Summary

For a costly fifty cents, the Captain rents a space for the wagon in the loading year of a big broom and stave mill near Bosque River. That afternoon, Captain Kidd tries to teach Johanna how to read a clock and explains that he will be back when the “little hand is at three” (132). Before he heads into town, Captain Kidd leaves his watch with Johanna. In town, Captain Kidd books a room for his reading, and hangs his advertisements around the town. A man with a gold-headed cane reads the bill, and asks Captain Kidd if he will be reading from the Daily State Journal, an Austin-based news source. Captain Kidd says he will not as he “refuse[s] to be an unpaid mouthpiece” for propaganda.

When Captain Kidd returns to Johanna, a man making brooms points out that there is “something wrong...