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Chapter 101

Chapter 101

Summary

In Miles City Call finds a varmint has broken into the shed and carried off the amputated leg. He has the coffin reinforced, buys an old buggy, and starts south. At Clara's he is met not with thanks but with contempt: bury Gus here with her boys, she says, and go back to your son and your men. She reads Gus's note — a few lines asking her to look after Lorie — and weeps against the neck of the mule. Lorena takes her own letter unread, unable to read it, and stands beside the buggy from afternoon through the night and into the next day, until she faints and has to be carried upstairs. Clara puts it to Call in the plainest terms: a live son is worth more than a dead friend, and he has given the boy his horse but not his name. He answers that he put more value on the horse. She walks beside his horse pouring out her contempt until he trots away.

Analysis

Clara delivers the verdict the novel has been assembling for eight hundred pages: promises are words, a son is a life, and men use vows as excuses to leave. Call answers that he valued the horse more — and it is honest. Lorena's vigil by the coffin says the rest.

Plates

In the Miles City shed, the coffin has been knocked off the barrels and splintered, and the amputated leg is gone.
00 In the Miles City shed, the coffin has been knocked off the barrels and splintered, and the amputated leg is gone.
Call leaves Miles City on a bitterly cold morning with the reinforced coffin lashed under canvas to the buggy seat.
01 Call leaves Miles City on a bitterly cold morning with the reinforced coffin lashed under canvas to the buggy seat.
Call rides for a day alongside a hundred Crow travelling south, their old chief pressing him to camp and asking about the man in the coffin.
02 Call rides for a day alongside a hundred Crow travelling south, their old chief pressing him to camp and asking about the man in the coffin.
Eleven days across Wyoming without seeing a soul; the buggy takes bad jolts in the gullies near the Powder River and the mule loses flesh.
03 Eleven days across Wyoming without seeing a soul; the buggy takes bad jolts in the gullies near the Powder River and the mule loses flesh.
Near Nebraska, five drunk young Indians beg food, turn quarrelsome when Call asks for their liquor, and one levels an old pistol at him.
04 Near Nebraska, five drunk young Indians beg food, turn quarrelsome when Call asks for their liquor, and one levels an old pistol at him.
Call reins in at Clara's and is met by scorn — she is out planting shrubs, bareheaded and in overshoes, and starts the quarrel before he has finished dismounting.
05 Call reins in at Clara's and is met by scorn — she is out planting shrubs, bareheaded and in overshoes, and starts the quarrel before he has finished dismounting.
Clara takes the two notes, goes to Greasy the mule, strokes his neck and breaks into sobs against his side while the mule stands as if planted.
06 Clara takes the two notes, goes to Greasy the mule, strokes his neck and breaks into sobs against his side while the mule stands as if planted.
Alone in her bedroom after supper, Clara lights the lamp and opens Gus's letter, scratching at the dried blood on the corner of the folded sheet.
07 Alone in her bedroom after supper, Clara lights the lamp and opens Gus's letter, scratching at the dried blood on the corner of the folded sheet.
Lorena stands alone by the buggy all through the night, her unread letter clutched in her hand, glad when the last lamp goes out.
08 Lorena stands alone by the buggy all through the night, her unread letter clutched in her hand, glad when the last lamp goes out.
Clara strides beside the moving horse pouring out her contempt until Call puts the mule and the dun into a trot and the buggy bounces away over the rough plain.
09 Clara strides beside the moving horse pouring out her contempt until Call puts the mule and the dun into a trot and the buggy bounces away over the rough plain.