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Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Summary

The herd starts. Each hand picks four mounts from a rope corral; Dish takes the right point, Soupy the left, and Newt, the Rainey boys and the Irishmen are put on the drags, where the dust is so thick Newt loses sight of everything but his own horse and nearly leaves thirty cattle behind. Augustus counts the herd at slightly over twenty-six hundred, plus two pigs, and suggests somebody make a speech at leaving the Rio Grande; Call refuses. From a knoll they watch the sun redden the dust cloud and can see all the way back to Lonesome Dove and Mexico. Augustus tells Call plainly that this drive is not duty but fortune hunting, that he would know how to die in the line of duty but does not know how to live. Call rides down to meet Deets and the bed ground. Augustus stays on the hill, watching the sunset and the cattle.

Analysis

Part II opens by naming the enterprise correctly. Augustus tells Call the drive is fortune hunting rather than duty, and that he knows how to die in the line of duty but not how to live — the thesis the remaining six hundred pages exist to test.

Plates

Late afternoon, a rope corral strung around the remuda while each hand takes his four picks, and Jasper Fant and Needle Nelson cannot make up their minds.
00 Late afternoon, a rope corral strung around the remuda while each hand takes his four picks, and Jasper Fant and Needle Nelson cannot make up their minds.
Call assigns the positions — Dish the right point, Soupy the left — while Bert and Needle stand by aggrieved, and the drag riders are checked for bandannas.
01 Call assigns the positions — Dish the right point, Soupy the left — while Bert and Needle stand by aggrieved, and the drag riders are checked for bandannas.
Augustus comes back from counting with twenty-six hundred cattle and two pigs, asks for a speech at leaving the Rio Grande, and Call turns the mare away without giving him one.
02 Augustus comes back from counting with twenty-six hundred cattle and two pigs, asks for a speech at leaving the Rio Grande, and Call turns the mare away without giving him one.
The cattle move off wild as antelope and within minutes the herd is strung out for more than a mile, the point riders disappearing into the low brush.
03 The cattle move off wild as antelope and within minutes the herd is strung out for more than a mile, the point riders disappearing into the low brush.
Bolivar rides the wagon seat with the ten-gauge across his lap, Lippy and the Spettle boys holding the horse herd well back out of the dust.
04 Bolivar rides the wagon seat with the ten-gauge across his lap, Lippy and the Spettle boys holding the horse herd well back out of the dust.
Newt, white with dust on the drags, pulls off his caked bandanna and beats it against his leg for a clean breath.
05 Newt, white with dust on the drags, pulls off his caked bandanna and beats it against his leg for a clean breath.
Sean hangs off the side of his horse trying to spit the mud out of his mouth, and Newt rides up to ask if he is hurt.
06 Sean hangs off the side of his horse trying to spit the mud out of his mouth, and Newt rides up to ask if he is hurt.
Going back for the thirty cattle he rode past, Newt loses both stirrups when Mouse twists and jumps a chaparral bush to head two spooked heifers.
07 Going back for the thirty cattle he rode past, Newt loses both stirrups when Mouse twists and jumps a chaparral bush to head two spooked heifers.
Stopped on the little knobby hill above the rosy dust, Augustus tells Call this is fortune hunting, and that he would know how to die in the line of duty but does not know how to live.
08 Stopped on the little knobby hill above the rosy dust, Augustus tells Call this is fortune hunting, and that he would know how to die in the line of duty but does not know how to live.
Call spurs off the hill to meet Deets and the bed ground, and only then finds that Augustus has not followed — still sitting old Malaria up there, watching the sunset and the cattle.
09 Call spurs off the hill to meet Deets and the bed ground, and only then finds that Augustus has not followed — still sitting old Malaria up there, watching the sunset and the cattle.