Lonely Are the Brave Page #2

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My name's Burns.

What's the matter, cowboy?

I only got one arm.

You ain't afraid to fight

a one-armed man, are you?

You know, a fella can get hurt

falling backwards off a chair?

Are you positive it's

me you want, amigo?

I'm not afraid of you, cowboy.

I don't give a damn

how many arms you grow.

If you're not satisfied

with the arm you've got,

why don't you chop it off?

I lost that arm in Okinawa.

What did you do?

Oh, I didn't do anything.

Let's have a drink and talk it over.

You're afraid, you cobarde.

Never call a man that, no

matter what. Never do it.

I might kill you for

calling me a thing like that.

Just stand where you are, boys.

This fella wants action,

I'll be glad to accommodate him.

Do it one arm behind my back.

If any of you boys

interfere, I use two hands.

All right, maldito.

Use your left arm, amigo.

BARTENDER:
Give me the police.

Listen to me, you...

Not two hands!

One arm, amigo.

You fight with your left hand,

just like him. See, mister?

MAN:
He had to use both hands.

That's him. The cowboy on the bottom!

Okay, the fight's over. Break it up.

Hey, I'm down here. Hurry up, will you?

JACK:
Geez! Come on.

All right, cowboy, let's go.

I thought you guys never would get here.

MAN 1:
Okay, cowboy.

MAN 2:
Come back again, amigo!

Okay, Joe, can him.

Cell blocks are full. Have

to throw him in the tank.

This way, Pop. Just

because I got no money,

that's a crime?

Called vagrancy.

All it does is fill your belly

and keep you off the streets

for a night or two. Yeah, yeah.

King of England don't

carry no money, either.

Would you arrest him if he showed

up in this stinking gut-trap

cesspool of a pest house

passing for a town, would you?

Can it talk?

I can talk all right.

Identification?

He hasn't got any.

Tobacco, matches, $6 in bills,

38 cents in change, pocket

knife, and a dried-up ear.

An ear?

Yeah, looks like a bull's ear.

You mean to say you got

no identification at all?

That's right.

No draft card, no social security?

No discharge, no insurance,

no driver's license?

No nothing?

No nothing.

Look, cowboy, you can't go

around without identification.

It's against the law. How are

people gonna know who you are?

I don't need a card to figure

out who I am. I already know.

Okay, who are you?

John W. Burns.

Jack for short.

You sure of that?

Sure enough to bet you

can't prove I'm anybody else.

Where do you live?

Anywhere I feel like.

Now, what the devil does that mean?

Well, it means I don't have any address.

You've got to. Where do your folks live?

Missouri.

Occupation?

Sure.

Well, what is it?

Cowhand.

You a veteran?

Wasn't everybody who could stand

up straight for five minutes

without falling over backwards?

Yeah, just about.

What's the charge? Drunk?

And disorderly.

Meira's Bar on North Highland Road.

Fight?

Him and Lopato. Good one.

That one-armed guy?

Cowboy here was using one arm, too.

You shouldn't have tangled

with that fella, cowboy.

He's mean. He could have stuck you.

That all you got against him?

That's it.

Look, we're loaded today.

Even the tanks are full.

This fellow's sobering up pretty quick.

What do you say we turn him loose?

Okay by me. Let him go, Phil.

PHlL:
Okay. DEPUTY: We

just answered a call.

You mean you're going to turn me loose?

When I'm in a condition like this?

That's right, cowboy.

Look, you just go wherever

you're staying and sleep it off.

Okay, but first I'm going back there

and I'm gonna kill that one-armed

leftover from a pig litter!

Get your arms off me, flat foot!

MAN:
What's he doing?

Hey!

Tobacco,

$6.38,

one pocketknife,

one dry ear.

MAN 1 :
Oh, you son of a gun...

MAN 2:
Get your foot out of my...

JACK:
You guys are supposed to be...

MAN 1:
He wants it the hard way.

One dry, pointed ear.

Here's a receipt for what

you brought in. Can him.

Tank?

Yeah. Run him through the showers first.

You know something, buddy.

From a ten-day common drunk,

you've built yourself up to a year.

Congratulations.

Good afternoon, Miss Kennedy.

Good afternoon, Mr. Johnson.

Oh, Mrs. Johnson called.

She wants you to remember that

shopping list she gave you.

All right.

Busy, Floyd?

Sure gave me a start, there, Sheriff.

Put that comic away.

Remember that girl on Lead Hill

they found belly-down in the road

with a knife in her back, and

the coroner called it suicide?

Sure. Day before yesterday.

I want you to drive out and

serve a writ on that coroner,

then turn around and come straight back.

Don't I get to stop

off for a bite first?

No, and button your pants.

Hi, Morey.

Harry.

That dog.

Same fire plug, same time every day.

You'd think he was under contract.

Red light's going, Harry. Have

you got any time for the machine?

Machine? Right.

This is CS-1, over.

Roger, Highway Patrol. CS-1 out.

Yep.

Got Caruso's new barber

pole third day in a row.

It's on the route now.

Don't know how he does it.

What was that signal, Harry?

Signal? State Highway

Patrol. Just a routine check.

Locate McNeill, wherever he is,

send him out for chewing gum.

McNeill? Right.

When I tell you to watch

that machine of yours,

you say, "Machine? Right."

When I give you a message for

McNeill, you say, "McNeill? Right."

There's something about the

way you make a question of it

and then say, "Right,"

that gets on my nerves.

Nerves?

Right.

Head count.

GUARD:
Open it up, Bob.

Got another customer.

GUARD:
Right in here.

Okay, boys, relax.

When is suppertime around here, anyway?

Brother, if I was in your condition,

I would pay less attention to the flesh

and more to the salvation

of my eternal soul.

REVEREND:
And believe me, I

know whereof I'm talking about,

you poor abandoned Philistine, you.

The temptations of the flesh.

I fought 'em my whole life through.

Then how come you're in here, Reverend?

I said I fought 'em. I

didn't say I fought 'em off.

Sometimes I lost.

But believe me, it takes a

lot more to tempt a preacher

than it does you stumblebums in here.

When I lost, I lost big!

You a real preacher, Reverend?

REVEREND:
Well, now,

let's look at it this way.

Always had the urge to preach.

And if you got the urge,

you're already halfway home.

What kept you from getting all the way?

My temptation was women.

You ain't a preacher any more

than I'm a sway-backed goose.

And I don't think

you've got sense enough

to pound sand in a rabbit hole.

You are not in a state of grace.

Hi, Paul.

Jack.

You old son of a gun.

Glad to see you, fella.

So am l.

What happened to your face?

Oh, a bunch of guys I ran into

down in some saloon gave it a new look.

Guess they didn't like the old one.

Come on, let's sit over here.

All right, let's have it.

You didn't get into a fight,

you picked one, didn't you?

Me, pick a fight?

You're a great guy, Jack.

Oh, sure.

The only man on Earth who'd break

in to jail just to see an old friend

off to the penitentiary.

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