Texas Page #3

- Thanks.

- Don't give it a thought, brother.

Here you are.

Get out of here.

Hi, boys. Hot, ain't it?

Give me a beer.

Beer.

Never mind about that beer.

Get your hands up.

Indians, huh?

Pretty smart, wasn't you? Who's smart now?

Listen, Sheriff...

No, you don't.

Come on out from behind that bar.

Get out from behind there.

- You're making an awful mistake.

- I ain't making any mistake.

Get his gun, Walt.

Keep him covered.

Ouch!

I told you you made a mistake.

Son, you'd better be careful now.

- This won't do, you know.

- Come on, turn around.

Get back all of you. Get back.

Move.

- If you like your sheriff, don't start anything.

- No, boys, don't start nothing.

- What's going on here?

- Out of the way, mister.

Don't argue with him.

It's my back he's got the gun into.

- Get out.

- He don't look dangerous. What'd he do?

Held up the southbound stage.

Move out of that door.

Wait a minute.

You got the wrong man, Sheriff.

If you got him.

- We caught his partner with the money.

- You did?

And there were no

Christmas trees out there either.

That's funny. I was on that stage

and he wasn't one of them.

How could you tell? They was all masked.

A mask only hides your face.

It doesn't change your voice

or the way your bones is hung together.

And I'll swear he wasn't one of them.

- What about it?

- The Doc's word's good enough for me.

But it's sure kind of queer.

It's this heat.

You can't believe what you see.

Can I have the gun?

Stubborn cuss.

Thanks, mister.

That was kind of a tough spot.

No sense in a man getting hung

for something he didn't do.

All this talking has made me kind of thirsty.

Come on.

Give me a bourbon.

- What'll you have?

- A cold glass of beer.

I guess it did look kind of bad to the sheriff

finding your partner with that money...

- after the stage was held up.

- I guess it did.

How'd you get it?

Me and my partner held up the bandits.

Then, when I was out

running down some beef...

the sheriff held up my partner.

So, I held up the sheriff.

Sounds like you was playing

some kind of a game.

It does, doesn't it?

Doc, can I come up to see you

this afternoon?

- Any time.

- Thanks.

Was you gonna return that money?

That was my partner's idea.

But you was going south with it, huh?

Sure I was,

till the sheriff took it away from us.

By George, I like an honest man.

What's your name?

- Dan Thomas. What's yours?

- Thorpe, Buford Thorpe. Call me Doc.

- You live around here?

- Nope.

- Got any relatives around here?

- Nope.

- Where you headed?

- No place.

What kind of work do you do?

I ain't particular. Anything that's a living.

Wait a minute, open your mouth.

Come on, open it wider.

It never fails.

I can always tell the way a man's eyes look.

- Tell what?

- When he has a bad bicuspid.

And that's as bad a bicuspid as I ever seen

in 30 years of dentistry.

Bet you've never felt a twinge of pain

from that molar yet, have you?

- No.

- You see? That's how bad it is.

That's the kind of tooth

that falls apart all at once.

Come on up to the office

and I'll fix it for you.

- Put that on the book, Walt.

- All right, Doc.

You sure you know how?

Son, I'm the best dentist in this town...

and there's only two ways

to be the best dentist in a town.

- One of them is to do the finest work.

- What's the other?

To be the only dentist.

I guess it's kind of hard

for an ex-soldier to make a living.

Everybody treats them well

when the war is on...

but when the war is over,

they're sort of out of place.

Get pushed around from pillar to post.

That's bad for a young fella.

It makes him sort of bitter.

Makes him disgusted with conditions.

It sure does.

Gonna be a lot of activity in cattle

around here...

now that the railroad up in Abilene

is finished.

How did you know

the railroad was finished?

Ain't it?

Seems to me I read somewhere

where they was gonna finish it this month.

Ain't they done with it yet?

I don't know, I was just asking.

That drill hurt?

I've had things done that felt better.

What'd you say?

I said, "I've had things done that felt better."

The dang drill's kind of dull.

Guess I'll have to get some new ones.

There you are.

There's a chance for a man

to make a lot of money down here...

if he can just get his beef up there.

- Is that so hard?

- It seems to be.

There you are, just bite your teeth together

and kind of grind them.

Spit the pieces out.

Rinse your mouth out.

Looks like I might be able to get a job.

You might at that, if you hit the right place.

Come in.

Hello, Matt.

- You want me to come back later, Doc?

- No, we're all through. Come on in.

Son, shake hands with Matt Lashan.

He's got as many cows

as the next man, I guess.

Glad to know you.

This is Dan Thomas.

Him and his partner is the ones...

that held up them stagecoach bandits

and recovered all that money.

That was a mighty fine piece of work.

This boy's full of fire and vinegar, Matt.

Only thing is, he's had a little trouble

finding a job and he's sort of disgusted.

Seems like there ought to be

something around here he could do.

You're gonna be needing more men,

ain't you...

now that all them cattle's

going up to Abilene?

- Why don't you put him on?

- I might at that.

Once the Doc gets through gnawing on me,

we'll talk it over.

Thanks.

Just wait in there.

Get in the chair here, Matt.

Doc, I meant to tell you.

I'll have to work this out.

I don't have any money.

It's only a dollar.

Pay me out of your first month's wages.

How's them sore teeth treating you?

Doc, this one on the right...

Tennessee, will you learn a new tune?

I been listening to that same thing forever

and I'm tired of it.

A steer bell's the same thing

and you don't get tired of it, do you?

I don't have to bunk in the same room

with a steer.

You couldn't anyway.

The steer wouldn't let you.

Evening.

Matt Lashan said I was to bunk here.

I'm a new hand.

Come on in.

He'd have brought me down himself,

only he said you'd take good care...

We'll take very good care of you.

Ain't it a small world, though.

Stand still.

Keep those hands right where they are.

Where's that $10,000?

- Can we talk this over?

- Not tonight.

Go get his gun, Tennessee.

Don't shoot. I'm here.

Go after him.

I got him.

Get him inside.

Somebody get a light.

Get him down.

What's the matter with you?

What's going on here?

- Why didn't you say who you were?

- What do you think I was trying to do?

- We thought you were somebody else.

- You mean me?

Nice little reception you had fixed up for me.

But I didn't think it would turn out

quite like this.

All right, drop those guns.

Move back in that corner.

Come on, get moving.

Wait a minute, Thomas. Don't be in a rush.

The boys that work for me

got pretty good jobs.

We'd kind of like to have you stay,

join the family, wouldn't we, boys?

- But that's the fella that held us up.

- I know. That's why I hired him.

There's an empty bunk right over there,

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