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Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Summary

Six days after July leaves, Peach Johnson and the banker Charlie Barnes turn up at the jail to inform Roscoe Brown that Elmira is missing from the cabin. Roscoe, who has not thought of her once, hopes at first for a bear, since July might get over a death but not a desertion. The ferryman old Sabin confirms it: a woman boarded the whiskey boat heading upriver the morning after July left, and he assumed she was a whore. Within half an hour the whole of Fort Smith knows, and every citizen who has never laid eyes on Elmira comes to interrogate Roscoe about her habits. Old lady Harkness tells him to go and fetch July. Roscoe drinks a bottle of toothache whiskey, is found asleep by Peach and Charlie a second time, and is bullied into going. The next morning, full of premonition that he will not see the town again, he rides his white gelding Memphis out toward Texas.

Analysis

The subplot's comic engine: a man wholly unfit for travel dispatched by townsfolk who mostly want him gone. His premonition that he will not see Fort Smith again is the novel's flattest piece of foreshadowing, and it is honoured exactly.

Plates

Roscoe Brown whittling on the jail porch on a fine morning, Peach Johnson and Charlie Barnes coming up the street toward him.
00 Roscoe Brown whittling on the jail porch on a fine morning, Peach Johnson and Charlie Barnes coming up the street toward him.
On the porch, Peach tells Roscoe that Elmira is not in the cabin and Charlie Barnes says for the first time, "We think she's gone."
01 On the porch, Peach tells Roscoe that Elmira is not in the cabin and Charlie Barnes says for the first time, "We think she's gone."
Roscoe walks to the edge of the porch and looks up the street hoping to see Elmira standing in it; there is nobody there but a farmer with a mule team.
02 Roscoe walks to the edge of the porch and looks up the street hoping to see Elmira standing in it; there is nobody there but a farmer with a mule team.
Roscoe sets off for July's cabin and, to his dismay, Peach and Charlie stay right at his heels.
03 Roscoe sets off for July's cabin and, to his dismay, Peach and Charlie stay right at his heels.
The cabin is empty — nobody has been in it for a day or two, and a slab of corn bread sits on the cookstove already well nibbled by mice.
04 The cabin is empty — nobody has been in it for a day or two, and a slab of corn bread sits on the cookstove already well nibbled by mice.
Roscoe puts his head up into the loft where Elmira mostly sat and finds nothing there but a pallet of two quilts — and no shoes anywhere in the cabin.
05 Roscoe puts his head up into the loft where Elmira mostly sat and finds nothing there but a pallet of two quilts — and no shoes anywhere in the cabin.
At the river, old Sabin the ferryman shrugs and tells Roscoe he saw a woman board the whiskey boat the morning it left — "I figured it was a whore."
06 At the river, old Sabin the ferryman shrugs and tells Roscoe he saw a woman board the whiskey boat the morning it left — "I figured it was a whore."
Half the town comes to the jail to question Roscoe about a woman most of them never laid eyes on, and old lady Harkness marches across the street to tell him he had better go and get July.
07 Half the town comes to the jail to question Roscoe about a woman most of them never laid eyes on, and old lady Harkness marches across the street to tell him he had better go and get July.
Roscoe wakes in a sweat on the jail couch, the toothache whiskey bottle empty, to find Peach and Charlie Barnes staring down at him for the second time that day.
08 Roscoe wakes in a sweat on the jail couch, the toothache whiskey bottle empty, to find Peach and Charlie Barnes staring down at him for the second time that day.
The next morning Roscoe rides out of Fort Smith on the big white gelding Memphis, certain he is looking his last on the town, while the citizens watch him go without worry.
09 The next morning Roscoe rides out of Fort Smith on the big white gelding Memphis, certain he is looking his last on the town, while the citizens watch him go without worry.