Wagon Train (TV Series)

The Horace Best Story (1960)

Ward Bond: Major Seth Adams

Photos 

Quotes 

• Major Seth Adams : A hundred wagons... that means that you've accepted responsibility for better than three hundred lives and you'd better not let 'em down, either.

  Horace Best : I'll do my best.

  Major Seth Adams : That's all any man can ask of you, but you know so many times the best is just not good enough. When you think of all the people, 75 or a 100 of 'em who are gonna die when the cholera hits your camp without you knowin' it's comin'... and that Indian war party that comes down off the high hills, their screams splinter the night and their arrows set fire to it... you say, "Well, I did my best." That's what you say to all those silent dead, "I did my best."

• Major Seth Adams : Yes sir, those barren hillsides where ya know there was gonna be grass - but there wasn't any grass... and then ya come on a dry creek bed where you was sure there was gonna be water - but there isn't any water. Your people are thirsty. All those moments of decision, Horace, those are the tough moments. You have to decide whether to cross the river at night or whether you're gonna wait till dawn... whether ya want to take the uncharted short cut or the long mountain trail that's safe... and all the time you feel that those people are lookin' at ya and waitin'. They're your people, Horace, your people... So finally, ya have to make a decision to move on and at that minute, Horace, you pray that Almighty God is close to your hand when you make that decision.