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Chapter 77

Chapter 77

Summary

July loses a second horse, walks back to Dodge to buy a third, and is bitten in his sleep by a snake near the Republican, spending days too weak to fetch his own saddle and talking aloud to the dead Roscoe. Finally he reaches the Platte and rides up to a lone frame house — Clara's. She feeds him, and then delivers two pieces of news: Elmira stopped here three weeks ago, and the baby in her arms is his. July, gaunt and dazed, cries at the table into a dish towel and cannot take in that he has a son. What Clara does not tell him yet is what Cholo saw in town: Dee Boot was hanged last week. Clara, who has already grown attached to the child and calls him Martin, studies the two faces for resemblances and decides the dates jibe. Afterwards she tells the baby on the porch that they already know what they think of his pa.

Analysis

The plot's most improbable coincidence, and McMurtry defuses it in advance: Clara explains that everyone on the Platte road comes past her door. July gets his wife's whereabouts and a son in the same conversation, and can absorb neither. Clara does the arithmetic he can't.

Plates

Three days north of Dodge, July stands over the second horse, crippled trying to throw a hobble, and faces the fact that he has lost it.
00 Three days north of Dodge, July stands over the second horse, crippled trying to throw a hobble, and faces the fact that he has lost it.
July doubles back on himself and walks the long miles south to Dodge, carrying nothing but his rifle, with Elmira getting farther away the whole time.
01 July doubles back on himself and walks the long miles south to Dodge, carrying nothing but his rifle, with Elmira getting farther away the whole time.
In Dodge, in clothes still wet from swimming the Arkansas, July buys a third horse from a half-drunk old trader who tells him he isn't getting anywhere very fast.
02 In Dodge, in clothes still wet from swimming the Arkansas, July buys a third horse from a half-drunk old trader who tells him he isn't getting anywhere very fast.
On the bluff above the Republican, July wakes to a leg so swollen he has to cut his trousers open, and finds the fang marks just above his knee.
03 On the bluff above the Republican, July wakes to a leg so swollen he has to cut his trousers open, and finds the fang marks just above his knee.
Delirious, ashamed of his own carelessness, July lies with his hat over his face on the shadeless bluff and holds long conversations with the dead Roscoe.
04 Delirious, ashamed of his own carelessness, July lies with his hat over his face on the shadeless bluff and holds long conversations with the dead Roscoe.
Five days after the snake, still unable to put his weight on the leg, July saddles up and rides across the Republican, heading north into country where he has seen no person at all.
05 Five days after the snake, still unable to put his weight on the leg, July saddles up and rides across the Republican, heading north into country where he has seen no person at all.
On the wagon track above the Platte, with the lone frame house in sight at last, an old white-haired Mexican rides up dripping out of the river and looks at July's leg.
06 On the wagon track above the Platte, with the lone frame house in sight at last, an old white-haired Mexican rides up dripping out of the river and looks at July's leg.
In the yard, the girls break off their shrieking over the grasshopper as Clara comes out on the back steps with the colicky baby in her arms and sees the stranger's leg.
07 In the yard, the girls break off their shrieking over the grasshopper as Clara comes out on the back steps with the colicky baby in her arms and sees the stranger's leg.
At the kitchen table, July weeps into the rough dish towel Clara handed him while she sits down opposite with the baby and looks from the child's face to his, seeking resemblances.
08 At the kitchen table, July weeps into the rough dish towel Clara handed him while she sits down opposite with the baby and looks from the child's face to his, seeking resemblances.
July asleep inside, Clara takes the baby out on her little porch, offers him her finger and tells him they already know what they think of his pa.
09 July asleep inside, Clara takes the baby out on her little porch, offers him her finger and tells him they already know what they think of his pa.