All the Pretty Horses: Part 1 Summary & Analysis

John Grady Cole enters the hallway of his family’s house, which is lined with dimly lit portraits of his ancestors. He looks at the body of his grandfather wrapped in funeral cloth. He thinks about how his grandfather never combed his hair that way while he was alive.

It’s cold outside, but John Grady goes out to stand on the prairie for a long time, until he hears the train howling in from the east. He goes back inside and greets Luisa, the woman who’s been working for his family for years, along with her mother, Abuela, and Luisa gives him a sweetroll. He asks her in Spanish if it was her that lit the candle in his grandfather’s room, but she says that it was John Grady’s mother.

At the funeral, John Grady’s father stands by himself a little away from the others, as the women hold onto their hats against the strong wind. That evening, John Grady rides his horse out west from the house on his normal route, to the westernmost part of the ranch where he can see the Concho River. He likes riding at night, because the shadowed road seems like something from the past, where horses and their Indian riders with painted faces would ride down from the north in search of war.

John Grady finds an old horse skull in the brush and turns it over. He loves in horses the same thing that he loves in men: “the heat of the blood that ran them,” that is, the ardent side of living. He rides back home, still thinking about the warriors following the laws of blood riding across to Mexico.

We learn that it’s 1949, and though the house was built in 1872, John Grady’s grandfather is the first man to die in it. Before that, the original family ranch had been carved out of a government land grant in 1866. Five years later, the grandfather built the house and grew the ranch to 18,000 acres. All his brothers died in violent accidents before the age of 25, and his wife died in an influenza epidemic before they had children. He then married his wife’s sister and they had one child: the mother of John Grady Cole—and this is the first time we learn his name.

John Grady meets his father in a café, where people seem to recognize them. John Grady says “she’s” gone to San Antonio, and his father admonishes him not to call his mother “she,” and that she can go where she wants to. His father admits he didn’t want any of this for John Grady, who says he knows. His father suggests they go out and ride on Saturday, and though he repeats several times that John Grady doesn’t have to if he doesn’t want to, John Grady says he does have to.

In the next scene, John Grady and his friend Lacey Rawlins are lying outside in the dark on saddle blankets. Rawlins asks what John Grady plans to do. “She” didn’t say anything to him, John Grady says. He also says he won’t go with his father on Saturday.

John Grady returns home and walks into his grandfather’s office, where he looks at his mother’s framed high school graduation photo. Out the window he can see the old telegraph poles, which his grandfather had told him the Comanche Indians would cut and splice back together with horsehair.

John Grady’s mother, referred to as “she,” switches on the light and comes into the office to ask what he’s doing. She stands there for a long time without talking before going back up the stairs.

It’s autumn and there are a few warm days left, which John Grady spends drinking coffee (his father whisky) in the hotel room where his father is now staying. John Grady asks him if he’d buy the ranch if he had the money, but his father says he didn’t buy it when he did have the money. John Grady suggests they play chess again one of these days, but his father, who was in the army, says he doesn’t have the patience anymore. He says poker’s different since you can make money out of it. John Grady asks him to talk to his mother, but he says he can’t—the last real conversation they had was in California in 1942. It isn’t her fault, John Grady’s father says: he’s different now. John Grady says his grandfather never gave up, and always thought his parents would get back together.

John Grady says he should be getting back home, and as they walk into the lobby his father says the Bible says the meek shall inherit the earth, but he wonders whether that’s a good thing. He hands a key to his closet to John Grady and says there’s something that belongs to him there. John Grady rides back up the elevator and sees a new Hamley Formfitter saddle. John Grady swears in awe and walks out of the hotel with the saddle slung over his shoulder.

Over the next few weeks, it rains and floods, and John Grady’s horse Redbo has to be cajoled into directing the cattle. John Grady, Luisa, and another ranch worker eat in the kitchen when his mother isn’t there, and sometimes he catches a ride into town and looks up at his father’s window to watch his shadow pace back and forth. When his mother returns they eat in the dining room at opposite ends of the long table. He asks why she couldn’t lease him the ranch. His mother says there’s not any money, and the place has barely paid expenses for years. He’s only sixteen, she says, and is being ridiculous. She leaves the room and he looks at an oil painting of horses with wild eyes breaking through a corral. He’s never seen horses like that, and when he’d once asked his grandfather what they were, he said they were picturebook horses.

John Grady goes to see Mr. Franklin, a lawyer, who tells him that the ranch is his mother’s property and she can do whatever she wants with it, especially since she and John Grady’s father are divorced—John Grady didn’t know this, but it was finalized three weeks ago. John Grady asks Franklin to talk to her, but he says she won’t change her mind. She doesn’t want to live on a cattle ranch in west Texas, and he guesses she wants to have a better social life. Mr. Franklin says it’s John Grady’s father’s fault for signing every paper anyone put down in front of him. He tells John Grady he’s sorry he doesn’t have better news, but some things in this world can’t be helped.

After Christmas John Grady’s mother is always absent. Luisa is often crying. One morning, John Grady carries a leather satchel with a shirt, socks, toothbrush, and razor out of the house and waves down a hitchhiker to San Antonio. The driver tries to talk to John Grady, but then realizes he’s “not much of a talker.” Snow is falling on the Edwards Plateau when he crosses it and it’s a snowstorm when they reach San Antonio. He walks into a café at random and orders a cheeseburger and chocolate milk. He walks around town in the snow, checks into the YMCA, and stretches out over his bed to sleep.

The next day John Grady pays for a balcony seat for the town theater. At intermission he smokes a cigarette in the lobby and notices the glances of the other theatergoers. He watches the play intensely, hoping there will be something in the story to tell him about the way the world is, or is becoming, but he doesn’t find it. When the lights come up, his mother comes forward several times to bow. He sits for a long time in the empty theater and then leaves.

The next morning the temperature’s still freezing and the only café open is a Mexican café, but John Grady is able to order and speak to the waitress in Spanish. He walks up Broadway and watches his mother walk through the lobby of the Menger Hotel on the arm of a man in a suit. He waits for a while and then asks the clerk at the desk if there’s a Mrs. Cole registered—he says there isn’t.

John Grady and his father ride one last time together in early March, along Grape Creek into the hills and open country, barely speaking all day. His father looks thin and frail. He seems to look out at the world as if either he no longer saw it right, or finally did see it right. John Grady rides the horse more comfortably, naturally, as if he was born to ride.

They ride into town and tie their horses in front of a café. His father asks if he’s thought about “boarding” his horse, keeping it at the ranch in exchange for feeding and cleaning stalls. John Grady says Redbo wouldn’t like that. His father asks if he’s still seeing the Barnett girl, but he says he isn’t. He doesn’t know who broke up with whom, so his father says that means it was her who ended things. He says John Grady’s mother and he never agreed on much—he always thought it was enough that she liked horses. She left for California when the war came, while Luisa looked after John Grady. She wanted him to go out there, his father says, but he didn’t last long. He says she came back for John Grady, not him, and he’d like to see them make up. She saved him while he was in Goshee (a POW camp), since he constantly thought of her and wrote to her. The last thing his father says is that the country won’t be the same again, because no one feels safe anymore.

That night, John Grady and Rawlins lie out beneath the stars. Rawlins asks if John Grady has told his father about leaving, and he says no. Rawlins says his father ran away from home, otherwise he’d have been born in Alabama. John Grady says he’d never have been born at all. After bickering, Rawlins says that if God wanted him to be born he’d have been born—and if he didn’t he wouldn’t have been born, John Grady replies. They both agree that their heads hurt. Rawlins says John Grady has more reason to leave than him, but asks if John Grady will still go without him. John Grady replies that he’s already gone.

John Grady sees the Barnett girl (Mary Catherine) one last time in town, running into her on the street. She says she thought they could be friends, but he just nods and says he’s leaving soon. He asks if the girl’s new love interest would be jealous that they’re talking. She asks if he hates him. He shakes his head and she presses him, until he says it’s all just talk. She wishes him the best, and he takes her small hand—the first time he’s shaken hands with a woman—and tells her to take care of herself.

Late that night, John Grady meets Rawlins in front of his house with their two horses. They ride across the open pasture onto the prairie, feeling like thieves in the night with the whole world available to them.

The day afterward, they’ve ridden 40 miles into land they still know. They water the horses and eat the sandwiches they’ve brought, resting under trees at midday. John Grady has only brought his grandfather’s old revolver, which he doesn’t know how to shoot. By sunset, they can hear trucks along a highway. They reach a gate on one side of the highway but don’t see one on the other, and don’t want to cross it in the dark. They see lights in the distance, probably Eldorado, and decide to sleep there until daybreak.

They lead the horses around old car parts strewn around the highway to a roadside café and order breakfast. Rawlins points to distant mountains and says that’s where they’re headed. After eating they go outside, where a Mexican is changing a tire on a truck. He asks where they’re going and Rawlins says Mexico—they pretend they’re running from the law, having robbed a bank. The man doesn’t believe them, and when Rawlins asks if he knows that country, the Mexican says he’s never been to Mexico in his life.

The boys follow a valley west, and Rawlins shoots a rabbit, which they clean to eat later. As they’re cooking it that night, looking out at the black hills and crescent moon, Rawlins says he could get used to this.

They ride all the next day in rolling hill country and then into a town, Pandale. They’re dirty and dusty and John Grady tells Rawlins he looks like a desperado. The woman at the deli is impressed that the boys rode all the way down from San Angelo. Rawlins wonders what everyone’s doing back home, and John Grady jokes that they’ve probably struck oil and are picking out their new cars. Rawlins asks if he ever feels just ill at ease for no reason, and if that means that you’re somewhere you aren’t supposed to be. John Grady says he’s making no sense, and Rawlins agrees. He decides to start singing country tunes from the radio.

The boys cross the Pecos River, the horses gingerly choosing their steps. John Grady says someone has been following them on horseback, but he says they should just keep riding and the follower will show or not. They ride onto a high plateau with a vista over the grass-covered country to the south. At a stand of cedars, Rawlins suggests they wait on the follower.

A rider (Jimmy Blevins) with a broadbrim hat and overalls, riding a beautiful, big bay horse, approaches them. He’s about thirteen. Rawlins asks if he’s following them, and the kid denies it, saying he’s going to Langtry. When John Grady asks where he got the horse, the boy says it’s his. He claims to be sixteen and coming from Pandale, where he saw John Grady and Rawlins. John Grady and Rawlins ask each other who gets to shoot him, and they flip a coin. The boy says they’re just joking, but Rawlins asks how he can be so sure. Rawlins asks who’s hunting him—or at least the horse—and the boy doesn’t answer. Rawlins says he’ll get them thrown in jail, and he and John Grady turn and head south alone. Rawlins is surprised the boy isn’t following them, but John Grady says they haven’t seem the last of him.

That night they cross the Southern Pacific tracks near Pumpville, Texas, and make a fire in the shadow of the Pumpville water tank. The next morning they reach the river dividing the U.S. from Mexico. They ride upriver to where the river meets a creek and look for where they should cross. Before doing so, they eat lunch under willow trees. After a nap, John Grady sees the same boy riding towards them. Rawlins says they should remount and get away: they’re both feeling uneasy about him. Rawlins gets his rifle and they walk down the creek to where the boy is sitting in the shallow water. The boy, who says he’s called Jimmy Blevins (the name of a radio host), says no one will hunt him in Mexico, though he refuses to answer for what. He has no food or money: Rawlins asks why they would want him with them. He just says he’s an American, and Rawlins shakes his head.

They cross that night under the moon, and the horses have to swim by midriver. Rawlins holds his rifle in the air and they look like a band of marauders. Once they reach the other side, they look back at the American border silently, and then ride into a gallop while laughing and patting their horses.

They camp at the edge of a plain, and when Rawlins asks, Blevins says he last ate several days ago. John Grady and Rawlins tell him their names and say they’re from San Angelo, but Blevins doesn’t say where he’s from. Rawlins suggests they exchange his horse for one less likely to get them shot, but Blevins refuses. He says he has a gun, a 32-20 Colt. Rawlins doesn’t believe him, but he reaches into his overalls for the pistol. Rawlins asks if he can shoot anything with it, and Blevins says anything he can throw up in the air he’ll hit. Rawlins takes out his billfold and throws it up into the air, and Blevins punctures it with a pistol shot. Rawlins picks up his billfold and says they should get going.

They ride side by side and look around at the new country, watching hawks and low hills covered with nopal and creosote (cactuses and tar). They ride into the town of Reforma, where the main street is lined with mud-brick houses and a pole corral. They enter a store where a girl is sitting reading a comic book. John Grady asks in Spanish for something to drink, and she hands them cider, which Rawlins pays for with a dollar bill with a hole at each end. They walk outside and Rawlins notes that there’s no electricity here—there’s probably never been a car. He wonders what they’re saying back home, and John Grady reckons people are saying that they’re gone.

That evening, they come to a small estancia (farm) where two little girls in white dresses are standing in the yard. They eat inside at a pine table, with a framed picture of the Virgin Mary on the wall The little girls watch them eat in awe. The estancia owner asks them about America, which he’d seen once across the river as a boy. They’re sitting on backless benches and Blevins leans back at one point, crashing to the floor. The little girls squeal in delight, but Blevins is ashamed and whispers that he can’t be laughed at. He climbs over the bench and goes out, and the owners look worried. After dinner John Grady finds Blevins sitting on the ground, and Blevins refuses to get up to sleep in the house with him.

John Grady and Rawlins sleep in the back of the house, and John Grady says that the estancia owner had told him there are big ranches one or two hundred miles away where they can work. Rawlins wonders if he thinks they’re desperados. He asks if Blevins is just going to sleep in the yard, and says maybe he’ll be gone in the morning. He spreads out the cards that were in his billfold, exclaiming that his picture of Betty Ward, a girl from school, is shot through between her eyes.

The next morning they ride out and see Blevins on the road. He asks if they have anything to eat, and the boys tell him they can’t give him their lunch at seven in the morning. They eat lunch under the shade of trees next to a swamp. Blevins says that in the old days, this would be where the Comanches would lie in wait for travelers. Rawlins notes that the road seems deserted, and Blevins replies that it used to have far more people on it. Rawlins, exasperated, asks what he would know about the old days.

That night they camp off the road and stare into the embers of their fire. Rawlins tells Blevins how good a horse rider John Grady is—that he can outride anyone he’s ever seen. Blevins claims he’s seen Booger Red ride, who can probably beat John Grady, but Rawlins laughs at him, saying Booger Red’s been dead for years. He continues poking fun at Blevins, but John Grady tells Rawlins to leave him alone.

In the following days, they ride toward the distant cordilleras (mountain ranges) at the horizon. Rawlins wonders how to get there—it looks like paradise. He remarks how huge a country this is, and John Grady says that the hugeness is what he’s there for.

They ride down the northern slope of a mountain covered with evergreens and persimmon trees. That night, for the first time, they hear the howls of a wolf. John Grady looks up at the constellations in the sky, picking out Orion, Cepella, and Cassiopeia, and thinks about wildness in nature as well as inner wildness.

The next morning it’s cold, and they drink the last of their coffee around a fire. Rawlins asks how long they’ll last on coffee and cold tortillas, but John Grady says he isn’t worried. As they watch the sun rise, Rawlins asks if there will be a day when the sun won’t rise. Judgment day, John Grady answers, whenever God decides. When Rawlins asks if he believes in all that, John Grady says yes, but Rawlins isn’t sure. Blevins says he’s an infidel, but Rawlins tells him he doesn’t know anything, and to shut up.

By midmorning, they’re out of the mountains, and they come across three other riders for the first time across the plain. They’re zacateros (hay-cutters) heading to the mountains to work. The men are dressed in ragged clothes, have old, worn saddles, and smell of smoke and sweat. They seem wild and strange to the boys. John Grady watches them to see what they are thinking but can’t tell at all. After speaking of the weather in the country, they wish luck on the Americans and head off.

The boys ride on through the valley and camp in the low hills that evening, where they cook a jackrabbit shot by Blevins. Blevins buries it in the ground and builds the fire over it, saying that the Indians do it that way. When Rawlins asks if he’s ever eaten a jackrabbit, he says he hasn’t.

Rawlins asks Blevins where he’s from, and he says Uvalde County on the Sabinal River. He continues to refuse to answer why he’s run away, but when John Grady asks if he’s done it before, he says he has. He had gotten a job at a bowling alley in Oklahoma when he was bitten by a dog and it got infected. The doctor thought he might have rabies, and sent him back to Uvalde. He had saved up to go see a striptease show that was supposed to come through Uvalde, before the show’s manager was thrown in prison for indecency. Anyway, the show never made it to Oklahoma either.

When Rawlins asks why Blevins wanted to go to Mexico, he says it was for the same reason as Rawlins: no one could find him there. Rawlins says no one is hunting him. Blevins says that he told his stepfather he wouldn’t stand to be whipped by him (Blevins’ father died in the war). Rawlins asks what he was doing when he was bitten by a dog, but at this point Blevins clams up and stops answering questions. They dig up the rabbit, which looks like a sandy effigy, but covered in hot sauce it tastes good enough.

The next day they start to encounter caravans of migrant traders headed north to the border, plodding with donkeys bearing loads of furs, goat hides, or handmade rope and carrying water in hog skins. The boys try to buy water but they don’t have coins small enough to do so. Instead, they buy a canteen of sotol (an alcoholic drink) and are drunk by evening. Rawlins catches sight of Blevins’ horse with an empty saddle, and they turn back to see Blevins sitting in the middle of the road. Next time they’ll leave him behind, Rawlins says. Blevins gets back on but drops the reins, and when he digs his heels in the horse goes forward and Blevins falls backward into the road. Rawlins spits in disgust and John Grady curses at him to get back on the horse.

An ominous-looking storm swells in front of them and lightning glows from the distance. Blevins says he can’t be outside in lightning—it turns out he’s afraid of it, and is sure he’ll be struck. His grandfather, uncle, great-uncle, and cousin were all struck by lightning. He explains in detail just how his relatives were paralyzed or set on fire, and says he’s been struck twice, which is why he’s deaf in one ear. He says wildly that he’ll try to outride the storm, which John Grady tells him is impossible. But at the first crack of thunder Blevins rides out towards the north, losing his hat as he goes. Rawlins says he won’t take any responsibility for him—he’ll fall off and the horse will be back in the States before long.

They ride north, and eventually come across Blevins’ horse tied to a willow tree next to a stream beside the road. John Grady rides through the willows until finding Blevins crouched under a dead cottonwood tree. John Grady tells him that if there’s a flood it’ll wash him away, but Blevins says he’s less afraid of drowning than of getting hit by lightning. John Grady rides back up to tell Rawlins Blevins is just sitting there, and Rawlins says he knew the boy was crazy.

John Grady and Rawlins take shelter under a rock overhang. At one point they hear a horse running in the rain. The storm lets up by evening, and the next morning they untie the horses. John Grady says they should go find Blevins. Rawlins wonders if they should just go on without him, but John Grady doesn’t think he can just leave him there, and Rawlins agrees.

John Grady finds Blevins in the same place he left him. His clothes are washed way, and his horse is gone. He doesn’t know what he’ll do. John Grady says Blevins probably knows he’s worn Rawlins out. John Grady rides downriver and finds Blevins’ sopping wet shirt. He hoists Blevins up onto the back of his own horse. When Rawlins sees them, he’s too dismayed to even speak.

They continue riding, the country taking on bright, almost electric green and yellow colors from the rain. They ride into a camp in the footlands of a low mesa where Mexicans had dug a firebox to mount a boiler onto. Several burros are standing loaded with the candelilla plant that can be boiled for wax. A dozen men dressed in rags are eating off clay plates beside them. John Grady greets them in Spanish and asks if they have something to eat. They gesture at the fire and the three boys fill their plates.

Blevins asks if John Grady will ask them about his horse. Rawlins says he won’t get his horse back, and they should trade his pistol for clothes and a bus ticket home. But Blevins says the pistol is with the horse. After a pause, Blevins looks up to ask what he ever did to Rawlins, who responds that he hasn’t done anything, and won’t: that’s the point. But John Grady says it won’t hurt to try to get Blevins’ horse back.

John Grady asks the Mexican men about the candelilla, which looks like a bar of soap. He tests it, and one of the men asks if the blond (Blevins) is his brother. He says no, that he’s just a boy—not a relation, friend, nothing. The man asks how much he’s worth, and if he wants to sell him. John Grady stands up and thanks him for his hospitality, while the man offers to trade him for wax. John Grady studies him and the others, noting that they don’t look evil.

When John Grady heads back to the others, Blevins asks again about his horse, but John Grady says they don’t have him. Rawlins asks what’s wrong, but he tells them to hurry up and mount the horses. They ride south without speaking, and about a mile later Blevins asks again what the man had wanted, and Rawlins tells him the man wanted to buy him.

That night, with Blevins sleeping wrapped in a blanket, Rawlins says he looks pitiful. He asks if John Grady has thought about Rawlins’ suggestion to leave Blevins behind. Something bad is going to happen, Rawlins says.

At noon the next day, they ride into the town of Encantada, where they see Blevins’ pistol sticking out of the back pocket of a man bent over the engine of a Dodge car. John Grady grabs Blevins before he slides off the horse. Rawlins says they should stash the boy somewhere safe while he and John Grady look around. They leave Blevins in the shade of some trees and continue on, eventually glimpsing the horse inside an abandoned mud house. They keep riding, but when they return to the trees Blevins is gone.

Rawlins tells John Grady that for every dumb thing he’s ever done, there was an earlier choice that got him into it. This is their last chance to just leave Blevins. What if it was you? John Grady asks, and Rawlins says neither of them would leave the other one. After a while sitting and smoking, John Grady says he can’t do it. Rawlins says he knew he’d say that, though John Grady says he didn’t know himself.

After falling asleep, they wake up to find Blevins squatting watching them. John Grady says his horse is here without a saddle, and they’ll try to help him get it back. Blevins looks at the ground, and Rawlins exclaims that they could get shot dead for horse stealing, but that doesn’t seem to mean anything to Blevins. As they fall asleep, Blevins looks at Rawlins and realizes he was right, but there was no help for it.

Just before dawn, they ride through the silent streets until they reach the mud house, but the horse isn’t there. Blevins dismounts and climbs through the house’s window. He doesn’t come back. Dogs start to bark through the town, and lights go on. Rawlins curses, and all at once they see Blevins on his bay horse, surrounded by howling dogs, exploding into the road after breaking through a fence. The dogs swarm over the road and three pistol shots can be heard from somewhere. Blevins passes Rawlins and John Grady. The two of them race up the hill, hearing shots behind them. They turn south and gallop through the town, riding up into the low hills.

A mile away they catch up with Blevins. Blevins says that people are coming for them, and he tells the other two to let him take the road, while they slip into the country. He gallops away and John Grady and Rawlins ride through the brush in the dark. They hear horses on the road at some point, and then silence. Rawlins asks what will happen if they catch Blevins—he may well say where the others were headed. John Grady says they should just keep riding.

As Rawlins starts wondering how long it’s been since they’ve eaten, they hear riders from far away. They keep moving. At daylight they leave the horses tied up and climb a hill, where they see three riders descending another hill two miles away. Rawlins swears they’ll have to get past his rifle, but John Grady says he doesn’t want to shoot his way back to Texas. Rawlins says he’ll kill Blevins if they see him again. They ride out west, at one point glimpsing the three riders further south. By midmorning, they assume that the riders have stopped pursuing them.

Toward evening, they come across a band of sheepherders, but Rawlins suggests they continue, since he’s had enough of natives in this part of the country. But they’re unable to find water, and later that night he says they should have asked the herders for water. As they prepare to fall asleep, Rawlins says he’ll say one thing for Blevins—he wouldn’t stand for anyone “hijacking” his horse.

In the morning, Rawlins goes off to scavenge and finds nopal fruit. As they eat, John Grady says the problem is that they wouldn’t necessarily recognize the three riders. The two of them are more noticeable, though Blevins is most of all. A good-looking horse is like a good-looking woman, Rawlins says—more trouble than they’re worth. Rawlins echoes what John Grady said: they haven’t seen the last of Blevins.

They ride all day, finally finding water at noon. That evening, Rawlins manages to shoot a buck, which they cook over a fire. They’re impatient to eat. As they wait, Rawlins asks if John Grady ever thinks about dying, and if he thinks there’s a heaven. John Grady says yes to both. Rawlins says there’s so much that could happen to someone in life. John Grady asks if he’s getting religious on him, and Rawlins says no, but that he may be better off if he was. John Grady wants to be sure Rawlins won’t leave him, but Rawlins reminds him that he’d said he wouldn’t.

Rawlins asks if John Grady thinks God looks out for people, and they both agree that God does. Rawlins says someone can sneeze somewhere in Arkansas and that can lead to war. While they don’t know what will happen, God must know, Rawlins says. John Grady just nods. Rawlins wonders if Blevins is safe, and when John Grady says he thought Rawlins was glad to be rid of him, Rawlins says he just doesn’t want to see anything bad happen to him.

The next day they ride west, chewing on the deer meat throughout the day. That night they watch lightning on the horizon, and the following day they come across pools of rainwater. On the plain before them they see vaqueros (cowboys) driving cattle across the dusty ground. That night they build a bonfire against the cold, and the next day they ride across a plain with grass they haven’t seen before, making out the path of the cattle from the previous day.

They encounter the vaqueros, who tell them about this part of the country. Together they all drive the cattle west and then south to a road. A young girl comes riding down the road wearing English riding boots and a blue jacket, sitting atop a black Arabian saddlehorse. The horse, along with the girl’s boots, is wet from riding in the river. She wears a wide-brimmed hat covering her hair, which falls halfway to her waist. She turns and smiles to them, and each of the vaqueros tips his hat to her. Rawlins exclaims about the girl to John Grady, who doesn’t answer, still looking down the road after her.

That evening they help drive the cattle into a holding pen. Afterward the vaqueros introduce John Grady and Rawlins to the gerente (manager), who seats them in the kitchen to ask about their understanding of ranch work. The gerente writes down their names in his book, and they shake hands and walk into the darkness, a foreign world made slightly more familiar by the squares of window light.

They clean up in a long adobe bunkhouse and join the other men for dinner: beans, tortillas, and stew. After dinner the vaqueros ask them about American horses and cattle (but nothing about the boys themselves), since for most of them America is only a rumor. They nod carefully at the answers. The vaqueros are skilled at their own work, and are scornful of any suggestion of knowing something secondhand.

That night, Rawlins whispers that the vaqueros seem to be good men, though he wonders if they think the two are on the run. John Grady tells him to go to sleep, but his last words are about how this is how it must have been for the old war marauders.