Arizona Page #3

What's that?

There's a wagon train come in headed

for California and I'm joining up with it.

When?

Sundown.

Well, sundown's a good time to leave.

Indians don't hanker much

for night fighting.

But why in tarnation

do you want to go to California?

I better not tell you.

I'm asking you, why?

All right...

I'm going to California

because I want to see it.

Well, I'll be doggoned!

I figure it sounds kind of crazy...

to most people...

going to California just to see it.

But there's a gallivanting bug in my blood...

and that's the way I am.

Here I am offering you just the kind of job

you said you wanted...

and you talk about travelling 700 miles

to go sightseeing.

Well, it ain't that I don't want to work.

There's something I got to do first.

What can you do in California

you can't do here?

Lie down under a shade tree.

Well, run me ragged.

I'll be heading back this way, though,

when that gallivanting fever goes out of me.

Because I'm sort of fond of you.

It doesn't matter to me

whether you come back or not.

Now, listen, don't act like that.

We both know we're partial to each other.

And the best thing I can do is...

get the wandering done

while it won't do no harm.

Will you be watching

when we leave tonight?

I don't know. Maybe, maybe not.

There's only one more thing to be said.

When I come back this way,

it will probably be to settle down for good...

and I'll be looking for you.

We're leaving from the Plaza.

Well, I'll be dogged.

Remember the name, Peter Muncie.

Come back, Peter Muncie.

Phoebe...

there's crazy talk around town

you're going into the freighting business.

There is nothing crazy about it.

Ward...

some day Warner and I'll have a train that'll

make yours look like a lop-wheeled shay.

And people will be getting their goods

at fair prices.

Maybe.

And maybe some day when you're running

the freighting business...

I'll be baking pretty pies.

You got a lot to learn, Phoebe.

Turn off to the feed store

and start unloading.

- Terry!

- Yes, ma'am.

The next two go to Warner's.

You two go to Warner's.

I got four barrels of salt fish for you,

Sam, the best you can get.

- Fine. You're back early.

- Yeah.

- Terry.

- Yes, ma'am.

Take care of Meyer's and the restaurant.

Have Steve unload at Hughes

and send the last wagon over to my place.

Yes, Miss Phoebe.

You see that, Ward?

Eight wagons top-heavy with freight.

You'd better start baking those pies.

Phoebe freighting

and telling you to bake pies.

That sure would be comical,

you baking pies.

Yeah, wouldn't it?

Two days early. Phoebe, you're a wonder.

No Indian trouble?

We had a little brush with 10 Apaches...

but they hightailed it

before we could fire our second shots.

Sol...

I got a real buy in Yuma.

Eight of the fanciest cast-iron stoves

you ever saw.

- Cast-iron stoves!

- Yeah.

Phoebe, where in tarnation

can we sell eight stoves?

There'll be women coming in here...

and women from the East

want to do their cooking in the house.

In the next five years,

I'll bet you sell 100 stoves.

I'll live to be 90

and won't even sell two stoves.

Well, what else did you get I didn't order?

Oh, fancy bolt cloth, needles...

Needles you can sell for five cents apiece.

Phoebe, you're a caution.

Sol, we're going to make more money

than we ever dreamed of, and honest.

And remember this.

Soon as I get enough for my ranch...

I'm going to turn this whole business

over to you...

and I'm going to settle down

to raise cattle and a family.

You need a husband for that.

I know where I can get one.

Things are coming our way fast, aren't they?

Faster than we ever hoped.

Well, that's usually the time

to start pulling in your belt.

You talk like an old squaw.

Yes, sir, things are breaking

just the way I want them.

Say, what day of the month is this?

12th. April 12th.

Message from Maj. Gen. Lynde, sir.

At ease.

Go to the mess hall.

Tell them my orders are that you are to have

anything you want to eat and drink.

Thank you, sir.

- Lt. Chapin.

- Yes, sir.

Well, here it is. War.

Our orders are to abandon

and destroy our post...

to burn everything between

the Colorado and the Rio Grande...

that might be food for the rebels.

"March out with your guns loaded...

"and do not permit any citizen

within three miles of your lines."

There they go...

the only law and order and protection

we have known in the Arizona Territory.

Who could believe that we would be

cast aside by our own government?

That wanton acts of destruction

are being committed by soldiers...

to whom we look for security.

At this very moment, gentlemen...

we are being officially abandoned by

the Army of the United States of America.

What grand reward for those of us

who raised that flag in childish loyalty.

Grain fields are being destroyed...

livestock butchered...

and by these traitorous acts...

the government has demonstrated

that it considers us...

its own citizens, enemies, unworthy to live.

- You're right.

- Yes.

Well, what are we going to do about it?

Stay here and be massacred

by the Apaches...

in a hopeless struggle

to save what we have built?

No!

Mr. Oury...

am I hearing right?

Are you talking about giving Arizona

back to the Indians?

That's one way of saying it, Phoebe.

Like Oury says...

it's better to leave what we built here than

get our bones picked clean by buzzards.

What did you ever build?

Help me up there, Grant.

Men...

I know this hits all of us pretty hard.

We all sort of figured the Union troops

might have to leave us...

to fight in the war back east.

But we didn't want to think about it.

So now it's happened.

And the first thing you do

is start hollering uncle.

Why do you want to quit now?

Miss Phoebe, I'd follow you head-on

into a barrelled cactus...

but there's some shenanigans

that oughtn't to be did...

like staying on here for one thing.

Terry's right. We'd be fools

to stay around here with the Army gone.

I'm leaving tonight!

Gentlemen, may I have your attention.

Gentlemen, a little courtesy, please.

If you please, gentlemen, if you please.

Thank you very much.

I'd say, gentlemen...

that this lady has made you look...

like a bunch of mice.

Who are you to have an opinion?

Jefferson Carteret.

You're quite fortunate

that I just arrived by stage...

because it's obvious that this town

could use a little backbone right now.

Much obliged, Mr. Carteret.

Men...

we didn't come to Arizona

for peace and quiet.

We came here because it's in our blood

to be where there's a hard life to be lived.

We've always been that way.

Why do you want to run out

because the government has quit?

- I'm staying, Phoebe.

- Here, here.

I was never leaving.

I wasn't worried about you men...

but what about all the rest of you out there?

Who's staying?

All right, Miss Phoebe, consider me swayed

by the will of the people.

Next election we have,

you'll be swayed plenty.

We'll stay, won't we?

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