10x03 - Salute to Yesterday

Episode transcripts for the TV show "Bonanza". Aired: September 12, 1959 - January 16, 1973.*
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Set during and after the Civil w*r, "Bonanza" is the story of Ben and his 3 sons on the family's thousand-acre spread, known as the Ponderosa, near Virginia City.
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10x03 - Salute to Yesterday

Post by bunniefuu »

- Come on, will you, big brother?
- I'll be with you in just a minute.

- Hoss, the fire's still smoking here.
- Oh.

[HISSING]

Come on, don't take
root there. Just put it out.

Hold your horses,
little brother.

That's a McClellan
saddle, cavalry.

Somebody's in trouble.

Over here.

- [GROANING]
- Easy.

Easy, trooper. Easy.
Let me look at that wound.

Captain Harris
sent me to get help.

- Easy. Easy.
- Gotta help him.

- Gotta...
- Easy. Easy.

- [GASPS]
- Hold on.

He has a b*llet in his chest.
I'm surprised he got this far.

Candy, I got some medicine and
bandages here in my saddle bag.

No, Hoss, it's too late.

What we need now is
a bugler... to blow taps.

Pa.

There's the tracks
again, the blood spots.

Maybe we've found
Captain Harris.

[g*nshots]

[g*nshots CONTINUING]

Get up!

[g*nshots STOP]

- Ha!
- Move, move!

[g*nshots CONTINUING]

[g*nshots CONTINUING]

[SHOUTS] Don't fire without a
target. Save your amm*nit*on.

SOLDIER: Well!

Well!

If it ain't Sergeant
Canady's boy, all growed-up.

Ordy, the ordinance man.
Haven't you blowed yourself up yet?

That's what I always liked about
you, always a kindly greeting.

- Where you been, boy?
- Oh, riding, looking around.

I'll take him.

[g*nshots STOP]

- Woo-hoo!
- Get down! Get down, both of you.

Green kids. That's the kind of
horse soldiers we get these days.

They think we won this fight.

- We've all gotta learn.
- Yeah, but it takes time.

My guess is these kids
ain't gonna live that long.

You take cover, Mrs. Harris.

I'm glad you happened by when
you did. We need help badly.

[g*nsh*t]

Yeah, we sure do.

They're in cover, Captain.

They'll be coming at us again.

- Real soon.
- That's right, Candy.

It give me quite a
shock when I seen you.

You'd better brace yourself. You're
gonna have a few shocks yourself.

I gotta take care of the horses.
It'll be a while for the charges...

That's right, Sergeant.
This is Mr. Cartwright.

That's Mr. Canady,
Candy for short.

Canady?

Yeah, known him since he was no
bigger than my thumb. I helped raise him.

You and every other
non-com on the row.

His father used to be first
sergeant in B troop, my old outfit.

He was k*lled on patrol.

Mr. Canady, my thanks
for giving us a hand.

Sure.

Sergeant, I want a man
posted here at all times,

one on the trail where we
came in, and one on the lakeside.

That slope's almost vertical,
but they might try it anyway.

And Mr. Cartwright,
I'm short of men.

I'm gonna have to use you
and your people, if I may.

Sure.

Captain, those fellas down there
were riding after you pretty hard.

- What are they after?
- Gold.

Army gold. That
ambulance is a pay wagon.

You're right, but I'm gonna
have to ask you how you knew.

Well, like the sergeant
said, I'm an army brat.

- I grew up at Fort Despair.
- Fort what?

Fort Delaney. The men
there called it Fort Despair,

and a lot of other things.

Trouble was that the
army owned the forts,

and the outlaws owned
the trails in between them.

Colonel Spit-and-Polish
John Purcell had an idea

to use an ambulance as a
pay wagon to move payroll gold.

Worked fine for a while,
until the word got out.

Captain, the army would be better
off if they used a real pay wagon now.

The outlaws would probably
think it was an ambulance.

- Guard posts are manned, sir.
- Very good.

Something I ain't had a
chance to tell you, Candy.

Angel Montana's bossing
that bunch out there.

Yeah, I saw him when
he was sh**ting at me.

You know him?

Yeah, I know him, too.
We were kids together.

He was one of the blanket Indians
that hung around the fort gate.

- Half-Mexican, half-Apache.
- And all bad.

Jim, Trooper Perkins is badly
wounded. He's in great pain.

- I've done everything I can...
- I know you have, Ann.

He's only a boy. He's terribly
frightened. If you could talk to him.

Candy?

You know her?

Yeah.

She was my wife.

Go up there and draw
their attention from the back.

- We will att*ck from the front.
- Sí, patrón.

Andale!

[GASPING]

[GENTLY] Perkins?

You did a fine job, son.

We're gonna get you back to the
post hospital and you'll be just fine.

- You did a fine job, son.
- Thanks, Captain.

The rollcall gets shorter.

The party's now down to four
able-bodied men and my wife.

- And four of us.
- Yeah.

What's their strength?

About 18, at last count.

- But Trooper O'Brien rode out at dawn...
- Captain.

I didn't have a chance to tell you,
but we, uh... we found Trooper O'Brien.

The last thing he was able to say
was that Captain Harris needed help.

Look, as a favor to me, I'd
like my wife to go on thinking

- that O'Brien got through all right.
- Of course.

ANN: Jim!

- It's sh*t full of holes!
- I didn't see it in time!

I know, honey, you were
taking care of Perkins. Cut it!

There's about a quart left.

Jim!

He was alone.

My thanks again, Mr. Canady.

Seems that we're more
than ever in your debt.

Forget it.

I don't think they'll
try that again.

[SIGHS]

Just thinking of all that water I
wasted on those dead ashes.

Yes. Think we could use a
couple of buckets of that lake.

- [KNOCKS HOLLOW]
- Half-full.

Hm. That's great.

That means we got a little less than
six quarts left, for us and the animals,

and they got a stream within
easy reach of where they're dug in.

Captain, what about amm*nit*on?

Well, my people have between
40 and 50 rounds per man.

- How about yours?
- Well, I guess, about the same.

[SIGHS] I suppose we
should pass the word around

that nobody's to sh**t at
anything unless they can't miss.

- Yeah.
- We'll be here a long time.

SOLDIER: Captain
Harris! Sergeant Ordy!

All right, we see
your white flag.

What do you want?

I want to talk to Canady.

Candy, this is your old
friend, your old amigo, Angel.

Angel Montana.

Come on out and talk to me.

Angelito, my old friend.

Here I am. Speak your piece.

Candy, you're on the wrong side!

- You should be down here with us.
- I like it where I am.

ANGEL: [LAUGHS] You joke, amigo.

After what the army did to you,
you could not want to help the army.

Give it up, Angel. Ride
away while you still can.

Why you want to die to
protect gold that is not yours?

Come with me. I will
give you a double share.

Not interested.

I will give you back the
woman they stole from you.

Come on. And then we
spend the gold in Mexico City.

For the last time,
I'm not interested.

Somebody must have
kicked you in the head.

You are not smart anymore.

[g*nshots FIRED]

Angelito!

I had him in my sights
three or four minutes.

- You're good to have around.
- ANGEL: Now, you will all die.

And the woman, she
will die a hundred times.

[g*nsh*t]

Winged him! I sure did.

Kelly, down! Get down!

I tell 'em and I tell 'em,
but they never listen.

Candy's pure army brat. Grew
up in the forts of the south west.

- Didn't know that, huh?
- Uh-uh. No. He never told us.

His mother d*ed
when he was four.

Heat, dust, frontier lonesomes.
Happened pretty often on non-com row.

He knew the manual of
arms when he was seven.

When he was nine,
his pa was k*lled.

No folks, no place to go.

Lot of us had a hand in raising
him, if you want to call it that.

Mostly, he grew up by himself.

He was riding scout
at the age of 17.

[CANDY SIGHS DEEPLY]

Do you mind if I join you?

- There's one thing that hasn't changed.
- What?

Army iron rations.

Make a Billy goat go hunting
for a nice tender tin can.

How's your father?

About the same.

I've only seen him once since...

- since I saw you last.
- Right.

He was in Washington about a
year ago. His hair is snow white.

He's got a few more lines in his
face, but otherwise, he hasn't changed.

He wouldn't know how.
Colonel Spit-and-Polish.

Wondering about her, huh?

Yeah, I reckon I was.

Another army brat.

Her pa served with Candy's
pa, both of them non-coms.

When the w*r come,

he got a b*ttlefield commission
and ended up as a colonel.

They grew up together,
fought and made up.

Then one day, he come back from patrol
after a running fight with the Apache.

Four survivors, seven bodies
stretched across the saddles.

Doing a man's work,
he figured he was a man.

So, he took Ann into
town and married her.

When, they got back to the fort
he marched in and told the colonel.

Two hours later, he
was riding out on a patrol.

I might as well say it. That's
one man I've learned to hate.

So did I.

Oh, he only did what
he thought was best.

- For both of us.
- You can believe that, Ann. I don't.

I was gonna k*ll him
when I got back to the fort.

I'm still not sure why I didn't.

Because you couldn't.

You know, you've changed.

You're a lot prettier
than you were.

[FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING]

ANN: Why didn't you write?

Because I didn't know where you
were. "Back east." That's all he told me.

You were back east, and
the marriage was annulled.

He promised me he'd
see you got all my letters.

When he was in Washington. He
said you rode off and left no address.

He's a liar!

Jim.

- Uh... My husband, Captain Harris.
- We met.

Mr. Canady, my wife
told me all about you.

We were just talking
about you, too, Captain.

Oh?

Ann, you know, it isn't safe for you to
be wandering around up here at night.

- You might silhouette yourself...
- Jim.

You forget I was born out here.

I knew that before I was five.

"Stay below the crest." The first
thing you learn out here, isn't it, Candy?

Yes, just about.

You're right, Ann, I did forget.

[ANN SIGHS]

That wasn't nice. He's
been very good to me.

And he's an officer and a gentleman,
just what the colonel wanted.

- Stop that!
- All right.

He was what I thought I wanted.

I thought I was never gonna see
you again. Don't you understand?

I had learned to live with that.

I told myself you were dead.

Why did you have to come
back now, when it's too late?

- It's not too late. It isn't, Ann.
- Yes, it is.

Ann, any other
time, any other place,

I'd just walk up and we'd
say hello and go by politely.

Then I'd just walk away and
maybe come back, stand and look.

Here there's no time to
look. You're my wife, Ann.

- No.
- You're my wife!

I don't care what it says in some
book some place. You're my wife.

Candy.

She is a married woman.

She was my wife, Mr. Cartwright,
and I sure didn't annul that marriage.

- Anything?
- It's all quiet now.

There was some movement
down there a few minutes ago.

- Let's hope they stay down there.
- Yeah.

At least we got the
moonlight on our side.

But they gotta know
we're running out of water.

Well, that's tomorrow's problem.

I'll be back in an hour. If you see
Candy, tell him I'm looking for him.

I been trying to figure
what I'd do in Candy's place,

and I don't come
up with no answers.

Neither do I.

You figuring on using that?

- It's the least we can do for Kelly.
- Yeah, right.

We won't be telling Montana's bunch
anything they don't already know.

You seen Candy?

His bedroll, but he ain't in it.

Captain and his missus
was by a few minutes ago.

He was asking about him, too.
Maybe you'd better search the area.

I already did.

Gone, huh? Saving his hide.

I don't know that I blame him.

You believe what you want, but don't
say that again, not where I can hear it.

Jim, I don't believe it.
Candy wouldn't just leave.

Look, Annie, you've got to believe it. I
don't know how or why, but he's gone.

We've searched everywhere.

Honey, you'd better
get some sleep.

I will, Jim.

Presently.


[BUGLE PLAYING TAPS]

[BUGLE RINGING OUT]

[DISTANT BUGLE]

What is the matter, Rojo?

That bugle. Why do
they play that, huh?

For the dead.

If you want to think
about something,

think about the four little fat kegs
of gold that Rio saw yesterday.

Four little fat kegs of gold
that we will have tomorrow.

[RUSTLING]

[CLATTER]

It's warm, but it's wet.

You went down into
their camp. How?

Angelito was a friend of
mine once, remember?

He taught me how,
a long time ago.

- Did you see him?
- He almost stepped on me!

But he didn't see me.

For the first time, I'm beginning
to believe we might get out of this.

And for the first time, I'm beginning to
realize that Mr. Canady is quite a man.

Oh, he is, Jim.

He is.

Don't expect no cheers from me.

I just want to know which
guard you passed on the way in.

Skinny, blond-haired kid.

It figures. He'll
never make a soldier.

We've doubled the guard.
No one else can get through.

They've got us boxed in, as
nearly as I could tell. No way out.

It was my idea to spook their horses,
take their attention off us. No chance.

They've got four guards on those
horses. I counted 11 of them altogether.

There's a stream down
there, plenty of water.

Everybody was
carrying full bandoleers.

You ain't telling us anything we don't
know, and you could have gotten k*lled.

Could have left us
without a g*n we need.

Like I said, don't expect
any cheers from me.

All right, Ordy, I
didn't ask for any.

You'd better get some sleep. You'll
be doing guard duty in two hours.

I didn't want to guess what was
down there. I wanted to know.

Or did you want to
impress Mrs. Harris?

Two hours. I'll be
back to wake you up.

Candy.

No one else could do this thing.

- Tomorrow, we k*ll him.
- Sí.

Up there, they're
running short of b*ll*ts.

Even in the dark! Even in the
dark I wouldn't have believed

that a man could get in
and out of that camp alive.

Well, it's an acquired skill.
Candy was born on the frontier.

Skill, yes, but
great courage, too.

There is gold in that
ambulance, four small kegs of it.

Angel and his men aren't
gonna give up until they've got it.

All he wants is the gold. Why
don't we just give it to him?

Because once we give them
the gold, they'd k*ll us anyway,

- They don't want any witnesses.
- That's right.

They've got plenty of amm*nit*on
and water and we're running out of both.

Even an optimist would have to say
that the enemy is gonna win this battle.

[CHUCKLES]

My first battle. My
first time in the field.

- Well, it's not over yet.
- No, of course not.

Maybe somebody
will happen along.

After all, we did.

Just by chance and in sufficient
numbers to give us the help we need?

No, Mr. Cartwright, I don't
believe that, and neither do you.

If it should come to that, I hope
you won't let them take my wife alive.

It's just like you,
Candy, guessing again.

I'm not guessing, I know.

An old ordinance man like you
wouldn't walk across a parade ground

without three or four sticks
of dynamite in your pocket.

- Against regulations.
- [SCOFFS]

When did regulations
start bothering you, Ordy?

A long escort mission like
this, you'd bring a whole bundle.

All right. I had six sticks till a week
ago, when we camped at White River

- and I got hungering for fresh trout.
- Now. I'm talking about now.

- Three. I got three sticks left.
- You got fuse?

- We ain't gonna use fuse.
- Why not?

- We throw it out. They throw it back.
- We use a short fuse.

No. I got something
else, something special.

Something new.

Impact detonators.

Fulminate of mercury.
No fuse needed.

86 pounds of impact.

That's what the book says,
86 pounds. Me? I ain't so sure.

- I sweat when I look at 'em.
- I don't blame you.

Take it easy.

Be careful.

So, what we got to do is, uh... figure
out a way to make Angel Montana

- lean on these things 86 pounds worth.
- That's right.

- [GALLOPING]
- Captain, no!

I don't want to hurt you.

I don't want to hurt nobody.

[HARRIS GROANS]

This! This is
punishment for babies!

You make me hurt you.

I give you pain you
never even dream about.

This is no big thing.

The gold does not belong to you.

Tell them to give us the gold
and we all part friends, huh?

That woman up there.

She is your wife.

She's a very beautiful woman.

You do like I say?
I don't know her.

You don't do as I say?

I know her better.

Put that g*n away. We att*ck
into their g*ns, we lose more men.

We tie him to those trees. In
the daylight, they see he is alive.

They get mad. They worry.

They make mistakes.

Pa!

What?

I think he's still alive.

Oh, Ann. Don't look. Don't look.

Ann, there ain't nothing you can
do. Come on with me. Come on.

He had to have known
he couldn't get past them.

Well, I guess he
thought he had to try.

He's a fool. He should
have known better.

Yes, he should
have known better.

But I suppose he felt he
had to impress the lady, too.

- You got the dynamite?
- I went to get them, didn't I?

[CRYING] Oh, it's my fault. I
should have known he'd try.

Miss Ann, he only did what
he thought he had to do.

Don't go faulting yourself.

[COINS RATTLING]

That'd buy more whiskey
than a man could ever drink.

Yeah. Give me the detonators.

Take it easy, real easy.

- That ought to do it.
- Yeah.

Careful.

Real careful.

Okay.

[COINS RATTLING]

Easy, easy, easy.

Hey, Pa, I see a patch
of shirt down there.

It'd be a clean sh*t.

Yeah. The only trouble
is you'd be k*lling two men.

First him and then
Captain Harris.

- We'll need a white flag.
- I'll get a towel from the ambulance.

Just a minute.

I'll get him back for you.

- What are you doing? God damnit!
- You stay right there. Angel!

Angel!

ANGEL: Qué quieres?
What do you want?

I have the gold.

No tricks, or we
k*ll the captain.

No tricks. We give you
this, you let the captain go.

One?

There are four in that
ambulance wagon.

Give us four kegs, and
we give you the captain.

- Just one.
- All.

ANGEL: We want it all!

Leave it, you fools!

Leave it!

Let's go get Captain Harris.

Well?

- Candy, he's my husband.
- You don't love him.

- Please understand.
- No, I don't. I can't understand, Ann.

Please.

Candy, please. Help me.

Ann? It's time to go.

Go on. Go on.

CANDY: Hey,
Captain Harris. Wait up.

Wait up, Mrs. Harris. When you
see the colonel, give him my regards.

Tell him from me you
married yourself quite a man.

I will.
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