The Searchers Page #16

She stares sullenly, not answering.

ETHAN:

You ask her!

MARTIN:

Look!

(she faces him)

Scar?...

(sign talk)

Do you know where he went? And if he

has a girl with him...a white girl --

nai-bist pabo taibo...

She stands...She indicates Martin. She indicates herself.

LOOK:

Mah nee-koo-ur?

(meaning)

(Your woman?)

MARTIN:

(shaking head)

No...not my wife...My...

(to Ethan)

How do you say sister?

ETHAN:

(in Comanche)

Nami.

She looks gravely from Ethan to Martin. Then, with impassive

face, she bends swiftly, picks up her blanket and walks away

from them to choose her own sleeping place. The two men

don't know what to make of it.

DISSOLVE TO:

136EXT. CAMP - OPEN COUNTRY - FULL SHOT - ETHAN AND MARTIN -

MORNING:

It is the same scene the following morning. The men are

standing above where Look had bedded for the night,

looking at the ground. Clearly marked on the hard

ground is a crudely drawn arrow.

MARTIN:

Beats me how she could get that

pony out o' camp without neither

of us hearin' a thing...

ETHAN:

She ain't goin' back to her family,

that's certain...not if she took

off where the arrow points.

MARTIN:

Think she means for us to follow?

ETHAN:

How should I know...She's YOUR wife!

He walks toward their horses, starts to saddle up.

Martin follows.

MARTIN:

I think maybe we oughta...

ETHAN:

(hiding a grin)

Yeah, I kinda figgered you'd say

that...Bein' a new husband and all...

And Ethan starts singing "Skip to My Lou" half under his

breath. Martin gives him a sour side-glance and continues

saddling.

DISSOLVE TO:

137INT. JORGENSEN HOME - GROUP AS BEFORE - LAURIE READING -

DAY:

Mrs. Jorgensen is bringing a lighted lamp over to the

table where Laurie is reading against the fading light

of day. Jorgensen's pipe has gone out and he lights it.

LAURIE:

Maybe she left other signs for us

to follow but we'll never know --

'cause it snowed all day and all

the next week...We were heading north,

through the buffalo country when

something happened that I ain't got

straight in my own mind yet...

(her voice fades)

137-AEXT. SNOW COUNTRY - WIDE ANGLE SHOT - TWO RIDERS

(COLORADO FOOTAGE)

The two men are picking their way through a snow-mantled

grove. Martin's voice resumes the narration.

MARTIN'S VOICE

Ethan's always been throwing it up

to me that I'm a quarter-breed...I

never figgered it made much

difference...

137-BEXT. BUFFALO HERD - WIDE ANGLE SHOT - DAY (COLO. FOOTAGE)

MARTIN'S VOICE

But this day we came on a small

herd. We needed some meat so we

circled 'round...

137-CEXT. THE HERD - ANOTHER ANGLE (COLO. FOOTAGE)

MARTIN'S VOICE

...and came up on 'em afoot...

They hadn't been hunted, so it was

no trick workin' in close.

137-DEXT. THE HERD - MARTIN AND ETHAN - DAY (COLO. FOOTAGE)

The two men walk from behind CAMERA. Ethan aims, fires

and brings down a bull.

MARTIN'S VOICE

Ethan got a nice one on his first

shot, but then he began killing one

after another -- cows as well as

bulls -- fast as he could fire and

load...It was just a slaughter...

no sense to it...

137-EEXT. THE HERD BEGINNING TO RUN (COLO. FOOTAGE)

Shots cracking out -- the terrified bawling of the bulls --

the beginning of the stampede.

137-FEXT. MED. CLOSE SHOT - ETHAN AND MARTIN (PROCESS)

Martin strides across to where Ethan is firing.

MARTIN:

Ethan, quit it!

ETHAN:

(firing again)

Nine...

(another shot)

Ten!

MARTIN:

What's the sense in it!

Ethan turns and swings a backhand blow which catches

Martin by surprise and fells him.

ETHAN:

(in a fury)

Hunger! -- Empty bellies! That's

the sense in it, you Cherokee!..

He swings up his gun and fires again -- and again...

as Martin stares at him from the ground.

137-GEXT. THE HERD - LONG SHOT - THE STAMPEDE (COLO. FOOTAGE)

Fear-maddened animals are swinging into full stampede

fleeing the deadly marksman. Rifle shots keep cracking

out.

137-HEXT. MED. CLOSE SHOT - ETHAN AND MARTIN AS BEFORE (PROCESS)

The thunder of the hooves is receding and Ethan grimly

lowers his rifle. Martin picks himself up -- still

staring at Ethan as though at a madman. Ethan turns

and looks at him.

ETHAN:

Least, THEY won't feed any Comanches

this winter...Killin' buffalo's as

good as killin' Injuns in this country.

MARTIN:

Peaceful tribes depend on the buffalo,

too....

ETHAN:

Ain't that too bad...If you feel

that sorry for your kinfolk, I'm

surprised you didn't take up with

that squaw wife of yours...

He whips out his shinning knife and strides toward the

dead buffalo o.s. Martin looks after him with troubled

expression. Suddenly he hears something, borne faint

by the wind.

MARTIN:

ETHAN!

Ethan turns. Now faintly, little more than a shred of

sound, is the distant blowing of a bugle.

MARTIN:

Listen!..Hear it?...There! Ain't

that a bugle...and firing?

Ethan stares -- and then the bugle sound repeats and the

distant crack of shots, from long miles off.

ETHAN:

(grimly)

Just hope we ain't too late...

And the two break and run for their horses.

DISSOLVE TO:

138-OMITTED

140

141EXT. A RIVER - WIDE ANGLE - CAVALRY CROSSING WITH

PRISONERS - DAY

MARTIN'S VOICE

(as narrator)

It was all over long before we

got there and the soldiers was

high-tailin' it back to the agency

with their prisoners -- squaws

mostly -- by the time Ethan and

me reached the camp...

142EXT. SNOW SLOPE - WIDE ANGLE - ETHAN AND MARTIN

Horses and riders plunge downslope through breast-high

snow.

MARTIN'S VOICE

It was the Nawyecky Comanches all

right -- the ones we'd been looking

for all this time...

143 EXT. BURNING INDIAN VILLAGE - WIDE ANGLE - ETHAN AND

MARTIN - DAY

as they ride in, passing dead horses, a few bodies of men.

MARTIN'S VOICE

Trouble of it was that the soldiers

had hit when most of the fightin'

men was away -- huntin' maybe...

So most of the dead was old men

and women an' kids...And it was

in one of the tepees Ethan found

her -- the little squaw who wanted

me to call her Look...

Ethan has dismounted in front of one of the tepees,

heads inside.

144INT. TEPEE - FULL SHOT - DAY

as Ethan enters. A body -- Look's -- is sprawled on

the ground. He crosses, turns her over. Martin enters

behind him.

ETHAN:

Well, you're a widower now...

MARTIN:

(angrily)

What'd the soldiers have to kill

her for!..

He sees something clutched in her hand. He stoops

quickly.

MARTIN:

Ethan!

Ethan, who has turned indifferently to leave, pauses.

Martin shows him what Look had been clutching -- Debbie's

rag doll.

MARTIN:

Look! It's hers, Debbie's...

Ethan snatches it, stares at it. Then he turns and runs

from the tepee. Martin stares at Look's body, then

covers it with a robe.

MARTIN'S VOICE

So we knew Debbie had been in the

village...What Look was doing there --

whether she'd come to warn them,

or maybe to find Debbie for me...

there's no way of knowing...

He turns and then slowly heads out.

145EXT. THE TEPEE - ETHAN AND MARTIN

Ethan stands there, his expression bleak, looking at

the scene. Martin joins him.

MARTIN:

We gotta catch up with them

yellow legs...Maybe they got her

with them.

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