The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez

No. No, no. You can't help him.

Just take care of the baby.

Think about her to mince the sadness.

I'm about sick of this senseless killing.

What are we gonna do about it?

Hold it right there, feller.

What you got in your mouth?

Aw, hell. He don't even understand English.

All right. I'll talk to him in Mexican, goddamn it.

There's no one in the house.

- Habla! - He ain't gonna tell us nothin'.

Hey. Listen to this. Governor says he offers reward.

Been doing pretty good this season.

What kind of reward is it up to?

Looks like it's up to a thousand dollars.

Back from Baltimore. Here I lost 27.50 and won 25.

But for the season, I'm about 225 up.

Listen to this right here.

The Mexicans makin' a break for the Rio Grande.

The man supposed to have fired the shots,

terminating the lives of Sheriffs Morris and Glover,

is evidently making bold efforts to reach the border.

Many determined men are in the saddle following tracks of murder suspects.”

Come on. Get.

Hey, he jumped the fence.

Get the wire cutters.

Skin, give me your horse.

- Hey, hey, Billy. - Excuse me. Sir?

Can you tell me where I can...

find Ranger Rogers?

- Huh? - Ranger Rogers.

- Huh? - Ranger Rogers?

Oh, I think he's up there in the cook car.

Thank you very much. Excuse me. I'm looking for Ranger Rogers.

- You mean Captain Rogers. - I mean Captain Rogers.

- You're looking at him. - Well, how do you do?

Bill Blakely. San Antonio Express.

What can I do for you, Mr. Blakely?

I'm doing a story on the gang of Mexicans that killed Sheriffs Morris and Glover.

- Come on in. - Thank you.

How do you do?

- Cookie, get Mr. Blakely a cup of coffee. - Thank you.

Thank you very much.

So...

I was wondering how the Texas Rangers are being used in this chase.

Well, with God's help, the Rangers will be the ones who bring him in.

How 'bout the train? How does that fit in the picture?

Well, the Mexicans have to head south to the border.

And the rail line runs in the same direction.

And we're in touch with the posses by wire.

So when they're sighted, we ride the rail to the nearest point,

cut 'em off.

It's a mighty big country.

All right, men, dismount. We'll make camp here.

- Let's get some fires set up. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Get the horses watered.

Whoo-hoo.

Howdy.

- Hello. - Bill Blakely, San Antonio Express.

- What's your name? - Anthony Meyer.

Where are you from?

Oh, a little town right north, San Angelo, Texas.

I don't think you'd know where it is.

It doesn't matter. Got anything you want me to tell the folks back home?

No, I don't guess. They don't even know where I am.

- Thanks for talking with me. - You bet.

Hey, thanks a lot.

Come on, Barton. Let's go to the water.

Excuse me. Howdy. Bill Blakely.

- Oh, Jones is the name. - Jones?

- Yeah. - How you doin'?

Pretty good, I guess. I tell you, I sure could use a drink of whiskey.

Yes, I know what you mean.

What in the hell happened to you?

He take your horse?

Took my horse and my gun.

This is some picnic, ain't it?

You should be dead.

Come on, get up.

Hyah.

Excuse me. You're Boone Choate, aren't you?

- Depends on who's asking. - Oh, sorry. Bill Blakely.

You were with Sheriff Morris the day he was killed, right?

That's right.

Well, I'm a reporter with the San Antonio Express.

I wonder if I could trouble you for your story about what happened.

I don't know.

I mean, uh, I was unarmed.

It'd have been a whole different story if I have had a gun.

You were Morris's interpreter, isn't that right?

Yeah, I was.

I talk Mexican.

I've been around 'em most of my life.

You were the only one with Morris, except for the Mexicans that day, is that right?

Well, at the shooting I was.

But before that, Mike Trimmell was with us.

- Huh? - He's a deputy.

Sheriff Morris's nephew.

We dropped him off just before we got up to the Cortez place

so he could check some brands on the livestock.

'Cause you suspected they were stolen?

Hell of a lot more than suspected.

We talked to a Mexican who had traded a horse with him a few weeks earlier.

We were just going to find out.

Whoa.

Ask him what his name is.

Ask ol' Romaldo if he knows a Gregorio Cortez.

He didn't tell him that you wanted to talk to him.

He told him you wanted him.

Ask him if he's traded him a horse lately.

He says he hasn't traded a horse.

I understand “no,” Boone.

Uh, tell him another fellow said he did.

He ain't gonna tell you nothing.

Well, you habla him that he's under arrest.

No.

He says, “No man can arrest him.”

Boy, get back in that surrey.

I thought he might shoot me, so I got out of the surrey

and I run like hell.

And I run into Mike, who was riding up towards the house.

Mike!

Mike!

- What happened? - They got him. They shot the sheriff, Mike.

- They what? - They got him!

What do you mean, they got him?

We got to get some help, Mike. He's dead.

- What do you mean, he's dead? - He's dead! They got him!

We lost him, Mike. They shot him three times.

We went off to get some help.

The rest of us didn't get back to Corlez is place till about dusk.

That's where he got it, Mike.

Shot him right there.

They either took him with 'em, or buried him.

- Hyah! Let's go! - I'm surprised they didn't take his watch.

Let's go.

Curly, get into town and call up Sheriff Glover over in Gonzales.

We're gonna be trackin' 'em.

Come on!

We followed the wagon tracks.

They led us right into Mexican Town.

So that's how you caught Romaldo. But how did you know where to look for Gregorio?

Well, let's just say that we persuaded him to tell us where he'd gone.

He headed north to hide out with a friend by the name of Martin Robledo.

So Glover and Mike and me and a half a dozen other boys

took the train for Belmont the next morning.

That's a little station near where the Cortez gang was hiding out.

It's your deal, Tim.

All right, listen here, boys. We're gonna be coming into Belmont soon.

I want every damn Mexican on the train arrested,

and we're gonna do the same when we get into town.

- This is the last hand. - Two?

Yup. Whatever you want. You're betting.

I don't want nobody warning them that we're coming.

I'm light.

- That's right. - Gonna scare you out.

Glover was close to Morris,

and I could tell it was really eatin' him up.

You owe me one dollar - two dollars.

What's the latest word on Mrs. McKinley?

Remember about a week ago, they said she was just hanging on.

Now they say she's, uh, like a spring chicken.

Goddamn it. It still doesn't make any sense to me.

- Boone? - Hmm?

You say that Mexican drew his pistol before Morris?

- Yep. - Had it behind him, you say?

I didn't see it in front of him. Pair of tens.

I mean, Morris was fast.

One of the fastest.

He didn't have it in front of him when he came off the porch,

so he had to have it behind his back, probably in his belt.

Pullin' a gun from the hip is a hell of a lot faster than from behind your back.

Damn, I still don't understand how Morris got plugged.

What you got?

Why the hell didn't you look for him that night?

Because we thought he was dead.

A dead man doesn't go crawling off into the bushes.

It wasn't a question of lookin' or not lookin'.

You couldn't see two feet in front of you.

Just haunts me to think of him laying out there all by himself, Trimmell.

Well, you know how it is in this business.

One slipup, adios.

Well, they'll pay.

From Belmont we rode on out to Henry Schnabel's place.

That's where we figured that the Cortez gang was hiding out.

Hey, Henry.

Hello, Sheriff. What brings you by here this evening?

Sheriff Morris got shot down in Karnes.

- We got word they headed this way. - Scheisse.

You've got some Mexicans living here, haven't you?

Yeah. Yeah, the Robledo family. But, uh, what do you want with them?

They've been working for me now for five years.

Don't want anything with them, Henry.

It's them Mexicans they know from Karnes. Name's Cortez. He's the ringleader.

Well, come on, Henry. Let's go talk to 'em.

- I haven't eaten yet my supper. - Goddamn it, Henry!

We're gonna have you back here in five minutes. Now, come on!

All right.

By the time we got to the Robledo house, it was dark.

We rode up like nothin' was wrong.