Scene 3.12 - T.N.T. Trap
EST: INT. Mine entrance - Night.
(The men slowly climb the hill, pulling the wagon by hand, having unhitched the horse. TEX RANGER and POCACHICALOT are on the back of the wagon. They hear an unnatural roar. No one comments.)
TEX RANGER
So tell me exactly why I had to unhitch my horse?
MARSHALL LAW
Goin’ up this hill, the terrain’s too shaky. Can’t afford to take the risk of your horse decidin’ to bolt if it sees a rattler, or steps the wrong way on a stone. (Roar.) Or gettin' spooked if'n it hears something it ain't specktin to. (Pulls rope around column-shaped rock, using it as a pulley. DOC BONEBRAKE secures the slack by tying the lead rope to a tree.) Stop askin’ questions and push!
TEX RANGER
I am pushin’! Don’t let it slide back on us!
DOC BONEBRAKE
We won’t. We’re tyin’-it-off as we go!
POCACHICALOT
Chief need to take break!
MARSHALL LAW
Okay, I got the wheels chucked. You can let go.
(The two men who were pushing the cart sit, exhausted.)
TEX RANGER
Whew! Whew!
(Looks to POCACHICALOT, smiles, nods with him, swigs canteen and offers it openly. POCACHICALOT accepts, smiling. He swallows and offers his peace pipe to TEX RANGER, who tokes on it happily. MARSHALL LAW and DOC BONEBRAKE, feigning the urge to be impatient, lightly converse as TEX RANGER and POCACHICALOT recover.)
MARSHALL LAW
...The wheel, lever, spring, inclined plane, roller, pulley, gear and?
DOC BONEBRAKE
Screw and bolt. It’s all in the typewriter.
MARSHALL LAW
Plum-a-may-zing.
DOC BONEBRAKE
Why, at the rate man is making discoveries about how things work, I wouldn’t be surprised to see men one day be able to make a machine that could fly up this hill.
MARSHALL LAW
Hah! Now that would be something. We’re just too heavy to stay up in the air.
TEX RANGER
...Or to pull a wagon. (Gets pipe from POCACHICALOT.) I still think my horse could’a pulled it jus’ fine.
MARSHALL LAW
No disrespect to your mare, uh, what’s her name?
TEX RANGER
(Tokes.) Trudy.
MARSHALL LAW
No disrespect to Trudy, she got us all through the Black Prarie jus’ fine. But these here hills are rocky, and that’s tricky stuff we’re carryin’ there. Anyone who'd said otherwise while standing this close to it is up there minglin' wit' the stars.
TEX RANGER
Speakin’ o’ which, what all did you all load-up on in there? (Passes to POCACHICALOT) There's got to be at least a half-ton o’ stuff back there.
DOC BONEBRAKE
Aw, half o’ that weight’s jus' the wagon. Why, when I was your age, I could pull-
POCACHICALOT
(About to toke, firm:) Chief wanna know what’s so big in crates that you cannot carry while pulling slack rope?
TEX RANGER
Yeah, there’s your half o’ the weight right there. If all the nitroglycerin is in them there bottles in the front, why are we totin’ all that rope and all them there crates in back fer?
MARSHALL LAW
That’s to seal-up the well. In them there crates is dynamite.
TEX RANGER
(Seen it, never heard of it:) Dynamite?
DOC BONEBRAKE
(Heard of it, never seen it:) Dynamite?
MARSHALL LAW
Yeh, this feller up East figgered a way to git all the blast of them bottles in these tubes they call... sticks, and it’s suppost to blow up alotta more an' use 'lot less. And i' tain't like T-N-T atall. You kin drop it and it don’t explode right-off like them bottles kin. Got me twelve cases of them there sticks. They even got their own fuses!
DOC BONEBRAKE
(Opens a case and inspects it.) Yes, I’d heard of Mr. Nobel’s patent sometime last year, but I’ve never actually seen it up close!
MARSHALL LAW
(Lashes rope to thick branch, steps to join DOC:) Got mine through a cut-out ad in Law Enforcement Weekly. Only cost me a couple-a bucks. Now we’re finelee gonna hava chance ta use ‘em.
TEX RANGER
Are you telling me we could-a just carried those crates instead of pushing this loaded wagon halfway-up this hill?
MARSHALL LAW
Aw, you’re way past half-way. Five-eighths, more-like. The mine is right-up that steep path there!
TEX RANGER
Well, we ain’t pushin’ this wagon up any more. We’ll just take the crates.
MARSHALL LAW
Nah, son. Them crates are for the well. I wanna light them fuses and drop ‘em down and watch ‘em explode. Save the best fer last!
TEX RANGER
(Unconsciously puts a stick in back pocket, pulls out kerchief, lifts hat and wipes sweat from brow.) You mean to tell me we didn’t need to take these crates up here to begin with?
MARSHALL LAW
(Patiently, as to a child:) Wanna keep an eye on ‘em, that there's tricky stuff. Plus, havin’ done packed ‘em already on the wagon, I didn’t see no sense in-
TEX RANGER
Listen, old man! We're through being your mules! (Pause.) Pocachicalot and I are gonna unpack those bottles and we’re gonna stack ‘em at the cave entrance, and that’s it! If you wanna lay ‘em out in any par-tick-ya-lar order, you’re gonna have ta do it yerself!
POCACHICALOT
Or stay and play with funny fire-sticks. We do not care. Tex Ranger speaks true. We are done pushing wagon up steep hill.
MARSHALL LAW
Suit yerself. Even if it gives the Doc and I a premature stroke, we’ll all push the wagon back down, together, satisfied? Jus’ stack ‘em bottles inside the mine away from where the sun can hit it. If them bottles get to sweatin’, they won’t need a blastin’ cap.
TEX RANGER
Yeah, whatever.
(The two youths start walking the fat mason jars of clear liquid capped with wax and cheesecloth, one-by-one up the hill, grumbling as they go.)
DOC BONEBRAKE
I bet if you give Tex and Pocachicalot a case of the dynamite to play with, they’ll forget all about it.
MARSHALL LAW
You’re prob’ly right.
FTB