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.
You hear anything now, Gorse?
A lot of little sounds, but not the moaning.
Might be he's dead, Captain.
Might be.
This is where his horse came out, this clearing.
He shouldn't be much further in, dead or not.
You a hand to see in the dark, are you?
Not much, no.
I can always light this lantern, you know.
You want to be seen, do you?
Well, if he's dead, he won't see no lantern.
If he isn't?
I still can't see in the...
How's your hearing in the dark?
I heard that all right.
Just a head, Gorse.
You can light your lantern now.
Hold it closer.
Toward his face.
He looks kind of young, Captain.
Kind of wild, too.
He's full of pain and scared.
Do you speak the tongue of a white man?
I speak.
Our camp is back by the river.
We'll carry you there.
You... you kill?
No.
Got a canteen, Gorse?
Yes, Captain.
You mind the lantern?
No.
Can you lift your head up to it?
No, no, no drink.
What's the matter with you?
You shot up for fair.
You must be burning inside.
You drink some of it, Gorse.
Oh, yes.
You see, Inchon, good water.
Now you drink.
No, no drink.
Looks like his right leg, Gorse.
What kind of show I got to put on to make him drink?
Drink some more.
Captain, I swill down three cups of coffee
before he come riding through the camp.
I got another...
Another swallow or two and I'll go ahead.
Well...
Now then, Inchon, you got to make up your mind.
Either it's good water or I got a taste for drinking poison.
Now which will it be?
Oh, man, you drink?
I'm not thirsty.
If you drink, take it.
If you don't, leave it be.
Drink.
You born contrary or you just come along that way?
Good water. Good.
Did not tell you?
What's your name?
Charlie.
Charlie?
Fine.
Charlie, you got one good leg, Will.
I'll help you up on it, Gorse.
What kind of Inchon name is Charlie?
Good American name, Charlie.
You can't argue that with him, Gorse.
Charlie?
Let me make camp from here.
He's sleeping, Captain.
He's bound to. He lost a lot of blood.
Would you watch him eat?
He'll gain back his strength in no time.
Did he do any talking?
Mostly he ate and smiled.
He asked everyone to call him Charlie.
Good American name, Charlie.
What do you think about him, Captain?
There's not much to think about him, Mr. Sabrets.
Takes pain well, he smiles, he eats a lot.
The way he rode right up to our camp alone,
rode right past the pickets without any fear at all, apparently.
And got shot for his trouble.
Yes, wouldn't you think you'd expect that, Captain?
I'd expect it. You would.
Maybe Charlie's different.
Tinkham and Priebus, they both swear he made no move to fire back,
just rode like the devil for the woods.
You redoubled the pickets, Mr. Sabrets?
Yes, sir, I did.
I guess you think maybe Charlie wasn't alone?
I told you, there's not much to think about Charlie right now.
If he wanted more than food and a good drink of water, he hasn't said.
I can't take the chance he's alone.
The tourniquet stopped the bleeding.
Then maybe we'll know more about Charlie tomorrow.
Are you going to cut the bullet out tomorrow, Captain?
I'm going to cut at least three of them out.
Three, Captain?
But Tinkham and Priebus said...
Charlie was wounded before he got here, Mr. Sabrets.
You come ask questions, Captain?
How do you feel this morning, Charlie?
I feel fine. Leg feel bad.
Yeah, I'll bet it does.
All right, if I look at it?
You look.
Charlie, do you drink whiskey?
Whiskey?
Know what it is?
Like water?
Like fire water.
Whiskey like fire water?
Just like it.
You drink fire water?
Burn. From mouth all down to belly.
Make cough, make sick, make bad head.
That's it.
I like.
You got three, maybe four bullets in that leg.
If I don't cut them out, you'll die, Charlie.
If I do, it'll hurt. Bad.
You want whiskey for the hurt, you can have it.
Leg very bad.
That is.
Here's the water you asked for, Captain.
Brought it right from the fire.
Thanks, Gorse.
You're going to bind him fast, and you want me to hold him.
And that's up to Charlie.
You'll bring whiskey.
Now, where am I going to get whiskey?
Leg very bad.
Over there, Gorse, in my bedroll.
Yes, sir.
I suppose I got to take a couple of gulps before you figure it's safe to drink, can't you?
You got bad leg?
Only bad thing I got's my temper.
Give Charlie whiskey.
Charlie takes for pain.
One thing, he ain't no dummy.
Go on, Charlie, drink it down.
Let me know when the leg doesn't hurt anymore.
White Captain, good friend, bring Charlie whiskey.
Mark the day, Charlie.
It's the last whiskey you'll get from this white man.
I'll need more boiling water, Gorse.
The Mass Sergeant's got another pot going.
Very good to have leg very bad.
Never mind the talk, just drink.
He sure ain't going to need no setting on, Captain.
Lapping it down at that rate, he'll be helpless inside of five minutes.
I'm counting on that, Gorse.
Let's go outside and leave him be.
I sure never seen the like of him.
He's not cut on any pattern I know of either.
That leg's bad, just overnight.
It's real bad.
Did he say who shot him before we did?
There's a long list of things he's not said.
Time for talk will come later.
That's a quarter whiskey, Captain.
Oh!
It was a quarter whiskey, Gorse.
Well, you ready for surgery?
You got a mind for it, sir?
I got a mind, but not much stomach for it.
Let's get it over with, Gorse.
The runner's still around, Mr. Sabitz?
Yes, sir. He's having something to eat, Captain.
When he's through that, he gets his rest.
He was asking about a fresh horse, sir.
He won't need one.
There's no reply to this message.
By the time he's ready to move again,
both him and his horse will be rested.
Do we have new orders, sir?
Major Daggett will be here tomorrow
with a platoon from G Company.
We're to wait for the rendezvous.
Major Daggett, yes, sir.
Well, the message says to keep Pete Hazen here
till the Major arrives.
Yes, and I'd do that if I'd laid an eye
on Pete in a month.
I thought he was scouting up in the Bighorn country.
At last I heard he was.
I guess the Major's counting on reports from that area.
Maybe we'll be moving up that way.
Are they talking about Charlie, Captain?
We're not going to find out sitting in a tent,
Mr. Sabitz.
That crazy fool.
Sergeant!
Yes, sir.
Well, it happened too quick, Captain.
I couldn't stop him.
The man can't walk yet.
How could it happen too quick?
First I saw him, he'd crawled most down to the creek.
His horse was tethered down there with the others,
and you saw the rest of him.
He just propelled himself up on that horse.
And from the off side, the right side.
Indians don't know any better.
Neither do their horses.
They always mount on the right side.
You want me to go after him, Captain?
No need.
He's coming back.
I swear, Captain, he's putting on a show for us.
Yeah, they ride all over a horse.
On his neck, his sides, under his belly.
Either of you feel like much of a horseman now?
With one bad leg.
You don't think he got hold of another jug of whiskey, sir?
I'll break the man who gave it to him if he did.
Captain, I guess he's played himself out.
Charlie Goodrider, yes?
Charlie, stupid fool.
Leg very bad.
White Captain, sorry, leg very bad.
Your leg's a sieve, but it's your leg.
You can break it off and throw it away if you're of a mind.
Leg very bad, good friend.
Bring Charlie whiskey.
I told you, Charlie, that's the last whiskey you'd get from me.
Charlie Ride Very Good.
Charlie Show White Man, Indian trick.
Uh-uh, no whiskey.
No whiskey.
You, other man, you have whiskey.
Not me, Charlie.
Yeah, and don't look at me with your sore leg.
I'll give you nothing.
Poor Charlie, hurt very bad.
Slide off that pony, I want to talk to you.
Oh, leg so bad.
Get off.
Mind his horse, Sergeant.
Yes, sir.
Mr. Cybert, see the camps made ready for Major Daggett's arrival?
Yes, sir.
You were kicking that bad leg around real free.
Can you bear weight on it as far as my tent?
Whiskey and tent?
You want two bad legs?
Charlie, walk.
Here, I'll help you.
Then, uh, let me see that leg.
Charlie do bad thing to Ride?
It should have killed you.
But you're such a contrary cuss.
It looks fine, Charlie.
It's got no right to, but your leg looks fine.
Oh.
Charlie, who shot you before we did?
White settler. He shoot two, three times.
Why?
Oh, Charlie tries to steal horses.
You ought to be shot for that.
You ever lived on a reservation?
One time, short time.
Charlie not like reservation.
Nothing can do.
Charlie like steal horses.
You steal horses all alone, do you?
Sometime alone, sometime with Cheyenne brave.
Charlie find horses, tell others.
They come, we steal.
That makes you a Cheyenne scout then.
Charlie like steal horses.
Also hunt.
You're not Cheyenne, Charlie.
What Captain Kentel, Charlie not Cheyenne?
You look more like a crow to me.
Yes, crow.
Charlie little bear, all blood crow.
Sue, Cheyenne, Rappahoe, all drive crow people from land of father, from big horn.
Charlie like big horn, Charlie live there.
Even with Cheyenne.
There's no Cheyenne reservation in the big horn?
No reservation.
Just Cheyenne brave and Charlie.
Like steal horses, hunt.
You like to kill white men?
Charlie not kill white man.
Not ever kill white man.
Charlie friend.
Got name from white man.
What white man?
Many years, many years when Charlie live with own people, white man come.
For hunt, furs, teach Charlie speak tongue of white man.
Then he die.
Charlie take name of friend.
You let Charlie go back big horn, hunt, steal horses.
If you stole horses, you broke the law.
You put Charlie reservation?
I might.
I might put you in jail too.
I might do almost anything with you Charlie.
Except give you whiskey.
Music
Now the last word we had from Hazen the big horn was as peaceful as Sunday church.
Now all through these valleys here, settlers are complaining of increasing Indian raids.
For horses Major?
For horses until the last few days.
Runners are reporting a band of marauding Cheyenne.
Burning, massacring as they go.
Through here you say, along stinking water?
That's the Shoshone river Captain.
The Indians call it stinking water.
Well we're going there, doesn't much matter what the Indians call it.
Might matter Major.
How's that?
We can't wait for Pete Hazen.
If there's a Cheyenne camp in the big horn, we'll need a scout to find it.
That's right.
Charlie Little Bear is an Indian.
He can't pick a trail to the Shoshone river, but he'll sure know one to stinking water.
From what you said this must be his band of Cheyenne who's responsible for the killing along the stinking water.
He's not about to lead you against his friends.
Charlie's a crow.
I've never heard a crow boast about his scalps.
You're saying then that you trust Charlie?
I'm counting on him being a crow, that's all Major.
The Shoshone River
Just look at that Charlie Little Bear Captain.
Smiling, riding easy.
Think he was out on a happy hunting party.
I'm looking at him.
You call him a scout?
I could have got us this far by myself.
You know where the Cheyenne camp is Gorse?
No sir.
Well I don't either, but Charlie does.
I'm hoping he'll lead us there.
Just cause you fixed his leg Captain?
Just because Charlie doesn't like killing Sergeant.
Charlie.
Yes Captain.
You saw the last two ranches Charlie.
Fired, burned to the ground, stock run off.
I saw no killing.
No body of white man like you said Captain.
This is your country though Charlie.
This is the work of your Cheyenne friends isn't it?
Charlie see many Indian sign.
Yes Cheyenne.
But no killing.
There's another ranch ahead Charlie.
Now how's your leg holding up?
Oh good.
White Captain fixed leg very good.
Charlie not forget.
Patrol, halt.
Dismount, search the premises.
Dismount.
Sergeant report anything you can find to me.
Anything.
Yes sir.
Blood here Captain.
Dry blood marked the ground.
A trail of it leads up to the cabin or what's left of it anyway.
And many pony, Cheyenne pony.
You been here before Charlie?
Yes sir.
Old man live here not many horses.
Charlie like steel many horses.
Was that the old man or can you tell?
Hard to tell about the old man.
Hard to tell about old man.
Too much had gone.
We can't do much for him now but bury him.
He was old man like white friend who gave Charlie name.
Charlie friend die in peace.
Captain Quince, out here sir.
Find something Gorse?
Yes.
This bundle of stuff on the far side of the cabin.
Funny collection Captain.
Relics.
Four arrows.
This thing Gorse made of skin and buffalo hair.
Two arrow for hunting, two for war.
This marking the hat of skin and hair this all sacred to Cheyenne.
There's an old man dead inside the cabin Sergeant.
Fall in a burial detail.
Yes sir.
You sing death song for old man Captain?
We'll just bury him Charlie.
And hope he's found his peace.
This day is old.
Son dies too.
Yeah.
We'll be making camp soon.
Charlie not like killing.
With tomorrow's son.
Charlie lead you to Cheyenne camp.
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 Lawrence Dobkin as Charlie,
Jack Moyles as Major Daggett and Harry Bartell as Lieutenant Syberts.
Company attention.
Dismiss.
Next week another transcribed story of the Northwest Frontier
and the troopers who fought under Lee Quince, Captain of Cavalry.
With the Far East as a backdrop and with intrepid correspondent O'Hara
right in the foreground, you're sure to have an exciting adventure
every Monday night right here at the Star's Address.
If you like your mystery on the fast moving side,
be sure you're listening to CBS Radio each Monday evening
when another thrill packed episode of O'Hara comes your way
on most of these same stations.
Music.