Wagon Train (TV Series)

The Alexander Portlass Story (1960)

Robert Horton: Flint McCullough

Photos 

Quotes 

• Flint McCullough : We didn't strand you. We threw you out for being a thief.

  Phelan : And you know something, McCullough, I still am. Didn't I just steal me a scout?

• Flint McCullough : J-U-P-E. Well, that might be Jupe's, mightn't it? I wonder how it got there.

  Alexander Portlass : I haven't got the faintest idea.

  Flint McCullough : I don't believe you. It might have cost that kid his life, you know.

  Alexander Portlass : That way I would have been concerned. From one point of view. From another point of view, it might have been very advantageous. Because, you see, since you joined the expedition, there's one more mouth to feed, one more thirst to quench. Not having foreseen that necessity, I've only provisioned the expedition for five. Now I have a problem. There's one too many.

• Flint McCullough : Aztec? You believe in the legend of Montezuma's treasure?

  Alexander Portlass : Believe it? I'm convinced of it.

  Flint McCullough : And you think these figures are going to show you where it is?

  Alexander Portlass : How did you know? That's exactly what it does.

• Alexander Portlass : Hot, isn't it? Did you have a nice cool drink of water?

  Flint McCullough : You like playing tricks with canteens, don't you?

  Alexander Portlass : I have any number of tricks. Just about to show you another one.

• Flint McCullough : Where'd you pick up these buzzards?

  Alexander Portlass : I think by comparison you do great injustice to the buzzards. After all the birds clear up carrion. My associates create it.

• Alexander Portlass : You hear the coyotes? They are greeting our coming. That's a good omen.

  Flint McCullough : The Indians believe they howl because somebody's going to die.

• Flint McCullough : I can't believe it's this easy.

  Alexander Portlass : Huh?

  Flint McCullough : I can't believe they'd drag a treasure three thousand miles and just throw a little dirt over it. And these carvings, they tell you right where to look.

  Alexander Portlass : Well, undoubtedly he will demand a human sacrifice.

  Flint McCullough : Who?

  Alexander Portlass : The War God of the Aztecs. Before he extended his favours, he always demanded a human sacrifice. And always he makes his own choice.

• Alexander Portlass : I would use force only with great reluctance. I'd much rather be peaceful.

  Flint McCullough : They would say the same thing about a rattlesnake.

  Alexander Portlass : That's a good simile. Just keep it in mind.

• Flint McCullough : I'd give all the gold in this room for a loaded rifle.

• Alexander Portlass : Four suns have passed since we came to this place of the Water Ghosts. Does that mean anything to you? Water Ghosts?

  Flint McCullough : Water ghost. It's a mirage, the desert's full of them.

  Alexander Portlass : Of course. I always knew if we pulled our forces together, we would succeed. And this: Last night we slipped around midnight glowing torches. Now I appreciate the poetry of these words but their sense escapes me.

  Flint McCullough : Glowing torch? There's a spiny cactus called nicotia. When it blooms, the flowers are brilliant red. You might think of that as a glowing torch.

• Flint McCullough : You the leader of this gang?

  Alexander Portlass : I'm the leader of this expedition.

  Flint McCullough : You call this an expedition?

  Alexander Portlass : Yes, it's an expedition for immortality.

  Flint McCullough : Immortality?

  Alexander Portlass : My immortality.

• Flint McCullough : A year ago this had been a bad stretech for the wagon train. Oh, I had managed to find a couple of waterholes and a few patches of cheat grass for cattle. But it had been rough going. And that had been a wet year. This one was a dry year. In two days I hadn't seen a living thing, not an animal, a bird, not even a lizard. I could have been scouting the Country for the Dead.

• Flint McCullough : If you want the whole treasure for the Alexander Portlass Room - at the British Museum - there's going to be nothing left for them. And what about me? You plan to get rid of me personally, the way you threatened?

  Alexander Portlass : No. You're intelligent and very useful. I wouldn't know how to get out of this wilderness by myself. Do you realise, sir, that I am in your hands.

  Flint McCullough : Maybe more than you know.