- Paladin: The man who killed Maria should hang. There's no question about that. And we all know who did that.
- Clyde Broderick: Now, there's been some mistake, sir. My name is Broderick, Clyde Broderick, of the Sharps Rifle Company. I'm the territorial representative, salesman, "drummer" if you will.
- Paladin: You're not with him.
- Andy Fisher: No more than you. They found me on the road.
- Paladin: [He surveys the noose hanging from a tree] Strome's planning a party.
- Andy Fisher: Looks like. I guess he picked me up to play, wants someone to dance. Maybe someone else is to play. And I'm to dance.
- Andy Fisher: I was punching cows up in San Anton at the time of the wedding. It was a big do.
- Louis Strome: You knew Maria?
- Andy Fisher: You know better than that. The daughter Vasques, she wouldn't spit on a $22 a month cowhand.
- Clyde Broderick: I never carry a weapon. I never fired one. When your two gentlemen accosted me on the road...
- Louis Strome: She's DEAD.
- Clyde Broderick: Who's dead?
- Paladin: Shock tactics, Clyde. You're supposed to give yourself away when Mr Strome says those three words.
- Paladin: Strome, you told us this man rode off without looking back. Now, I think if he had any feeling for this girl, he would've looked back when you shot her. He'd have ridden back to see if she was hurt.
- Clyde Broderick: Are you saying this girl is not dead?
- Paladin: No, I think she's dead. But, Strome, how much time passed after that man got away? How much time before you shot your wife?
- Andy Fisher: Why don't you answer that, Strome?
- Paladin: How much time Strome?
- Paladin: Strome, why don't you content yourself with one murder this week. Killing a woman, that's a big enough chore for you.
- Andy Fisher: Don't be telling Strome about women, he knows all about women. Don't let all of this upset yer. Here, I'll play a song to quiet your nerves and steady your hand for the morning's work.
- [He looks up to the three nooses now hanging from the tree]
- Andy Fisher: There is a place that I do know where my true love goes to drink her wine in her store bought clothes. And she sits herself down on some brave boy's knee. Now don't you know that vexes me. And yet she cries: I love you best but a troubled mind can know no rest, for a troubled mind can know no rest.
- Andy Fisher: You win.
- Clyde Broderick: That's not funny.
- Paladin: Clyde, you have my word. As long as I live, you live.
- Paladin: It could have been an older man, someone who knew the world, someone who could paint word pictures for her, of places she'd never seen, and never would see, locked up in that big house of yours. Someone had to tell her she was clever, she was pretty and wanted.
- Clyde Broderick: Three fools that's what we are.
- Paladin: Well, I find good comradeship comforting at a time like this.
- Clyde Broderick: Could have been a lonely man, Strome. A man who wandered every place because he had no place. He could draw strength from someone like her loving him. He'd take more than he could give. But he could make her feel needed because he'd see her loneliness.
- Andy Fisher: Is there any special song I can send you off with, Paladin?
- Paladin: Play anything you like, BUT DON'T WAIT TOO LONG!
- Louis Strome: It could be a dandy with a guitar, a drifter with easy words and no morals.
- Andy Fisher: That's right. Could've been me she wanted to talk to. And why not? What would she want with a vicious old goat like you?