Man in the Wilderness

Come on, get up!

Get up!

We'll never make it back to the river

pulling this hulk.

- Why do we do it?

- For gold, that's why.

Them beaver pelts are solid gold.

I'm sorry, sir. I missed mine.

Maybe my gun ain't sighted proper.

I know.

You got a lead on a running animal.

Ain't that right, Mr. Bass?

Sorry, sir.

Sorrow never helped anyone, boy.

Take that one back to camp.

The other can't be far.

Captain Henry!

Captain Henry!

Come on, you louts.

Come on. Give me that gun.

Ferris. Where's Ferris?

The barber,

he went back for his tools.

Ferris! Ferris!

Coming, Captain Henry.

I thought we was being attacked

by those bleeding Indians again.

I've brought me kit in case

one of those ignorant gits got hurt.

Oh. Bass.

At least he's left us enough meat

to get to the river.

- He's good as dead, sir.

- Sew him up.

Sir, I'm a surgeon,

not a bloody undertaker.

So long as God's breath is left in him...

All right, Captain.

I'll sew him up, make him look pretty.

He ain't going to look like new.

Here, some of you pork-knockers,

help me get him down near the water.

Take it easy, lads.

He's only got one more river to cross.

Charon's waiting.

Come on, then.

This one's all right.

Look at his chest.

How come a good hunter like Zach

tangled with a bear?

For a man who fought the demon whale,

to be killed by a grizzly...

He went in the brush

after a gut-shot critter.

Eh?

Well, it was my shot.

It was just too high.

Well?

Broken leg, sir,

three busted ribs, umpteen abrasions.

And he's lost enough blood

to drain a barrel.

Don't know what's keeping him breathing.

Oh, here's Zach's map

what we're traveling by, sir.

We must move on or the Indians will start

making our decisions for us.

Two years' work will go for nothing.

Zach's good as dead.

Can't risk all our lives staying here.

You're not going to leave him here alive,

are you, sir?

I want two men to stay behind

and bury him.

Here, give me the book.

I want two men to stay behind

and bury him.

Maybe it was partly my fault.

That's a...

- That's a rare fine rifle of Zach's, Captain.

- I'll take that rifle.

Well, can I have what's left?

You'd take the pennies

off your dead mother's eyes, Fogarty.

What are you squalling about? Eh?

It's me going on the line, ain't it?

Me and the kid!

All right. That's enough. Move out.

- Well, what if he ain't dead by morning?

- Kill him.

- Did Zach have any kin, sir?

- None he ever spoke of.

Lowrie,

I want you to say some words

over Zach's grave.

Say, "Zach fought against life all his life.

"Now his fight's with you, God."

That's where he always figured it was,

anyhow.

Repeat that.

"Zach fought against life all his life.

Now his fight's with you, God."

Cholera, it is God's

curse on sinners.

Then there's the son.

What sins would he be committing

at his age?

The poor little dolt.

Now he's an orphan.

He'll be a stranger in a strange land.

Are you going to let

the lad see his mother off?

Well, in God's name, it's his right, isn't it?

Zachary!

Zachary!

Zachary!

Zachary!

Let me in, Zachary. Open the door.

Nobody's going to hurt you now.

And, therefore,

commit her body to the deep,

turn into corruption,

looking for the resurrection of the body

when the sea shall give up her dead,

in the life of the world to come.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ,

who at his coming

shall change our vile body

that it may be like his glorious body

according to the mighty working, whereby

he is able to subdue all things to himself.

- Amen.

- Amen.

- It was God's will.

- Aye. It was God's will.

Damned Indians and their spirits

give me the creeps.

What he give him? A passport to hell?

Hey! Hey!

Get your ass in here. Dig his grave.

It'll be ready the minute he is.

Come on. Don't have to be deep.

Stay out of the open,

God damn it!

There's Indians and there's Indians,

but them Rickarees,

they're mean.

I seen a woman on the river

at Council Bluffs the Rees had worked on.

And her husband, they sat him on a stick

planted in the ground

and left him for the buzzards.

- And even worse than that, they got...

- Shut up!

It ain't natural, I tell you.

The way he hangs on like

a... Like a gut-shot wolf.

- I ain't never seen anybody like him.

- What the hell did you know about him?

- He was a fine man.

- Lf he learned you to hunt.

What did anybody know about Zach Bass?

Critter!

Mouse maybe.

God damn it!

A man ought to know when his time's up.

Hey!

Kid!

They've read signs.

They're backtracking that darn boat!

- Maybe they're just hunting meat.

- Them is man hunters not meat hunters.

When they move like that,

ain't hunting, just going.

- Zach told me.

- God damn you.

Say "Zach" to me again

and I'll leave you with him.

Christ! I told you. He ain't human.

You can't. They'll hear!

He's trying to talk.

He's trying to talk!

Yeah.

Well, you listen to him.

Come on, we got to read over him,

like the Captain said.

Let him read it his self

on the way to hell.

All his life

he fought... He fought against God.

I'm sorry, Mr. Bass.

Please, mister, I'm sorry.

This will be the Bible quiz.

Complete my questions.

Morton, what is God?

God is love.

Darby. The Lord, thy God...

Is a jealous God.

Montgomery Jr.

God's will...

Will be done on Earth as in heaven.

Zachary Bass, who made the world?

Bass?

Are we going through this again?

Repeat.

The Lord is my father in heaven.

Who made the world?

Answer, Bass!

Who made the world?

God, Bass!

God made the world.

Repeat!

God!

God!

God!

God!

God!

God made the world.

Kill him.

Put your backs in it.

The kingdom of heaven

is within you, as it is in all things.

The sea, the wind, the fields.

Have you never seen it?

Have you never felt it?

Sometimes I get the feeling

that you know some things

that nobody else knows.

I know you, sir.

There's not very much in that now.

It's not true.

It's everything.

Kingdom of heaven is within you,

as in all things.

In the sun.

In the sky.

Sea.

Have you never seen it?

Have you never felt it?

No. Never.

It's within you,

as it is within me now.

Your seed, it's... it's part of you.

It's God's gift.

Life... Feel it, Zach.

Isn't it a miracle?

- I don't feel a thing.

- Wait.

There.

It's your son.

Speak with him.

I think it's best I speak with you now,

'cause by the time you're born,

I won't be back.

I don't... I don't know very much.

But your mother knows, so you watch her.

Learn from her.

As for me, it's...

Well, it's best you imagine who I am.

Captain of some sailing ship.

A pirate, or some foreign king.

You've chosen to be born.

I don't know why

because it's hell here on Earth.

For that, I am truly sorry.

And that's about all.

Except, someday,

when someone points to you

and says there goes Zachary Bass' son,

I want you to think back

to our little chat.

And, remember, that though I wasn't here

when you both

might have needed me most,

I care for you, for both of you

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