- [first lines]
- Moss: The trail ends right here, mister.
- Clay Culhane: I was told this trail would take me right into Latigo.
- Moss: Nope. This is private property. Nobody crosses it without our say-so.
- Clay Culhane: Well, in that case, how do I get to Latigo?
- Moss: You don't.
- Clay Culhane: Well, like I told you in my letter, Mrs. Travers, you're my first client. Getting a chance to prove myself means an awful lot. Now, you won't regret hiring me.
- [hearing a sound behind him, Clay whirls gun in hand]
- Marshal Gib Scott: Fast... takes a lot of experience to get that fast. I know your trade - what's your name?
- Clay Culhane: Where I grew up, asking a man his name can be unhealthy.
- Marshal Gib Scott: One of the hazards of my job. Your name.
- Clay Culhane: Culhane... Clay Culhane.
- Marshal Gib Scott: Well, I haven't heard much about the Culhanes since that shootout over in Marathon. Some of your family was killed.
- Clay Culhane: Both my brothers.
- Marshal Gib Scott: Seems I heard you crawled off and died, too.
- Clay Culhane: Well, as you can see, that story's just a little bit exaggerated.
- Marshal Gib Scott: I've been worried that Nora might get desperate enough to bring in a gun.
- Clay Culhane: Oh, now look...
- Marshal Gib Scott: Oh, I know... You're a lawyer.
- Clay Culhane: Maybe you'd like to see my certificate, Marshal.
- Marshal Gib Scott: It wouldn't make any difference, 'cause it wouldn't change the kind of man you are, Culhane. When trouble comes, you'll reach for that .45, not your law books.
- Clay Culhane: Now that I've met the town's welcoming committee, I begin to understand why Latigo looks so much like a cemetery.
- Clay Culhane: What is this Pardee?
- Marshal Gib Scott: Rancher, cattleman...
- Clay Culhane: And liar.
- Marshal Gib Scott: There's no law against that.
- Clay Culhane: Look, I don't like Pardee or any man who would turn a whole town into a graveyard... Most of all, a don't like losing my first client.
- Hannibal Pardee: Even the law's leaving town. Didn't Gib tell you? They've ordered him up to Santa Fe. There's no point in having a marshal in a ghost town.
- Nora Travers: Well, it's not dead yet.
- Hannibal Pardee: If it isn't it will be - as dead as my son.
- Nora Travers: Killing this town won't bring your son back. What good does it do?
- Hannibal Pardee: I'll tell you what good! The town's life for my boy's life.
- Nora Travers: Pardee?
- Clay Culhane: He's dead.
- Marshal Gib Scott: He'd a been smarter to face you in a courtroom.
- Nora Travers: I have an idea he'd still have lost.
- Marshal Gib Scott: Yeah - but not so permanently.
- [last lines]
- Nora Travers: It's very quiet.
- Clay Culhane: A town needs people to live.
- Nora Travers: They'll be coming back.
- Clay Culhane: Then maybe you'll need a lawyer here... That's if there's someone around to enforce the law.
- Marshal Gib Scott: With your kind of gun-wranglin', there better be.
- Clay Culhane: You're stayin'?
- Marshal Gib Scott: I'm stayin'.
- Nora Travers: Pardee?
- Clay Culhane: He's dead.
- Marshal Gib Scott: He won't need a courtroom.
- Nora Travers: I have an idea he'd still have lost.
- Clay Culhane: Yeah. But not so permanently.
- Clay Culhane: maybe you'll need a lawyer here. That is if there's someone around to enforce the law.
- Marshal Gib Scott: With your kind of gun wranglin', there better be.
- Clay Culhane: You're staying?
- Marshal Gib Scott: I'm staying.
- Marshal Gib Scott: Your name?
- Clay Culhane: Culhane. Clay Culhane.
- Marshal Gib Scott: , I haven't heard about the Culhane's since that shootout over in Marathon. When your family was killed.
- Clay Culhane: Both my brothers.
- Marshal Gib Scott: Seems I heard you crawled off and died too.
- Clay Culhane: Well, as you can see, that story's just a little bit exaggerated.