“Son, this is a sad thing,” Augustus said. “Loss of life always is. But the life is lost for good. Don’t you go attempting vengeance. You’ve got more urgent business. If I ever run into Blue Duck I’ll kill him. But if I don’t, somebody else will.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇

Augustus went quickly to the camp and tied each body in a blanket. Blue Duck had been so confident of his victims that he hadn’t even bothered to shoot. The deputy and the girl had been knifed, ripped open from navel to breastbone.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇

“Was he here tonight?” Gus asked again. “Just answer that and I won’t bother you no more until you feel better.” Lorena nodded. Blue Duck had been there. It was all she could do.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇

“Where’s Blue Duck, Lorie?” he asked. “Was he here tonight?” Lorena had a hard struggle to get her mind back to Blue Duck. She had stopped talking, and though she wanted to talk, the words wouldn’t come. She stared at Gus and began to cry but she couldn’t get out an answer to the question.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇

Lying with her face almost on the ground, she was the first to hear the horses—only she didn’t really know what it was, or take any hope from it. It was something running—maybe Blue Duck was coming back to reclaim her.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇

Blue Duck kicked Lorena twice more. “You ain’t worth selling,” Blue Duck said. “The Kiowas can have you.” “What about me?” Monkey John asked. “What about my half interest?” “I won back your half interest,” Blue Duck said. “I won the Kiowas’ half too.” “Then how come you’re giving her to the goddamn Kiowas?” Monkey John said. “Give her to me.” “No, I want them to carve her up,” Blue Duck said. “It might put some spirit in them, so they can go out tomorrow and run that old Ranger to ground.” “Hell, I’m as mean as they are,” Monkey John said. “I can finish him, if he comes around here.” Blue Duck mounted. “You ain’t half as mean as they are,” he said. “And if McCrae comes around here you better step quick or you’ll be plugged. He got Ermoke, and Ermoke was three times the fighter you are.” He opened his pack, took out a bottle of whiskey and pitched it to the Indians. Then he said something to them in their language and rode away toward the river.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇

“That’s right,” Blue Duck said. “I aim to look for a better crew. The whole bunch of you couldn’t kill one man. You never even attacked that second bunch. It was probably just a cowboy or two.” Dog Face tried to roll back on his blanket, but his strength was gone. The Kiowas had already taken his gun and divided his ammunition among themselves, so he couldn’t even shoot himself. He had a razor in his pack and might have managed to cut his own throat, but his pack was on the other side of the fire and he knew he would never be able to crawl to it.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇

“Mind your own goddamn business,” Blue Duck said.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇

Blue Duck walked over and kicked him in the side, causing him to scream with pain and roll off the blanket.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇

Dog Face looked at the girl. She sat with her arms wrapped around her knees. Blue Duck went and saddled his horse.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇

“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 was gettin’ dark,” he said. One whole side of his body was wet with blood. He wanted to see the girl, but Blue Duck squatted by his side, blocking his view.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇

DOG FACE WAS DYING, and he knew it. A bullet had hit a rib and turned downward into his gut. The bullet hadn’t come out, and nobody was trying to get it out, either. He lay on a saddle blanket in his death sweat, and all Blue Duck wanted to know was how many men there had been in the party that shot him.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇

The problem was that Blue Duck was evidently one of the few who could think. He had planned the theft of Lorena perfectly. Also, he had survived twenty years or more in a rough country, at a rough game, and could be expected to be formidable, if he was around.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇

“Why, there could be ten of them,” he said. “Do you think you could kill ten men?”“They’re easier to scare at night,” Augustus said. “I expect I’ll just run most of them off. But I do intend to kill Mr. Duck if I see him. He’s stole his last woman.” “I think I ought to go,” July said. “I could be of some help. Roscoe can stay here with the young ones.” “No, I’d rather you stay with your party, Mr. Johnson,” Augustus said. “I’d feel better about it in my mind. You’ve got an inexperienced deputy and two young people to think about. Besides, you said you had urgent business. These things are chancy. You might stop a bullet and never get your business finished.” “I think I ought to go,” July said. It was in his mind that Ellie could even be in the camp. Somebody could have stolen her as easily as the Texas woman. The whiskey traders wouldn’t have put up much fight. Of course, it wasn’t likely she was there, but then what was likely anymore? He felt he ought to have a look, at least.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇

“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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“What’s your plan, Mr. Johnson?” Augustus asked politely. “If your business is urgent you might not want to slow down long enough to help me catch this Blue Duck.” That was true. July didn’t want to slow down at all until he found Elmira. If he had been alone, he would have traveled twenty hours a day and rested four. But he was hardly alone. Roscoe was nervous as a cat and spent all day talking about his worries. Joe didn’t complain, but the hard traveling had worn him out and he rode along in a doze most of the time and slept like a dead thing when they stopped.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇

Did you kill any more of them bucks?” “Don’t think so,” July said. “I might have hit the buffalo hunter. We never expected to find Indians.” “I killed six this afternoon,” Augustus said. “I think there was twelve to begin with, not counting the buffalo hunter. I expect they work for Blue Duck. He stole a woman and I’m after him. I think he sent them bucks to slow me down.” “I hope there ain’t too much of a bunch,” Roscoe said. “I never kilt one before.” In fact he had never killed anyone before, or even given the possibility much thought. Sudden death was not unknown in Fort Smith, but it was not common, either. It had been a big shock when the Indians turned their guns on them and beganto shoot at them. Not until he saw July draw his rifle and start firing did it dawn on him that they were under attack. He had hastily drawn his pistol and shot several times—it had not affected the Indians but it angered July.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇

“Well, here we are,” Augustus said. “I’m Augustus McCrae and I’m after an outlaw named Blue Duck. Have you seen any sign of the man?” “No, we just got here,” one of the men said.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇

He rode east all morning, a bad feeling in his heart. He had meant to catch Blue Duck within a day, but he hadn’t. The renegade had out-traveled him. It would have been rough on Lorie, such traveling. He should have borrowed Call’s mare, but the thought hadn’t occurred to him until too late. By this time Lorie could be dead, or ruined. He had helped recover several captives from the Comanches in his rangering days, and often the recovery came too late if the captives were women. Usually their minds were gone and they were only interested in dying, which they mostly did once they got back to people who would let them die.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇

AUGUSTUS WAS A LITTLE put out with himself for doing such a poor job of tracking. He had gambled on Blue Duck heading west, when in fact he had crossed the Red and gone straight north. It was the kind of gamble Call would never take. Call would have tracked all the way, or let Deets track. The country near the Canadian was rough and broken, and he dropped south to where the plains flattened out. He wanted to spare his horse as much as possible.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇

In the gray dawn she saw the Kiowas leave. Blue Duck talked to them in Indian talk and gave them some bullets to kill Gus with. He woke Dog Face and shook Monkey John more or less awake. “If he gets past Ermoke, you two kill him,” he said.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇

In the night Lorena tried to sort it out in her mind. She had been hungry so much, tired so much, scared so much, that her mind didn’t work well anymore. Sometimes she would try to remember something and couldn’t—it was as if her mind and memory had gone and hidden somewhere until things were better. Dog Face had given her an old blanket; otherwise she would have had to sleep on the ground in what was left of her clothes. She wrapped the blanket around her and tried to think back over the talk. It meant Gus was coming—it was Gus Blue Duck wanted the Kiowas to kill. She had almost forgotten he was following her, life had gotten so hard. The Kiowas had been sent to kill him, so Gus might never arrive. It was hard to believe that Gus would get her out—the times when she had known him had been so different from the hard times. She didn’t think she would ever get out. Blue Duck was too bad. Dog Face was her only chance, and Dog Face was scared of Blue Duck. Sooner or later Blue Duck would give her to Ermoke or someone just as hard. If that was going to happen it was better that her mind had gone to hide.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇

“I’d have let him beat her,” Blue Duck said.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇

“Put it down,” he said. “You’ve beat her enough.” “Let her answer me then,” Monkey John said. “She can talk. Duck says so.” Dog Face picked up his rifle. Monkey John still had the stick.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇