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Chapter 56

Chapter 56

Summary

Caught in the open by a dozen riders, Augustus outruns them only far enough to reach a shallow buffalo wallow. He cuts his own horse's throat, wrestles the dying animal down as a breastwork, and lets the blood smell spook the attackers' mounts; with them stalled at fifty yards he kills six, including the leader who blindfolds his horse and charges with only a lance. A buffalo hunter with a fifty-caliber gun and a tripod pins him down until dark. Walking out with his saddle, he hears shooting and follows it to July Johnson's camp — the Arkansas sheriff who has come hundreds of miles past his quarry, travelling with Roscoe, Joe and Janey. Augustus gives Joe a captured Winchester. Downriver they can see the raiders' campfire. He asks only for the loan of a horse, meaning to go in alone; July insists on coming, admitting he has never killed anyone. Augustus wishes silently that he had stayed behind.

Analysis

Augustus at his most formidable — killing his own horse for a breastwork — and the book pauses mid-siege to note he has nobody to discuss it with. Then the two plots finally collide, and Augustus's silent wish that July had stayed behind is the chapter's real ending.

Plates

Augustus, alone and off Blue Duck's trail, rides east all morning across a level plain with a bad feeling in his heart.
00 Augustus, alone and off Blue Duck's trail, rides east all morning across a level plain with a bad feeling in his heart.
The Indians break for him out of open ground; bullets cut the grass and Augustus puts his horse into a dead run south, steadily losing ground.
01 The Indians break for him out of open ground; bullets cut the grass and Augustus puts his horse into a dead run south, steadily losing ground.
The white thing on the prairie turns out to be a slaughter-ground of buffalo bones, and in it a wallow a foot deep — the best cover he is going to get.
02 The white thing on the prairie turns out to be a slaughter-ground of buffalo bones, and in it a wallow a foot deep — the best cover he is going to get.
Reins wrapped around one hand, Augustus cuts his own horse's jugular and holds on while it plunges, turning it as it falls to lie across the end of the wallow.
03 Reins wrapped around one hand, Augustus cuts his own horse's jugular and holds on while it plunges, turning it as it falls to lie across the end of the wallow.
At fifty yards the attackers' horses catch the smell of fresh blood and refuse to charge; Augustus, rifle across the dying horse's withers, shoots the riders off the two that have stopped dead.
04 At fifty yards the attackers' horses catch the smell of fresh blood and refuse to charge; Augustus, rifle across the dying horse's withers, shoots the riders off the two that have stopped dead.
The leader throws a blanket over his horse's head and charges blind, drops his rifle levering it one-handed, and comes on with only the lance; Augustus lets him get to thirty feet.
05 The leader throws a blanket over his horse's head and charges blind, drops his rifle levering it one-handed, and comes on with only the lance; Augustus lets him get to thirty feet.
All afternoon the six survivors hold council out of range; then one fetches a white buffalo hunter who sets up a tripod and pins Augustus down with a fifty-caliber gun.
06 All afternoon the six survivors hold council out of range; then one fetches a white buffalo hunter who sets up a tripod and pins Augustus down with a fifty-caliber gun.
At full dark he pulls his saddle loose and walks out, stopping at each dead man to salvage what cartridges he can and taking one good Winchester as insurance.
07 At full dark he pulls his saddle loose and walks out, stopping at each dead man to salvage what cartridges he can and taking one good Winchester as insurance.
He walks in on July Johnson's party in the dark, dumps the saddle, and gives Joe the dead Kiowa's Winchester — telling him to make sure he shoots one of them and not one of us.
08 He walks in on July Johnson's party in the dark, dumps the saddle, and gives Joe the dead Kiowa's Winchester — telling him to make sure he shoots one of them and not one of us.
A mile short of the raiders' fire the two of them dismount to listen; July admits he has never killed anyone, and Augustus wishes silently that he had stayed with his party.
09 A mile short of the raiders' fire the two of them dismount to listen; July admits he has never killed anyone, and Augustus wishes silently that he had stayed with his party.