by Elmer Kelton
ever day.
JENNY
Yes. I know.
Todd strokes her cheek. She lifts her hand to his face. He tilts up her chin with his forefinger. Their lips come
together in their first kiss. It is long and deep,
heads unmoving, the swing rocking slower and slower then falling still.
Finally coming up for air, they begin to feel with fingertips each other's face, as if the darkness were total and love had to work in blindness. Todd then slips his right arm under Jenny's knee and slides her into his lap. She half resists, passionate yet hesitant. Another long kiss, then she nestles her head in his shoulder hollow.
FADE TO:
EXT. PORCH
A short while later. Todd and Jenny are still in close embrace, busy with exploring kisses over each other's face and neck.
JENNY (CONT'D)
(by degrees disengaging from the embrace)
We better go in now, sweetheart.
(and as Todd squeezes her
that much tighter)
Really we'd better, honey. Jane's made you a pallet on the floor in the parlor. I'm sharing her bedroom.
She gently withdraws from Todd's arms. A stronger breeze through the pecan tree raises the whisper of the wind to a hissing and sighing. As Todd lifts his head to look, a dim vision of the hanging tree is SUPERIMPOSED on the real tree before his eyes, a shadowy body dangling from it. He shudders. Jenny senses what is wrong and draws his head down to wrap it tight in both arms against her breasts.
JENNY (CONT'D)
We'll save him, darling. Don't be afraid. We will. We will.
She kisses the top of his head. No words come to them. Then Todd raises his head. They look at each other for a moment, then Todd stands up and turns away from the tree. They walk together softly to the screen door. Todd opens it. Both slip through.
INT. WHARTON PARLOR
JENNY
(from the foot of
the stairs)
Good night, dear heart.
TODD
Good night. Good night, my darling.
Todd gropes his way to the fireplace mantle and takes down his pistol, then creeps to a pallet of quilts on the floor, and without even taking off his shoes, lies down on his stomach with the pistol close beside him. He clutches the pillow tight under his chin, then buries his face in it.
EXT. WHARTON FARMHOUSE FRONT YARD - DAY
A wagon with a mule team hitched stands before the house. Two male slaves are loading various items: a couple of
trunks, kitchen utensils, bedding. Jane and Mrs
Wharton and Jenny come and go, directing. Todd is just walking away toward the corral when he sees SIX MOUNTED MILITIAMEN coming from the direction of Milcourt. He hurries out to meet them.
TODD (CONT'D)
Where y'all headed?
MILITIA SERGEANT
(riding in front)
Ticknor place. Relieve the boys there now... Somebody moving out?
TODD
The women folks're moving into town. It ain't safe out here.
SERGEANT
Won't be no quilting bee in Milcourt neither. You heard the latest?
TODD
(bracing for the worst)
No. What?
SERGEANT
The jury adjourned this morning, Didn't let on why till one of 'em spilled the beans. They aim to wait a week for excitement to kind'a die down, then turn all the prisoners loose. But let me tell you, a lot o' folks ain't abuying that! Talk about lynching was red hot when we left town.
Todd is in a daze by now. He turns slowly and startstoward the house. The sergeant calls out after him.
SERGEANT
That passel of traitors ought'a get what's coming to 'em, if you ask me.
Todd stops, is about to turn on him, then changes his mind and strides toward Jenny, who is just coming down the steps. He goes up, grips her by the elbows and draws her close.
TODD
We gotta rush to town. No, wait, that won't do: Ticknor seeing us arrive together. I'll go first and y'all come on as quick as you can,
He gives her a hard kiss and lets her go.
JENNY
What's the matter?
TODD
Maybe lynching, that sergeant says. I'm going. I'll see you there.
Todd reaches over and gives her a quick kiss, then strides away toward the corral.
EXT. WHARTON FARM CORRAL
Todd has nearly finished saddling when he notices Cabus, who has come up and is standing at the corral fence. His manner when he speaks is friendlier than ever before.
CABUS
Sump'm I wants you to know. Them outlaws didn't have me buffaloed t'other day. You see this!
He pulls out the longest, wickedest-looking razor ever manufactured.
CABUS (CONT'D)
I had it hid under my hat again my belly. If'n they'd'a come at us,
I'd'a slit one of 'em's throat 'fore t'other'n got me. Give Miss Jenny time to run.
Todd stands looking pensively at Cabus for a moment, then walks over to him, reaches out a hand between the corral rails. Cabus takes it for a firm and heartfelt handshake.
TODD
You know how to watch after her, don't you?
CABUS
I reckon I ought to. Been doing it all her bawn days.
TODD
I'd stay and talk more, Cabus, but I need to get to town in a hurry.
CABUS
Sho' you do.
As Todd is mounting, Cabus comes around to open the gate. His knowing glance at Todd shows he remembers the other time
he opened a gate for him. Todd rides through, then stops beside him and looks down at his face.
TODD
Tell me, Cabus, did you owe Jenny's daddy...sump'm special?
CABUS
(after a momentary pause)
Jis' my life. My wife's too..He bought us from a mean ole devil.
Todd nods in understanding.
TODD
Be seeing you in town.
CABUS
You sho' will.
Cabus stands watching Todd ride away.
EXT. SQUARE - DAY
Todd walks into the square, having left Comanche tied on another street to avoid being conspicuous. Even more people
pack the square than on the first day. Knots of men are talking among themselves. Todd hears 'We oughta take 'em all out and hang 'em' and 'Let's storm that courthouse'.
Some men are leaving while others arrive. In this atmosphere one wrong twitch would turn the crowd into a raving mob. A heavy guard of troops is around both the courthouse and the Dayton Building. Todd goes to the N. side of the square to the window of a barbershop--where he knows there is a wall clock inside. He peers in. We see from Todd's POV it is 12:25. We also see the BARBER, an older man, standing idle by his chair. Todd decides to go in.
INT. BARBER SHOP
BARBER
Hello, Todd
TODD
(nodding, then leaning)
weakly against the wall)
You think they're too yellow to storm the courthouse, or just waiting for...something....
BARBER
Waiting, I figure. Word's around as how when the jury adjourned, the mob leaders rounded 'em up and taken 'em away, and are off somewhere raking 'em over the coals, I reckon. I ain't seen Harley Dexter ner Matt Scanlon. I guess that's why.
We see Todd in a large wall mirror as he turns and heads distracted for the door.
BARBER (CONT'D)
You all right, son?
Todd stops and stares out at the crowd.
TODD
I'll make it.
We see him from behind, and the mob in front of him as he walks out into their midst.
EXT. SQUARE
Todd steps up to the barber shop window again and looks in. We see from Todd's POV that the clock reads 2:35. He turns back to the same sort of scene he has suffered through all these hours. He freezes on
seeing Cabus walking toward Colonel Ticknor. A look of relief comes over his face: at least Jenny must be in town. His relief is short-lived, though. During the exchange between Cabus and Ticknor, the colonel stiffens, lifts a hand to shake a peremptory finger. Seeing Cabus leave, Todd hurries off to intercept him.
EXT. SIDE STREET
Todd hails Cabus, who stops and waits till he comes up.
TODD (CONT'D)
The news ain't good, is it?
CABUS
You right. I say Miss Jenny want'a speak to him at Miz Wharton's
house. He say it kin wait. He too
tied up. So what we gonna do next?
TODD
I just don't know. But we gotta come up with something.
EXT. SQUARE
The feeling of arrested action, of waiting for some great change, is still dominant in the scene. Todd walks again to the barber shop window to check the time. We see from Todd's POV that it is 6:15. He sags wearily against the window-facing and stares out over the crowd as if drugged. All of a sudden there is a stir, the crowd shifting as if the numbness has gone out of it. Todd comes alive at once. He looks to his right and sees the jury entering the square single file, escorted by TWENTY OR MORE men, altogether as if the jury is in custody and on the way to prison themselves. Harley Dexter and Matt Scanlon lead the escort. Todd sees they are headed for the courthouse. He quickly shoulders through the crowd, unheeding of glares.
INT. COURTHOUSE STAIRWAY - EARLY DARK
Todd reaches the courthouse door well ahead of the jury procession, enters, leaps up the stairs, slips into a dark
corner just outside the jury room door. He is safely hidden when the jury group reaches the top of the stairs and files into the room. Dexter and Scanlon make motions for the escort to wait downstairs. Only these two follow the jury inside, closing the door behind them.
INT. JURY ROOM - TODD'S POV, LOOKING IN
At first only the dark outline of a closed door is seen. As a shadowy figure Todd approaches, cracks the door and brings his head close. The jury box with some of the seated jurymen is seen through the crack. Lighted candles are spaced about
on tables and the bar separating the jury box from the rest of the room. Facing the jury at an angle, at a table with a candle before him, Harley Dexter stands.
DEXTER
Hanging six traitors and clearing a bunch more ain't much to show for all yore assling around. Then thought you'd turn the rest of 'em loose on the sly. Well, by God! we'll see about that! So...lemme repeat what we've agreed on. We'll hang the ones that need it the most, and let you free the others. Fair as fair can be.
(turning to the
recording clerk)
Hand me that list, Whit.
The clerk, WHIT SANDERS, hands him a list of the prisoners. Dexter lays it on the table, sits down, scoots a candle near, pulls a stub of a pencil out of his pocket, begins reading out names, checking them as he goes:
DEXTER (CONT'D)
C. A. Jones...James Powers...Eli Scott...Thomas Baker...George Anderson...
Todd is so intent on hearing the names that he does not notice people have crowded up the stairs and packed in behind him. Startled, he finds the door is wide open now, and he has been pushed into the room ahead of the crowd. These people are not the mob but families of the prisoners, to judge from the groans and outcries when a name is read.
DEXTER
Abraham McNeese...Henry Cochran... James Ward...William Wernell...
Dexter's eyes have found Todd, who is near desperation, always expecting to hear Pap's name next.
DEXTER (CONT'D)
B. F, Barnes... William Rhodes...
Dexter pauses, running his eye up and down the list. Then he looks up, his eye still on Todd, who stares back, trembling.
DEXTER (CONT'D)
Curd Goss...Ramah Dye...Arphax Dawson.
He stops and holds the list up before him for a long moment, obviously for effect. Then he hands it back to Whit Sanders. Todd staggers, is kept on his feet only by the people surrounding him.
DEXTER (CONT'D)
(to Scanlon)
I reckon that'll satisfy us, won't it, Matt?
MATT SCANLON
That'll satisfy us.
DANIEL MONTAGUE, president of the jury, is sitting at a nearby table with a gavel. His eyes sweep the jury. He appears to have no objection to this travesty.
MONTAGUE
I propose calling this a "group trial." Any of you jurymen object?
Todd's eye falls on Tillman, then on REESE CULLER, who sits ramrod straight staring ahead and scowling bitterly. Tillman's head is bowed, elbows on his knees, hands covering his face, in an attitude of prayer.
MONTAGUE (CONT'D)
Well and good! These...
(to the clerk)
Does that make fourteen, Whit?
The clerk nods, a horrified look on his face.
MONTAGUE (CONT'D)
All right! These men are pronounced guilty and sentenced to hang. Tomorrow! And may God have mercy on their souls!
He brings the gavel down hard on the table.
EXT. RAVINE - NIGHT
Todd is climbing down the rocks with the Spencer in his hand, walks over to Comanche standing near by.
TODD
(to Comanche, strapping the Spencer to the saddle)
He don't aim to let Pap live.
He wants to smoke me out so he can kill us both...Oh, I'll be on hand tomorrow, Harley, but not where you think.
EXT. DAYTON BUILDING - BEFORE DAWN
A balcony, Dayton Building second floor rear. The branches of a large tree reach in close. In the first paling of dawn Todd climbs the tree, inches out on a limb and swings over onto the balcony. He climbs then to the balcony roof and on up to the main roof, which slopes a little forward to the building's false front, behind which he can easily hide and to which he now crawls.
He carries the Spencer and a haversack holding ammunition, food and a canteen. He finds drain spouts large enough to spy through. He lies prone next to one of these spouts and peers through it. From his POV we see the courthouse, much of the square, and the street below, blocked off under military guard. The death wagon waits in the street.
EXT. ROOF/SQUARE - DAY
Todd looks up behind him at the lately risen sun, golden among broken clouds. He surveys the whole sky, glad to have the clouds. MURMURS FROM THE CROWD BELOW call him back to
his spyhole. We see Harley Dexter and Matt Scanlon emerging from the courthouse door with a prisoner between them.
TODD (CONT'D)
(in a strained whisper)
Bill Wernell! God in Heaven!
WILLIAM WERNELL weaves along, flanked by Dexter and Scanlon, who often prod him with an elbow to keep him walking straight. He comes up and grasps the side of the wagonbed to climb in, then suddenly collapses and sprawls. Dexter and Scanlon stand back while four soldiers lift Wernell and swing him roughly into the wagon. The sight of Dexter and Scanlon causes Todd to grip and almost lift the Spencer. Wernell lies inert and loose-jointed in the wagon bed as he is driven away between cordons of soldiers. Onlookers crowd in behind to follow. As before, Colonel Ticknor is the only mounted man in the procession. Todd draws back from his spyhole, lets his head sink into crossed arms and lies overcome. We hear the WAGON CLATTERING along below and the CLOPPING of the mules' hooves.
EXT. ROOF/SQUARE
Todd hears the WAGON RETURNING, looks out to see it stop. Soldiers transfer a blanket-wrapped body to another wagon.
Todd takes small swigs from his canteen, shaking it to check how much water is left. He glances at the sun high in the sky. Clouds are breaking, so the sun beats down on him. Weary, sweating, confused, he goes back to his post.
ABE MCNEESE comes through the courthouse door, steady on his feet, accompanied also by Dexter and Scanlon. He climbs on his own, if shakily, into the wagon. He is calm, rigid.
TODD (CONT'D)
(whispering again)
Abe McNeese. Does this make six? Or is it seven?
McNeese is defiant. Once crouched in the wagon, he curses Dexter and Scanlon, words not clear to us, but Scanlon in reaction waves at the slave driving the wagon.
SCANLON
Get this sonofabitch out'a here before I shoot him!
Todd waits till the usual SOUNDS of THE DEPARTING WAGON have ceased. He then takes a hunk of cornbread out of the haversack, tries to eat, slowly, sipping water as he goes. But he can only get down a few bites. The sky has cleared. Todd is heat-stricken, torpid, emotions drained.
TODD
(slapping his cheeks)
Wake up, damn you! Ole Harley might slip Pap in that line-up anytime!
EXT. ROOF/SQUARE
The sun has now slanted down to barely above the courthouse. Todd is drenched in sweat. But at least now the false front affords a narrow shade for him to lie in when not at his
vigil. He is clearly in a daze, hanging on by sheer determination. He is brought out of his lethargy by HARSH VOICES and SCUFFLING FEET heard from below. He crawls weakly to the drain spout, this time clutching the Spencer.
Below, TOM BAKER, a big and powerful man, has turned on Dexter and Scanlon and attacked them. Three guardsmen rush in to grapple with him before he is subdued. As he stands with both arms pinioned, Matt Scanlon steps up and gives him a back-handed slap across the face.