Fort Worth Page #2

But that won't save your hide.

[C*CKS GUN]

[LAUGHS]

Don't fire that gun!

Don't, you fool!

It'll stampede the cattle!

[FIRES]

[CATTLE LOWING]

[]

Ride for the herd!

Hyah!

Clevenger.

One of his killers.

[CATTLE GROANING]

BRITT:

Stampede.

Stay off the prairie.

Your wagons are your only cover.

Get to them, under or in them.

Luther, guard that press

with your mortal body!

WOMAN:

Let's get out of here!

[CROWD SHOUTING]

[]

[SCREAMS]

Mr. Britt, Mr. Britt!

Toby, come here!

Here!

Get back, Toby.

Toby, get under.

Get under!

[WOMAN SCREAMS]

[WOMAN SCREAMS]

Hyah! Hyah! Hyah!

[]

Toby.

Mrs. Nickerson...

you'll have to go on alone.

They killed Toby.

What are you gonna do about it?

Destroy them.

With words?

If you wanna call it that.

I'm glad my father

can't hear you now.

He shot men just for

topping his herds.

And so did you, Ned Britt.

I've learned better.

You. The man

I used to worship.

You and Blair, because together

you could whip

all Tarrant County.

Sure, I could step out there

and kill Clevenger men,

and get killed doing it.

You afraid of getting killed?

What have they done to you, Ned?

Why don't you grow up?

I've seen killings,

death by wholesale,

but I found something

in the blood and dirt of it.

A little Southern newspaper

that kept pounding away

at the truth,

about the lost cause and

the lives we're paying for it.

That's sane truth.

It took courage

in those crazy days.

It was a hated truth.

But it shaped opinion

that taught me.

That the presses are

a thousand times more potent

than gunpowder.

I doubt if Blair will...

quite know you.

[]

[]

Well, I'll be danged.

People coming in

instead of moving out.

Fort Worth.

Ha!

Cough real hard, and you'd

blow the place down.

We had big dreams here,

till the panic hit us.

Somebody ought to welcome 'em.

That's you, sheriff.

They look old enough to vote.

Hi, there.

It's Flora Talbot.

You bring settlers

with you, Florie?

They swung off the trail

to bring me.

[SALOON PIANO MUSIC PLAYS

IN BACKGROUND]

Blair...

You loon.

Getting loonier every day.

Figured maybe you jumped

the fence with some jayhawk.

No, but I brought one with me.

It can't be!

But it is!

Ned Britt,

that prodigal son of mine.

Fourteen years ain't done you

a bit of good, boy.

Hey, Flora, you told me

he was good-looking.

Well, this boy is

an awful sight.

Oh, I'm prettier than you.

I guess they don't carry 'em

up around Kansas.

Oh, I was spruce enough

till Clevenger's

bunch mussed me.

One of them tried some shooting.

They were after Ned.

Stampeded the herd, and...

And a boy was killed.

Something, at last,

to hang Clevenger.

Yes, sir,

Mr. Lunsford, but...

You arrest him when

he returns, hear me?

Ned will bear witness.

There were others there too.

This is Mr. Garvin,

Ned's partner.

Glad to know you.

And Luther Wickes.

I'll make a deposition.

There you go.

Everything's gonna be

all right with Ned here.

We're not staying in

Fort Worth, Blair.

What tune are you singing?

Ben and I need a town

with enough subscribers

to support a paper.

But this is your town, Ned.

Flora, bring his partner along.

We'll show 'em.

Come along,

Mr. Garvin.

Luther, you stay here

and guard that press.

You ought to let us know

you were coming.

We'd have had brass bands

and parties galore.

I have no ties here.

Old man Brooks

went into bankruptcy

like most of the people

in the town.

Only he didn't live

to suffer from it.

And his daughter, Amy?

She moved to greener pastures.

You never heard from her, Ned?

Once.

She returned

our engagement ring.

I got it at

the Battle of Five Forks

just before Richmond fell.

Forget her, Ned.

I have.

Here you are, gents.

Drink up.

Ned...

there's the world:

Texas.

You own Texas,

and you can buy the rest.

And here...

right here,

is where all its treasures

are gonna crisscross,

going east and west,

and north and south: Fort Worth.

Gents, you are standing on

the hub of the nation right now.

Uh... Your axle's

busted.

Well, you're dead right.

Mice are starving in this town.

My creditors look like

an army roll call.

But I'm giving it

to you dark, boys.

You see, Mr. Garvin,

I don't want anybody

who's looking for

a ready-made paradise.

I know Ned's courage.

I envied him out there,

fighting the battles.

You did your part.

We'd have starved

without you and your kind.

Let's be level, Ned.

They paid for my beef.

Oh, I put my head

on a block right enough...

running the gulf

and through the lines.

But when the war ended,

I had a small fortune.

That came without asking.

Well, I didn't think much

about it until it was all over.

And then I saw what I could do.

Bring the railroad in

and make this the richest

county in the state.

Unfortunately, the railway

company wasn't impressed.

"What have you got to

freight?" they said.

And Blair said, "Cattle.

We'll build a packing plant

and ship it all the way

from Fort Worth."

That's a great idea.

Is it, Ned?

Every cent I own is sunk in it.

An empty packing plant

big enough for Kansas City

right out there

on the outskirts of town.

Panic stopped

the railroad from coming in.

Why not haul to Dallas,

ship from there?

That's the remark

of a foreigner, Mr. Garvin.

Even if Dallas

wasn't cotton and industry,

we still wouldn't make 'em

a gift of our cattle business.

Oh, we'll do all right,

once we break

Clevenger's terrorizing.

He knows he'll have

no trail-driving contracts

once we get rails.

He keeps the panic going,

but we'll beat him.

Ned pulling double with me...

we can beat a dozen Clevengers.

And with your paper,

put some fat on the bones

of this town.

Enough to guarantee the freight

to bring the railroad to us.

[]

We'll make our noise

heard across the state.

We'll get us

our own governor in Austin.

You, Mr. Lunsford?

[CHUCKLES]

BLAIR:

Why not?

But I'll need your paper.

And I'll need your guns, Ned.

The whole suffering

county needs 'em.

Don't look, Blair.

He never wears them.

What?

What have they done to you, Ned?

Flora will tell you.

Come on, Ben.

Yes, go on.

Go as far south and west

as you like, Ned.

And I hope you hear the beating

of the hoofs of cattle

in your sleep.

I'd just as leave

set up shop here

if I didn't have a partner.

GARVIN:

Me.

And a penny newspaper.

Sounds cheap, don't it?

But a penny newspaper

can make or break

the millionaire's

dollar power on Earth,

turn the beam

on them that shine,

drive the vermin to their holes.

Why, I can bring

good people to this town

like moths drawn to the light.

That's kind of

high-flown, Ben.

Mind if I put it simpler?

No. Go ahead.

We're going to

delouse this burg.

Oh, Ned.

BLAIR:
You can pour me a drink on that,

Mr. Garvin.

[]

And you wasn't gonna let Britt

set up shop in Texas.

Their office is up the street.

We'll clean it out.

And have the papers

in Dodge City and Abilene

a-screamin' their lungs out

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