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Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Summary

The herd Augustus finds is only forty head — and when Newt ropes two mounts for the Irishmen, the brands turn out to be Wilbarger's HIC. Having set out to steal, they find themselves returning stolen property. Call splits the party three ways: Deets, Dish and Jake drive the recovered horses home; Augustus goes back for the O'Briens; Call keeps Pea and Newt and pushes north to find Pedro Flores's main remuda. They locate it, over a hundred head, a mile from the hacienda itself, and take it. Newt, riding point, dwells on the thought of hanging and on the strange fact that a muddy river decides what is a crime. Near the river the night detonates: their herd collides head-on with a second herd being driven south by Mexican thieves. In dust and gunfire Newt simply clings on. At dawn Call is waiting on the bank with the Henry, more than a hundred horses drinking, and Newt in tears he hopes nobody sees.

Analysis

A comic reversal — thieves restoring stolen property — establishes the border's moral fluidity, which Newt notices explicitly: a muddy river decides what counts as a crime. The night collision is the template for every stampede after, with Newt inside it, understanding nothing, surviving anyway.

Plates

Augustus and Jake sit their horses above the horse herd in the valley south of the old line camp — Call predicted the place exactly and got the size wrong; there are only about forty head.
00 Augustus and Jake sit their horses above the horse herd in the valley south of the old line camp — Call predicted the place exactly and got the size wrong; there are only about forty head.
Jake lights his smoke and says he never liked it down here with these chili-bellies; Augustus tells him he should stay and make his home.
01 Jake lights his smoke and says he never liked it down here with these chili-bellies; Augustus tells him he should stay and make his home.
Call, Deets and Newt ride in from the north with no vaqueros and no explanation but two lost Irishmen on their way to Galveston.
02 Call, Deets and Newt ride in from the north with no vaqueros and no explanation but two lost Irishmen on their way to Galveston.
Newt, handed the Captain's rope, catches his first horse in the dark — and Dish Boggett trots over unasked and casually ropes a second.
03 Newt, handed the Captain's rope, catches his first horse in the dark — and Dish Boggett trots over unasked and casually ropes a second.
The brands on the left hips — the horses they came to steal are Wilbarger's, already stolen, and they are returning property instead of taking it.
04 The brands on the left hips — the horses they came to steal are Wilbarger's, already stolen, and they are returning property instead of taking it.
Call splits the party three ways — Augustus gallops off for the Irishmen while Deets takes the point with the recovered horses as though it were his natural place.
05 Call splits the party three ways — Augustus gallops off for the Irishmen while Deets takes the point with the recovered horses as though it were his natural place.
Call, Pea Eye and Newt find Pedro Flores's main remuda — over a hundred head in a narrow valley barely a mile from the hacienda — and Call says take them.
06 Call, Pea Eye and Newt find Pedro Flores's main remuda — over a hundred head in a narrow valley barely a mile from the hacienda — and Call says take them.
Riding the left point alone under the thin moon, Newt thinks about hanging and squeezes his own throat with one hand to learn how it feels not to breathe.
07 Riding the left point alone under the thin moon, Newt thinks about hanging and squeezes his own throat with one hand to learn how it feels not to breathe.
The night goes off like a bomb — the two herds collide head-on at the chaparral thicket, and Newt, engulfed in running horses and Mexican curses, loses a stirrup and a rein and holds on to the horn.
08 The night goes off like a bomb — the two herds collide head-on at the chaparral thicket, and Newt, engulfed in running horses and Mexican curses, loses a stirrup and a rein and holds on to the horn.
Sunrise at the old Comanche crossing — Call waiting on the bank with the Henry in the crook of his arm, a hundred horses drinking, and Newt wiping a tear into the dirt on his face.
09 Sunrise at the old Comanche crossing — Call waiting on the bank with the Henry in the crook of his arm, a hundred horses drinking, and Newt wiping a tear into the dirt on his face.