History in Books the world's story, told by its literature

Chapter 43

Chapter 43

Summary

Roscoe cannot find Texas. The settlers he asks have never been more than a few hundred feet from where they stand, until a party of drunk soldiers points him at the Red River and gets him so sick he rides in their wagon vomiting over the tailgate. His first night in Texas he stops at a squalid cabin where a hard old man named Sam skins a possum, drinks Roscoe's whiskey without a word of thanks, and beats and rapes the girl he claims to have bought for twenty-eight skunk hides. Riding on, stung half-blind by a wasp nest that falls into his lap, Roscoe finds the girl has followed him on foot. She is Janey, orphaned, traded twice, and she whacked Sam across the knees with a pan to keep him still. She packs mud poultices on his stings, runs down a rabbit and clubs a bullfrog, and cooks them both. Roscoe, uneasy about how it will look to July, lets her ride double and asks her to keep him pointed at San Antonio.

Analysis

Janey arrives the way the O'Briens did — swept up by accident — and is immediately more capable than the man who acquires her. McMurtry builds her competence carefully across three chapters purely so that Blue Duck can waste it in a paragraph.

Plates

Roscoe, lost somewhere north of the Red, asks a settler the way to Texas and gets a vague arm pointed at the horizon.
00 Roscoe, lost somewhere north of the Red, asks a settler the way to Texas and gets a vague arm pointed at the horizon.
Roscoe, drunk on the soldiers' whiskey and sick to his stomach, lies flat in the springless mule wagon with his head hanging out over the tailgate.
01 Roscoe, drunk on the soldiers' whiskey and sick to his stomach, lies flat in the springless mule wagon with his head hanging out over the tailgate.
On the bank of the Red River — "That's Texas right across yonder" — Roscoe's legs give out and he sits in the sand holding to a stirrup while the soldiers laugh.
02 On the bank of the Red River — "That's Texas right across yonder" — Roscoe's legs give out and he sits in the sand holding to a stirrup while the soldiers laugh.
Roscoe's first night in Texas — old Sam sits on a stump skinning a possum without looking up, and the girl appears in the cabin doorway behind him.
03 Roscoe's first night in Texas — old Sam sits on a stump skinning a possum without looking up, and the girl appears in the cabin doorway behind him.
Sam takes the offered bottle, sits on the stump and drinks nearly all of it without a word of thanks.
04 Sam takes the offered bottle, sits on the stump and drinks nearly all of it without a word of thanks.
Roscoe lies awake on his bedroll against the cabin wall in bright moonlight, hearing through the log cracks what old Sam is doing to the girl a foot from his head.
05 Roscoe lies awake on his bedroll against the cabin wall in bright moonlight, hearing through the log cracks what old Sam is doing to the girl a foot from his head.
Half asleep in the saddle, Roscoe rides Memphis into a limb, the wasp nest drops into his lap and the yellow jackets come up at his face.
06 Half asleep in the saddle, Roscoe rides Memphis into a limb, the wasp nest drops into his lap and the yellow jackets come up at his face.
Stripped to the waist checking his shirt for wasps, Roscoe finds the girl has followed him six miles on foot; she comes out from behind the bush and stops twenty feet away.
07 Stripped to the waist checking his shirt for wasps, Roscoe finds the girl has followed him six miles on foot; she comes out from behind the bush and stops twenty feet away.
At the creek, his face packed with mud poultices and one eye swelled shut, Roscoe watches Janey knock the bullfrog out of the air with a stick.
08 At the creek, his face packed with mud poultices and one eye swelled shut, Roscoe watches Janey knock the bullfrog out of the air with a stick.
Riding double, Janey up behind with her toes hooked in the girth, they splash across the creek and Roscoe asks her to keep him pointed at San Antone.
09 Riding double, Janey up behind with her toes hooked in the girth, they splash across the creek and Roscoe asks her to keep him pointed at San Antone.