True Grit: Section 6

I was hungry and aching but I kept my peace for I knew the both of them were waiting for me to complain or say something that would make me out a “tenderfoot.”

The boat or raft was a rickety, waterlogged affair and the horses nickered and balked when we tried to make them go aboard.

He went there from time to time to pay attention to a lewd woman.

“The Ranger troop!” said Rooster, with some contempt. “I tell you what you do. You go tell John Wesley Hardin about the Ranger troop. Don’t tell me and sis.”

We had a blazing fire and the wet wood crackled fiercely and sent off showers of sparks. It was cheerful and heartening against the gloomy night.

He took a horsehair lariat from his saddle and arranged it in a loop around his bed.

Rooster allowed that we could not now reach McAlester’s store before dark and that our best course was to bear west for a “dugout” that some squatter had built not far from the Texas Road.

It put me in mind of something made by a water bird, some cliff martin or a swift, although the work of those little feathered masons (who know not the use of a spirit level) is a sight more artful.

He reminded me of some of those Slovak people that came in here a few years ago to cut barrel staves.

“Yes, and I quit him like everybody else has done. He runs off all his good help, he is so close. The old skinflint. I wish he was in hell with his back broke. I don’t remember any Ned Pepper.”

I sat on a bench on one side of the table and the thieves sat on the other side, their manacled hands resting between them up on the table.

The thieves had made pallets on the dirt floor by the fireplace and now Rooster and LaBoeuf sat on these blankets with their rifles in their laps, taking their ease.

I said, “Rooster, this Quincy is making a mess out of the turkey. He has got the bones all splintered up with the marrow showing.”

Rooster and LaBoeuf sprang to where I lay and when they ascertained that I was not hurt they went to the fallen thieves.

He went through the pockets of the dead thieves and put such oddments as he found upon the table.

He built up a big fire so there would be light and smoke and indicate that the cabin was occupied. Then we went out and joined LaBoeuf and the horses in the brush arbor.

“Well, the times has changed since Betsy died. I would have never thought it back then. The Red Legs from Kansas burned my folks out and took their stock. They didn’t have nothing to eat but clabber and roasting ears. You can eat a peck of roasting ears and go to bed hungry.”

She said, ‘Goodbye, Reuben, a love for decency does not abide in you.’

“I had to fly for my life. Three fights in one day. Bo was a strong colt then and there was not a horse in that territory could run him in the ground. But I did not appreciate being chased and shot at like a thief. When the posse had thinned down to about seven men I turned Bo around and taken the reins in my teeth and rode right at them boys firing them two navy sixes I carry on my saddle. I guess they was all married men who loved their families as they scattered and ran for home.”

The bandits had left two of their number behind and we had forced the others to continue their flight on jaded ponies, but I thought we had little reason to congratulate ourselves.

On the other hand, he claimed to be an experienced officer and rifleman, and if he had been alert and had taken a deliberate shot would he not have hit his mark? Only LaBoeuf knew the truth of the matter.

The man Haze was old with a sallow wrinkled face.

There was no real doctor there at that time but there was a young Indian who had some medical training and was competent to set broken bones and dress gunshot wounds.

“Is this town? I was thinking I was out of town.”
Captain Finch laughed at the gibe.

“They are dead?”
“All dead,” said Rooster. “What is it the judge says? Their depredations is now come to a fitting end.”

In both cases, said he, the M. K. & T. would try to do something for the bereaved families, though times were hard and revenue down.

In both cases, said he, the M. K. & T. would try to do something for the bereaved families, though times were hard and revenue down.

Smallwood was wary about committing his company too far but we got a receipt out of him and a statement saying that Rooster had produced on that day the lifeless bodies of two men “whom he alleges took part in said robbery.”

The trusties then carried the two outside and away to freedom. A bold daylight escape in a fat barrel! Some clever “stunt”! The trusties ran off along with the convicted killers and very likely drew good wages for their audacity.

On hearing the news Rooster did not appear angry or in any way perturbed, but only amused.

He had his reasons and among them were these, that Wharton now stood no chance of winning a commutation from President R. B. Hayes, and also that the escape would cause Lawyer Goudy a certain amount of chagrin in Washington city and would no doubt result in a big expense loss for him, as clients who resolve their own problems are apt to be slow in paying due bills from a lawyer.

I supposed he was brooding about the hard words LaBoeuf had spoken to him on the subject of his war service.

I could have confounded him and his silliness right there by saying, “What about me? What about that twenty-five dollars I have given you?” But I had not the strength nor the inclination to bandy words with a drunkard.

I could have confounded him and his silliness right there by saying, “What about me? What about that twenty-five dollars I have given you?” But I had not the strength nor the inclination to bandy words with a drunkard.

He had seen a good deal of strife in his travels.