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Chapter 52

Chapter 52

Summary

Janey turns out to know the trail, prefers walking, and feeds them nightly on rabbits, possums and prairie chickens she runs down by hand; she hides whenever travellers appear, afraid of the Bill who traded her away. Two bandits, mean little Jim and the ox-sized Hutto, stop them for tobacco and then circle back to kill them. Janey takes Roscoe's pistol, ambushes them in a thunderstorm, and is caught and tied — but wriggles free into the tall grass. Stripped naked and expecting to die, Roscoe watches her win the fight by throwing rocks: one smashes Hutto's mouth, another drops Jim by the throat, and Hutto laughs at the disgrace of being beaten by a girl. July and Joe arrive mid-fight and take the pair prisoner. They deliver them to the sheriff in Fort Worth and pay a livery woman two months' board for Janey — who returns the money and reappears at their camp before dawn, and simply comes along.

Analysis

Janey wins a gunfight with rocks while the deputy stands naked — the novel's funniest sequence, and its clearest statement that competence and status are unrelated. Every skill she demonstrates here is recalled precisely when Blue Duck kills her without effort.

Plates

Janey walks the trail west on her bare feet, keeping them on the road while Roscoe rides behind her and does nothing but trot along and think.
00 Janey walks the trail west on her bare feet, keeping them on the road while Roscoe rides behind her and does nothing but trot along and think.
Five minutes after vanishing from the night camp, Janey comes back with a fat brownish bird Roscoe has never seen before, and tells him it is a prairie chicken.
01 Five minutes after vanishing from the night camp, Janey comes back with a fat brownish bird Roscoe has never seen before, and tells him it is a prairie chicken.
Janey sees the Missouri family's wagon long before Roscoe does and darts off the trail to lie hidden in the weeds until the strangers pass, afraid Bill might be with them.
02 Janey sees the Missouri family's wagon long before Roscoe does and darts off the trail to lie hidden in the weeds until the strangers pass, afraid Bill might be with them.
Two dirty men with greasy beards and six or seven guns between them stop Roscoe on the trail to borrow tobacco, and the little one with the mean eyes tells him that if he was more dried up they could smoke him.
03 Two dirty men with greasy beards and six or seven guns between them stop Roscoe on the trail to borrow tobacco, and the little one with the mean eyes tells him that if he was more dried up they could smoke him.
Janey has taken the pistol and gone over the lip; the storm breaks and Roscoe sits soaked in the gully while a little river runs down a bed that was bone dry when they rode up.
04 Janey has taken the pistol and gone over the lip; the storm breaks and Roscoe sits soaked in the gully while a little river runs down a bed that was bone dry when they rode up.
Roscoe climbs the muddy bank into the barrels of Hutto's shotgun and finds Jim astride Janey in the wet grass, Hutto's boot planted on her arm so her wrists can be tied.
05 Roscoe climbs the muddy bank into the barrels of Hutto's shotgun and finds Jim astride Janey in the wet grass, Hutto's boot planted on her arm so her wrists can be tied.
Stripped of everything he owns, Roscoe stands in the mud while the two men cut his clothes apart with their knives hunting for money and Hutto winds his old pocket watch.
06 Stripped of everything he owns, Roscoe stands in the mud while the two men cut his clothes apart with their knives hunting for money and Hutto winds his old pocket watch.
Out of the dark grass a rock smashes Hutto's mouth and he sits down in the mud laughing and spitting blood, while Jim crouches over his dropped bullets watching for the next one.
07 Out of the dark grass a rock smashes Hutto's mouth and he sits down in the mud laughing and spitting blood, while Jim crouches over his dropped bullets watching for the next one.
In Fort Worth, with the outlaws handed to the sheriff and two months' board paid, Janey sits on the livery woman's big washtub and says nothing at all while Roscoe stands there in his stiff new black clothes.
08 In Fort Worth, with the outlaws handed to the sheriff and two months' board paid, Janey sits on the livery woman's big washtub and says nothing at all while Roscoe stands there in his stiff new black clothes.
Twenty miles north of Fort Worth, Joe opens his eyes at first light and finds Janey squatting by the cold campfire, holding out the six dollars of board money for July to take back.
09 Twenty miles north of Fort Worth, Joe opens his eyes at first light and finds Janey squatting by the cold campfire, holding out the six dollars of board money for July to take back.