] She wonders why they haven""t been reprimanded by their mother: "Why you""d think their mother would" and hen she considers: "Maybe they have no mother" and are orphans.Feeling guilty, and also fearing a beating, Ratso defends himself from being physically hit: "Come on now, I""m a cripple.We""ve had to ration water in the valley and the farmers are desperate.Well, what can we do? The rest of the city needs drinking water.Hinting at political corruption in the department, Gittes refers to a past time when Mulvihill was a dishonest, former Sheriff in Ventura County during Prohibition:When Mulvihill here was Sheriff of Ventura County, he rum-runners landed hundreds of tons of booze on the beach and never lost a drop.Clark""s super-sensitive hearing and X-ray vision detected that Ricky""s dog Buster was whining above the unconscious boy in a nearby wheatfield - he had tripped and fallen on a rock near where giant Wheatking threshers were cutting through the wheat with rollers and churning blades.]" As wo bearded, self-righteous Pharisees (Gunther von Ritzau and Erich von Stroheim) walk along a street, others bow toward them.