“You’re worrying yourself into a sweat for nothing,” he said. “Clara’s husband will probably live to be ninety-six, and anyway she and I probably ain’t got no use for one another now. I ain’t got the energy for Clara. I doubt I ever did.” At night, when she finally slept, he would sit in the tent, pondering it all. He could see the campfire. Whatever boys weren’t night herding would be standing around it, swapping jokes. Probably all of them envied him, for he had a woman and they didn’t. He envied them back, for they were carefree and he wasn’t. Once started, love couldn’t easily be stopped. He had started it with Lorie, and it might never be stopped. He would be lucky to get again such easy pleasures as the men enjoyed, sitting around a campfire swapping jokes. Though he felt deeply fond of Lorena, he could also feel a yearning to be loose again and have nothing to do but win at cards.
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“I hope he ain’t planning to leave us,” Augustus said. “I doubt the rest of us could even find the water holes.” “He says he don’t like the north,” Call said. “That’s all he’ll say.” “I hear we strike the Platte tomorrow,” Augustus said. “All the boys are ready to go off and catch social diseases.” “I know it,” Call said. “I’d just as soon miss this town, but we do need supplies.” “Let them boys go off and hurrah a little,” Augustus said. “It might be their last chance.” “Why would it be their last chance?” “Old Deets might know something,” Augustus said. “Since he’s so sensitive. We might all get killed by Indians in the next week or two.” “I doubt that,” Call said. “You ain’t much more cheerful than he is.” “No,” Augustus said. He knew they were not far from Clara’s house, a fact which made Lorena extremely nervous.
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“I might write books,” Clara said. “I’ve a hankering to try it. But then it’ll come a pretty morning and I see the horses grazing and think how I’d miss them. So I doubt I’ll get off to Richmond.” Just then the baby began to cry, squirming in his hands. July looked at Clara, but she made no effort to take the baby. July didn’t know what to do. He was afraid he might drop the child, who twisted in his hands like a rabbit and yelled so loud he turned red as a beet.
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“Don’t feed him just because he hollers,” she said. “Feed him when it’s time.” She looked at July, who felt embarrassed. He was not sick, and yet he felt as weak as if he had had a long fever. A plate with some cold eggs on it and a bit of bacon sat on the table—his breakfast, no doubt. Being the last one up made him feel a burden.
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“I’ll check every few days, Ellie,” he said. “The doctor can send for me if you need me.” He paused. In the face of her silence, he didn’t know what to say. She sat propped up against the pillow, silent—it wasalmost as if she were dead. It reminded him of times in Arkansas, times in the loft when he felt as if he were with someone who wasn’t there. When he had found out she was alive and at the doctor’s in Ogallala, he had gone off behind Clara’s saddle shed and wept for an hour from relief. After all the worry and doubt, he had found her.
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“I doubt it,” Augustus said. “That woman had two or three chances to marry me already, and she didn’t take them. She’s an independent type, like you used to be.” That was so, Lorena reflected. She had been quite independent, but now all she could think of was keeping Gus. She wasn’t ashamed, though. He was worth keeping.
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“Dee Boot?” Leon said, startled. “Well, we got him, all right, but I doubt he’s up.” “I’m his wife,” Ellie said.
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“I doubt they’ll stop just because you ask, and we don’t need any gunfights,” Clara said.
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“It’s a miracle you got here,” Clara said. “If you’d had that baby down on the plains I doubt either one of you would have lived.” The old Mexican had wrapped the infant in a flannel robe and brought it to Elmira to see, but Elmira didn’t look at it. She didn’t speak and she wouldn’t look.
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“I doubt cattle has ever et this grass,” Augustus said. “I doubt anyone’s trailed cattle this far west of Dodge. Buffalo is probably all that’s et it.” Call’s mind was on Wilbarger, a resourceful man if ever he had seen one. If such a man had got caught, then there could well be serious trouble waiting for them.
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“What’s that for?” little Eddie asked. “You’ve already shot ’em and hung ’em.” “Yes, and now I intend to burn them,” Dan said. “Any objections from you schoolteachers?” He looked at all three of them, challenge in his angry eyes. No one said a word. Jake felt sickened by what was happening, but he didn’t try and stop it. Dan Suggs was crazy, there was no doubt of that, but his craziness didn’t affect his aim. The only way to stop him would be to kill him, a risky business in broad daylight.
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“Go find them, Frog,” he said. “I doubt they’re far.” “Do I shoot or not?” the black man asked.
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“Well, he gets that way,” Roy said. “I hope you don’t expect me to preach him a sermon.” “He don’t want them horses,” little Eddie said. “He wants to kill that man.” “I doubt he’ll turn down free horses, once he has them,” Roy said.
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“Jake?” Call asked. “Why would he be around?” “Might not be him, but his horse is around,” Deets said. “I crossed the track yesterday. It was that pacing horse he come home on.” “I’ll swear,” Call said. “Are you sure about the horse?” “Oh, yes,” Deets said. “I know the track. Four other horses with him. I guess Mr. Jake could have sold the horse.” “I doubt he would,” Call said. “Jake likes a pacer.” He thought the information over as they trotted back toward the herd. He had meant it when he told Gus he wanted no more to do with Jake Spoon. Jake had only come back to Lonesome Dove to use them for support, and no doubt he would try to do it again if he got in trouble. This time it would probably be worse trouble, too. Once a man like Jake—who had got by on dash and little else all his life—started sliding, he might slide faster and faster.
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Call was surprised by the question. “Why, some of the boys will be going back, I guess,” he said. “I doubt that I’ll return myself,” he added, and hoped that Deets wouldn’t want to go either. He relied on Deets too much. None of the other hands had his judgment.
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The dust their running horses kicked up was turned golden by the sun. No doubt they were just off the trail and couldn’t wait for a taste of Dodge—the very taste he had just vomited up. The last sunlight filtered through the settling dust behind the cowboys’ horses.
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“You met me in a whorehouse, why would you doubt it?” Jake said, tired of the little man’s biting tone. “If I like that gal maybe I’ll elope with her,” he said, just to remind everyone that he was still his own man.
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“We oughta go get them boys out of jail,” Roy Suggs said. “They might make good regulators.” “If a girl and one sheriff can take ’em, I wouldn’t want ’em,” Dan Suggs said. “Besides, I had some trouble with Jim once, myself. I’d go watch him hang, if I had time, damn him.” Their talk, it seemed, was mostly of killing. Even little Eddie, the youngest, claimed to have killed three men, two nesters and a Mexican. The rest of the outfit didn’t mention numbers, but Jake had no doubt that he was riding with accomplished killers. Dan Suggs seemed to hate everybody he knew—he spoke in the vilest language of everyone, but his particular hatred was cowboys. He had trailed a herd once and not done well with it, and it had left him resentful of those with better luck.
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“I am not such a scoundrel as to sell grub,” he said. “You’re welcome to come to camp and eat with my tough bunch, if you can stand them.” “I doubt we could,” Augustus said quietly. “We’re both shy.” “Oh, I see,” Wilbarger said, glancing at Lorena again. “I’m damn glad you don’t have a herd. You’d think there’d be room enough for everybody on these plains, but as you can see, the view is crowding up. I was going to try a crossing today but I’ve decided to wait for morning.” He was silent a moment, considering the problem of their shyness.
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He had not stayed, but when he had gone, he hadn’t fought, either. He had done nothing but ride twice over the same stretch of prairie, while death had come to both camps. He had no doubt that if he had stayed with Roscoe and the children, it would have come to him too. The man who had killed them must be a fighter on the order of Captain McCrae.
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“Yes,” Augustus said. “A man can’t outrun a horse. You get along. There’s a dangerous man loose along this river and I doubt that deputy of yours can handle him.” What if I can’t, either? July thought, looking down at Dog Face. He had managed to pull his genitals out of his mouth, and still lay breathing. Looking at the pool of blood he lay in, July felt his stomach start to come up. He turned away to keep from vomiting.
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“He forted up behind his horse,” Dog Face said. “I might have put one in him. I don’t know.” “We’ll kill him tomorrow,” Monkey John said. “He ain’t got no horse and maybe he’s crippled.” “I doubt it,” Blue Duck said. “I expect tomorrow he’ll walk in and finish the rest of you, unless he does it tonight.” “I hurt bad,” Dog Face said. “Go on and shoot me.” Blue Duck laughed. “You won’t catch me wasting a bullet on you,” he said. “Monkey can cut your damn throat if he wants to.” But Monkey wouldn’t come near him. Monkey John was worried, and so were the Kiowas. They all kept cocking and uncocking their pistols. They asked for whiskey, but Blue Duck wouldn’t give them any.
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“It’s my job,” Augustus said. “I doubt there’s many of them. I just hope Blue Duck is there.” Roscoe could not believe what he was hearing. He felt very scared as it was, and yet this stranger was preparing to ride off by himself.
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“Kill him tomorrow,” Blue Duck said, looking at Ermoke. “Take some of the horses and go find some help.” Ermoke was drunk and angry. “We do it,” he said. “Then we take the woman.” “The hell you will,” Dog Face said. “We’re in on this and she’s half ours, and you ain’t taking her nowhere.” “You shut up, or I’ll kill you like I killed that chigger,” Blue Duck said.“You get some help,” he said again, looking at Ermoke. “I doubt you five can kill that old man.” “Hell, what is he?” Monkey John said. “Five against one’s nice odds.” “These five can’t shoot,” Blue Duck said. “They can whoop and holler, but they can’t shoot. That old man can.” “That makes a difference,” Dog Face agreed. “I can shoot. If he gets past Ermoke, I’ll finish him.” “Somebody better settle him,” Blue Duck said. “Otherwise you’ll all be dead.” The Kiowas stood up and drug the dead boy away. Lorena heard them arguing in the darkness. Blue Duck sat where he was, his rifle across his lap; he seemed half asleep.
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“I didn’t get her, exactly,” Roscoe said. He felt on the defensive. It was clear that people would think the worst of him, whatever he did. No doubt in Fort Smith the word would be out that instead of sticking to orders he had run off with the first young girl he could find.
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