Oh, I'm sorry.
Something bothering you, mister?
It's a, it's a legal point.
It's rather intricate.
I'm an attorney.
My, that must be interesting.
Well, some of it is, I guess.
Uh, you see, in this case, an employee finds
that his job requires him
to, uh, commit certain legal but immoral transactions,
so he sues to break the contract
and collect all money due him,
but his employer contends that any requirement
that a job meet individual moral standards was
a conditional acceptance, and therefore
no contract exists.
You see?
Well, to put it simply,
can we superimpose our own standards
onto our business arrangements?
If those standards are usual,
common, and ordinary, employee wins and collects.
According to the Texas Appellate Court.
Matters are rather well covered in common law.
Check McAdams v. the United States.
That's a Supreme Court decision, 1853,
upholding Blackstone in the entire area.
I noticed your ticket to Brackettville.
I'll be working there at the Brass Nugget.
Come in and see me sometime.
I'll see they don't water your drinks.
Seems you're right.
Eight-to-one decision with the dissent only on a minor point.
I, uh, I know it's bad manners,
but, uh, Brackettville happens to be my home.
May I ask your business there?
Your legal citation was very helpful to me, sir.
Now, I'll return the favor.
They just hired a new marshal there last month.
Those idiots there- the businessmen-
think they can buy peace and order with a six-gun.
They've hired a killer.
I take it you don't approve.
We've a few people left with sense.
We're fighting it.
Oh, how?
With law.
Only I can see you obviously don't agree with that method.
No, on the contrary.
I have the highest regard for the statutes,
including some you won't find in that book there.
One of them- survival.
When you lose on that count, friend,
there's no appeal.
Whoa!
Your name Paladin?
That's right.
Follow me.
Like it?
Best layout this side of Kansas City.
You are Sam DeWitt, I take it.
Who you sent your card to, isn't it?
Follow me.
This is Elmo Crane, our marshal.
Now... I've heard of Elmo Crane.
Marshal, you built yourself quite a reputation in Abilene.
Mr. DeWitt, the Brackettville Courier, a few weeks ago,
carried an item stating that your son was involved
in certain dangerous and reckless activities.
Well, he's a good boy, but I just want him curbed a bit.
I wrote, suggesting $1,000, and you wired agreement.
That's right, and, um, I have the money all counted out here.
I gathered from the article that the boy had been a little wild,
a little reckless, but that he had committed
no serious crime as yet.
Depending on what you mean by crime.
Why, just what do you mean by that, Marshal?
The usual things-
girls, somebody else's horse, starting fights.
Yeah, that kind of thing.
Well, now...
suppose I said I didn't believe you two?
Mister, DeWitt hired you to do a simple job.
Don't require a lot of explanations.
You understand?
Hmm... no, but do go on.
We'll arrange for DeWitt's kid
to be riding out of town after dark.
You grab him and take him over to Laredo.
We got friends there who'll sit on him for a while
till he cools down a bit.
Marshal, you want me to kidnap the boy?
$1,000- take it or leave it.
Mr. DeWitt, I'll take one, two, three, four...
...$500 for my time
and trouble in getting here.
You got a gun, mister.
Pull it. Crane!
There's no need to kill him.
Here- ten, 20, 25.
It'll get you to Tucson.
Well, now, your liver ain't as strong as I thought, is it?
It's cheaper than burying him.
There's a stage at 4:00. Be on it.
It's easy to make a marshal, DeWitt.
Awful hard to unmake one.
Don't meddle in my job again.
Place your bets, ladies and gentleman.
Hey, cowboy...
how do I look now?
Course, it doesn't fit very well.
Hey, what's the matter?
You hurt?
He said you'd get me a drink one time.
Unwatered, remember?
Oh, yeah, but...
some other time, huh, cowboy?
And another big winner!
Up to 40-to-one on this table, gentleman.
Pick a number. Win a fortune!
Easy money, friend.
Pick any number.
Put that on the 40-to-one for me.
The gentleman's a gambler.
40-to-one.
And the wheel goes.
I'm sorry.
Hey!
Okay, cowboy, I got it all.
There's another one there.
All right, all right!
You are standing on my foot.
You are standing on my foot!
Well, what do you know?
I'll take a thousand dollars in large bills.
Thank you... very much.
You'd better beat it.
Well, thanks.
Thanks a lot.
You tampered with the wheel.
Put the money back.
I tampered with the wheel, huh?
Less the original $25.
He's a marshal.
If you outdraw him, they'll hang ya.
You can't win.
Gentleman advertises himself as a gunman.
Professional gunman for hire.
They hired me on to keep your kind out.
See that you're on that 4:00 stage.
That took a lot of courage...
moral courage.
No, that was exercising the law I told you about:
survival.
Survival and patience, Mister...
DeWitt. Frank DeWitt.
Your father?
He owns the Brass Nugget.
You got a brother?
No. Why?
Well, your father told me
that you were reckless and a troublemaker.
I had a different picture in mind.
Well, I am a troublemaker.
I object to marked decks and watered whiskey
and fear and shotgun justice and Crane and my father
and their kind of clean government!
Well, you're reckless, all right.
"Justice discards party, friendship and kindred."
Addison.
Mr. DeWitt, a sense of honor and a mind full of books
is not enough to sway that mob in there.
They see just about as far as Crane's gun.
Are you gonna leave on that 4:00 stage?
Would you, Mr. DeWitt?
I think we can help each other at this point.
There's someone I'd like you to meet.
Water's no good for a thing like that.
Here, try this.
Ahh!
Uh, Judge Robbins here
sits on the superior court in this county.
This document has the effect of removing Crane from office.
Writ of injunction.
We've been able to cite five instances
of unjustifiable homicide committed by Crane.
We can move in on him now.
The writ empowers me to appoint someone
to relieve him of his badge
and hold him for investigation.
Aah! That hurt?
That hurts a little, yeah.
Excuse me.
I, uh, thought you might like the job.
How soon?
Well, we're filing it by telegraph.
You stay here in the office, out of Crane's way,
till we get back, and the judge can swear you in then.
All right.
Pardon me.
Got the correct time, Judge?
Almost 4:00.
Stage time.
I guess that's what you was hurrying so about.
Boy was a troublemaker.
We tried to get you to help us tame him.
He finally tried to pull a gun on me. Right, Judge?
Anybody else got a different version?
Come on.
Ah, hyah!
Hyah!
You left on the stage.
Only as far as the city limits.
Can you kill him?
I still have the thousand dollars. It's yours.
He tried to kill you.
You'll just be protecting yourself.
$2,000.
He wears a badge.
$3,000.
He ordered me to leave town.
The courts would just assume
that I was trying to resist arrest.
$4,000. That's every cent I have.
Then he might outdraw me anyway.
The risk alone's worth $5,000.
I don't have that kind of money.
Good night, Mr. DeWitt.
Now wait!
Do you promise you'll kill him?
I promise I'll settle my score with him.
I promise I'll defend myself.
And in your own words, DeWitt:
"Take it or leave it."
You'd better come out of there!
You murdered DeWitt and tried to rob his safe.
That won't work.
My gun hadn't been fired.
Guess I'll have to kill you after all.
Well, here you are, Marshal.
I guess that just about evens us up.
I'll kill you.
Oh?
Go ahead, Marshal.
There's your gun, right there.
Go ahead.
Come on, Crane!
Come on.
Show yourself! Fight!
I'll holster my gun!
Come on out and fight!
Hyah! Hyah! Hyah!
Hyah!
¶
I was afraid you'd lost me.
You twisted and turned enough.
You're out of your jurisdiction.
This is Mexico.
You think I need that?
I told a friend I wear this gun for survival.
As bad as you need killing,
I'd prefer to live by that conviction.
I guess you're right.
We got nothing to fight about.
Like you say, even up.
¶ "Have gun will travel," reads the card of a man ¶
¶ A knight without armor in a savage land ¶
¶ His fast gun for hire heeds the calling wind ¶
¶ A soldier of fortune
¶ Is the man called Paladin
¶ Paladin, Paladin
¶ Where do you roam?
¶ Paladin, Paladin
¶ Far, far from home.