Lonesome Dove

Gus notices that Call is depressed. To cheer him up, they agree to go into San Antonio to hire a cook. They pass settlements on the way. Gus says they’re to blame for making the land safe. They’ve killed the people that made life interesting.

They visit a saloon called the Buckhorn, which is run by a man named Willie Montgomery, whom Gus knows well. Willie isn’t there, however, and the bartender ignores them. He tells them they should have cleaned up before coming in. Gus smashes his face into the bar and points his gun at him. He tells the man that their pictures are on the wall behind him. Then he throws a glass into the air and shoots it, before hitting the bartender on the ear with the pistol and knocking him out. Call looks at the picture of Gus, Jake, and himself. It was taken after they drove Kicking Wolf out of the territories.

The sheriff, Tobe Walker, arrives. Tobe had been in their Ranger troop. The new owner tells him to arrest Gus and Call, but Tobe ignores him. They reminisce and then say goodbye. Gus is still annoyed by the insults. He says in 20 years they’ll be the ones on reservations. They both know Tobe was sad that he couldn’t go with them.

Roscoe meets four soldiers who are headed to Buffalo Springs, Texas. They get him drunk, and he rides in their wagon. They drop him off the next day and point him to San Antonio, warning him about the Comanches and their forms of torture.

He comes to a cabin where an old man is sitting with a young girl. He tells Roscoe to leave the girl alone because he bought her. Roscoe sleeps outside. Later, he hears the man hitting the girl. Then he hears their bed creaking. Later, she continues to whimper.

The next day, a wasp’s nest falls on Roscoe when his horse brushes a tree. He sees the girl, Janey, behind a tree after he gets away from the wasps. She has run away from the old man. She says she can help him catch game. She makes a mud salve for his stings. She catches a frog and a rabbit for him. She says Sam won’t follow them because she hit his knees with a frying pan. She says that a man named Bill traded her to Sam but offers no further details.

As the men tell more horrific stories about capture by Comanches, Call goes off alone. The food has been bad since Bolivar’s departure. Call and Gus head to Austin to look for a cook, but on the way, Gus takes them on a detour. They arrive at a stream and Call sees that Gus has tears in his eyes. He calls the spot Clara’s orchard and then asks when Call was the happiest. Call can’t answer.

They see Lorena and Gus proposes that they bring her to the camp to cook. When Call complains, Gus reminds him about Maggie. She says Jake has been gone for two days, and he said he wouldn’t return. Call is annoyed when Gus dismounts and tells him to go on while he plays cards. Miles away, the Hell Bitch throws Call off. He tells her that if they don’t arrive at the Yellowstone together, it will be because one of them is dead.

Lorena is glad for Gus’s company. He says the trouble is that Jake gave her hope but only cares about himself. He challenges her to a game of blackjack for a poke, then asks her to imagine that he is the sporting girl, instead of her. If she wins, she can have him, if she tries to enjoy it.

Gus gets in the water in his long johns. Then he sees a man coming. As the man drinks from the creek, he says his name is Blue Duck. He has heard of Gus. He asks where Call is, and says he’d been told to kill them both if he found them. He leaves after making a couple of threats, and Lorena is terrified of him.

Gus says they almost caught Blue Duck ten years earlier. Lorena is frightened and says Gus could take her to California, but Gus says he’s going to Ogallala to see Clara. He wishes he had shot Blue Duck. Now that he knows the man is out there, he will not be able to relax. He says he’ll send someone back to watch Lorena. Lorena is hurt that he’s thinking of Clara when she is there with him.