I don't want no trouble, Starrett. I came to inform ya. I got that beef contract for the reservation.
Did it take this many of you to tell me that?
Then you tend to your own.
That's just what I'm doing! I'm telling ya now, I'm gonna need all my range.
Now that you've warned me, would you mind gettin' off my place?
Your place! You're gonna have to get out before the snow flies.
You and the other squatters...
Homesteaders, you mean, don't you?
I could blast you out of here right now, you and the others.
Now you listen to me, the time for gun-blastin' a man off of his own place is past. Why, they're building a penitentiary right now...
M Marion
[interrupting]
Joe, that's enough.
[to Shane]
Who are you, stranger?
I'm a friend of Starrett's.
These old-timers, they just can't see it yet, but runnin' cattle on an open range just can't go on forever. It takes too much space for too little results. Those herds aren't any good. They're all horns and bone. Now, cattle that is bred for meat and fenced in and fed right - that's the thing. You gotta pick your spot, get your land, your own land. Now a homesteader, he can't run but a few beef. But he can sure grow grain and cut hay. And then what with his garden and the hogs and milk, well, he'll make out all right. We make out, don't we, Marion?
M Marion
[pause]
Of course.
I wouldn't ask you where you're bound.
One place or another. Some place I've never been.
Pa, do you think Shane will teach me to shoot?
I'll teach you myself, once I get the time, Joey.
Can you shoot as good as Shane, Pa?
How do I know? I've never seen him shoot. But I doubt it.
He didn't wear his gun today. Why is that, Pa?
Well, he's tradin' at the store, not holdin' it up.
But why, Pa, honest? Why didn't he?
It goes with him, though...Could you whip him, Pa? Could you whip Shane?
Don't you ask nothin' but questions?
Ooh, maybe. But there’s no call for that, Joey. Shane’s on our side.
M Marion
Somebody’s coming, Joe.
I know. It’s Ernie Wright.
Mother, I just love Shane.
I love him almost as much as I love Pa. That's all right, isn't it?
M Marion
He's a fine man.
He's so good. Don't you like him, Mother?
M Marion
Yes, I like him too, Joey.
M Marion
Guns aren't going to be my boy's life.
Why do you always have to spoil everything?
A gun is a tool, Marion. No better and no worse than any other tool - an axe, a shovel, or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that.
M Marion
We'd all be much better off if there wasn't a single gun left in this valley - including yours.
[greeting Starrett's wagon]
Alright. Alright. I'll open the gate for ya.
Brother Rufe's come to pay you a little visit.
Howdy, Starrett. 'Evening, Ma'am. I had something I wanted to talk over with you Starrett.
Whatever business you and I got we can say it right here.
I'll just lay it on the barrel-head then. How'd you like to work for me?
I work for myself. I've done enough working for others.
Wait till I tell ya. I'll pay ya top wages, more than you can make on this patch of ground.
Nope. I'm not interested.
I haven't said it all. You can run your cattle with mine. What's more I'll buy your homestead. Set a price you think is reasonable, you'll find me reasonable. Is that fair?
You've made things pretty hard for us, Ryker, and us in the right all the time.
Right? You in the right! Look, Starrett. When I come to this country, you weren't much older than your boy there. We had rough times, me and other men that are mostly dead now. I got a bad shoulder yet from a Cheyenne arrowhead. We made this country. Found it and we made it. We worked with blood and empty bellies. The cattle we brought in were hazed off by Indians and rustlers. They don't bother you much anymore because we handled 'em. We made a safe range out of this. Some of us died doin' it but we made it. And then people move in who've never had to rawhide it through the old days. They fence off my range, and fence me off from water. Some of 'em like you plow ditches, take out irrigation water. And so the creek runs dry sometimes and I've got to move my stock because of it. And you say we have no right to the range. The men that did the work and ran the risks have no rights? I take you for a fair man, Starrett.
I'm not belittlin' what you and the others did. At the same time, you didn't find this country. There was trappers here and Indian traders long before you showed up and they tamed this country more than you did.
You talk about rights. You think you've got the right to say that nobody else has got any. Well, that ain't the way the government looks at it.
I didn't come to argue. I made you a fair proposition.
Shane already knows he can work for me anytime.
Look, be reasonable! After all, there's only so many hands in a deck of cards.
You don't give a man much choice do you, Starrett? [to Joey] How do you feel about it, son? Wouldn't you like to go partners with me? I don't want trouble with your father. We don't want anyone to get hurt, do we?
Joey ain't quite of age, Ryker.
M Marion
Come up here, Joey.
I don't want you to be sorry, Starrett. I'll see ya. [he leaves].
[to Shane, watching the retreating Wilson]
What do you make of him?
No. He don't look the part sure enough.
M Marion
Isn't there anything I can say that'll change things?
Can't you see, honey, maybe this is the chance. Morgan and them boys went home.
M Marion
You don't really believe that. That's not the reason.
It's just too much for me to give up, this place and the valley. All the things that will be.
M Marion
Will be. [about his toy gun] Joey, don't point that thing! Go play outside! Play outside, Joey! Please dear, go outside and play. [Joey exits] It's just pride, that's all, a silly kind of pride. Don't I mean anything to you, Joe? Doesn't Joey?
Marion - honey, it's because you mean so much to me that I- I've got to go. Do you think I could go on living with you and you thinking that I showed yella. Then, what about Joey? How do you think I'd ever explain that to him.
I've been thinkin' a lot and I know I'm kinda slow sometimes, Marion, but I see things. And I know that, if, if anything happened to me that you'd be took care of, took care of better than I could do it myself. I never thought I'd live to hear myself say that but I guess now's a pretty good time to lay things bare.
M Marion
It's as though I'd be glad for you to go.
Honey, you're the most honest and the finest girl that ever lived and I couldn't do what I gotta do if I hadn't always knowed that I could trust ya. Now don't you go countin' me out. [He straps on his holster] I wouldn't have lived as long as I have already if I wasn't pretty tough.
M Marion
You're both out of your senses. This isn't worth a life, anybody's life. What are you fighting for? This shack, this little piece of ground, and nothing but work, work, work? I'm sick of it. I'm sick of trouble. Joe, let's move. Let's go on. Please!
Marion, don't say that. That ain't the truth. You love this place more than me.
Even if that was the truth, it wouldn't change things.
M Marion
You were through with gun-fighting?
M Marion
[softly]
Are you doing this just for me?
For you, Marion - for Joe - and little Joe.
M Marion
Then we'll never see you again?
Never's a long time, ma'am. Tell him, tell him I was sorry.
M Marion
No need to tell him that.
