great western director

[the regiment has arrived near the Apache's encampment]

Lt. Col. Thursday: I propose, Captain Yorke, to deploy the men: two troops to the north, one to the east. You will then converge on the encampment.

Captain Yorke: I wouldn't do that, sir.

Lt. Col. Thursday: I'm not asking your advice, Captain. I'm merely stating.

Captain Yorke: The Apaches, sir, are neither to the north nor the east. Nor are they in their encampment. But if you'da been watching the dust swirls to the south, like most of us, you'd see that they're right there!

[points to the Apaches coming over the rise]

[Col. Thursday is meeting with Cochise - Beaufort translates from Cochise's spanish into english]

Sgt. Johnny Beaufort: He says, "The Apaches are a great race," sir. "They've never been conquered. But it is not well for a nation to be always at war. The young men die... the women sing sad songs... and the old ones are hungry in the winter. And so I led my people from the hills. And then came this man.

[indicating Meacham]

Lt. Col. Thursday: [Cochise speaks more - Beaufort pauses] What did he say?

Sgt. Johnny Beaufort: Well, sir, a free translation would be that "Meacham's a yellow-bellied polecat of dubious antecedents and conjectural progeny." Cochise's words, of course, sir - not mine.

Lt. Col. Thursday: [looks at Meacham] That's a matter of opinion.

Sgt. Johnny Beaufort: [Cochise continues - Beaufort translates] "He is worse than war. He not only killed the men, but the women and the children and the old ones. We looked to the Great White Father for protection. He gave us slow death. We will not return to your reservation while that man

[indicating Meacham]

Sgt. Johnny Beaufort: is there or anyone like him. Send him away and we will speak of peace. If you do not send him away, there will be war. And for each one of us that you kill, ten white men will die!

Lt. Col. Thursday: Are you threatening us?

Captain Yorke: Don't interrupt, sir, it's an insult.

Lt. Col. Thursday: I'll not sit here and be threatened. Beaufort... no preliminary nonsense with him... no ceremonial phrasing. Straight from the shoulder as I tell you, do you hear me? They're recalcitrant swine and they must feel it.

Sgt. Johnny Beaufort: He's only speaking the truth, sir.

Lt. Col. Thursday: Is there anyone in this regiment that understands an order when it's given?

Sgt. Johnny Beaufort: What does the Colonel wish me to say, sir?

Lt. Col. Thursday: Tell them I find them without honor.

[Beaufort translates the words to Cochise]

Lt. Col. Thursday: Tell them they're not talking to me, but to the United States government. Tell them that government orders them to return to their reservation. And tell them that if they have not started by dawn, we will attack. Tell 'em that!

[Col. Thursday turns and walks away - Cochise and his group walk away]