Bonanza s02e30 Episode Script

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Don't you men know there's a law against rustling? Well, if you're gonna hang us, you might as well go get your rope.
It won't do you no good, though.
There'll be more of us.
A man's got to eat.
A man should be able to eat without stealing.
That's easy for you to say, Mr.
Cartwright.
Some of us have been out of work for over four months.
Any money we had went to feed our families a long time ago.
You're miners, aren't you? We were.
We ain't thieves, Mr.
Cartwright.
We just can't get any work.
More men being laid off every day.
There ain't a mine working in Virginia City.
It's pretty bad all over the Comstock, Pa.
I know Wheeler there; he ain't no thief.
Used to be foreman on the Gould & Curry.
I know, I know.
All right, you killed that steer.
Better take him with you.
But pass the word along, we won't stand for anybody stealing our beef rustlers or miners.
They're getting pretty desperate.
Hungry men can cause a lot of trouble.
Yeah.
I'm sorry it happened, Ben.
I'll get some warrants sworn out and Well, Roy, we-we didn't come here for that reason.
Ah, you can't blame a man for wanting to feed his family, keep his children from starving.
We got to take them in.
If we don't, you'll start losing cattle by the hundreds.
We got an awful lot of men out of jobs here.
Yeah, we saw most of them as we was riding in a while ago.
If them mines don't pick up soon, well, that many idle men spells trouble.
Roy, we don't want to get anybody arrested.
All we want to do is, we'll tell you that we'd-we'd like to offer a few head of cattle maybe every day to help tide things over.
And we'd like to do it through you.
I know it's not much, but Well, it's a lot.
It'll keep them people from going hungry.
And maybe it'll keep the rustlers off our land, too.
Yeah.
We'll take them, Ben, and be obliged to you.
Well, you know, Roy, whatever whatever happens to Virginia City affects our ranch, too.
Sure is a big way of looking at it.
Take it easy, Roy.
Good-bye, boys.
Horton, if you know something, why don't you tell us? Yeah, tell us what you know.
Now I haven't been down on the Thunderhead.
But there is a shift down below, ain't there? And they got the shift locked in, and they're sending food down to them, ain't that right? Course that's right.
Well, all right.
I guess that's no secret.
Pa, we, uh, we delivered that stock.
Oh, good, good.
We'll, uh, we'll bring in a few more head tomorrow.
What's going on? Seems there's a lot of talk about a strike in the Thunderhead.
The Thunderhead? You sure you're not mistaken? Ain't no mistake about it, Pa.
Wait till old Adam gets back from San Francisco and hears about this; he always swore there wasn't nothing in that Thunderhead but sand and gravel.
Yeah.
Hey, you know, it's a shame it's not next door in the Gould & Curry.
You got some stock in that one, don't you, Pa? Yeah, but I'm not thinking about the stock.
I just hope that-that talk about the strike in the Thunderhead is true.
Come on, let's go down.
There you are! What more do you want? The Thunderhead owners are trying to keep the news quiet.
Why else would they keep a shift locked down below? Yeah.
Why? Well, all I know is that Frank Furnas knows his mining.
And he don't go around buying dry holes.
I just don't understand this.
Well, why, Pa? It ain't the first time a bonanza's been struck on the Comstock.
Yeah.
Well Hey, Roy! Mr.
Cartwright! Mr.
Cartwright.
Doggone it, you won't have to worry about them critters of yours no more.
The Thunderhead hit it big! Yeah.
Roy Sure is exciting, ain't it? Yeah, that's what I want to talk to you about.
- Can we talk inside your office? - Sure.
Uh, boys, I'll be a little while with the sheriff.
I'll meet you back at the hotel later.
- Okay, Pa.
- See you.
Right, Roy.
Let's go over here and see what's happening.
What's on your mind, Ben? Well, this talk about the strike in the Thunderhead Now, that's beginning to shape up like a lot more than talk.
This is the best news to hit the Comstock in more than six months.
Yeah, I guess you're right, if there's any truth in it.
Now, what makes you say that? Roy, Jim Bronson ran the Thunderhead for five years, right? Yeah.
Now, he's the best mining man in the Comstock Lode.
Pretty good.
He told me that the Thunderhead was a dead hole.
Now, his foreman, Leon Flores, told me the same thing.
Oh, they could both be wrong.
Yeah, I guess they could.
But Jim seemed pretty positive.
Maybe Jim's just sour 'cause he made the mistake of selling too soon.
Yeah, maybe.
I'm going to ask him again, just to make sure I heard him right.
I'll see you.
Yeah, you heard me right, Ben.
Then all this talk about a new strike is just a pack of lies.
I sold the Thunderhead.
It's none of my business.
Oh, Jim, I I wasn't making an accusation.
I I was just asking.
Now, what do you expect me to do? Those people out there are friends of mine.
You've seen them.
They've been dead men for months.
Now they're coming alive.
Now there'll be something to live for jobs, maybe.
Ben Ben, at least they got hope.
Do you want me to destroy that? Jim What do you plan to do? Can't decide.
Furnas and Cunningham are up to something.
They offered me $10,000 to go along with them.
To say that I went down the Thunderhead and seen the new strike.
Well, did you go down? Did you see the new strike? I told you, there's no strike in the Thunderhead! Jim, if you need money badly I'm not thinking about myself.
I'm thinking about those miners out there.
I'm thinking about the whole town.
Ben, do you know what'd happen if even a false boom started? San Francisco money would start coming in.
And maybe some of the closed mines would get a little courage and open up.
There's a lot of men out there that need work.
Some of them would get it.
Now, do you want me to go out and tell them there's no possible chance of any silver in the Thunderhead? Do you want me to take away their last hope? Uh, Jim Jim, you're you're so right about Virginia City.
It it's in a bad way.
It's it's tottering.
But it hasn't fallen.
You give it a false boom, you give it a-a few months of false prosperity based on nothing, and you'll be giving it a final push, and Virginia City will really collapse.
Only it won't be a depression, it will be a catastrophe.
Yeah.
Thought of that, too.
Have you given Furnas and Cunningham their answer? No.
They're coming over this afternoon.
What are you going to tell them? I've been honest all my life, Ben.
I guess I'm too old to change now.
They're not going to like it.
But don't worry, Ben.
I got into it, and I'll get out of it.
But thanks, Ben.
Thanks for coming by.
I needed somebody to talk to.
Mr.
Bronson, I thought we had come to an agreement about this.
I told you I'd think about it.
I have.
The answer is no.
Aren't you being pretty high-handed about this? Mr.
Furnas here, I believe, has just as much knowledge about mines as you have.
He says he's found plenty of silver in the Thunderhead.
And I say, if there's any silver in the Thunderhead, it was hauled in from somewhere else.
And that makes the whole deal crooked.
Gentlemen, the answer is still no.
Mr.
Bronson, you're making a sad mistake.
He's onto us, Jack.
He just blew the whistle on the whole deal.
Oh, did he? - Horton - Jack.
Do we have to do it this way? Do you want Bronson talking all over town? Horton, you know what you have to do.
That's what I'm paid for.
Horton Be careful.
Well, sure.
Ain't I always? - Let's get out of here! - Take it easy.
Get his money.
I want this to look like a robbery.
Come on! We're at the bottom of a depression like this.
This is the worst I've ever seen.
Oh.
- Hoss? - Hi, Roy.
Whatever it was, I didn't do it.
You sure look guilty to me.
- Ben.
Hi, Roy.
Come on in, sit down, have a cup of coffee.
No, thanks.
Well, what's on your mind? Did you see Jim Bronson yesterday afternoon? Yeah, I had a long talk with Jim.
I got some bad news, Ben.
Jim's dead.
Jim's He was knifed last night, right outside his office.
Looked to me like robbery.
Roy Roy, that whole Thunderhead the strike there's no strike there.
The whole thing's a phony, it's a swindle.
Jim told me that Furnas and Cunningham offered him $10,000 to say there was silver down in the Thunderhead.
There's no silver there.
He told me so himself.
He was waiting for them to come over so he could tell them he wanted no part of the deal.
Ben, that's a pretty serious accusation.
You got any more than that to go on? Well, how much more do you need to go on? Ben, ever since the mines started closing down, there hasn't been a week go by but what at least two men have been killed and robbed by road Oh, sure, sure, on the Divide or down on D Street, but but not right downtown in in an office building.
Roy, I'll bet you Furnas and Cunningham had him killed in order to shut him up.
Just to protect a phony silver promotion? Yes, just to protect a phony silver promotion.
Ben, I I don't know what's been going on down at Thunderhead, but I'm sure it's going to help Virginia City.
Now, what you have is just an unproven story that you say was told to you by a dead man.
I don't feel like going out and telling them miners to give up hope and to sit back and start starving to death.
They're going to start starving to death when the news comes out that the whole thing's a phony! What are you trying to do? Make an excuse for murder? Of course I'm not, and you know it.
I'll investigate it.
But until I got a lot more to go on, I'm going to keep still about it.
Pa, are you are you sure about what you said? Yeah.
Yeah, I'm sure.
Well, Roy'll look into it.
I'm going to look into it, too.
Listen, I think you ought to let the sheriff take care of it.
I'm the one that talked Jim into turning down the deal.
That makes it my responsibility.
Thunderhead's going crazy! Up to 23, with no sellers! Come on, let's get out of here! Dad-burn, I don't blame Sheriff Coffee for not wanting to get in front of that crowd.
Yeah, well, if what Pa thinks is true, he's going to have to, sooner or later.
Yeah, I'd just as soon they calm down a little bit first.
Trample a man to death if he tried to spoil their fun now.
Hey, hey, you know what I was thinking? You know, swindle or no swindle, a man ought to put some money in that stock, you know it? Joe, you just set right down.
Stay right here, just like Pa told us.
Drink your beer.
Hi, boys.
How's it going? Yes, sir, gentlemen, as I was saying, I'm a very careful man.
If I didn't believe Frank Furnas' theory about there being one continuing vein of silver somewhere in the lode, I wouldn't have put five cents into the Thunderhead.
But now I'm glad I trusted him.
And, gentlemen, I'll tell you something.
If you can find some Thunderhead stock, buy it.
Buy it while you can still afford it.
What do you say we have something to eat? Sit down.
How'd you make out with the sheriff, Pa? I doubt if there's a more honest man alive than Roy Coffee, but he just won't budge until he has more evidence.
He's got your word, ain't he, Pa? Yeah.
Oh, I'm sure Roy believes me, but he claims it isn't enough.
I'm afraid he's right.
Isn't enough.
I'll I'll get you a beer.
No.
I'll take a sip of yours.
What are you doing? Hmm? Me? Oh, I was just figuring.
I I don't mean to be disrespectful, Pa, but-but swindle or no swindle, I think a fellow ought to pick up a couple shares of that stock.
Thunderhead is up $80 a share! Yay! Hey, you see what I mean? Hey, $80 a share, Pa! $80 a share.
Now, I got some money of my own Pa, I think he might be right.
I got a couple of dollars Now, listen to me, both of you.
Keep out of the market, unless you want to be buried in worthless paper.
$80 a share.
- Yes, sir.
- Come on.
I'll I'll buy you dinner.
Well, Mr.
Cartwright.
I've been wanting to talk to you.
Gentlemen.
I'm listening.
You've heard what's happening in the Thunderhead.
I've heard a lot of wild rumors.
Well, where there's smoke, there's fire.
Isn't that right, Frank? I've been in this business a long time.
I know silver when I see it.
Mr.
Cartwright, I understand you own quite a bit of stock in the Gould & Curry.
Suppose I do.
Well, sir, I I was just going to advise you to hang on to it.
If the deal I'm working on goes through, you may be able to trade it for some Thunderhead stock.
Mr.
Cunningham, I don't believe there's a single, solitary ounce of silver in the Thunderhead.
Uh, Mr.
Cartwright, I think you'll admit that Mr.
Jock McPherson of the Gould & Curry knows a little bit about mining, too.
You have enough respect for him to buy some stock in his mine.
What has Jock McPherson got to do with this? Mr.
McPherson thinks we have silver.
In fact, he feels so strongly about it, he's considering merging the Gould & Curry with the Thunderhead.
I don't believe a word of that.
Why don't you ask Jock McPherson? I'll do that.
That's quite a story, Cartwright.
And you think it comes out fraud, eh? I don't know of anything else you can call it.
I don't know, Ben.
Nine-tenths of Virginia City's labor force is hanging out on street corners.
Our economy is coming to a standstill.
If there's one chance in a hundred that it's not fraud, and that we can break out of our depression, I'm willing to take it and put good money behind it.
You knew Jim Bronson.
Now, Bronson knew the Thunderhead like the back of his own hand! He told me there wasn't an ounce of silver in it anywhere! I'm no fool! I've demanded proof, and Cunningham said he'd give it to me tomorrow morning at the Thunderhead shaft.
Why don't you come out, too? All right.
I will, Jock.
I will.
I'll see you in the morning.
Come on, boys.
Well, Jock, we're not producing much as yet.
We're in the same boat you are.
We've got to have capital before we can expand our operations.
Here comes Frank with the ore cart.
Gentlemen, he'll be able to answer most of your questions.
Let's take a look.
I sure hope Pa doesn't have to eat his own words.
Yeah.
Cunningham seems mighty sure of himself, don't he? Mm-hmm.
All right, gentlemen, take a look.
Hey, that's good-looking ore.
Fantastic! Whereabouts in the mine did you say this came from? Now, Mr.
McPherson, if this was the Gould & Curry, would you answer that question? Well, just how much is this stuff worth? We figure about $2,500 a ton.
Well, Mr.
Cartwright, no silver in the Thunderhead? Well, can't you believe your own eyes? You mind if I? Help yourself.
Well, Jock, you've seen it, and you've heard my offer.
We'll sell your company a half interest in the Thunderhead for $50,000 cash.
I'll have to take it up with the board of directors in San Francisco.
You'll have your answer in a week.
You'll recommend it? Well, if it assays as rich as you say it does, I'll recommend it.
That's a boy.
- This is beautiful.
Beautiful.
- Isn't it? Pa, you can't lose for winning.
The Thunderhead in bonanza, and the Gould & Curry teaming up with them.
Hey, Senor Cartwright! Venga, venga, por favor! Oh, so nice to see you! - Tell me, what can I do for you? - Hey.
Where are the little ones? Where's your family? Oh, I sent them away.
I-I sent them to my wife's sister of a cousin To Carson City.
They have a nice little rancho place there.
They have goats, milk it's good for the children.
Oh, excuse me, sit down, my friend.
- Yeah.
- Excuse the house, the way it is.
Oh, Leon, uh, I want your opinion about something.
Si.
What do you think of that? Ay, chihuahua.
Que plata.
Good, huh? Good? As rich as anything I ever seen in my life.
Uh, where you get this from? The Thunderhead.
Eh is impossible.
This cannot be.
I saw them bring up a whole cart of this, this morning.
Four years, four long years, Jim Bronson and myself, we work every foot of the Thunderhead.
Is vacia.
Do you know what mean vacia? Empty, worthless was, is and will always be.
That came from the Thunderhead.
Well, somebody put it there.
I mean, I know the Thunderhead like-like I know my own house.
You think the mine was salted? I don't know, senor.
Wh-wh-what else can one think? I think that Furnas and Cunningham are trying to pull off a swindle.
I think that Jim Bronson was murdered because he knew what they were up to.
My friend Jim Bronson.
By Furnas and Cunningham? I think.
I-I have no proof.
Senor Cartwright, look, if it's true what you are thinking Leon, how can we find out for sure about this? There is only one way.
Will you go inside the Thunderhead with me? Oh, sure I will, but they're not gonna let us go into the Thunderhead.
They have guards posted around the entrance to the mine that Leon knows another way.
Vamos.
What is this? This is an old air shaft that will get us down to the first level.
- Does anybody else know about this? - No.
Oh, just the men who helped us, you know, to dig it out.
Yeah, but how about Furnas and Cunningham don't know nothing.
Come on.
Hold on.
I thought there was a full shift locked up down here.
There are only five men in there.
You sure we're going in the right direction? I follow the overflow of the ore cart.
That's why I know that this is the right direction.
What's the matter? Well, is it silver, or isn't it? All my life I have mined silver in Peru, in Guanajuato, in Taxco Shh! All my life, I have never seen such rich ore.
Senor Cartwright, this is bonanza the real bonanza.
Es magnifico.
I don't see how you you and Bronson could be so wrong about the Thunderhead? I don't know.
Maybe maybe we were not so wrong about the Thunderhead.
This is silver, isn't it? Si, th-this is silver.
But but whose silver? Huh? What do you mean, whose silver? What are you talking about? I will tell you in the morning.
Follow me.
Pete? Is that you, Pete? Pete! There's somebody in the mine! All right, everybody out and get after 'em! Come on! Hey, there's somebody in the mine.
What? There can't be.
We've been here all the time.
We can't take any chances.
Come on! Wait.
Otto, what's wrong? We heard someone in the tunnel and thought they was going out this way.
Jack, if somebody made it down to the working face He'll never get out to tell about it.
All right, some of you men check the other tunnels.
Come on, let's get back outside.
Look! There they are! Anybody recognize them? Not the little one, but the big one looked like old man Cartwright.
Hey.
Hey, Frank, what's this? Air shaft to one of the upper levels.
Probably been there two, three years.
Who laid out the first diggings? Bronson and Leon Flores.
Then it had to be Flores.
And Flores is a friend of Cartwright's.
Get Flores! No, Jack, not Flores.
I know him, I've worked with him he's a good man.
Every cent we own is sunk in this rock pit.
Either we're ruined or we're millionaires.
Right now, before he gets a chance - to put two and two together.
- How about Cartwright? I'll handle Cartwright.
Sit down, Senor Cartwright.
Now this is the map of the whole Virginia City.
Yeah.
And this is the map of the Thunderhead, right here.
Now, this is the Gould & Curry, where the first bonanza was.
- Mm-hmm.
- This is the Savage Mine.
- Belcher.
- Yeah.
And this is the Thunderhead.
Now, the pockets are here and here.
This is the boundary that is between the Gould & Curry and the Thunderhead.
Now, I think that this is where we saw the silver, just below the boundary line.
Then you do think we were on Gould & Curry land? It's a possibility, but how can a man be sure? I first must get the legal description and check it against the map.
How long would that take? Five, six hours.
That long? Ah, but then we can be sure.
And if it does check out that we were on Gould & Curry land, I can take that information to the government engineer and have Cunningham and company blown right out of the Comstock.
I hope so.
Leon, I'll see you in the morning.
? Manana, ah? - Yeah.
- Manana, Senor Cartwright.
Poor Leon.
He was a good man.
Now do you believe me? Ben, I never did say I didn't believe you.
I just said I couldn't arrest anybody without sufficient evidence, and we still haven't got it.
There's enough evidence there for me.
Ben, you're not the law.
Now don't get the idea that you are.
If there was a shred of evidence to go on, I'd follow this thing through all the way, even if it meant killing the best news this town has had in months.
But I haven't got it and neither have you.
So you stop pushing me or we're gonna lock horns.
I'll find you the evidence.
You do that, and the sooner the better, but make sure it's proof.
What do you think now? What do you want us to do, Pa? I'm riding in to see Jock McPherson.
Take care of things here.
I'll-I'll see you in town later.
Right.
Jock, I tell you, there is a bonanza there, but it's not in the Thunderhead, it's in your own mine! Oh, Ben, I'm a mining man! The indications are not right for ore on that side of my mine.
Don't you think I haven't checked that out? I have seen it with my own eyes! All right, Ben! I hope you're right.
It would be the greatest thing that ever happened to the Gould & Curry.
Well, as soon as I hear from my board of directors You're going to wait to hear from your board of directors on a matter as important as this? I'm only the superintendent! Why, only last week, they were threatening to close down the Gould & Curry entirely.
I couldn't buck Furnas and Cunningham on my own and then find that I'm wrong.
I'm trying to tell you that you're not wrong.
I saw the silver in there with my own eyes! All you have to do is demand a survey.
Well, I'll do that, Ben, just as soon as I hear from San Francisco.
Just as soon as Well, I've got to think of my job! And I've got to think of two friends both of them dead.
Friends, there's scarcely a man here who doesn't own stock in the Thunderhead.
And if you don't own stock, you all have your own businesses around town.
But every one of you stands to gain from what we found in that mine.
But there is one man who stands to benefit enormously by seeing Virginia City fold up and become a ghost town.
A man who would like to extend his tentacles and devour everything on this side of the Washoe the same as he's eaten up everything on the other side of it.
The man who stands to gain the most by spoiling Virginia City's greatest boom is Ben Cartwright.
You're Cartwrights, ain't you? That's right.
What about it? Where do you get off talking down this Thunderhead strike? Look, mister, we don't want trouble with you.
You don't, huh? Well, you're going to get it.
And you better tell that stupid old man of yours if I catch him around here again, I'll bash his brains out.
What'd you say? I said I'll bash his brains in.
That's what I thought he said.
All right, all of you get this straight.
If any of you's got any notions about bashing anybody's brains out, especially our pa's, then you got us to contend with first.
Now, who else do you want me to turn to, Watkins? You're the resident engineer for the Virginia City area.
I'm not arguing that point, Ben.
Of course you turned to the right man.
- That's why I'm here.
- Well But you're making some pretty serious accusations.
And Furnas and Cunningham are important men.
Now, I've got to have something more concrete.
Flores had those charts.
He and Bronson charted out the whole Thunderhead area.
Do you believe that? Of course I believe it.
I've got copies of those charts.
It's a government regulation.
Then what else do we need?! Ben, the federal government cannot move on mere suspicion.
Now, look, I have reason to believe that the Thunderhead is tapping a rich pocket in the Gould & Curry mine.
The only way that can be proven is by making an underground survey.
Now, I have no idea how to make an underground survey.
You know how to do it.
That's your job, isn't it? Well, of course it's my job.
But, Ben, I cannot go into that mine without the express permission of Cunningham and Furnas.
Now, that's the law.
You telling me you won't go into the Thunderhead? I'm telling you I can't go into the Thunderhead, not legally.
Well, how about illegally? Now, look, Watkins, you've known me for a long time.
I'm not the kind of man who goes around breaking laws, but we've got to get to the truth of the matter.
I don't know, that mine's got to be well guarded, Ben.
Well, Leon and I got in through an old abandoned air shaft.
I know about that air shaft.
Oh, they've got to have a guard on that by now.
Now, look, suppose we take Hoss and Joe with us.
Now, if they can distract that guard long enough for us to get into the air shaft You're treading on dangerous ground, Ben.
But Jim and Leon were my friends, too.
You'll make the survey? And I'll probably live to regret it.
They just come back from checking that air shaft.
This would be a good time for us to get started then.
Yeah.
We shouldn't be too long.
But if that guard goes back to check the air shaft We'll take care of him, Pa.
Yeah, you two be careful.
Yeah.
Come on.
What are you doing? We just crossed the boundary line of the Gould & Curry.
Are you sure of this? I've been down here a dozen times.
This is where the old tunnel ended.
This is new shoring.
That explains that silver deposit.
That's not in the Thunderhead, it's in the Gould & Curry.
That's what it looks like.
Come on, let's take a look.
Better let me get a fix on this ore face, Ben.
We'll need it for evidence.
Guess Virginia City will boom after all, huh? Yeah, so will your Gould & Curry stock.
Hurry it up.
Don't want to get caught down here.
You know, from the look of it, a person will be able to break through into this from right here.
Come on, let's get him.
Where'd that come from? Sounded like the north section.
Trouble.
Come on.
Otto, take a couple of men and check the tunnel entrance.
The rest of us will check the lower levels and the ore face.
Come on, fellas.
Look, there they are! Hey, Joe, this thing moves.
Yeah, well, let's move it.
- Pa.
- Pa.
Mr.
Watkins, you all right? Yeah, I'm all right.
Thank heaven you two are all right.
How are you? Yeah, fine.
You'd better get some help for those men down here.
Right.
We'll go see McPherson.
Tell him he's got a real bonanza.
I don't know how thick it is, but it's at least 150 feet wide.
That's quite a hunk of silver, Jock.
And 20,000 people will live better men, women and children.
Prosperity is back on the Comstock.
That's wonderful, huh? What's the matter with you? Hmm? Oh, I don't know about Hoss here, I'm just wondering why I didn't buy some of that Gould & Curry stock when you did, Pa.
Well, I've been trying to tell you, you're-you're just not as smart as your old man.
Come on, I'll buy you a drink with part of my profits.
Come on, Charlie This has been a color presentation of the NBC Television Network.