Hell Bent for Leather

Water. Please.

Water.

Now, take it easy there. You'll kill yourself.(COUGHS)

That's enough.

What are you doin', stumbling around out here in these hills on foot?

What happened to your horse? (PANTING)

Dead.

How long?

Two days.

All right. That's enough.

Come on. You'd better have something to eat.

That's a real fancy shotgun you've got there.

I like it.

All I've got is beans...

Anybody here?

Somethin' you want?

Beginnin' to think this town was deserted.

Why didn't you answer? I wasn't sure I heard.

Where is everybody? Funeral.

What's that? I say most everybody's up at the funeral.

Sheriff too? We ain't got no sheriff.

Nate Perrick is the nearest to it. He's up there.

You own these horses? I own 'em.

How much for this black, and a work saddle and bridle?

Well, I couldn't say for clear.

Uh, I always did prize that horse kinda high.

Forty dollars. Forty?

That for the horse. Ten more for the saddle and bridle.

You throw in a blanket.

Fifty dollars?

If I wasn't in such a hurry, I'd have talked you down to 40.

I hate to pour salt in your wounds,

but, business like it is, you could've got off with 30. (CHUCKLES)

How 'bout food? Is there someplace open?

I said, is there someplace open?

No, no. No place open. J-Just Gamble's.

A saloon? They got food there?

That's what the sign says.

I want this horse saddled and ready to go in about 10 minutes.

I want a bill of sale. Can you handle it yourself?

Well, I got me a boy here somewhere about. Booth.

Booth! Booth!

Yeah?

Sign outside says you got food.

Old Ben's the fellow you want. Runs the livery.

Sweep out his place, he's likely to give you a tin of sop.

Well, a tin of sop wasn't exactly what I had in mind.

Well, say, you gotta understand the trash I get through here.

About that food.Yeah.

Lamb fries and swamp seed, fresh on the stove.

Best you'll get this side of the mountain. That'll be fine.

A little something to go with it? Whiskey, maybe?

Beer'll do.Sure.

Where you down from? The hills?

I mean, from the look of ya.

Misery in them hills this time of year.

Heat one minute, flood the next.

Kinda makes a body wonder what ya been doin' up there.

Look, I'm in kind of a hurry.

Never hold up a man in a hurry.

I sure would like that beer. What? Oh.

You said the food was ready.

Food? Yeah, yeah, sure. Right away.

Hey, how you comin' with that...

Hey!

Hey, you there!

Say, what's going on around here? Where does that bartender think he's goin'?

I don't know. Maybe he figures he's late for the funeral.

You know, I've been havin' me a time tryin' to pick out a saddle for you.

And besides that, Blackie's kinda hard to catch.

So I notice.

See if you can get a bridle on him. I'll find a saddle.

Sure, sure. You know how it is.

Some folks like one kind of a saddle, and some folks like another kind of a saddle.

That's just the way it is. Now, come here, Blackie.

What's wrong with this one?

Well, that's all right.

I asked you for a bill of sale.

I'm not about to get shot for stealing a horse I paid 40 bucks for.

Why, sure, sure. I'll fix it up for you. I got part of it down here.

But I'll have to have your name on this here paper.

Santell.

Clay Santell.

S-A-N...

T-E-L-L.

There. I guess that does 'er.

Well, let's have it.

No good, Travers.

What?

See it, Nate, how quick he answers to that name?

I'm not answering to anything. Look. What are you trying to work yourselves up to?

Santell. That what you call yourself? Clay Santell.

Got any proof of that?

What's it say?

Telegram. "Clay Santell, Cedar City, Utah.

Acknowledge pick up consignment of 42 horses...

at Iron Wells, New Mexico, no later August 19th. Frank Hunter."

What do you want with horses? That's my business.

Your business? That's right.

Pick up horses from a breeder, trail 'em to a buyer and sell 'em for a profit.

That still don't tell where you've been. Sure, it does.

Right here in the telegram. Cedar City, Utah.

What you do, walk all the way?

Well, I... I got bushwhacked yesterday.

That a fact? Who?

I don't know who. He don't know.

This fella came to my camp yesterday on foot, asking for water.

Looked like he was about half dead.

Well, he... He jumped me and took my horse.

That's what happened.

Look, I don't know what's going on here, but I...

Not hardly, you don't! We're a quiet little community.

We've never had grief or a need for law, except what I apply when called on.

Two days ago, all that changes.

A runaway killer named Travers comes down out of the hills,

followed south by that marshal from Colorado.

Holes up in the old Shattuck place in the woods.

Old Abe and his wife, as fine a pair as you'd ever know.

Marshal, he does the only thing he can do. He comes down here for help.

By the time we got there, Travers was gone.

Not the Shattucks though. They were still there, what was left of 'em.

All that Travers left behind was his horse.

Now, look. You don't think I had...

A man comes out of the hills, no horse.

Comes into town just when the funeral's goin' on, pickin' a time when nobody's here.

Yeah, makin' sure there's no lawmen about.

And in such an all-fired hurry to get goin'.Packin' a heap of money too.

Now, like I told you, I've got to be in Iron Wells tomorrow morning.

You're lyin', boy.

I'm not lying.

That fancy-lookin' shotgun... It tells it.

Soon as I seen that, I knew he was Travers.

That shotgun... Where'd you get it?

Well, this fella that came into camp... he had it.

I fired off at him, and he dropped it.

Now, ain't that a coincidence?

Yeah, the shotgun with silver work on it. That's all Travers ever uses.

Not a bullet, clean and simple, but a shot.

Jagged little pellets, rippin' on a man's insides or face.

And the look of him, just like the marshal said.

A medium-sized man this side of 30.

That description fits a lot of men.

Perrick, you speak for us in this town.

You gonna do your job, or do I?

I don't know.

Well, I do. I know this is the man.

You've never seen Travers.

None of us has seen him, except the marshal that's after him.

The marshal ain't here.

He'll be here. The boy went for him.

I don't wait.

Hold it right there.

Get away from him, both of ya.

What are you tryin' to do, save the government the price of hangin' this man?

What do you mean, hangin'? On your feet, Travers.

Listen. My name's Santell.

I never even heard of Travers until today.

Then I've been four months chasin' a man with your face.

Nobody's been chasin' me anywhere.

I've been trailin' horses.

Go ahead, read that.

You'll get your chance for readin',

in front of a jury in Denver.

Unless you'd prefer a rope here.

Denver? What's this about Denver?

Where he's goin' for trial.

Get him up on that horse.

Why not here? Circuit judge'll be through in a couple of weeks.

He'll pay for it in Denver with a legal hangin', not a lynchin'.

Fourteen people that varmint killed. Two of 'em I knew.

Maybe I don't make myself clear.

The United States government wants this man.

It sent me out here to find him and bring him back to Denver.

That's just what I'm going to do.

But you got no jurisdiction, not down here. Tell him, Perrick!

All the jurisdiction I need.

Move out, Travers.

I don't mind telling ya, you really had me goin' for a while...

till I figured out what you were up to.

Thanks for pullin' me out of that mess back there.

I pulled you out of somethin'? Sure, back there in town.

That's one way of lookin' at it.

You don't think I'm Travers, do ya? Not a hair.

That fella stole my horse... he must be the man you're lookin' for.

Say, uh, if you don't mind, I've got to be in Iron Wells tomorrow morning.

I'm gonna have to push it to get there as it is.

But I was just thinkin', those people back there in town,

worked up like they are and thinkin' about you the way they do,

if they was to see me let you go...

There's none of them out here. They're not gonna see a thing.

You're wrong, friend. Look over there.

All but the few you saw in town,

down in that house a-readin' and a-singin'.

Funeral, huh?

Nothing like these people for prayin' for their dead.

Unless it's their taste for revenge.

Yes, sir,

I bet if they ever got their hands on Travers, they'd tear him to pieces.

I'd say them woods would be a lot safer than out here on this road.

We'll take that trail. Well, how far?