05x24 - The Amos Billings Story

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I grabbed that g*n.

Chuck at John

works both ways.

Mister.
Tell your friend to drop his r*fle.

Tell him.

And boy,

that's fine.

No harm done.

Done.

The man's McCullough payments. Billings.

Colonel Billings.

This is my boy game.

Which side, Colonel?

Well, no.

As a matter of fact,
you might say both sides.

Colonel Billings commanding the first
Mississippi Provisional Regiment,

later on serving with the Ohio Irregulars
on the frontier.

In other words, a galvanized Yankee.

You like that?

Sound like an insult.

You take it any way you want to.

You with that wagon
train camp at Salt Lake Springs?

That's right. Ride Scout.

Figured you did.

I mean, gave it here.

We didn't know who was coming up the road.

We can't take chances.

That with these hills
crawling with Indian law patrols,

they are responsible for this.

Had a wife and small daughter with him

that he'd fallen behind his wagon train
with trying to catch up.

We met up with him yesterday, just below
here.

Tried to get him
to take the new road to Lodge Canyon.

It's a lot safer to say the last canyon.

Yeah. You've been through there before?

Yeah.

I've been far enough to know
that it doesn't go on through the hills.

There's a road.

McCullough near the old fort.

That's right.

That's the old gent Stanley Road in Fort.

But it ends at Cimarron Canyon.

It doesn't go beyond it.

It does now. McCullough.

I have had 15 men working for six months
and eight roads, six months of hard labor.

We managed to blast our way
through the ridge and the rest was easy.

Of course, it's a little rough in spots,
but your train can get through.

It'll save you a lot of time and trouble.

Now, I'm not interested.

I'd like to talk to your wagon, boss.

Now there's no harm in that.

Is that McCullough?

No. No.

You can tell it to Mr.

Hale.

And that's how it is, Mr.

Hale.

You got two weeks traveling.

If you take the new road to Los Canyon.

Oh, sounds fine, Mr. Billings.

Colonel Billings, if you don't mind.

But I can't take a chance.

You mean you're doubting my word
concerning the new road?

I don't know you, Colonel.

I can't afford to risk this train
on an unproven route.

But you would risk the lives
of all these people over the old road

against certain Indian attack.

Come on, Paul.

We don't want to wheel them out

and find out about the Bruhl
air raid and party the hard way.

How's it look up ahead?

Well,
like the colonel said, isn't in trouble,

but nothing we didn't know about it. Fort
Mason.

One. My advice will stick to the old road.

Being in the north and big enough
to hit a wagon train as big as ours.

May I have a word, Mr. Hale?

I don't know Mr. Billings either.

But surely his proposition
is worth considering.

Last night you told us the hardest portion
of our journey lay ahead of us.

That ahead of us was hazardous.
Modern road.

Now you want us to lighten our wagon load
and conserve our water

and carefully check our gear.

Surely in the face of all this,
and if there's strong possibility of

Indian attack, I think we should consider
Colonel Billings.

New road.

Nobody can guarantee
you a safe passage to California.

And anybody who says
they can just doesn't know the territory.

Now, I know this road, and so does
Mr. Hale.

Nobody says that it's easy on wagons
or men, but at least it goes through.

I've scouted the Stanley Road and
in my opinion, it ends up in a dead end.

I see, gentlemen, that I cannot be
of any help to you.

I only pray that later

we won't have the unpleasant
task of burying you, Mr.

Hale.

We want you to reconsider
Colonel Billings offer.

Well, not all of us are as convinced
as your wagons God appears to be.

The reason I'm convinced, Mr.

Cannon, is that it happens to be my job.

Perhaps it is Mr.

McCullough,
but I think we should put this to a vote.

There may be many of us
who want to take Colonel Billings.

No road? No.

Under no circumstances
will they split this trade.

I'm always a little suspicious
of what appears to be

man's charity
to his fellow man for my benefit.

Just why did you build that road, Colonel?

Some people may call me a visionary, Mr.

Hale. And impractical dreamer.

But I saw great possibilities
in that old abandoned fort.

A road to the future.

Some day, the new road
and the Billings trading

post will be as well known as Denver.

And the name of Colonel Billings
will be included

among the great pathfinders of the West.

But I agree with Mr.

Hale.

I would not advocate
splitting up the train.

Just a minute, Colonel.

Don't
we have a right to put this to a vote

and make it binding if the majority agrees
on the entire train?

No. For the safety of this
train's at stake, I make the decisions.

Maybe Mr.

McCullough and Canada's got a new road.

He may change his mind.

Is that agreeable?

It is necessary, Mr. McCullough.

That's what you're being paid for.

If there is a new road,
surely it's worth scouting.

All right.

For him to leave within an hour.

I'll ride with you, Mr.

McCullough, if you want.

I'll wait three days for him
to have enough water to last as a week.

What is that? Part of the next water?

There's plenty of water at my place, Mr.

Hale, And it's nearer.

Would you mind if me
and my boy camped with you for the night?

Not at all.

I'll put you up for the night, Colonel.

You don't trust him?

You know I don't.

I scoured this town.
I rode four years ago.

It wasn't passable then, and
I don't expect to find it passable now.

Maybe if it blasted through hell,
I'm sure going to find out.

Colonel Billings,
Union had a Confederate blast.

What is he?

Oh, he's what
you call a galvanized Yankee.

What cognac is that?

Oh, that's what they call it.

Confederate prisoners

who served in the Union Army
on the frontier against Indian attacks.

Some of them made good soldiers
after the w*r.

And they went back home. Home? Folks
didn't always take kindly to them.

Some of them made out
all right. The others?

Yeah. What about the others?

The others became scavengers. Charlie.

Four years ago had been wagon tracks
through here.

But outside of that,
I saw nothing to change my mind

about a lost can fill a long, deep flash
flooding into the dry hills.

And so far,
I've seen no sign of any road building.

I hadn't liked it the first time I rode
this way, and I didn't like it now.

It was a perfect place for a trap.

I'd had a feeling since morning
that I was being watched.

I knew I should be turning back.

Chris would have understood.

But Mr. Kane and the others, they wanted
proof.

And I had to know for sure. And.

And on my.

Way. It's going.

It's time to get going.

I must reach out.

You don't want to disobey your father?

No, I was just thinking of the horse

alone.

I've got no time for that.

He's no fool, and

Bruiser will make it more convincing.

I'll get going.

Help me, please.

Stay out of this, mister.

She's not going anywhere.

Just going anywhere she wants to go.

Don't take on any duties you might regret.

A man's got a right to stop his wife

from running out on him.

You're see how it is.

Yeah, I think I do.

You got a horse?

No. He shot him back there.

And you'll have to use his

as a wagon train behind me.

You'll find that you get better treatment
from them than you get here.

Stay right where you are. Alone.

Let's go.

You're not going anywhere either, mister.

Do you feel that
you're big enough to stop me?

You've already been stopped.

We're not

founded by accident, you might say.

Last year in the w*r,

I was on a scouting patrol.

Ran into a Big Sioux raiding party.

Three of us made it into Lodge Canyon.

Well, that's how come.

Out on the way to the mountains.

If what you say is true,
this could be a godsend to us.

You won't regret it, Mr. Hill.

I don't expect to.

So it's your turn to relieve
Concha up there on the hill.

Let him come down on his own.

Brazos shall be up to.

I want to man up by that g*n at all times.

Well, I ain't going to being used for it
until our wagon train gets here.

If it gets here,

it'll get here just as we planned it.

Get up there.

Colonel Billings
must be on his way back by now.

I'm going to ride out and meet him.

What about the scout? And say

what? Ten spot in the house?

McCullough's not going anywhere.

Beautiful dreamer.

What's that song

on a Stephen Foster's after?

You know about music?

Oh, no.

Oh, that opera.

Well, I know that's not an opera.

Oh, but you've been to an opera.

Yeah, in San Francisco a couple of times.

Oh, San Francisco.

That must be a wonderful place.

It's almost like Boston.

Is that where you're from?

Boston. Oh, no, no.

Just live there before the one big house

in a section called Back Bay.

What about you?

Oh, I've never been anywhere

except places like this,

with broken down furniture
and even rag tag clothes

waiting on buildings.

And I guess just living off dreams.

That I try to run away.

Well, I don't know why I did that.

I didn't even know
where I was supposed to go.

Oh, you don't have to worry about things.

But the only understands gestures.

Why don't you try the wagon train?

You know, its candidates are like springs.

Why don't you try it?

Because I'm
as much a prisoner here as you are.

And how did it go?

Because as we plan
is tied up in the house.

Ten spots watching him and alone.

She knows what to do.

He wasn't hurt.

She got a bruise, nothing more.

I couldn't be helped.

I don't want anything to happen to her.

Gosh. Nothing will.

Big question is,
will the wagons come through?

If we do it the way I planned it,

they'll come through.

Maybe that's what's wrong.

Too much planning.

One thing goes haywire and

one long boy.

I don't want to use alone anymore.

It's the only way.

Maybe if we do try to blast
our way through, we could have go the road

better than that itself. Yourself?

A barrel of powder wouldn't
blast a dent in that wall.

Barrel was all we had.

Besides, you planned
most of this yourself.

Yeah.

They get my color, the rest of it.

It's the only way to get through to him.

I've had a chance to study McCullough.

He won't break easily.

He'll have to.

Hell only agreed to wait three days
if I'm a scout

and you're headed wagon
train on up the old trail.

All the more reason to do it my way.

He'll break.

I promise you.

All right, we'll try it.

You and the others
remember who's in charge?

Yes, sir.

Colonel,

that might make you stand a little taller,

but it's not going to get you
what you want.

It will eventually.

You can save yourself a lot of trouble,
McCullough.

Short note here, wagon master.

The 300 people counting on me.

And I have no intention
of letting them down.

But they'll be better off
coming this way and shorter.

But you told a colonel.

Well, isn't it?

You trust me, don't you, girl?

There is a road.

But it seems that Mr.

McCullough is a very stubborn man.

Cut him loose.

I'll take you up on the boat

to Iraq and see just how stubborn you are.

Take a look.

McCullough.

I've seen him before.

Here you have

desert scavengers

living off anything they can find.

Dead. Die.

Trapped.

I'll be down before long.

As long taking it.

You'll do what I tell it to.

And don't you ever hit her again.

Whatever the reason you told her.

I asked her. Lone has never lied to me.

Well, I wouldn't have touched her
if I didn't think it necessary.

If you ever lay a hand to her again,

I'll k*ll you.

Where are you going?

Up in the room to check the g*n.

I already have.

Well, another check won't hurt any.

We're going to need that g*n.

Always the efficient Lieutenant.

Josh.

At least my buyers are legitimate,
Colonel.

A factor
You've tried very hard to impress on me.

I didn't know it bothered you, Amos.

It does when it comes from a man
who is drummed out of the service

for conduct
unbecoming an officer and gentleman.

Are you through, sir?

Not until I make it plain.

Who is in command here?

w*r is over, Amos.

Not for me.

It isn't.

Most of my life I've been cheated,

taking orders, but never giving them.

Before the w*r,

it was from
my father, from my older brother.

And then from the man who owned the store
where I used to work.

I was always just one
step behind the man giving the orders.

Never in command

was the same

in the w*r.

They gave commissions
to younger men to fool

just out of military school to glory,
seeking youngsters with educations

as if knowing

Latin and literature well,
what would needed to command men

to prepare them
for the glory business of k*lling?

But this is my command, my operation.

I conceived it.

I recruited the men.

I planned the ambush.

I set that g*n up there.

And for you and all the others.

I am Colonel Billings.

Remember that, Josh?

You give the orders,

Colonel.

I quickly built as your mind.

Got it right. I don't think you like it.
After what you said the other day.

Said about what?

About all them prairie dogs,
which I don't.

A plan

prairie dog. Now, wait a minute.

Don't get hasty.

I don't get what makes me any of them
all the time.

You will gloat.

What do you seem to be like it
before you find out what it was?

I was a

bad rabbit.

Prairie dog. Hmm.

I like it.

You what? No.

O formation told me Indians
eat them all the time.

You want to tell you

like that?

Real funny.

Yeah. Uh,

have coffee

for Mr. Hell.

Oh, the Bronson kid got sick
and have to go to the wagon.

Did you ever get a feeling sometimes

you can put a finger on

feeling something is wrong?

Worrying about Flint.

He's in trouble out there.

He is not going to like it.

But Flint isn't back by tomorrow morning.

I think we better go to court.

Ugly things.

I think

just a few lines on paper.

McCulloch So, Hale. Not a chance.

Heroics of poor
kind to trade for your life.

McCullough. Where's the tread?

You don't plan to let me live.

Even the wagon train does come through.

But then the manner of your dying
could be less

cruel.

All right,

I won't be back.

McCullough

And I hear you scream.

And I won't.

It's the only way.

We haven't much time left.

There is a road, isn't there?

And some day, this will be
a great trading post, like you said.

Have I ever lied to you, child?

Have I? No.

No. But somehow
I told you why we have to do it this way.

But color is a very stubborn man.

He still believes in the old road.

Even though our road is shorter and safer.

He won't be hurt.

You promise?

Any more than he has to

loan.

Trust me,

some day

you're going to be living in a fine
big house

and you'll have fine clothes and

everything.

That in this fancy magazine of yours.

You told me long ago
to always think of you as my father.

And I do.

But sometimes I can't help
wondering what they were like.

My mother and my real father, my family.

Come, come, child.

How many times have we said it?

But I think of them.

But it's always as though

they're behind a black wall.

I see.

So they're closed off behind it,
waiting for me

and even my name alone.

That sounds so strange to me. Why?

There are some things
best forgotten child if.

But it isn't my name, is it my real name?

I never knew your name or your family.

I found you crying in the root cellar.

A burned out farmhouse.

You were all of about six years old.

The Apaches had been reading. Now

the timbers of the house
were still smoldering.

Here I found the bodies of your pine floor

and a grown up boy.

Then I'll never know who I really am.

But just after the w*r,

my wife was dead.

We had two boys, but listen,

I had always wanted a daughter.

That's why I went.

When I found you, it was like a loan

from Providence.

It's getting late.

You know what to do.

Remember the canteen.

And they let me come with this.

And this got.

Good. That

and went.

I want to talk to you, girl.

Just let me take care of this.

I'll give you 5 minutes.

You got a g*n?

No. You think you could get a hold of one?

They'd sh**t you
before you even got outside.

What about this window?

They have a man stationed out there to.

I know you gave me the knife.

Yeah.

What are they going to do to you?

I don't know,

but I'm not going to stay around.

Find out.

I'm going to go tonight
on the fastest horse in the career.

Where you got.

You said there was a wagon train camp
out of Salt Lake Springs.

That's right.

Well, if I get through,
I'll just tell them about you.

Don't they believe you? All right.

All they have to do is just tell them
the truth. Ain't me.

But I could give you a note.

You got a pencil?
A piece of paper? Yeah. We'll go get.

Hurry up.

Get it.

And you get to the wagon train.

Yes, sir.

Mr. Christopher, have you understand?

Is the wagon

will take care of

this here.

You understand?

Josh?

Thank you.

McCullough.

That isn't going to do you any good.

It will.

And Josh get through with it.

Josh, I happens to be the most
accomplished Voyager this side of the

Mississippi.

I think there's anything
the colonel building story.

Chris Oh,

one thing
I've learned taking wagon train to West.

No, that's it. Keep an open mind.

Tom Keenan's right, You know,
there is a road through those hills

and be fools not to take it.

Mr. Hill,

If company.

Mr. Hale.

I'm Chris Hale.

You're a wagon scout.

Asked me to give you this, sir.

Are you
from Colonel Billings Trading post?

Well, strictly speaking, no.

I'm a former supplier officer attached
to a freighting concern from the Senate.

We are thinking about diverting our
northern freight line through last canyon.

And there is a road through the canyon.

Mr. Anderson. Josh Anderson?

Yes, there's a road glide up in spots, but

Colonel Billings
and his men are working on it.

What did plants say?

Chris He says bring the wagons, roads

hard on wagons in spots,
but it's passable.

We'll join you at Billings
trading post once hand-writing.

All right.

Thank goodness.

I hope you're satisfied, Mr.

Haley.

Well, you and do
tell the folks to get their gear pack.

Be ready to leave within an hour.

You call me.

Well, I am in a hurry, sir, but I will
join you for one cup and old army habit.

Oh, yeah.

I'm worried about Flint.

I can spare you.

You the canyon? Go ahead and join him.

I'll be easier to take in material.

Material?

That's.

I kept having that uneasy feeling
that Flint was in trouble.

Even his note didn't take it.

I guess Mr.

Hill felt a little like that, too.

Looked like someone was writing
just ahead of me,

and I suddenly had a good idea who he was

When I just heard you go, Buster,

you got a r*fle in your hands, Use it

or drop it.

Good thing you spotted him from the cliff.

He walked right into it. Like I said,

Get out.

Know Top g*n is just right.

It game.

Later, a shot could be heard by the people
in that wagon train back there.

Later, my friend,

get up

and finish.

Yeah.



You still don't believe them?

Why should I? I don't know you.

Because it's the truth.

No, no.

That music box isn't going to do
you any good.

Can you get it through your head?

There isn't any road.

Colonel Billings loves me.

He wouldn't lie to me. Heard me.

He thought anything about the people
I have.

I have to trust him.

I trusted you once. Remember?

Well,
they told me that this was the only way

you could get the wagon to come this way.

Josh said you were prejudiced.

You didn't want to believe
in the new road.

What do you think's going to happen
when the wagons get here?

Well.

The rest now take on water
and the people will buy things.

Food and clothing.

I think Colonel Billings said this will be
a great trading theater someday.

Look around your life.

Go ahead.

Take a good look around you.

What are you going to trade with,
Josh? There?

There'd be supplies brought in.

And you believe him?

You know, you're old enough to be a woman,

but you pretend
like some kind of a little girl.

Oh, and stop dreaming.

You think there's a road?

Go out and look for it.

Are you afraid that the truth might
shatter the dollhouse you're living in?

Go ahead. Go and look for it.

Go and look for it.

What happened?

They followed us,
so we had to take him with us.

How far behind the wagon
train should be poking in here by morning?

You've got to get the men place.

Check the g*n. Yes, sir. Colonel.

All right.

Bring him in.

Sit up.

Sort of.

Figure that pie here.

Well, welcome to Fort Billings.

Where's Lone?

Well, look, I Here.

You've been talking to her.

That worry.

What did you tell her?

I just told her the truth, Colonel.

That worry you,

nothing worries me, McCullough,

except myself.

You're the one that should be worried.

You and him

have a lot never to worry about.

Things I can't change.

There's at least 100 men on the wagon
train coming here

that know how to
use a r*fle when I have to.

You underestimate me, gentlemen.

I told you I was an officer
with the Massachusetts second Regiment.

The infantry.


ground, can hold off five times

that number, especially if the opposing
forces green panic stricken.

You'll find out
they're not green and they won't panic.

They won't.

US. And

take a look what color?

So take a look at the craft and.

If you've served under fire on the color,

you know it's screaming
shows can do to trap men.

You know,

I told you not to come out here.

Why. I. I don't want you to get hurt.

Because you're afraid. I'm.

I find out you lied to me.

For your own good. Alone?

No, not for me.

For the first time in my life,
I finally see you for what you are.

You're a savage.

You and the others back there.

You know better than the Indians
who raid and pillage beyond this hill

for lack of a reason

for, you know.

You know better than Apaches
who k*lled my mother and father.

Tell, you've been listening to McCullough.

Funny, isn't it?

That I should have to learn the truth
from a stranger?

There's no way out of these hills
then, ever.

Well,
you never tried to build a road. Why?

Do you know what I tried?

The dreams.

I had the plans.

I wanted to build a road.

Ever since the day I stumbled into this
canyon and thought about it

after the w*r,
I even tried talking to people about it.

Wagon outfitters in Saint Louis,
Army engineers

laughed at me, glared at me.

The small people, the little flunkies

sitting in their outer offices.

That's what happens.

Dream girl.

And what about them?

The people on the wagon train.

I'm going to k*ll them.

But they are women and children.

The w*r taught me a great truth alone.

It taught me that human life is cheap,
expendable.

The w*r is over.

Oh, no, it isn't.

Not for us, girl.

They didn't want me after Appomattox.

Not for the South.

I fought with him,

bled with him, live with that vermin
and took their orders.

But after it was all over,

they didn't want me.

You ought to know about it.

You became one of us.

The other great unwanted.

The scavengers of the earth,
living on the scraps people leave behind.

Or what we can take.

That's the way it is, girl.

Maybe it's
just as well you found out about it. Now.

For you, maybe, but not for me.

I have never seen you so quiet before.

They were alone getting the jitters.

Colonel,

go to your room, learn data.

I just caught the flash

the wagon
rolling past Joe's possession right now.

Well, you better tell the rest of the men
to get ready

alone.

What are you doing?

There's still time to stop this.

Let them both go.

I'll give you 3 seconds alone.

You'd k*ll me, wouldn't you?

Just.

No, No, Josh, no

accounts in the room.

I've got to get to it.

You stay here.

Curry.

You're not.

I said,

waiting for us down at the wagons.

Isn't there
something you want to take with you?

That's right.

It's a long way to California.

It took us half a day to clear a passage
for the wagons.

And all told,
we figured we lost seven days travel time.

We buried
Captain Billings behind the fort,

and we wrecked that g*ns
that it would never be used again.

But maybe out of all this,
we managed to salvage something.

A girl named Lone from her own bondage

and.