I had somethin' I wanted to talk over with you, Starrett. Whatever business you and I got,...

Rufus Ryker: I had somethin' I wanted to talk over with you, Starrett. Joe Starrett: Whatever business you and I got, we can talk over right here. Rufus Ryker: I'll just lay it on the barrel-head then. How would you like to work for me? Joe Starrett: I'm workin' for myself. I've done enough workin' for others. Rufus Ryker: Wait till I tell ya: I'll pay ya top wages, more than you can make on this patch of ground. Joe Starrett: Nope. I'm not interested. Rufus Ryker: I haven't said it all. You can run your cattle with mine. What's more, I'll buy your homestead. Set a price you think is reasonable, you'll find me reasonable. Is that fair? Joe Starrett: You've made things pretty hard for us, Ryker, and us in the right all the time. Rufus Ryker: Right? You in the right? Look, Starrett, when I come to this country, you weren't much older than your boy there. We had rough times, me and other men that are mostly dead now. I got a bad shoulder yet from a Cheyenne arrowhead. We made this country. Found it and we made it. With blood and empty bellies. The cattle we brought in were hazed off by Indians and rustlers. They don't bother you much anymore because we handled 'em. We made a safe range out of this. Some of us died doin' it but we made it. And then people move in who've never had to rawhide it through the old days. They fence off my range, and fence me off from water. Some of 'em like you plow ditches, take out irrigation water. And so the creek runs dry sometimes and I've got to move my stock because of it. And you say we have no right to the range. The men that did the work and ran the risks have no rights? I take you for a fair man, Starrett. Joe Starrett: I'm not belittlin' what you and the others did. At the same time, you didn't find this country. There was trappers here and Indian traders long before you showed up and they tamed this country more than you did. Rufus Ryker: They weren't ranchers. Joe Starrett: You talk about rights. You think you've got the right to say that nobody else has got any. Well, that ain't the way the government looks at it.Look Rufus Ryker: I didn't come to argue. I made you a fair proposition. Joe Starrett: What about the others? Rufus Ryker: Shane already knows he can work for me anytime. Joe Starrett: The other homesteaders. Rufus Ryker: Look, be reasonable! After all, there's just so many hands in a deck of cards. Joe Starrett: Then I've got to say no. Rufus Ryker: You don't give a man much choice do you, Starrett?