Ed?
Did the chief say how long he thought he'd be with the commissioner?
No, why?
I thought I'd like to surprise him with this if it's possible.
It isn't.
What's going on here?
We thought you might like a little something to take along on your trip.
Eve, I'm not driving to Outer Mongolia.
I'm only going to the High Sierras.
I'm reading places all along the way.
But think of the time you'll save not having to stop.
How much longer is it going to take you to save me all this time?
Just a few more minutes.
Very well.
If you can split your attention briefly.
I've just arranged with the commissioner to keep our division operative while I'm away.
One of you will have phone duty here around the clock.
If anything happens, I can be back in a few hours.
I'll call in at approximately 8 p.m. every day.
I can't give you anything like an exact trip plan.
But our first stop will be at Gold Strike.
I have an old friend there. I want to look him up.
Well, we've arrived.
At least this place admits to being Gold Strike, California.
What are you expecting, Mark? The garden spot of the Sierras?
That's what it is.
Man, are you ready for it.
What do you think of the garden spot?
I may retire here.
You have to be kidding.
Marshal Douglas.
What can I do for you folks?
Perhaps you can help us with some directions.
We're just driving through.
I thought I'd like to look up an old friend who lives somewhere around Gold Strike.
That shouldn't be too hard to do.
His name is Earl Franklin.
How in creation did you ever meet an old hermit like Ory?
A long time ago he took me out with a hunting party.
Our guide.
I'd forgotten about him until he received a gunshot wound similar to the one that injured me.
In any event, he started writing to me.
Guess you'd say we got to be pen pals.
What I'm thinking, if you've got the time, I'll send a man up to Ory's and bring him down.
He can be found.
If he can be found.
He was only released from the hospital ten days ago.
How far could he get?
You don't know with an old goat like Ory.
He's all bone and rawhide.
Even the docs never figured he'd walk out of that hospital.
Some do, some don't.
It's up to you.
Want me to send a man up for Ory or don't you?
We wouldn't want to put you into any trouble.
It's better than losing a couple of city folks up in those mountains having to find them.
Glad to do it.
You can stay in town for an extra day.
I'm sure we can find a place to stay, Marshal.
A motel, east side of town. It's the best we've got.
Oh, by the way, who'd we tell Ory is here to see him?
I'm sorry.
Ironside, Robert Ironside, San Francisco.
If you can get that to him, I'll be in your debt, Marshal.
No sweat.
Mr. Ironside, as soon as I have something to report to you, I'll get in touch.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
George.
We're in trouble.
Better tell your father.
I'll be right over.
What'd you tell us? You handled yourself just fine with Mr. Ironside, Doc.
Couldn't have done better myself.
I hope so, Mr. Huff. Proof kind of fell in when he handed me his card.
Understandable. But I don't think there's any reason for us to spin our wheels. Yet.
Why did he have to come up here just at this time?
Son, I'll tell you when to worry. Is that a deal?
Now, Doug, you handle the situation like I told you, and Ironside won't be any problem at all.
If he is, you call us up to the lodge, you hear?
All right, George.
Son, why borrow trouble?
Because I don't like it being a cop.
A man has to be something, George.
Keep in touch, Doug.
Told you not to complain about the steak.
Comes the local lawman.
Greary, is he carrying a Bowser bag?
Hello, Mr. Ironside. See you found your way to our eating place.
Sit down, Marshal.
Drink?
Thanks.
I'm on duty.
Afraid I got some bad news about Orry.
Something happen to him?
There's no reason to think so. He's just not up at his place, that's all.
My man just got back from up there.
That suggests something's wrong.
Not with Orry.
He's a strange old coot.
Hope you don't mind telling you, but he's really some kind of a nut.
When that hunter accidentally shot him in the back, beginning of deer season,
brought him back down off that mountain, wore a head and a lie,
hardly anybody in this town ever heard of Orry Franklin.
Knew anything about him living up there.
That's a fact.
You mean he can pass up all the bright lights of Gold Strike, all this good food?
Well, Orry lives off the land, mostly.
He's kind of a loner.
He just doesn't take to folks and bright lights.
Guess that's why he lives way up where he does.
Takes a prospect between a mountain goat and a jackass to get up there.
And you don't recommend that we try it?
Oh, no, sir. I sure don't.
Well, thank you for your advice and your help.
Well, it's my pleasure. Sorry it didn't work out better.
Oh, I'll keep your card. Next time I see Orry, I'll give it to him for you.
I know he is saying it.
Saying what?
So with a heavy heart, we say farewell to Gold Strike, California,
garden spot of the Sierras.
I'm not ready to say farewell.
I was afraid of that.
Tell the chief it's very quiet here, Mark.
I just talked to Ed on the phone and he suggested we mix up a small crime wave
so the commissioner will miss the chief.
I'll pass it along, Eve.
We'll check in about 8 tomorrow.
Nothing's real.
Well, I still don't hear you saying it.
It's because I'm still not ready.
Hello. Yeah, Doug, go ahead.
What's he up to?
All right, Doug, you've done what you can and I thank you.
It's up to George and me now. You're not involved.
I'll talk to you later.
George.
George, come in here.
Who was that on the phone?
Doug.
That detective from the city.
He's on his way up to Orrys.
I told you that guy was trouble.
Son, I know you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth.
I put it there.
But this is the first I've heard about your crystal ball.
Well, do we stand here wringing our hands or do we get moving?
How are we doing, Mark?
If you're looking for an easy buck, bet on this road to wipe us out.
Forest Ranger said it was no freeway.
I call that honesty in government.
Franklin must be busy baking us a cake.
Franklin, you in there?
You don't want to go in there, do you?
I can't make that decision sitting out here, Mark.
I was afraid that's the way it would be.
Mr. Orrill, Franklin, wherever you are.
We're taking away your good housekeeping seal of approval.
This isn't funny, Mark.
Franklin got out of the hospital ten days ago.
He wrote me that he was coming directly here.
Obviously he didn't make it.
Maybe that soft life in the hospital got to him.
The last letter he wrote saying he'd meet me here, he hated the hospital.
Every man has his own hangup.
That's Singer's law.
Which brings me to a question.
What's ours?
An old mountain man who took your honey once goes AWL.
How does that get to be our thing?
That old mountain man remembered me for ten years, Mark.
It's a little hard to believe he'd forget I was coming up here.
That's my hangup.
I also want an answer as to why there's no sign of the marshal's man being here yesterday, as we were told.
I saw no fresh tire marks outside in the dirt, did you?
Some put on.
Yeah?
All right.
Suppose we look around.
Over there, Mark.
Chief, I've got a sensational idea.
Yeah?
When he left San Francisco, he was supposed to be going on a vacation, breaking the old routine.
Look, why don't we try that?
See something?
That stack of firewood.
Does anything look strange about it?
I'm a city boy, chief.
Everything looks strange to me out here.
Okay.
You do see this area here, don't you?
It's roughly the size of the woodpile in which nothing has grown.
There are weeds all around the bottom of that stack of wood.
There's something else.
Notice the top score of wood.
It's full of rot and termite activity, as though it had been recently exposed to the ground.
I'm lost.
What about the termites?
The cycle requires them to return to earth every 24 hours.
Now notice the bottom tier of logs.
They're all very sound, right?
Right.
Now, what does that all suggest?
That somebody turned the pile over, moving it from there to here.
Anything else?
Yeah.
But you're going to want me to move it back where it was so you can see what's under it.
You'll never get me out of the city again.
That's a promise.
You got something?
Yeah, what do you see right there?
The ground looks a little loose.
Sunken.
You think he's buried there?
Somebody is.
You'd better drive back to Goldstrike.
Tell that marshal I found something I think he should see.
Bring him back.
But I want the grave to come as a surprise, understand?
Right.
But aren't you coming?
No.
I'm sure I can employ my time more profitably searching the cabin than I could bouncing around in the back of that paddy wagon for over an hour.
Let's go.
Hello.
Is Oral inside?
No, he's not.
Hasn't been here for some time from appearances.
Ah, too bad.
Wanted to talk to him.
I'm Oral's neighbor up the mountain, Giles Huff.
My son George.
Robert Ironside.
Maybe if we looked around inside?
No, not at all.
What a mess.
How can a man live like this?
Hey, his hand rifle's gone.
Now, I might have known that's the first thing Oral did when he got out of the hospital.
What's that?
Right now he's tailed out and shooting himself some deer meat.
He left the hospital ten days ago.
Ten days is no time at all for Oral to be gone, Huff.
That's a fact.
Well, I'm sure sorry to miss him.
It's kind of inconvenient.
Inconvenient?
Yeah, you see, we're buying Oral out.
All we need to wrap it up is his signature.
Thought I might get it today.
You may have a little trouble doing that.
What do you mean?
Nothing special.
Well, then I guess there's nothing to do but wait for Oral.
Yeah.
I guess you're right.
Don't fight so hard, Mr. Ironside.
You're not going to be hurt.
Unless you hurt yourself.
Chief?
Chief?
I left him here, right here, just like I told you.
Yeah.
I did.
Now he's got to be here.
Chief!
Chief!
It's Mark, I'm back.
Chief!
That firewood.
It's been moved back over the grave Chief Ironside wanted you to see.
I hope you don't have a strange sense of humor.
The grave's there.
Move the wood and you'll find it.
Sure, but first I want to get back to this missing boss of yours.
It's mighty rough country for a man in a wheelchair to get very far on his own, wouldn't you say?
Somebody could have taken him.
Yeah, maybe they weren't here at all.
You can see the marks from his wheelchair on the ground out here.
Back in the house.
In the dust on the floor.
Well, I guess a wheelchair could be pushed around just about any place a person wanted to push it.
What's that for?
Precaution, so you won't try anything.
Now turn around, Sanger, and put your hands behind you.
You arresting me because Chief Ironside is missing?
That'll do for a reason. Now turn around, Sanger.
Like I told you.
Something's happened to Chief Ironside.
And all you can think to do about it is to arrest me.
That's right.
Now let's get going back to town. It's going to be dark before long.
Aren't you even going to try to find him?
Tomorrow morning I'll get a search party out, unless you...
Unless what?
Well, unless you want to tell me now what you did with him.
Marshal, you're supposed to let me make at least one phone call.
Get me a lawyer. I know my rights.
In my jail, I'll decide what rights you got.
Look, it's your jail. It's not your country. The law says.
The law isn't talking to you, Sanger. I am.
And I say cool it.
When I think it's time for you to talk to a lawyer or anybody, I'll let you know.
Now look.
Next time I'll break it for you.
You hear what I say?
What's the charge against this prisoner, Marshal?
I'm not so sure yet.
We'll have to wait till tomorrow and see what develops.
Marshal Douglas.
Doug?
George.
Doug, I have a man here who wants to talk to you.
His name's Ironside.
You mean he's up at your place?
That's right. I'll put him on.
He wants a couple of guys arrested.
Since they're kidnappers.
Well, that's of course.
I see.
Well, that's a mighty serious charge.
You tell him I'll be right up there.
What he has to say he'll keep.
Leaving right now.
Collins, you man the store. I've got to go up.
Any special orders?
No, just one.
Make sure nobody gets near that prisoner.
Have you heard anything?
Nothing.
Mark told you they'd check in by 8?
I don't know, Eve.
It's hard for me to go for the idea they'd forget to call in.
Not the chief.
I could understand an hour or two if their paddy wagon broke down or had a flat tire.
I'll tell you what, let's give it another hour.
Let's go, Doug.
What's happening in there?
Well, the snow's 10 feet deep for one thing.
You heard the old man tell about the great Huff family.
Now his grandfather came out here after the gold rush fall to put the country back on its feet with his lumber operation.
But he's in there giving it the iron side both barrels.
Why?
He wants him to like us.
Wants him to forget that we brought him here against his will.
Think it'll work?
Not a chance.
Hello, Doug.
You know our guest?
I was just showing him our new toy.
Had a tailor made for me by a gunsmith in London.
Beautiful feeling gun to the hand, isn't it, Mr. Ironside?
It would have felt even more beautiful had it been loaded.
You'd have split your head with a stock.
Not our guest, Mr. Ironside.
That's right, I'm not your guest.
Let's keep that straight.
We don't want to mislead the marshal.
I generally take Mr. Huff's word on things.
You wouldn't believe me if I told you the Huffs forcibly kidnapped me, is that what you're saying?
Nobody in this county would believe that.
Then it's safe to assume that you won't buy them as killers either.
You'd never believe they killed Oral Franklin.
No, I wouldn't.
Because I happen to know something about that.
I found Orie.
Eight days ago.
He was lying out by his well.
Stone cold dead.
Foolish question, but you did determine that he died of natural causes.
As far as I could tell.
And you buried him up there behind his shack and said nothing.
I suppose that saved the taxpayers the cost of a funeral.
No.
Doug did that for us.
Why?
Because we asked him, that's why.
Orie was an old man, he had to die sometime.
It just happened too soon.
If he'd lived another two weeks, we'd have bought his land.
Either from him or the state of California for taxes.
Unless some friend of his put up the tax money.
Orie didn't have any friends.
He had one.
All right.
You're Orie's friend.
Does that mean you're going to make a federal case out of something that couldn't have made any difference to Orie?
No.
The state judiciary is set up to handle felonies like assault, kidnapping and murder.
We didn't murder Orie.
You'd be saving us a lot of trouble if you just kept breathing a few more weeks.
You say, I want proof.
How can we prove anything now?
A pathologist could still determine cause of death.
If it's certified as natural, Mr. Huff, you have no problem with me, I won't press charges.
Is there any reason why we can't wait for that until after next Tuesday?
After the tax auction?
You're asking me to be a party to a conspiracy?
No thank you.
Well, I've heard enough.
If you have.
We sure don't seem to be getting anyplace.
That's a fact.
Yeah.
For you, Collins.
Yeah, what is it?
I see.
Okay.
If I'm not back by the time they get there, keep them away from the prisoner.
These people are coming up from San Francisco.
They hadn't heard from him, so he checked with Collins and the fool said he was missing.
What's it mean?
We're in a box.
You got someplace to put him?
George, your father tells me the Huffs own most of the timber land in this and a couple of adjacent counties.
That's right.
Why do you need this grubby little homestead of Franklin's?
What can make it worth this much to you?
A new interstate highway cuts one of our best stands of timber off from the mill.
The only practical way of getting it out is across Orry's land.
Very nice.
For a prison?
Guest room.
For how long?
How long can I remain a guest, George?
I haven't given it much thought.
Then you'd better think about it.
All of you.
What are you going to do with me?
Even after the Huffs have acquired title to Franklin's land next Tuesday?
I've done my thinking.
You're not about to spend the rest of your life behind bars.
Is that a fairly accurate statement of your position, Marshal?
We'll work something out.
If you mean a deal with me, forget it.
You have my one, only, and final offer.
Prove that Orry wasn't murdered and you're home free.
I see.
That's your hang-up.
You did kill him.
I didn't murder Orry!
I said kill.
That includes any kind of an accident that caused his death.
Now come on, George. Level with me.
I can't do you any harm.
But it's still possible I can help.
He fell.
Fell and hit his head on the well curb.
Fell or was pushed?
I...
I guess I pushed him some.
But he was acting crazy.
I went to talk to him about the deal.
The minute I showed up, he started yelling at me to get off his property.
Something about the Huffs stealing his land.
Tried to make him listen.
He picked up this old axe handle and he came at me with it.
I wrestled him for it and that's when it happened.
I'm sorry for you, George, because I believe you.
You've painted yourself and the rest of us into a very tight corner.
I don't know how you get out.
I do.
I was certain you would.
He means you're going to have to kill again, George.
This time it won't be an accident.
Now, it's not in my best interest to admit this,
but I'm afraid he's right.
Unless you're willing to take your losses and get out of the game right now.
I don't know.
George, you can't cop out.
I'm in this too. So is your father.
The Huffs go down the drain, so does the whole county.
Orry wasn't worth that.
And neither is he.
There's a difference in degree, George.
More than a difference.
Now, you probably can make a hometown jury who knew Orry Franklin
as an eccentric by your story of how he died.
Even understand what you did to cover up was partially motivated by a community interest.
But if you kill me, you haven't got a prayer.
We've got more than a prayer.
I've got Mark Sanger locked up in my jail.
On what charge?
Open tomorrow.
After your body's been found.
I can change that to murder one.
♪♪
♪♪
George and I have a little unfinished business with Ori Franklin's remains.
This time we'll make sure you behave yourself while we're gone.
So Mr. Huff will be keeping you company.
All right, George?
Sorry about this, Mr. Ironside.
I want you to know that.
What are they doing with Franklin's body?
There's a quicksand pit over at Lake Mirage.
No bottom to it.
At last you'll have something in common with Franklin.
The only notable difference is that you and George dug your own pit.
We didn't go looking for this.
It happened to anyone.
Like running a traffic signal.
Nobody's hurt unless you're caught with somebody's car broadside to your front bumper.
Then it's too late, then too bad.
Yeah, I know.
Don't think it is annoying at my insides, too.
Why let it?
There's still time for you to blow the whistle.
You'll never get out clean, but you will be out someday.
Ah, it's too late for that now.
Well, as long as we're both alive, it isn't too late.
I gave Doug my word.
Your word's worth the gas chamber?
It's worth taking that chance.
There's nothing more for us to talk about, is there?
What's your attitude toward coddling that condemned Mr. Huff?
Is it customary to grant some special consideration during the last hours?
What can I get you?
Bourbon?
Neat.
What's the matter?
I don't like the idea of leaving you alone in this room.
Yeah, you're going along with a lot of ideas you don't like.
But happily, this is one dilemma I can solve for you.
My wheelchair's just outside the door in the hallway.
Bring it in and I'll go with you.
I shouldn't let you out of this room.
You didn't give your word on that, did you?
I'll be back here before George and the marshal return and you have my word on that.
If you try anything, I'm not going to be easy on you.
Fair enough.
Stay right there.
Dividend?
Any number.
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
I hated to do that to you, Mr. Huff, but I'm trying to save your life.
You won't get anything on that phone.
It was working earlier.
There's a disconnect switch on the outside so we can turn it off when we're gone.
Where is that switch?
You're looking for me to help you?
Yes, I am.
How about the key to that gun cabinet?
It's on my key ring in the car.
I'm telling you the truth.
George has all my keys with him.
I believe you.
I believe you, Mr. Huff.
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
Nearly no rubber on his vehicle.
Tires leave a fine impression where we're gonna dump him over.
I don't care who Sanger's attorney is.
Those tire marks will send him up.
Paul, what happened?
Where is he?
He's in his room down the hall.
I think.
I'll take care of him.
♪♪
Ironside, I...
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
You killed him.
No, Mr. Huff.
But he's taken a jolt of electrical current.
You and George can help him.
All right, Mr. Ironside.
You win.
What's it going to cost us?
I can't answer that.
I won't even bargain with you. All I want's a deal.
No deal.
The man's been killed.
R.E. Franklin wasn't killed.
You'd better talk to George, Mr. Huff.
♪♪
I'm glad we got up here in time to share this stirrup cup with you, at least.
Yes, where do you plan to go from here?
The city.
The city? You mean like the city?
You read me.
And I'm about to drive past the city limits of Gold Strike, California,
fun city of the Sierra, for the very last time.
You're a little premature, Mark.
We have to come back here.
Oh, no.
You're forgetting the trial we have to testify.
Wouldn't it be all right if I phoned myself in?
I wouldn't count on it.
Chief, whatever happened to that dream vacation you were talking about for weeks?
Yeah, that's right, Chief.
You were going to break with the old routine,
escape from the Hall of Justice rat race,
breathe clean country air,
talk to some uncomplicated nice people for a change.
What happened?
Good question.
When I think of an answer worthy of it, you'll be the first to know.
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