26 Men

[watching the outlaw Ellie ride pell-mell across the desert]

Ranger Ben Comstock:
Wooo! Look at her git!

Capt. Thomas Rynning:
Why does she bother robbing trains? She could make a fair haul out of running a school for jockeys.

[after trapping Ellie in a cave, the rangers prepare to set up camp and cook dinner]

Ranger Ben Comstock:
Seems like an ornery trick, Captain, cookin' her vittles and all.

Capt. Thomas Rynning:
Would you rather smoke her out or shoot her out?

[Rynning clamps a set of handcuffs on Ellie's wrists]

Ellie Gibbons:
Is this the way Arizona lawmen treat women, chasing them without warning, scaring them half to death? After all, I thought you were a pair of common highwaymen.

Capt. Thomas Rynning:
Oh, we've risen in the world. Your partner took us for claim jumpers.

[last lines]

Capt. Tom Rynning:
Never underestimate your enemies, Travis - nor your friends.

Ranger Clint Travis:
Kinda funny, ain't it, making counterfeit plates in prison. Ain't there some sort of regulation against that, Captain?

Narrator:
Wednesday, July 17, 1903. At 0908 hours, a wounded inmate was found in the prison print shop. He had been knifed in the upper region of his abdomen. The prisoner was identified as Eric Wagner, serving five to ten years for counterfeiting. At 1213 hours, Wagner died without naming his killer. Wagner's death became page 1 of Arizona Rangers' case file 3394. Same date: Ranger Clint Travis was assigned to the case. Conducting an investigation at the prison, Ranger Travis established a motive for the brutal killing of Eric Wagner. A counterfeiter of known variety, Wagner had somehow managed to make a set of counterfeit plates while working in the prison print shop. A search of the plates was made but they were not found. Identity of the killer was still unknown. Saturday, July 20, 1903. Cane G. Devers was released from prison after serving 8? years for armed robbery with intent to kill.

Capt. Tom Rynning:
They told me there wouldn't be much paperwork in this job. My desk looks like a snowstorm most of the time.

Capt. Tom Rynning:
All right, I want to see Ben Thorpe. I am worried about him. What does that make me?

Ranger Clint Travis:
Almost human, Captain, but don't worry - I won't let it get around.

[the outlaw Mason explains why he doesn't want to appear before a judge in Tucson]

Bear Mason:
But the whole thing's just a personal dislike.

Ranger Clint Travis:
Yeah - the judge can't stand dirty fingernails.

[Moore explains why he helped Mason escape from the Rangers so he can win the upcoming election for sheriff]

Cal Moore:
Once Cal Moore is sheriff, you can forget about the Rangers.

Bear Mason:
Well, I gotta think about it.

Cal Moore:
I could bring you in dead...

Bear Mason:
I just thought about it. You might make a good sheriff at that.

Bartender:
Howdy! What's your pleasure.

Ben Salem:
Food.

[Bartender puts a bottle of whiskey on the bar]

Ben Salem:
No, something to fill the hole behind a man's belt buckle.

Bartender:
Well, that's the best food there is - cleans you right up, brightens the eyes and washes down the trail dust.

Ben Salem:
Got any beef and eggs?

Bartender:
Got 'em... if you want to risk indigestion.

Ben Salem:
Beef and eggs! How much?

Bartender:
A dollar - no charge for the indigestion.

Ireland:
You got business in Yuma? What kind of business?

Lloyd Quinten, Escapee:
My own.

Ireland:
Wrong, mister! A stranger wearing a tied down gun is everybody's business in this town.

Lloyd Quinten, Escapee:
You speakin' for yourself?

Ireland:
I'm the mayor of Yuma - Mayor Ireland. I used to be the town's mortician, but I had to close up - no business.

Lloyd Quinten, Escapee:
Hey, you! You better open up your morgue again.

[last lines]

Ranger Clint Travis:
Yesterday sure turned out to be lucky for us.

Capt. Tom Rynning:
I wouldn't call it lucky.

Capt. Tom Rynning, Ranger Clint Travis:
You wouldn't? We wouldn't have had a posse if it hadn't been for the Apaches - that was luck. And Quinten didn't hurt Kit Thompson. I call that real luck in my book.

Capt. Tom Rynning:
Maybe you're not reading the right book.

Ranger Clint Travis:
Where are you going, Captain?

Capt. Tom Rynning:
To the church down the road.

Ranger Clint Travis:
A church?

Capt. Tom Rynning:
I'll be there. I want to thank God for what happened yesterday.

Capt. Tom Rynning:
By the early 1900's the Dalton's were gone, Tombstone had died, and the hostile Apache had long laid down his arms. Still, here and there in the territory of Arizona, memory was strong. And though hatred remained, the Arizona Rangers tried to help people forget.

Kevin Wade:
Just remember, Ranger, I might call on you to back me up. You're the law.

Capt. Tom Rynning:
And you remember - law isn't always justice.

Narrator:
April 1901. Jack Rawles, a killer tougher than Leavenworth broke loose and shot his way across the plains in a desperate running gamble for freedom. He made it into the territory of Arizona and now the only barrier between him in the border is the last chance bunch of lawmen called the Arizona Rangers!

[Kelino and Tenney are playing a high-stakes game of poker with Tenney dealing]

Big Ed Kelino:
Well, since it's blind and since it's my game, we'll just switch hands and show. You don't mind, do you?

Seth Tenney:
It's not that I mind the gamble... it's the ugly suggestion.

Sheriff Neil Prescott:
It's against the law to help a wanted man - especially a killer.

Lita Cordona:
Killer?

Sheriff Neil Prescott:
Yeah, Tenney killed a man in Nogales. The Arizona Rangers want him real bad.

Lita Cordona:
What makes you think he would come here?

Sheriff Neil Prescott:
A man in trouble generally runs to his friends. You and Tenney were thick as fleas on a hound dog when he was around town. Tenney's a smooth one. Don't let him talk you into anything.

Lita Cordona:
No one talks Lita into anything, Sheriff!

Sheriff Neil Prescott:
Money talks - and Tenney got away with a hatful.

[discussing a stool pigeon]

Ranger Clint Travis:
Did Deake get out of town?

Capt. Tom Rynning:
I think so. You know, in a way, I'm going to miss him.

Ranger Clint Travis:
Yeah, me too... every chance I get!

Capt. Tom Rynning:
The only way to stop the execution is to come up with new evidence. I knew that when I went to see the governor.

Ranger Clint Travis:
Well, you still think he isn't guilty?

Capt. Tom Rynning:
I don't think he isn't guilty - I'm afraid he isn't guilty.

[last lines]

Capt. Tom Rynning:
[narrating] Case ended - but sometimes you wonder if you've really ended a case. Carlos Castanaras paid for his mistake; sentenced to Yuma prison. Brockton and Shadley paid for their mistakes... with their lives. What happens when the law itself makes a mistake like the court did when it hung Paolo Murego? It's one of those questions you don't like to ask yourself, because you somehow know you don't have the answer. I don't. Maybe somebody else has the answer.

[screen dissolves to a shot of the sun shining on the bells of a mission church]

[last lines]

[Ranger Shoreham drops the strongbox containing the silver shipment on Rhynning's desk]

Capt. Tom Rhynning:
We'll need a full report on this, Ranger. And, when you're finished, I'll personally see Mr. Conroy reads it - or eats it. He'll have his choice.

[Hardy has hired Farley to kill his brother]

Pinch Farley:
Why are so anxious to have your brother killed?

Arron Hardy:
That's my business.

Pinch Farley:
You're makin' it *my* business.

[first lines]

Narrator:
Twenty-six men chosen for their courage and ability formed the Arizona Rangers. Fame and public acclaim was not their objective. This is perhaps why the story of these 26 men has not been told until now. This was the Arizona Territory at the turn of the century - a sparsely settled, raw frontier. Terrified by bands of desperados who operated in open defiance of local peace officers.

Ranger Clint Travis:
The sign outside says you need rangers. I want to join up.

Capt. Tom Rynning:
Why?

Ranger Clint Travis:
I had a little spread near Grainger and I went broke. I need a job.

Capt. Tom Rynning:
You can find an easier one - being a ranger isn't all it's cracked up to be. Sometimes you're in the saddle for 48 hours, no sleep, bad food; picked on by unhappy citizens and shot at by outlaws. You furnish your own horse, arms and equipment. The enlistement is for four years and the pay is 50 dollars a month.

Ranger Clint Travis:
Inspite of that recommendation, I'll take it. My name's Clint Travis.

Capt. Tom Rynning:
There are four major requirements - honesty, horsemanship, a fast gun and the nerve to enforce the law without fear or prejudice.

Capt. Tom Rynning:
Don't ever pull your gun again unless you use it.

Ranger Clint Travis:
B-But I've never drawn on a man before. I couldn't pull the trigger.

Capt. Tom Rynning:
Yeah, I know. It happens that way sometimes. You'll get over it.

Ranger Clint Travis:
But the thought of killing a man...

Capt. Tom Rynning:
You don't always have to. If a man's mounted, smash an elbow; if he's on a foot a bullet in the shoulder will knock him down and you can disarm him... but don't ever fight with your fists - you could cripple your gun hand. Then every two-bit gunslinger would shoot at you and you wouldn't have a chance.

Lola Johnson, Emporium Saloon:
You're a fool, Red. You're not up against two men - now you're fighting 26 rangers.

Big Red Monahon:
I run this town, Lola. Nobody's gonna change it.

[last lines]

Capt. Tom Rynning:
It never ends, Corporal. Apaches on the warpath, riots at the Great Western Copper Mine, raids on the cattlemen near Bisbee... Travis, how soon can you be ready to travel again?

Ranger Clint Travis:
In about thirty minutes.

Capt. Tom Rynning:
Good. Get your horse ready. The corporal will have your orders ready by that time.

Ranger Clint Travis:
Yes, sir.

Capt. Tom Rynning:
Yes...?

Ranger Clint Travis:
...captain.

Capt. Tom Rynning:
Travis... good luck.

Ranger Clint Travis:
Thank you, Captain.

[last lines]

[discussing Mary Bender]

Capt. Tom Rynning:
She's hard as nails.

Ranger Clint Travis:
Smart, too. She really fooled me.

Capt. Tom Rynning:
But you were in good company. Delilah fooled Samson, too.

Ranger Clint Travis:
If Delilah looked anything like Mary Bender, I don't blame him.

Capt. Tom Rynning:
The 26 men of Arizona Rangers encountered a lot of violence. It sprang openly from the quarrels of hot tempered men. But occasionally we found another kind of violence hidden from the light of day and springing from the twisted souls of men.

[knocks Monk down with his rifle butt]

Ed Lacey:
Right now you're on top of the ground, Monk. If you don't talk, you're gonna be six feet under it.

[first lines]

Walt Handy:
Anyone who tries to follow us is gonna get shot...

[murders a villager in cold blood]

Walt Handy:
...just like that.

Capt. Tom Rynning:
Hello, boys. Tired?

Ranger Foster, Operator:
Nothing that 72 hours of sleep couldn't fix.

Ranger Clint Travis:
We caught Lopez working at the smelter cook shed. He threw a skillet of hot grease and otherwise resisted arrest - burned Foster on the leg.

Capt. Tom Rynning:
What did you do with him?

Ranger Clint Travis:
Well, when he started resisting us, we were forced to resist him.

Ranger Foster, Operator:
Turned his body over the sheriff with all personal effects.

[Rynning has outlined his plan for capturing Handy and his gang to Travis and Foster who have just returned from another mission]

Ranger Foster, Operator:
Well, I guess it's bright and early in the morning again.

Capt. Tom Rynning:
Sorry, it's bright and early again *now*. You stay here, Foster, and get that leg fixed.

Ranger Foster, Operator:
It's not so bad.

Capt. Tom Rynning:
There's no place around here for heroes. A game leg might make the difference Handy needs.

Ranger Foster, Operator:
Any special instructions?

Capt. Tom Rynning:
Just take care of that leg.

Ranger Clint Travis:
Maybe I'll get lucky and be shot this time.

[Cincioni is singing loudly and off-key]

Capt. Tom Rynning:
Will you shut up!

Cincioni the Indian Tracker:
Nobody around for many mile. Nobody hear me.

Capt. Tom Rynning:
What do you mean nobody? I can hear you!

Banker:
The Papago chiefs distributed the money among their people. Most of the certificates found their way back into circulation, but some of the Indians are inclined to live frugally and save up for a rainy day.

Ranger Clint Travis:
Or a dry one.

Ranger Clint Travis:
This Stace Underhill - is he suspected of riding with the Musgrove Boys?

Capt. Tom Rynning:
Yes. It's a bad time for them to be moving back into the territory. People in the east are fighting our bid for statehood, claiming all we have out here are George Musgroves and gila monsters.

Ranger Clint Travis:
Afraid we're stuck with the monsters.

Capt. Tom Rynning:
Yeah, but not the Musgroves. We can't let them get a foothold in this territory.

Sheriff Bill Brennan:
There are worse things than being married to a sheriff.

Keeley Smith:
Maybe, but I can't think of 'em right now. I've still got my dream.

Sheriff Bill Brennan:
What dream?

Keeley Smith:
You couldn't afford the down payment, so why bother.

[Pierce plans to arrest Sheriff Brennan for accepting a bribe]

Ranger Joe Pierce:
Brennan! Pierce - Arizona Rangers.

Sheriff Bill Brennan:
I saw you ride in.

Ranger Joe Pierce:
Are you comin' out or do I have to come in there?... Did you here me, Brennan?

Sheriff Bill Brennan:
I heard you, Ranger.

Ranger Joe Pierce:
What are you goin' to do?

Sheriff Bill Brennan:
I'm comin' out.

Ranger Joe Pierce:
Peaceably?

Sheriff Bill Brennan:
No!

Ranger Joe Pierce:
...Any time.