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Chapter 55

Chapter 55

Summary

Lorena's captivity on the Canadian. Blue Duck has sold her for hides to two buffalo hunters — the vicious old runt Monkey John, who burns and beats her, and the crazy-eyed Dog Face, who half protects her — while Ermoke's Kiowas hold a share and drag her to their camp every few days. She has stopped speaking entirely; fear has taken the place of words, and she hopes only to learn how to die. Blue Duck takes no interest in her at all, which frightens her more than the others' cruelty. One night he gets them all drunk and gambles away their horses, shoots dead the young Kiowa who refuses to bet his share of her, and wins her back. Then he offers everything back as a gift for one favour: kill the old man following him down the river. Lorena, listening, understands that Gus is coming — and that the Kiowas have been sent out at dawn with bullets to kill him.

Analysis

Captivity rendered as commerce: Lorena is a share to be gambled over, and Blue Duck shoots a man for slowing the game. Her silence deepens from tactic into condition. The chapter's real function is to put Gus's arrival on a timer the reader can hear.

Plates

Monkey John sits on Lorena's chest with his big knife an inch from her face, and Dog Face cocks his pistol to make him stop.
00 Monkey John sits on Lorena's chest with his big knife an inch from her face, and Dog Face cocks his pistol to make him stop.
Every two or three days the Kiowas ride in and drag Lorena off to their own camp for their share, and the two white men do not try to stop them.
01 Every two or three days the Kiowas ride in and drag Lorena off to their own camp for their share, and the two white men do not try to stop them.
Blue Duck in camp, cleaning his gun and sharpening his knife, never once looking her way — the indifference that frightens Lorena more than Monkey John's anger.
02 Blue Duck in camp, cleaning his gun and sharpening his knife, never once looking her way — the indifference that frightens Lorena more than Monkey John's anger.
The Kiowas kill the crippled cow with an axe, split open her stomach and eat the guts raw — and Lorena thinks, that's what he said he'd do to me.
03 The Kiowas kill the crippled cow with an axe, split open her stomach and eat the guts raw — and Lorena thinks, that's what he said he'd do to me.
The hot night of Blue Duck's whiskey — a big fire, bottles passing, and Monkey John standing up to make water into the flames without turning his back.
04 The hot night of Blue Duck's whiskey — a big fire, bottles passing, and Monkey John standing up to make water into the flames without turning his back.
Blue Duck spreads a blanket by the fire and rolls the dice, and by the end of the hour he has won every horse in both camps.
05 Blue Duck spreads a blanket by the fire and rolls the dice, and by the end of the hour he has won every horse in both camps.
The young Kiowa who would not bet his share of her is shot dead in the dark, and Blue Duck steps back into the firelight with the rifle and sits down to rattle the dice again.
06 The young Kiowa who would not bet his share of her is shot dead in the dark, and Blue Duck steps back into the firelight with the rifle and sits down to rattle the dice again.
Blue Duck offers the horses and the woman back as a gift for one favour — there is an old man coming down the river, and he wants him killed — and Lorena, listening from the dark, understands that it is Gus.
07 Blue Duck offers the horses and the woman back as a gift for one favour — there is an old man coming down the river, and he wants him killed — and Lorena, listening from the dark, understands that it is Gus.
Monkey John charges at Dog Face with the stick and Dog Face lays him out with the barrel of his rifle — the old man goes loop-legged and falls on the stick.
08 Monkey John charges at Dog Face with the stick and Dog Face lays him out with the barrel of his rifle — the old man goes loop-legged and falls on the stick.
In the grey dawn the Kiowas ride out with Blue Duck's bullets to kill Gus, and Monkey John gets to his feet with one eye swollen shut from ant bites while Dog Face cleans his gun.
09 In the grey dawn the Kiowas ride out with Blue Duck's bullets to kill Gus, and Monkey John gets to his feet with one eye swollen shut from ant bites while Dog Face cleans his gun.