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.
Oh, no spikes in this side of the rail at all.
How about over there, Mr. Sybritts?
Haven't run into one in 20 yards, Captain.
They sure weren't taking any chances, were they?
Four telegraphed pulls across the track, all the spikes removed from the rails,
and the track yanked off the road bed.
I'd say they weren't taking much chance, Mr. Sybritts.
You think it was Cheyenne, sir?
Well, it's Cheyenne country.
Why'd they do it?
Did the rail or train kill all those innocent people?
Well, fear.
That's why most men kill.
The fear of what?
The trainmen were, I'm sure, but 20 of those dead back there are women and children.
The iron horse makes a lot of noise, Mr. Sybritts, and puffs a lot of steam.
If you saw it cutting through your country,
you might not stop to think it was carrying women and children.
You must think it'll discourage folks from coming west on the railroads.
If I was standing in the Omaha station waiting to board a train, it might discourage me.
Not you, Captain. Things don't seem to bother you.
What things?
20 women and children dead. You didn't bat an eye.
It's a lot of death all piled together.
Any death is a lot of death, Mr. Sybritts.
You've seen more than I have. Maybe you've gotten used to it.
We have a job of burying to do back there.
Sir, I... I can't go back just yet.
It doesn't get any better waiting, nor any easier.
People die or they get killed. Either way, they gotta be buried.
Yes, sir.
And the train's gotta be set right on the tracks where it belongs,
and the tracks gotta be laid again and spiked
so the next train will stand a chance of getting through.
Captain, would they have stood a better chance if the Army had been riding with them?
Wouldn't that make it safer?
Mr. Sybritts, this train was derailed by Indians.
It wasn't attacked. Nobody was massacred.
If half a troop was riding with them, we'd be burying them.
I guess you're right. It's just not easy, is it?
What drew you to the Army, Mr. Sybritts?
The uniform?
Sergeant Gorse has the first car ride, sir.
Yes, I see he has.
Good work, Sergeant.
It's a might easier telling them how it's done, Captain.
Somebody has to do the telling.
You got a car back in the rails, didn't you?
Yeah, this ain't cavalry work.
We're all that's here, Gorse.
You think you got them all out before you set that car right?
There's no way of telling that, Captain, till we look and see.
If it's all right with you, sir, I'll board that car and see if we got all the dead.
It's all right with me, Mr. Sybritts.
If you need a hand, Lieutenant...
If I do, I'll call for it, Sergeant.
Yes, sir.
I guess there'll be no way of telling when this happened.
Not from the bodies.
They've been stiff as old hides ever since we come on them.
Six or eight we're throwing clear, isn't that right?
Clear. Just as dead, but clear.
Get our mounts, Sergeant. We're gonna take a little ride.
Yes, sir.
And see if the telegrapher's got a reply yet from Union Pacific.
Need any help, Mr. Sybritts?
Not a bit, sir.
How many did you find?
Three so far.
I'm leaving you in charge, Mr. Sybritts.
Sergeant Gorse and I are gonna take a little ride.
If anyone lived through this,
they might have made it to one of the settlers.
How could anyone live through this?
I don't know.
You want to come along and find out?
I got a job to do here, Captain.
That's right, Mr. Sybritts. You have.
Well, I ain't had much time to look around good.
Just wrote up myself a bit for you did.
How many horses did you have, Mr.?
Eighteen. Not counting the one I was riding.
I wonder how come they left the house standing.
Burned everything else.
They didn't mean to do your favor.
I'm sure of that.
Thought you Army boys had them Cheyenne cooped up in the reservation.
Most of them? Not all of them?
That's not good enough.
Not near good enough.
Nobody in the house, Captain.
I could have told you that.
Nobody here at all.
Took my woman down to Crow Creek near a week ago now.
Just come back.
You left your stock untended all week?
I got laid up down there.
Grip.
Too aching to come back sooner.
Besides, I spoke to Nate before I left.
Said he'd mind them for me.
Who's Nate?
Neighbor.
Over the rise there.
Nate caught her.
Farms a little. Keeps stock like me.
Said he'd mind them for me.
I done it for him.
Could be he run your horses over there to feed.
No.
This is Indian work.
Like that train you told me about.
You used to trouble with the Cheyenne?
Yeah.
Ever since the railroad.
Was peaceful enough before they had to lay that track
and send them steam engines puffing across the land.
Scaring stock.
Scaring Indians, too.
They don't like them.
Iron horses.
They don't like them at all.
Mr. We're burying near 30 dead that says they don't like them.
Yeah.
Well.
I got work to do.
Thinking.
I can't help you none.
We got a camp back near the railroad.
You're welcome to come with us.
Leave my land?
Good Lord, man.
That's all I got left.
No.
I ain't leaving.
The cotter place just over the rise?
Yeah.
Two miles.
Three.
They're my neighbors.
Nate and his missus.
Music
Nothing to chance here, Captain.
Nothing.
And no one.
That'd be Nate Cotter.
It'd be a man on Nate Cotter's place.
Yeah.
I guess it's Cotter.
Crazy thought I get every time we find one like this.
Can't help wondering what they died of first.
Well, of course, it doesn't make much difference.
Well, it doesn't, but I get the thought just the same.
Well, I'll look around for something to dig with, Captain.
I guess there's no need to look for his woman.
They carried her off, sure.
Yeah.
Hold the gorse.
Something else, Captain?
Yeah, I thought I heard something.
I sure don't.
Listen.
Over there, where that clump of trees is.
Something, maybe only the wind, though.
You want us to come with you?
No, no, just keep a sharp eye.
Don't shoot me, mister.
Come out in the clearing where I can see you.
I sure hope you don't aim to shoot.
No, I don't aim to.
Much obliged, sir.
What's your name, boy?
Jed.
You belong here, Jed?
You don't feel like it.
You sure don't.
How long you been here?
Seems like a long time, mister.
A long time.
No cause to be afraid now, Jed.
It's over. The burning, everything.
It's all over.
Yes, sir. I see it is.
Where is he from, Captain?
Just the trees, that's all.
I ain't done nothing.
You better come back to camp with us, Jed.
Some hot food, a cot, you'll feel a sight better.
You're armoured folks, ain't you?
Yeah.
This is Sergeant Gorse. I'm Captain Quince.
Hello, boy.
My pa was a sergeant.
Was he?
You got somebody laying dead over there, Captain?
Yeah.
You...
You got a ma, Jed?
Sure.
I got a ma.
You better come with us, boy.
There's nothing for you here.
There sure ain't.
There sure ain't nothing.
I've just never seen a youngin with such a fright, Captain.
You think he saw it all?
Yeah, he saw it all.
Sure would be a fright,
watching your pa killed and your ma carried off that way.
He won't forget that soon.
Gorse, he won't forget it ever.
He ate like he was starvin'.
I don't know as he'll sleep, though.
Funny thing, you talk to him, ask him questions,
and the answers ain't answers at all, just words.
Send him back to me.
I'll... I'll bed him down here.
Yes, sir.
There's still no word from Union Pacific?
No more than we had.
They're sending another crew out,
but no one says when they'll get here.
They hear anything at the telegraphist's tent.
I want to know it right away.
Yes, sir.
I'll get the boy.
I was just coming for you, Jed.
Captain Quince wants to see you.
I want to talk to him, Satchel.
Young fella wants a hearing, Captain.
Come on in, Jed.
Sit down.
Yes, sir.
I thought maybe we could talk.
Sergeant?
Just leaving, sir.
I like him.
I like him fine.
Best cavalry sergeant I know.
My pa was a sergeant.
Yeah, you said that.
I don't recollect it myself,
but he told me lots of times.
He was a sergeant in the war.
Ma says he never got over it.
The war?
No, sir, being a sergeant.
She meant bossy-like, you know.
He'd give orders to her, to me, horses, everything.
They're just the three of you?
You, your ma and pa?
That's all.
Ma laid it all in us being a sergeant,
telling you what to tote, what to plant,
how he wanted things just so.
I'm talking too much?
No, Jed, it's good sometimes, talking too much.
Yes, sir.
Now, Sergeant Gorse, he don't seem so bossy to me.
You're not in the cavalry, Jed.
I'm a hand with horses.
Well, that's a start.
You all alone, Captain?
How do you mean?
You got nobody, just you.
I ain't got nobody.
And Sergeant Gorse, he's got nobody.
It's a good life, ain't it, for a man alone?
Yeah.
For a man, Jed.
You're going by my face, ain't you?
I can't help my face.
Nothing wrong with your face,
just it looks awful young, Jed.
I can't help that.
Now, how old are you?
I'm big enough, strong enough.
Some of them men, when we was eating, I was bigger than them.
How old are you?
Eighteen.
Eighteen?
Near nineteen, actual.
Well, a boy that old ought to recollect
when his pa was a sergeant in the war.
I can't help what I recollect, like I can't help my face.
You going by my face, that's all.
I want to be in the Army, Captain.
Most particularly, I want to be a cavalry trooper.
Well, you better get some sleep first.
Don't set me by that way, Captain.
I can't give you no proof about me being as old as I am.
It was in the Bible with all the rest.
Them who didn't live, me.
Ma writ it there herself.
Now you know I can't show you that Bible, Captain.
Now easy, Jed, easy. I know you can't.
It's what's inside makes a man.
My pa said that.
And I know it's true.
Message from the telegraphist, Captain.
From Major Daggett, Sergeant.
We send in laborers and our replacements down from Fort Laramie.
As soon as we're relieved, our orders are to return to the fort.
Yes, sir.
That might be sent down tomorrow, so pass the word.
Yes, sir.
You'll take me along, Captain.
You wouldn't want to leave me for the engines.
Jed, I'd say a lot depended on how soon you stretch out there and go to sleep.
I'm almost asleep now, Captain.
We just had some idea of how many Cheyenne we're up against.
A few of them could've done it all.
It doesn't take many to derail a train, pull the spikes out of track.
The riders can run horses off a ranch, fire another, kill a settler, carry off a woman.
You think it's a small band, then?
I didn't see a single Cheyenne, Major.
What did the scouts say?
Here's the last report.
No sign of camps, no Cheyenne activity.
They sent Pete Hazen out yesterday morning.
If there's still Cheyenne in the west, Pete will find them.
When he does, we'll have to engage them, Captain.
When he does, we will.
That rail line has to stay open.
Big shipments of army supplies have already left the east.
It's a matter of days till those trains cross the same spot where this last one was derailed.
Any people on these trains, Major?
You mean troops?
I mean any kind of people.
We left nearly 30 graves by that roadbed.
It's a little fresh in my mind.
You think I don't know that?
I just know I know it.
That's enough for me.
We couldn't have stopped this last disaster, Lee.
There's no way...
There's one way. We could have been there in time.
What kind of scouts we got between here and Cheyenne?
Poor ones. You know, we can get some good scouts...
Get some squaws off the reservation. You couldn't do worse.
All right, Lee, that's enough.
We're the best scouts in the world.
The army's not big enough to patrol every inch of rail line to the coast.
Remember when they were laying this track?
I was on General Auger's staff.
The 30th Infantry, part of the 4th, part of the 36th,
four companies of cavalry, four companies of Pawnee scouts,
just to protect the Graydon and Working Party.
And General Dodge was chief engineer of the road. I know that.
Doesn't change a thing.
Yeah, I see it doesn't.
That all, sir?
That's all, Captain.
Oh, Captain.
Yes, sir?
Lieutenant Cybertz tells me you brought back a boy,
an orphan from one of the ranches.
That's right, Major.
What do you think of him?
He's young, scared.
Cybertz thinks he'll make a good trooper.
Does he?
I'm asking what you think, Lee.
I turned him over to Sergeant Gorse.
If there's any trooper in him, he'll bring it out.
Yes. Yes, he will.
That's all, Captain. Dismissed.
Yes, sir.
You come closer, Captain, you get a real eyeful.
Jed's a good shot, is he?
Haven't fooled him yet.
Started him on sidearm,
worked up through Springfield, Spencer's.
With a Henry rifle, he just might stand off,
sitting bold in the whole crowd.
He's high on himself about horses. How is he there?
Horses he knows.
Cavalry saddles or something else again.
Well, he's bright enough, Jed is.
He'll master saddling and unsaddling.
He's a boy, Gorse.
He's just a boy.
Why, he claims he's near 19.
He's a boy. You know he is.
It's hard to tell what's boy
and what's the shock of what he's been through.
Well, that's a fact.
Gorse, you get him a uniform issue?
Well, not me, Captain.
Lieutenant Cybertz, you didn't know?
Of course I didn't know.
Captain McQuince, he was swore in this morning.
That Jed's in the Army now.
Rendezvous point ahead, Captain.
Right, Mr. Cybertz.
Just a quiet ride so far, sir.
If Captain Meade's infantry is camped on Old Woman Creek,
we'll be able to attack tonight.
Is that your plan, Mr. Cybertz?
Well, not my plan, sir.
I thought we could surprise them,
and if we could, it would be good, that's all.
If we can surprise them, it'll be good?
Yes, sir.
You know this country, Mr. Cybertz?
Not this part of it, sir.
Make out those foothills just ahead?
Yes, sir.
Full of rocks and crags.
Maybe Cheyenne.
Those hills are between us and Meade's infantry.
But the scouts report put the Cheyenne
on the other side of Old Woman Creek.
What I mean is, they're not supposed to be in those foothills.
I hope the Cheyenne know that, Mr. Cybertz.
Yes, sir.
One thing, Captain, this will be good experience
for our young trooper.
You mean Jed?
He's a first go at Indian fighting.
Learned a lot, but he's awful green yet.
You know, inexperienced.
I know about inexperience.
Jed's something else, Mr. Cybertz. He's a boy.
Just a boy.
Cheyenne ahead, Captain.
Breaking out of their foothills and making straight for us.
Left front in the line.
At the gallows.
Hello!
They mean to kill us. They mean to kill us all. I don't like it here. I want to get out.
You can sit around these rocks you want. Man your rifle and shut up trooper.
No sir I ain't gonna take that up again. I ain't shooting. I ain't gonna get shot at. Not anymore. It ain't right.
You're all right Jed. Just keep quiet. You're all right.
They're staring around all around. That's quiet enough. I ain't keeping quiet. I'm talking so I can hear I'm still alive.
I said shut up trooper. You go right ahead and kill me you want to. But I gotta talk. Can't you see all I got is talk. I gotta hear I'm still alive.
Shut up. Captain Quince. I want to go home captain. Please I want to go home. Yes son I know. Just go home. I'm sorry captain. Man your gun Mr. Cybert.
She's here right here in the hospital. My Ma. Yeah. Now there are a couple of doors Jed. But I thought I mean I don't rightly know how she got here captain.
Well a couple of Cheyenne Braves brought her thinking to collect a reward. Injuns? Had my Ma? Oh she'll be all right. No cause to worry.
You want me to go in first Jed? Or you rather go in alone? You first captain.
You awake Ma'am? Mrs. Carter? I'm awake. Jed's right outside Ma'am. Your son Mrs. Carter?
I've got no son. Me and the mister we were alone. I've got no son. I'm sorry Ma'am. Truly I'm sorry. Fine looking boy though. Wish he was mine. We could have used a son. Me and the mister.
I was wrong. I meant you no harm. No hurt Ma'am. No hurt left in me captain.
Boy. Yes Ma'am. You got no Ma your own? Yes Ma'am. I got a Ma. Got a Pa too. Much obliged for your asking Ma'am.
You never asked me captain. You never come right out and asked. I was scared when you found me. You thought like I belonged there and I let you.
Where do you belong? Illinois. I ran away. Worked a spell for my keep along the way till I got to Omaha. Then I got on that train.
The one you found with all them dead. Dead? I don't believe you. Anything you say goes down right hard.
It was night when we hit. I was thrown clean out of that train captain. I think I must have lit running. I never stopped till you found me. I didn't lie captain. You just took for granted.
Your Pa was a sergeant? Don't you know he was? Ordering Ma and me around. Telling us what to toad. How to plant. How to do everything just so.
He told you something else Jed. Yes sir. It's what's inside makes a man.
My Pa said that and I know it's true. You better go home boy. I mean to. Yes sir I mean to do that right away. I'm obliged captain. Most particular I want to be a cavalry trooper.
You come back and say five years Jed. When I'm eighteen? Actual? We'll be waiting for you.
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 Amerigo Marino. Featured in the cast were Jack Moyles and Harry Bartel with Jeffrey Silver, Frank Cady and Eve McVeigh.
Company tension. 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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