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Chapter 76

Chapter 76

Summary

Zwey, who believes he and Elmira are married and that the baby is somehow his, cannot understand why she left it; Luke, realising how completely Zwey misunderstands men and women, laughs at him for miles. Before they have gone five, Elmira is delirious with fever. They reach Ogallala at first light, and cowboys outside a saloon tell her that Dee Boot is in the jail across the street. Zwey carries her over — she is light as a doll — and lifts her to the barred window. Dee is unshaven, frightened, expecting lynchers, and barely looks at her: he shot a settler's boy while running nesters off for cattlemen, and is due to hang Friday. She tells him she left July, left the baby, and came all this way for him. Then Zwey feels his arms go wet: she is bleeding through the nightdress. As he carries her away her head falls back and Dee's face is lost in the sunlight.

Analysis

Elmira reaches her destination and it is a jail window. The novel gives her no reunion, no explanation, no scene — just a frightened man who barely looks at her and a face lost in sunlight. Zwey feeling the blood on his arms is how she exits her own plot.

Plates

Zwey at the hitched team in the dark yard, asking whether they aren't going to take the baby, while Elmira sits propped in the wagon bed with nothing in her arms.
00 Zwey at the hitched team in the dark yard, asking whether they aren't going to take the baby, while Elmira sits propped in the wagon bed with nothing in her arms.
On the wagon seat, Luke laughing at Zwey for believing the baby was his while Zwey sits with the reins and says nothing.
01 On the wagon seat, Luke laughing at Zwey for believing the baby was his while Zwey sits with the reins and says nothing.
Elmira propped against the buffalo skins in the moving wagon, not asleep, her eyes wide open — Zwey keeps looking back at her.
02 Elmira propped against the buffalo skins in the moving wagon, not asleep, her eyes wide open — Zwey keeps looking back at her.
"Help me, boys. I'm real cold." — her hands too weak to untangle the pile of blankets on a warm night.
03 "Help me, boys. I'm real cold." — her hands too weak to untangle the pile of blankets on a warm night.
Zwey bathing her burning face with water; she sits up straight, wide-eyed, and asks him whether he is Dee.
04 Zwey bathing her burning face with water; she sits up straight, wide-eyed, and asks him whether he is Dee.
The wagon pulls into Ogallala at first light, where a drunk cowboy has fallen in the street trying to mount his horse from the wrong side.
05 The wagon pulls into Ogallala at first light, where a drunk cowboy has fallen in the street trying to mount his horse from the wrong side.
Elmira shoves off the blankets and asks after Dee Boot; a cowboy points politely across the street to the jail.
06 Elmira shoves off the blankets and asks after Dee Boot; a cowboy points politely across the street to the jail.
Zwey carries her across the street light as a doll, and the deputy Leon, come round the corner of the jail to relieve himself, is stopped in his tracks.
07 Zwey carries her across the street light as a doll, and the deputy Leon, come round the corner of the jail to relieve himself, is stopped in his tracks.
At the barred window Dee tells her they are going to hang him, and keeps trying to peer past her for the lynchers he was expecting.
08 At the barred window Dee tells her they are going to hang him, and keeps trying to peer past her for the lynchers he was expecting.
Zwey's arms come away wet with blood and he carries her off; her head falls back, and Dee's face is lost in a patch of sunlight on the jail wall.
09 Zwey's arms come away wet with blood and he carries her off; her head falls back, and Dee's face is lost in a patch of sunlight on the jail wall.