sit down.
sit down.
doesn't push easy?
what do you want, doc?
you wonder too much, and you talk too much. it's a bad parlay, doc.
how do you look at him, doc?
keep it up, doc. be funny. make bad jokes. and some day i'll have coley wash out your mouth with lye.
send a wire to nick gandi in los angeles. tell him to find out all he can about john j. macreedy. tell him i want to know fast. sign my name.
nick gandi. g-a-n-d-i. care of the blake hotel.
he's a private detective. i drive to l.a. now and then.
he'll get us anything, for twenty bucks a day and expenses. hector, you worry too fast and too easy.
hector, you're jumpy as a stall horse.
about what? what'll we talk to him about? the birds, the bees? the weather? the crops? you tried -- where'd it get you?
sure. you only thought.
what do you do? you wait. like pete here. right, pete?
that's all you do. but while you wait.  i talk to him.
mr. macreedy.
my name is smith. i own the triple- bar ranch. i want to apologize for some of the folks in town.
a keg? of what?
no. nothing like that. we're a little suspicious of strangers is all. hangover from the old days. the old west.
i'm trying to be hospitable, mr. macreedy. going to be around for a while?
how would you like to go hunting tomorrow? i'd be proud to have you as my guest.
you mean, because of your arm? i knew a man once, lost an arm in a threshing accident. used to hunt all the time. but he was quite a man. he.  i'm sorry. i.  what i mean is -- if there's anything i can do while you're around.
you're looking for what, mr. macreedy?
komako -- sure, i remember him -- japanese farmer. never had a chance.
he got here in '41 -- just before pearl harbor. three months later he was shipped to one of those relocation centers. tough.
who knows?
i'm sure it would. write your letter. i'll see it gets out tonight.
no trouble at all.
aren't you going to ask him where he wants to go?
he wants to go to adobe flat.
liz. do you have a license to rent cars? you could get into trouble.
you shouldn't have done that.
this is liable to be the hardest ten dollars you ever earned in your life.
what did he want -- the stranger?
a storm? about what?
trouble? you don't know anything about komako, now do you, tim?
the point is, what you don't know can't hurt you.
tim, you're a lost ball in the high weeds. i told you a long time ago, nothing happened for you to worry about.
then do your job, tim.
macreedy'll do nothing, tim. and neither will you.
that would be dangerous. you got the body of a hippo, tim, but the brain of a rabbit. don't overtax it.
shut up!
now, coley?
is he?
isn't there? you got brains, you have.
a nobody like macreedy can raise a pretty big stink. the point is.  who would miss a nobody like macreedy if he just, say, disappeared? who, coley?
coley!
wait for what?
not macreedy. i know those maimed guys. their minds get twisted. they put on hair shirts and act like martyrs. they're all of 'em do- gooders, trouble makers, freaks.
no danger, he says. this guy's like a carrier of small pox. since he arrives, there's been a fever in this town, an infection. and it's spreading. hastings has been in a sick sweat, running around, shooting off his face. doc, for the first time in four years, gets snotty with me. liz.  . your own sister -- acts like a fool.
kid! she must have strained every muscle in her head to get so stupid! renting him a jeep! and tim -- tim, the rum-dum. tim suddenly decides he's gotta act like a sheriff. and he says what's the danger.
of course, if you want to take the chance.
all right, then.
well, listen to little spitfire.  you sniveling toad! i'm saving your neck! if i don't, who will?
who will?! doc? tim? your sister, with the rocks in her head?
one thing about your sister -- she's got twice the guts you have. you're only fit for running away.
all right, then.
mr. macreedy. i'd like to ask you a few questions.  as long as you're around.
good. i wouldn't want to see that girl get into trouble.
what with rental permits, gas rationing.  you know what i mean.
it's just, a girl like that has a future.
do you have the time?
i hear you handle a jeep real well.
i think i understand. you're an army man. where'd you get it?
tough. i tried to get in myself, the day after those rats bombed pearl harbor.
the physical. they wouldn't take me. the morning after pearl, i was the first man in line at marine recruiting in sand city. and they wouldn't take me.
what do you do in los angeles, mr. macreedy?
you're a pretty young man.
what were you looking for in adobe flat?
nothing. it's just -- i don't believe you. i believe a man is as big as what he seeks. i believe you're a big man, mr. macreedy.
why would a man like you be looking for a lousy jap farmer?
yes, you are. i believe that a man is as big as the things that make him mad. nobody around here has been big enough to make you mad.
me? nothing in particular.
that's different. after the sneak attack on pearl harbor.  after bataan.
it's the same thing. loyal japanese-americans -- that's a laugh. they're mad dogs. look at corregidor, the death march.
wasn't he a jap? look, macreedy, there's a law in this county against shooting dogs. but if i see a mad dog loose, i don't wait for him to bite me. i swear, you're beginning to make me mad.
not all. some of 'em. when they come here snooping.
i mean, outsiders coming around, looking for something.
i don't know. people are always looking for something in this part of the west. to the historian, it's the "old west." to the book writers, it's the "wild west." to the businessmen, it's the "undeveloped west." they all say we're backward and poor, and i guess we are. we don't even have enough water. but this place, to us, is our west. i just wish they'd leave us alone.
i don't know what you mean.
he went away, i told you. shortly after he left, a bunch of kids got fooling around out his place. they burned it down. it was one of those things -- you know how kids are.
what's funny?
you don't seem to believe anything i say.
why?
burying cattle?
sort of. maybe you can figure it out.
why not give it a whirl? it'll help you pass the time.  . for a while.
he's as changeable as a prairie fire.
sort of unpredictable, too. got a temper like a rattlesnake.
now why-ever would he want to do that?
i don't think that'll be necessary. you're so scared now you'll probably drown in your own sweat.
you're still in trouble.
you got things a bit twisted.
you expect an answer -- to a wire that's never sent?
what's so funny?
tim, you're pathetic.
that's the point. you're not sheriff any more. you just lost a job, you're so pathetic.
all right, sheriff. take over.
can't i? i put him in office. now i take him out.
hector.  come on, hector.
just a few more steps, honey.
first things first, honey.
you were going to help me, liz. i still need your help.
you two started out in a car. that's the way you'll end up. over a cliff, burning. you can blame that on macreedy, too. he said i had too many witnesses.
i got to start with somebody.
go ahead -- kill me. now.