Captions created and synched by: Mark McAvinue
*"Leaning on the everlasting arms" playing softly*
People do not give it credence that a young girl could leave home
and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father’s blood,
but it did happen.
I was just fourteen years of age when a coward by the name of Tom Chaney shot my father down,
and robbed him of his life, and his horse,
and two California gold pieces that he carried in his trouser pant.
Chaney was a hired man.
And Papa had taken him up to fort Smith to help lead back a string of mustang ponies he'd brought.
In town, Chaney had followed to drink.
And cards, and lost all his money.
He got it into his head he was being cheated.
And went back to the boarding house for his Henry Rifle.
When Papa tried to intervene,
Chaney shot him.
Chaney fled.
He could have walked his horse.
For not a soul in that city could be bothered to give chase.
No doubt Chaney fancied himself, scott free.
But he was wrong.
You must pay for everything in this world, one way and another.
There is nothing free.
Except the grace of God.
Is that the man?
That is my father.
If you would like to kiss him,
It would be all right.
He's gone home.
Praise the Lord.
Why is it so much?
The quality of the casket
and of the embalming.
The life like appearance requires time and art.
And the chemicals come dear. The particulars are in your bill.
If you'd like to kiss him, it would be all right.
Thank you, the spirit has flown.
Your wire said fifty dollars.
You did not specify that he was to be shipped.
Well sixty dollars is every cent we have. That leaves nothing for our board.
Yarnell, you can see to the body’s transport to the train station and accompany it home.
I will have to sleep here tonight.
I still have to collect father’s things and see to some other business.
Your mama didn't say nothing about you settling no business here.
It is business Mama doesn’t know about. It’s all right, Yarnell, I dismiss you.
I am not sure.
Tell mama not to sign anything until I return home and see that Papa is buried in his Mason’s apron.
Your terms are agreeable, if I might pass the night here.
Here, among these people?
-These people? -I'm expecting three more souls.
Sullivan, Smith, and His-Tongue-In-The-Rain.
Ladies and gentlemen beware
and train up your children in the way that they should go!
You see what has become of me,
because of drink.
I killed a man.
In a triffiling quarrel over a pocketknife.
If I had received good instruction as a child-
Could you point out the sheriff? -out on the Cimarron River
Him with the moustaches.
I would be with my wife and children today. I do not know what is to become of them.
But I hope and pray that you will not slight them and compel them to go into low company.
(Man in crowd) Stop whimpering boy!
Well.
I killed the wrong man is the which-of-why I’m here.
Had I killed the man I meant to. I don't believed I'd a been convicted.
I see men out there in that crowd, that's worse than me.
Okay.
Before I am hanged, I would like to say.
Although-
(Chanting in Indian tongue)
Naw, we ain't arrested him.
Ain’t caught up to him, he lit out for the Territory.
I would think that he has throwed in with Lucky Ned Pepper, whose gang robbed a
mail hack yesterday on the Poteau River.
Well, why are you not looking for him?
I have no authority in the Indian Nation.
Tom Chaney is the business of the U.S Marshal’s now.
When will they arrest him?
Not soon, I'm afraid, the Marshal’s are not well staffed.
And I'll tell you, frankly, Chaney is at the end of a long list of fugitives and malefactors.
Could I hire a Marshal to pursue Tom Chaney?
You have a lot of experience with bounty hunters, do you?
That is a silly question. I am here to settle my father's affairs.
-All alone. -I am the person for it.
Mama was never any good at sums. And she could hardly spell 'cat'.
I intend to see Papa's killer hanged.
Well, nothing prevents you from offering a reward and so informing the Marshal’s.
It would have to be real money, though, to be persuasive.
Chaney is across the river in the Choctaw Nation
I will see to the money. Who's the best Marshal?
I have to weigh that.
William Waters, is the best tracker.
He is half Comanche, and it is something to see him cut the sun.
The meanest, is Rooster Cogburn.
He is a pitiless man, double tough and fear don’t enter into his thinking.
Hmm, He loves to pull a cork.
The best is probably, L.T. Quinn.
He brings his prisoners in alive.
Now he may let one slip by
now and again, but he believes that even the worst of men, is entitled to a fair shake.
Where can I find this, Rooster?
The jakes is occupied.
I know it is occupied Mr. Cogburn. As I said, I have business with you.
I have prior business.
You've been at it for quite some time, Mr. Cogburn.
There is no clock on my business!
To hell with you! How did you stalk me here?!
The sheriff told me to look in the saloon.
In the saloon they referred me here. We must talk.
Women ain’t allowed in the saloon!
I was not there as a customer. I am fourteen years old.
The jakes is occupied.
Will be for some time.
Good evening.
If you would like to sleep in a coffin, it would be alright.
How much are you paying for cotton?
Nine and a half for low middling and ten for ordinary.
We got most of ours out early.
Sold it to Woodson Brothers in Little Rock for eleven cents.
Then I suggest you take the balance of it to the Woodson Brothers.
We took the balance to Woodson.
We got ten and a half.
Why did you come here to tell me this?
Oh, I thought we might shop around up here next year but I guess we are doing all right in Little Rock.
I'm Mattie Ross.
Daughter of Frank Ross.
Aw, tragic thing.
May I say, your father impressed me.
With his manly qualities. He was a close trader but he acted the gentleman.
Well I propose to sell those ponies back to you that my father bought.
Well that I fear, is out of the question.
I will see that they are shipped to you at my earliest convenience.
We don't want the ponies now, we don't need them.
Well that hardly concerns me. Your father brought the ponies, and paid for them.
And there is an end of it. I have the bill of sale.
And I want three hundred dollars for Papa’s saddle horse that was stolen from your stable.
You'll have to take that up with the man who stole the horse.
Tom Chaney stole the horse while it was in your care.
You are responsible.
(Stonehill laughing)
Yeah, I admire your sand
but I believe you'll find I'm not liable for such claims.
You were the custodian.
If you were a bank and were robbed you could not simply tell the depositors to go hang.
I do not entertain hypotheticals. The world as it is vexing enough.
Secondly, your valuation of the horse is high
by about two hundred dollars. How old are you?
If anything, my price is low.
Why, Judy is a fine racing mare.
I've seen her jumpan eight-rail fence with a heavy rider. I am fourteen.
Oh, well it's all very interesting.
The ponies are yours, take them.
Your father horse was stolen by a murderous criminal.
I have provided reasonable protection for the creature as per our implicit agreement.
My watchmanhad his teeth knocked out and can take only soup.
Then I will take it to law.
You have no case!
Lawyer J. Noble Daggett of Dardanelle, Arkansas
may think otherwise—as might a jury,
petitioned by a widow and three small children.
I will pay two hundred dollars to your fathers estate
when I have in my hand a letter from your lawyer,
absolving me of all liability from the beginning of the world to date.
I will take two hundred dollars for Judy,
plus one hundred for the ponies.
And twenty five dollars for the grey horse that Tom Chaney left.
He was easily worth forty.
That is three hundred and twenty-five dollars total.
The ponies have no part in it. I will not buy them.
Then the price for Judy is three hundred and twenty-five dollars.
I would not pay three hundred and twenty-five dollars for winged Pegasus.
As for the grey horse, it does not belong to you.
The grey horse was lent to Tom Chaney by my father.
Chaney only had the use of him.
I will pay two hundred and twenty-five dollars.
And keep the grey horse.
And I want the ponies.
I cannot accept that.
There can be no settlement after I leave this office. It will go to law.
All right, this is my last offer.
Two hundred and fifty dollars.
For that I get the release, previously discussed.
And I keep your father's saddle.
The grey horse is not yours to sell.
The saddle is not for sale. I will keep it.
Lawyer Dagget will prove ownership of the gray horse. He will come after you with a writ of replevin.
-A what? -Writ of replev-
What? All right, now listen very carefully
as I will not bargain further.
I'll will take the ponies back, and the grey horse. Which is mine.
And settle...
For three hundred dollars. Now you must take that or leave it.
And I do not much care which it is.
Lawyer Daggett would not wish me to consider anything under three hundred twenty-five dollars.
But I will settle for three hundred and twenty.
If I am given the twenty in advance.
Now here's what I have to say about that saddle.
Frank Ross’s daughter.
Oh, my poor child.
My poor child.
Are you gawna be stayin with us or are you hurrying back home to your Mama?
I'll stay here, if you can have me.
I just spent last night at the undertakers.
In the company of three corpses.
I felt like Ezekiel.
In the valley of the dry bones.
Then, God bless you.
Now that you'll be rooming with, Grandma Turner.
We’ve had to double up, what with all the people in town come to see the hanging.
This was in your poor father's room.
Now that is everything.
There are no light fingers in this house.
If you need something for to tote the gun around?
I can give you an empty flour sack for a nickel.
(Rooster Cogburn giving testemony) Unintelligible
(Rooster) -about what he found up here, and we're close enough to deputy Marshal Potter
that we thought we'd better ride over ourselves and investigate.
And what did you see when you arrived?
A woman, was out in the yard.
Dead with blow flies on her face.
the old man was inside with his breast blowed open by a scatter-gun and his feet burned.
He was still alive but just was. Said it was them two Wharton boys had done it,
-Rode up, drunk. -Objection.
Hearsay.
Dying declaration, your Honor.
Objection's overruled. Proceed Mr. Cogburn.
Them two Wharton boys—that’d be Odus and C.C.— throwed down on him,
and asked him where his money was, but he wouldn't tell them,
they lit pine knots, held ’em to his feet.
He told them the money was in the fruit jar.
Under a grey rock at the corner of a smoke house.
And then?
Well he died on us. Passed away in considerable pain.
What'd you do then?
Well, Me and Marshal Potter went out to the smokehouse
and that rock had been moved and the jar with the money in it was gone.
-Objection, speculative. -Sustained.
You found a flat grey rock, in the corner of the smoke house.
With a hollowed out space beneth it.
If the prosecutor is going to give evidence, I suggest he be sworn.
Mr. Cogburn. What did you find, if anything, in the corner of that smokehouse?
We found a flat gray rock with a hollowed-out space under it. Nothin there.
-Well then what did you? -No jar or nothing.
Yeah, what did you do then?
Well, rode up to the Whartons’ there, near where the North Fork strikes the Canadian-
What did you find?
-branch of the Canadian.
I had my glass and we spotted the two boys and their old daddy, Aaron,
down on the creek bank with some hogs.
They'd killed a shoat.
And a fire built up under a wash pot for scalding water.
What'dja do?
Announced we was U.S. Marshal’s, I hollered out to Aaron.
I needed to talk to his two boys.
He raised an axe,
and commenced to cussing us and blackguarding this court.
What did he do then?
I backed away from the axe.
Tried to talked some sense into him.
While this was going on C.C. he edges over to the wash pot there, behind the steam.
And picks up a shot gun.
Potter seen him, but it was to late.
C.C. Wharton pulled out on Potter with one barrel.
Turned to do the same for me and I shot him.
And the old man raised the axe.
And I shot him.
Otis lit out, and I shot him.
C.C. Wharton and Aaron Wharton were dead when they hit the ground.
Odus was just winged.
Did you find the jar with a hundred and twenty dollars in it?
-Leading. -Sustained.
What happened then?
Found a jar with a hundred and twenty dollars in it.
What became of Otis Wharton?
There he sits.
You may ask, Mr. Goudy.
Thank you, Mr. Barlow.
Mr. Cogburn.
In your four years as a U.S. Marshal.
How many men have you shot?
I never shot nobody I didn’t have to.
Well that was not the question.
How many?
Shot or killed?
Let us restrict it to “killed” so that we may have a manageable figure.
About twelve.
Fifteen. Stopping men in flight, defending myself, et cetera.
Around twelve he says.
Or fifteen.
So many, you cannot keep a precise count.
I have examined the records, and can supply the accurate figure.
Uhh...
I believe them two Wharton boys makes it twenty three.
And how many members of this one family,
the Wharton family, have you killed?
-Immediate, or- -Did you also shoot Dub Wharton, brother,?
and Clete Wharton, half-brother?
Oh, Clete was selling ardent spirits to the Cherokee. He come at me with a king bolt.
A King bolt?
You are armed, and he advanced upon you.
With nothing more than a King bolt?
From a wagon tongue?
I’ve seen men badly tore up with nothing bigger than a king bolt. I defended myself.
Returning to the other encounter.
With Aaron Wharton, and his two remaining sons.
You sprang from cover.
With revolver in hand.
-That'd be it. -Loaded and cocked.
Well if it ain't loaded and cocked, it don't shoot.
And like his son, Aaron Wharton advanced against an armed man.
Well he was armed, he had an axed raised.
I believe you testified you backed away from Aaron Wharton.
-That's right. -Which direction were you going?
I always go backwards, when I'm backing up.
(Court Room laughing)
Very amusing.
Now, he advanced upon you much in the manner of Clete Wharton
menacing you with that little ol' King bolt or rolledup newspaper or whatever it was.
Yes sir. He commenced to cussing
-and laying about with threats. -And you were backing away.
How many steps before the shooting started?
Uh, seven, eight steps.
Good, and Wharton keeping pace.
Advancing away from his campfire.
Seven, eight, steps.
What would that be?
Fifteen, twenty feet?
I suppose.
Will you explain to this jury, Mr. Cogburn.
Why Mr. Wharton was found immediately by his wash pot, one arm in the fire.
-His sleeve and hand smoldering. -Well-
Did you move the body after you shot him?
Why would I do that?
You did not drag the body over to the fire? Fling his arm in?
-No, sir. -Two witnesses.
Who arrived on the scene will testify to the location of the body.
You do not remember moving the body.
So it was, a cold blooded bushwhack, while poor Mr. Wharton was tending his campfire.
Objection.
I, if that was where the body was I might have moved him.
I do not remember.
Why, would you move the body, Mr. Cogburn?
Them hogs rooting around they might have moved him.
I'd do not remember.
Pencil-neck son of a bitch.
-Mr. Cogburn. -What do you want?
I'd like to talk to you a minute.
What is it?
They tell me you're a man with, True Grit.
What do you want, girl?
Speak up, It is suppertime.
Let me do that.
Your makings are too dry.
I am looking for the man who shot and killed my father, Frank Ross, in front of the Monarch boarding house.
The man's name is Tom Chaney.
They say he's over in Indian Territory, and I need somebody to go after him.
What's your name, girl.
My name is Mattie Ross.
We're located in Yell County.
My mother is at home looking after my sister Victoria and my brother little Frank.
You best go home to them.
They'll need help with the charges.
There is a fugitive warrant out for Chaney.
The government will pay you two dollars for bringing him in plus ten cents a mile for each of you.
On top of that, I will pay you a fifty dollar reward.
What are you?
What you got there in your poke?
By God! A Colt’s dragoon!
You’re no bigger than a corn nubbin, what’re you doing with a pistol like that?
Well I intend to kill Tom Chaney with it.
-Kill Tom Chaney? -Well if the law fails to do so.
Well that piece will do the job for you.
If you can find a high stump to rest it on and a wall to put behind you.
Nobody here knew my father and I'm,
afraid nothing's is going to be done about Chaney except I do it.
My brother is a child, and my mother is indecisive and hobbled by grief.
I don't believe you fifty dollars.
I have a contract with Colonel Stonehill which he will make payment on tomorrow or the next day
once a lawyer countersigns.
I don’t believe in fairy tales or sermons or stories about money, baby sister. But thank you for the cigarette.
Isn't your Mama expecting you home, dear?
My business is not yet finished.
Mrs. Floyd, have any rooms opened up?
Grandma Turner... the bed is quite narrow.
The second-floor back did open up
But uh, that gentleman on the porch,
has just taken it.
Oh but don't worry yourself, dear.
You're not disturbing Grandma Turner.
My name is LeBoeuf.
I just come from Yell County.
We have no rodeo clowns in Yell County.
A saucy line will not get you far with me.
I saw your mother yesterday morning.
She said for you to come right on home.
What was your business there?
This is a man I think you know.
You called him Tom Chaney.
I believe. All the months I've been tracking him he has used the name, Theron Chelmsford.
John Todd Andersen,
and others.
He dallied in Monroe, Louisiana, and Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Before turning up at your fathers place.
Then why did you not catch him at, Pine Bluff, Arkansas or Monroe, Louisiana?
He is a crafty one.
I thought him slow-witted myself.
That was his act.
It was a good one.
Are you some kind of law?
That's right
I'm a Texas Ranger.
That may make you a big noise in that state
in Arkansas you should mind that your Texas trappings and title
do not make you an object of fun.
Why have you been ineffectually pursuing Chaney?
He shot and killed a state senator named Bibbs in Waco, Texas.
Bibbs family have put out a reward.
How came Chaney to shoot a state senator?
My understanding is there was an argument about a dog.
You know anything about the whereabouts of Chaney?
He is in the Territory, and I hold out little hope for you earning your bounty.
-Why is that? -My man will beat you to it.
I have hired a deputy marshal, the toughest one they have
and he is familiar with the Lucky Ned Pepper gang that they say Chaney has tied up with.
Well, I will throw in with you and your Marshal.
No, Marshal Cogburn and I are fine.
It'll be to our mutual advantage.
Your Marshal, I presume, knows the Territory.
I know Chaney. It is at least a two-man job taking him alive.
When Chaney is taken he is coming back to Fort Smith to hang.
I am not having him go to Texas to hang for shooting some senator.
It is not important where he hangs, it is?
It is to me.
Is it to you?
It means a great deal of money to me.
It’s been many months’ work.
I’m sorry that you are paid piecework not on wages
and that you have been eluded the winter long by a halfwit.
You give out very little sugar with your pronouncements.
While I sat there watching you I gave some thought to stealing a kiss
though you are very young and sick and
unattractive to boot, but
now I have a mind to give you five or six good licks with my belt.
One would be as unpleasant as the other.
If you wet your comb, it might tame that cowlick.
(Lawyers voice) Mattie, I wish you would leave these matters
entirely to me or at the very least
give me the courtesy of consulting me before entering such agreements.
I am not scolding you, but I am saying your head strong ways,
will lead you into a tight corner one day.
I trust the enclosed document
will let you conclude your business and return to Yell County.
Yours, J. Noble Dagget.
I was as bad yesterday as you look today.
I was forced to share a bed with Grandma Turner.
I'm not acquainted with Grandma Turner.
If she is a resident of this city it does not surprise me that she carries disease.
This malarial place has ruined my health.
As it has my finances.
I owe you money.
You have not traded poorly.
Oh, certainly not.
I'm paying you for a horse
I do not possess.
And have bought back a string of useless ponies
Which I cannot sell again.
You're forgetting the Grey horse.
-Crowbait. -You are looking at the thing in the wrong light.
I am looking at it in the light of God’s eternal truth.
Your illness is putting you “down in the dumps.”
You will soon find another buyer for the ponies.
Well I have a tentative offer of ten dollars per head.
From the Pfitzer Soap Works of Little Rock.
It would be a shame to destroy such spirited horseflesh.
So it would. I'm confident the deal will fall through.
Look here, I need a pony and I will pay ten dollars for one of them.
No. That was lot price. No no.
Wait a minute.
Are we trading again?
This one is beautiful.
He don't know he got a rider.
You're to light.
He think he got a horsefly on him.
He's very spirited.
I'll call him 'Little Blackie'.
Das a good name.
What does he like for a treat?
Well ma'am, he's a horse.
So he likes apples.
Thank Mr. Stonehill for me.
No ma’am. . . I ain’t s’posed to utter your name.
See. Sleep.
That is fine, I will wake him.
Marshal Cogburn.
It is I, Mattie Ross, your employer.
How long til you are ready to go?
-Go where? -Into the Indian Territory. In pursuit of Tom Chaney.
Oh, You're the bereaved girl with stories of El Dorado.
Huh, how much money you got there?
I said fifty dollars to retrieve Chaney. You did not believe me?
Well, I did not know.
You are a hard one to figure.
How long for you to make ready to depart?
Well uh, hold on sis.
I remember your offer but do not remember agreeing to it.
If I'm to go up against, Ned Pepper.
Then I'll need a hundred dollars. That much I can tell you. A hundred dollars.
To retrieve your man, a hundred dollars.
I will take that fifty dollars in advance. There will be expenses.
You are trying to take advantage of me.
I am giving you the children's rate.
I am not a sharper, I am an old man sleeping in a rope bed in a room behind a Chinese grocery.
-I have nothing -You want to be kept in whiskey.
I don’t have to buy that,
I confiscate it.
I am an officer of the court.
Ah, thank you.
Hundred dollars, that’s the rate.
I shall not niggle.
Can we depart this afternoon?
We?
You're not going, that is no part of it.
You have misjudge me if you think I am silly enough to give you fifty dollars and simply watch you ride off.
I am a bonded U.S. Marshal.
That weighs but little with me.
I will see the thing done.
Damn ducks. I can't go after Ned Pepper
and a band of hard men and look after a baby at the same time.
I am not a baby.
I will not be stopping at boarding houses where there is warm beds and hot grub on the table.
I'll be traveling fast and eating light.
What little sleeping is done will take place on the ground.
Well I have slept out a night before.
Papa took me and Little Frank coon hunting last summer on the Petit Jean.
We were in the woods all night.
We sat around a big fire and Yarnell told ghost stories.
We had a good time.
Coon hunting!?
This ain't no coon hunt!
It is the same idea as a coon hunt.
It don’t come within forty miles of being a coon hunt!
You are just trying to make your work sound harder than it is.
Here is the money.
Now I aim to get Tom Chaney,
and if you are not game, I will find somebody who is game.
All I have heard out of you so far is talk.
I know you can drink whiskey and snore and spit and wallow in filth and bemoan your station.
The rest has been braggadocio.
They told me you had grit and that is why I came to you.
I am not paying for talk. I can get all the talk I need and more at the Monarch Boarding House.
Leave your money.
Meet me here tomorrow morning at seven o’clock and we will begin our coon hunt.
(Mattie) Dearest mother,
I'm about to embark on a great adventure.
I have learned that Tom Chaney has fled into the wild.
And I shall assist the authorities in pursuit.
You know that Papa would want me to be firm in the right.
As he always was.
So do not fear on my account.
Tho I walk through the valley, of the shadow of death.
I shall fear no evil.
The author of all things watches over me, and
I have a fine horse.
Kiss Little Frankie for me and pinch Violet’s cheek.
My Papa's death will soon be avenged.
I am off for the Choctaw Nation.
Where is Marshal Cogburn?
Went away.
Left this.
(Rooster) Here inside is a train ticket for your return home.
Use it.
By the time you read this, I will be across the river in the Indian Nation.
Pursuit will be futile.
I will return with your man, Chaney.
Leave me to my work.
Rueben Cogburn.
Is that Marshal Cogburn?
That is the man.
Who's he with?
I do not know.
Well take me across.
So, you're the runaway.
Marshal told me you’d show up. I’m to present you to the sheriff.
That is a story, let go of my horse. I have business across the river.
If you don’t turn around and take me across you may find yourself in court where you don’t want to be.
I have a good lawyer.
HEY!
Go, Little Blackie.
Come on.
That is quite a horse.
I will give you ten dollars for him.
From the money you stole from me?
That was not stolen, I'm out for your man.
I was to accompany you.
If I do not, there is no agreement and my money was stolen.
Marshal, put this child back on the ferry.
It's a long road and time's a wasting.
If I go back, it is to the U.S. marshals office to report the theft of my money.
And futile, Marshal Cogburn— “Pursuit would be futile”?
is not spelt F-U-D-E-L.
It's time for your spanking.
Now you do as the grown-ups say!
Or I will get myself a birch switch and stripe your leg!
Are you going to let him do this, Marshal.
No, I don’t believe I will. Put your switch away, LeBoeuf.
I aim to finish what I started.
That will be the biggest mistake you ever made,
you Texas brush-popper.
Hoorawed by a little girl.
I am not accustomed to so large a fire.
In Texas, we'll make do with a fire of little more than twigs
or buffalo chips.
Heat the nights rations of beans.
And it is Ranger,
policy never to make your camp in the same place as your cook fire.
Very imprudent to make your presence known in unsettled country.
How do you know that Bagby will have intelligence?
He has a store.
That makes him an authority on movements in the Territory?
We have entered a wild place.
Anyone coming in
wanting any kind of supply,
cannot pick and choose his portal.
That is a piece of foolishness.
All the snakes are asleep this time of year.
They've been known to wake up.
Well let me have a rope, too.
A snake would not bother you.
You are too little and boney.
You should fetch water for the morning, put it by the fire.
-The creek’ll ice over tonight. -I'm not going down there again.
You want anymore water, you can go fetch it yourself.
You are lucky to be traveling in a place where a spring is so handy.
In my country you could ride for days and see no ground water.
I have lapped filthy water from a hoofprint
And was glad to have it.
If I ever meet one of you Texas waddies
who says he never drank water out of a horse track
I think I will shake his hand and give him a Daniel Webster cigar.
You do not believe it?
Oh, I believed it the first twenty-five times I heard it.
Maybe. Maybe it is true.
Maybe lapping water off the ground is Ranger policy.
You're getting ready to show your ignorance now, Cogburn.
I don't mind a little personal chaffing.
But I won't hear anything against the Ranger troop from a man like you.
How long you boys been mounted on sheep down there?
My white Appaloosa will still be galloping,
when that big American stud of yours is winded and collapsed.
Now make another joke about it.
You're only trying to put on a show for this girl, Mattie.
With what you must think is a keen tongue.
This is like women talking.
Yes, that is the way!
Make me out foolish in this girls eyes.
I think she has got you pretty well figured.
Would you two like to hear the story of “The Midnight Caller”?
One of you is gonna have to be "The Caller."
I will tell you what to say.
I will do all the other parts myself.
-Good morning, Marshal. -Good morning.
Where is Mr. LeBoeuf?
Down by the creek performing his necessaries.
Marshal Cogburn, I welcome the chance for a private parley.
I gather that you and Mr. LeBoeuf have come to some,
some sort of agreement.
And as your employer I believe I have the right to know the particulars.
The particulars,
is that we bring Chaney down to the magistrate
in San Saba Texas where they have a considerable reward on offer. Which we split.
I did not want him brought to Texas,
to have a Texas punishment administered for a Texas crime.
That was not our agreement.
What you want is to have him caught and punished.
I want him to know he's being punished for killing my father.
Well, you can let him know that. You can tell him to his face.
You can spit on him.
Make him eat sand out of the road. I will hold him down.
If you want,
I will flay the flesh off the soles of his feet.
Find you an Indian pepper to rub into the wound.
Isn't that a hundred dollar value?
No, it is not.
When I have brought and paid for something, I will have my way.
Why do you think I'm paying you, if not to have my way.
It is time for you to learn
You cannot have your way
in every little particular.
If you find I fail to satisfy your terms
I'll return your money at the end of this expedition.
Little Blackie and I are ridding back to the U.S. Marshal's office, this is fraud.
Oh, God damn it!
What's going on?
This is a business conversation.
Is that what you call it?
It sounds to me like you are still being hoorawed by a little girl.
-Did you say hoorawed? -That was the word.
There is no hoorawing in it. In my agreement with the Marshal,
antedates yours. It has the force of law.
The force of law?
This man is a notorious thumper.
He rode by the light of the moon with Quantrill
-and Bloody Bill Anderson! -Them men was patriots, Texas trash.
They murdered women and children in Lawrence, Kansas.
That's a God damn lie!
What army was you in, Mister?
I was at Shreveport
first with Kirby-Smith, then with...
Yeah? What side was you on?
I was in the army of Northern Virginia, Cogburn,
And I don't have to hang my head when I say it.
If you had served with Captain Quantrill-
Captain! Captain Quantrill.
That...indeed.
-Just let this go, LeBoeuf. -Captain of what?
Good then!
There are not sufficient dollars in the state of Texas
to make it worth my while to listen to your opinions.
Our agreement is nullified.
That suits me.
it’s each man for himself!
Congratulations, Cogburn.
You have graduated from marauder to wetnurse.
Adios.
We don't need him, do we Marshal?
We’ll miss his Sharp’s carbine.
It’s apt to get lively out here.
HEY!
Go on.
You stay here, sister.
I will see Bagby.
Has Chaney been here?
No.
Coke Hayes was, two days ago.
Coke runs with Lucky Ned.
He bought supplies, with this.
Well this is Papa's gold piece.
Tom Chaney here we come.
It is not the world’s only California gold piece.
They are rare here.
They are rare.
But if it is Chaney’s,
it could just as easily mean that Lucky Ned
and his gang fell upon him as that he fell in with them.
Chaney could be a corpse.
That would be a bitter disappointment Marshal, what would we do?
Um, pursue them.
Ned's unfinished business for the marshals anyhow, and when we have him we will also have Chaney
or we can learn the whereabouts of his body.
Bagby didn’t know which way they went,
but now we know they come through here,
hey couldn’t be going but one of two ways:
Heading north toward the Winding Stair Mountains,
or pushing on further west.
I suspect north. More to rob.
I bought an eating place
called "The Green Frog."
Started calling myself Burroughs.
But my drinking picked up
and my wife did not care for the company of my river friends.
She decided to go back to her fist husband.
He was a clerk in a hardware store.
Well she said, "Goodbye Ruben,"
"Love of decency does not abide in you.”
There is a divorced woman talking about decency.
I told her, “Goodbye, Nola,"
"I hope that little nail-selling bastard will make you happy this time.”
She took my boy with her too.
He never cared for me anyway.
I guess I did speak awful rough to him.
I did not mean anything by it.
You would not want to see a clumsier child than Horace.
I bet he broke forty cups.
Is it, Chaney?
I would not recognize the soles of his feet.
Well, you'll have to clamber up and look.
I'm to old and to fat.
Now "The Green Frog" had one billiard table,
served ladies and men both,
mostly men.
I tried to run it myself a while
but I couldn’t keep good help
Never did learn how to buy meat.
Is that him?
I believe not.
Well, cut him down.
Why?
I might know him.
That was when I went out to the staked plains of Texas,
shooting buffalo with Vernon Shaftoe and a Flathead Indian called Olly.
The Mormons, they had run Shaftoe out of Great Salt Lake City
but don’t ask me what it was for.
Call it a misunderstanding and leave it go at that.
Well, the big shaggies,
about all gone now.
Damned shame.
I would give three dollars right now for a pickled buffalo tongue.
Why did they hang him so high?
Oh, I do not know.
Possibly in the belief it would make him more dead.
I do not know this man.
You hanged him?
Why is he taking the hanged man?
Did he know him?
He did not.
But it is a dead body.
Must be worth something in trade.
Now my second wife, Edna.
She had taken a notion she wanted me to be a lawyer.
Bought a heavy book called "Daniels on Negotiable Instruments"
Set to make me reading it.
Never could get a grip on it.
I was happy enough to set it aside and leave Texas.
There ain't six trees between here and Canada, Nothing else grows that has stickers on it.
Ask them...
-I knew it. -Knew what?
We're being followed.
I asked that Injun to signal with a shot if someone was on our trail.
Should we be concerned, Marshal?
Naw, Mr. LeBoeuf is giving us his bird dog.
He wants to cut it in, once it flushed his prey.
Perhaps we could double back over our tracks and confuse the trail in a clever way.
No, we will wait right here.
Offer our friend a warm hello.
Ask him where he's going.
You are not LeBoeuf.
My name is Forster.
I practice,
dentistry in the Nation.
Also veterinary arts.
And medicine.
On those humans that will sit still for it.
You have your work cut out for you there.
Traded for him with an Indian who said he came by him honestly.
I gave up two dental mirrors and a bottle of expectorant.
Do either of you need
Medical attention?
No! Hey, it's fixing to get cold,
Do you know of anywhere to take shelter?
I have my bear skin.
You might want to head over to the Original Greaser Bob’s.
He notched a dugout into a hollow along the Carrillon River.
If you ride the river.
You won't fail to see it.
Greaser Bob—Original
Greaser Bob.
is hunting north of the picket wire
and would not begrudge its use.
-Much obliged. -Now, I have taken his teeth.
I will entertain an offer,
for the rest of him.
Take my jacket.
Creep up onto the roof.
If they're unfriendly I'll give you a sign to damp the chimney.
Who is out there?
We're looking for shelter.
No room for you here! Ride on!
Who all is in there?
Ride on!
I'm a federal officer.
Who's in there?
A Methodist and a son-of-a-bitch!
This is Rooster Cogburn.
Columbus Potter and five other marshals is out here with me.
We got a bucket of coal oil.
In one minute we will burn you out from both ends!
There's only two of you.