Wagon Train (TV Series)

The Benjamin Burns Story (1960)

Robert Horton: Flint McCullough

Photos 

Quotes 

• Flint McCullough : Well, I'll tell you Mr Owen, if you'll pull a wagon for us, we'll make sure your ration is doubled. Won't we, Major?

• Major Seth Adams : What's up?

  Flint McCullough : Ben here says he can find the Shining Water.

  Major Seth Adams : Well, I wish I could believe that.

  Flint McCullough : So do I.

  Benjamin Burns : Major, I can't just walk you to it, it's been 30 years. It was up in the Furnaces I found it. Old Bill Subletty and me was chasing a bear. He'd stolen a hind quarter of that buck meat out of our camp. That's when I found it.

  Bill Hawks : He knows what he's talking about. Don't you think we should hightail it up there.

• Benjamin Burns : I bet that big mouth of yours will be the first one dipping into that water when I lead you to it.

  Flint McCullough : We're going, let's go.

  Frank Owens : I want you to know, Major Adams, I'm holding you personally responsible. If we don't find water, I'll see to it that you never lead another wagon train.

  Major Seth Adams : If you don't find water, Mr Owens, you don't have to worry about it any more, 'cos the desert will take care of all of us.

• Major Seth Adams : It's a gamble at best, Flint. So we won't wait for you. We'll meet you at Black Macer. Bill, you get a pack mule.

  Flint McCullough : I hope you know what you're doing, Ben. If you don't, I don't think this wagon train will ever get to Frenchman's Springs. And we might not make Black Macer.

  Cathy Burns : Are you sure, Grandfather? This isn't just another one of your wild stories?

• John Colter : What do you think, Flint?

  Flint McCullough : I'd give him a couple of hours. It's a miracle he's not dead from that fall already.

• Frank Owens : What're going to do with the rest of it?

  Flint McCullough : Look, Owens, there's a man over there and there's two of us. And we don't know how long we're going to be here.

  Frank Owens : You're not gonna waste water on HIM?

  Flint McCullough : You better get moving before I break his neck.

  Bill Hawks : [to Owens]  You keep your mouth shut.

• Flint McCullough : [Flint uses his knife to slit his trousers, and make a cut into his right thigh, and uses his pistol and leather tags to make a tourniquet]  You got any sores in your mouth?

  John Colter : No.

  Flint McCullough : Let's get the poison out of it. Come on.

• Flint McCullough : No one asked you to come, Mr Colter, and nobody said it was gonna be easy.

• Flint McCullough : [a rattlesnake makes its appearance while Flint and John Colter are watching the progress of an Indian party]  Don't move.

  John Colter : I-can't-stand-snakes.

  Flint McCullough : John, the Indians will hear it.

  John Colter : It's coming. It's coming at me.

  Flint McCullough : Colter, don't. We at least have a chance against a snake.

• John Colter : [Flint is raving with fever and trying to remove his jacket]  Wait a minute, Flint, I'll get this off, make you more comfortable. There, you're better now.

  Flint McCullough : Find the water. I'm going.

  John Colter : No, Flint, no, no, no. I'll find the water. You lie down. I'll find it, Flint... Hurry up, old man, when will you die.

• John Colter : Flint, Flint, he's dead. The old man, he finally died, Flint. He's dead, Flint. He's dead.

  Flint McCullough : I had a dream. Dreamed I was... bad dream.

  John Colter : No, Flint, we can go back now. Come on, let's get back to the train, Flint. Come on, we can go back now. We can go back to the train, now, Flint. Come on, come on.

• Major Seth Adams : Hey, boy. What's eating you? What's the matter with you?

  Flint McCullough : Oh, just thinking.

  Major Seth Adams : About old Ben, huh?

  Flint McCullough : I've wanted to see a lot of men dead in my day, but never somebody who was a friend.

  Major Seth Adams : Well, you know, Flint, it's perfectly natural for a man to want to live, sort of built in us, like a bird when he flies south, or a fish swimming upstream to where he was hatched. A man wants to live even if there doesn't seem to be much of a reason. Old Ben was tougher than most so he took a longer time dying. That's all.

  Flint McCullough : But I wanted him to die, get it over with.

  Major Seth Adams : Yeah, well, I'd probably have felt the same way myself.

  [the Major's words offer no consolation to Flint as he turns his head away, his face and thoughts still dark and morose] 

• Major Seth Adams : Goldang it, whyn't you speak up out there? I know you didn't kill him.

  Flint McCullough : [He's lying down, brooding, his fingers as busy as ever while he toys and teases with another button on his jacket]  How do you know?

  Major Seth Adams : DON'T I?

  Flint McCullough : I don't even know myself.

  Major Seth Adams : What kind of talk is that?

  Flint McCullough : I lay there for a couple of days, Major, not five feet away from him. I had a fever, my leg felt like it was a tree trunk. And I hurt, I hurt like I never hurt before. And all I could think

  [He finally yanks the button free and rolls it in his fingers] 

  Flint McCullough : why doesn't he die.

  Major Seth Adams : I told you about that. It's a perfectly normal way to feel.

  Flint McCullough : I didn't tell you a few things. And last night I did a lot of dreaming. Crazy dreams. I kept seeing water, thinking about things when I was a kid. Then all of a sudden, I was standing over Ben, I could hear him breathing, sounded like a horse when he's dying. I couldn't stand the way he sounded, so I took my jacket, and put it over his head and the breathing stopped. It was like I was two people.

• Benjamin Burns : Stubborn just like her Ma.

  Flint McCullough : Well, Ben, I never figured you to be the forgiving type.

  Benjamin Burns : You ain't never had a granddaughter.

• Major Seth Adams : Flint, are you sure you can find your way back there?

  Flint McCullough : Yeah, I think so.

  Charlie Wooster : He ain't going no place, Major, with a leg like this. Why it'd flatten and mortify. Look at it.

  Major Seth Adams : Pretty stupid of you, wasn't it, letting a rattler sneak up on yer like that.

  Flint McCullough : I won't argue about that. Ow, Charlie.

  Major Seth Adams : [The Major ruffles Flint well-kept hair and then gives him a light slap on the back of his head]  Well, I'm glad you got back here. Pour it on him, Charlie.

  Charlie Wooster : I'll take care of him.