- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: What the hell are you doin' here?
- Cole: I'm lookin' at a tin star with a... drunk pinned on it.
- Cole: Did you get him?
- Mississippi: Who?
- Cole: The fella that ran outta the church!
- Mississippi: Well, yes and no.
- Cole: Yes and no? Did you or didn't you?
- Mississippi: I hit the sign, and the sign hit him.
- Cole: Well, that's great.
- Mississippi: He was limping when he left!
- Cole: He was limping when he got here!
- Bull Harris: [about Cole and Mississippi going on patrol] If you're gonna do that, here's a couple of badges.
- [gives them to Cole and Mississippi]
- Bull Harris: Now, raise your right hand.
- [they do as told]
- Bull Harris: I forgot the words, but you better say 'I do'!
- Cole, Mississippi: I do!
- Bull Harris: Now you're deputies!
- Mississippi: You suppose these will do any good if somebody takes a shot at us?
- Bull Harris: Give them a good mark to shoot at.
- Bull Harris: [while mixing the hangover cure] Here's your gunpowder.
- Cole: *Gunpowder?*
- Bull Harris: Yup. Mississippi remembered it on the way to the store.
- Mississippi: Put it in, Bull.
- Bull Harris: All of it?
- Mississippi: Uh-huh, all of it.
- Cole: I hope you don't... blow him up!
- Mississippi: [examining J.P.'s leg after he's been shot] I gotta cut this pant leg.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Well, go ahead and cut it! Have you got a kni...
- [Mississippi pulls out his huge Bowie knife from its hiding place on his back]
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: A knife? Uh, I suppose I've asked this before, but just who...?
- [looks at Cole instead]
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Who is he?
- Cole: Tell him your name, Mississippi.
- Mississippi: [sighs and looks up] Alan Bourdillion Trehearne.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Well, no wonder he carries a knife.
- Bart Jason: [Thornton is trying to distract McLeod outside of Jason's saloon] Didn't expect to see you here, Mr. Thornton.
- Cole: Hello, McLeod.
- Bart Jason: I said...
- Nelse McLeod: My show, Jason. Hi, Thornton.
- Cole: There's a little question... unanswered between us.
- Nelse McLeod: Which one of us is best?
- Cole: That's right.
- Nelse McLeod: I don't think we're gonna find out the answer to that question.
- Cole: No?
- Nelse McLeod: No. Your gun hand's no good.
- Cole: You just give me time to get down off of this wagon and we'll find out.
- Nelse McLeod: Why should I give you any time?
- Cole: Call it professional courtesy.
- Bart Jason: Don't listen to him. Why should you give him time?
- Nelse McLeod: Curiosity, Jason.
- Cole: [Bull blows his bugle, and when McLeod turns around, Thornton dives off the wagon and mortally wounds McLeod with a hidden gun] McLeod?
- Nelse McLeod: You didn't give me any chance at all, did you?
- Cole: No, I didn't. You're too good to give a chance to.
- Nelse McLeod: Yeah. I let a one-armed man take me.
- Cole: Either one of ya know a fast way to sober a man up?
- Bull Harris: A bunch of howlin' indians out for hair'll do it quicker'n anything I know.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Cole, they laughed at me. Right in front of McLeod, they just laughed at me.
- Cole: They've been laughing at you for a couple of months. You just haven't being sober enough to hear it.
- Cole: Now just a minute, son.
- Mississippi: I... AM NOT... YOUR SON. My name is Alan Bourdillion Traherne.
- Cole: Lord Almighty... .
- Mississippi: Yeah.
- Milt: You've got a lot of faith in me, don't ya, Nelse?
- Nelse McLeod: Faith can move mountains, Milt, but it can't beat a faster draw. There's only three men I know with his kind of speed. One's dead. The other's me. And the third is Cole Thornton.
- Cole: There's a fourth.
- Nelse McLeod: Which one are you?
- Cole: I'm Thornton.
- [Milt withdraws]
- Nelse McLeod: Aren't you glad you didn't try, Milt? Pick up your guns, both of you, real easy.
- Cole: Like he said, real easy.
- Cole: What was the idea of diving under those horses?
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Diving under those horses?
- Mississippi: Yeah. A man can't shoot good when his horse is jumping, and a horse will not step on a man.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: He won't?
- Mississippi: He will?
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Alan Bourdillion Ter-who?
- Cole: Terhane.
- Mississippi: Trahearne!
- Cole, Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Trahearne.
- Mississippi: Yeah.
- Cole: What kept you?
- Mississippi: I was talking to a girl. She said she saw...
- Cole: A girl?
- Mississippi: Don't you think I can know a girl?
- Mississippi: [Joey slaps Mississippi and he slaps her] Now don't do that again 'cause I can hit a little harder than you.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Joe never was much good on that piano, was he?
- Bull Harris: No, and you shooting them strings out didn't help none either.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Why aren't you laughing now? It's the same drunken sheriff, the same hat, the same outfit, why don't you laugh? Let me hear you laugh!
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: [Cole has just been treated for a gunshot wound] Doctor, can he be moved?
- Dr. Miller: Sure, in a couple of hours, but don't go bouncin' him around.
- Maudie: He can stay here. I'll... I'll make him comfortable.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Oh, I've got a fine bed over at my place. It's, uh, narrow and it's hard and it's uncomfortable, but, uh, he won't get bounced around.
- Mississippi: [while mixing some hangover cure] Let's see. We got ipecac and mustard and cayenne. That leaves us asafetida.
- Cole: Are you sure that Johnny Diamond wasn't an embalmer?
- Bull Harris: ...might have anyhow if I wasn't tryin' to figure out what that fella's got on his head.
- Mississippi: It called a hat.
- Bull Harris: Well, I'll have to take your word for it.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Bull, you go on shooting, we'll try to move up a little closer.
- Bull Harris: Just give me another gun and I'll play Marching Through Georgia.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: It'll be a nice quiet town after you leave, Cole.
- Cole: How do you know I'm leaving?
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: We just don't need your kind around here.
- Cole: Don't you know better than to follow a man that way?
- Mississippi: Sorry... I didn't know there was another way.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: [bathing in the jail cell as several people enter] Good morning, good morning, good morning... I'd have more privacy in the El Paso railroad station.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: You know something Cole, I think we'd better get ourselves a new girl.
- Cole: Yeah.
- Maudie: You'd better not.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Why not?
- Maudie: I'm girl enough for both of you.
- Maudie: You must like that man. Want me to tell you about him?
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: You don't have to tell me about Cole.
- Maudie: I know I don't. That's why I want to. I met Cole right after my husband was killed. I did tell you that.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Yeah, you told me.
- Maudie: Well, there I was stranded. A gambler's widow, not a chip to my name. Cole was awful good to me. Gave me a stake. Helped me get on my feet. Never would take a... I don't know, J.P., with Cole and me I guess it's a... I'll always think of him as a... , as a...
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: He's a top hand.
- Maudie: I guess so.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Yeah, well, Cole always was pretty lucky.
- Maudie: Have you known him a long time?
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Yeah, I've known him a long time, since before the war. We've, uh, we've travelled some together.
- Maudie: Sure, I know what that means. It means either you saved his life or he saved yours, or both. And neither one of you will talk about it. Men.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Would you like it set to music, Maudie, with a full orchestra?
- Mississippi: Always liked that poem too. Makes me wanna...
- Cole: Ride, boldly ride? Well, it don't work out that way.
- Mississippi: I'm learnin' that.
- Mississippi: Well, where are we headed?
- Cole: To see a girl.
- Mississippi: To see a *girl*?
- Cole: Yes, a girl! Don't you think I could know a girl?
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Who are you?
- Mississippi: We met last night.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Last night? When was that?
- Bull Harris: Watch it, the way your hand's shaking don't let it get near the trigger.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Now don't you get on me, Bull.
- Bull Harris: I ain't started yet.
- Kevin MacDonald: What do you expect us to do?
- Cole: Why don't you ask the sheriff?
- Kevin MacDonald: The sheriff? Ya think I'm gonna wait on him?
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Just give me an hour, Macdonald. You can wait that long to die.
- Doctor Donovan: You know these wounds were made by buckshot don't you?
- Cole: I thought they were.
- Doctor Donovan: Who was using a shotgun?
- Cole: A certain young man... .
- Mississippi: I was using a shotgun, Doc.
- Doctor Donovan: You? I thought you was on their side.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: He was.
- Mississippi: I told you I was no good with a gun.
- Bull Harris: Trouble is, Doc, Cole was in front of the gun. The safe place is behind Mississippi when he shoots that thing.
- [Cole Thornton is turning down Bart Jason]
- Bart Jason: Since when did hired guns get choosy? You're paid to take...
- Cole: I'm paid to risk my neck. I'll decide where and when I'll do it. This isn't it.
- Bart Jason: Ya know, Thornton, I got an idea you just don't want to go up against Sheriff J.P. Harrah.
- Cole: You know, you're just about right?
- Bart Jason: You think he's that good?
- Cole: I tell ya he's that good.
- [talking about Jason, who's in jail]
- Joey: Would it be all right if I could see him, talk to him?
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Why sure, Joey. Just, uh, let me have that gun.
- Joey: Never mind.
- Kevin MacDonald: Are you backin' him up, Thornton?
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: No, he isn't.
- Cole: Let's just say I'm on your side and this is no job for amateurs.
- Nelse McLeod: [referring to Harrah] Understand he used to be pretty good with a gun.
- Cole: Not just *pretty* good, McLeod. He's the...
- Nelse McLeod: The fourth man you were telling me about.
- Matt MacDonald: Well, look who's here.
- Kevin MacDonald: You're a little late ain't ya.
- Saul MacDonald: Yeah, whatcha you do, stop off for a drink?
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: All right, I'm late. I may be too late, but that's no reason for the rest of you to get gunned down.
- Kevin MacDonald: Why do you say that?
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Because you're outclassed.
- Cole: You were pretty good in there. Like old times.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Man, don't tell me how good I was. I just got away with it because I had an hangover. I was too mad to be scared and too sick to worry about it. You know that.
- Cole: I've been there.
- Cole: When do you expect the United States Marshal?
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Oh man, I don't remember the last time he was here.
- Bull Harris: He was here. You gave him a big welcome. Flung a bottle at him.
- Cole: An empty bottle?
- Bull Harris: Yeah, he wasn't that far gone.
- Cole: J.P., why don't you settle down?
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: I just can't help it Cole. I've got the shakes so bad... .
- Cole: You've had 'em before.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Yeah, well not with a hole in my leg, and a bunch of unfriendly people hanging around outside just waiting for somebody to... .
- Cole: What do you wanna do? Quit?
- Bull Harris: I reckon he's got a more interesting misery than you got, Sheriff.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Look, Doc, I don't wanna take up your time but, er, mine's still bleeding.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: I guess you're supposed to take care of me.
- Cole: Well, not that I couldn't do it, Harrah, but I don't think I'd like that.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: I'm glad to hear you say that. Not that I couldn't handle you, but I don't think I'd like that either.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Why are you here?
- Cole: Waiting for a fella. Name's Nelse McLeod.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Oh, Nelse McLeod with the...
- Cole: That one. Want some coffee?
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: No, I don't.
- Cole: I met him down near the border. Said he wanted me to work with him on a job. Range war. But he said it'd be easy. All we had to worry about was a drunken sheriff. Are you sure you don't want some coffee?
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Bull, I need you.
- Bull Harris: You what?
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: I need you, Bull.
- Bull Harris: Now if you start being nice to me, I'll quit you for sure. Shock'd be too much. I'd sooner have you hungover and nasty.
- Sheriff J. P. Harrah: Speaking of that, how about a little drink, Bull?
- Bull Harris: Darn it. Took you a long time to think of that one.