♪♪
(bird chirping)
♪♪
(whoops)
(whooping)
Whoa.
Too bad you and your friend
didn't read that sign back there.
ROWDY: I don't even know that man.
Yeah, sure, I suppose you couldn't say
anything else with a gun on you.
Drop that gun!
I said drop it!
COLBY: You don't know how close you just came
to getting yourself killed, boy.
ROWDY: Who are you?
Name's Court Buford. My father owns the Bar B U.
And who's he?
COURT: Name's Print Wecker.
He's one of Aberdeen's hired Yankee gunmen.
You're not gonna let him get away?
COLBY: You clipped his horns enough
for anything short of murder.
What did he do?
I said, what did he do?
He was trespassing.
We don't like trespassers on the range.
- Got a sign back there. - Yeah, I saw the sign.
Now I'd like to see your father.
Go ahead, you lead out.
♪♪
-♪ Rollin', rollin', rollin' ♪ -(whip cracks)
♪ Rawhide ♪
-(whip cracks)
(whip cracks)
-(whip cracks) - Hyah! Hyah!
- Hyah! - (Whip cracks)
♪♪
Major?
Yeah?
That's my father.
- Mighty glad to see you, gentlemen. -Rowdy Yates, sir.
Been looking forward to meeting you, Mr. Yates.
- This here is Jed Colby. - Mr. Colby.
We've been looking forward
to getting here, getting that herd of yours.
You can count me in on that, and the rest of the boys, too.
What he means is, with your herd along to pay trail expenses,
we're gonna split profits at the end
of the trail with the rest of the men.
You know, I've already figured out exactly
how, when and where I'm gonna spend my part of it.
So the sooner we start trailing them out, the better.
- Well, sooner means right away to me. -You bet.
Well, if you got your steers ready to move in here,
we'll start road-branding them right away.
They're ready, Mr. Colby.
My, uh... my foreman here,
Drago Santee, will be glad to help you.
I got a couple of boys out
with the herd who'll give us a hand.
ROWDY: Yank! Go back to the herd,
-and bring out three more men, will you? -COURT: Wait a minute.
Did you say "Yank"?
ROWDY: That's right.
Did you fight in the Union Army?
Sure did.
- He's a blue-belly! - Court!
I'll, uh... I'll tell the boys.
The war ended in '65.
Not for me, it didn't.
Did you fight in the war, son?
Would have if I'd been old enough.
Court, go help Santee with the herd.
Quince, help me with the fires, will you?
MAJOR BUFORD: Mr. Colby...
gentlemen...
I'm afraid sometimes my son says things he shouldn't.
You see, back in '64, when he was just a little fella,
he saw our family home in Virginia-- Buford Acres--
burn to the ground
when Sheridan came raiding through the Shenandoah.
Well, something like that would be pretty hard to forget.
Even harder to forgive, Mr. Yates.
Shortly after that, his mother died.
Uh, Buford Acres meant a great deal to her.
Well... you don't seem to be bitter, Major.
Sometimes I think it's easier to fight through a war
than to live through one.
You see, I rode with General McCausland
when he burned Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
Sometimes I think some of those folks up north
must feel pretty much like Court.
So I hope you'll try to...
understand my son's behavior, perhaps overlook his rash words.
Sure.
Only it wasn't me your son was pointing a gun at.
Jed, uh, why don't you get those fires started, huh?
Sure.
(sighs)
-♪♪ -(men shouting)
(cattle lowing)
That tree marks the boundary of the Bar B U.
Never owned my own ranch.
- Leased it, like most folks around here. -Whoa.
Morning, Major.
You Yates?
The one who's here to drive Buford's steers?
Yeah, that's right.
We're stock inspectors
from the Cattlemen's Association.
We aim to cut trail for these brand.
I won't allow it.
Papers all seem in order, all legal.
Oh, I'm sure they're quite legal.
Well, in that case, they got a right to look for strays.
Bunch 'em in for brand-cutting!
(cattle lowing)
(men shouting, whistling)
Hyah!
Hyah! Hyah!
I'd say that's a Flying U,
and I'm repping for that brand, so cut it out of the herd.
Now, you better take another look at that brand.
Now, mister, that still reads Flying U to me,
so if you're not gonna cut him out, I will.
Hyah!
Name's Mint Shawcross.
Howdy.
I said howdy.
Howdy.
Hyah!
That's the trouble with folks nowadays--
no time for conversation.
Wouldn't you say?
I'd say that.
(clicking tongue)
There's one of my brands.
Bar 8 Open 0.
You've got to be kidding.
That's Barb U. Buford beef.
Are you telling me I can't read an Association brand?
It says so right here.
Bar 8 Open 0.
Well, I'm not arguing with the paper, but that steer is.
Want me to have him thrown so that, uh,
you can talk it over with him face-to-face, huh?
Mister, are you calling me a liar?
'Cause if you are, you won't do it twice.
Oh, no, I just think that you need glasses, that's all.
Man with eyesight like yours
-could get in bad trouble. - Trouble?
ROWDY: No.
Not now, anyway.
Jed, uh... nose around a bit,
and see if there's any more hard bits like him.
What, are you figuring on trouble?
No, I figure trouble might be looking for us.
So if any trouble does come nosing around looking for me,
I want to be ready for it. Any objections?
Nope. No. As long as you leave it at that.
Getting ready for trouble's one thing,
and being too fast with a gun's another.
Doesn't give you much time to think things over.
Maybe. I just want to make sure
I'll be fast enough when the time comes-- if it does.
ROWDY (sighs): Ah...
Something wrong, Simon?
Yeah, the inspector here says this beef belongs to him.
- INSPECTOR: That's right. - SIMON: Of all the cows,
he took this bunch-quitter--
the exact one I tried to talk you and Rowdy
into taking out of the herd and leaving in the pen at Brazos.
You call yourself a stock inspector?
Even if you couldn't read the brand,
one look at that steer ought to tell you
it's been driven across sand burr country.
That's your say.
My word, and the papers to back it up.
From Brazos County, Texas, where we bought 'em,
and from the man we bought 'em from.
And that's our brand, to prove we own him.
That could be fixed up
by anybody handy with a running iron.
You accusing me of brand blotting?
Well, at that, you do have the tools
and the look of a brand artist.
Now, you can call off those inspectors.
There'll be no more trail-cutting,
by you and those other tinhorns.
Well, you move this herd of cows any closer to the Red,
and you're gonna run into a Winchester blockade,
'cause I've got enough men
to trail-cut this herd to a thin pair of horns.
ROWDY: You heard him-- call 'em off.
INSPECTOR: Sure.
And next time, I'm gonna be ready for that draw of yours.
Slim! Ed!
We're pulling out! Let's go!
Need any help?
No.
Colby just signed a peace treaty.
I hope so.
But that man you just outdrew is the Wichita Kid,
the Association's best hired gun.
(cattle lowing)
Tell me, that man you laid the rope to,
the one you called "Yankee hired gun”--
he was a cattle inspector, too, right?
Tell me the real reason you ground-drug him.
Tell them, Court.
Well, they claimed some of our beef
and called my father a rustler.
Nobody gets away with that.
COLBY: Major,
just what is the County Cattlemen's Association?
Most of the members are small cattlemen
that were obliged to join,
but the big man-- he's a real big man--
Duke Aberdeen.
He formed the Association, and he runs it.
Yankee. Came to Texas after the war,
mavericked, and-and bought a big spread
and just took over with those Yankee ways of his.
Court, Court.
A lot of members of the Association fought on our side.
Well, they're turncoats, that's what they are.
Go on, Major.
The Association was formed to stop rustling.
Well, I'm for that.
Something's got to stop it.
But I'm not for putting a levy on every head of cattle
and sending up to Texas cow towns
to get a bunch of gunmen down here
to serve as stock inspectors.
And I'm not for riding roughshod over folk,
like-like you just saw.
I saw.
Well, Jed, it's about time we paid
a little visit to this Aberdeen,
before we run into some more of his friends.
You were just reading my mind, Rowdy.
You, too, Jed.
You saw what just happened with that inspector.
I saw it. That's why I want you to leave your gun here.
You think I couldn't take the Wichita Kid if he pushed me?
ROWDY: Maybe you can, maybe you can't.
Either way, one of you is gonna get killed,
and that'll be the first killing.
All right, Rowdy, you're calling it.
I only hope you're figuring the odds right.
I figure we've had just about enough trouble for one day.
Let's go.
♪♪
Looking for me?
You're Duke Aberdeen.
That's right.
My name's Yates. This here is Colby.
We'd like to talk to you.
All right.
Come on.
I've heard about you two.
I'll bet you have.
Your men were trying to, uh, trim out our cattle,
the cattle we brought up from the Brazos County
with our brand on it.
Well, some of the boys
might have been a little too enthusiastic.
You see, they get five dollars a head
for every cow they return to an Association member.
I'll talk to 'em.
You'd better do more than talk, Mr. Aberdeen,
'cause we aim to make those few miles to the Red River
without having our herd trimmed by your inspectors.
Well, you're trailing Buford cattle
along with your own, aren't you?
That's right.
Well, any time we find Buford cattle
trying to leave this county, we're gonna stop it.
Matter of fact, we've been considering
declaring Bar B U a rustler brand,
with Buford cows forfeiting, divided up
among the members of the Association.
The law say you can do that?
That's right, Yates.
That's what the law around here says.
COLBY: Your law, you mean?
Oh, that's exactly what I mean.
Yeah, well, you may have the men
and the guns to back up that kind of law,
but what makes you think you have the right?
You ever hear of Libby Barracks?
Sure. Confederate prison camp in the war.
No, not a prison camp.
A reb pesthole.
Even the rats sickened up there and died.
It almost killed me.
After the war, the-the bone patchers told me
to come out here.
All there was, was tumbleweed and strays.
Now, what you see around here, I built,
and I didn't pour my blood into it
to let any reb like Buford come and take it over!
Now, I fought his kind once before.
Like you said, I've got the men and guns to do it again,
and that's exactly what I'm going to do.
Now, you two, that's different.
How is it different?
Now, look, Yates, this isn't your fight.
Yours, either, Colby.
Now, why don't you just take your herd
those few miles to the Red, and, like you said,
cross over into the nations,
and leave Buford cattle on Bar B U range
where we can keep an eye on it?
You mean, if we just take, uh, ours across,
there's, uh, no interference, huh?
That's right.
We just want to make sure
that you're not trailing any Buford cattle
along with your own.
We got cows can read a brand
better than some of your inspectors.
(Rowdy sighs)
Colby...
next time, you better bring your gun with you.
(insects chirring)
No. No, I don't... I don't think
that one Confederate could whup three Yankees.
That was a kind of fool pride
that went plumb before our fall and helped to lick us.
What kind of Confederate were you?
I was a doggone good 'un, sonny.
You're looking smack dab
at a man that rode with Jeb Stuart from
Second Manassas to Yellow Tavern where he was killed.
Yes, sir, he was the best cavalry general in two armies.
Less'n you count Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Or Little Phil hisself.
Oh, now, you ain't gonna start that all over again, are you?
You know dadgum well that Phil Sheridan couldn't shine
Jeb Stuart's scabbard.
Did you ride with Sheridan?
Yeah. For a spell, I did.
Were you with him in Shenandoah in '64?
Yeah, might have been.
Well, you helped burn us up!
Now, look, will you just leave me alone, please?
(groaning)
(grunting)
Let go of him! Let go of him!
(muttering)
Come on!
- Come on! - Get up!
ROWDY: Hold it.
What's going on here?
- You all right, Court? - Yeah.
Gentlemen, I...
I assure you it won't happen again.
I don't think it will.
Uh, I want to talk to you.
Major, you signed your herd in with ours for just one reason.
You were buying protection against Duke Aberdeen.
Gentlemen, I assure you,
Aberdeen wasn't nearly as difficult
before I signed the deal with you.
But you knew he might be a little hardnosed.
Did he tell you I was rustling?
Well, not exactly, but, uh,
that seemed to be what he was thinking.
And you, Mr. Yates-- what are you thinking?
Well, if I even suspected you of, uh, brand blotting,
I wouldn't be sitting here talking.
I'd just cut out your herd and move on our way.
And you, Mr. Colby?
We're not about to turn trail and run away from a fight,
but we got less than three months
to get our herd to the Crow Reservation,
and we don't want to get mixed up
-in any cattle war. - ROWDY: That's right.
We don't need anything impeding our progress.
All right, gentlemen, I was wrong.
You take your own herd across the Red.
I'll find some other way of dealing with the Association.
You understand, Major, that, uh, my men share in the profits.
They don't take a wage.
So, uh, they got a right to help me decide.
(indistinct, overlapping chatter)
ROWDY: All right, quiet.
Now, it's true that Buford
didn't let us in on this Aberdeen situation
when we contracted to take on his herd.
But the... the major's been kind enough to say
we could get out of the contract if we want it that way.
Just take our own herd.
At least we can break even that way.
Mmm. - Maybe.
But if Aberdeen says he'll trim our herds for Buford beef,
well, you've seen the way his inspectors cut our brands.
Well, they're a careless lot, and that's for sure.
Careless?
One of those four-flushers threw a rope around old Mint.
Claimed he looked like one of the beeves.
(laughing)
Yeah.
Well, if we go it alone,
we could stand to lose enough cattle
to cut our profits way down.
Aberdeen has enough law on his side.
He could trim our herd and get away with it.
On the other hand, if we stick with the major here,
we could end up in a range war, and that could be worse.
See, we still haven't figured a way
to get through that Winchester blockade.
So, we're dogged if we do, and we're dogged if we don't.
Yeah, that's right.
Now, uh, you boys want to think it over?
Simon?
Rowdy, so long as things is bad both ways,
well, I don't like the way
the Association's been pushing us around.
I vote to stay with the major a couple of days
and see what we come up with.
I'm willing to stay and try to get through.
I'll be doggoned if I'm gonna sit still
for those tinhorns trimming off the herd,
or my losing one cent of my share.
Money-grubbing Yankee.
Well, being a money-grubbing Johnny Reb,
I got my share spent on a little gal down Austin way,
so I go along there with Yank.
Us money grubbers got to stick together.
I'm for staying.
You sure changed your mind in a hurry.
Anybody can't change his mind doesn't have a mind to change.
And there's one other thing we've got to remember.
Even if we do happen to get both those herds across the river,
we're gonna be in the nations.
There's no law over there, no law saying
that those beef inspectors couldn't follow us over,
stampede the herd all the way
from the Red to the Powder River.
Gentlemen,
if I could put in a word.
Now, here's the Red River.
Here's the nations up here.
Over here-- state of Arkansas,
Little River County.
Now, we're just about here,
halfway between the nations and the state of Arkansas.
Now, if, instead of going north
and crossing the river into the nations,
we could travel east a few miles and cross into Arkansas...
Well, Little River County's got a sheriff and deputies.
They'd protect us. They're friends of mine.
They're real lawmen,
and those stock agents know it.
They'd never dare follow us into Arkansas.
Yeah. Well, where do you, uh...
where would you suggest we ford the river into Arkansas?
All the herds from here could take the short way north.
You'd have to find a ford.
What do you think, Jim?
Well, I think we got a chance.
We get past Aberdeen's men, find a ford.
Hmm, well, looks like you're the last, uh,
spud in the kettle, as they say.
Not me, Rowdy.
Only reason I took to droving in the first place is because...
I figured it was the only place left where a man could...
ride the way he wanted to
and not fight unless he wanted to.
Mmm. Yeah, well, tomorrow,
I want you to take our herd over on Bar B U land.
They got good graze and water there.
I'll, uh... I'll scout that ford.
(cattle lowing)
♪♪
Your pal here was running a little maverick factory.
That calf we stopped him from branding belongs to that cow,
and that cow's a Flying U.
That's an Association brand.
You're making a mistake, Kid.
I do work for the duke.
I tell you, I work for the duke!
Yeah, you work for the duke, and I'm ramrod for Major Buford.
Yeah, well, I'll take care of him.
I'll make sure he gets the law.
Except maybe you were helping him to rustle, Yates.
What?
No.
He ain't got nothing to do with it.
Then what's he doing out here, covering up track for you?
Reach.
Get his gun.
I think maybe we'll celebrate
with a little double necktie social,
and maybe we'll go after Colby and dangle him, too.
No, you don't.
If it hadn't been for him, that Buford kid would've killed me.
Print, that don't change a thing.
No.
Well, you're lucky.
He's the only brother I got,
and if I had one to spare, you'd hang, too.
DRAGO: Ask the duke.
He'll tell you I work for him. Ask him. Ask him!
All right. Let's get it over with.
Ask him, Kid! Ask him!
Ask him!
♪♪
We were worried about you.
They sure don't fool around, do they?
No. They caught him changing brands.
COLBY: That's part of the reason we headed here.
We spotted a maverick trail.
Found fresh tracks back there.
This horse and a couple calves.
And they weren't pointing toward the herd.
Yeah. All right, Simon, you take him back to camp.
Let's follow that trail.
♪♪
COLBY: It's a hidden valley, all right.
Real rustlers' hideout.
You see that stand of trees over there?
That marks our ford into Arkansas.
Maybe we won't need it now.
Maybe.
That's something we ought to find out for sure.
(chopping nearby)
Hey, you're not gonna let him get away with hanging Drago.
Santee knew the risks he was taking.
Besides, he worked for your father, not me.
That's right, Mr. Yates.
It was quite a shock.
Because he was caught, Major?
What do you mean by that?
I think you were in this with Santee right up to your neck.
Only his got stretched.
What?
Boy, if you want a gun, just ask for it.
I'm asking.
Jed, stay out of this.
Keep out of this, Rowdy.
Quince, give him your gun.
No, Quince.
Don't stop him, Rowdy.
Give it to him, Quince.
All right, uh, give it to him.
Stop him, Yates.
You're the only one who can stop this, Major.
Wait, Colby.
You're right.
I was in it with Drago Santee.
You couldn't have been.
We were partners.
I'm sorry, Court.
Father, why?
What difference does it make now?
Well, it makes a difference to us.
How come you and Santee ran the brand you did on those beeves?
No... particular reason.
COLBY: What brand was it, Major?
MAJOR BUFORD: My own, of course, Bar B U.
No. You're just saying that to save the boy.
Santee ran a different brand. You had to know that,
else you couldn't have rustled the beeves.
That's why I had to let Colby here, uh, draw down on the boy.
I'm sorry about that, but, uh,
that's the only way I could find out.
I'm afraid I can't take much credit for that, Major.
You see, I wasn't sure myself
whether or not you were in with Santee. I'm sorry.
I understand.
And Santee sounded like he was just trying to save his neck
when he said he worked for Aberdeen.
Santee working for Duke Aberdeen,
I can't believe it.
Jed, I think it's time you and I had a little powwow
with, uh, Duke, huh?
Mm-hmm. Only this time I'll be wearing my gun.
Didn't I tell you there was rustling on Bar B U?
That's right. You did.
Yeah, we found a few steers that Santee stashed away.
Oh?
Where'd he stash 'em?
You know, Rowdy, I don't think he does know.
ROWDY: Maybe Santee is double-branding
Mr. Aberdeen's cattle, too, right?
I don't know what you're talking about, Yates.
When I ask you a question, I want a straight answer.
Now, where did Santee hide those beeves he rustled?
We'll give 'em back to you.
Then we want to take our cattle
through Texas without any more interference.
Not Buford cattle, you don't.
Why? You've already hung your rustler.
Well, you don't think that...
Buford's ramrod could've burned Rawhide
on Bar B U without the major being in on it?
Yeah, we did think that, but we were wrong.
Just like we were wrong when we thought Santee saying
he worked for you was just talk.
Well, you're loco. Both of you.
Besides, if what you said made any sense,
why would I let him get hung?
Good timing, I'd call it.
Nobody ever heard of a dead man doing much talking.
And, like you said, no one would ever believe
that Santee could have burned Rawhide on a Bar B U steer
without the major knowing about it.
And now the Association will back any move you make
against the major.
Uh, look, Yates,
why don't you give me back those rustled beeves
and then take your own herd across the Red.
I won't cut trail on it. No interference.
I'm taking both herds across the Red.
Now, look,
nothing that belongs to that reb bait cutter leaves this county.
I said, nothing!
So that's it, huh?
Reb bait cutter.
Mister, you're in the same deck as the major's kid,
in the same hand,
haters, back to back.
The only difference is he's young.
War's been over a long time, Aberdeen.
About time you realized that.
Now, hold up.
Yates, you got until tomorrow to make up your mind.
And whether you're there or not, we're taking over Bar B U.
Oh, Yates,
we know about that crossing into Arkansas that you found.
Those boys that rode out,
they've got orders to keep you from crossing that ford,
unless I say different.
You try it on your own, this time they'll shoot to kill.
And I don't mean just cows.
Say we take both herds and we move 'em into that valley
so Aberdeen won't know where they are.
We're only gonna be a few miles from the Arkansas ford.
COLBY: Well, even before we move the cattle out of the valley,
we got to get Aberdeen's hired guns away from that ford.
We-we got to decoy 'em. See, we got to make 'em believe
that we're somewhere where we ain't.
That's divisionary. That's what they call it in the army.
And the nickel-plated champion of that was Jeb Stuart.
He did a trick like that once at Second Bull Run.
Jeb Stuart couldn't hold a candle to Little Phil.
Or Custer.
- And I rode with Custer. - Custer? Now, you ain't
gonna compare Goldilocks with Jeb Stuart.
What do you mean, Goldilocks?
Will you two stop chomping on the past?
Uh... (clears throat) All right.
All right, men, go ahead and tell us
about Stuart's neat little trick, huh?
Well, sir, at Second Bull Run,
Stuart sent some of us cavalrymen out
and chopped down some brush
and we drug it up and down the road in back of our horses.
I'll be danged if it didn't fool the Yanks into thinking
we had a whole army on its way.
Hmm. Quince, as soon as it gets dark,
I want you to take both herds and move 'em down that valley.
The rest of us will take those rustled steers we found,
move 'em as far south as we can get 'em.
- Uh, Mr. Yates? - Hmm?
Mr. Colby, wh-what about me?
I'd... I'd like to go with you.
We don't have time to fight old wars.
(sighs) Now, once we get these rustled steers
as far south as we can get 'em...
Mint...
Simon, Jed...
Flintlock and myself...
♪♪
Welcome to the party.
♪♪
Anything doing, Major?
Not yet.
- All set? - Yeah. Let's go!
They've started!
All right, the hook's baited!
Let's see if Aberdeen swallows it!
Mr. Aberdeen?
There's something funny going on.
There. That cloud of dust near the alkali flats.
Yeah, you're right.
They knew they couldn't move their herd across the ford.
Now they're moving them into the next county,
right into Red River County, Texas!
Mount up!
We're going cow hunting!
The duke's ridden out!
Okay, move 'em out!
(shouting, whistling)
(cattle lowing)
♪♪
WISHBONE: All right, here they come!
Right over the hill. They're coming in.
Take out, boys!
♪♪
You four, go with the Kid.
Rest of you with me.
(cattle lowing)
(neighs)
Hold it!
Hey, Colby!
(grunts)
-(cattle lowing) -(men shouting, whistling)
♪♪
- Hyah! - Hyah!
♪♪
Okay, I don't think we're gonna make it, Major.
(men shouting, cattle lowing)
Hyah! Hyah!
Hold it!
This one's mine. Leave him to me.
Hold it, Duke.
ABERDEEN: That's far enough.
Look, by this time, the herd's already forded the Red.
What do you got to gain?
Satisfaction!
I warned you to stay out of this fight, but you threw in
-with that reb, anyway! -(gunshot)
(gunshot)
All right, what do you have to fight for now?
Why'd he do that?
Hate.
I guess he figured he had reason to hate.
Maybe. Maybe so.
But hate's something you either bury, or it buries you.
♪♪
When we crossed that river and I knew we were in Arkansas,
-I almost kissed the ground. - Yeah, I know what you mean.
All right, here you are, have some of this.
Hot off the fire. Watch your fingers there.
Oh, beautiful. Thanks.
COURT: Oh, that's... that's elegant eatin'.
(laughter)
What's so funny?
MAN: Oh, beautiful.
That's one of Wishbone's specials.
Yankee Pot Roast, right?
WISHBONE: Right.
COLBY: Here, have another one of Wishbone's specialties--
some real genuine Southern corn pone.
(laughter, whooping)