The border is behind us.But if you should try to make a run for it, I'd have to shoot to kill.Have Gun, Will Travel.
San Francisco, 1875.The Carlton Hotel, headquarters of a man called Paladin.
Miss Wong.Yes, sir, Mr. Paladin.Miss Wong. I'm leaving for Texas this afternoon, and before I go, I must check over these accounts.Now, cleaning the room seems to be an unusually noisy operation this morning.
Oh!So sorry, Mr. Paladin.
Ah, let's see.Fourteen... Miss Wong?
It has been my observation that when a lady starts banging things around, she's usually brooding over some slight that generally has to do with some man.Is, um, is that the reason for all of this?
Oh, no, sir, Mr. Paladin, no.
Oh, come in, eh, boy?Yes, sir.
Mr. Paladin, you will excuse me, please? I will come back by and by and clean the room.
Oh, seems to be a little coolness in the air, hey boy?
Oh, me, Sir Wong, very angry with hey boy.
Oh, Mr. Paladin, hey boy has come to a most painful conclusion.What's that?Hey boy does not understand women.
Well, that takes a bit of doing.
Yes, sir. It's a most delicate matter for discussion, but, uh, Mr. Paladin, perhaps you will give He-Boy profound advice from your great wisdom concerning ladies?
That'll take a little more time than I can spare right now, He-Boy.I have business in El Paso, Texas.I'm leaving this afternoon.
Maybe when you come back?
All right.When I get back, we'll have a little man-to-man talk.
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A trip to southwest Texas always meant an opportunity for a visit with my old friend Captain Sam Jeffers of the Texas Rangers.
So when I finished my business in El Paso, I took the trail to Company D post, located a few miles east on the Mexican border.This was one of the toughest sections in the country where the lawmen had to deal with a ragtag of two nations.
In spite of the seriousness of their work, I'd always found the post pretty casual.And it was a surprise when I came in the gate to find the place under full guard.I rode on through to Heffer's office.
Come in.Paladin!Hello, Sam. Glad to see you.How are you, Sam?You been hiring out your gun and good intentions to folks down Texas, were you?Yeah, I had a little business in El Paso.I'm mighty glad to see you.
Sit down a minute while I get this stuff put away, then we're going down to my quarters and have a drink.Thank you.Look.Look at this.Paperwork.Yeah.Believe me, a ranger's job's getting pretty complicated in this man's country.
Like the old days, ain't it, Sam?I notice you have your men playing soldier out there.
Oh, that's not for show-off, pal, and I got the men on 24-hour guard. Company D's got a bull by the tail.How's that?Know who we got in our jail?The Garcia brothers.The Garcias, the Mexican bandits?
Dirtiest, rottenest, thievenest, murderinest parrot ever drew breath.Took us two years to catch him.Now we gotta worry about how we gonna keep him.Trouble.
Folks over there at Juarez pretty put out that those two polecats should suffer the indignities of being locked up.Word's got to us they're planning a raid on the jail.Oh?What, do they stand a chance?
Well, Jesse Garcia's immediate male relatives, and every last one of them's a cutthroat.Boy, they won't get away with it, but we're in for some fireworks.Well, I wish I could help.I wish you could, too, paladin.I could use you.
But I'm afraid this has to be a ranger's job.I guess that's it.Let's go get that drink.
Hey, Wade.You going over Fort Gelman way?
Come to think of it, You sure could give me a hand if you'd be willing.Of course, what is it?Our border patrol picked up a fugitive trying to make it across the line.One in Baltimore for murder.Gonna be another week or so before the U.S.
Marshal can get out here to pick the prisoner up.Uh-huh.You know, and to hold the prisoner over at Fort Gilman, well, that's a two-day ride, and I just can't spare a man right now.
You want me to deliver the prisoner, is that it?
I guess it's a little irregular.All the rules we work under now, but... It would help me out of a tight spot.Sure, Sam.I'd be glad to.Good.Come in.
Guerrilla outfits.We spotted them.
Along the border.Looks like they're getting ready to strike.
Yeah, here we go.Billy, alert the men.
Paladin, this is gonna set Texas hospitality back some, but I'm afraid we're gonna have to forget that drink, and I'm gonna have to send you on your way.Now, I know I gotta get that prisoner to Fort Gilman.
Oh, I understand, Sam. What kind of a man is he?Do you figure he'll give me any trouble?
Well, you see, Palin, it ain't a man, it's a woman.A woman?Might a handsome one, too.Seems a pity.I'll have to see how things are moving out there.Look in the top drawer of the desk there.You'll find the papers on the prisoner.
Look him over if you want to.All right, sir.Top drawer.
Magda... Magda Salvar.Maggie.Small world.
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The name on the papers was Magda Salvar, and the memories it stirred went back several years.I figured I didn't have time to dwell on them or on this strange and uncomfortable coincidence.I'd offered to do a job for Sam Jeffers, and that was that.
When he gave me my final instructions, I didn't tell him that the prisoner he was entrusting to me was a woman I had known quite well some years ago in San Francisco.He had his problems, and it looked like I had mine.
The horses were ready and waiting at the gate. As I walked toward them, I watched Magna Salvar, sitting proud and erect in the saddle.She was as beautiful as ever.
You see, darling, I don't fall for my horse with astonishment.I am prepared for you.The good captain was so nice to explain that a gentleman named Paladin was to be my escort.
Nothing surprises me anymore.
I want you to know, Magda, I offered to do this for Captain Jeffers before I read your name on the papers.
What did you think, darling, when you read Magda Salva?Did you say to yourself, oh, fate makes such strange jokes?
How these things happen, I guess I don't question any longer.Well, we better get started.You ride ahead.
No shackles?No handcuffs or chains?
No need. There's nothing but miles of desert in every direction.If you should try to make a run for it, I'd have to call for you to halt.And if you kept going, Maggie, I'd have to shoot to kill.
I see.Darling, I believe you're serious.
Don't try me.Come on, let's go.More coffee?
Yes. Thank you.Oh, I'm tired.
That was a rough ride.I'm sorry, Maggie.I was driving too hard.I don't know what I was trying to prove.
You were acting like a schoolboy, but I understood.
Of course, darling.All of a sudden, you were remembering a long time ago, and how shall we say it?You looked around for Magda.Magda was not there.
Hmm.I guess you're right.I was quite a blow to my male ego.Of course it was.
But really, you should be grateful to me.I did you a service to go away from you.Well now, if you have finished with your coffee, I'll wash up the pans.
Yeah, I better gather up some more firewood.
You keep looking out that way.What do you expect to see?
This close to the border, it pays to keep watch.Some of the Mexicans who live on the line get drunk on mezcal and wander over this way looking for trouble.They'd knife us for the horses.
How did you say, darling, this close to the border?
There's a long walk that way, but don't get any ideas.
I know.You would have to call for me to halt, and if I kept going, you would have to shoot, to kill.Why?
Because I told Captain Jeffers I'd see that you got to Fort Gilman.
Oh, darling, you... Always with your childish loyalties and rules to live by.If I can get across the border, there is someone who... Well, I will be taken care of.I can make a new start.
Maggie.Maggie, I'm going to see that you get to Fort Gilman.Then my job is done.After that, if you want, I'll buy you the best lawyers you can find in the country to help you get a new start.
They will have to be awfully good, those lawyers, because I am guilty.
Yes, I killed a man.His name was Stephen, and he was rotten, and he deserved killing.
But, darling, they will hang me, and I don't want to hang for killing Stephen.He was bad.Maggie, you... Just let me take one of the horses while you look the other way.You can explain somehow.
Why not? It won't matter to anyone, except that Magda will have a chance to live.
So I give up.Let's say I make a good try, huh, darling?
Yes, let's leave it at that.Wait a minute.Listen.The horses, there's somebody out there.
Thank you for the horses, Seger.Oh, no, do not drop your gun.
This knife is at your throat.You see?
No, no, you... Maggie, the rifle.
By the saddlebag.The rifle, Maggie.
Paladin.He hurt you with that knife, didn't he?Is it very bad?
I'm afraid it is, Maggie.Mexican.
Good girl, yes.Oh, they won't hang me for killing him.He was just a poor, drunk Mexican.
Did they get away with our horses?Yes.Oh, Maggie.I can't seem to move.I guess you'll have to help me.
Paladin, I don't like what I must do, but I want another chance, and I'm going to take it.
What are you talking about, Maggie?
I decided I'm going for a long walk to the border.
I'm so very sorry, darling.But you understand how it is with Magda?Of course you do.
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The night was long and full of pain. And I learned that it was better not to try to move, but just to lie still in the warm, sticky puddle, and not think.That was the most important thing, not to think.
With the daylight, it wasn't so lonely, and there was the dead Mexican lying not far from me.And the birds, the three birds that kept circling overhead.And of course, when the sun came up, and the insects, the thousands of insects.
Only by this time, it didn't matter. Nothing seemed to matter.I just knew that I was awfully tired.
Well, look who's here.Why'd you come back?
Well, maybe out there somewhere between here and the border, I said to myself, Magda, could it be that Paladin's way is right?Could it be that there are rules to live by?Maybe I said that to myself.
You see, always I have made my own rules.
Sometimes you have to.I've just made one. The throat, as pretty as yours, must not have a rope around it.
We won't talk about that now.
Maggie, that Mexican's knife was as poisonous as a rattlesnake to me. Fever's catching up with me.I've got to talk while I can make some kind of sense.
No, no, no.First I must build a fire to have hot water to wash your wound.
No, no, wait.When Jeffers finds out we didn't make Fort Gilman, he'll send out a search party now.Listen to me, Maggie.Don't let them find you here.Take that long walk to the border. Give yourself that new start.
Paladin, when the time comes, we will work out things for Magda.But right now, we must take care of you.
Don't worry, darling.Things always work out for Magda.You know that.
Well, look who's finally got his eyes open.Looks like he's ready to join the fun again.
I guess this is where I say, where am I?You're in Company D's infirmary, and you've been here for three weeks.Mighty sick man.I don't seem to remember.No, you were unconscious when we brought you in.
I tell you, when we found you stretched out there at that water hole, I thought you were a goner.Yeah?Didn't help, Annie, knowing that you got in that fix doing a favor for me.
Say, how'd you make out with the Garcia brothers?
We, uh, we don't talk about that around the post.You mean you... Yeah.Humiliating, ain't it?Now just supposing Company D had lost that woman prisoner, too.
You mean you didn't?Why, no.She was there when you found me?
Sure.Let me tell you, paladin, it was that little woman saved your life.Taking care of you the way she did out there.Mighty fine little woman.Seems a shame.Sam, what about her?Where is she? Now, look, pal, you just lie back here, take it easy.
You're a sick man.We brought her on back here.Where is she now?The U.S.Marshal showed up and we released her to him.Marshal Green, it was.Nice fella.Fine-looking young man.
Fine-looking young man, huh?And he and Maggie, uh, that is the fugitives, started back to Baltimore?No.Uh-huh.Well, have you been notified that they arrived there?
No, I haven't heard, but I figured they got her locked up by this time.Wanna bet?Oh, this miserable cold.
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Have gun, will travel. created by Herb Meadow and Sam Roth, is produced and directed in Hollywood by Frank Parris, and stars John Daner as Paladin, with Ben Wright as Hayboy and Virginia Gregg as Miss Wong.
Tonight's story was specially written for Have Gun, Will Travel by Anne Dowd.Featured in the cast were Harry Bartell, Don Diamond, and Lillian Biaffe.
This is Hugh Douglas, inviting you to join us again next week when CBS Radio presents Have Gun, Will Travel.
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