Slow West Page #9

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SILAS:

They’re bounty hunters. You know

what that means?

JAY:

They hunt bounty?

SILAS rummages in his saddlebag and pulls out the wanted

poster

SILAS:

They hunt Rose. Daddy. Blood. Money

SILAS passes JAY the poster, now sodden from the flood andbreaking apart

JAY takes a long hard look at the drawing of ROSE and at thewords DEAD or ALIVE

JAY:

Wanted .. Dead or ..

SILAS:

Dead or dead, kid

53.

JAY takes a BEAT to process

JAY:

And I’m leading them to her

JAY passes the poster back to SILAS

JAY (CONT’D)

We’ll lead them South

SILAS shakes his head

SILAS:

There will be others

JAY:

Others?

SILAS:

Two thousand dollars entices a

certain breed of undesirable

JAY takes a good hard look at SILAS

JAY:

And just what breed are you ?

SILAS thinks about striking JAY but changes his mind

He mounts his horse, looking into the forest

Silverghost is a silver birch forest, white trees and green

leaves make it look inviting

SILAS:

Local tribes call this forest ‘the

place of spirit trees’, trapperscall it ‘Silverghost’ - Legend has

it, folks go in, they don’t come

out

JAY climbs on his pony

SILAS (CONT’D)

Least we may shed the superstitiousfrom PAYNE'S company

PAYNE and his company still stand in a row at the top of thehill

SILAS and JAY, their horses still tied together with thewashing line, ride into the forest

54.

60 EXT - TOP OF THE HILL - DAY 60

The posse watch SILAS and JAY ride into the forest

SKELLY:

Ah God damn you Silas

CUT TO:

61 INT - PIONEER HOME - DAY 61

ROSE is clearing the table, JOHN polishes a horseshoe, KOTORIdrinks his coffee

A knock at the door

JOHN signals ROSE and KOTORI to sit at the table

JOHN gets up reaches for the rifle above the door

JOHN:

Who be it ?

ROSE signals for KOTORI to move into ROSE’s little bedroom

VICTOR (V.O.)

Victor Self.. Reverend Victor Self

Victor has a well spoken English accent, clear and polite

JOHN lays the gun down when he hears the word ‘Reverend’

VICTOR (V.O.)

Sorry to bother you, looking for achap by the name of Parker..

JOHN opens the door to VICTOR

VICTOR removes his hat, it is the very same man SILAS saw

outside the trading post. Hawklike features, black suit,

white dog collar, black hat

This is the sharp shooting bounty hunter, VICTOR THE HAWK

VICTOR:

James Parker

JOHN takes a second to think

JOHN:

No Parkers here minister, won’t you

come in

JOHN opens the door wide, revealing to VICTOR’S POV, ROSE,

standing pointing the rifle at him

55.

VICTOR:

Sir I thank you, but decline

VICTOR nods behind JOHN

JOHN turns to see ROSE pointing the gun at VICTOR

JOHN lunges at ROSE and grabs the gun

JOHN ROSS:

Rose!

JOHN ROSS places the gun back up on the nails above the door

JOHN ROSS (CONT’D)

I’m sorry minister

VICTOR smiles

VICTOR:

The Good Lord has me on an errand -

Bless you and your lovely wife

JOHN ROSS:

My daughter

VICTOR:

Ah .. Good day sir

VICTOR places his hat back on his head, turns and walks off

JOHN ROSS walks onto the porch, ROSE follows, they both standstaring at VICTOR as he rides off

JOHN ROSS:

Heavens above Rose, Scotland is far

far away. Nobody knows where weare. Nobody knows who we are

ROSE:

He knows I’m your daughter, I’mcalled Rose.. And he knows we’re

here

JOHN ROSS:

He was sent by providence. The Lordsensed my wavering faith. Rain iscoming

JOHN ROSS turns and walks into the house, leaving ROSE on theporch to watch VICTOR ride into the distance

She knows trouble is coming

ROSE turns into the house and shuts the door

CUT TO:

56.

62 EXT - SILVER BIRCH FOREST - DAY 62

JAY and SILAS wind through the silver birch trees ofSilverghost

The forest is oddly quiet, lacking of bird song or the chirpof crickets

JAY and SILAS are still in their long johns and haveforgotten about the washing line - their clothes now draggingalong the ground

JAY:

Thou shall not be afraid of any

terror of night, nor for the arrow

that flyeth by day. For the

pestilence that waketh in Darkness,

nor for the sickness that

destroyeth in the noon day. (Psalm

of David)

SILAS responds

SILAS:

“O'er all there hung the shadow of

fear, a sense of mystery the spirit

daunted, and said as plain as a

whisper in the ear, this place is

haunted" (page 200 Ambrose Bearce)

JAY is taken aback by SILAS sudden poetic knowledge

CUT TO:

63 EXT - CLEARING IN THE SILVER BIRCH FOREST - DAY 63

SILAS, now back in dry trousers, picks up his shirt from thewashing line rope and shakes the leaves from it. We see therope still ties the two horses together

JAY thinks he sees something move in the trees

He wanders into the middle of the clearing

A superbly camouflaged figure in between the trees pulls backthe string of a bow

JAY sees the movement but not the figure

JAY:

Silas .. The trees are moving

SILAS turns to look but sees nothing

57.

SILAS:

It’s called a hangover kid. You’llget used to it

The figure, a NATIVE AMERICAN, is painted to look like asilver birch tree

His bow is drawn and his arrow points at JAY

His tribe must be the reason why ‘men come in to Silverghostdon’t come out’

The arrow is released with a whizz

JAY instinctively raises his hands to cover his face

The arrow shoots right through the palm of JAY’s hand and

stops an inch before his forehead

JAY holds up his hand with the arrow stuck clean through it.

First disbelief, then panic, then pain

SILAS wanders over

Behind SILAS and JAY, TWO MORE NATIVES dart from the trees

and leap on their horses, and gallop past SILAS and JAY

SILAS and JAY can only watch

The washing line rope is still tied between the horses and

drags along the ground

The NATIVES pass each side of a tree, the rope snaps tight

around the base of the trunk, bringing the horses to anabrupt stop and trowing the natives into the air

One lands with a roll and runs off in disbelief, the other

smacks into a tree and lands with a thud and is knocked out

cold

SILAS and JAY can’t quite believe what they’ve seen, saved bythe rope..

The NATIVE who fired the arrow at JAY cannot believe it

either, not seeing the rope and thinking magic involved, hedrops his bow and arrow and runs off into the forest

JAY grabs SILAS, the arrow in the hand still a slight issue

SILAS smiles

SILAS (CONT’D)

Nice catch

SILAS snaps the head off the arrow and pulls the remaining

arrow out

58.

JAY yelps in pain

SILAS pats JAY on the back

SILAS (CONT’D)

We’ll fix you up on the way

CUT TO:

64 EXT - WHEATFIELD IN FRONT OF PIONEER HOUSE - DAY 64

In front of the Ross house is a small golden wheatfield ,

about a hundred meters square

In the middle stands a ragged scarecrow

At the back of the wheatfield, crouched low, facing the house

is VICTOR THE HAWK

He opens the long case (SILAS noted at the trading post) and

in it a long rifle, snug in red velvet, and a neat row ofbullets

This rifle has a sight attached for distance shooting

VICTOR gently lifts the rifle up and looks across the field

About fifty yards to the left of the house JOHN ROSS is

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