True Grit Page #2

My watchmen had his teeth knocked out

and can take only soup.

Then I will take it to the law.

You have no case.

Lawyer J. Noble Daggett of Dardanelle, Arkansas

may think otherwise, as might a jury,

petitioned by a widow and three small children.

I will pay $200 to your fathers estate.

When I have in my hand a letter from your lawyer,

absolving me of all liability from the beginning

of the world to today.

I will take $200 for Judy,

plus $100 for the ponies.

And $25 for the grey horse

that Tom Chaney left.

He was easily worth forty.

That is $325 total.

The ponies have no part in it.

I will not buy them.

And the price for Judy is $325.

I would not pay $325 for winged Pegasus.

As for the grey horse, it does not belong to you.

The grey horse was lent to Tom Chaney

by my father.

Chaney only had the use of him.

I would pay $225.

And keep the grey horse.

And I want the ponies.

I cannot accept that.

There can be no settlement after I leave

this office. It will go to law.

All right, this is my last offer.

$250.

For that I get the release, previously discussed.

And I keep your father's saddle.

The grey horse is not yours to sell.

The saddle is not for sale. I will keep it.

Lawyer Dagget will prove ownership of the gray horse.

He will come after you with a writ of replevin.

- A what? - Writ of replev...

All right, now listen very carefully.

As I will not bargain further.

I will take the ponies back, and the

grey horse. Which is mine.

And settle...

For $300. Now you must take that or leave it.

And I do not much care which it is.

Lawyer Decker would not wish me to consider

anything under $325.

But I will settle for $320.

If I am given $20 in advance.

Now here's what I have to say

about that saddle.

Frank Ross's daughter.

Oh, poor child.

Are you gonna be staying with us, or

are you hurrying back home to your Manma?

I'll stay here, if you can have me.

I just spent last night at the undertakers.

In the company of three corpses.

I felt like Ezekiel.

In valley of the dry bones.

Then God bless you.

Now that you'll be rooming with

Grandma Turner.

We've had to double up, what with all the people

in town come to see the hanging.

This was in your poor father's room.

Now that is everything.

There are no light fingers in this house.

If you need something for to

tote the gun around?

I can give you an empty flour sack for a nickel.

Well what did you see when you arrived?

A woman, was out in the yard.

Dead with blow flies on her face.

An old man was inside with his breast

blowed open by a scatter-gun and his feet burned.

He was still alive, but just was. Said it was

them two Wharton boys had done it.

- Rode up, drunk.

- Objection.

Hearsay.

Dying declaration, your Honor.

Objection's overruled.

Proceed Mr Cogburn.

Them two Wharton boys - that'd be Otis

and C.C. - throwed down on him,

and asked him where his money was,

but he wouldn't tell them.

They lit pine knots, held 'em to his feet.

He told them the money was in the fruit jar.

Under a grey rock at the corner of the smoke house.

And then?

Well he died on us. Passed away in considerable pain.

What'd you do then?

Well, Me and Marshal Potter went out to the smokehouse

And that rock had been moved, the

jar with the money in it was gone.

- Objection, speculative.

- Sustained.

You found a flat grey rock, in the corner of the smoke house.

With a hollowed out space there.

If the prosecutor is going to give evidence,

I suggest he be sworn.

Mr Cogburn. What did you find, if anything,

in the corner of that smokehouse?

We found a flat grey rock with a hollowed

out space under it. Nothing there.

- Well then what did you?

- No jar or nothing.

Well, rode up to the Whartons' there, near where

the North Fork strikes the Canadian-

What did you find?

-branch of the Canadian.

I had my glass and we spotted them two boys

and their old daddy Aaron.

down on the creek bank with some hogs.

They'd killed a shoat.

And a fire built up under a wash pot

for scalding water.

What'dja do?

Announced we was US Marshal's, I hollered

out to Aaron.

I needed to talk to his two boys.

He raised an axe.

and commenced to cussing us and blackguarding this court.

What did he do then?

I backed away from the axe.

Tried to talked some sense into him.

While this was going on C.C. he edges over

to the wash pot there, behind the steam.

And picks up a shotgun.

Potter seen him, but it was too late.

C.C. Wharton pulled out on Potter with one barrel.

Turned to do the same for me and I shot him.

And the old man raised the axe.

And I shot him.

Otis lit out, and I shot him.

C.C. Wharton and Aaron Wharton were dead when

they hit the ground. Otis was just winged.

Did you find the jar with a $120 in it?

- Leading.

- Sustained.

What happened then?

Found a jar with $120 in it.

What became of Otis Wharton?

There he sits.

You may ask, Mr Gaudy.

Thank you Mr Farlow.

Mr Cogburn.

In your four years as a US Marshal.

How many men have you shot?

I never shot nobody I didn't have to.

Well that was not the question.

How many?

Shot or killed?

Let us restrict it to "killed", so that

we may have a manageable figure.

About twelve..

Fifteen. Stopping men in flight,

defending myself, etcetera.

Around twelve he says.

Or fifteen.

So many, you cannot keep

a precise count.

I have examined the records, and can

supply the accurate figure.

Uhh...

I believe them two Wharton boys

makes it twenty three.

And how many members of this one family,

the Wharton family, have you killed?

- Immediate, or ...

- Didn't you also shoot Dub Wharton, brother?

and Clete Wharton, half brother?

Well Clete was selling ardent spirits to

the Cherokee. He come at me with a king bolt

A king bolt?

You are armed, and he advanced upon you.

With nothing more than a king bolt?

From a wagon tongue?

I've seen men badly tore up with nothing bigger

than a king bolt. I defended myself.

Returning to the other encounter.

With Aaron Wharton, and his two remaining sons.

You sprang from cover.

With revolver in hand.

- That'd be it.

- Loaded and cocked.

Well if it ain't loaded

and cocked, it don't shoot.

And like his son, Aaron Wharton advanced

against an armed man.

Well he was armed, he had an axe raised.

I believe you testified you backed away

from Aaron Wharton.

- That's right.

- Which direction were you going?

I always go backwards,

when I'm backing up.

Very amusing.

Now, he advanced on you much

in the manner of Clete Wharton

menacing you with that little ol' King bolt,

or rolled up newspaper, or whatever that was.

Yes sir. He commenced to cussing

- and laying about with threats.

- And you were backing away.

How many steps before the shooting started?

Uh, seven, eight steps.

Good, and Wharton keeping pace.

Advancing away from his campfire.

Seven, eight, steps.

What would that be?

Fifteen, twenty feet?

I suppose.

Will you explain to this jury, Mr Cogburn.

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