Mr. Jorgenson?
He may be in the barn.
Why don't I have a look there, Jim?
All right, Artie.
Mr. Jorgenson?
Jim!
I found him.
Good.
We're too late.
And you said Mr. Jorgenson was dead before you got there?
That's right.
Whatever it was he wanted to tell us is gone with him.
And Mr. Gordon, sir, how is he?
Well, you can see for yourself.
- Be careful? - Aah. Heh-heh.
Careful. Fine.
You know, I think it'd work much better
if you held me real tight.
Yes, that's much better.
It's nice to see you bearing up so well, Artie.
Well, you know me, James.
I was never one to believe in,
pampering myself in any way.
Can I get you some tea?
No, no, no.
Thank you, thank you very much.
I'm... I'm perfectly fine.
Artie, this is Tom Harwood
out of our Albuquerque office.
It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Gordon.
Likewise.
I hope your leg gets better.
Listen, with ministering angels like these,
it'll be fine in no time.
Harwood was investigating
the homesteaders at the Big Hill area, Artie.
Come up with anything?
No, sir.
The homesteaders up there are getting along fine.
A few quit, but mainly they're settling on the land.
Then it's only the Grey Ridge area they won't stay on.
You see any connection with that,
whatever it is we ran into?
Someone is going to a great deal of trouble
to try and run the homesteaders out of the Grey Ridge area.
Artie, it'll be very interesting
to find out if anyone settles on that land
when the farmers move off.
The title changes would have to be recorded.
Wait a minute.
Jorgenson's letter mentioned a Lyle Dixon
as another farmer they were trying to run off.
I think it's time
to pay a little visit to the Grey Ridge area, Artie.
I'm sorry I can't go with you, James.
But I'll join you there as soon as my leg gets better.
How do you do? Help you out?
Yeah, please. I'd like to look at the titles
of some properties you have in this area.
I can save you the trouble.
Nothing for sale out this way.
Well, maybe the owners haven't heard the right offer.
How about the Parnassus property?
Sorry about that one.
Records ain't available right now.
I see.
Well, how about the Faulk property just over the bluff?
Sorry again. Ha.
Not your day, it looks like.
You are the, county clerk, aren't you?
Guilty as charged.
And these titles are a matter of public record, aren't they?
You see, we're reorganizing the files right now.
You come back in a month or so,
be glad to help you out.
I... I guess it can wait.
Yeah. Sure am sorry can't help you out.
That's all right.
Howdy.
I'm looking for a farmer named Lyle Dixon.
Expect Dixon to be along any minute now.
There he is now.
You got no right not selling me supplies.
Ain't that what the store's for?
Why? Why this senseless fighting?
Get out of here!
Thank you.
I don't want any thanks.
But why all this fighting?
We're a small community.
Can't we live together like good neighbors?
That's all the homesteaders want.
We need supplies.
Only we can't get none from him.
Small problem of money?
I got money. The problem is he won't sell.
Maddox?
I don't make the policies, Mr. Bock. The co-op does.
The policies say if a farmer ain't a member of the co-op,
I can't sell nothing to him.
Would your policies bind the wounds of this community?
No, life is too short.
A few supplies isn't reason enough to fight.
Maybe not, but I gotta go by the rules.
Rules.
Men aren't animals to fight over trifles
like dogs over a bone.
I say if this man needs supplies, and he has them,
the two of them should get together.
All right. That'll be $2.50.
I want bacon and beans too.
Much obliged to you, mister.
Well, it was my pleasure.
The name is Lyle Dixon.
My name's James West, Lyle.
Much obliged to you too, Mr. Bock.
If it hadn't been for what you did,
Hello, Miss Lonie.
I was worried for a while,
watching you with all those others.
I think we're holding up Mr. Dixon, Lonie.
He has to load his supplies.
You call yourself James West?
That's right, and you're Mr. Bock.
That's right.
I'd like to present Miss Lonie Millard,
a member of my household.
How do you do?
May I?
Thank you.
Mr. West, it's unfortunate
your introduction to our community was so strenuous.
It's a good town. It's good people.
I've, never seen a general store
fight to keep business away before.
It seems the old-time ranchers
resent the homesteaders moving into the area.
This must come to an end, this division between men.
Good day, Mr. West.
Good day, sir.
Nice to have met you, Mr. West.
Thank you.
I meant to tell you, you sure handled yourself.
Well, just for the record, Lyle, you'll do fine.
It's too bad you weren't around
when Jan Jorgenson had his accident.
You knew Jan?
Well, I didn't really know him.
He sent a letter to Washington,
that's why I'm here.
But when I arrived, he was already dead.
So you're a government man?
That's right.
Well, now you've seen part of it.
Listen, you come to my farm tonight.
Me and the other farmers, we'll tell you plenty.
All right, Artie, where are they?
Who?
Who? You know who.
Those nurses.
The last time I saw you,
you looked as if you'd never walk again
without the help of those nurses.
Jest if you will, James, my boy.
Only my grit, my pluck,
and my iron determination
enabled me to be up and about.
And I haven't been wasting my time.
Really? Really.
I worked out the formula for this
while lying on my bed of pain.
Observe carefully.
Will not explode on contact.
And yet, observe.
If I cut us a small secant thereof,
watch the reaction that this has...
to heat.
Stand back, James, my boy.
I don't want anyone hurt in the process.
Hey, Artie.
Pretty good?
Yeah, that's marvelous. Yeah.
This is yours from me.
Now fill me in.
Well, briefly, Artie, there's a land-record office
that doesn't want the records seen by anyone.
It's a little bit unusual, isn't it?
Yeah, and there's a co-op store
that doesn't want to sell to farmers,
who, by the way, have invited me to a secret meeting tonight.
Splendid idea.
Shall I meet you at the farmers' later?
Yeah, later, Artie.
And we can't buy any food, we can't buy any tools,
we can't buy nothing!
So how are we supposed to live?
Well, I'll tell you this.
My Martha and me, we're gonna find us
a better place to live.
And I say we don't let them run us out.
We can buy our own tools and food.
Where, Lyle? Albuquerque is so far.
Who says we can't start our own co-op?
The point is we stay.
And maybe we stay for good...
in our graves.
They killed Jan Jorgenson, maybe they'll kill us all.
Not if they know we're gonna stand up and fight.
I've been saving this.
This is James West from the government.
He's here to help us fight too.
Gentlemen.
What can one man do?
That's the point.
One man alone can't do anything.
But if we buy our goods together,
if we fight together,
then we'll stay on together.
These are our homes.
There ain't nothing that can beat us.
Nothing that can move us out, nothing.
Get out of here, quickly.
Quickly, now!
I'll fight any man for my land,
but how are you gonna fight that?
Sell out and they'll keep the pressure on
till all of you sell out.
That's easy for you to say.
You work for the government. It's your job to fight.
It's your job too.
My job is to see that I stay alive
long enough to raise my children.
Mr. West, Victor here ain't no coward.
They offered me $1.00 an acre.
The price is low, but I can get another piece of land.
Where are my kids gonna get another father?
Anybody selling land here?
Because if you are, I'm buying.
You're not from the co-op. Why do you want our land?
Gentlemen, this is my partner, Artemus Gordon.
I don't get it.
Your friend suggesting we pull out?
Not at all.
I'll give any man here a government note for his land.
And you can buy it back in ten days, if you want to,
at the same price.
Meantime, you can continue to live on it
and stay right where you are, if you want to do that.
That's a fair enough shake. What's the catch?
There's no catch, friend.
Well, I'll sell whatever the reason.
Come on over to the house, I'll take the names.
Becoming a land baron, Artie?
Well, it's one way of getting to meet other land barons.
I got a look at those transfers of title.
Who's been moving in when the farmers move out?
It's a regular rogues' gallery, Jim.
Harmon Banes, Telly Morgan, Dirt Mulden,
Tate Gingsley, both Mace brothers.
Sounds like the who's who of the criminal world.
You couldn't put together a tougher group of boys.
Yeah. They're all signing their land over
to the D&F Land Company.
Which is? Unidentified.
Well, that should change quickly when they find out
that you bought all the land they're after.
I intend to make sure they do.
Just before you got here, Artie,
that contraption we saw at Jorgenson's was here.
Those tracks ought to be pretty easy to follow.
What do you want?
Just a smile from you, my friend.
A great big, wide Texas smile
will make me feel welcome so far from home.
Help me celebrate my settin' up
a new home right here amongst y'all.
The saloon's that way, bub.
Well, now, bub's no way to address a neighbor, neighbor.
Ellsworth R. Caldwell's the name.
"R" stands for rich. Ha-ha-ha.
Well, I'm a busy man.
All right, you got no time for sociability,
business it is.
Like to record the title transfers
for a few little properties around hereabouts.
You bought land here?
That's what I'm saying.
Whole bunch of little places I'm gonna put together
and make myself a spread, give me some privacy.
You know, I got the Burgstrom place,
the Klingers' place, whole bunch of little places.
Just a little spread, you know,
near as I can figure about, 11,400 acres.
You all right, friend? Your jaw's hanging kind of low.
That would make you about the biggest spread around here.
Gosh, it would! Everything I do is big!
Everywhere I go, everything I do is the biggest!
Ellsworth B. Caldwell's the name.
"B" stands for big. Ha-ha-ha!
May I come down with the ache if that ain't true.
Here, have a cigar, on that, friend.
Mr. Caldwell?
Yes, sir, that's the name.
I overheard you say
you've bought a few parcels of land here.
I'd like to welcome you into our little community.
Well, I wanna thank you very much
for your welcome, kind sir. Yes.
I'd like to buy you a drink on it.
Well, fine. It'd be my honor to have a drink with you, sir.
Soon as I can get these here title transfers recorded.
Why, I'll see to it.
You manage to hurry things along for this gentleman?
Yes, sir, Mr. Bock.
Bock, is it? Howdy.
I'm surprised to learn
that you were able to buy any land here.
It's my understanding that there's none for sale.
Just as happy to hear it, though.
I'd much rather do business with one gentleman
than a bunch of unreasonable redneck farmers.
You were gonna buy my land?
No, I... I'm not interested in land for myself.
I've been asked to represent a group
who are trying to establish themselves in this area.
Land syndicate?
Farmers' cooperative to be more accurate.
Their names being...?
They prefer to remain nameless.
I see.
Well, I tell you, Mr., Bock,
I sure hate to disappoint
your nameless and eccentric friends,
but I'm real pleased with this area.
Yes, real, real pleased.
I plan to stay here quite a spell.
Well, we'll talk about it over that drink.
Fine, you do the talking, I'll do the drinking.
I still can't figure out
how you talked those farmers into selling.
Well, you know,
where there's a will, there's a way.
I always sayin' us Texans got a monopoly on will.
Yes, sir. Ellsworth W. Caldwell's the name.
"W" stands for will. Ha-ha-ha!
Three dollars per acre for your land. That's final.
That's gotta be twice what you paid for it.
Well, I must say, that's more than fair of you.
Three dollars an acre?
Close the deal with a drink.
Four would have me thinking.
All right, make it 4.
I've got some papers with me, all legal.
Have me thinking, not selling.
No, I'm not selling. I won't sell at any price.
I tell you, I like it here. I like you.
Yes, sir. I like the way you take a joke.
I feel real at home
with friendly people like yourself. Heh-heh.
Then, all I can say is good luck.
Well, thank you, thank you.
Fresh bottle to toast my friend's new enterprise.
Well, now, that's real kind of you.
Thank you, sir.
Yes, sir, I tell you, you...
You are the salt of the earth,
A gentleman and a scholar. Ha-ha-ha.
I tell you, the minute I get set up here,
I'm gonna make sure that I can return the compliment.
Show you what real Texas hospitality is like.
End up by roasting a fatted calf.
You have welcomed me warmly, sir.
I tell you,
the salt of the earth is what you are.
A boil on my neck if that ain't the truth.
And I gotta say so myself,
though I be a man of few words, I tell you.
Yes, sir, well...
I drink a toast to your health,
and, your good fortune. Yeah.
And to the great state of Texas.
And to this great country of ours.
And the men who make sacrifices on her behalf.
Ha.
Yes, sir, I must say that's...
That's mighty...
Buffoon.
Throw him in the wagon in the back.
You'll find he'll be more pliable as the day wears on.
Mr. West?
May I?
Does Mr. Bock know you're here?
"Lonie Millard, president of the D&F Land Company"?
How long have you been signing documents for Bock?
That's none of your business.
He's using you. You know that of course, don't you?
You talk that way about a man who saved your life?
You ought to be grateful.
I am grateful. I'm grateful he didn't shoot me.
But of course, he didn't know I was a government agent.
Government agent?
That's right.
But what do you want here?
Not Mr. Bock?
Not him?
You don't understand. He's a good man.
He's helped everybody around here.
When my family died, if Mr. Bock hadn't taken me in,
I don't know what I'd be now.
You know what you are?
You're the front for a syndicate
that's driving every honest farmer
out of the Grey Ridge territory.
I don't believe that.
What about this,
company that you're the president of?
They're just papers. I sign them.
Well, among those papers,
have you signed a will leaving everything to Mr. Bock
if in the event you should die?
Now you get out of here.
Right now, before I call the guards.
Wait a minute, just wait a minute.
If I can convince you that Mr. Bock is using you,
then will you help me?
How do you mean?
The barn in the courtyard.
I think there's something you should see.
Miss Lonie.
You seen Mr. Bock?
You know you're not supposed to be down here, Miss Lonie.
I was just looking for Mr. Bock.
Well, he's in town...
See? It's just a barn.
Hey, Len!
Yeah?
Give me a hand, we got a guest outside.
You see enough, Lonie?
What's it for, Mr. West?
What's it for?
Stay here.
Make him comfortable, gentlemen.
I trust you'll have no ill effects
from your drink, Mr. Caldwell.
Then you won't need much strength.
Just enough for a signature or two.
If this is your idea of amusement... Heh.
Was that amusing, Mr. Caldwell?
Five dollars per acre for your land.
An offer no man in your position can afford to turn down,
wouldn't you say?
Well, it appears to me that a man in my position
might never get around to spending that profit
once he did sign.
A chance you will have to take.
A chance you will want to take, I'm sure.
Mr. Caldwell,
I'm about to stop being nice to you.
No!
What the devil are you doing here?
You mustn't! I told him it was a lie.
I said that you were a good man. That he was wrong.
That's enough.
If you want her to live, stay where you are.
Now then.
Let's see what we can come up with
to entertain you three.
You're a living fool, Mr. Caldwell.
Still, that's better than being a dead fool, I suppose.
You might give that some thought.
Ha!
Mr. West, you seem to be a man of some sense,
so I'll put it to you.
Convince this man to sign over his lands.
And you will all be set free,
on the waists, as I've said.
Sounds almost too good to be true.
If you have some misplaced sense of loyalty
to the farmers,
let me remove that obstacle.
A letter has been sent in your name, Mr. West,
asking for another meeting today.
A meeting that should be in progress right now.
A meeting that will end this struggle once and for all.
To your satisfaction, of course.
You've seen my machine, Mr. West.
I've created the greatest instrument of destruction
known to man: The Juggernaut.
Capable of crushing anything in its path.
How can the farmers possibly stand up against it?
Tell me, what's your purpose in all this?
Bock's reason is very simple.
He wants to be rich.
What's to get rich off around here?
Oil.
Your snooping has paid off, Mr. West.
Yes, petroleum, oil.
Oil under the Grey Ridge,
discovered by me,
worked by me.
Then the government opened the whole area
to homesteaders, Johnny-come-latelies.
Any part of it?
No bunch of pigheaded farmers
is going to do me out of what's mine by right.
Who can stop me?
Before I'm through,
you'll be happy to do anything I say.
I promise you this.
Let's go.
Prepare the Juggernaut.
I'll take the men on ahead.
Aah, it's no go, Artie.
Mr. Bock didn't believe in togetherness.
If he gets to Dixon's farm, I'm afraid it's all over.
We're not getting anything accomplished this way.
Well, I'm waiting.
It's out.
Can you make it? Yeah.
Good.
Sit down, Lonie.
Artie? Yeah?
You think you can maneuver this thing?
I can sure try.
All right.
Pull that.
I guess it goes the other way?
The Juggernaut! The Juggernaut's coming!
They got the Juggernaut!
Juggernaut!
Dixon!
This is your last chance to get out of here alive.
There's only one way to get us out.
Drive them out!
What do we do, Lyle? There's so many of them.
We're fighting for our homes, Victor.
When that machine gets here, we'll crush them like June bugs.
Can't you get any more out of her, Artie?
This thing wasn't built to take that kind of pressure, Jim.
If I give her any more, she's liable to blow sky-high.
Well, we may be too late already.
All right, hold tight and keep your fingers crossed.
You said to fight, Lyle, so we're fighting. Now what?
Just keep on fighting.
Look, Lyle.
Hold your fire! Hold it!
Lonie!
Jim, she's gonna blow. There's no stopping her.
I'm getting out of here.
Stay where you are.
Bock and his men are straight ahead, Artie.
All right, hold on,
I'm turning the pressure all the way up.
Hold your ground!
Get the Juggernaut.
Lonie, it looks like you're a well-to-do young lady.
But we sent dispatches
to all the farmers Bock bought out
offering them their land back.
Bock had land of his own.
You know, with oil property,
it's not the acreage that's important,
it's the depth.
And most of the farmers will be coming back
once they learn what they've got
to come back to.
Jim, are you in there?
Come in, Lyle.
Hello, Jim.
Hiya, Lyle.
Miss Lonie.
I'm a one-man delegation.
The boys asked me
to thank you and Mr. Gordon before you leave.
Lyle, there's no thanks necessary.
- Mr. Gordon. - Lyle.
Thank you. Come on.
Actually it was kind of fun in a way, wasn't it?
Lonie.
You're not leaving?
Well, of course I am.
There's no reason for me to stay, is there?
No, I guess not.
Goodbye, Mr. Dixon.
Except for one thing.
What's that, Mr. Dixon?
I want you to stay.
Artie?
Come in.
Mr. West?
That's right, I'm Mr. West. Won't you please come in?
I'm Virginia Mays.
Dr. Virginia Mays.
I'm on the staff at the hospital here.
Doctor, I have no idea how you found out,
but the pain's been getting worse.
You see, it's...
It's right here in this shoulder.
Mr. West, I only stopped by
to deliver a message from Mr. Gordon.
Well, I should have known that, doctor.
That's hardly what you'd wear to make calls, is it?
That's right.
Now if I can just give you this message from Mr. Gordon?
He said there are unforeseen complications
at the hospital and...
And he's gonna have to stay in town a couple days
to convalesce.
How did you know?
Well, you see, Mr. Gordon had those same complications
the last time he was in town.
It required, um, a day nurse
and a night nurse.
But he did tell you about my shoulder,
didn't he, doctor?
Your shoulder?
Yeah, as I explained earlier,
the pain is right... Right there.
No, it's... It's a little higher.
Here? There.
Mr. West, there's nothing wrong with your shoulder.
It's in perfect condition.
Yeah, I know that, doctor.
And it's been that way since I was a little boy.
What am I gonna do with you?
Well, may I suggest dinner,
and then the theater?