The Alamo Page #5

Last night gave you a pretty good idea

of the discipline of my men.

Our position here is desperate.

And I feel sure that where Crockett leads

his men will follow.

Yeah.

That's a responsibility that's...

been kinda worrying me.

Thank you, gentlemen.

I'm gonna pass the word around.

What you Texans use for

drinkin' whiskey... is drinkin' whiskey.

And what's more important,

you got real good manners...

...seein' how you suffer the handicap

of having never been in Tennessee.

Davy, is it true that you fit

a four-day fight with Mike Fink?

Why, that's a blasted lie!

One of them stories

loose-mouthed people tell around.

Mike and me quit at sundown!

Wouldn't have been the fourth day

until, uh... next morning.

See you, men!

Let her rip, Parson!

Seora Lpez.

Don Juan, this is Mr Davy Crockett.

- I'm honoured.

- How do you do?

Seor Seguin is the alcalde... I mean,

the mayor of San Antonio de Bexar.

He's got a pretty busy town.

People are running like sheep

that have smelled a wolf pack.

I never said no such a thing!

When us took that powder in there, that

fella Travis asked if us Tennesseans...

...was gonna join up with him. That's all.

He never asked us

to fight his fight for him.

- Have some breakfast.

- Breakfast?! Tortillas?

Tamale!

Never get burnt drinking this stuff.

Well, I only know part of Texas and

none of these Texicans is related to me...

...so why should I fight for them?

Right. Ain't our ox that's gettin' gored.

Talkin' about whose ox

gets gored... figure this.

A fella gets in the habit of goring oxes,

whets his appetite.

He may come up north next

and gore yours.

Men, we're in a little fix, sort of.

The he-bull around here -

General Santa Anna. He's mad at us.

Yeah?

He's wrote us a letter.

I can't read it. It's in Spanish.

But the young lady will.

It is addressed to Davy Crockett and

the Tennesseans who accompany him.

Be it known:

You are interlopers in a country where

you are neither wanted nor welcome.

This is the order you are given.

Depart with all haste and at once,

because it has come to our attention...

...that you are possibly considering joining

the rebels now skulking in the mission.

This is not your fight. Depart.

Should you fail to abide by this order...

...I shall chastise you even unto death.

Signed:
Generalissimo

Antonio Miguel de Santa Anna.

Huh!

Fella kinda fancies himself, don't he?

Sure does have a big-sounding name.

Givin' us orders. Who do he think he am?

Andy by God Jackson?

Riles me when somebody tells me

to go here or I can't go there.

I ain't never been run out of no place!

Except the time my old paw

kicked me over every acre...

...of that half-section back there in Ohio.

But I was just a shirt-tail kid then.

My paw had big feet.

What do you say, Davy?

Are we gonna let this man...

...tell us what we can or can't do?

Davy, maybe we'd better saddle up

and pay this fella a visit.

- Do chastise mean what I think it do?

- It do.

Davy, let's do saddle up and go learn

that gentleman his manners.

We won't have to. He's wearin' out

horses comin' toward us.

Well, I guess we can't

stop him from coming.

But I reckon we can arrange

for him to limp going back.

I was thinking these Texicans

wasn't as neighbourly as they might be.

But here they've gone and arranged

a nice fight for us visitors.

One thing I oughta tell you.

Santa Anna never wrote that letter.

I did.

Or rather... I had this lady here write it.

I was figuring how to tell you fellas

about this Texican hoedown.

I wondered what Santa Anna would've

said to us if he'd had a chance to say it.

Davy, I ain't never said

I ain't been whupped. I have.

But I give every one of them fellas

a chance to dig in and get the job done.

But I ain't never took nobody's word

that they was gonna chas...

- Chastise.

- Chastise. Much obliged.

- We're gonna stay, ain't we?

- I'm thinking it over.

What is there to think about?

You getting that old?

The man toed the mark and dared us!

- Chastise, he said!

- That's right! Chastise!

- But I wrote the letter!

- Don't you start weaslin'.

You said them'd be the words he'd write

if he was to write us a letter.

Well, gentlemen, you've convinced me.

We'll fight.

- That's more like it!

- Now you're talkin', Davy!

First, the young lady and I

will take a pasear.

Gather up your possibles

and I'll meet up with you later.

- Con permiso.

- Your Spanish is improving.

It kinda cheers me to see

the colonel with that lady.

Last couple of years he had me worried.

Lately he ain't been looking

at the girls like he was starved.

Being in Congress

has ruined many a good man.

All I hear is Crockett the bear-killer...

Crockett the Indian-fighter...

Crockett the brawler...

Crockett has brains.

Kept it hidden a number of years.

- You like my Tennesseans, Flaca?

- Oh, yes.

Could strain 10,000

and never come up with 23 better.

Every one of those men has been

at my elbow, save the boy Smitty...

...when some difficulty arose.

Some of them don't bathe as often

as polite folks would think necessary.

But every one of them

smells sweet to me.

And I was the one that said

this country was burnt-over sand.

It's green and growing.

Like those green pastures they talk about.

Lord above! That's one beautiful tree!

This tree must've been growed...

...before man put his first

dirty footprints on this prairie.

Kind of a tree Adam and Eve

must have met under.

You know something, Flaca?

I guess I saw

who knows how many trees...

...before I ever took

a long, thoughtful look at one.

Mostly I looked at a tree to see was there

a bear in it or an Indian behind it.

Davy, what's going to happen to us?

I mean, to you and me.

I'm gonna tell you something, Flaca,

and I want you to listen tight.

It may sound like I'm talking about me,

but I'm talkin' about you.

In fact, I'm talking about

all people everywhere.

When I came down here to Texas,

I was looking for something.

I didn't know what.

It seems like you added up my life...

...and I'd spent it all either stomping other

men or in some cases getting stomped.

Had me some money

and had me some medals.

But none of it seemed a lifetime

worth the pain of the mother that bore me.

It's like I was empty.

Well, I'm not empty any more.

That's what's important.

To feel useful in this old world.

To hit a lick against what's wrong,

or to say a word for what's right...

...even though you get walloped

for sayin' that word.

I may sound like a Bible-beater

yellin' up a revival at a camp meeting...

...but that don't change the truth none.

There's right and there's wrong.

You gotta do one or the other.

You do the one and you're living.

You do the other and you may be walking

around, but you're dead as a beaver hat.

I'd hoped for a horse, but there's

nothing wrong with a good strong mule.

My things!

All my luggage is in the buggy!

Had my men take care of it.

Your geegaws may be rough-packed

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