Thunder Road Page #3

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1950 grey Ford. | Licence 5J 3174 Tennessee.

Licence 5J 3174.

Violation 702. | Licence 5J 3174 Tennessee.

Cood afternoon. I think | I've got a bumper that belongs to you.

Why don't you give it back? | That's just like stealing, ain't it?

I guess. Come out | with your hands up high like the sky.

Turn around | and put your hands against the car.

- It's a tanker, but it's unloaded. | - Cet him in the car.

We'll pull Harding off that Ross Street | stakeout at midnight.

Thanks, Jerry.

- I'm sorry, Troy. Co ahead. | - That's all right, Ritch.

You got a boy booked | as Howard Ransom from Frankfort.

His real moniker's Doolin - Lucas Doolin. | That's the name on his army discharge.

The Ford he was driving is a tanker.

The maniac who went cartwheeling | through the parking lot?

- Yeah. That's the one. | - We can put him away for a while.

I wish you wouldn't, Ritch.

I wish you wouldn't.

I'd like to see him fined and turned loose, | so we can tail him.

- It might lead to something. | - Well... it might be worked out.

The district attorney's office has to agree.

Cive 'em a jingle. While I'm here | I'd like to talk to Ransom.

Put Ransom down in Interrogation. | Mr Barrett of Treasury will be down.

You'll pass the word up?

Hard shake, no sentence, | so he won't know we're on him.

- Right. | - See you.

I'm Barrett from the Alcohol & Tobacco | Tax Division, Treasury Department.

We didn't have much time to talk when | you were picked up, so I stopped by.

Your car was used | for hauling illegal non-tax-paid whisky.

It's remodelled for that purpose.

Like I told you, I bought it for the mill. | It's a sweet-running car.

You bought it in Frankfort?

That's right. You can't take it away | just because I've been a blockhead?

No. We had no evidence. | We couldn't hold you on a Federal charge.

You could help us if you wanted to. | You're a handy boy.

Sorry. I'm not interested.

You're bucking | the United States government.

There's a conspiracy moving into Rillow | Valley and we intend to put an end to it.

I don't know what you're talking about.

Nobody's asking you | to blow the whistle on your own people.

Just give us a lead on who's muscling in.

I still don't know | what you're talking about.

All right.

You know and I know | that you're a transporter.

That tank of yours | was just recently emptied.

So far you don't have a record with us,

but you're standing pretty close | to the horse's head.

You've been mugged and fingerprinted.

That record goes into the Washington file | and all of our regional offices.

It's a net, buddy boy, | and the pressure won't let up.

You had over $4,000 in cash on you.

Nobody - not even the president - | carries that kind of money

unless he's trying to duck something.

You're taped.

You can change names, routes, cars, | but eventually we'll nail you.

You'll stand up before a Federal judge.

Sure there's nothing you wanna tell me?

Yeah, I got one thing to tell you.

I reckon you can do all you say,

only first you got to catch me - if you can.

I'll do that.

How about that rain?

I like the rain - | except when you're driving in it.

Then it scares me.

- You really miss me, honey? | - Of course I miss you.

That's why that candle's | always burning in the window.

- Are you gonna say you don't miss me? | - All the time. I miss you all the time.

I don't like the way you read that.

It's like we're running out of time.

Time's all we've got.

And my time is yours.

I'd just like a little more of you.

That's all.

Honey, it's like we're standing behind | the clock ready for the starter's gun.

We can't talk till the race is over.

This we've got - this hour, | this night, this rain, this music.

Things aren't so bad as they actually are | if we just accept them.

I remember when I was a little kid

trailin' my daddy up to the still | through those mountain winters.

I knew what he was doing | was contrary to somebody's law,

but my grandaddy had done it before him, | his daddy before him

and so on clear back to Ireland.

They held that what a man did | on his own land was his business.

They didn't have any noble notions then, | of course. Still don't.

When they came here | and fought for this country

and scratched up those hills | with their ploughs and their mules,

they did it to guarantee | the basic rights of free men.

They just figured that whisky-making | was one of 'em.

I don't remember anything | dark and shameful,

I just recollect the dogwoods and laurels | with little tags of ice on the ends of them -

just snap off clean | when you brushed by them.

I was just a little boy, following my | daddy's footsteps up Sorrowful Mountain.

You know something?

I love you.

I love you too, honey. | Truly in my heart, I do.

But I'm a big boy now.

When the government fetched my country | soul out of Rillow Valley to go fight a war,

everything just switched on me.

I remember I was a little confused | by that sort of logic, but I did my best.

You always do.

All I wanted was | to just stay in Rillow Valley,

but that's long gone now.

My head's full of so many other things.

I've been across an ocean, | met all the pretty people,

I know how to read an expensive | restaurant menu, I know what a mobile is.

You're at one end of the line | and Rillow Valley's at the other,

and I'm moving fast in the middle - | it's the nature of my business.

- Then take me with you. | - With me?

Honey, every Revenue agent in four states | would like to catch me on that run.

The only reason they haven't made me | till now is because I travel single-o.

One of these days, honey... | One of these days I've got to fall.

Then put it down and stay with me.

I just wanna be normal people.

I just wanna be somebody.

You are, honey. That's the big trouble.

You are somebody...

and I'm a whisky man.

There's another brand-new day | coming up.

You just try that on for size and enjoy it.

- Why aren't you in church? | - I had to mind the store.

Father was at the Rankin meeting. | I thought you were there.

I had something else to do.

I been talking to my brother-in-law | about the Flat Creek house -

the one above the old mill.

It's a real pretty place.

Wouldn't take too much fixing up either.

Cot enough lived land around so's a fella | could make out real good farming.

If he worked at it.

You don't really | like the moon business, do you?

All this sudden hankering | for a place to plough?

Wouldn't be so bad to have a place

if you ever wanted | to stop outrunning the cops.

You know, Roxy, | I reckon I'd have to clear some of it out,

but this place has got purple rhodo...

Luke, it's a beauty. | I'm available for a demonstration ride.

Not right now, pretty girl. | Maybe tomorrow.

Some heap. You got her all gussied up. | How does she roll?

The man at the shop guaranteed me | 130 on the flat. Corners great too.

- I'd like to check the motor. | - Any time later.

- You rolling tonight? | - No. Tomorrow. Memphis.

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