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Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Summary

Wilbarger collects his thirty-eight recovered horses, offers all of them for the Hell Bitch, is refused, tries to hire Dish away from Call, is refused again, and rides off warning that Montana is too far, too cold and full of bears. The chapter then turns to Pea Eye and the question of marriage: Augustus and Deets tease him about the widow Mary Cole, and he broods over the day he helped her wrestle wet sheets off the line in a thunderstorm and found himself holding her bloomers. Pea also recalls, uneasily, once overhearing Maggie speaking to Captain Call by his first name in her room — the only crack he has ever seen in Call's distance from women. Augustus arrives late with the O'Briens on stolen Mexican saddles and extra horses from a Sabinas brothel. Sean weeps at the sight of the treeless, grassless country. Call, calculating three weeks to gather and brand a herd, rides off to hire hands at the Rainey place.

Analysis

Pea Eye's interiority chapter, and where Maggie first surfaces — through a witness too incurious to pursue what he overheard. McMurtry plants the paternity secret in the mind least able to use it. Wilbarger's parting warning about Montana is the first the novel will vindicate.

Plates

Just after sunrise, Wilbarger, Deets and Chick cut the H I C horses out of the corral while Dish works the gate and Newt stands idle at the fence.
00 Just after sunrise, Wilbarger, Deets and Chick cut the H I C horses out of the corral while Dish works the gate and Newt stands idle at the fence.
Wilbarger offers the thirty-eight sorted horses for the Hell Bitch and Call, still mounted on her, refuses.
01 Wilbarger offers the thirty-eight sorted horses for the Hell Bitch and Call, still mounted on her, refuses.
Wilbarger turns and tries to hire Dish Boggett away from Call, and Dish says he has a job.
02 Wilbarger turns and tries to hire Dish Boggett away from Call, and Dish says he has a job.
Chick's hat lies in the dust where it fell at the gate, nobody having picked it up, as Wilbarger rides off warning that Montana is too far and too cold.
03 Chick's hat lies in the dust where it fell at the gate, nobody having picked it up, as Wilbarger rides off warning that Montana is too far and too cold.
Deets chuckles that the widow Cole would have him and walks off to the house, leaving Pea Eye alone on the top rail of the corral with the thought of women in his head.
04 Deets chuckles that the widow Cole would have him and walks off to the house, leaving Pea Eye alone on the top rail of the corral with the thought of women in his head.
Years back, Pea Eye stands in the dark of the saloon with the borrowed ax he has come to fetch, hearing Maggie behind a closed door calling the Captain by his first name.
05 Years back, Pea Eye stands in the dark of the saloon with the borrowed ax he has come to fetch, hearing Maggie behind a closed door calling the Captain by his first name.
A year back, in the thunderstorm, Pea Eye stands in Mary Cole's flooded backyard steadying the clothesline with her bloomers in his fist and a stream of rain pouring off his hat brim in front of his face.
06 A year back, in the thunderstorm, Pea Eye stands in Mary Cole's flooded backyard steadying the clothesline with her bloomers in his fist and a stream of rain pouring off his hat brim in front of his face.
Augustus rides into the yard with the two O'Briens on stolen silver-studded Mexican saddles and a string of skinny horses, and the brothers will not get down.
07 Augustus rides into the yard with the two O'Briens on stolen silver-studded Mexican saddles and a string of skinny horses, and the brothers will not get down.
Sean O'Brien breaks down crying in the bare hot yard asking where the grass is, and Augustus takes him by the arm and speaks kindly and leads him in to eat.
08 Sean O'Brien breaks down crying in the bare hot yard asking where the grass is, and Augustus takes him by the arm and speaks kindly and leads him in to eat.
Call catches his second-best horse, the sorrel Sunup, and rides off northeast toward the Rainey place to hire hands, leaving Dish teaching Newt to rope bushes.
09 Call catches his second-best horse, the sorrel Sunup, and rides off northeast toward the Rainey place to hire hands, leaving Dish teaching Newt to rope bushes.