This is a lock of my son's hair.
It got me this far, like it was magic.
Did he die violent or ill?
Why?
Violent takes the short road, the illness the long.
Which one did yours?
Don't go thinking you're no gentleman.
It's a mistake of anyone to give the likes of Billy Myers
the chance to start again. Hey!
You were in the army?
I got enemies.
Bushwhacking?
You care to join us?
GUN FIRES
People working that line for years. It's a competition.
Black-eyed Mog and her boys.
I don't know, boys.
I'll save my snatch for something bigger.
It cannot be that this whole country's only full of killers and thieves.
Where is he?
Who'd you sell him up to? Didn't.
My name is Kills on Water.
You don't know me...
..but the massacre at Chalk River,
they were my family.
Why you fight for the Blues?
I fought for my people.
The English were never your people.
My enemy's enemy.
Then, I am yours and you're mine.
War's over. Hmm.
And when you went home...
..was it still there?
Or are you still lookin'?
I ain't asking for blame or favour.
Then, what?
One 60 acres, my choosing.
Where? Nebraska. The Loup.
Is that the dream?
My reality.
Mine by rights.
How long you been out? The Army.
A-whiles.
And at what point of the first day
did you realise you ain't got no rights?
They done took 'em.
Took 'em all.
And for you, they even stole your loyalty.
I was proud to serve.
In a war you were only bound to lose?
I'm guessing it's that dream, though, keeping you alive.
Reality is you ain't ever going to get there.
I'm guessing you know that, too.
Deep down.
And you're just trying to figure out what you can do to take its place.
That woman you're travelling with,
where's she headed?
Maybe it's best for you to change direction.
Take you there instead.
Ain't no other dream to be had.
First...
..there's something I want you to do for me.
You're at Decent Kill.
Captain Clegg and his crew,
The Pawnee, got an arrow in his back.
They worked that line for me.
My business.
Twice now, you turned my world upside down.
Yeah, I want you to turn it back.
There's a woman looking to take over that line, but not for me.
Her name's Black-eyed Mog but don't get so close now,
you figure out why...
..she's partial to lifting our hair.
Cheyenne, Pawnee, she ain't fussy.
Any skin that looks like ours.
Quite the collection, I hear.
Man, woman, child.
I want you to stop her.
Kill her? Won't happen otherwise.
I want you to make it your business.
See the world as it really is.
Us.
Them.
As it always was and always will be.
Then, maybe...
..I give you back this.
And maybe...
..my enemy's enemy will finally become my friend.
Well...
..wandering minstrel,
lovely as it is to greet a Sais in Kansas
I can't help but wonder why you chose my door.
Whose are those?
Any one of them foolish enough to cross my path...
I saw you got a boy penned up in the stable. Uh-uh.
Him too? Oh.
I like to savour the moment.
Why?
Cheyenne '68.
I was 21.
And they took everything else besides...
..my virtue...
..and my family.
Sort of coming-of-age present, really.
Don't need to tell you about my eyelids.
That was over 20 years ago.
What is that, 50 scalps?
You don't think you've more than evened the score?
Not till every last one is on that wall.
And what about me?
I'm guessing by now you've found the contents of my bags.
Ah, that's a lot of money. Are you going to put me up there?
Surely, it'd break the pattern.
Well...
..not sure what my boys have in mind for you.
I'm sure it'll be a lot of fun.
CORNELIA LAUGHS
So, I met with a John Clarke.
He's a Kickapoo.
Would you like to work with him?
Only with a knife.
Well, he told me something I thought you'd like to know.
Kills On Water, have you heard of him?
Hates my guts.
Must do.
He's the one that left them inside my body.
I'm travelling with a friend.
He's Pawnee.
Practised killer.
And John Clarke told me that your enemy,
he's about to send my friend to kill you.
Why are you telling me?
I just don't want my friend to die.
So, why didn't you stop him from coming?
Cos I can't get to him.
Oh.
Your enemy has him prisoner and I'm thinking...
..your life is the cost of his freedom.
So, I just decided the next best thing...
..was to come to you instead.
Then, you made a mistake,
cos now, you've given me the jump.
Now, well, that was the risk, I know, I know.
But then, I just thought that if I was the one who told you
and you saw the money and everything
and it was all going to go the way it has,
well, then, you might let me...
..get the jump on you.
GUN FIRES
CORNELIA GROANS
You shot my ma.
GUN FIRES
SHE MOANS
Mummy said...
..you want have some fun with me.
And right now...
..I'd say shooting your cock and balls clean off
would be about the most fun a woman could have.
But lucky for you...
..I'm not feeling very funny.
Christ, I could've shot you.
When I first came here,
my friend told me the difference between what you want
and what you need is what you can put on a horse.
No better lesson.
Choose your horse.
I've come for Eli Whipp.
Whoa.
It's warm.
Were you burnt? It's nothing.
You want I take a look?
No, I'm fine, thank you.
You can't let it infect.
It won't.
Up here neither.
Short time to come such a long way.
What, from Oklahoma?
You don't know where I started.
It's getting clearer by the day.
SHE LAUGHS QUIETLY
Who's the boy?
I rescued him.
And he did the same for me.
I call him No Trouble because that's what he's been.
Where should I take him?
He can go his own way...
..with or without us.
Us?
Thought maybe I'd take you where you want to go.
You hear the name Billy Myers?
No.
He lives up where you want to go.
Thinking on paying him a visit. Why?
You got a secret?
One you ain't yet told?
It's OK.
You ain't the only one.
You see, I told you there is magic in this.
You ain't got there yet. Oh, but we will.
Lady, you shout so loud, ain't just lightning going to hit us.
I reckon we could part the clouds, if we wanted to.
Ain't no destiny in this, Cornelia.
Just a whole lot of aiming.
And then, one day, a miss.
And that's it.
You think I'm travelling with hope?
Oh, Eli.
Just without fear.
And you know why?
Cos I'm dead already.
SNAKE RATTLES
Yerp!
GUN FIRES
Reminds me of the chairman of my board.
Eton College, the Guards, I think you'd like him.
Yeah? Son of an Earl.
Sounds like just my kind of fella.
Certainly trying to dive into David Melmont's pockets.
Hope there'll be enough room, what with you stuffed in there already.
Are you going to give Martha Myers back her cattle?
Maverick Law.
Mine by rights.
I hope you've enough of that to see you through the winter.
Are you a cattleman there, Sheriff Marshall?
I was here in '86.
I saw what a hard freeze can do to your herd.
I've been here since '75.
I know exactly what this country can do.
No-one knows it better.
Except David Melmont.
Because he arrived here with you, didn't he?
Opened up this whole valley, just you, him.
Quite a challenge.
We weren't partners.
He was my employee.
Tough, then.
A blue-blooded Englishman like you being bled out by an ex-employee,
who seemed to make his fortune in nothing so lowly...
..as trade.
He didn't make it in trade.
Well, he's looking to now, so he is.
And all that's getting fat on your business...
..is the vultures.
Take the snake.
Get two meals and a hatband out of that one.
I know I once did.
Thanks, but Melmont's got in some chilled meat.
I fancy myself a nice pork chop.
If you look at this really closely,
you might be able to see some letters underneath that scar.
You want me to stare at a dead man's dead butt?
The thing is...
..Timothy Flynn had exactly the same mark...
..in exactly the same place,
except he didn't try to...
Get rid of it.
No, and your husband did.
Why'd he do that? Is that it?
Grover Best, uh...
..wondered where you'll be wanting the committal.
Hadn't figured on it.
You talked to Thomas Trafford?
I did.
It's Maverick Law, Mrs Myers.
They were marked. Not officially.
They're mine. Not if they're out on the range.
Fence broke. I can only uphold the law as it stands.
I want them back.
Hm-mm.
I can always try and have another look.
I'm sorry for your loss.
He ain't having them.
Of your husband.
Mrs Myers...
..was everything upstanding in your marriage?
Upstanding?
It's just that you seem a mite more interested in your cattle,
if you don't mind me saying so.
Difference between my cattle and William Myers -
when a steer broke my arm, it was an accident.
Drop him in the churchyard.
COWS MOO
COW BELLOWS
GUN FIRES
Now, that's destruction of property.
Mine. Ours.
Let it slide this time, what with your present sadness.
But do it again, I can't offer the same courtesy.
You ain't offering me nothing.
And I'll take what's mine.
Let her out.
Go fetch the sheriff.
KNOCKING
GUN CLICKS
Who, is it?
Sheriff Marshall.
Yeah? Come to talk.
About what?
About that.
Follow the line from the Great Stretcher to Karariwari,
the star that does not move.
The North Star.
Chief Star.
And then, here, see?
Three stars in a row. Mm.
You call them the hunter's belt.
We call them Rahurahki, the deer.
When they all point straight down, that is South.
North.
South.
Cupiriktaka.
Evening Star, West.
Hupirikucu. Morning Star, East.
Give or take.
So, now, if you're alone.
I will always think of you.
You're still warm...
..here.
Well, I've just never lived like this before.
And I never lived anything but.
So, how long now?
Couple days maybe. Where are we?
Casper ahead, Nebraska behind.
Are you sure that you don't want to...?
Leave you?
Go home.
Long way's East.
So, what's it like?
When I was a boy, it was something.
When we left, it was something else.
And now?
Guessing it's something else, again.
Do you think that they will let you be a part of that?
Do you?
No, not the way you'd accept.
Can't tell what's changing quicker,
the country or you.
Or you. Especially, now you've got no home to go to.
I didn't say that.
Maybe I just got to settle on something else first.
This Billy Myers,
how do you know him?
Crossed paths a while back.
A friend?
Nah.
But maybe, back then, he thought as such.
Why do you want to see him? Tell him he wasn't.
It's a long way to go just to say goodbye.
Isn't it?
Found it.
Just now.
Hmm.
Why do you wear gloves?
Practical.
Well, it ain't practical, a world you can't touch.
You ever take 'em off?
Do you know a lady is not supposed to, until she retires home.
Who says?
'Tis the rule.
Well, you got a long wait, then.
Never coming.
It will.
One day.
That is uncommonly optimistic of you, Mr Whipp.
You'll go back.
Where? Home.
Well, you see that's the problem.
Um, I don't really have one any more.
You'll find it again.
Hell, looks like I'm going to have to.
No, Eli. I absolutely won't.
He was born on the family estate.
And...
..we were protected...
..not wanted.
The manner of his making, you see, made outcasts of us both.
As a girl...
..you know the walls...
..I walked, they beckoned the future.
But as a mother...
..I could only walk within them...
..with him...
..for 14 years.
That's where I left him.
Under a willow tree...
..near a...near a lake.
Hmm.
So, that's home.
He is home.
And I won't ever go back.
In the time before...
..there was a woman who cared for this.
My wife.
She was the one who guarded it.
Hung it above the wiharu...
..in the Evening Star garden.
On the west side.
Evening Star to Morning Star.
When we moved,
she took it with us.
When we returned,
she put it back.
This...
..is home.
That...
..is home.
There's nothing else to go back to...
..because it's here...
..with you.
I'm sorry, I can't.
I'm sorry.
GUN FIRES
Riders.
The boy.
No Trouble.
Not any more.
Three, plus him.
I'll be fine.
Then, let's go get the boy.
Poles in, wire up.
On a good day, I can have me lay 20 miles of cabling.
But then, it ain't my first time calling round here.
This is a 4,100 high-velocity cartridge for a Sharps '74.
It's the greatest buffalo rifle ever made.
It can hit a lying cow at 766 yards.
I know cos I did it.
Damn near record. Four more yards, I would've been clear.
I'll be honest with ya, I shot so many in such a quick time,
the stench of rotting carcass
ran the length of the whole Kansas Pacific.
Mid-century, there were 20 million head out here.
Turn of the decade...
..not 100 left.
And that's what it took to submit your people.
Where bullets couldn't reach, starvation surely would.
Which is mighty ironic, considering I made myself a fortune
five times over selling their tongues.
THEY LAUGH
Yeah, you don't hunt in England, an aristocrat like yourself?
Not if it results in the extermination of an entire people.
Oh, missy, don't you go guilt-gavelling me
cos it's exactly your kind that gave me the inspiration.
Countess of Sutherland.
You...you ever take a jig with one of her boys?
No.
They cleared my family out in 1819.
Strathaven, Scotland.
They used rent instead of bullets mind,
but the starvation came the same.
I do believe they shoot grouse there, now.
Slainte mhath.
Why did you take the child?
Oh, unlike your brethren, I got myself a conscience.
Maybe cos I know what it's like to have everything stolen from you.
Now, this country...
..offered my folks the chance to start over.
That's why I fight for her.
Tooth and nail.
Jennison Jay-Hawker during the war.
You ever heard of 'em? Union Redleggers.
Reivers and thieves. Hah!
Yes, sir!
HE LAUGHS
You know...
..there's one thing that old bitch taught me,
if you're going to win, you can't fight fair...
..or kind.
You have to burn and starve.
Wins every time.
Likewise, under Sheridan.
You know, one winter we torched out a village so hot,
it melt the snow for a mile around.
Yeah, but that war is done.
And I want to see this great country offer your people the same as mine.
There's an Indian School at the head of this line
built on the proceeds of my good fortune.
I regard it as a...
..as a portal, into which any Indian can enter,
but from which only Americans depart.
Now, my folks, they loved the tartan just as much as yours the feather
but it's under that that we now must all stand.
I'm taking the boy to that school.
New Dawn.
These your students?
Well, they are.
Had Mable there for two years, now.
We only picked up Rose not two weeks back.
She's a...
..she's a little quiet but she'll learn.
To be your...
Oh? Blue blood, thin-skinned.
No surprise.
You...
..you looking a little red there, ma'am.
Maybe you should join my school.
They're learning to be your servants?
Did not Our Saviour wash the feet of his Disciples?
Do you wash theirs? Oh, indeed I do. Their minds.
For I can see no other pathway for the Indian's survival.
There won't be one no more.
Exactly. Like I ain't no Scot.
Scotland still exists.
So does Nebraska.
But I wouldn't expect no old world sassenach like yourself to know that,
lets alone how to say it.
Mable, you may clear now.
Nyi-brathge. Hmm?
Nyi-brathge.
It means water that is flat.
It's Otoe.
Yeah, Nebraska. Like I said.
Nyi-brathge.
Now, you're trying to teach me some, I gets it.
But you know...
..languages change, son.
That's my whole point.
So must they.
Rose, come on.
ROSE MOANS
ROSE SHOUTS
I know her.
We met before.
Her name is Touching Ground.
She's Cheyenne.
She's the widow of Chief Running Hawke.
SCREAMING
And that boy you picked up,
he's their son.
She was the wife of a Cheyenne war chief,
who got his head blown off my last day of service.
Did you kill him?
No, but I saw it.
Must be why the boy's holding back, he saw me too.
You're burning up. Hmm.
They ain't stopped our exit. Good.
Best ride quick. Yes.
Ask her his name.
White Moon.
No. It's OK.
Come on. We've got to go.
1040.
Five.
50.
Five.
770.
68.
70.
WHITE MOON SHRIEKS
HORSE NEIGHS
The horse.
I thought you was aiming for the Countess.
Thought I got her.
Horse.
Yeah. Least I'm going to get me a lying cow for real.
And at a record-breaking distance.
A foot shy, good line.
Single shot. He has to reload.
Where are your money bags at?
Front or back? Both.
Why did you bring so much? Didn't know how much I'd need.
Well, now, you do.
You see smoke from the gun, sit the boy up. Fast.
The Indian's making a run.
They always do. Stay with the boy.
Horse...
..again.
Argh!
Getting jittery.
She moved him.
What? Fuck! No more!
Play fair!
It's all in the breathing.
Drop him.
Oh, shoot.
Come on.
No prairie savage out-wolfing me.
No, sir.
WAR CRY ECHOES
WAR CRY CONTINUES
HORSE NEIGHS
HE SHOUTS
SHOUTING CONTINUES
WAR CRY ECHOES
WHISTLE BLOWS
WAR CRY CONTINUES
HE SHOUTS
WHISPERS: I'm so sorry.