-
Ben: If you're scared of me, mister, why don't you just come right out and say so?
Will Varner: Sir, why should I be scared of you?
Ben: 'Cause I got a reputation for being a dangerous man.
Will Varner: You're a young dangerous man. I'm an old one. I guess you don't know who I am. I better introduce myself. I'm the big landowner, chief moneylender in these parts. I'm commissioner of elections, veterinarian, own a store and a cotton gin and a grist mill and a blacksmith shop... and it's considered unlucky for a man to do his trading or gin his cotton or grind his meal or shoe his stock anywhere else. Now that's who I am.
Ben: You talk a lot.
Will Varner: Well, yes I do, sir. I'm done talking to you, except for passing you on this piece of information. I built me a new jail in my courthouse this year, and if during the course of your stay, something, anything at all should just happen to catch fire, I think you ought to know that in my jail, we never heard of the words habeas corpus. You rot.
-
Ben: Yes or no, mister. Ain't no in between.
Angela Lansbury
Extended Reading
