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Chapter 89

Chapter 89

Summary

The drought Po Campo predicted arrives. Beyond the Platte the grass thins, water turns alkaline, and Deets rides out twenty miles and finds nothing. Call scouts the country himself and finds Salt Creek — eighty waterless miles ahead. He decides to go anyway, and the herd is driven day and night. A sandstorm blows in on the second evening, scattering strings of cattle nobody can turn. By the third day the animals are thirst-blind, stumbling back toward the water they left; the Irishman is delirious, and Call, three days without sleep, dozes in the saddle and wakes to find Deets leading his horse — the first time in his life anyone has had to. They reach the water that night and lose only six head. To the north the men can see mountains, and Call tells them the Yellowstone is perhaps three weeks off. The whole camp falls silent at the name.

Analysis

Po Campo's drought arrives, and Call gambles the herd on eighty waterless miles. The chapter's real event is small: Deets leads Call's horse while he sleeps. The Captain's competence fails publicly for the first time, and he is more shaken by that than by the crossing.

Plates

Newt shows off Candy, the sorrel Clara gave him on the Platte, to hands who got nothing out of Ogallala but a drunk.
00 Newt shows off Candy, the sorrel Clara gave him on the Platte, to hands who got nothing out of Ogallala but a drunk.
Po Campo lingers at the Platte's edge thinking of his dead sons, letting the herd get three miles ahead, Lippy waiting in the wagon.
01 Po Campo lingers at the Platte's edge thinking of his dead sons, letting the herd get three miles ahead, Lippy waiting in the wagon.
Call and Gus ride together into Wyoming, a black line of mountains far to the south, and Gus says it is looking droughty to him.
02 Call and Gus ride together into Wyoming, a black line of mountains far to the south, and Gus says it is looking droughty to him.
Deets comes in off a twenty-mile scout and tells Call the country ahead is dry as a bone.
03 Deets comes in off a twenty-mile scout and tells Call the country ahead is dry as a bone.
Call reaches Salt Creek alone just after sunup, sixty miles out, and lets the Hell Bitch roll beside the shallow pools.
04 Call reaches Salt Creek alone just after sunup, sixty miles out, and lets the Hell Bitch roll beside the shallow pools.
Before the dry drive, Gus strips off and takes a long bath in the little stream while the men holding the herd watch him.
05 Before the dry drive, Gus strips off and takes a long bath in the little stream while the men holding the herd watch him.
The sandstorm sunset on the second evening — the sun a dying coal ringed with black, Newt and the Rainey boys blind at the drags.
06 The sandstorm sunset on the second evening — the sun a dying coal ringed with black, Newt and the Rainey boys blind at the drags.
On the third day the thirst-blind cattle turn back for the water they left and walk straight into Newt's horse without seeing him.
07 On the third day the thirst-blind cattle turn back for the water they left and walk straight into Newt's horse without seeing him.
Call wakes in the dark with his hands empty and finds Deets leading the Hell Bitch — the first time in his life anyone has led his horse.
08 Call wakes in the dark with his hands empty and finds Deets leading the Hell Bitch — the first time in his life anyone has led his horse.
Call names the Yellowstone as three weeks off, and the whole camp on Salt Creek falls silent, looking north at the mountains.
09 Call names the Yellowstone as three weeks off, and the whole camp on Salt Creek falls silent, looking north at the mountains.