There Was a Crooked Man... Page #3

Come on, get back. Come on.

- Nice work, son.

- Pitman.

Pitman.

The warden wants to see you.

What the hell is this?

In here, Pitman.

Warden.

You have $500,000 hidden somewhere...

...and it isn't doing you any good.

Son of a b*tch.

So that's what somebody had in mind.

Pitman, what sort of man

do you think I am?

I don't know. Hadn't thought

about it much, to tell the truth.

Not a happy one, I can tell you.

Does that surprise you?

Nothing surprises me.

The truth is, I find the atmosphere

of this place stifling, depressing, boring.

I'm sure you feel the same,

though perhaps not for the same reasons.

Keep talking, sir.

Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars

would do me very nicely.

I could go abroad,

perhaps Mexico, live happily.

You help me to escape

and I'll do the same for you.

- Not a bad bargain.

- Not a good one, warden.

That's half the money.

You'd like to keep it all.

Am I being selfish?

Your first few weeks here

have been difficult.

- I'm not much good to you dead, warden.

- Perhaps not.

Still, life is full of surprises.

So keep an open mind,

you never can tell.

No. No, I don't like having

my mind too open.

It makes it easier,

once you get around to changing it.

I tell you, it was all I could do

to keep from pitching in.

But the truth is, I once killed a man

with old Mary Ann here.

Mary Ann was his mother's name.

Judas Priest.

Solitary?

Hey, Tobaccy.

Give him these for me, will you?

I owe him.

- Come on, Kid, you know he's not allowed.

- They're gonna be his last!

Hey, Kid. What are you gonna do

with that when it gets ripe?

Smoke it, you silly son of a b*tch.

What else?

Smoke it?

Cyrus, I just can't figure it.

What's Skinner got against the boy?

Oh, for God's sakes, Dudley.

Could've had it so easy.

- Who threw that?

- He did.

Come on, you guys.

Come on, you dumb bastards, move!

Stop it!

Stop it! Stop it, you hear? Stop it!

Stop them! Get in there and stop them,

you Chink son of a b*tch!

What are you doing? Stop it.

Let go of me. Let go of me, you Chi...

Sir.

Tell your commanding officer

the new warden's here.

This place is bigger

than I thought it'd be.

- Mr. Lopeman.

- Colonel Wolff.

Well, I'm not sorry to see you.

Things seem quiet enough now.

The last man I heard say that

was General Custer.

What's that gonna be?

Well, that was supposed to be

new quarters for the warden.

What was wrong with the old ones?

The last warden just wanted

something bigger.

And I guess he got it.

Look here.

They told me something

and I just couldn't believe it.

Did you ask for this job?

That's right.

But nobody asks to be warden

of this prison, Mr. Lopeman.

Even Daniel didn't wanna walk

into the lions' den.

These aren't animals, colonel.

You could've fooled me.

I'm your new warden.

My name's Lopeman.

You've all raised a lot of hell last week.

Here's what it got you:

Six dead, and you're still here.

From now on, if something's bothering you,

come tell me about it.

I mean that. Tell me first.

That's all. Eat your breakfast now.

- What's this?

- It's solitary, sir.

- How long has he been here?

- Ten days, sir.

Get him to the doctor.

There ain't none.

- This one?

- It's the longest. Three weeks.

Well, you must be the new warden.

What the hell is this?

Come in. Come in.

Cigar, warden?

Compliments of the old warden.

Don't smoke. Drink, maybe?

Don't drink.

Well...

...I guess you wanna hear the truth.

- It would help.

Well, maybe you ain't heard,

but I got 500,000...

Thousand, that is.

- dollars in U.S. legal currency...

...hid in a hole

somewhere in this territory.

Nobody knows where but me.

Now, the man who used to have your job

got to brooding on it after a time...

...as I expect you will and...

Well, I'll save you the trouble

and tell you what we was gonna do.

After four weeks of solitary,

it's enough to kill any man.

I was supposed to break.

You know, start yelling like,

"All right, all right, get me out of here.

I'll tell you where I hid the money.

But the only person I'll tell it to

is the governor himself, face to face."

Sounds like something out of

one of them dime novels, don't it?

Well, anyway, here's the ticket.

Warden LeGoff

was gonna take me out of here...

...under his guard, to see the governor.

Well, me being such

an important desperado, see?

Only thing, on the way to the capital...

...we was gonna drop by

and visit with my money.

Split it down the middle...

...hightail it to Mexico.

Live like kings.

But...

...as it turned out, Warden LeGoff

has gone on to a far greater reward.

Which is just about the luckiest thing

that ever happened to you.

Back to the rock pile, right?

You guessed it.

Warden.

Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

Thank you for everything, colonel.

- I'll be seeing you again.

- I hope so.

The way it works around this prison,

I generally see wardens only once.

Somebody in this pokey

must have an idea how to bust out.

Forget it, son.

For $500,000,

there's got to be a first time.

Five hundred thousand?

And whoever comes up

with a way, you split with him.

You're quick, Cyrus.

- Can you keep your mouth shut?

- He can't.

- I got it! I got it, I tell you.

- Well, let it out.

Easy. A tunnel out of here.

Ten feet down, 50 feet out, and we're free

and clear on the other side of the wall.

Now, you hold it right there.

You'll do your three years

and we'll walk out of here.

You know my heart can't take

three years in this place!

It ain't your heart that's weak,

it's your head!

Turn it off, turn it off.

It'd take you three years to dig the tunnel.

Then where would you be?

On the other side of the wall?

I wanna get a lot further than that.

Right, Coy?

Anyway, start smelling around,

and don't forget one thing.

I'm putting my trust in all of you

to keep quiet.

Like asking a pack of coyotes

to keep quiet about a dead horse.

We've already got more stone

than we can use for the new building.

Starting now, there'll be no work

in this quarry except for punishment.

You'll all return to the yard,

where you'll be assigned new jobs.

That man there

will remain on the rock pile.

Warden, I figure by now, every man

in this prison knows about my 500,000.

Yep. Yeah,

they'll be laying awake nights.

Each one trying to bust me out of here

to get his share.

Well, you had your chance.

Pitman, come over here.

Between this place

and the nearest town...

...there's 50 miles of crap and cactus.

One man on the loose out there...

You're too smart for that.

- Paris Pitman's in your cell.

- So?

- He's got a notion of escaping.

- Does he?

- You know he does, Moon. We all do.

- Do we?

Goddamn it, sit down.

I'm not saying you know

what he's gonna do.

Probably doesn't know that himself yet.

When he makes up his mind,

you'll know about it a lot sooner than I will.

I will?

You'll get paid.

Hell, Moon, you've done it before.

You sold out gangs

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