The Molly Maguires Page #4

and he'll get the drift.

- He's not worth hanging for.

- What good's that? He'll be back.

Bash him so he don't come back.

Then we've done it right,

without the gallows.

You end up on the gallows or coughing

your lungs out. What's the difference?

It's the coarse feel of rope I don't like.

- We'll vote.

- I'm for killing.

I say bash him,

see what he learns from it.

They don't learn. They're all the same.

Our backs is where

they make their impression.

They're past learning lessons.

I say dispose of him.

I'm for that, too.

I'm for bashing him.

What happens with a tie?

We can't take the job,

and they give it out elsewhere.

- There's no killing without a majority.

- We're a democratic organisation.

If this is our quarrel, like you say,

we can't have them thinking we're soft.

They can think what they like.

How do you vote?

Kill the son of a b*tch.

Whoa, boy.

Stand where you are.

A bloody reception committee.

He was supposed to be alone.

- Well, he wasn't.

- Who tipped him off?

How the hell do I know?

Shut your face and be glad you're alive.

If you hadn't come back

to give me a hand...

- I'm grateful for that.

- It's all for one and one for all.

You said he'd be surrounded.

We should've listened.

We did what we went to do.

- Easy now.

- Easy yourself.

What are you so hot about?

Want me layin' there dead?

I'd do a lot less worrying if you were.

She's got hands like meat cleavers.

We'll need alibis.

They'll try and trace us.

They got a look,

and there's no hiding him.

You think somebody tipped him off?

If there's informing,

it's a Shenandoah man.

They were giving him protection.

We expected that.

- They told us he'd be alone.

- They told us wrong.

Even if it's true,

it's their word against ours.

All we have to do is stick together.

They can't get us if we stick together.

All for one, one for all.

You sound like a bloody parrot.

Go to bed and get some rest.

I'll do that.

I'll be as right as rain in the morning.

Good night.

You're worried.

They'll be coming after us now.

We must be prepared for that.

You've got to face the fact

there might be a spy.

"One for all and all for one."

Is that some sort of saying?

It's from a book about Frenchmen,

the Musketeers.

It's a sort of rallying cry

when one of them got into a scrape.

- I don't read much.

- You learn a lot from books.

I'm always meaning

to read a good book.

You know, you could have got

your lot going back for Frazier.

I've a charmed life.

Good night.

Good night, Jack.

Him... Him, him.

Him, the fellow at the back.

The big fellow at the back.

Him and him... Come on, now.

Come on, get them in the wagon!

Close the door.

McKenna?

Out.

Scum. Take them off the streets,

put them in uniform, still scum.

I had that superintendent

protected like a baby.

They almost got me,

if that's any consolation.

- It's not. Who did it?

- Kehoe, Frazier and me.

- How did we do?

- He's alive, but not by much.

Kehoe's wife, two of her friends

say he was with them

and the children all day,

never left the house.

Frazier was brawling

in the saloon and got winged.

Twelve witnesses swear to that.

Raines and his daughter

say that you were with them all day.

The daughter, too?

- I wasn't quite sure she'd do that.

- Don't credit your charm.

Most likely she's one of them.

If I could charge Frazier and Kehoe,

it would be your word against theirs.

Well, you'll need

a little more than that.

Oh, yes. I need them caught in the act,

no chance of an alibi.

Not just two of them, the organisation.

I want it smashed.

Any bastard who dreams

of making trouble,

I want him to wake up sweating blood

at what happened to the Molly Maguires.

Not yet.

I can't send you back unmarked.

Well, it's a pleasure working

with a man who likes his job.

You did a clean job.

The superintendent's dead.

I used to come up here

when I was little.

There's never enough green

down where we are.

Even in summer, the trees

are black with coal dust.

- Do you like riddles?

- If I know the answers.

All right. A bottomless barrel,

it's shaped like a hive.

- Filled full of flesh, which is alive.

- A thimble.

You're quick!

You've a way with chicken.

Did you catch it at the cockfights?

- I got a taste of the spur.

- You have not!

The round man

looks through 1,000 eyes.

A sieve.

You're almost

as good a cook as my ma.

Is that a compliment or an insult?

Oh, my ma was a grand cook.

It wasn't easy making a tasty dish

out of oats stolen from a horse.

Did I thank you for lying

to the police about me?

The old man did the lying.

I only did the agreeing.

I know what a lie means

to a girl of your morality.

You've a bad habit of making jokes

on the wrong subject.

I did what had to be done,

no more and no less.

- Did you expect me to do otherwise?

- I hoped part of it was personal.

- You can hope what you please.

- I thank you for what you did.

Well, don't go thinking I liked doing it.

Lying's a sin and killing's worse.

I can't even go to confession with it.

I envy your morality...

and that's the truth.

Snug in a corner, I saw the lad lie.

Fire in his heart, a cork in his eye.

A bottle of whisky.

- Out she goes with the priest's dinner.

- A hen with an egg.

- There's no catching you.

- Not with words.

I'm what you need.

I need a decent man.

- Stand by the pithead. You can choose.

- I don't want them.

Go back into service.

Marry the postman or the policeman,

with his hand out for what he can get.

- Don't mock!

- You want decency.

And trust, and honour,

and a bit of security,

all smiled upon by the law.

Think you get those for free?

You've been out there

and seen for yourself.

Decency is not for the poor.

You pay for decency, you buy it.

And you buy the law too,

like a loaf of bread.

There's still right and wrong.

There's what you want

and what you'll pay to get it.

There's more!

'Tis round a dish was ever known,

and white as snow the look of it.

There's food and life for all mankind

yet no man e'er partook of it.

- Let me go.

- This time you're caught.

I'm not.

Answer me, then.

Breast milk.

There's no use talking further.

A man's been murdered.

He brought it on himself.

He who lives by the sword

shall perish by the sword.

But his wife's dead too,

a child's been orphaned.

Violence begets violence

until the innocent perish with the guilty.

Is it any use reminding you of that?

Or am I wasting my breath again?

Innocent or guilty,

these were both children of God.

They died victims

of a sinful lust for killing.

At least they found their peace.

I wish I could say the same

for the rest of you.

She saw them, she said.

Old lady Regan.

The shots woke her.

She saw them running from the house.

She's certain they were peelers?

She could see the stripes

on their trousers.

You'd think they'd at least

take off their uniforms.

They want us knowing who they are.

They're telling us it don't matter.

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