- Major Ogden: I have the letter, Mr Shannon. You merely wrote that certain, ah, unfortunate incidents turned Andrew Elliott's expedition into tragedy. Those were your words. This letter hides more than it tells. What are you hiding, Mr Shannon?
- Duke Shannon: Once you've made the trip into hell, you don't jump at the chance to go a second time.
- Major Ogden: [He reads Andrew's last words to the Senator] Millions know your public face, only I know your private heart. I have lived as your captive all my life and I realise now, there is nowhere I can go to live a life of my own. I don't know how.
- Duke Shannon: Andy, what say there is a pass? What's to stop George from claiming it all alone? Maybe they'll call it the George Simpson Pass. I think he's been waiting for something like this all these years. Here's your chance right now, isn't it, George?
- Duke Shannon: We were in the hottest part of the Summer. The second day it got so hot you couldn't touch the leather saddles without burning yourself. The third day the woman started to break. By then, George had no use for her.
- Senator Harold Elliott: I raised George. He was decent, quiet, fine.
- Duke Shannon: He wasn't any of these things, Senator. Andy may have fooled the world, but George certainly fooled you. He was a mwan, vicious bully.
- Major Ogden: What was his vision, Senator?
- Senator Harold Elliott: America. It was a vision as great and as simple as that one word: America. He wanted to find the greatness of his country, to discover it, to find it for himself, as if he were saying, I, Andrew Elliott, bestow my most precious possession, my name, on this tree, this rock, that hill, beloved land to that name your greatness, your awesome magnificence. Teach me to be worthy.
- Major Ogden: As all the Elliotts have prayed from the beginning of our country, sir.
- Senator Harold Elliott: Why, bless you for that, Major.
- Duke Shannon: There was trouble, Major, that very first night. But it didn't come from me. And it didn't come from the terrain. It came from George.
- Senator Harold Elliott: It makes a mockery of the memories of the young man's laughter, and grace, and beauty.
- Andrew Elliott: I just can't leave you here to die.
- Duke Shannon: Go on, if you do make it, no matter if there's a pass or not. You keep on going. Go your own way. Go find your own like. Don't go back into that prison.
- Andrew Elliott: Why, I.
- Duke Shannon: Go on! Go on! There's nothing you can do for me! There's everything you can do for yourself. With a little luck, you. Go on! GO ON! GO ON!
- Andrew Elliott: It was a pleasant lie, I enjoyed it. All that acclaim, all that attention, and my father's pride and approval. I could never have gained that any other way without those lies. I am weak, George. I admitted that to myself a long time ago. But an hour ago I saw you murder a man. Now you're gonna murder this man. If we get back safely, it would take a much stronger man than I am to live with that knowledge.
- Major Ogden: I tell you what I believe. I believe you hired the two other men and that woman. That you planned to steal the money. You and the man, Jack, were going to kill Andrew Elliott and George Simpson. George killed Jack in self defence and you killed both Andrew and George. And now you're back here in the West to see the other man, Blake, and the woman, and get your share of the money. That's what I believe. And that's what I'm going to testify in Washington.
- [Straight as a die, honest Duke takes offence at these false words and slugs him to the ground]
- Senator Harold Elliott: Mr Shannon, please.
- Major Ogden: Well, when you're threatened, you really show your true colours, don't you, Mr Shannon? Well, I shall have my turn with you when you're dangling from the end of the gallows you so richly deserve.