Across the Dead Line
By
R. Earle Harris All rights reserved (c) 2015 (r dot earle dot harris at gmx dot com)
FADE IN:
EXT. DESERT - NIGHT
Title Over:
April 2, 1909.
High-mountain desert, just east of the Big Horn Mountains. Middle of the night.
Where the road south from Tensleep crosses Spring Creek there are two hills a quarter-mile
apart. The sagebrush is three or four feet high everywhere except along the creek
where it reaches seven feet tall.
EXT. DESERT - NIGHT
View sweeps in on the two hills. On the north hill, a sheep wagon and buckboard.
To the south, sheep wagon, supply wagon, and buggy. All the horses for these wagons
are in the Greet brothers' pasture, half a mile to the west.
EXT. DESERT - NIGHT
Title Over:
The Spring Creek Raid.
South hill. Around the wagons are four sheepdogs, a few puppies, and four thousand
sheep. The only man visible is BOUNCE Helmer, sleeping on the ground in his bedroll
to the north of the southern sheep wagon. Bounce is eighteen, "a likable young man
although not very bright," described by one who knew him as "goosey."
Bounce is awakened by his barking dog.
BOUNCE
The dog becomes quiet.
EXT. CREEKBED - NIGHT
Seven men move up the creek from the east towards the wagons. Six have masks over
the lower parts of their faces; one has a white bag over his head, with eyeholes.
Six have rifles; one has only a six-shooter. Five move uphill to the south wagons,
two to the north wagons.
EXT. SOUTH HILL - NIGHT
The dogs commence barking in earnest. There is a single shot from the north wagon.
BOUNCE
Bounce leaps up and runs barefoot downhill, running into the raiders who turn him
around.
EXT. ABOVE BOTH HILLS - NIGHT
There is a long fusillade of two semi-automatic rifles from the north wagons. This
shooting continues for a long minute.
EXT. SOUTH HILL - NIGHT
Bounce and another man are made to lie down beside their sheep wagon. The men around
them are shooting the dogs and the sheep. The north wagon is burning now. The south
wagons are set on fire. Bounce and the other man are made to get up and are taken
down to the creek. One man remains at the south wagons tossing anything of value
he can find into the fire.
EXT. SOUTH HILL - NIGHT
They all cross a simple bridge and as they begin to go uphill towards the north
wagon they are made to lie down. Two men guard them. Two go up the hill.
VOICE (O.S.)
((From the north wagons.))
Strike a light in that wagon! Strike
a light! We'll give you to the count
of three to light up or we'll damn
sure shoot! One! Two! Three!
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Another fusillade of two semi-automatics, a lever action, and a big pistol.
VOICE (O.S.) (CONT'D)
Get your hands up! Raise your hands!
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There is a single rifle shot.
INT. COURTROOM - DAY
E.E. ENTERLINE, one of the prosecutors, is speaking.
E.E. ENTERLINE
And that shot, that bullet, gentlemen,
was the death of Joseph Allemand.
And this court will show that the
man who pulled that trigger, who shot
an unarmed Joseph Allemand even as
he was surrendering, and shot him
out of the darkness like a murderer
and a coward, was the defendant: Herbert
Brink.
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Title Over:
Thursday, November 4, 1909.
The trial is taking place in a "Fraternal Hall" as the regular courthouse is too
small for the seven hundred people who are attending. The site of the trial is the
town of Basin, Wyoming, with a population of about a thousand.
INT. COURTROOM - DAY
The defendant, HERBERT BRINK, sits with his nine lawyers, nine rich lawyers hired
by a group of cattlemen. He looks - and will spend the whole trial looking - mesmerized
by the proceedings.
Behind them, throughout the trial, are rich cattlemen in the audience who by their
demeanor and their exchange of glances with the defense attorneys will give the
impression that they side with the raiders, who may have broken the law but have
done the right and justifiable thing in the minds of the cattlemen.
BAILIFF
The court calls Felix Alston to take
the stand.
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FELIX ALSTON, the local sheriff, takes the stand. He is an older man who has kept
the law during the wildness of the West.
INT. COURTROOM - DAY
The prosecution consists of four lawyers: PERCY METZ, the inexperienced young county
attorney; his father, WILLIAM METZ; and E.E. Enterline, his father's partner. The
senior Metz and Enterline have been brought in with money from the woolgrowers'
associations.
BAILIFF
Mr. Alston, do you swear to tell the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth, so help you God?
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FELIX ALSTON
WILLIAM METZ
You may state your name to the jury.
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FELIX ALSTON
WILLIAM METZ
What official position do you hold
in Big Horn County?
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FELIX ALSTON
WILLIAM METZ
And were you such sheriff April last?
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FELIX ALSTON
WILLIAM METZ
Do you know the defendant Herbert
Brink?
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FELIX ALSTON
WILLIAM METZ
How long have you known him?
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FELIX ALSTON
WILLIAM METZ
I will ask you when you first learned,
if you did at any time, of the killing
of Joseph Allemand.
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FELIX ALSTON
WILLIAM METZ
FELIX ALSTON
The 2nd or 3rd. On the Saturday morning,
either the 2nd or 3rd of April. I
was out there by that evening.
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EXT. RANCH - DAY
Title Over:
Saturday, April 3, 1909.
The scene of the raid. About seven in the evening.
Roll opening titles to J.S. Bach's Sheep May Safely Graze.
Long continuous shot. Sheriff Alston rides up on horseback as the day is turning
to evening. The sun is lighting up the west face of the mountains and the desert
is green with spring. There is first the southern site where the two wagons and
buggy have been burned. There are a couple of dead dogs and a dozen or more dead
sheep. He rides down and over the small bridge. At the north site, the sheep wagon
has been burned out. Within it are what might be two burned bodies. The buckboard
is unharmed except for the tongue which has burned away. There are three more dead
dogs and more dead sheep. Directly in front of the burned wagon is the body of Joseph
Allemand. He is on his back with his head to the north and his right foot drawn
up. His left hand is on the wound in his side. Near him a shovel is stuck in the
ground and a horse blanket is draped over a sagebrush. There is blood beneath his
hand and a bloody wound across his collarbone. Two live sheepdog puppies are nestling
against the body to stay warm and out of the wind.
EXT. NORTH HILL - DAY
Alston is coming up to AL MORTON, his Tensleep deputy, and the twins, FRANK and
FRED GREET, near the north wagons.
FELIX ALSTON
AL MORTON
Alston looks to the body.
FELIX ALSTON
AL MORTON
Felix goes over to the body and, as he starts to examine it, notices the puppies.
He picks them up and carries them to where the others are and hands them to Fred
Greet.
FELIX ALSTON
I want you to take these to Ada Allemand.
She likes her puppies.
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(To Al.)
AL MORTON
FELIX ALSTON
(To Fred.)
See if she needs anything?
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FRED GREET
Felix and Al go back to the body. Felix looks up at the bodies within the shadows
of the burned wagon and then up at the sky.
FELIX ALSTON
(To Al.)
We need to get these dead men out
of the weather.
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FELIX ALSTON (CONT'D)
(Calling to Frank Greet.)
What have you got to carry him on?
The doc will be here soon to look
at the damage.
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The Greet house is a quarter-mile to the west.
FRANK GREET
We can get a door from our place.
You can put all the bodies in there
for now.
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AL MORTON
FELIX ALSTON
Go ahead, Al. We'll wait till sunup
to go over the ground.
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Noticing where sagebrush has been pulled up near the burned north wagon he goes
over and studies the ground. He turns and looks at the carnage in the dusk.
INT. COURTROOM - DAY
Continuing with Alston's testimony.
WILLIAM METZ
What did you do with Allemand's body?
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FELIX ALSTON
Took it over to the Greet house.
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WILLIAM METZ
Did you do anything on Sunday following
the day you went to Spring Creek in
the way of investigating and examining
the scene, of the ground around the
scene of the killing?
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FELIX ALSTON
The following day it was, I suppose
about nine o'clock, I began to look
for tracks and cartridge shells, and
make a general investigation the best
I could.
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WILLIAM METZ
Now in your examination of the grounds,
what shells, if any, did you find,
cartridge shells?
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FELIX ALSTON
WILLIAM METZ
Do you remember what kind of shells
they were?
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FELIX ALSTON
They were 25-35 caliber rifle shells,
.45 Winchester shells, some .35 automatic
shells and 30-30 Winchester shells.
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WILLIAM METZ
How many did you say you found of
the different kinds of shells?
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FELIX ALSTON
About thirty-five or forty. I am not
positive, because I gave some of them
away.
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WILLIAM METZ
And the automatic. You speak of .35
caliber shells, shells ordinarily
used in the automatic Winchester?
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FELIX ALSTON
The .35 Winchester automatic rifle.
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WILLIAM METZ
Do you remember how many of those
shells you discovered there?
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FELIX ALSTON
WILLIAM METZ
How near the wagon did you find those
automatic shells?
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FELIX ALSTON
They were up about the closest ones.
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Metz hands the witness a package.
WILLIAM METZ
I will ask you to examine those and
state to the jury whether you found
those shells there or not, there where
you found the body of Allemand.
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FELIX ALSTON
WILLIAM METZ
Your Honor, we would like to enter
these shells as Plaintiff's exhibit
A.
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JUDGE PARMELEE
H.S. RIDGELY is the head counsel for the defense.
H.S. RIDGELY
No objection, your Honor.
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WILLIAM METZ
Now what other investigation did you
make in the surroundings there in
your search for the perpetrators of
this offense?
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FELIX ALSTON
I began to look for tracks. I could
only find two tracks going up to that
wagon.
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WILLIAM METZ
FELIX ALSTON
Yes. It had been all tracked up by
other people on the west of the wagon,
and there were a great many tracks
around where we found the shells.
I saw only one track going up to the
wagon and back.
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WILLIAM METZ
And what did you find with regard
to horse tracks?
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FELIX ALSTON
We found where there had been several
horses tied down in the big sagebrush
in a horseshoe bend of the creek.
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WILLIAM METZ
Did you follow those tracks?
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Screenplay truncated at 500 lines.
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