- Bailey Harper: [Harper lassos Bat Masterson and pulls him down from his horse] Bat Masterson
- [Harper laughs]
- Bailey Harper: Bat Masterson, fastest cane in the West.
- Bat Masterson: Bailey Harper. You're connected in stagecoaching, I believe.
- Bailey Harper: If the coaches are carrying money. Right now, I'm just a horse trader. I figure your horse for mine is fair enough... provided you, uh, are throwin' in your gun and your money pouch.
- Bat Masterson: That money pouch has a thousand dollars U.S. in it.
- Bailey Harper: Oh, don't apologize. Now, once Bailey Harper makes a bargain, he sticks to it.
- Bat Masterson: You're in a hurry, I take it.
- Bailey Harper: Right! I'm expecting a lady, and my fort is a fifty mile ride.
- Bat Masterson: I had a poker date in Phoenix, but I guess I'm not in a hurry.
- Bailey Harper: [Harper laughs] Oh, you'll get there. Some day. Maybe.
- Bat Masterson: Oh, I'll get there, all right; with my own horse, my own gun, and the thousand dollars you're borrowing.
- Bailey Harper: Masterson, you stop any place from here to Walesburg, tell 'em you're after Bailey Harper and see how much help you get.
- Bat Masterson: I'm not looking for help, Harper. It's a personal matter.
- Adam Fairbanks, Gunsmith: I didn't say that Bailey was a friend of mine, but I don't want him for an enemy, either.
- [Bat, riding shotgun for a stagecoach, "drops in" on the passengers]
- Bat Masterson: Anything I can do to make you folks more comfortable?
- Louisa Carey: Yes, get up top and protect us.
- [Realizing he will be recognized, Bat ducks under the stagecoach driver's seat during an apparent robbery]
- Stage Driver: Some shotgun rider! Why don't you go hide your head in the sand like an ostrich?
- Bat Masterson: Maybe this shotgun wants to live to shoot again - at bigger game.
- Louisa Carey: That's very funny, Bat, but Bailey could whip you with one hand, and I want to love a man, not laugh at him.
- [first lines]
- Narrator: The Territory of New Mexico, early summer, 1881. A riderless horse and a matter of principle play their parts in an incident from the colorful life of Bat Masterson, the man who became a legend in his own time.