There's only two of you.
Go ahead and bet your life on it.
How many of you is in there?
Just the two of us.
But my partner's hit.
And he can't walk.
Is that Emmet Quincy?
You said it was a man on the roof.
I thought it was Potter.
It has always been Quincy that I might be true to form.
Seems an awful lot of salt beef.
You boys looking for company?
No, that was supper and breakfast both.
I like a big breakfast.
South bounds always cooks up bigger than they think.
Hmm, you keep store whiskey here as well.
What are you boys up to outside of cooking for banquets?
We're just having our supper.
Not even a hooter's outside in weather like this.
Might have been some crazy man.
Anyone can say that he is a Marshall.
My leg hurts.
I bet it does.
When was the last time you see your ol' pard, Ned Pepper?
I do not know that. Who is he?
I'm surprised you don't remember him.
Skinny fellow, wears a recent quid, face all messed up.
That don't bring anybody to mind.
There's a new boy.
Might be running with Ned.
He'll have a palming mark on his face, black polish.
Call's himself Chaney.
He's Chelmsford sometimes.
Carries a Henry rifle.
That don't bring anybody to mind.
Black mark, I would remember that.
You don't remember nothing right now, do you Quincy?
What do you know, Moon?
He don't know those boys you're looking for.
I don't know those boys.
I always try to help out the law.
Know by the time I get to Fort Smith,
that leg will be swelled up as tight as this hat band.
It'll be mortified.
Then they'll have to cut it off.
Then if you live, I'll make it two or three years in the federal house.
-Up in Detroit, there. -I'm trying give up.
They'll teach you how to read an write up there.
The rest won't be so good.
Them boys, they can be hard on a gimp.
Trying to get at me.
Now.
You give me some good information on Ned.
I'll take you down to the back of the store tomorrow, I'll get that ball taken out of your leg.
Then I'll give you three days to clear the territory.
We don't know those boys you're looking for.
-It ain't even his leg. -I was...
Quiet now, it's best you let me do the talking.
-I'll say I... -We, weary trackers.
Who worked you over with the ugly stick?
The man Chaney with the marked face, killed my father.
It was a whiskey drinker like you and I rather kill him in the end.
If you answer the Marshall's questions, he will help you.
I have a good lawyer, and I know he will help you too.
I'm puzzled by this.
Why is she here?
Joe, these people. Don't you be jawing with that girl.
I don't like you. I hope you go to jail my lawyer will not help you.
My leg is giving me fits.
A young fellow like don't want to loose his leg.
-Moon, he's lying. -Is he now.
He's trying to get at you.
-With the truth. -We seen Ned and Hays two days ago.
Don't you act the fool, you go on I will kill you.
I'm played out, I need a doctor.
We met Nate Hayes two days ago.
God damn it.
Oh Lord.
I'm dying.
Do something.
Help me.
I can do nothing for you, son.
You partner's killed you, as I done for him.
Don't leave me lying here.
Don't let the wolves rip me up.
I'll see you're buried right.
You talking about Ned, where'd you see him?
Two days ago.
Babbett's store.
They were coming here tonight to get remounts.
They just wired, wagon wheelers switch.
I'm gone.
Send the news to my brother, George Garrett.
He is Methodist Circuit rider south Texas.
Shall I tell him you've outlawed up.
It don't matter.
He knows I'm under skilled.
I will meet him later, walking the streets of glory.
Well don't be looking for Quincy.
What will we do when they get here?
Well they will ride up.
Hope we get them all in the dugout.
I'll kill them the last one that goes in, that way we'll have them in the barrow.
You will shoot them in the back?
Mmm, will give them the know our intention is serious.
Then they'll fall down.
See if they'll be taken alive.
If they want.
I'll shoot them if they come out.
I'm hoping that three of the party dead will take the spark out of them.
You just play great place.
Aw, I just triple shooten.
One time, into Mexico,
we was being pursued by seven men.
I turned bolt around and taken them reins in my teeth,
rode right up them boys. Fired up them two eighty-sixes I carry in my saddle.
Well..
I guess there's old married men who loved their families as they scattered and run from them.
Well that is hard to believe.
-Was it? -A man riding at seven.
Well, it's true.
You go for a man hard enough and fast enough,
You're don't have time to think about how many women, he would think about himself.
I might get clear of that rat that's about to sit down on you.
Why were they pursuing you?
I robbed a high interest bank.
Can't rob a thief, can you.
Never robbed a citizen.
Never took a mans watch.
It is all stealing.
That's the position they took in New Mexico.
Wasn't them.
Do not fear them to send a scout.
Damn.
It is La Boeuf.
Oh, we have to warn him, Marshall.
Too late.
What will we do, Marshall?
We sit, what does he do.
Maybe they want to chat. That's Lucky's men.
Oh, that's that.
Well that didn't pan out.
You managed to put a kink in my rope, partner.
Ah, I'm severely injured.
Yes, you got rocks on.
I was also shot.
By a rifle.
Well thats because my scheme did not developed as well as I planned.
You've been shot in the shoulder, but the bullet passed through.
What happened to your mouth?
I believe I bit myself.
Couple of teeth loose, and ah yeah.
Tongue bit almost through.
I see it's a little nip so I'll just yank it free.
I know a teamster.
Bit his tongue off as he was thrown from a horse.
After a time he learned to make seven or less noises understood.
I'll just yank it free.
Look at that now.
What's that now?
Let it be a bit.
Ah, very well.
It's impossible to bind a tongue wound.
To bad, we just run across a Doctor.
-Marshall? -Forrester, but he did not know where he was headed.
I saw him too, that's how I intend to be here.
Neither of these men are Chaney.
I know it, I know them both.
That ugly one is Poke Hayes.
And the uglier stiff is Clement Permalee
Permalee and his brothers have a silver claim in winding stair mountains.
And I bet that's where Lucky Ned's gang is riding.
Well, we'll sleep here.
We'll follow in the morning.
But we promised to bury the poor soul inside.
Grounds to hard.
That man wanted a decent burial, he should have gotten himself killed in summer.
Sleep well, Little Blackie.
I have a notion that tomorrow we will reach our object.
We're hot on the trail.
Seems that we'll overtake Tom Chaney at winding stairs mountain.
I had not want to be in his shoes.
Chelmsford, as he called himself in Texas.
Shot the Senator's dog.
When the Senator remonstrated.
Chelmsford shot him as well.
Now you could argue that the shooting of the dog was clearly an instance of mali-prohibited.
But the shooting of the Senator is indubitably a instance of mailicide.
A double and mali-what?
Neither of them safe.
The distinction is between an act that is wrong within itself.
And an act that is wrong according to our laws and rights.
It is Latin.
I'm struck.
Hey, La Boeuf.
I've been shot, trampled. But he has severed his tongue.
Not only does he not cease to talk. But he spills the banks of English.
I was within three hundred yards of Tom Chaney.
The closest I have been.
With a sharps carbine that is within range.
But I was not, I had the choice of firing off hand.
Resist Theron and shoot the rest.
Just relax once I dogged him, the distance.
I fired at him.
He fired back.
You cannot hit a man three hundred yards if your gun was resting on your boulders.
A soft carbine is an instrument of uncanny balance and precision.
I've no doubt that the gun is sound.
(Sings "Greer County") *My clothes are all ragged and my language is rough.*
*My bread is corn dodgers, both solid and tough*
*And yet I'm happy, and live at my ease*
*On sorghum molasses, and bacon, and cheese*
Greer county bantler.
I do not believe he slept.
Your minced, and helping, Mister La Boeuf.
and I would have turned the preacher you had
to head southward. Out here a one-armed man look like an easy prey.
And a one eyed man who can't shoot.
Why don't you turn back, Cogburn?
I'll do fine.
I know what a parity claim is. I'm uninjured, well provisioned and we agree to separate.
In confidence you cannot shy our agreement. You're the one that shot me.
Mr. La Boeuf has a point, Marshall.
It is unfair leg up in any competition to shoot your opposite member.
God damn it. I do not accept as a given that I did shoot La Boeuf.
There were plenty of guns going off.
I heard the rifle, and I felt the ball.
You missed your shot, Cogburn.
Missed my shot!
You are handicapped without the eye, then I without the arm.
I can hit a gnat's eye at ninety yards.
That timing man has brung the cheap shells on me again.
I thought you were going to say, the sun was in your eyes.
That is to say, "your eye".
Two at one time.
I'm going to chuck one high.
Go far.
-There. -There?
-My bullet. -Your bullet?
If you hit what you aim at, explain my shoulder.
Gentlemen, shooting corn bread out on the prairie is getting us no closer to the Pepper gang.
One more. This will prove it.
Please hold fire.
Find our way back.
Lucky Ned?
LUCKY NED!
Very good, Cogburn.
Now what?
Oh, god damn it.
Cogburn you might want to be eating out of a store.
I'm assuming you might be hungry. And it was my store not...
Let him starve.
He did not track.
He did not shoot.
Accepting food stuffs.
What is your initiative?
You talking tribute.
A man, who walks in front of bullets.
Mr. La Boeuf drew single handed upon the Lucky Ned Pepper gang.
while we fired safely from cover.
-We? -It is unfair to indict a man,
when his jaw is swollen, and tongue mangled and is therefore unable to rise to his defense.
I can speak for myself.
I'm courtly obliged to answer the ravings of a drunkard who is beneath me.
I shall make my own camp.
Elsewhere.
It is you that has nothing to offer, Cogburn.
A sad picture indeed.
This is no longer a man hunt.
It is a debauch.
The Texas Ranger.
Presses on, alone.
Take the girl.
I bow out.
A fine thing to decide once you brought her in the middle of the Choctaw nation.
I bow out, I wash my hands.
Gentlemen we cannot fall out in this fashion.
Not so close to our goal, with Tom Chaney nearly in hand.
Damn!
I'm sure there's a silent grave somewhere between here and Fort Smith.
He is gone.
Long gone.
Thanks to Mr. La Boeuf, we missed our shot.
With Bob and the boys have flown.
Gone, gone, gone.
Lucky Ned's cohort gone.
Your fifty dollars, gone.
Gone with whiskey.
Seems to know that.
The trail is cold as is the weather.
I'm....I'm a foolish old man who'd been drawn into a wild goose chase.
by a harpy in trousers, and a nincompoop.
Ah, Mr. La Boeuf.
He can wander the Choctaw nation for as long as he likes.
Perhaps the local Indians will take him in.
Honor his .. by making him Chief.
You sift her, and go where you like.
Our engagement is terminated.
I bow out.
I'm going with you.
No, that is not possible.
Have I held you back?
I have a colt in my wardrobe, and I know how to use it.
And I will be no more a burden to you, as I was to the Marshall.
That's not my worry.
You've earned your spurs.
That is clear now.
You've been an regular old hand on the trail.
But Cogburn's right.
I will not give him the satisfaction of saying it.
The trail is cold.
And I am,
considerably diminished.
How can you give up now. After the many months you've dedicated to finding Chaney?
You have shown great determination.
I misjudged you.
I picked the wrong man.
I would go on with your company, if there were a clear way to go.
But we'd be striking out blindly.
Chelmsford's gone.
We chased him right up the mountain.
There's nothing for him.
I'm bound for Texas.
Time for you to go home, too.
The Marshall, when he's sobers.
Bring your way back.
I will not go back. Not without Chaney, dead or alive.
I misjudged you as well.
I extend my hand.
Mr. La Boeuf, please.
Adios.
I know you.
Your name is, Mattie.
You're little Mattie, the bookkeeper.
Isn't that something.
Yes, and I know you, Tom Chaney.
What you doing out here?
Come to fetch some water.
No, what are you doing in these mountains, here.
While I've not been formerly deputized,
but I'm acting as an agent for, Marshall Rooster Cogburn,
and Judge Fockers court.
I have come to take you back to Fort Smith.
Well I will not go.
How do you like that?
There's a posse of officers up there that will force you to go.
That is interesting news.
And how many is up there?
Right around fifty.
They're all well armed and they mean business.
What I want you to do now, is to come over across the creek and come up on that hill.
I think I'll oblige the officers who's come after me.
Well if you refuse to go, then I'll have to shoot you.
Oh.
Well you'd better cock your piece.
All the way back.
-Throw lock -I know how to do it.
You will not go with me?
Naw, it's just the other way around.
You're going with me.
I'm...AAAH!
Well I didn't think you'd do it.
-What do you think now? -One of my short ribs is broken.
You killed my father when he was trying to help you.
I have one of the gold pieces you stole from him. Now give me the other.
-Things aren't going right for me. -MATTIE!
I'm down here.
Now I'm shot by a child.
Chaney's taken into custody.
Help me.
MATTIE!
Marshall.
Look who's you got, fool.
Bob, you go on up that hill, don't you stop.
What's down there?
Marshall Cogburn and fifty more officers.
You tell me another lie and I'll stove your head in.
Just the Marshall.
Rooster.
Cogburn!
You hear me?
You answer me, Rooster.
I will kill this girl.
You know I will do it.
She means nothing to me, your the one I'm after for.
That is all very well.
Do you advise that I kill her?
Do what you think is best, Ned.
She's nothing to me but a lost child.
Think it over.
I have already thought it over.
You'll get buried double fast.
If I see you riding over that bald ridge to the northwest.
I will spare the girl.
You have five minutes.
They will be a party of Marshalls here soon, Ned.
Let me have the girl and Chaney and I will just leave you for two down.
To thin Rooster.
To thin.
Your five minutes is running.
No more talk.
Run up that hill.
Well, they taught moon.
Can I have some of that bacon?
You help yourself.
They'll soon be coffee.
I do not drink Coffee yet, I am fourteen.
Well we do not have buttermilk, and we do not have bread.
We are poorly supplied.
-Where she is. -What are you doing here?
I aught to ring your scrawny neck.
You let that go.
What happened, huh?
I will tell you, and you will see that I'm in the right.
Tom Chaney there shot my father to death..
at Fort Smith and robbed him of..
two gold pieces and stole his mare.
I was informed of Mr. Cogburn to wit. And hired him to find the murderer.
Moments ago I spotted Chaney watering the horses.
He had taken to charge and I shot him.
If I killed him I would not be now in this fix, but my gun misfired.
That will do it.
It will embarrass you every time.
Most girls like to play pretty, but you like guns, do ya?
I do not care a thing in the world about guns. If I did I would have one that worked.
I was shot in an ambush, Ned.
Horses were drawn making noise, it was that officer that got me.
How can you sit there and tell such a big story?
That pit is a hundred feet deep, and I will throw you in.
While I leave you screaming in rot.
-Now how do you like that? -I know why.
This man will not let you have your way. He's your boss and you have to do as he tells you.
Ain't nothing going my way.
Was that Rooster that waylaid them night before last?
It was Marshall Cogburn and myself.
You and, Cogburn.
Quite the posse.
Let us move, Ned.
In good time, Bob.
What happened to Quincy and the kid?
They're both dead.
It was very in the very middle of it, it was a terrible thing to see.
Please, let us move, Ned.
Marshall's gone.
Do you need a good lawyer?
I need a good judge.
What happened to Poke Hayes?
The fellow shot off his horse.
Dead as well.
These declarations have come to an end.
Your friend Rooster does not collect many prisoners.
He is not my friend.
Hes a bandy man in a carnage of mounts.
You do not varnish your opinion.
Are we off?
Let us cut up the winch from the cages line.
They'll be time for that at the old place.
How about the mare?
Well, those aren't the plans.
Unless I dug them out with a doctor.
-Move. -Nope.
We can't chance with two men up come from the brace.
Found your way here with the girl.
We reach Miles house I'll send Harold
back with some fresh mounts.
We'll be out by dark.
We'll meet you at the old place.
I do not like that.
Let me ride with you, Ned. Just out here anyway.
I was short a horse.
The Marshalls will come swarming.
Hours, if the come here at all.
They'll think that we've all gone.
I am not staying here by myself with, Tom Chaney.
That's the way I will have it.
He will kill me.
You heard him say it. He's killed my father, and now you will let him kill me.
He will do no such thing.
Tom. You know the cross in the cypress forest, to the log Wheaton house.
When you mount it, you take the girl and leave her there.
You understand, Tom?
Any harm comes to that child,
you'll not get paid.
Harold, let me ride up with you.
Harold, I will pay you fifty dollars out of my wage.
I am not happy.
Do the calf again, Harold.
Everything is against me.
You have no reason to whine.
You act as the bandit Chief instructed and no harm comes to me you'll get your wages.
Lucky Ned has left me alone. I am sure to be caught. I'll be on foot.
Must think over my position and how I may improve it.
Where's the second California gold piece?
What have you done with Papa's mare?
Keep still.
Are you thinking about the old place?
Look here, if you let me go.
I will swear to an affidavit..
and once you are brought to justice, it may go easier on you.
I tell you I can do better.
I don't need your affidavit.
All I need is your silence.
You followed a busybody like you.
To be honest, I do not regret shooting him.
He thought Tom Chaney was small.
Humor me.
You will give me an affidavit.
You're all against me, everybody....
That is, Chelmsford.
Strange to be so close to him at last.
Mr. La Boeuf, how is it that you are here?
I heard a shot.
Went down to the river.
Cogburn outlined a plan.
Mind your foot, there's a pit there.
His part,
I fear is rash.
He returns for Lucky Ned.
Yo, Rooster!
We will cross the road.
This ford is ill advised.
He could not be dissuaded.
Well Ned, how many men is with the girl?
Just Chaney.
My will is enforced.
She was in excellent health, when last I saw her.
Farrell, I want you and your brother to stay clear.
Do it well, Proctor.
Have no interest in you today.
What is your intention, Rooster?
You think one eye follows a downfall?
I mean to kill you in one minute, Ned.
Or see you hanged at Fort Smith at Judge Parker's convenience.
Which will you have?
I call that, bold talk.
From a one-eyed fat man.
Feel your hand, you son of a bitch.
Shoot them Mr. La Boeuf.
To far, moving to fast.
Well, Rooster?
I'm shot to pieces.
Seems neither of us,
gets to see Judge Parker.
Wahooo!
Some bully shot.
That was four hundred yards at least.
Well,
the sharps carbine, is a...
Stand up, Tom Chaney.
M...Mr. La Boeuf
Are you alive?
Mr. La Boeuf!
Mr. La Boeuf.
Are you there?
I'm here.
Can you clamber out?
I cannot.
There are snakes.
They awake?
Not yet.
I'm bit.
Does Mr. La Boeuf survive?
He did. Only a blow to the head could silence only for a few short minutes.
Where you bit?
Look away, Mattie.
A heft.
Up with us.
Work it, La Boeuf pack her.
She's snake bit.
We're off.
I'll send help for you as soon as I can.
Don't wander off.
We are not leaving him.
If we don't get to Doc's, I says you are not going to make it.
I'm your debt for that shot, pard.
Never doubt a Texas Ranger.
Come on.
Ever stalwart.
We must stop.
Little Blackie is played out.
We've miles yet.
Come on you.
NO!
No.
That's it, come on now.
No, stop.
He's getting away.
Who's getting, sis?
Chaney.
No.. NO!
NO, no, no.
Oh, no.
No, stop.
I've grown old.
(Grown up Mattie) A quarter century is a long time.
By the time we reached Baglee's store,
my hand had turned black.
I was not awake when I lost the arm.
The Marshall had stayed with me, I was told.
'til I was out of danger.
But he departed before I came around.
Once home. I wrote him with an invitation,
to come by, the next time he found himself near Yell county.
And collect the fifty dollars I still owed him.
I did not hear back from Marshall Cogburn.
And he did not appear.
Then one day I received a note from the Marshall, with a flyer enclosed.
He said he was traveling with the Wild West show.
Getting older and fatter.
But I like to come visit him when the show came to Memphis, and swap stories with an old trail mate.
He would understand if the journey was to long.
Brief tho his note was.
It was rife with misspellings.
Yesum?
I am, Cole Younger.
This is Mr. James.
It grieves me to tell you that you have missed, Rooster.
He passed away three days ago.
When the show was at Jonesboro Arkansas.
Buried him there at a Confederate cemetery.
Ruben had a complaint what he referred to as, Night hawks.
And I believe the warm weather was to much for him.
We had some lively times.
What was the nature of your acquaintance?
I knew the Marshall long ago.
We too had, lively times.
Thank you, Mr. Younger.
Keep your seat, trash.
I had the body removed to our plot and I had visited it over the years.
No doubt people talked about that.
They say, "Well, she hardly knew the man".
"Isn't she a cranky old maid".
It is true, I have not married.
I never had time to fool with it.
I heard nothing more of the Texas officer, La Boeuf.
If he is yet alive. I would be pleased to hear from him.
I judge he would be in his seventies now.
And near eighty in seventy.
I expect some of the starch has gone out of that cowlick.
Time just gets away from us.
*What a fellowship, what a joy divine,*
*Leaning on the everlasting arms.*
*What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,*
*Leaning on the everlasting arms.*
*Leaning, leaning,*
*safe and secure from all alarms.*
*Leaning, leaning,*
*leaning on the everlasting arms.*
*Oh, how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way,*
*Leaning on the everlasting arms*
*Oh, how bright the path grows from day to day,*
*Leaning on the everlasting arms.*
*Leaning, leaning,*
*safe and secure from all alarms.*
*Leaning, leaning,*
*I'm leaning on the everlasting arms.*