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Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Summary

The ride into Coahuila. Newt, wearing a gun for the first time, trots for hours through empty dark country, trying and failing to memorise landmarks, worrying equally about being killed and about blundering in front of the Captain. They scatter wild longhorns Call marks for a later night. Deets, whose ear and sense of distance are the outfit's true instruments, hears singing where vaqueros should be. Call splits the party: Augustus, Jake, Pea and Dish for the horse herd; himself, Deets and Newt to take the wranglers. What they find in the burnt-out line camp is two lost Irish brothers, Allen and Sean O'Brien, arguing over whether to eat their mule, bound for Galveston and hopelessly astray. Sean tries to flee on the hobbled mule and is thrown. Call warns them Pedro Flores will hang them come morning, promises to send horses back, and rides off. Newt lingers only to advise soaking the beans.

Analysis

Newt's initiation, rendered as sensory confusion rather than adventure. The O'Briens arrive by pure accident — McMurtry's method for populating the drive, and the setup for Sean, whose death will make the novel's first argument that the West kills the innocent for no reason at all.

Plates

The seven riders cross the river into Coahuila and strike southeast at a long trot, into country that seems to contain nothing except itself.
00 The seven riders cross the river into Coahuila and strike southeast at a long trot, into country that seems to contain nothing except itself.
Newt, riding grown-up for the first time with a gun on his hip, tries to fix landmarks he cannot see and feels only more lost.
01 Newt, riding grown-up for the first time with a gun on his hip, tries to fix landmarks he cannot see and feels only more lost.
The outfit lopes over a ridge into a sizable herd of wild longhorns, which are already running away when Call draws rein.
02 The outfit lopes over a ridge into a sizable herd of wild longhorns, which are already running away when Call draws rein.
The halt under the Milky Way — the men dismount at the ends of their reins to relieve themselves, each turned slightly away, and Newt cannot make water.
03 The halt under the Milky Way — the men dismount at the ends of their reins to relieve themselves, each turned slightly away, and Newt cannot make water.
"How far have we come, Deets?" — the scout gives the distance to the out camp while Gus argues against bearing around it.
04 "How far have we come, Deets?" — the scout gives the distance to the out camp while Gus argues against bearing around it.
Call splits the party — Augustus dismounts and tightens his cinch a notch before taking Jake, Pea and Dish after the horse herd.
05 Call splits the party — Augustus dismounts and tightens his cinch a notch before taking Jake, Pea and Dish after the horse herd.
A quarter-mile short of the camp, Call and Newt are afoot but Deets stays in the saddle, hand lifted — he hears singing, and it is white folks.
06 A quarter-mile short of the camp, Call and Newt are afoot but Deets stays in the saddle, hand lifted — he hears singing, and it is white folks.
Newt squats alone behind a chaparral bush thirty yards from the roofless hut, pistol in hand, watching two stout unarmed men argue over whether to eat the mule.
07 Newt squats alone behind a chaparral bush thirty yards from the roofless hut, pistol in hand, watching two stout unarmed men argue over whether to eat the mule.
Sean springs onto the hobbled mule, is thrown over its head, and Deets rests his rifle on the adobe wall and laughs.
08 Sean springs onto the hobbled mule, is thrown over its head, and Deets rests his rifle on the adobe wall and laughs.
The riders go, Newt's advice about soaking the beans left behind him, and the two brothers stand by the dying fire listening to the loping horses grow faint.
09 The riders go, Newt's advice about soaking the beans left behind him, and the two brothers stand by the dying fire listening to the loping horses grow faint.