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.
Sergeant!
Yo!
This one's fresh killed.
And fresh skinned, sir.
How many buffalo we found this way?
We come on ten with this one.
The men are fanning out looking for more.
They wouldn't be far away if there are more.
They're right dumb, aren't they, Captain?
Buffalo must be the dumbest critters they is.
Well, couldn't call them crafty, but they're half blind.
Can't see trouble when they're heading right into it.
The Lieutenant Cybert's back from the agency yet?
Yes, sir. He brought the wagon. They're loading carcasses in it back by the wall.
They better get a move on. That meat'll cook in this heat.
Captain, you got the feeling there's something wrong?
Wrong?
Well, I've seen engines kill buffalo before, lots of them.
But I never seen them leave this much meat on them.
Maybe agency life is making them lazy, Gorse.
Maybe their bellies are too full.
Now, you don't think that, Captain?
I sure don't.
I'm going to talk to Mr. Cybert.
Oh, are all of them cut this way?
I think so. I didn't rightly study them, though.
Then study them. All of them.
Let me know what you find.
Have any trouble getting the wagon, Mr. Cybert?
Oh, no, sir. The agency didn't know we were bringing meat in.
That seem odd to you?
No, sir. I never saw an Indian agency that couldn't use food.
Neither did I.
Excuse me, sir.
All right, man, you can move the wagon. I'll pick up the rest of the carcasses.
Just a minute.
Yes, sir.
I'm going to take a look at these.
Hold it a minute.
All right, men, carry on.
Yes, sir.
A lot of waste there, sir.
Yes. Yeah, a lot of waste.
How far to the agency? About five miles?
That's right.
You went there, you got the wagon from the agent.
He said they'd be glad to get the meat.
That all he said, Mr. Cybert?
I think so, sir.
Oh, one thing he said when we first rode up.
Yes?
He asked us if we'd been engaged to battle.
Uh-huh.
Said that early this morning, you heard a lot of gunfire.
Yeah, I'll bet they did.
Captain Quake, sir?
Yes, Sergeant.
I studied them carcasses, all of them, like you said.
They're all cut the same way.
Skinned, with the hump ribs cut away?
And that's all.
The men locate any more?
No, sir, just the tent.
According to Mr. Cybert, the Indian agent claims he heard a lot of gunfire this morning.
It was a clear morning, the sound of carry all right.
You saw the wagon tracks, Captain?
Yeah, I saw them.
Tell the men to get a move on with their loading, Sergeant.
Form a detail to haul the carcasses to the agency.
Yes, sir.
We'll rendezvous at the fork of the rawhide and proceed back to Fort Laramie.
Yes, sir.
Captain Quince, what about the wagon tracks?
You see these tracks here, the fresh ones?
From the wagon that was just here.
That's right.
Now, over here.
There.
You see those?
Yes, sir.
They're not as fresh, but you can sure see them.
Our wagon wasn't over here, Captain.
And it wasn't down there where they're loading now.
Or over yonder where the last carcasses were found.
Well, that's right, sir, but...
Indians don't hunt buffalo with wagons, Mr. Cybert.
And when they kill buffalo with guns or arrows, they don't just skin them.
Cut the hump ribs free and leave the rest to rot in the prairie.
From its horns to its chips, Indians use all the buffalo.
You think white men did this, Captain?
I'm thinking white men.
And if buffalo hunters are moving up to the high plains,
we got trouble, Mr. Cybert.
That's reservation land, Captain.
That didn't make much matter to them, Major.
You seem very sure this is the work of buffalo hunters, not Indians.
If it's Indians, they'd change their whole tradition of hunting buffalo and killing them.
I tell you, these were fresh killed.
And the only meat gone was the hump ribs.
Well, that's the best meat.
Yeah, for you and me, yeah.
But the Indians eat everything in a buffalo, including...
I know, Lee, I know.
What they don't eat on the spot, they take with them, even the horns.
Always use the horns for tools, implements, don't they?
Well, always.
I still hope you're wrong, Lee.
It's a small hope, but it's there.
I'd like to be dead wrong, but I saw too much.
And the Indian agent heard too much.
The battle?
Remember Texas?
You get a clear morning, you could hear those buffalo guns roaring for miles.
Enough of them, sound like a pitch battle.
Wonder if they're still packing those old Sharps 50s.
They're awful heavy.
Gotta be. They shoot out slugs, 125 grains of powder, 600 grains of lead, sometimes more.
And the Army struggles along with 450 grain slugs.
Well, we're not killing buffalo.
No, we're not.
You know the position the Army's in as well as I do.
White men aren't allowed on reservations to hunt, to mine, to anything.
We can warn them if we see them before they move into Indian territory.
If we catch them there, we can run them off, bring them back to the guardhouse.
But we gotta see them first.
We may not see them, Major.
Until it's too late, we may not ever see them.
And then the Army will be in another position.
What other position?
Fighting a war?
Don't you go roaming off now, Goofy.
I want the wagon here so we can load it.
Awful hot just sitting here.
Well, you set, you hear?
I hear.
Hey, soldier, you hear the subtlest storm?
That's it, mister.
Much obliged.
Well, now, you got yourself some life there, ain't you?
Sharp as your eyes, soldier.
Straight blade, huh?
This and this. Got them curved, too.
They're nice.
You like curved knives better, do you?
I like what I need.
Sometimes I need a straight blade.
Sometimes I need them curved.
What kind of man's got a need for knives, straight blade or curved?
You goldenly soldier.
I'd be a fool to go to man sharpening a fine knife.
Yeah. You would.
You'd be a plain fool.
There's a fine edge coming.
Fine edge.
It's your business, cutting things?
Let me show you that curved blade, soldier.
Now, look at that.
Ain't that pretty the way it half circles?
You think it's pretty?
It fits your neck, soldier.
Right close and neat like.
Now, that's what I call pretty.
The fit of it.
Pretty enough.
Looks dull to me.
It gets dull. Cutting.
Before I cut a man's throat with it, I'd see it was razor sharp.
I will. I'll tend to that right now.
But I'll keep that straight blade handy.
In case I run into a soldier who wants to go to body.
I knew a man like you once.
He looked the same, acted the same, talked the same.
He was from Texas. This man I knew.
A lot of good men from Texas.
This man, he was a skinner.
A lot of good men to skin it.
This man, though, he got himself killed.
How is a man going to get himself killed, skin him, buffalo?
He made the mistake, this Texas man, going into Indian territory.
Went up into the Indian nation, got himself killed.
You don't know nothing about skinning.
I heard about this, man.
You're a dumb soldier. Dumb as can be.
I ain't dumb enough to skin buffalo in Indian country.
I make $50 a month in my keep.
With that, I get 50 cents a hit on every buffalo I skin.
You do it fast, mister?
The faster I do it, the more money I make.
I'd sure admire to see you at your work.
Yeah, you would.
I would. I never seen a real good skinner at work.
You ain't?
You wanted to please a body.
You could tell him how you said about your work.
You thinking about turning skinner?
Oh, I don't think I got the gift for it.
Of course, I'm a willing hand and all that.
How are you on thinking?
I'm not too good to tell the truth.
You might make a skinner at that.
The thinking part, what's done of it, that's the hunter's job.
Old Jake Cuppy there.
He's got to find the herd, do the shooting.
Jake Cuppy?
He's in the settlers. He's buying lead now and powder.
He's got a line on a big herd.
Where?
What do I care?
Big herd soldier. He'll get me there and do the killing.
All I got to do is traipse after him and skin him.
You was going to tell me how you manage that.
You see, you work with a good hunter.
That comes first.
Old Jake Cuppy, he's good.
He shoots them right in the lights.
Lights?
The lights, the lungs.
Now here I thought a good hunter'd take aim on his heart.
The heart? No.
You hit one in the heart, even square in the heart.
He's going to run all over on you before he dies.
Charging around, pawing the earth, carrying on.
No need a skinner wasting his self moving all over.
I can see that.
You hit one in the light, soldier.
He may take a step or two on you, but no more than that.
He drops right on the spot.
Know how I mean?
Skinner don't go to first one spot, then another.
He don't waste his self, I understand.
The gift you talk about.
I got it for fair.
I come on him.
At first I rip him down the belly from the throat to the tail.
With a straight blade?
More than likely, yeah, yeah.
Then I cut down each of his legs.
Go around his head, clean up to his ears.
Listen here.
I figured the curved blade there.
Now myself, I don't bother with the rest of the head.
I right away set to roll the skin back.
This is where it started.
Then I draw a rope tight on the little flap of his neck that's free, see?
Uh-huh.
And I make the other end fast to the team and I kick them up.
Then pulling that away, shucks that high right off in that animal.
And that's a sight.
I tell you, that's a sight.
I just bet it is.
50 cents.
Every time I do it.
I skin as high as 50 buffalo a day.
Now that amounts to...
Why old J. Cuppy usually does that counting up for me?
I guess you think a lot of Mr. Cuppy, huh?
What I got to think of him?
I like skinner soldier.
That's what I like.
You putting up here at Fort Laramie a spell?
Tonight anyway.
Maybe longer, what do you care?
I just want to learn all I can from you, that's all.
It's a good life.
A lot of good men are skinners.
The
Your name? J. Cuppy, mister?
How's that?
Your name? It's J. Cuppy?
You don't want to steal up on a man that is eating, Captain.
Might make him edgy.
I make you edgy, mister.
I'm getting over it.
Sit down as long as you're here.
Oh, here, I'll move my rifle aside.
You got your eye on it too.
I seen big 50s before.
I declare it opens a man's eyes,
stopping off at an army post.
First you tell me I'm welcome to put up with the enlisted men here,
and then the only ones that come poking around are officers.
That so?
How come you know about big 50s?
Lieutenant claimed he never seen one before.
Mr. Cybutts never saw a buffalo hunter before.
Well, he's seen one now.
Where do you find them?
Like here, so full of book learning.
We find all kinds, mister.
Yeah, well, you found one there.
Now, he's up on all the law in these parts.
I'm not talking about your army law now.
I'm talking territory law.
I think that's how you said it.
Something about there's a time of year you can't shoot
what Lieutenant calls wildlife.
There's a law.
About hunting?
First Territorial Assembly passed it.
It's called Wildlife Conservation.
Well, I declare.
In here, I thought the army was a shooting outfit.
It is, mister.
Now, I'm going to tell you what I told the lieutenant.
You're going to make laws out of here.
You make them about the engines.
But you leave a white man to his work. You hear?
Must be you've shot up all the herds in the South Plains.
Oh, I wouldn't take all the credit for that.
Others got their due coming.
I'm gnawing at you, Captain.
Same way you're gnawing at me.
You spoke your piece.
Now, why don't you...
You're wrong, mister.
That's another thing.
I'm almost never wrong.
There's treaty law that says you can't go into Indian territory.
That means all the land north of Fort Laramie.
I'm getting the might worried about the army.
Ain't they doing any killing no more?
We're obliged to warn you.
If you do go in, we can't protect you.
I just don't recollect asking for any protection.
You ought to come along, Captain.
His hunting's for a real sporting man.
I saw some of your slaughter the other day.
That's real sporting.
Now you hear me what I say.
I get paid on how many buffalo hides I ship.
That's fine.
Now then, folks in the East, they're developing a taste for buffalo meat.
All I gotta do is get it to the railroad.
And that's fine.
I get paid for that, too.
I'd hate to have to fight a war on your account, mister.
Maybe I'd be on your side.
I'm good at shooting.
I tell you what.
You figure a price on engine hides, engine meat.
Maybe I will be on your side, Captain.
This is Kitt Carson country, isn't it, Captain, along the Powder River?
He was up here, sure.
He went along the bottoms of the Powder.
It was black with buffalo then.
Well, the big herds are still up this way, aren't they?
The Indians think so. That's good enough for me.
And for Jake Cuppy, apparently.
You take men like Kitt Carson. Now, he was a trapper, a hunter.
But you hear good things about him. The Indians liked him.
You're not comparing Carson to Cuppy, are you, Mr. Seibert?
No, sir. I'm trying to figure out the difference.
Both seem to be after the same things.
They seem to be, maybe.
The early trappers, the hunters, the mountain men,
they learned a lot from the Indians.
Made friends with them, like you say.
But more, they came to hunt like Indians hunt.
You mean they hunted as they had need?
More that, they knew what conservation meant even then.
But if you kill more than the herd can bear young, you'll run out of quarry.
A man like Cuppy now, he likes the slaughter.
I hope we find him, Captain. I hope we find him.
In time, Mr. Seibert.
The wagon tracks we're following, Captain.
What about them?
Looks like they stopped just ahead, sir, right at that line of trees.
Patrol! Halt!
They could be in there, Captain. Cuppy and Gophie.
They could, Mr. Seibert. Come on, Gorse.
Yes, sir.
Sergeant Gorse and I are going to move flat into the trees, Mr. Seibert.
Have the patrols stand to cover us.
Yes, sir.
One shot out of those trees and you move in.
Right, Captain.
All right, Sergeant. Run crouched down to the brush.
Then we move flat in their bellies.
Yes, sir.
Let's go.
Oh, the police service has prepared the charge.
They're coming.
Them high bed wagons like Gophie had,
they move through here better than we do, Captain.
I can't see Cuppy making a camp here.
I can't see him coming in here.
Over the army's warning.
Just about to the trees, Gorse.
Now, don't straighten until we're in them.
Yes, sir.
All right, now.
They're not as thick as they look, Captain.
Well, they're ahead there, Gorse.
The wagon.
It's Gophie's wagon, all right.
Some hides here in the bed.
His team's gone.
Must be thinking to drag the hides back here.
From how far away, I wonder.
I don't know.
I'm trying to figure them, Captain.
I can see they might hide the wagon
so that we couldn't follow its tracks,
but we can track horses' hooves just as well.
Not this way, Gorse.
Hmm, grain sacks.
Why, sure.
Yeah.
You fix grain sacks to their hooves,
it muffles the sound,
leaves almost no hoof prints.
They're smarter than they act, Captain.
Are they, Gorse?
Huh?
Buffalo guns.
It's one sound they can't muffle.
Come on, Sergeant.
We've ridden five miles at least, Captain,
and no sound to guide us for the last three.
Don't need sound.
With a sign like that ahead, Mr. Cybert.
That brown haze like dust?
It is dust.
It means a big herd.
Probably been stampeded.
There's bottom land just after that rise
where a clear creek feeds into the powder.
We'll make for that.
Yes, sir.
At the gallop.
Ho!
Stroll!
Halt!
Ride out with me, Mr. Cybert.
Yes, sir.
Captain, look.
I'm looking, Mr. Cybert.
I said it was a big herd.
But it's like a massacre.
Must be a thousand buffalo.
It is a massacre.
That much killing of anything without cause,
it is a massacre.
Well, Jake Cuppey, he couldn't have shot them all.
He could shoot enough with Goefe helping.
Likely the rest were stampeded to death.
Slaughter, that's all you can call it.
I don't see how it could happen so much of it.
Buffalo don't have much eyesight.
They count on smelling signs of danger.
Cuppey's trick is to shoot from far enough away
so they can't smell him.
We better...
We better go down there, Mr. Cybert.
Cuppey, would he cause all this and then hide out, Captain?
He might.
Knowing we'd be coming after him.
Knowing he and Goefe couldn't hope to haul them all out
before we got here.
You seen any that's been skinned?
No, sir, not a one.
Captain Quince, over here.
Well, now, that explains a lot of things.
I come on their horses first, down further.
Their shot full of arrows, too.
Both of them are still warm, Captain.
They haven't been dead long.
A thousand dead buffalo.
Two dead men.
That's a lot of death.
A lot of waste.
The engines must still be around, Captain.
Yeah, they'd still be around.
Up in the hills, likely.
Those arrows, sir, they're in Cuppey and Goefe and the horses,
but not the buffalo.
The Indians weren't after buffalo, Mr. Cybert.
Come on, let's move out.
Captain, we'll have to fight the Indians for this?
Not today.
Not this patrol.
But this isn't the last of the buffalo hunters.
More will come all the time, and we'll fight wars over it.
We've got to just leave things this way?
The sooner we go, Mr. Cybert, the sooner the Indians will move down
and get the meat and the hides.
Sometimes all a man can do is turn, walk away.
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 Amarico Marino.
Featured in the cast were James Nusser and Barney Phillips.
The script was written by the director,
Jack Moyles as Major Daggett, and Harry Bartell as Lieutenant Cybert.
Company, attention!
Dismissed.
Next week, another transcribed story of the Northwest Frontier
and the troopers who fought under Lee Quince, Captain of Cavalry.
Have you a youngster of school age?
Right now for the new fall term,
the
parents and citizens will discover that the enrollment in their community schools has increased tremendously.
That means an acute shortage of teachers, school rooms, and supplies.
Help your youngsters and others in your community
by joining up with your local civic and educational groups.
Act now to correct the great shortage of teachers and equipment.
CBS Radio urges you to help make your community schools fit for your community's youngsters.
Oops.