The Outrage

Excuse me, preacher.

I mean, for butting in.

I didn't believe it down at the general store

when they said:

"The preacher's up and left us."

I says, "He wouldn't do nothing like that.

Just wait and see, he'll be back sure."

But then I weren't sure.

I know it didn't make sense

what we see'd and hear'd...

...at the trial yesterday. No sense at all.

But you leaving the church,

your place here, the people who need you...

...that don't make no sense neither.

I can understand the violence of a storm.

It's a natural thing.

Not meant to harm anyone.

But the violence of men...

...their cruelty and savageness

to one another, to themselves...

Please, you'll catch your death.

That train ain't gonna be along for hours.

It hardly stops here these days.

I'll flag it down for you when it comes.

Here, let me make us a fire.

"Silver Gulch."

I remember when I first came here.

I was gonna strike it rich.

A bonanza of souls to save.

I will lead them into paths

they have not known.

I will make the darkness light

before them...

...and crooked things straight.

When you get your steam up

you do some powerful preachifying.

Yes.

To a congregation of deaf ears.

And the ones at the trial yesterday,

you heard it all.

Christians.

I just can't understand it.

All that sinning, lusting and killing.

And then swearing before the judge

on the Holy Bible...

...to tell the whole truth,

and the way they...

There must be some answer,

but I'm ignorant to explain it.

- Not as ignorant as I am.

- Oh, no, preacher.

You're educated, you're a man of God.

He knows.

He knows I've failed them.

The shepherd

is running away from the wolves.

Where do you aim to be going?

I don't know.

- I don't know.

- How about going plumb to hell?

A fellow can't sleep in peace

in this horse ball of a town.

Oh, it's you.

I didn't figure you'd have the guts

to show up around these parts again.

I never forget a face, my good man.

But I'm glad to make an exception

in your case.

Heehaw up your tail,

you godforsaken jackass.

Shut up, you.

This is a preacher standing here.

Preacher?

It can't be. He woke me up.

They usually put me to sleep.

Don't pay him no mind.

Who is he?

He's a con man.

A swindler. An old scalawag.

How else can a man

live to be old nowadays?

He come around here last year,

selling some kind of patent medicine.

- Choctaw herbal elixir.

- Three people near died of it.

He got out of town

just ahead of the tar and feathers.

You can imagine my surprise this morning

when I realized where the devil I was.

I just sold a dozen of my fully-guaranteed

miracle lightning rods...

...when all of a sudden

it starts thundering and lightning...

...like there was a heavenly inspector

testing the guarantees.

You're lower than a rattler.

Oh, come now, my cantankerous friend,

we're not so different, you and me.

You know, I dig for silver too.

Only in much softer ground.

Though, I must say,

this town of yours has sure gone to pot.

What's happened? The silver peter out?

Sure sign when the whores and gamblers

start heading for the next sucker town.

Good riddance.

Preacher, huh?

Nothing much left to preach about,

eh, Reverend?

Oh, I forgot, you're leaving town too.

Had a bellyful of religion, I take it.

How about you and me teaming up?

We could make a hatful.

You know,

with your face, my fingers...

- Leave him be.

- Just said he had an honest face.

What's wrong with that?

He's as rotten as the three

at the trial yesterday.

Trial? What trial?

Something happen around here?

- A man was murdered.

- Just one?

Slow day.

You look green around the gills.

What's the matter?

A little murder upset your tummy?

It weren't the murder itself. It was...

It's what?

It was the way it happened.

The things we hear'd at the trial.

What did he have to do with it?

- We was subpoenaed, the both of us.

- Yeah? Why?

I was the one found the body.

Where?

In the woods.

A few miles west of town.

Days like that...

...when it gets too hot at the diggings,

I head for a ravine I know...

...where I can soak a bit in a pool,

underneath the falls.

Never mind that. What about the body?

I didn't see it.

I mean, not right off.

But...

I don't know.

There was something about the way

the air hung heavy all around...

...even in the woods, that gave me...

...a kind of nervous, prickly feeling.

Hello?

Hello?

Hello?

Hello?

I know, I know. You know,

they always look so surprised...

...them cadavers.

I bet you, death must be a lot different

than anybody thinks.

Well, go ahead, go ahead.

Hm? Oh.

I ran like all blazes.

Till I got back to town

and told the sheriff.

How did you get mixed up in this, Rev?

He saw them both on the road.

Both?

Oh, you mean, there was a dame, huh?

The murdered man's wife.

I passed them on the road,

early in the afternoon.

Oh, God.

We never know how close to us

death may be hovering.

The sun was high...

...pouring life and warmth

all over the face of the earth.

And there they were,

coming down the road...

...not knowing how soon, how very soon,

the road would end.

There was something about them.

The man looked so dignified,

so sensitive.

So alive.

How was he killed?

Stabbed with a dagger.

You found the murder weapon too, huh?

- Me?

- Yes.

No, just one look at that face,

and I got out of there as fast as I could.

Now, what makes people so jittery

about the dead?

Why, some of my best friends

are corpses:

The only ones you can trust.

Oh, sure, they stink a little, but no more

than a few alive ones that I know.

How'd the trial turn out?

They pin it on anybody?

Well, there was somebody accused.

There's always somebody accused.

Usually hanged. But was he guilty?

It's Carrasco.

Oh, Carrasco.

Bless the Lord,

they got the right man for once.

- I wonder.

- What?

The bloodiest outlaw in this whole part

of the country, and you wonder?

Why, if he was within 50 miles

of any crime, I'd convict him of it.

- It's not quite so simple.

- Not quite so simple?

It'd be simple enough

if it was me they caught.

"Tar and feather him, boys."

Sure, peddle a few lightning rods,

pick up a couple of bucks in a shell game...

...fleece a yokel

without even scratching him...

...and you're a scalawag.

Lower than a rattler.

Yes, but do it in a big way...

...kill, rustle, rob a train, clean

out a bank, bamboozle the government...

...and hocus-pocus, alakazam,

you're a public hero.

They're writing dime novels

and singing songs about you.

You're a somebody.

Somebody to reckon with.

- And it's not quite so simple.

- You weren't there.

You don't know.

A desperado wanted

in every territory he ever set foot on.

Bloodthirsty vandal...

...driven by a craving for our possessions

and our women.

- Juan Carrasco, killer, robber, lecher...

- The facts, sheriff.

I'm sorry. I know we have to

prove our charges.

In the eyes of the law,

a man is innocent until proven guilty...

...and all that.

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