I don't want no trouble, Starrett. I came to inform ya. I got that beef contract for the reservation.
Joe Did it take this many of you to tell me that?
Joe 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.
Joe 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.
Joe And supposin' I don't?
You and the other squatters...
Joe Homesteaders, you mean, don't you?
I could blast you out of here right now, you and the others.
Joe 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...
[interrupting]
Joe, that's enough.
[to Shane]
Who are you, stranger?
I'm a friend of Starrett's.
Joe 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?
Joe 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?
Joe I'll teach you myself, once I get the time, Joey.
Can you shoot as good as Shane, Pa?
Joe 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?
Joe Well, he's tradin' at the store, not holdin' it up.
But why, Pa, honest? Why didn't he?
Joe I don't wear one myself.
It goes with him, though...Could you whip him, Pa? Could you whip Shane?
Joe Don't you ask nothin' but questions?
Joe Ooh, maybe. But there’s no call for that, Joey. Shane’s on our side.
Joe I know. It’s Ernie Wright.
[greeting Starrett's wagon]
Alright. Alright. I'll open the gate for ya.
Joe Who goes there?
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.
Joe 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?
Joe 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.
Joe 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?
Joe 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.
Joe 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.
Joe 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.
Joe What about the others?
Shane already knows he can work for me anytime.
Joe The other homesteaders.
Look, be reasonable! After all, there's only so many hands in a deck of cards.
Joe Then I've got to say no.
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?
Joe Joey ain't quite of age, Ryker.
I don't want you to be sorry, Starrett. I'll see ya. [he leaves].
Joe [to Shane, watching the retreating Wilson]
What do you make of him?
Joe: No. He don't look the part sure enough.
Joe Torrey was a pretty brave man, and I figure we'd be doin' wrong if we wasn't the same...We can have a regular settlement here, we can have a town and churches and a school...We've just got to, that's all...We can't give up this valley and we ain't gonna do it. This is farmin' country, a place where people can come and bring up their families. Who is Rufe Ryker or anyone else to run us away from our own homes? He only wants to grow his beef and what we want to grow up is families, to grow 'em good and grow 'em, grow 'em up strong, the way they was meant to be grown. God didn't make all this country just for one man like Ryker.
L Lewis
He's got it though and that's what counts.
You know what he wants you to stay for? Something that means more to you than anything else - your families. Your wives and kids. Like you, Lewis, your girls; Shipstead with his boys. They've got a right to stay here and grow up and be happy. That's up to you people to have nerve enough to not give it up.
Isn't there anything I can say that'll change things?
Joe Can't you see, honey, maybe this is the chance. Morgan and them boys went home.
You don't really believe that. That's not the reason.
Joe It's just too much for me to give up, this place and the valley. All the things that will be.
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?
Joe 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.
Joe 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.
It's as though I'd be glad for you to go.
Joe 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.
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!
Joe Marion, don't say that. That ain't the truth. You love this place more than me.
Joe Even if that was the truth, it wouldn't change things.
