History in Books the world's story, told by its literature

Chapter 95

Chapter 95

Summary

Augustus waits out the night with a cocked pistol, feverish and drifting into delirium. At dawn he judges his leg poisoned and decides against waiting for Call: he would rather move than sit. He lashes stirrups to a captured carbine for a crutch and hobbles out of the creek bed onto an empty plain — the Indians have gone after buffalo. All day he drags himself southeast, resting standing up because it takes less will to start again, until he collapses in the night. He wakes to find a bent old trapper named Hugh Auld squatting over him with a bowie knife, having been about to saw the rotten leg off. Auld lends him a spotted horse called Custer and ties him to the saddle. Five hours later Augustus rides into Miles City at dusk, fires his pistol until men come out of a saloon, names himself, and asks for a doctor.

Analysis

Augustus chooses motion over waiting and states why: sitting still gives death too many advantages. His crutch made from a dead boy's carbine is the book's neatest emblem. Old Hugh's arrival with a knife, intending amputation, is the fate he spends the next chapter refusing.

Plates

Augustus keeps his pistol cocked all night in the cave under the riverbank, feverish and watching the black water for a floating log.
00 Augustus keeps his pistol cocked all night in the cave under the riverbank, feverish and watching the black water for a floating log.
The dawn breaks sunny and Augustus, glad of the sun, eases out of the cave and stands on the bank of the receding creek.
01 The dawn breaks sunny and Augustus, glad of the sun, eases out of the cave and stands on the bank of the receding creek.
As a student of wounds, Augustus looks at the leg — yellowish, striped with black — and judges the poisoning.
02 As a student of wounds, Augustus looks at the leg — yellowish, striped with black — and judges the poisoning.
He cuts the stirrups off the saddle and lashes one to each end of the captured carbine, padding it with saddle leather, to make a crutch.
03 He cuts the stirrups off the saddle and lashes one to each end of the captured carbine, padding it with saddle leather, to make a crutch.
He edges cautiously up the game trail out of the riverbed, sees no Indians, and finds the broad plain empty for miles.
04 He edges cautiously up the game trail out of the riverbed, sees no Indians, and finds the broad plain empty for miles.
Two or three miles out he crosses the tracks of a sizable buffalo herd — the reason the Indians left.
05 Two or three miles out he crosses the tracks of a sizable buffalo herd — the reason the Indians left.
Through the long afternoon he takes his rests standing up, leaning on the crutch, because it takes less will to start again from standing.
06 Through the long afternoon he takes his rests standing up, leaning on the crutch, because it takes less will to start again from standing.
Sometime in the night his hand slips off the crutch; he falls face down and is unconscious before he hits the ground.
07 Sometime in the night his hand slips off the crutch; he falls face down and is unconscious before he hits the ground.
He wakes under a white noon sun to find Old Hugh Auld squatting over him with a bowie knife, having been about to take the leg off.
08 He wakes under a white noon sun to find Old Hugh Auld squatting over him with a bowie knife, having been about to take the leg off.
At dark in Miles City, tied to Custer's saddle outside the saloon, he fires his pistol until men come out, names himself, and asks for a medical man.
09 At dark in Miles City, tied to Custer's saddle outside the saloon, he fires his pistol until men come out, names himself, and asks for a medical man.