Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇

“If he ain’t, he’s lucky,” Augustus said.

Call walked down the street and picked up his hat, which had fallen off. The soldiers rode slowly past him. Two dismounted and began to try to load Dixon on his horse. Finally all six dismounted—the man was so heavy it took all of them to get him up and draped over his horse. Call watched. At the sight of Dixon, his anger threatened to rise again. If the man moved, Call was ready to go for him again.

But Dixon didn’t move. He hung over his horse, blood dripping off his head and face into the dust. The soldiers mounted and slowly led the horse away.

Call looked and saw Dish Boggett sitting on the ground by his saddle. He walked slowly over to him—Dish had a gash behind his ear.

“Are you much hurt?” he asked.

“No, Captain,” Dish said. “Guess I’m too hardheaded.” Call looked at Newt. There were welts beginning to form on his neck and one of his cheeks. A little blood showed in a cut on his ear. Newt was still tightly gripping Sugar’s bit, a fact which Dish noticed for the first time. He stood up.

“You hurt?” Call asked the boy.

“No, sir,” Newt said. “He just quirted me a little. I wasn’t gonna let him have Dish’s horse.” “Well, you can let her go now,” Dish said. “He’s gone. I’m much obliged to you for what you did, Newt.” Newt had gripped the bit so tightly that it was painful to let go. It had cut deep creases in his palms, and he seemed to have squeezed the blood out of his fingers. But he turned the mare loose. Dish took the reins and patted her on the neck.

Augustus walked over and stooped down by Pete Spettle, who was blowing frothy blood out of his broken nose.

“I better take you to the doctor,” Augustus said.

“Don’t want no doc,” Pete said.

“’I god, this is a hardheaded lot,” Augustus said, walking over to Ben Rainey. He took the candy sack and helped himself to a piece. “Hardly a one of you will take good advice.” Call mounted the Hell Bitch, slowly re-coiling his rope. Several townspeople had witnessed the fight. Most were still standing there, watching the man on the gray mare.

When he had his rope fixed again, Call rode over to Augustus. “Will you bring the grub?” he asked.

“Yep,” Augustus said. “I’ll bring it.” Call saw that everyone was looking at him, the hands and cowboys and townspeople alike. The anger had drained out of him, leaving him feeling tired. He didn’t remember the fight, particularly, but people were looking at him as if they were stunned. He felt he should make some explanation, though it seemed to him a simple situation.

“I hate a man that talks rude,” he said. “I won’t tolerate it.” With that he turned and rode out of town. The people watching kept quiet. Rough as the place was, accustomed as they all were to sudden death, they felt they had seen something extraordinary, something they would rather not have seen.

“My lord, Gus,” Dish said, as he watched the Captain leave. Like the others, he was awed by the fury he had seen erupt in the Captain. He had seen men fight many times, but not like that. Though he himself hated Dixon, it was still disturbing to see him destroyed—not even with a gun, either.

“Have you ever seen him like that before?” he asked Augustus.

“Once,” Augustus said. “He killed a Mexican bandit that way once before I could stop it. The Mexican had cut up three white people, but that wasn’t what prompted it. The man scorned Call.” He took another piece of candy. “It don’t do to scorn W. F. Call,” he said.

“Was it me?” Newt asked, feeling that maybe he should have managed things better. “Was it just that he was quirting me?” “That was part of it,” Augustus said. “Call don’t know himself what the rest of it was.”“Why, he’d have killed that man, if you hadn’t roped him,” Dish said. “He would have killed anybody. Anybody!” Augustus, eating his candy, did not dispute it.IT WAS BECAUSE of the fight that the boys ended up amid the whores. Dish saddled and left, and Augustus finished loading the wagon and started out of town. When he turned the wagon around, Newt and the Raineys were talking to Pea Eye, who had been up the street getting barbered and had missed the fight. Pea Eye had so much toilet water on that Augustus could smell him from ten feet away. He and the boys were standing around the bloody anvil and the boys were explaining the matter to him. Pea didn’t seem particularly surprised.

“Well, he’s a fighter, the Captain,” he said mildly. “He’ll box ’em if they get him riled.” “Box?” Ben Rainey said. “He didn’t box. He run over the man with a horse and then near kicked his head off when he had him laying on the ground.” “Oh, that’s boxing, to the Captain,” Pea Eye said.

Augustus stopped the wagon. “You boys aim to linger around here?” he asked.

The boys looked at one another. The fight had startled them so that they had more or less forgotten their plans—not that they had many.

“Well, it’s our only chance to see the town,” Newt said, thinking Augustus was going to tell them to go back to the wagon.

That was not Augustus’s intention. He had four ten-dollar gold pieces in his pocket, which he had intended to slip the boys on the sly. With Call gone, that was unnecessary. He flipped one to Newt, then handed them to each of the other boys.

“This is a bonus,” Augustus said. “It’s hard to enjoy a metropolis like this if you’ve got nothing but your hands in your pockets.” “Hell, if you’re giving away money, give me some, Gus,” Pea Eye said.