do you mind going someplace where it's not quite so noisy?
Wherever you say.
Somebody rob you again?
No.
I've been thinking about something for quite a spell.
I just settled it.
You seem mighty pleased.
Remember that job you were talking about last night...
the one with something doing all the time?
Well, it's waiting for you, right now.
What's that?
Heading a freighting outfit on the trail for me.
For you?
Solomon Warner is my partner. He runs the big store here.
Maybe I'm taking a long chance deciding you're the man for the job.
But I'm a pretty good judge of people.
Well, what do you say?
Miss Phoebe...
I'm going to tell you something I'm afraid you won't understand.
What's that?
There's a wagon train come in headed for California and I'm joining up with it.
When?
Sundown.
Well, sundown's a good time to leave.
Indians don't hanker much for night fighting.
But why in tarnation do you want to go to California?
I better not tell you.
I'm asking you, why?
All right...
I'm going to California because I want to see it.
Well, I'll be doggoned!
I figure it sounds kind of crazy...
to most people...
going to California just to see it.
But there's a gallivanting bug in my blood...
and that's the way I am.
Here I am offering you just the kind of job you said you wanted...
and you talk about traveling 700 miles to go sightseeing.
Well, it ain't that I don't want to work.
There's something I got to do first.
What can you do in California you can't do here?
Lie down under a shade tree.
Well, run me ragged.
I'll be heading back this way, though, when that gallivanting fever goes out of me.
Because I'm sort of fond of you.
It doesn't matter to me whether you come back or not.
Now, listen, don't act like that.
We both know we're partial to each other.
And the best thing I can do is...
get the wandering done while it won't do no harm.
Will you be watching when we leave tonight?
I don't know. Maybe, maybe not.
There's only one more thing to be said.
When I come back this way, it will probably be to settle down for good...
and I'll be looking for you.
We're leaving from the Plaza.
Well, I'll be dogged.
Remember the name, Peter Muncie.
Come back, Peter Muncie.
Phoebe...
there's crazy talk around town you're going into the freighting business.
There is nothing crazy about it.
Ward...
some day Warner and I'll have a train that'll make yours look like a lop-wheeled shay.
And people will be getting their goods at fair prices.
Maybe.
And maybe some day when you're running the freighting business...
I'll be baking pretty pies.
You got a lot to learn, Phoebe.
Turn off to the feed store and start unloading.
- Terry! - Yes, ma'am.
The next two go to Warner's.
You two go to Warner's.
I got four barrels of salt fish for you, Sam, the best you can get.
- Fine. You're back early. - Yeah.
- Terry. - Yes, ma'am.
Take care of Meyer's and the restaurant.
Have Steve unload at Hughes and send the last wagon over to my place.
Yes, Miss Phoebe.
You see that, Ward?
Eight wagons top-heavy with freight. You'd better start baking those pies.
Phoebe freighting and telling you to bake pies.
That sure would be comical, you baking pies.
Yeah, wouldn't it?
Two days early. Phoebe, you're a wonder.
No Indian trouble?
We had a little brush with 10 Apaches...
but they hightailed it before we could fire our second shots.
Sol...
I got a real buy in Yuma.
Eight of the fanciest cast-iron stoves you ever saw.
- Cast-iron stoves! - Yeah.
Phoebe, where in tarnation can we sell eight stoves?
There'll be women coming in here...
and women from the East want to do their cooking in the house.
In the next five years, I'll bet you sell 100 stoves.
I'll live to be 90 and won't even sell two stoves.
Well, what else did you get I didn't order?
Oh, fancy bolt cloth, needles...
Needles you can sell for five cents apiece.
Phoebe, you're a caution.
Sol, we're going to make more money than we ever dreamed of, and honest.
And remember this.
Soon as I get enough for my ranch...
I'm going to turn this whole business over to you...
and I'm going to settle down to raise cattle and a family.
You need a husband for that.
I know where I can get one.
Things are coming our way fast, aren't they? Faster than we ever hoped.
Well, that's usually the time to start pulling in your belt.
You talk like an old squaw.
Yes, sir, things are breaking just the way I want them.
Say, what day of the month is this?
12th. April 12th.
Message from Maj. Gen. Lynde, sir.
At ease.
Go to the mess hall.
Tell them my orders are that you are to have anything you want to eat and drink.
Thank you, sir.
- Lt. Chapin. - Yes, sir.
Well, here it is. War.
Our orders are to abandon and destroy our post...
to burn everything between the Colorado and the Rio Grande...
that might be food for the rebels.
"March out with your guns loaded...
"and do not permit any citizen within three miles of your lines."
There they go...
the only law and order and protection we have known in the Arizona Territory.
Who could believe that we would be cast aside by our own government?
That wanton acts of destruction are being committed by soldiers...
to whom we look for security.
At this very moment, gentlemen...
we are being officially abandoned by the Army of the United States of America.
What grand reward for those of us who raised that flag in childish loyalty.
Grain fields are being destroyed...
livestock butchered...
and by these traitorous acts...
the government has demonstrated that it considers us...
its own citizens, enemies, unworthy to live.
- You're right. - Yes.
Well, what are we going to do about it?
Stay here and be massacred by the Apaches...
in a hopeless struggle to save what we have built?
No!
Mr. Oury...
am I hearing right?
Are you talking about giving Arizona back to the Indians?
That's one way of saying it, Phoebe.
Like Oury says...
it's better to leave what we built here than get our bones picked clean by buzzards.
What did you ever build?
Help me up there, Grant.
Men...
I know this hits all of us pretty hard.
We all sort of figured the Union troops might have to leave us...
to fight in the war back east.
But we didn't want to think about it.
So now it's happened.
And the first thing you do is start hollering uncle.
Why do you want to quit now?
Miss Phoebe, I'd follow you head-on into a barreled cactus...
but there's some shenanigans that oughtn't to be did...
like staying on here for one thing.
Terry's right. We'd be fools to stay around here with the Army gone.
I'm leaving tonight!
Gentlemen, may I have your attention.
Gentlemen, a little courtesy, please.
If you please, gentlemen, if you please.
Thank you very much.
I'd say, gentlemen...
that this lady has made you look...
like a bunch of mice.
Who are you to have an opinion?
Jefferson Carteret.
You're quite fortunate that I just arrived by stage...
because it's obvious that this town could use a little backbone right now.
Much obliged, Mr. Carteret.
Men...
we didn't come to Arizona for peace and quiet.
We came here because it's in our blood to be where there's a hard life to be lived.
We've always been that way.
Why do you want to run out because the government has quit?
- I'm staying, Phoebe. - Here, here.
I was never leaving.
I wasn't worried about you men...
but what about all the rest of you out there?
Who's staying?
All right, Miss Phoebe, consider me swayed by the will of the people.
Next election we have, you'll be swayed plenty.
We'll stay, won't we?
Sure, we'll all stay, and we'll get soldiers here to protect us.
The Union don't want us, but there's somebody does.
Jeff Davis and the Confederate States of America.
How about it? How about right here and now...
Arizona declaring its allegiance to the flag of the South?
I'm for it.
At least we'll be treated like human beings.
I don't care who we declare for so long as there's an Arizona Territory.
Are we staying?
Yeah!
That's what I wanted to hear. Come on, Sol.
Let's have a cheer for Jeff Davis.
For the Confederates.
For the flag of the South.
Well, I guess they have a right to do that...
when the North's run off with the only flag we know.
The Union can't be blamed, Phoebe.
Using soldiers to hold the country together is more important...
than just watching over a few venturesome souls in Arizona.
I'm not blaming anybody but it gets my dander up...
to see how a doggoned war can mess up the plans of people...
who want to mind their own business.
- Well, there's troubled times ahead. - Yeah.
Wars don't last forever.
We'll have to work twice as hard and think twice as fast.
Lots of us are staying here...
but later on, there's going to be plenty that's decided to pull out for safer country.
Let them.
And I'll buy their land with every dollar I've got.
When good times come back...
I'll have a ranch you can't ride across in two days.
Sol, this is a territory to invest in for the future.
I never said it ain't.
We're going to have our hands full getting freight through.
Freighting?
Phoebe, do you know that even stagecoaches won't run after today?
People got to have food just the same...
and things to wear, and we're going to bring them in.
We ain't hauling a pound of freight till I decide there's a chance to get through...
or till there's soldiers again in this territory.
- I say we are! - I say we ain't!
Phoebe, don't you understand? It's not that I'm afraid.
I never ran away from a fight yet.
But now is the time to sit tight...
until we see what's going to happen.
I know how you feel, Sol, but I don't think that way.
I'm starting tomorrow night for Fort Yuma with all our wagons...
and I'm bringing them back loaded.
Are we still partners?
No, Phoebe...
I'll have nothing to do with sending drivers to be murdered.
Suit yourself, Sol. Can I use your share of the outfit?
Thanks.
No hard feelings?
Of course not.
It'll be what I haul that'll keep your store open.
Who asked you in my office?
- Office? - No man comes in here unless I want him to.
And no man stays in Tucson if I don't like him.
I'm here and I'm staying in Tucson.
Sit down.
I know all about you, Ward.
Yeah?
- Where are you from? - Poor but honest parents.
- Is that a joke? - You're the joke.
- Listen here! - You listen.
My name's Jefferson Carteret.
I heard you in the Plaza. You and your smart talk...
Anybody with sense would know...
the Confederates can't spare enough soldiers to handle this territory.
Why, in two months the Indians'll have us barricaded in and starving to death.
You have a freighting business.
Right now there's a fortune to be made and you're stealing pennies.
- I was doing all right. - All right.
But now with nobody to keep the Indians in line...
Get them on your side.
How many guns can you lay your hands on?
- Why? - I said how many guns?
There's eight cases of Sharps rifles I'm supposed to haul to Tubac.
- Ammunition? - Yeah.
Who's the head Indian around here?
- Mano. - How can we talk to him?
You're crazy.
You mean make a deal with Mano?
- The soldiers are gone, aren't they? - Yeah, but you...
This country is wide open for the Indians, isn't it?
Well, what do the Indians need most? Guns and ammunition.
To blow our heads off?
Not our heads.
We'll supply the guns and ammunition on condition...
that Mano doesn't bother our freighting wagons.
Our wagons?
From now on, I'm your silent partner.
And, Ward, you needed one badly...
- because you're just a downright idiot. - Nobody can say that about me.
I said it.
Why?
That woman who spoke in the Plaza, Phoebe Titus.
What were you doing while she built up that freighting outfit?
I done everything a man could.
It's all so simple.
Hire her good drivers away from her and from anyone else in the business.
Pay big wages that no one else can meet...
and add it on to the cost of hauling.
Yeah, I can do that. That's good, ain't it?
I'll show you how to run this town.
Get word to Mano that you want to make a treaty with him, and do it right away.
- Now look here, you... - I'm talking.
And get those guns and ammunition loaded onto a wagon.
And remember this...
As far as the people of Tucson are concerned...
I despise you just as much as does any other decent citizen.
Never speak to me in public.
- Never mention our partnership. - I don't care who you are.
You ain't going to come here and start ordering me around.
- My freighting business belongs to me. - I don't play, Ward.
Either you take me into partnership or I'll run everything alone.
And you won't be around.
80 guns...
and 16,000 rounds of linen cartridges...
down there in the wagon, and more later.
Here's the mark we'll use on our wagons, a black cross.
Those are the only wagons you let through.
What you do, not make treaty...
but take guns away, kill you?
I come to Mano knowing of his great name and honor.
Yeah, me, too.
Give me your guns, I let your wagons go through.
Well, good.
- Thank you, Chief. - Yeah, that's fine.
You're the only real teamster we've got, Terry.
- Keep those wagons in line ahead of you. - I'll do my best.
- Well, did you get to Mano? - Yep.
That wagon train will never get a mile out of town.
What did you tell him?
Like you said, that they wasn't only going for supplies...
but to get soldiers from Fort Yuma.
Ward, what happens tonight will throw the whole freighting business...
- right into our laps. - Yes, sir.
This territory is too important to be abandoned for long.
It's the link with the Far West.
Whoever controls it will have a big job on his hands, and a big reward.
- That's me, huh? - Yes, officially that's you.
Stupid.
- I heared you. - Oh, all right.
You "heared" me.
And don't follow me.
- Phoebe! - Yes, Sol?
I know what I said yesterday was right about this being crazy...
but I sure am sorry you wouldn't let me join up.
I know that, Sol, but you belong here to keep this town running till we get back.
Be praying for you.
- Good luck. - Thanks.
Don't let them leave while I'm gone.
Take care of yourself.
Indians! Indians! The Indians are coming! Indians!
Warner, Indians are attacking Phoebe's wagon train.
Hang on to them, Ed.
Have the Indians attacked so close to town before?
It's those troops leaving.
- You all right, Phoebe? - Yeah.
Well, I asked them to stay.
Now it looks like they'll never be able to leave, let alone get in supplies.
All I can say is I didn't know how bad things were going to be.
This would have happened to those who were going yesterday.
- You're not to blame. - Of course not.
And we'll get supplies somehow.
Sure we will, and I'm still glad I'm here.
Doggone it, I wish a certain fella would quit playing his banjo in California.
Union soldiers are coming. Hundreds of them! Much more on their way!
- Union soldiers? - Yep.
Union soldiers are coming.
- Are they going to stay here? - What do you think they'll do to us?
- This is Confederate territory. - It ain't no more.
- Not with the Union soldiers moving in. - You know what we'll be? Prisoners of war.
They'll take our property away from us and drive us out of Arizona.
No, they won't.
Can't blame us for being deserted by the government now.
I'm for being back in the Union no matter what happens.
We belong to the United States again and I'm telling the world I'm doggone glad.
Let the soldiers know how we feel. Give them a real greeting.
Hey, there's Sol. Hi, Sol!
Ain't this something to holler about?
Hiya, fellas.
Hi, Phoebe. Look what we met.
- Where are they from? - Advance guard, California Column.
California?
- Say, I wonder if... - Yeah, he's here.
Hey, Miss Phoebe.
Well, soldier, did you see California?
Yep, heard there was trouble out here. Glad to see us?
That flag sure seems homelike.
Still baking them pies?
Maybe, for a hungry man.
You better start making tracks for home...
'cause soon as I can figure to get leave from this Army...
- you're going to have a visitor. - There'll be a pie.
What do we do now?
Put it on the table over there.
Now you stay out of here unless I call you, see?
Well, I'll be dogged.
What's ailing you?
Phoebe, you know, this is the first time I ever seen you in a dress?
Any complaints?
Just like I always figured. You sure are pretty.
Nobody could look pretty feeling as silly as I do.
Well, there's a dinner on the table. You claim to be a man...
let's see what you can do to it.
Well, I'll be dogged.
Turkey?
Who shot it for you?
Who do you think? I tailed it for two hours.
Pie, turkey...
Phoebe, you sure are pretty.
There ain't been a dinner like that in or near me in a long spell.
Not even in California.
You aren't much of a hand to talk while you eat, are you?
Meals like that don't come often.
A lot happened to Arizona since you left.
Those soldiers sure are welcome.
I enlisted in California soon as I heard about it.
I'm ready to settle down now.
That gallivanting fever is gone for good.
Well, you're in the Army, Sergeant. You'll go where they tell you.
My enlistment is up soon. Maybe I can get free even before then.
Is that job still open?
The stock could use some water.
I asked you a question.
I know you did.
I'm thinking.
A man named Jefferson Carteret came here after you left.
He helped to hold this town together...
when it looked like there wasn't going to be any more town.
You mean you took a fancy to him?
I didn't say that.
I'm just sizing you up by comparing you.
Carteret wasn't jigging around California when I needed help.
Didn't go looking for a shade tree when the rumpus started.
I knew you'd never understand that.
I understood, all right.
But I'm different now.
Are you?
A year ago you went away, said, "See you soon."
Now you're back saying, "Grab me while I'm here."
What's different?
Maybe I don't stand up so good when you start comparing.
I wish there was some way to show you how I am now.
There is.
Tell me. All I want is a chance.
When will the Colonel be here with the main body of troops?
A couple of weeks. Why?
I'm going to have the best ranch in Arizona.
But it takes money to get started.
I want you to go to the Colonel and get me an Army freighting contract.
Is that all?
Just walk up to the Colonel and make him sign a contract.
It can be done, for instance, by a man who wants to prove how good he is.
Why don't you ask me something easy like walking on water with a horse on my back.
You asked for a chance, there it is.
Good evening, Miss Phoebe.
Oh, Mr. Carteret, good evening. How are you?
I'm well, thank you.
I was just passing by and stopped to pay my compliments.
But I didn't know you had company.
You know now.
Mr. Carteret, this is Sgt. Muncie.
Peter, that's no way to be.
I'm being the way I want.
And this what's-his-name don't fit into my idea of a pleasant evening.
Mr. Muncie!
I'll consider the source, Miss Phoebe.
Meanwhile, I hope to see you soon, without the gentleman in the Union suit.
- Good evening. - Good evening.
So that's what you've been comparing me with.
Insulting respectable people in Arizona isn't good for your health.
I don't like him.
How do you know? You never met him before.
I got a good nose.
He happens to be something you'll never be, a gentleman.
He happens to be a sweet-looking dude...
and a woman that'd pay any heed to him ought to have her head looked into.
Oh, I see.
In other words, you mean I'm just plumb crazy.
- Phoebe, I was only trying to tell you that... - Good night, Sgt. Muncie.
Good night. The dinner was good.
I'll see what I can do about that Army freighting contract.
Teresa, I think I picked myself a man.