04x07 - The Cathy Eckhart Story

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Was like,

Not you.

If you.

It was.

It can be.

Then what happened

then?

Well, your friend.

What happened?

Tell me

the truth of nature.

I'm a m*rder*r.

Silence. Silence.

My breath with it. No,
it is. It's not true.

The work of the devil.

Sorry, preacher.

I'm sorry to my brother.

Then there.

There to be a trial here on the train

or way
outside the jurisdiction of any court.

I can see the need for a trial, Major.

Oh, he doesn't know what he's saying,
Major.

There must be a trial.

There will be serious.

Come on, then.

We do not.

An ambush.

Do you remember?

I told you? Get
the Eckhart has been leading.

Been on you.

You help us at the trial.

It's just. A harness.

We can fight evil with evil.

We must seek guidance and obey.

To the little girl
like you needs a man around.

Especially now.

With your Paul gone.

Well, Major Adams thinks so too.

He assigned me to drive for you.

There ought to be something said for Ben.

Sarah. Not your words, Preacher.

They put him here.

I guess.

Who's wagon master?

Yeah, I am.

So hadn't major U.S.

Army retired?

Major Adams, you're 100 miles out
of the area the cavalry tries to protect.

You're aware of that?

We found signs of a Kiowa
gathering one day north of here,

and we're hightailing it.

If you have any sense, you'll do the same.

We're taking this mountain
pass out of necessity.

We just can't take our livestock
to that dry country.

Suit yourself.

I take it
you've heard that several wagon trains

this past year have disappeared
and that first I have a pass is tricky.

I take it you picked up a guide somewhere?

Yeah, we got a guide.

Chef Miller here picked him up in.

m1ngo Saloon, drunk uniform show.

And, Lieutenant,

we didn't bother. To go in to Mr.

Miller's Morrow's lieutenant.

He's got letters of recommendation
from other wagon trains.

The one we found out
He knows this country pretty good.

Maybe a little too good an engineer.

Once you get mad.

Lieutenant, there are two theories
in these missing trains.

One is the vibrations of the wagons
create rockslides.

Those wagons are buried
at the bottom of some gorge.

What's the other theory?

A business agreement
some renegade has with a Kiowa.

They take the scalps, he takes the gold.

And that's the theory my money's on Major.

You want to.

Go on, Major?

Yeah.

Lead out. You.

It will, Major.

Good. Not

that's just say hot.

Charlie said it was good this morning
anyway.

Flint, like he drank a whole pot yesterday
before he left on a trip.

Major, how much do we know about Miller?

Not enough to gamble
with the lives of all these people.

Just on his special.

I'm going to make sure I'm worried
when we head into that past tomorrow.

Bill.

Do you ever play follow a leader
when he's a kid?

Yeah, I think so.

What? We'll be. We're good at.

The planet tomorrow morning,
but time we're heads.

I get that.

Pass it Once you lose sight of it,
take care of yourself.

I don't want to lose you.

What?

At least he's
got his mind on his business.

I tend to line

little by little, by little by

little.

I hope you find one

that is good.

About time. To go to bed.

So that you're not here.

We'll be.

Waiting to hear from.

You tomorrow morning.

Miller.

Good luck.

I don't want to be.

Seen the way you walk, the way you look.

I seen lots of things.
It's like you're crying for. Come.

I'll make my own choice,
if you don't mind. What's wrong with me?

I'm not so bad, am I?

Now, why do you stop it

now? Peace now, brother.

We may have to be fighting together
tomorrow.

What you up to, boy?

Well, I was just passing by.

I thought she might be lonely.

I guess you found out she isn't.

Good night.

I'm Kathy.

Eckert.

Thank you, Mr. Miller.

You're welcome.

Kathy.

How do you know my name?

The guide.

You joined us with m1ngo.

Why don't you just call me Jeff?

I think I'd like that.

Even Kathy

Mr. Miller paid you?

Oh, no.

Getting some air.

That's right.

How about you, preacher

child?

I thought you'd be more than your pa.

No, no.

Goodnight, Mr.

Miller.

Sure is.

But you're.

Sure it's

Mr. Adams?

We demand an explanation of why

we're hurting here like cattle and where
we're going to Take it easy, Preacher.

We'll be there. In a minute.

So sit down.

We stopped.

I want all of you to sit right
where you are.

I like to call you off one by one.

We'll find out why in just a minute.

Oh, and

you got anything to say, Preacher.

Sent. Me

to think that.

I said nothing about you.

Just happens that you four people,

the only ones that have had any connection
with this girl.

You mean one of us did this?

You got anything to say

before I call the others out?

All right.

And step over.

There.

Bill Miller,

Which is a little late like that.

Major Miller,

That's better than where we found her.

Who did it?

We thought
maybe you could help us answer that.

You got anything to say?

Miller?

No, Major.

And you get over there with a preacher.

Whitey

I had nothing to.

Do with it.

Well, you can't.

You can't suspicion me.

Well,

I couldn't do it,

especially to a girl like Kathy.

You know, you

all right, sir?

I may optimize.

I'm going to need the help of each one of.

You and for your own good

by golly, I better get it.

Because until I find out who did this,

the lives of every man,

woman and child on my train is in danger.

How do you figure that made you.

Mr. Miller?

Since that trip
you made through the past this morning,

I think you're better able to answer that
than me.

Preacher, over here.

And sit down.

The way we've figured this out,

Kathy was k*lled sometime late last night.

She was hanged,

and that's not the way the Kiowa kills.

So we.

No, no Indian did it, but her hair.

Maybe that was done just to throw us off.

So we think an Indian did it.

I'm no judge of
who did this info thing, so

Major,

something happened to Kathy occurred
that wasn't said at the trial.

I had hoped that it would never be said,
but now I guess it has to.

The first day of bench trial,
I was down by the creek,

looking up at heaven,
praying for the right thing to happen,

asking what I could do to help

you. Just as if my prayer had been heard.

Kathy
A card come up and put her hope and trust.

In me

every time since

I've been looking everywhere for you.

I got to talk to you, Preacher.

It's about

Ben Harness.

I mean.

Ben and you.

You're the only one I can come to know

what's right and wrong
and you set out to do.

When I try to know Kathy, I'm.

But I'm

not a regular preacher
with school and all, but

I study just one book and pray and

try to tell folks to do the same.

It's no mine.

You're a preacher to us.

I'm in trouble.

Go on, show.

I ain't a child no more.

That's change.

People are looking at me different now.

I just say with their eyes
that Kathy Eckhardt,

she sure grow to a woman of a sudden.

He used to treat me like I was a boy.

Fun and tease and mostly kid stuff.

Still, I got to play mad.

I could fit now and look at me.

How I belong in the night.

Makes me feel like someone new.

You know, I've seen it.

But Ben used to fun like the rest

of them changed

Where he looked me began to talk.

There's something I like to see
and to hear.

And there was something else I saw.

I could make him laugh or

talk soft or get grumpy, though
I tried to hide it.

It's a kind of power.

I never had it before.

I used it.

Kathy, You should have come to me then.

I didn't think I was doing wrong.

Preacher Not really wrong.

I figured I could handle Ben.

I didn't know it was me.

I'd have to watch.

CHILD One time he kissed me.

Then I stayed away for a while,
but something pulled me back.

And what can I do?

Kathy What is it to do?

The trial.

They'll ask Ben why he k*lled PA
and he'll tell Preacher.

He'll tell what'll happen to me.

What'll Ben's wife Sarah do?

I'm scared, Preacher.

They'll say I'm a bad girl.

I ain't a preacher. I really ain't.

But that'll make no mind
the way they'll think.

And act
when they know what'll Kathy accord be.

Then They might drive me from the train.

They might as well k*ll me.

And maybe Ben too.

I will.

What are you asking me to do, Kathy?

Talk to. Ben.
Make him see what will happen.

Stop him from talking, Preacher,
you got to.

You're wanting me to

let a man hang himself.

He'll hang. Anyway.

You know how they've been talking him mad.

They are.

You hang no matter what,

Preacher.

I don't know.

Kathy,

but it does seem that Ben would be adding
hurt.

His sin with have been too much already.

Then you will

think, Kathy and pray

and search the book

and mind to decide.

It's no man's.

Want to see the prisoner waiting?

Well, I guess he still has his right.

There will be no saving him preacher
from the hang

news or the devil.

They will be coming for him

to start the trial before long. Then

no one knows better than me. What

a since I've committed.

You rightly said you m*rder*d Will.

They'll ask you why

are you going to answer?

Well, not face
judgment was turns on my mind.

Then you will be damned for greater sins.

Preacher, What are you telling me?

I'm asking you
not to let anybody know the truth of why,

when they can't come after you.

You know about

Kathy?

Yes. She come to me
hardly more than a child, Ben.

Yet your words will make her
into something else.

She'll be scorned
and shame for the rest of her life.

And I don't know.

What about Sarah, Your wife?

Your talk will tear down
everything she's lived for.

What can she believe in?

After she finds out the preacher,
she'll have hate.

Hate the rest of her life for you.

But Kathy.

And it might be big enough
that she'd k*ll.

And that would be your sin to Ben.

But can I say.

Not the truth?

Men k*ll for lots of reasons.

Hate, anger, stealing.

Take your choice.

What will they believe out there?

You know

they're coming, Ben.

You can atone and save or you can destroy.

And be damned.

Funny.

Ask me. Blasphemy.

And from a preacher.

A preacher hated enough.

You're black and Ben.

So I won't let you destroy his name.

That girl lied about Ben. Ben did nothing.

She tried to get him to go after she lied.

And she got what she deserves.

I know who done it.

You do.

Get over.

Well.

Well, we all know who done it,

and I'm going to say it.

She done it on
account of what happened to Ben.

You lie.

I'll just hold on, Sarah.

You'll get your chance to talk
like everybody else.

But you're talking Turner.
When I tell you.

And why don't you ask him what he was
doing hanging around that girl?

Very tense. He got.

I only done my job, Major.

What you ordered me to do.

And I heard things.

All right, Hardy,

sit down and speak your piece.

It's like after the trial,

when I was guard Ben at the jail wagon.

Was it awful bad?

I mean,

people look at you like you as a dog or
something needed k*lling.

You've got no understanding
of what we've done, child.

The preacher made me realize that.

I know you are keeping quiet about us
at the trial.

Makes you a good man, Ben.

And they take you up on that hill
this afternoon.

Remember, you're doing right.

I'll never forget you, Ben,

What are you doing here? Go.

You're hurting.

No matter what's been said at the trial,

it was you leading him on that k*lled
your path.

You're just full of meanness and spite.

I don't know why he protected you,

but I do know that Ben is my man alone.

And he always has been.

Ben was something. Come with the land.

You a convenience that worked and sweated
and calloused.

His hands for you.

Something owed you because you are a
virtuous married woman, legal and proper.

But you never thought of Ben as a man. You

now. And that's when you broke in.

Major

Sarah, it's your turn.

Is this any more to say?

There's more.

I made you

a lot more.

Ben's trial was over.

There was nothing.

Now just to wait for the hanging

nearly time.

And it preacher,

I'm sorry.

I can't sit with you.

I better get this ready.

Ben's

It's a Sunday.

Go to meet and suit.

Most farmers don't take much to dress.

Neither did Ben sit in on Sundays.

And then getting out this suit and shaving

cream was something he looked forward to.

He always had trouble with his time.

I helped him.

He looked real nice

and he knew.

He made me proud.

And that made him

hold his head a little higher.

While close trader.

And he always wore it on special days too.

Like Christmas, Easter.

Why want him to have it up

on that hill to be.

Had Come to go with you, Sarah

in the winter, more than once at that way,

I just had my last talk with him

and he's found the strength he needs.

Did Ben tell you anything more
than what he said at the trial?

Why do you keep fighting for something
that there ain't?

Because there has to be something more
than what Ben that be said.

Well, he wouldn't even argue with.

Will that court over one set of harness,
let alone k*ll him for it?

When you live with a man,
you become of one mind.

You know what he will do
and what he won't do.

Sarah, I'm going to tell you something.

If you've got to try to understand,

if you ever want to find peace inside
yourself.

Ben told me

what it is that he's been holding back
and there's no reason for his telling.

It can only mean more hurt.

That girl, Kathy and

I knew it all along.

Believe me, Sarah, whatever it is,
won't make no difference in Ben's hanging.

Always after she was.

Ben's got to tell it's her fault.

It won't make no difference.

Now, you've got to believe that
Kathy Eckhart's just a child.

You keep talking about it
like she's something more.

Ben told me she tried to kiss him once,

and he was truly ashamed
because he believes that

for a married man to even kiss
another woman is sinful.

Nothing really sinful ever happened
between them.

Ben, what have told me?

What if we found there was something more
between Kathy and Ben?

Ben's no less guilty of that.

m*rder is easy, and,

well,
it might even change him in your eyes.

There was nothing more a preacher.

But whatever

else that was, whether it was Save
Ben or not,

he must confess it to the Lord
before he goes to meet.

You should know that better than any.

And you'll help me to make Ben
to watch you.

You're thinking
this twisted sister harness,

but I can't rightly blame it on

at a time like this.

But I got to refuse
what you're asking. Why?

Because what Ben's doing is right
before the trial,

it come to me down by the creek
like a revelation.

I went to Ben and had a talk.

I made him see the light.

I made him realize that by talking,

he would merely be piling his sins higher,
that helping others was more important.

Now that by keeping quiet,
he would atone for a cart.

And now through that,
Ben knows that he'll be saved.

Now you have no right to take
that away from him, sister.

And if you try

and Ben does talk,

you will not only be condemning Ben,
but you too

will have to answer.

Curtis.

You got anything to say?

So to say, Major.

So of the settlement.

I don't know, Ben.

And I'm sorry.

Really.

She's got to be

as Wagon master and bound to carry out.

The decision that was made for the child.

No, please, wait.

Please wait.

I'll get you.

Please
let me see if again for just a minute.

Please.

Please

help him down.

I came here to do a hanging.

I said help him down.

What's there to say between us now?

A lifetime.

And what do you know of the man?

The way he wants his full size

next to things, his mouth back

and the quickness of him. Dirt.

I close my eyes, Nathan.

I try to remember what you look like.

I get scared

because I can't recall right

out of what you were saying.

It's a special kind of remembering.

Like the time you cried

when.

I broke my arm

and you had this, this and well,
that was said.

And then you

clear again for a while

until it fades.

And I can't hold on to it any longer.

Maybe

if I hadn't had those back.

And then me, Ben.

The remembering

would be clear and strong and

but there was share in the work and.

Taken care of you

do it for you.

I counted that.

Love and

your kind of

love and go through was the man.

Even to this day, it's.

It you couldn't tell him And

you look real nice, Ben.

Back up for everybody.

Make room for this sort.

Tell them. Ben.

Tell them.

Tell the band.

Tell me.

And you called yourself a preacher
when you joined this train.

And we believed you.

And yet you took away what might have been
Ben's only chance of living.

Well, I don't believe you are a preacher.

Ever. Were you made, Ben, tell.

Telling
what would have made no difference.

You let him die without confession

just for the sake of the girl.

That's not so.

I showed a man a true path to glory.

You knew it was her fault, Mr..

You kept silent.

You forget.

The Lord knows that.

And I know it to.

There will be a reckoning,

Mr.. I knew she'd done it.

Shut up party.

She had the best reason, didn't she?

Doesn't it seem kind of strange that
Kathy was k*lled the same way Ben was?

Maybe somebody planned at that way

to make us think it was just that.

I'm going to tell you something.

I want you to listen.

I told you once,
but I'm going to tell you again.

Unless we find out here
and now who k*lled this girl

can very likely
mean the break up of the whole chain

and the lives of everybody on it.

So you told us, Major,
but you didn't tell us why you.

Remember that cavalry detail
that stopped us all.

They told me something,
and you might as well know what they. Me.

They said they figured we had a renegade
Riding with us

was going to lead us into an Indian ambush
up on that pass.

We had no proof, so we took this route.

But now we know the Renegade is with us.

Well, how can you tell that.

Whoever k*lled Cathy has lived
with Indians and knows their ways?

What they did to her
afterwards is proof of that.

Yet only one of you is supposed
to have ever been around Indians before.

That's you, Mr. Miller.

If he didn't do it

and one of.

You lied, Why?

Maybe to keep from being suspected.

Only the one we're looking for would.

Be afraid to admit
that he'd been here before.

Let's see.

You've got a real rival
and hired on with us as a guide.

You mean he's a traitor

and he k*lled Kathy?

You know we're here, Miller.

Let's hear what you got to say.

I've only got one thing to say, Major.

I'm innocent.

I didn't expect you to have much to say.

Miller After that trip of yours
to the past this morning,

looking for us, Bill
Hawkes was right behind you.

You tell that story.

Miller went up to check the pass
this morning.

I gave him a little head start tonight,
trailing the way the Major told me to do

it out.

Now, I shall give you credit Here.

Say how much you want
those cow devils come after me.

Sharper. I'm clear.

Come on, let's get out of here. Now,

some of our.

News is bad enough,
but living with people.

Sarah, their food,
pretending to feel as they feel

and then sell this cow for gold.

You're the worst kind of a sight right now
I ever saw

a major.

I didn't build that fire.

It was there.

All put together. When I found it.

You were like that.

Fire to send up a smoke signals. To.

If I got an answer to that signal,

I know we couldn't
take the train up for the pass.

It a major attack.

Was it a signal for those in
use to come down for a power with you

so you could tell them how strong we were,

what time we were going right past
where they hit us?

All right,
maybe I can't prove I'm innocent,

but neither can you prove I'm guilty,
Major.

You're forgetting one thing, Mr.

Miller.

As far as sitting there waiting to be lit,

and until it is, those Indians
are going to stay right where they are.

So whoever made that fire is from
this train, not Blake.

It proves that if Hawkes.

Tell me like he said he did,
he knows I didn't take a blanket.

It it didn't.

You listen to me, Miller.

And you listen good.

Hawkes and I going back up there,
and we're going to sit there and wait.

And if our man shows up,

you'll be in the clear.

If he doesn't, I'm

going to hand you
over to the people on this train.

And when get through with you, mister,

you're going to be hard to recognize.

Oh, the major
and I started up to where the fire was.

And on the way we came across Kathy.

Then he k*lled her.

He's the renegade.

That's been leading the wagon trains
into slaughter.

I knew it.

There's something about that feller.

But why? Why?

Just hold on, all of you.

Any of you know, for sure that this man
is not telling the truth?

What can he prove?

He's telling the truth now.

That fire up there ain't been left yet.

How do you know that?

Well, I ain't tellin, Major.

I'm. I'm just asking.

Well, the fire hasn't been.

Lt's not going to be
as long as you for here.

Whoever laid that fire k*lled Kathy.

Why are you for?

Did it miss a major mean?

Nothing was said about me and I.

Will get your turn,
Preacher, You just wait.

What's been said here

and appears to me that

the Jew Miller in cahoots with a Kiowa.

Somehow Whitey,

you didn't tell all you knew to try to

steal.

Kathy wouldn't have anything to do
with you

and Sarah.

You blame Kathy for getting your husband
home.

It's a preacher.

Preacher?

Some way.

You just don't seem
to be connected to all this.

Or you told a good story. Maybe too good.

I'm just wondering, could it be that

if you're posing
as something that you're not?

Now, look here, Major.

Ain't no color glass
from a man of the cloth.

I came up here to help at your request,
of course, but

I can at least get some respect.

Well,
there's no disrespect intended, preacher,

but we're here for something
a little bit more important than that.

We're here

to decide what direction
this wagon train is going to head.

When we're going on.

Not unless we find out who's guilty.

I know that the Kiowa won't go anywhere
near that pass

unless they get a signal
that some wagon train is coming through.

If we find our man or woman

and we know the past is clear, if we don't

and this wagon train
is going to turn right back to m1ngo.

Back to m1ngo.

Major,

there's something I have to admit.

Could we talk

private like. On.

He admit to being the traitor Major.

And to k*ll And Kathy.

Jefferson Miller,

Captain, U.S.

Army Intelligence.

Why didn't you tell us sooner?
Miller was risen.

Orders.

Do I also have orders
to bring the renegade the major.

I want him as bad as you do,

Captain.

And you must
know that every minute we waste up here

is just adding more danger.

The people on my train.

I know that that Kiowa village
is only a few miles away.

And I also know that smoke signal or not,
they often send out parties.

w*r parties make as far as just as easily
as not in major.

I advise turning this wagon train around.

I think you're right, Captain.

You won't have to turn the train
back, Major.

Oh, I know who did it.

I prayed and I prayed that she'd show true

repentance and speak up. She.

I'm sorry, Sarah,

but I can't let them turn back
and do harm to all these good folks.

No, I followed her last night.

She brought Kathy up here by gunpoint,
made her kneel down on the ground

and prayed for a sentence,
and then she put a rope around her neck.

That self-same rope
that hangs there, you lie.

Before I could do anything, it

was all over.

And she Sarah off into the night and no.

Major.

I brought Kathy up here. Yes,

I had Ben's g*n.

I don't know what I planned
to do at the time, but I just felt inside

that I had to make her realize that.

And then I run off.

I hope

I didn't k*ll her, Major.

She was alive. What?

Not left her.

I, I.

I'm sorry, sir.

You're under arrest.

They'll take her to the wagon
till ten to give his own.

Come on, then.

Major, Can I.

Can I go.

Now? Why do you live.

In Oregon

now. Captain?

It's like our problems and solves
Only question is now

when we take that
sure road to the drag country

or whether we take that good chance
to the past.

Major, it's your wagon train

and we go ahead.

I'll pass the news along to the train.

A woman renegade?

Yeah,

and hard to believe it's.

He's my brother and.

And I bring the Kiowa
word of another white man's wagon train.

The whole ride through, just like

I also bring this

as proof of my continuing brotherhood.

With the Kiowa.

Take this to your father, the chief.

Hold it.

It looks like we've got two prisoners
to take back.

Major. Yeah.

And young is going to be a real prize
for us.

He's our ticket to that parish cabin.

Would you mind taking him
and getting our horses move,

Preacher.

She was a Jezebel incarnate.

She was my girl.

Then it was bound to look.

She promised not to do it again
if I told you not to talk.

And in a few, she started all over again.

She was back

to Preacher Trap.

I should have shot you. You.