Summary

Captain Kidd and Johanna travel into “the hill country” (168), an area attractive to raiders because there is ample “concealment and water and isolated farms” (168). They pass through the red and pink granite country north of Llano, where they come to an abandoned cabin. Captain Kidd grows sentimental as they rifle through the cabin, which reminds him of his childhood home in George. They continue on, and pass through large “curving bluffs” (170) of limestone.

When Johanna and Captain Kidd stop by a springhouse, they watch, breathless and amazed, as “a slim young man with long blond hair” (172) with his hair cut in the style of the Kiowa dropped from a great live oak into the water and waded across. Captain Kidd wonders if Johanna will “betray him” (173) and try to return with this man. She looks Captain Kidd in the eyes, shakes her head, and...