Hickok Page #4

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- Let's, uh, make this drink

for long nights of no rest.

- Little Arkansas,

I'm callin' you out.

I'll be in the street waitin'.

- Well, sorry about

that rude interruption.

Save the last dance for me.

- Drop your guns

or I'm gonna arrest you.

- You want my guns?

Okay.

Take 'em.

- What you lack in sense,

you certainly make

up for in gumption.

Don't you know anythin'?

I invented the

road agent's spin.

- I didn't know you

were that old, marshal.

- Well, it's a funny thing.

Older I get,

the more I learn.

- Well, if you'd like

to keep learnin',

I'd holster that

pistol of yours.

- Notice my hammer tied back?

If something should happen

to cause my thumb to slip,

you will catch a bullet

right between your eyes.

- Well, I can't see what

good it's gonna do me

to surrender my guns,

if you're just gonna go ahead

and shoot me in the back

the second I turn and walk away.

- You have been

misinformed, sir.

I never shoot a man in the back.

How 'bout a compromise?

What do you say to a drink?

- I say all right.

You know, there's a rumor

going around about you,

says that you were a

Yankee spy during the war.

- It was a stupid war.

- Well,

you know the only way you're

gonna get these guns off me,

marshal, is if ya kill me.

- I'm considerin' it.

If I let you loose,

pretty soon every

bowlegged son of a b*tch

is gonna be wearin'

his guns, too.

I can't allow that.

- I understand your problem.

I do.

It's just I ain't ready

to leave town yet,

and I sure as hell ain't

takin' these guns off.

- You remind me of someone.

- Well, he sounds handsome, who?

- It's not important.

The point is, you got potential.

You just might do.

- Do what?

You want me to be a lawman?

- Pay is a $100 a month,

a lot more than a drover makes.

What do ya say, little Arkansas?

- Well, I say Poe offered me

$500 for just one day of work.

- There's two ways you're

leavin' this office

wearin' those guns of yours,

feet first,

or wearin' that badge.

- Can I ask you

somethin', marshal?

- Mm-hmm.

- Why do you call me Arkansas?

- 'Cause if you were

John Wesley Hardin,

we'd have to hang you.

- Arkansas it is.

- I usually take a different

route on these patrols,

keep the bushwhackers guessin'.

- Why the shotgun?

Seems to me a rifle would

be a little more accurate.

- Well, this here's what I

call preventative medicine.

Sawed-off filled

with blue whistles

is a mighty fine deterrent.

- Well, I've never had to

shoot twice at the same man.

- There's somethin' you gotta

learn about gunfightin'.

- Oh, yeah, what's that?

- No matter how fast you are,

there's always someone faster.

The more you use your gun,

the sooner you're gonna

run into that man.

- I reckon I still got some

time before I meet that man.

- Last chance, hand

'em over, Arkansas.

- Come get it, marshal!

- Bang, bang, bang, bang,

bang, bang, bang!

- You wanna come upstairs?

- Not tonight, darlin'.

Much obliged.

- Consider it done.

- There's a lot of vagrancy

in this part of town.

Keep your eyes skinned.

The lawman has no friends

and few sympathizers.

A momentary benevolence

can prove fatal.

I don't intend to die of

an excess of benevolence.

- Well, I don't think you got...

- you see him?

- See him, I got him.

You can't see him?

- Yeah, yeah, I can see him.

- You know this dandy here?

- Yeah, I know him.

- Well, we're lucky he's about

as accurate a shooter as you.

- You just killed

an old man, marshal.

Time for you to meet your maker.

- I'll see you in hell, Hickok!

- I wanna help the

marshal patrol!

Ow!

- I want you to stay

away from wild bill.

You are not to see or

speak to that man again.

You hear me?

Do you hear me?

- Whenever I look into

a light of any kind,

it's edged with halos,

bright as January sun dogs.

- Well, ya have a film

over your eyes,

and it'll be all

right for a while,

but in five years.

- In five years what?

- Total blindness.

I can't help you,

but you can help yourself.

You're at a point where

you can make a decision,

and you must make a decision.

You can take the path of a

boy, reckless and careless

and stupid,

or you can take a higher road

and become a man.

- Become a man by

plowin' fields, huh?

Is that what you're suggesting?

- Look, bill, get an

easier profession,

start leading a

different kind of a life.

- This is all I've been

good at my whole life, doc.

What am I gonna do?

- You cannot ignore this, bill.

You must not ignore it,

'cause it isn't gonna go away.

- All right.

I'd appreciate it if you kept

this information to yourself.

- You're a patient.

I'm a doctor.

Strictly confidential.

- This stays confidential,

or your wife's gonna

end up a widow, doc.

I'm serious, doc.

I seen you with the drinking.

When you drink, you talk.

- You wear a badge.

I'm a doctor.

It's strictly

confidential, trust me.

I took an oath.

- Okay, well you

remember your oath,

and you keep your mouth shut.

Thanks for the good news.

- I got somethin' I

want you all to do.

I want you all to spread the

word that that son of a b*tch

is moon-blind.

He can't see in

the goddamn dark.

Hello, Fred.

- Mr. Poe.

- Moon-blind.

Can ya handle that?

- Yeah, boss.

We got that.

- Go on.

How are you, Fred?

- Very good, sir.

Name your poison.

- Well, I'll have, uh, a

barrel of the old Kentuckian,

and then, uh, half-dozen

barrels of the usual.

- One old Kentuckian and just,

just a half-dozen barrels?

- Half dozen, Fred.

- Say, Mr. Poe, uh,

did a bill Hickok come

through here recently?

They call him, uh, wild bill.

- Name sounds familiar.

- Well, Hickok was acquainted

to a relative of mine,

uh, a miss Mattie silks.

She was engaged to some

fancy fella, if I remember.

- Mr. Poe's also engaged,

but the lady's name is

Lyles, Mattie Lyles.

- Lyles?

Well, that was

Mattie's mother's name.

Hmm.

Thank you, Mr. Poe.

- What do you want?

- Well, I,

I brought a present for the boy.

A walking stick, useful

for getting around.

Also, useful against

bloodthirsty savages.

- Wow, thanks!

- You're welcome.

And for the lady of the

house, fresh-cut flowers,

all the way from Kansas City.

- Joey, give it

back, it's dangerous.

- Ah, mom.

- Now!

- Yes, ma'am.

- Tend to your chores.

- Do as your mother says, boy.

- Yes, sir.

- Your flowers are also

unwelcome and a mistake.

- You're the one makin'

a mistake, Mattie.

You can't marry that man.

I'm begging you.

- Well, it's my mistake,

and it ain't my

first one either.

- As I recall, I was

your first mistake.

- I'm not proud of that,

or the life I led, but that

all ended once I had Joey.

- I still care for you, Mattie.

I know you care for me.

- You need to leave.

Poe will be here soon.

Whatever shortcomin's

he may have,

he's punctual.

- What about last night?

- It never happened.

- Mattie.

- Sit down.

Had a long talk with an

old friend of yours today.

Fred Finley.

So, tell me, miss Lyles,

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