♪♪
200 head of nothing at all.
Yeah, but that bunch of nothing is all paid for
and it's all ours.
They'll be turning American grass into plenty of beef
once we get them across the border.
Buenos dias, señores.
I'm sorry to bother you at your meal.
We've just finished.
Good, I would not forgive myself otherwise.
I am Colonel Emilio Vasquez.
Jed Colby.
Senor Colby, eh?
Your cattle?
We got the bill of sale.
Oh, I am sure of that.
Among honest men there is always a bill of sale.
That is why I will have no concern
about buying your cattle from you.
We're not selling.
Forgive me, senor, but you are mistaken.
BLAKE: Jed.
-♪ Rollin', rollin', rollin' ♪ - (whip cracks)
♪ Rawhide ♪
(whip cracks)
-(whip cracks) - Hyah! Hyah!
As you can see, my friend, I insist.
The revolution needs your cattle.
But we will pay for them, eh, Luis?
This is all the cattle you have, huh?
Just this?
We have 3,000 head
and 20 drovers waiting for us in Texas.
And a trail boss on up at Fort Walker
making a deal with the Army.
That's the U.S. Army, Colonel.
3,000 head?
Well, I am impressed, but, uh, you have not that many here.
We have 200.
We paid two dollars a head.
Ah, $400, huh?
In pesos, Luis?
4,000 pesos, mi jefe.
That's what we paid for them.
The idea was to drive them along with the main herd,
and sell them at the railhead for maybe 20.
That way the drovers get to pick up a little extra money.
An idea of much enterprise.
Luis, we must not discourage such enterprise.
In pesos, Luis?
40,000 pesos, mi jefe.
(speaks Spanish)
We buy your cattle for 40,000 pesos.
The revolution is generous.
It pays the price of the railhead.
Last time I rode down this way they had a picture
of General Porfiano on the pesos.
Ah, si.
Well, he's a fine man, General Porfiano.
He was an idealist, a patriot.
But, uh, unfortunately he was
the leader of the old revolution, you know?
And these are the pesos of the new revolution, huh?
Si, si, senor.
We can turn this into American money?
But of course.
One has only to take them to the nearest town.
Unless another revolution starts in the meantime, huh?
(speaking in Spanish)
You haven't asked for your bill of sale, Colonel.
I have much faith in you.
Which is more than I have in these pesos.
What happens if your revolution doesn't succeed?
Then we will both have much sorrow, senor.
Hasta luego, eh?
You ride now...
Si?
(cattle mooing)
Well, I'm for going after Vasquez
and getting our steers back.
With what?
Three of us ain't much of an army.
And we ain't gonna get any help
from U.S. Cavalry boys this side of the border.
Besides, he paid us, didn't he?
You don't actually believe those flour sack coupons there
are worth anything, do you?
No.
Well, that's what I mean.
Look, down here, you're a bandito one day
and a general the next.
That's if another idealistic, patriotic bandito
doesn't come along and print some new pesos.
Well, I'll tell you how we can find out.
We'll just ride into Guadeloupe and just cash them in.
No, Quince.
You and Simon better get back across the border.
Set the boys up to move the main herd.
I'll head over to Guadeloupe and see if Vasquez' money
is worth anything.
Well, I'll tell you one thing it ain't worth, Jed.
That's getting your head shot off.
I don't figure on getting shot at
just for asking.
Go ahead and move out.
I'll see you back at the herd.
All right.
(bird squawking in distance)
(dog barking in distance)
♪♪
(both speaking in Spanish)
Senor wishes something?
Whole town seems shut down except this place.
It is the hour of siesta.
Senor wishes something?
I came into town to change some pesos for American dollars.
I'll try the bank if there's one here.
Is siesta, the bank is not open.
Well, let me have a drink.
I'll wait till the siesta's finished.
That might be quite a while.
My name is Matthew Baker.
Colby, Jed Colby.
If you're not planning on staying,
the bartender might be able to help you.
I'm not planning on staying.
He always keeps some American money on hand.
Our being so close to the border and all.
Where did you get these?
Why? Something wrong?
I asked the question.
I don't see anything gives you the right to ask questions.
BAKER: I run this town.
You're the one that's saying it.
I, uh, drifted down here
a couple of years ago.
Used to be with Quantrill's raiders.
After a while that got to be unprofitable,
so I came here.
But I learned one thing when I was with Quantrill.
A man points a rifle at you,
he don't have to be elected to nothing,
he don't have to hold no office.
If he asks you a question and you want to keep on living,
you better answer him.
In this town, Mr. Colby, I hold all the rifles.
So, suppose we start all over again.
Your name's Colby.
What are you, a trail hand?
That's right.
But no steers with you.
I got a herd waiting across the border at San Angelo.
And the trail boss waiting for it at Fort Walker.
This isn't anywhere near Fort Walker.
I just come up from Sonora.
Got a trail log?
I got me a small puzzle.
A man with a herd across the line at San Angelo,
what was he doing in Mexico?
I picked up 200 head of cattle at Sonora.
I didn't notice them coming in with you.
Man bought them from me.
Paid me for them with this.
In this alcado that stuff is just paper.
There's nothing behind it.
There were ten rifles behind it when I made the sale.
(snorts)
Mind telling me who you made the sale to?
A man by the name of Colonel Vasquez.
Hey, I've been downright remiss in my hospitality.
I haven't made you acquainted with everybody here.
Colonel Vasquez and that army of his
tried to make a little revolution around here.
Well, after the shooting was over,
he and his army moved out of town.
But there was a kind of a mix-up.
Uh, something got left behind.
That lady.
That lady is Maria Vasquez.
She's the colonel's wife.
Ma'am.
We let word get out to Vasquez that she was hiding out here,
right in this cantina.
She's not a talkative kind of lady.
Oh, maybe she don't like being in a cantina.
She was one of the aristocrats
before she took up with Vasquez.
Ain't that right, ma'am?
(both speaking in Spanish)
(yelling in Spanish)
(Baker speaks Spanish)
Forget it.
We're likely to have enough trouble when Vasquez shows up
without you taking on any more for us.
Might be the same for you, too, Colby.
You'd better forget about it:
the money...
and anything else you might have in mind.
You mean, forget the $400 Vasquez stole from me
and ride out just like that, huh?
Well, that's just a suggestion.
For one thing, Vasquez is like an old pack wolf.
He spent half his life
smelling out traps and dodging 'em.
Maybe he'll sniff this one out and stay clear of it.
He'll be back.
So, I'll just wait around here
and get him to change these pesos when he gets here.
Well, that's up to you, cowboy.
But if you want to get your head blown off...
that's your own lookout.
Thanks. I'll make it my lookout.
(dog barks in distance)
Maybe he don't come, Senor Baker.
He'll come.
But we have our men at every building.
He'd be a fool to try.
Yeah.
But I'd lay hard cash that there's some men out there
that might belong to Vasquez, too.
And the gringo cowboy,
maybe him, too. Maybe he belongs to Vasquez.
Maybe.
But I've always gone on the theory that I'm fast enough
to wait till the other man shows his hand.
I could be wrong.
But so far...
I've been lucky.
I'm still alive.
Coffee?
It's pretty good.
You, uh, (clears throat) you understand English?
Mrs. Vasquez is an educated lady.
She speaks English better than we do.
Is that the coffee, or is it me?
(dog howls in distance)
Why can't that dog be still?
Maybe he's just lonely.
Or... or maybe he's just afraid.
Todo el mundo.
What?
It is the way of all the world,
to be alone, to have fear.
But I am not an animal to be tethered.
That isn't the way I'd play it.
Of course, I'm not calling the game,
and... it seems neither are you.
There has been so much bloodshed, so many deaths,
and yet you men... you call it games.
No matter what you call it, ma'am,
doesn't change what it is.
Can I ask you a question?
Sure, go ahead.
What makes Vasquez your lookout?
Isn't a bandit the lawman's business?
Or what do you call them down here?
Rurales. They've been after him for some time.
But they spread themselves out pretty thin.
They wait in one place, he hits in another.
The only way to make sure he doesn't hit my town again
is for me to nab him.
What makes you so sure he'll come back?
For a woman like that,
even a man like Vasquez can end up being a fool.
BLAKE: Any sign of him yet?
No, no sign yet.
Well, what do you think?
Well, I don't know what to think, Simon.
But I'll tell you this.
Come morning, we're going in after him.
He should never have gone after that money.
It was worth a try.
Every man in this camp had a piece of it.
Well, the way I feel about money is easy come, easy go.
-(men scoff) - I made an investment
in those 200 head of cattle.
Didn't pan out. I ain't gonna lose no sleep over it.
How much did you have in the pot?
All I had.
Well, that don't rightly answer my question, does it?
Mm... three dollars.
(all laugh)
Seems to me, the way things are with you,
money goes even before it comes.
Yeah, well, my pappy told me
when I was knee-high to a fence post never to try
to fill an inside straight or tangle with a spoke-for woman.
I didn't pay no attention to him.
He was older than I was.
Psst!
Esta en la cantina.
(conversing in Spanish)
You look nervous, Baker.
Yeah.
Well, why shouldn't I be?
I got a stake here.
I've put in too many years and sweat into this town
to let a bandit like Vasquez run me out of it.
Besides, uh, I haven't got many places left to run.
Yeah, I can understand that.
I guess that's the one thing
a lady like Mrs. Vasquez and me have in common.
We're both about out of places to run to.
♪♪
(men clamoring)
(clamoring)
MAN: Andale! Vamonos!
(shouts in Spanish)
(men clamoring)
(man shouts in distance)
♪♪
(gun cocks)
(gunshot)
(men clamoring)
(shouts in Spanish)
(men clamoring)
I don't know, getting that money changed, you know,
might be taking a little time.
He isn't gonna get that money changed.
Well, still and all, you can't be sure
if that money's any good or not.
Vasquez upped his price from 4,000 to 40,000 pesos
without blinking an eye.
If that money meant anything at all,
he would have at least squinted one eye.
Yeah, you might be right.
Say, Simon, you know Jed might have stayed over
in that little Mexican town
even if he couldn't get that money changed.
You think so?
It's a town, ain't it?
Well, yeah, and Jed being Jed, well, I'll bet right now
he's having himself a time, maybe having a hot bath.
Yeah, stretching out on a feather down bed.
Listening to guitar music.
Yeah, having a hot meal toted in to him.
And here I was getting set to worry about him.
(laughs)
Yeah.
Yeah...
Oh, thanks.
Where are we?
Does it make any difference?
Not to you. It does to me.
We are in a storage shed behind the cantina.
My husband...
Oh, yeah. I remember.
No offense, ma'am,
but the more I see of your husband, the less I take to him.
Did Baker...?
Senor Baker is dead.
Dead?
Yes. They... they have sent for the rurales.
(grunts)
It's a little late for that, isn't it?
Your husband ought to be well on his way by now.
It is not for my husband they have sent for the rurales.
It is for us.
For us?
I don't understand.
Why for us?
Because they think you are
the one who helped my husband.
And because someone must pay
for the death of Senor Baker.
And I just happened to be here, is that it?
That is sometimes the way of our land.
Well, it's not my way.
It is useless.
Maybe.
Hey, you out there!
I want to talk to somebody!
(lock clicks)
(speaking Spanish)
(key moving in lock)
What did he say?
Be quiet,
or next time he will call for Paco.
It is better you remain quiet.
With Senor Baker gone,
Paco will be very frightened now.
What are we supposed to do,
just sit here and wait for them?
There is nothing for you to fear from the rurales.
I am the wife of Colonel Vasquez.
I am the one they will drag back and...
But you?
They will only shoot you.
They will only shoot me?
What is it you figure they'll do to you?
I'm afraid to even let myself think about it.
It's almost like when I was a child in the convent.
Sometimes at night
I would have dreams that frightened me.
I would run from my bed to one of the sisters,
the one who was fat and laughed so often.
I would hold onto her
and in a little bit I would forget about my dream.
But this...
this is no dream.
Because you are the wife of Colonel Vasquez?
Well, why did you marry him?
I mean, nobody forced you to.
No, senor.
No one did.
Get down behind here.
What?
Just stay there.
Silencio!
-(banging on door) - Paco!
COLBY: Hey, you out there!
GUARD: Paco!
(shouts in Spanish)
(banging continues)
(grunting)
♪♪
Hey, Jed!
Hey, what in the world happened to you?
- WISHBONE: About time. - You get that money?
- Where you been anyway? -(overlapping talking)
I'm fine, I'm fine.
This is Maria Vasquez.
Hey, Quince, get the supply wagon ready for her, will you?
She'll be spending the night.
- You bet. Ma'am? - Oh.
Vasquez? Any relation to the colonel?
- His wife. - His wife?
Quince will take her into town in the morning.
She'll make arrangements to join her husband.
(low conversations)
(speaking Spanish)
I don't think it was very smart, bringing her here.
Why?
We're too close to the border.
Around here, the border's nothing but an imaginary line.
Vasquez hears we've got his wife,
well, he's going to come after her.
Well, I couldn't leave her for the rurales, could I?
No, I suppose you couldn't.
If Vasquez wants to come after her, let him.
I almost hope he does.
(shouting in Spanish)
(indistinct chatter)
All right, come and get it.
- Well, it's about time. - Stuff yourselves.
Hope that's better than it was yesterday.
What do you mean, like it was yesterday?
- It was fine yesterday. - Just awful, just awful.
Yes, sir.
- Aw, you shouldn't have done that. -Hah.
Mrs. Vasquez, you up?
Yes.
I've brought you some coffee.
Thank you.
Should I tell Jed you're ready to leave?
Oh, uh... yes.
I will be ready.
(speaking Spanish)
Oh...
I, uh...
I wish to thank you for letting me stay here last night.
You don't owe me anything.
Only my life.
Perhaps that is worth nothing.
Still, I owe it to myself to thank you.
All right, you've paid your debt to yourself.
If I had the money, senor,
I would pay also my husband's debt to you.
I'd rather wait and get it from him myself.
I will leave now,
and you will not be bothered any more by my... gratitude.
Good-bye, Mrs. Vasquez.
(bugle sounds a charge)
What was that?
Get off that horse!
Quince, get the drovers here right away.
The rest of you, take cover!
(hoof beats approaching)
(cowboys talking quietly)
COLBY: Wait a minute.
Rowdy signed you men on to push cattle, not fight.
I don't know if there's going to be one or not,
but if there is, some of you are going to get hurt,
maybe even killed.
So if anybody wants to get paid off
and ride out, now is the time.
Well, if a man only did
the things in life he was paid to do,
well, he wouldn't be of much use in this world, now, would he?
(cowboys laugh, murmur agreement)
It always comes down to one thing.
If a man has to fight, he has to fight.
- That's right. - Yeah. -Yeah.
Well, I'm glad to see you're all willing to shoot.
I only hope you know how to shoot straight.
Quince, all the men have rifles?
Well, all except the six men I left with the herd.
Well, see they get them, too.
QUINCE: All right.
All right, you better find yourselves a hole.
- Okay. - Yeah...
Kind of risky for Vasquez, too, isn't it?
After all, this isn't his country.
His country's wherever he's got guns.
Hey, Jed.
Vasquez.
Looks like he wants to talk.
Well, I'll ride out and let him.
You oughtn't go out there alone.
It's dangerous.
I'm the one who brought his wife here.
He probably won't start anything.
After all, he is army,
and he's carrying a white flag.
That's just a rag on a stick.
To him it don't mean nothing at all.
(speaking Spanish)
It is pleasant to see you again, Senor Colby.
Your uniform is in the wrong country.
Well, it is the only one I have.
Maybe if I let you sell the cattle you stole from me,
you could buy yourself anew one.
Ah, but you're not going to let me do that, eh?
Not if I can stop you.
But you can't, senor.
My men have their guns pointed at you.
One small signal from me, and...
Well, you are being very unwise.
I can see your men.
But you can't see mine.
They've got rifles, too,
and they're not pointed at me.
I said he was brave.
You said he was a fool.
We were both wrong.
He is no braver than we,
and, unhappily, no more of a fool.
Well, it is time to talk of important things now, senor.
My, uh...
my, uh, wife, she's well?
She is well.
I, uh, I owe you a small debt.
I understand that you are responsible
for freeing her from the jail in Guadeloupe.
That's right.
I say a small debt
because you did not bring her to her husband.
You brought her here, to your country, instead.
I find it a little difficult
to be as grateful to you perhaps as I should be.
I don't care, one way or another.
Nell, I do and you should.
You have one hour to bring me my wife.
Oh, just a minute.
There's a little something you can do for me.
Oh? And what is that?
I've got 40,000 pesos
I'd like you to change into $400.
laughs) Well, I could give you another 40,000 pesos
much more easily, senor.
Well, things aren't always easy.
You bargain with me for my wife?
No, I'd just like you to do me a little favor,
a financial one.
Oh, senor, I'm afraid
you do not understand the situation.
If you do not bring me my wife within an hour,
without conditions,
I will be forced to take serious action against you.
I will stake my drovers against your...
your 14-man army today, tomorrow, anytime.
- You have how many drovers? - Twenty.
Ah...
Oh, well, yes...
it would be foolish of me to-to attack them.
But, uh, you have something else, senor...
3,000 head of cattle.
Why should I bother to kill men
when I can Kill cattle with much greater safety, eh?
I would not even have to waste my bullets on them.
A few cattle dead, the rest will stampede.
Well, I'm finished playing this game with you, senor.
As you say, I cannot buy your herd from you,
but I can destroy it, and I will.
You have one hour to bring me my wife.
Don't worry about your husband, ma'am.
Jed isn't any hothead.
He won't go looking for a fight unless he gets pushed into it.
And what I hear about your husband, well,
he don't start shooting, either, until he gets trapped.
So I got a feeling those two are gonna find a way
to come to terms.
That is what you want, isn't it?
To go back to your husband?
It's what I must want.
I am his wife.
(hoof beats approaching)
We're ready for "em, Jed.
There won't be a fight.
He wants his wife, and she wants to be with him.
Well, good. I'll tell the boys to sit easy.
Uh, now, Jed, maybe it isn't any of my business to say this.
But you'll say it anyway.
You're mighty well told.
I knew you would.
Oh, now you're too eager to send her back.
Does that mean something?
She don't want to go.
Did she tell you that?
Well, not in so many words,
but you can see it in everything she does, everything she says.
Now you're an expert on women.
You don't need to be an expert on women.
All you gotta do is not close your eyes.
I suppose that's what I've been doing.
Well, maybe so, maybe not.
All I know is, there's a quick and easy way to find out.
- How? - Ask her.
Did you trade me for your money?
No.
Did you find out that I was not worth $400?
Maria...
Maria, listen to me.
Maybe I could have gotten the $400 from Vasquez.
Maybe I could have driven off him and his flea-bitten army.
But I figured if I did that,
you'd be the one to have to pay for it.
Because then you could never go back to your husband.
Was I wrong?
I do not understand what you mean.
You understand perfectly.
All I'm asking you is, do you want to go back to him?
I do not have any other choice.
Yes, you do.
And you can make it right here and now.
No. He is my husband!
But you could not understand that.
Maybe I can.
But I'll never understand how and why
you ever married him in the first place.
What concern is that of yours?
I'd just like to know.
You told me nobody forced you to marry him,
so you had a choice in marrying him, didn't you?
Did I?
Everybody has a choice!
Yes!
And mine was so simple.
Colonel Vasquez was an important man
when the revolutionists were in power.
My father was under sentence of execution.
Is it so difficult to understand why I married him?
No.
No. Please, I-l must leave.
You're not going back to him.
If he wants you, he's gonna have to come and get you.
(cattle bellowing)
Well, that's 40 miles to the nearest water hole.
It's a long, dry haul that way.
- Senor Wishbone. - Yeah?
You would like to be with the others?
Oh, well, if we're gonna get stuck here very long,
I got to get some sandwiches made.
With your permission, I will do that.
Oh. Thank you.
We'd never make it to Fort Walker in time,
even cutting around the Yellow Bend.
This is the closest, the outpost camp at French Flat.
20 miles.
No chance of getting help from there on time.
Nothing to do but fight it out ourselves.
Turner, take half the men and post them around the herd.
You betcha.
Well, that leaves us less than ten men
to hold off Vasquez if he attacks us.
(hoof beats approaching)
He will.
Well, there's still no change.
They're still up on that ridge.
We're down below.
Dogged if everybody ain't got guns
except them beeves out there.
But I'll tell you one thing for sure.
It's gonna be a tough fight.
Especially when them cavalry boys ain't here
close enough to help out.
(running hoof beats)
That'll break it wide open. Let's get ready!
♪♪
That was a...
a stupid thing to do.
You have thought many things about me.
Now you think that I am a fool.
In truth, I am a fool.
I could have left.
I could have gone back to the convent.
But always, I stayed with Vasquez.
And watched him kill.
Yes.
In my country, it was a revolution.
Revolutions are not made without blood.
Just as omelets are not made without breaking eggs.
You can live without omelets.
But I cannot live without Vasquez.
I know more about him than you ever will.
I know that he is even worse than you think.
But I love him.
Now you know what I am ashamed of.
Not that I am the woman of Vasquez,
not that I am the wife
of the man who is feared and hated,
but-but that I still love him.
You make a pretty poor liar.
You don't love him.
You never have.
You're only going back to him to stop the fight.
I have seen too much blood spilled.
Far too much.
Sometime, there must be an end to it.
And now if-if you were killed because of me,
I could not bear that.
Better get back to the camp.
Do not hurry away.
Fair Maria.
My Maria.
I cannot blame anyone who wishes to be alone with my wife, senor,
but the place, (clucks tongue)
very badly chosen.
I am back now, Emilio.
Yes, you are back, Maria,
and as a husband, perhaps I should be pleased.
As an officer, I have accomplished my mission.
But as a man, Senor Colby, I am not satisfied.
What's going to satisfy you?
The death of a man who otherwise might ride away and laugh at me
because I could not protect my own honor.
Emilio, no!
Luis.
Emilio, no!
- Please! -(blows landing)
(gunshot)
Emilio...
Quince, I'd better have a look ahead.
Go ahead. We'll keep you covered.
(Vasquez speaks Spanish)
(Maria speaks Spanish)
(Vasquez replies in Spanish)
(wind whistling)
(men shouting in Spanish)
They're heading for the border.
Looks like they're not gonna stop until they get south of it.
Quince.
That looks like the reason down there.
Vasquez.
Let's go see.
I'm sorry.
It is not enough.
It will never be enough.
I'm ready to go now.
I'm sorry it had to be like this.
Emilio?
Oh, he owed God a death.
Now it is I who carry a debt to God.
But what will you do now? Where will you go?
Go back to the convent.
The rurales will not come there.
You could stay here in our country.
No, I do not have the right to do that.
In the way of my land, I am still his wife.
Adios.
Good-bye, Maria.
(hoof beats departing)
(cattle lowing)