At the gallop, ho!
Fort Laramie
Fort Laramie, starring Raymond Burr as Captain Lee Quince.
Specially transcribed tales of the dark and tragic ground of the wild frontier.
The saga of fighting men who rode the rim of empire.
And the dramatic story of Lee Quince, Captain of Cavalry.
Mr. Sybertz!
Yes, Captain?
Waste enough fire at this range.
Pass the word. Men at the flank of the canyon dig in and hold their positions.
And their fire, sir?
Cease fire.
But they'll think we've quit, sir.
I hope they do, Mr. Sybertz.
Yes, sir.
Captain?
What about your leg?
It's fine. Now pass the word, Mr. Sybertz.
Right away, sir.
Cease fire!
Gorse!
Sergeant Gorse!
Yo!
Right here, Captain.
Give me a hand. Behind that boulder.
Yes, sir.
Can you bear weight on that leg?
I can get behind that boulder.
Are you easy now, sir?
Don't know when I've been more comfortable.
If you're dry, I got part of a canteen here.
No, no. Save it. You'll need it.
Captain, there's a clearing about a hundred yards back.
We got the horses back there. Harrison and me together'd get you there.
I'm fine here, Sergeant.
You'd rest a mite easier there, sir.
Maybe you ought to take up nursing, Gorse.
You're developing a fine manner for it.
Well, sir, I reckon it's all this easy living.
It's kind of got me soft.
Go back to your position, Sergeant, and dig in.
Flank in the canyon this way, you must be figuring them engines will try another run-through.
No use 40 men spreading thin against two 300 Arapaho.
Yes, sir.
Go on back, Gorse. Send Lieutenant Cybert here.
Right, sir.
Lieutenant. Lieutenant Cybert.
You set for me, sir?
Men have their orders.
All down the line.
How about ammunition?
We've enough, sir.
What's enough?
Well, sir, I think...
Enough to lead a charge down the canyon and run them off?
No, I don't believe so.
Enough to hold our ground here and stand off an assault?
That would depend on the size of the assault, but...
Mr. Cybert, there are at least 200 Arapaho firing what's left of our camp down there.
I want to know if we can hold these positions.
Not long, sir. Not if they turn on us full force.
Then we don't have enough ammunition, do we, Mr. Cybert?
No, sir, I guess not.
Uh, what do we do, Captain?
Sit here.
Hope they think they wiped us out on their last run-through.
Is that why you ordered the men to hold their fire?
That's why.
They're ridin' off, Captain.
Oh, man, they ain't a friend or a friend.
Yeah.
Uh, don't look like they counted us too important, Captain Quince.
Is that a complaint, Sergeant?
No, sir.
I was born plain insignificant.
I mean to stay that way.
Help me get the Captain back to the clearing, Sergeant.
His leg needs attention.
Now, wait a minute, Mr. Cybert.
We can't waste any more daylight.
You have six hours of good ridin' left before nightfall.
Sir, you can't ride hard. You've lost a lot of blood.
The patrol's going back to the fort under your command, Mr. Cybert.
Harrison and I'll take it in easy stages.
We can't leave you here, sir.
Mr. Cybert, you'll reach Fort Laramie tomorrow night, if you're lucky.
Major Daggett needs a full report as soon as possible.
Captain Quince, sir, we could strap you in your saddle.
No need for that, Sergeant.
I'd slow you up, and Major Daggett needs that report.
Now, send Harrison to me.
Prepare to move out.
I know this country better than Harrison, Captain.
Mr. Cybert will need you, Gorse.
This will be good experience for my orderly.
Yes, Captain.
Patrol, report to the clearing.
Check your mouth.
Well, good luck, Mr. Cybert.
Thank you, Captain.
Report to the clearing now.
Good luck to you, sir.
You're all played out, aren't you, sir?
There's fresh water ahead to the left there, that clump of trees.
You can't go on just water, Captain.
Well, it'll help.
We can water the horses, too.
Not much sunlight left.
I hoped we'd find a settler where we could bed down for the night.
This is a rap-a-hole country, Harrison.
They routed out most of the settlers.
They sure got a way acting like they own the place, don't they?
Running off white men.
They were here first.
I guess they got a funny idea that makes it their land.
If we'd have had the whole company back there, we'd have run through them, sure.
Showed them whose land it is.
Well, it would take an awful good company.
Those were dog soldiers leading that raid.
Dog soldiers?
Toughest fighters in the tribes.
Handpicked for the daring, Hotei Mintanio.
How's that, sir?
That's the Cheyenne name for dog soldiers.
But most Plains Indians have a select band like them.
Sioux and the rap-a-hole.
Oh.
Guess we were smart to take cover in that canyon, Captain.
Yeah, I guess we were.
In through the trees, Harrison.
Good grass there by that stream.
I'll be right there to lend a hand, sir.
Stand to steady me as I come over on this leg, Harrison, and we'll bear weight.
Yes, sir.
All right.
I guess I...
I guess I'm weaker than I thought.
Don't you worry, Captain. I got bull strength.
Here, let me help you.
Now, you just sit back against this tree.
There. How's that, sir?
All right, Harrison. Thanks.
I'll get you some fresh water. You going all white.
I'm... all right.
I'll ease those cinches and lead the mounts down to the stream and water them.
Go on. I just need to catch my breath, rest a bit.
I sure wish I could make you right comfortable, sir.
In bed with food and all.
I know. Mind the horses.
Yes, sir.
Harrison.
Harrison. Harrison!
You awake, sir?
I... I shouldn't have gone to sleep.
You just didn't have no choice, Captain.
Once you drank that cool water, you was plumbed through.
What's that? Horses?
No, they're not making a sound, sir.
I hobbled them before I set out.
Shh! Wait a minute.
His horse is all right.
Sounds like they're riding this way.
I sure don't hear a thing.
Could be you got some fever, Captain Gwentz.
Some folks hear things when they got fever.
You keep listening, you'll hear them.
Yes, sir.
What I was going to say was, while you was resting so easy,
like I set out and took a look around,
there's a cabin, sir, not more than a couple of hundred yards away.
They're coming from the north.
Yeah, yeah, I can hear them now.
Couldn't be cavalry, Captain.
They move south long ahead of us.
It's not cavalry. Look, look through the trees.
Engines.
Dog soldiers.
Captain, we'd better make for that cabin.
No, no, no, we're better off here.
Trees will hide us.
Unless they already know we're here.
Lie flat, Harrison.
If they start through the trees,
fire.
Can you handle that carbine, sir?
Yeah, I can.
They're making for us, sir.
Show her a sign.
Wait a minute.
They're right at the tree, Captain.
Easy, easy.
I'm sure we're not keen on them seeing me first.
Shut up, Harrison.
They're riding right along the tree line.
Going on south.
I can't make them out anymore.
You see them?
They've gone on past the thicket.
I can't see them.
Man, that was close.
Still close.
They stopped.
You want I should get our horses, sir?
I do not.
Can you hear them?
They ain't moving as I can tell.
I counted six, Captain.
Six.
That cabin, where is it?
Near as I can tell.
That's where they are, sir.
It's that direction, not more than a couple hundred yards away.
I tell you, sir, that's a welcome sound.
You were talking about a deserted cabin, Harrison?
Not a living thing around.
Likely been that way for years.
You'll have to near carry me.
I can't mount again.
Just you don't worry yourself, Captain.
I'll take good care of you.
Not ten more steps.
You can make it, sir.
I don't know, Harrison.
You just lean heavy now.
We'll get there.
You'll make out fine.
You come no closer.
Ma'am, there's no cause for shooting.
We're your kind, white folks.
I'll judge about the shooting.
What ails him?
He's all shot up and weak.
Ma'am, I'm not even asking for a hand,
but I got to put him down inside.
Me?
Second Cavalry, Fort Laramie.
Harrison, I think I...
Captain Wentz!
Captain, you all right, sir?
Is he dead?
No, ma'am, not yet.
Would you just try to help?
Put that shotgun down and help a body?
How are you on food?
Oh, a tin of jerky, maybe.
Blankets? Shot? You got anything?
I got an awful sick captain here, ma'am.
That's what I got.
And I'm lifting him up right now and taking him in there.
How much money you got?
I don't know, a little.
Hand it over.
Once we're inside...
I tell you, son,
I'd as soon shoot the both of you as jawless way.
I want your money and your guns.
I don't rightly know how you stand yourself.
His money, too.
I'm bringing him inside now.
Not for long.
For this little bit of money.
Open this door for me.
You're another weekend, are you?
My arm's full of logs.
Put them by the stove and quit your whimpering.
Soft bellies, a lot of you.
How is he?
Ask him. He's only pretending to sleep.
Captain?
You can't fool her, Harrison. Don't try.
Oh, you gave me a fright, sir.
I wasn't sure you was gonna come around.
I'll be all right.
Did she get the bullet?
Yeah. Yeah, she got it.
I see new cubs are tougher hide.
Captain, she took everything we had.
Jerky, guns, money.
What kind of white woman is she?
Best quiet him.
I buried four husbands, 20 children.
Couple of strangers don't faze me.
Better get some sleep, Harrison.
She says you watched me all night.
You sure you all right?
I'm fine. I go to sleep.
That's an order.
Yes, sir.
Four husbands, ma'am?
Outlived them.
But they was men, regular men.
Didn't go around siring every other man.
And ma'am and women folk.
They weren't in the Army.
Indeed they wasn't.
No call for the Army in those days.
Mr. Pelfrey and me lived as peaceable as could be with the Indian folk.
We come here peaceable.
Me and Mr. Pelfrey.
When was that?
In the 30s.
Things are different then.
No different than with Mr. Griffiths, Mr. Albright.
Even later on with Mr. Netherton.
Yeah, there was lessons to learn in the West in them days.
Eat the porridge.
Much obliged, man.
Hattie.
How's that?
Hattie, Hattie I say. Hattie Pelfrey. I go by that.
I can't abide being called ma'am.
I lean toward Hattie.
Hattie.
You live alone.
Middle of a Arapaho country.
How do you manage?
I come by your guns.
Such little money you had.
Sometimes it's food, sometimes robes.
I'll take what I can get.
No matter to me if it's settlers or scouts or army folks.
Or Arapaho.
Folks don't find Hattie the lesson they lost.
Or half dead.
You need to open your eyes to see what they part with.
You always greet them with a shotgun.
If need be.
Before we came here last evening,
a band of Arapaho Braves stopped here.
I got good airers, strong bows, rifles.
Even a couple of buffalo guns off a hunter broke his leg down the canyon.
They got a camp near here, the Arapaho?
You got something more to give me?
Harrison says you cleaned us out.
You're getting full measure.
What's going on?
My ring.
Hey, you can't have that.
But I got it.
I ain't had a pretty first spelt, and that's a fact.
A man ain't safe sleeping here.
I bought that ring myself in St. Louis.
It'll fit fine once Arapaho twine around it.
About his fingers thin with age.
Next you'll be picking my bones, you old buzzard.
Mind your tongue!
Give him his ring back, Hattie.
Not likely.
Captain Quince, what says you can't hit an old woman when she's so contrary?
For one thing, she's got a shotgun.
I'd soon use it as jaw with you.
You take his ring, you give us something, Hattie.
I do admire a pretty.
Clean forgot the bright feeling they give you.
Our guns for the ring, Hattie, that's fair.
I come by your horses down the creek this morning.
They're grazing on my grass, swilling my water.
The prettiest to pay for that.
Captain, I better seat in them mounts.
You'll stay with the sick and hailing.
I'll seat the horses.
You saying he can't leave the cabin?
Not alive he can't.
Why, you...
She means it, Harrison.
I do that.
Now, I've got tending to do outside.
No need peering around for your rifles whilst I'm gone.
You won't find them.
Captain Quince, we gotta move out of here.
We need horses to do it.
Here, you steady me.
You ain't fit to stand yet, son.
Just you stand.
Yeah.
We'd have to crawl once we're outside anyway.
I can manage to the door.
The lack is not she's just crouched out there waiting for us.
It's worth a chance.
We may not get another.
Yes, sir.
Get the door.
Get on your belly.
Move small through this brush.
Toward the stream.
Can you see her?
No, sir.
The stream, how far is it?
A good 50 yards.
Maybe more.
I don't see the horses.
Not yet, sir.
Flatten Harrison, it's a rap hole.
She come out of those trees by the water, sir.
She's talking to them Indians.
Don't even breathe.
She's going back toward the trees.
Yeah, but they ain't a sign of our horses, sir.
No sense trying to go it without them.
We'll have to go back.
To the cabin?
Without guns or horses, we're no good out here, Harrison.
Come on.
What do you reckon?
She's done with them, Captain.
That woman, she might have eaten them.
I'll steady you for the walk, sir.
I'd give a lot for some of her strength right now.
You think I could find them alone?
Get yourself killed doing it?
That's no good, Harrison.
We'll have to wait.
You're just about as foolish as can be, ain't you?
Crawling around in the brush out there.
What's the ID?
Fresh air, Hattie.
I've got no guns, no food.
There's a rap hole all around.
You don't think too good of your hides, do you?
Where are the horses, Hattie?
The other's coming back some.
You heard the captain.
What about the horses?
They come right high in these parts, youngin'.
I could get me a parcel of things,
trading horses.
You're real friendly with the rap hole, Hattie.
They treat me good.
Of course, they know Mr. Pelfrey and me
come peaceable to their country,
not to run them off what rightly is their land.
You never seen them at the killing?
White women, babies?
No matter to them.
You ever ask yourself who started it all?
I seen it happen.
The whites and their guns moving in.
It wasn't pretty work they did.
Women and children, too.
They let you live here.
There's gotta be a reason.
He come here like you, full of shot,
hailing, white men's doing.
Mr. Pelfrey and me, we took him in,
tended him.
He was a young chief then.
Standing Bear never forgot.
Not in all these years.
He's as near to a relation I got.
You're from another age, Hattie.
You and Standing Bear.
You got anyone?
A wife?
No, no wife.
Mother, then?
I got her memory.
A pair of earrings, that's all.
Not on you.
I'd have found them.
They're back at Fort Laramie.
Oh, that's a pity.
Yeah, that's a pity.
I think you can get the guns without waking her.
I can't make out good with no light,
but I can fight a old woman in the dark.
Not long till sun up.
This may be our last chance.
Easy now.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
Now that's just close enough.
Stealing up on an old woman.
What kind of men are you?
I don't mind shooting a bit.
You're a witch.
That's what you are.
Seeing in the dark, hearing.
You're no kind of woman at all.
Maybe not now, young'un.
But I was once more woman than you could imagine.
Shut up, both of you.
Someone's coming.
Come earlier than I said.
It's probably them same engines again, Captain.
Yeah.
Now get back where you belong.
Over there, to your beds.
How do you do?
Welcome.
How you doing?
Captain, I had my gun.
I'd blow us all up before I let them take us.
I know.
Maybe that'd help you.
She's out there right now.
Trading for us.
You know that.
Get ready.
Someone's coming.
That side of beef will last me the winter and more.
Gift for my friend standing bare.
For us, Hattie?
Now then, you're worth a sight more than that.
They're ridin' off, Captain.
You sparing us, Hattie?
For what?
Sparing you?
You didn't tell them about us.
They didn't ask.
You actin' human so sudden like.
After they're scaring us to death.
I ain't gonna miss this, young'un.
That's a fact.
I'd soon keep company with a ballin' calf.
I tell you, I'm bone brittle with you two around.
Well, we'd be glad to get out of your way.
Trade for guns, our horses, and a cut of your new beef.
Been thinking about them here, Bobbs.
I've been thinking about our guns.
Under my bed.
These two horses sat it at the spring.
Now, them here, Bobbs.
They're back at Fort Laramie, Hattie.
You mean to ride back with us?
I gotta watch who I'm seen with.
Yeah.
Well, I might get back your way some day.
If I do, I'll bring them to you.
For these old ears?
Here, young'un.
Pretty as ain't for me.
Not no more.
I'll take my ring, ma'am.
And thank you.
But I ain't even pretending to understand you.
If you was regular men, you'd find yourself a woman.
Pretties don't belong on a man's hand.
Locked up at no fort.
Now, us women folk, it gives us that bright feeling.
Having a pretty.
Fort Laramie is produced and directed by Norman MacDonald
and stars Raymond Burr as Lee Quince, captain of cavalry,
with Vic Perrin as Sergeant Gorse.
The script was specially written for Fort Laramie by Kathleen Height,
with sound patterns by Bill James and Ray Kemper.
Musical supervision by Amarigo Moreno.
Featured in the cast were Virginia Gregg, Sam Edwards, and John Danaer.
Company attention!
Dismiss!
Next week, another transcribed story of the Northwest frontier
and the troopers who fought under Lee Quince, captain of cavalry.
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