Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇

“We’re married,” Zwey answered. “I guess it’s ours.” A suspicion dawned on Luke which was even more curious—the suspicion that Zwey didn’t even understand about men and women. They had spent days around the buffalo herds when the bulls and cows were mating, and yet Zwey had evidently never connected such goings-on with humans. Luke remembered that Zwey never went with whores. He mainly just watched the wagon when the other hunters went to town. Zwey had always been considered the dumbest of the dumb, but Luke knew that none of the hunters had suspected him of being that dumb. That much dumbness was hard to believe—Luke wanted to make sure he hadn’t misunderstood.

“Now, wait a minute, Zwey,” he said. “Why do you think that baby was yours?” Zwey was silent a long time. Luke was smiling, as he did when he wanted to make fun of him. It didn’t ordinarily much bother him that Luke made fun of him, but he didn’t want him to make fun about the baby. He didn’t want Luke to talk about it. It was painful enough that she had had it and then gone off and left it. He decided not to answer.

“What’s the matter with you, Zwey?” Luke said. “You and Ellie ain’t really married. You ain’t married to somebody just because she comes on a trip with you.” Zwey began to feel very sad—it might be true, what Luke said. Yet he liked to think that he and Ellie were married.

“Well, we are,” he said finally.

Luke began to laugh. He turned to Ellie, who was still sitting with her back against the skins.

“He thinks that baby’s his,” Luke said. “He really thinks it’s his. I guess he thinks all he had to do was look at you to make it happen.” Then Luke laughed a long time. Zwey felt sad, but he didn’t say any more. Luke could always find something to laugh at him about.

Elmira began to feel cold. She started to shiver and reached for the pile of blankets in the wagon, but she was too weak even to untangle the blankets.

“Help me, boys,” she said. “I’m real cold.” Zwey immediately handed the reins to Luke and went back to help cover her up. It was a warm night, but Ellie was still shivering. He put the blankets on her, but she didn’t stop shivering. On the wagon seat, Luke would laugh from time to time when he thought of Zwey’s baby. Before they had gone five miles, Ellie was delirious. She huddled in the blankets, talking to herself, mostly about the man called Dee Boot. Her look was so wild that Zwey became frightened. Once his hand happened to brush her and her skin was as hot as if the sun were burning down on her.

“Luke, she’s got a fever,” Zwey said.“I ain’t a doctor,” Luke said. “We shouldn’t have left that house.” Zwey bathed her face with water, but it was like putting water on a stove, she was so hot. Zwey didn’t know what to do. A person so hot could die. He had seen much death, and very often it came with fever. He didn’t understand why she had had the baby if it was only going to make her so sick. While he was bathing her face, she sat up straight and looked at him, her eyes wide.

“Dee, is that you?” she asked. “Where have you been?” Then she fell back against the skins.

Luke drove as fast as he could, but it was still a long road. The sky was light in the east when they finally found a wagon track and pulled into Ogallala.

The town was not large—just a long street of saloons and stores, and a few shacks on the slope north of the Platte. One of the saloons was still open. Three cowboys were lounging around outside, getting ready to mount up and go back to work. The two who were soberest were laughing at the third because he was so drunk he was trying to mount his horse from the wrong side.

“Hell, Joe’s fixing to get on backwards,” one said. They were not much interested in the fact that a wagon had pulled up.

The drunk cowboy slipped and fell in the street. The other cowboys found that hilarious, one laughing so hard that he had to go over by the saloon and vomit.

“Where’s the doctor live?” Luke asked the soberest cowboy. “We got a sick woman here.” At that the cowboys all stopped and stared. All they could see was Ellie’s hair. The rest of her was covered with blankets.

“Where’d she come from?” one asked.

“Arkansas,” Luke said. “Where’s the doctor?” Ellie had dropped into a fevered doze. She opened her eyes and saw the buildings. It must be the town where Dee was.

She began to shove off the blankets.

“Do you know Dee Boot?” she asked the cowboys. “I come to find Dee Boot.” The cowboys stared at her as if they hadn’t heard. Her hair was long and tangled, and she was wearing a nightdress. A huge buffalo hunter sat beside her.

“Ma’am, Dee Boot is in jail,” one of the cowboys said politely. “It’s that building over there.” Light was just filtering into the street between the shadowed buildings.

“Where’s the doctor?” Luke asked again.

“I don’t know if there is one,” the cowboy said. “We just got here last night. I know about Boot because they were talking about him in the saloon.” Ellie began to try and climb over the side of the wagon. “Help me, Zwey,” she said. “I wanta see Dee.” She got one leg over the side board of the wagon and suddenly began to feel weak again. She clung to the board, trembling.

“Help me, Zwey,” she said again.

Zwey lifted her out of the wagon as if she were a doll. Elmira took two steps and stopped. She knew she would fall if she tried another step, and yet Dee Boot was just across the street. Once she saw Dee she felt she could start getting well.

Zwey stood beside her, big as one of the horses the cowboys rode.