- Annie Griffith: I found you shot and raving with fever. An awful mess, awful. Though I ain't never seen a man who wasn't. Here now, lay back there, got some work to do on you. Makes me feel real bad to see a man helpless like this, real bad.
- Bill Hawks: Are you sure, ma'am, that you haven't seen Flint?
- Annie Griffith: I ain't seen him. I ain't seen him at all. Now git.
- Bill Hawks: We got a long hard ride ahead of us, ma'am. We'd sure appreciate it if we could come in and warm ourselves by your fire.
- Annie Griffith: I ain't got no fire
- [Annie, Charlie and Bill look up to the smoke billowing from the brick chimney, Annie punctuates the air with a rifle shot]
- Annie Griffith: I ain't got no fire at all. Now git.
- Charlie Wooster: She ain't got no fire.
- Major Seth Adams: Well, I'll be...
- Flint McCullough: Major.
- Major Seth Adams: Howdy.
- Flint McCullough: Sorry I held you up, Major. But I ran into a little trouble.
- Major Seth Adams: Wasn't you that held us up, was getting ready to go on without you anyhow.
- Flint McCullough: I see.
- Annie Griffith: I never thought I'd live to see the day I'd accept hospitality from a Yankee officer.
- Major Seth Adams: You listen to me, boy. I don't know whether we gonna get through the Sierra or not. We got trouble as it is without some strange female coming along complicating matters worse than they are.
- Flint McCullough: So maybe you'd be obliged and happy if she could ride in your wagon.
- Major Seth Adams: My wagon?
- Flint McCullough: Yes, Major. Thank you very much, Major. Come this way, Annie. I'll show you the Major's wagon.
- Annie Griffith: It's his medicine that saved you.
- Flint McCullough: Why did you go to him?
- Annie Griffith: To get you safe passage to the wagon train.
- Flint McCullough: Why Annie? Were you worried about me?
- Annie Griffith: Nothing of the sort. I couldn't let the Shoshone get you after all my nursing. Now could I?
- Flint McCullough: You know you're pretty. All you have to do is set your mind to it.
- Annie Griffith: Teake said the Spirit Devils would be talking in you for a little while. I declare you're just out of your head.
- Flint McCullough: You might as well get used to it. You're pretty. If you ever get out of here, some proper gentleman will tell you.
- Annie Griffith: You better not go back to sleep, supper is nearly ready.
- Flint McCullough: You're pretty
- [He drifts off to sleep]
- Annie Griffith: [She leans over him, her face with that soft expression a woman has when she might kiss a man] I declare if another living thing had died on me, I would have just given in.
- Charlie Wooster: Flint McCullough. Damn blast your hide. The Major's been worried sick about you.
- Flint McCullough: He didn't have to. I had very good medicine. Oh Charlie, this is Mrs Griffith.
- Charlie Wooster: Howdy Ma'am
- [He does a double take]
- Charlie Wooster: McCullough, does the Major know you're dragging her along?
- Annie Griffith: Quit yelling in my ear. Mm.
- Flint McCullough: Thanks a lot, Annie.
- Annie Griffith: Better put that hat back on, might catch cold
- [Flint tips his hat and salutes to her, unable express in words his full appreciation for her nursing]
- Charlie Wooster: Why ain't people smart like me?
- Major Seth Adams: You know, Charlie, I wonder how I keep forgetting how really smart you are.
- Charlie Wooster: I'd like to know that myself.
- Major Seth Adams: Well, in case you break the point of that shovel, I suggest you use something harder and more pointed. Like your head.
- Charlie Wooster: What what did I say?
- Bill Hawks: Too much.
- Pop: Just keep totting away at this and you got your own fire.
- Major Seth Adams: [the Major has a slug from the jug] Well, thanks, Pop. Thanks.
- Major Seth Adams: Y'know something, I never saw a wind that could blow as hard as a Texan can.
- Cleve Colter: That's right. And if I wasn't blowing against it, this whole train'd be moving backwards.
- Major Seth Adams: I'll see that you get a medal for it.
- Cleve Colter: There's a feel of snow in it.
- Major Seth Adams: It's too early to snow in this country, Mister.
- Charlie Wooster: I bet wherever he is, he's hip deep in snow this minute.
- Major Seth Adams: It's too early to snow in this country, Charlie.
- Charlie Wooster: Why them Sierra Passes are full of snow. You can't tell me...
- Major Seth Adams: I'm telling you it's too early to snow in this country. And you'd better not say anything different, get all these people in the train panicked, I'll stick your head in the first snowdrift we come to.
- Charlie Wooster: Now, what'd I say?
- Bill Hawks: Too much.
- Major Seth Adams: Let me tell you something, Mister. This train is far ahead of where that other one was. We got food, we got fuel, and we got clothes. Our stock's in good condition and we're not lost. And as far as I know, everybody on this train is in his right mind. So if I was you folks, I go get my belly full and keep warm. And if you gotta think about wagon trains that came this way, think about the ones that got through.
- Major Seth Adams: Snow cloud sure is the devil.
- Bill Hawks: Yeah, and there's no mistaking them. What would you give to see old McCullough come riding right out from under them right now.
- Major Seth Adams: That's more than I got, I'll tell you that. It's be advice to these people if he'd show up. If he doesn't come in tomorrow at dawn, I'm gonna send you and Charlie out looking for him
- [Bill's hat is blown off by the wind]
- Bill Hawks: Figure he's lost?
- Major Seth Adams: No, he's not lost. He's never lost. I figure he's snowbound. He's got to be
- [Bill retrieves his hat from the ground behind them]
- Cleve Colter: You must know what a Northener is.
- Major Seth Adams: Yeah. In every place else besides Texas, it's just a wind, a big wind.
- Cleve Colter: Freezing wind. Right out of the North. Comes roaring down the plain from Canada. Turns everything to ice. Snow.
- Major Seth Adams: I guess you been over the High Sierras, huh?
- Cleve Colter: No.
- Major Seth Adams: Well, I have and so has Flint McCullough. We both know darn well that some of those passes are full of snow, and we also know that some of the passes down south are just as clear as Main Street. And McCullough's gonna pick the right ones for us.
- Annie Griffith: Where's your wagon train heading?
- Bill Hawks: Why, West, to California.
- Annie Griffith: West, always heading West
- [her disappointment and dismay are obvious]
- Annie Griffith: You killed the only living thing that was still mine. Now I'm nursing you back to health. That's sorta funny, mm?
- Flint McCullough: I'm sorry.
- Annie Griffith: You always gonna be sorry about everything?
- Charlie Wooster: Sure looks like blood.
- Bill Hawks: Looks like they drug it off that way.
- Charlie Wooster: You ain't thinking McCullough?
- Bill Hawks: I'm thinking it might be. Until we know different.
- Charlie Wooster: I been telling myself all along, if McCullough did come this way and ran into this snow, he'd cut back to the South Pass.
- Bill Hawks: If he was able.
- Charlie Wooster: If he did come this way. It's past midday and, if I know McCullough, he'd be up riding by now.
- Charlie Wooster: Why do you keep saying "IF" we're on McCullough's trail? Ain't you sure?
- Bill Hawks: Aren't you sure?
- Charlie Wooster: No, But I'd feel a lot better if you was. If somebody did come this way and possibly camped here. I'll go look for some water.
- Annie Griffith: I brought ya here. Don't think I wasn't able. Women got strength that men don't even know about. It's a- Something she learns, something that grows inside her. That ain't no pain. Well, I got no whiskey. I could clout you one on the head. That's the best I can do.
- Flint McCullough: [He gasps with pain] You could have left me there.
- Annie Griffith: Ain't much good to me dead. You might be worth something to me alive, even half alive. You might be worth something to the Shoshone.
- Flint McCullough: Shoshone?
- Annie Griffith: Oh, steady now
- [Flint issues a sharp gasp and passes out as Annie studies the bullet she has extracted from his shoulder with her hunting knife]
- Annie Griffith: What do you know about the South?
- Flint McCullough: The way it sounds.
- Annie Griffith: The way it sounds? You're too plain, Annie. No proper gentleman wants a plain woman for a wife. Out West now, marrying's easy. Too easy. And the marriage is hard.
- Flint McCullough: You lose your husband?
- Annie Griffith: I'm not looking for him. When you lose something, you try to find it.
- Flint McCullough: [Flint stops among the pine trees to dismount from Little Buck to put his fleece-lined jacket on. He starts to collect wood for a fire when a rifle shot lands at his boots and has him on the ground seeking cover. Another close shot is fired at him. He spots falling stones as the sniper moves, Flint fires two shots in retaliation] Who're you after?
- Blade Griffith: I want your horse.
- Flint McCullough: So do I.
- Blade Griffith: I want him more.
- Flint McCullough: You'll have to come and get him.
- Annie Griffith: I've had a lot to bear lately and I don't want you dying on me.
- Flint McCullough: I'll do what I can.
- Annie Griffith: Get a dollop or two of this down yer, it might break up the fever.
- Flint McCullough: I don't think I can eat.
- Annie Griffith: Spoon yourself some.
- Annie Griffith: He's a big man. He's got red hair, sight redder than yours. He's got eyes that gentle you with a look, or they can cut through you. He's not so easy to look at since I cut him, right down the face
- [she indicates with her hand where Blade's scar would be and Flint with the slightest flinch knows who he killed with his knife]
- Flint McCullough: I'm sorry.
- Annie Griffith: Sorry? I did the burying alone, every time, alone... Well, when the trails opened last Spring, he was off.
- Flint McCullough: Did you love him?
- Annie Griffith: That first year, part of it when we were new to each other. That was all a long time ago, and there's a lot to remember since then.
- Major Seth Adams: And I've got two smart young boys like you working for me that can't even handle a woman with a shotgun.
- Charlie Wooster: You never saw a woman like her. We wouldn't be much good to you dead.
- Major Seth Adams: You're not much good to me alive either, are you?
- Flint McCullough: Dog soldiers, best fighters in the tribe.
- Annie Griffith: They're friends of mine. They brought me these
- [She tosses Flint's saddlebags at him. He conceals the pain as the full impact just misses his injured hip]
- Flint McCullough: How come you got friendly with the Shoshone?
- Annie Griffith: Any time they come up with some gold or something money that I can spend, I'll tell them where you are right quick. Why'd you kill Blade?
- Charlie Wooster: Tell him about that kooked crazy female. If you ask me, Flint would be better off with the Shoshone.
- Major Seth Adams: Female? Shoshone? What the devil are you talking about? Did you get a little snowblind up there?
- Charlie Wooster: I could've, there's enough snow.
- Annie Griffith: What are ya? As dumb as yer look? Or can't you hear good?
- Bill Hawks: We're looking for a man.
- Annie Griffith: Yeah, well, I ain't. I sure ain't.