True Grit Page #5

- Good morning, Marshal.

- Good morning.

Where's Mr La Boeuf?

Down by the creek performing his necessaries.

Marshal Cogburn, I welcome

the chance for a private parley.

I gather that you and Mr La Boeuf have come to some,

some sort of agreement.

And as your employer I believe

I have the right to know the particulars.

The particulars,

is that we bring Chaney down

to the magistrate,

in San Saba Texas where they have a considerable

reward on offer. Which we split.

I did not want him brought to Texas,

to have a Texas punishment administered

for a Texas crime.

That was not our agreement.

What you want is to have him caught

and punished.

I want him to know he's being punished

for killing my father.

Well, you can let him know that.

You can tell him to his face.

You can spit on him.

Make him eat sand out of the road.

I will hold him down.

If you want,

I'll flay the flesh off the souls of his feet.

Find you Indian pepper to

rub into his wound.

Isn't that $100 value?

No, it is not.

When I have bought and paid for

something, I will have my way.

Why do you think I'm paying you,

if not to have my way.

You will learn.

You cannot have your way.

In every little particular.

You find I failed to satisfy your terms.

I'll return your money at the end

of this expedition.

Little Blackie and I are ridding back

to the US Marshal's office, this is fraud.

Oh, God damn it!

What's going on?

This is a business conversation.

Is that what you call it?

Sounds to me you're still being

hoorawed by a little girl.

- You say, hoorawed?

- That was the point.

There is no hoorawing in it.

If my agreement with the Marshal,

antedates yours, it has the force of law.

The force of law?

This man is a notorious thumper.

He rode by the light of the moon with Quantrill.

- Bloody Bill Anderson.

- Them men were patriots, Texas trash.

They murdered women and children

in Lawrence, Kansas.

That's a God damn lie!

What army was you in, Mister?

I was at Shreveport.

First with Kirby-Smith, then with...

Yeah? What side was you on?

I was in the army of Northern Virginia, Cogburn.

And I don't have to hang my head

when I say it.

If you had served with Captain Quantrill.

Captain!

Captain Quantrill.

That...indeed.

- Just let this go, La Boeuf.

- Captain of what?

Good then!

There are not sufficient dollars in the state of Texas,

to make it worth my while to

listen to your opinions.

Our agreement is nullified.

That suits me.

it's each man for himself!

Congratulations, Cogburn.

You've graduated from marauder,

to a wet nurse.

Adios!

We don't need him, do we Marshal?

Gonna miss his Sharp's carbine.

It's apt to get lively out here.

HEY!

Go on.

You stay here, sister.

I will see Bagby.

Has Chaney been here?

No.

Coke Haye was, two days ago.

Coke rides with Lucky Ned.

He bought supplies with this.

Well this is Papa's gold piece.

Tom Chaney here we come.

It is not the world's only California gold piece

They are rare here.

They are rare.

But if it is Chaney's,

it could just as easily mean that Lucky Ned

and his gang fell upon him as that he fell in with them.

Chaney could be a corpse.

That would be a bitter disappointment

Marshal, what would we do?

Um, pursue them.

Ned's unfinished business for the Marshals

anyhow, and when we have him we will also have Chaney

or we can learn the whereabouts of his body.

Bagby didn't know which way they went,

now that we know they come through here.

They couldn't have gone but one or two ways.

Heading north, towards the Winding Stair Mountains.

or pushing on further west.

I suspect north. More to rob.

I bought an eating place

Called the 'Green frog'.

Started calling myself Burroughs.

But my drinking's picked up.

My wife did not care for the company

of my river friends.

She decided to go back to her fist husband.

Clerk in a hardware store.

Wwll, she said, "Goodbye Ruben".

"Love of decency does not abide in you.

There is a divorced woman talking about decency.

I told her, "Goodbye, Nola".

"I hope that little nail-selling bastard will

make you happy this time.

She took my boy with her too.

He never cared for me anyway.

I guess I did speak awful rough to him.

I did not mean anything by it.

You would not want to see a clumsier child than Horace.

I bet he broke forty cups.

Is it Chaney?

I would not recognize the

soles of his feet.

Well, you'll have to clamber up and look.

I'm too old and too fat.

Now the Green Frog had one billiard table.

served ladies and men both,

mostly men. I tried to run it myself a while

but I couldn't keep good help.

Never did learn how to buy meat.

Is that him?

I believe not.

Well, cut him down.

Why?

I might know him.

That was when I went out to the staked plains of Texas,

shooting buffalo with Vernon Shaftoe and

a Flathead Indian called Olly.

The Mormons, they had run Shaftoe out of Great

Salt Lake City

but don't ask me what it was for.

Call it a misunderstanding and leave it go at that.

Well, the big shaggies,

about all gone now.

Damned shame.

I would give $3 right now for a pickled buffalo tongue.

Why did they hang him so high?

Oh, I do not know.

Possibly in the belief it would make

him more dead.

I do not know this man.

You hanged him?

Why did he take the hanged man?

Did he know him?

He did not.

But it is a dead body.

Must be worth something in the trade.

Now my second wife, Edna.

She had taken a notion she wanted me to be a lawyer.

Bought a heavy book called "Daniels on

Negotiable Instruments"

Set to make me reading it.

Never could get a grip on it.

I was happy enough to set it aside and leave Texas.

There ain't six trees between here and Canada,

Nothing else grows that has stickers on it.

Ask them...

- I knew it.

- Knew what?

We're being followed.

I asked that Injun to signal with a shot

if someone was on our trail.

Should we be concerned, Marshal?

Naw, Mr La Boeuf is giving us

his bird dog.

He wants to cut it in, once it flushed his prey.

Perhaps we could double back over our

tracks and confuse the trail in a clever way.

No, we will wait right here.

Offer our friend a warm hello.

Ask him where he's going.

You are not La Boeuf.

My name is Forrester.

I practice,

Dentistry in the Nation.

Also veterinary arts.

And medicine.

On those humans that will sit still for it.

You have your work cut out for you there.

Traded for him with an Indian who said he

came by him honestly.

I gave up two dental mirrors

and a bottle of expectorant.

Do either of you need

Medical attention?

No! Hey, it's fixing to get cold,

You know of anywhere to take shelter?

I have my bear skin.

You might want to head over

to the Original Greaser Bob's.

He notched a dugout into a hollow along the

Carrillon River.

If you ride the river.

You won't fail to see it.

Greaser BobOriginal

Greaser Bob

is hunting north of the picket wire

and would not begrudge its use

- Much obliged.

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