Rawhide (TV Series)

Incident of the Night Visitor (1960)

Eric Fleming: Gil Favor

Quotes 

• Gil Favor : Whenever you hear a fella tellin' you about how he rode with a trail herd of five, ten thousand steers, you can call him a liar. The most any crew can handle and keep safe is about three thousand - the size of this herd. With the hazards of weather, terrain, stampedes, and Indian raids, that's plenty. Then there's the remuda, the extra horses. That's maybe the most valuable part of the herd, and the most vulnerable. Put that many animals together, they spell trouble. And it's my trouble. Gil Favor's the name, trail boss.

• Gil Favor : You're trying to tell me you're all alone out there on the plains alone?

  Joey Gardner : Yes, I am. At least I am now. I was travelling with some horse traders for the last few days but I left them last night after I seen your herd yesterday.

  Gil Favor : Horse traders? What horse traders?

  Joey Gardner : From Colorado, going to Missouri. The boss is a fella called Nick Mesa.

  Gil Favor : Well, that explains a bit of it.

  Jeff Barkley : Yeah.

  Rowdy Yates : Who's Nick Mesa?

  Gil Favor : Probably the biggest horse thief on the plains. Doesn't even bother with single horses, steals whole herds.

• Joey Gardner : Ma said once he's got a scar on his neck right under his left ear slanting down forwards. And I heard Mr Gardner

  [his stepfather] 

  Joey Gardner : say he was in prison once. And I know his initials, GF.

  Gil Favor : Well, don't look at me. I ain't his Pa! I ain't got no scar! And, ah, there's two men on the crew with the initials GF. Gus French and George Fuller.

  Wishbone : Ain't neither of them got a scar on their neck.

  Gil Favor : Probably changed the name anyway. Being in prison using his travelling name maybe.

• Nick Mesa : You still don't think you can trust me.

  Gil Favor : Not around a horse. You're just like an Indian.

  Nick Mesa : You're the first to understand that. I grew up with them. I learnt their ways. To them horse stealing is a way to gain prestige.

• Jim Quince : Do you think they'll come back, Boss?

  Pete Nolan : White or red?

  Gil Favor : Don't matter. You see anything, shoot it.

• Gil Favor : You didn't say what brought you by this way.

  Nick Mesa : I never could resist fighting an Injun. Haven't had that kinda fun for a long time. Maybe I made a mistake.

  Gil Favor : Mistake?

  Nick Mesa : I beat myself out of a customer. See you got your remuda back.

• Jeff Barkley : Well, maybe that ain't my ambition.

  Gil Favor : That's the trouble, it hasn't been hard to see you don't think much of being a drover. Look, Jeff, as long as you take the responsibility of the job, why not do it right.

  Jeff Barkley : Responsibility? What for? The peanuts you pay me?

  Gil Favor : You got a way of making it faster, you.

  Jeff Barkley : Well, maybe I do.

  Gil Favor : Legal?

  Jeff Barkley : Now what do you mean by legal?

  Gil Favor : I just said it.

  Jeff Barkley : A man don't just say that for no reason at all. What's the matter? Somebody in this crew seen me before? Somebody tell you something?

  Gil Favor : Tell me what?

  Jeff Barkley : That's it. That's why you've been riding me so much. Somebody tell you I been in prison?

  Gil Favor : Prison? I didn't know that, Jeff.

  Jeff Barkley : Sure you do. You're just like the rest of them. You won't give a man a chance to live it down.