Larry McMurtry - Lonesome Dove

"Well, I'll always help, if you'll let me," Dish said. "I'll do about anything for you, Lorie."

Lorena knew that already, but she didn't want him to do anything for her. She didn't answer, and she didn't eat, either. She went into the tent and lay awake all night while Dish Boggett sat nearby, keeping watch. It seemed to him he had never felt so lonely. The mere fact that she was so close, and yet they were separate, made the loneliness keener. When he had just thrown his blanket down with the boys, he didn't imagine her so much, and he could sleep. Now she was just a few yards away-he could have crept up to the tent and heard her breathing. And yet it seemed he would never be able to eliminate those few yards. In some way Lorie would always be as distant from him as the Kansas stars. At times he felt that he had almost rather not be in love with her, for it brought him no peace. What was the use of it, if it was only going to be so painful? And yet, she had spoken to him in a friendly voice only that day. He couldn't give up while there was a chance.

He lay awake all night with his head on his saddle, thinking of Lorie-not sleeping, nor even wanting to.

WHEN THEY FOUND Wilbarger's man Chick and the boy who had been traveling with them, there wasn't much left to bury. The coyotes and buzzards had had a full day at them. As they rode toward the little knoll where the buzzards swarmed, they passed a fat old badger carrying a human hand-a black hand at that. Newt was stunned-he assumed they would shoot the badger and get the hand back so it could be buried, but no one seemed concerned that the badger had someone's hand.

"He had a hand," he pointed out to Pea Eye.

"Well, whoseever it was won't be using it no more, and that old badger had to work for it with all them dern buzzards around," Pea Eye said. "A hand is mostly just bone, anyway."

Newt didn't see what that had to do with it-it was still a human hand.

"Yes, that's interesting," Augustus said. "That old badger made a good snatch and got himself a few bones. But the ground will get his bones too, in a year or two. It's like I told you last night, son. The earth is mostly just a boneyard.

"But pretty in the sunlight," he added.

It was a fine, bright day, but Newt didn't feel fine. He wanted to go catch up with the badger and shoot him, but he didn't. There seemed to be hundreds of buzzards on the knoll. Suddenly a big coyote ran right out of the midst of them, carrying something-Newt couldn't see what.

"I guess the buzzards outnumber the coyotes in these parts," Augustus said. "Usually the buzzards have to wait until they get through."

When they rode up on the knoll, the smell hit them. A few of the buzzards flew off, but many stood their ground defiantly, even continuing to feed. Captain Call drew rein, but Augustus rode up to them and shot two with his pistol. The rest reluctantly flew off.

"You like to eat, see how you like being eaten," he said to the dead buzzards. "There's that bad black man. Wilbarger did get him."

The smell suddenly got to Newt-he dismounted and was sick. Pea Eye dug a shallow grave with a little shovel they had brought. They rolled the remains in the grave and covered them, while the buzzards watched. Many stood on the prairie, like a black army, while others circled in the sky. Deets went off to study the thieves' tracks. Newt had vomited so hard that he felt lightheaded, but even so, he noticed that Deets didn't look happy when he returned.

"How many are we up against?" Call asked.

"Four," Deets said. "Just four."

"Hell, there's five of us," Augustus said. "There's less than one apiece of the horsethieves, so what are you so down about?"

Deets pointed to a horse track. "Mr. Jake is with them," he said. "That's his track."

They all looked at the track for a moment.

"Well, they're horsethieves and murderers," Augustus reminded them. "They could have stolen Jake's horse-they could have even murdered him for it."

Deets was silent. They could speculate all they wanted-he knew. A different man would have resulted in a different track. Mr. Jake tended to ride slightly sideways in the saddle, which the track showed. It was not just his horse-it was him.

The news hit Call hard. He had stopped expecting anything of Jake Spoon, and had supposed they would travel different routes for the rest of their lives. Jake would gamble and whore-he always had. No one expected any better of him, but no one had expected any worse, either. Jake hadn't the nerve to lead a criminal life, in Call's estimation. But there was his track, beside the tracks of three killers.

"Well, I hope you're wrong," he said to Deets.

Deets was silent. So, for once, was Augustus. If Jake was with the killers, then there was no hope for him.

"I wish he'd had the sense to stay with Lorie," Augustus said. "She might have aggravated him some, but she wouldn't have led him to this."

"It's his dern laziness," Call said. "Jake just kind of drifts. Any wind can blow him."

He touched the mare and rode on-he didn't need Deets in order to follow the tracks of nearly thirty horses. He put the mare into a slow lope, a gait she could hold all day if necessary.

Newt rode beside Pea Eye, who appeared to be solemn too. "Do you think it's Jake?" Newt asked.

"I can't read a dern track," Pea Eye said. "Never could. But Deets can read 'em easier than I could read a newspaper. I guess it's Jake. It'd be a pity if it's us that has to hang him," he added, a little later.

"We couldn't," Newt said, startled. It had not dawned on him that Jake could have put himself in that bad a position.

Pea Eye looked at him, an unhappy expression on his face. It was unusual for Pea to change expressions. Usually he just looked puzzled.

"The Captain would hang you, if he caught you with a stolen horse," Pea Eye said. "So would Gus."

A few hours later they came upon the dead settlers, still hanging, shreds of charred clothes clinging to their bodies. A coyote was tug ging at the foot of one of them, trying to pull the body down. It ran when the party approached. Newt wanted to be sick again, but had nothing in his stomach. He had never expected to see anything more awful than the buzzard-torn bodies they had buried that morning, and yet it was still the same day and already there was a worse sight. It seemed the farther they went through the plains, the worse things got.

"Those boys are bad ones, whoever they are," Augustus said. "Hung those poor bastards and burned them too."

Call had ridden in for a closer look. "No," he said. "Shot 'em, then hung 'em, then burned them."

They cut the men down and buried them in one grave.

"Hell, gravediggers could make a fortune in these parts," Augustus said. "Pea, you ought to buy you a bigger spade and go in business."

"No, I'll pass, Gus," Pea Eye said mildly. "I'd rather dig wells."

Call was thinking of Jake-that a man who had ridden with them so long could let such a thing happen. Of course he was outnumbered, but it was no excuse. He could have fought or run, once he saw the caliber of his companions.

Deets had ridden on, to evaluate the trail. They overtook him a few hours later. His face was sad.

"They're close," he said. "Stopped at a creek."

"Probably stopped to baptize one another," Augustus said. "Did you see 'em, or just smell 'em?"

"I seen 'em," Deets said. "Four men."

"What about Jake?" Call asked.

"He's one," Deets said.

"Are they just watering the stock, or have they camped?" Call wanted to know.

"They're camped," Deets said. "They killed somebody in a wagon and he had whiskey."

"More work for the gravediggers," Augustus said, checking his rifle. "We better go challenge them before they wipe out Kansas."