News of the World

The Captain reads of various news from around the world to a crowd of people who have gathered inside the Masonic Lodge to listen. He begins by reading to them from The London Daily News about the Franco-Prussian War. The audience is amazed not by the war but by the fact that they are hearing about it from a paper from England, amazed at hearing about news from so far away. The Captain is dressed in his reading outfit, which presents him as someone wise and authoritative. He reads them a story form the Philadelphia Inquirer about Dr. Schliemann searching for the ancient city of Troy, and about telegraph wires laid between Britain and India. He thinks he sees the pale-headed man again.

After he is finished reading, Simon enters and informs him that Johanna is gone.

Outside, the weather has grown worse. There is a rainstorm raging at full strength. The Red River is very flooded, but nevertheless, Simon and the Captain go off in search of Johanna. For the first time, the Captain openly complains about his task, and about the inconvenience of looking after Johanna. He and Simon find her atop a large stone trying to get the attention of a group of Kiowa on the other bank of the river. She shouts to them in Kiowa, but they cannot hear or understand her over the din of the raging river. The Captain notices the Kiowa are carrying Sharps rifles. One of the Indians fires a warning shot, informing her, the Captain, and Simon that they shouldn’t come any closer. The Captain runs up, grabs Johanna, and pulls her off the rock and runs. They hear another rifle report and a .50 caliber bullet rips into a tree.

Back in the wagon, the Captain is alone with Johanna, who is sleeping. He bemoans the situation, but resolves, nevertheless, to see the job through because he promised he would. He reflects on the fact that she has not yet cried, not once, in spite of all she has been through.

They leave Spanish Fort, but the Captain has forgotten to change to wheel, which means he will have to do it in Dallas. He hopes it will hold out until then.

After paying for the lodge and purchasing necessary supplies, he doesn’t have a lot of money left over. Johanna sings to herself often. She accepts her situation with marked resilience. The Captain tries to talk to her again. He talks to her about her aunt and uncle and remembers that they are Germans. He uses the German words for aunt and uncle (tante and onkel), which she comprehends. She opens and closes her hands, evoking a memory, and says, in German, that her mother and father are dead.

The pair arrive in Dallas and Johanna is even more intimidated by the town than she was of Spanish Fort. The Captain, on the other hand, is glad, this time, to be in civilization. He heads towards a livery stable to get the wagon repaired and knows the owner, a widow named Mrs. Gannet. There, he changes clothes. Mrs. Gannet tells him she will send out his travel clothes to be cleaned and agrees to keep an eye on Johanna while he goes off to buy some newspapers and find a hotel room.

Johanna remains cloaked in her poncho and reaches out a hand towards the Captain, fearing he will leave her. He touches her on the forehead and does his best to reassure here. He wants to tell her he will be back in an hour, but knows that she will not understand. Before he leaves, he tells her to "sit. Stay" (70).

The Captain heads off to rent two rooms at a hotel and then takes a bath, which costs him 50. Afterwards, he finds the proprietor of the Broadway Playhouse and engages the small theater for the night, for his readings. He then goes to the local printing press, Thurber’s News and Printing Establishment. He knows Thurber personally and is jealous of the man’s business. Thurber asks the Captain about his travels and wants to know if it isn’t getting burdensome for him to be doing what he’s doing. The Captain answers grumpily that he isn’t that old yet, and takes offense. Nevertheless, he buys copies of the Philadelphia Enquirer, Chicago Tribune, London Times, New York Herald, and a Spanish-language, Mexican paper, El Clarion. He also has advertisements for his readings printed.

After leaving the printing office, the Captain walks around town tacking up his notices, all the while contemplating his situation with Johanna. He is grumpier and more negative than before, lamenting that he has already raised two daughters. His conscience, however, which sounds to him much like the voice of his father, continues to hold him to his promise.

On his way back to Johanna and Mrs. Gannet, the Captain picks up some dinner: barbecued meat, bread, and squash. Johanna is clearly happy to see him return. He teaches her the word “dinner.” They sit down to eat, and Johanna uses the knife to cut off a large hunk of meat. She tosses it between her hands until it’s cool enough to bite into. Barbecue sauce drips down her wrists. The Captain attempts to teach her to use a fork. She tries, but can’t quite get the hang of it, and eventually tosses the fork away in frustration. The Captain sympathizes with her: she has lost her parents, was raised by the Kiowa, sold for blankets, transferred from stranger to stranger, culture to culture, and now even has to learn to eat with utensils that don’t make sense to her.

At some point later on, the Captain informs Johanna that she will need to stay in a hotel room and try to not break the windows while he prepares his reading. He takes her greasy hand in his and they walk off together.

The Captain locks the hotel room door behind him and hears Johanna begin a Kiowa chant. He remarks how he has no idea how to understand her chanting, whether she has reconciled herself to the room, will hang herself, set fire to the room, or just simply go to sleep.

Downstairs, he has a brief conversation with the desk clerk, who is bothered by Johanna’s chanting and cannot commiserate with her at all, wondering why she isn’t wonderfully happy to be away from the Kiowa. He implores the Captain to go and get Mrs. Gannet, because he can’t listen to her chant all night.

The Captain finds Mrs. Gannet with her hair in complex and attractive braids, giving orders to her drunken stableman. The Captain asks her if she wouldn’t mind spending the night with Johanna in her room. He would even pay her a dollar to do it. She smiles at him and says that she would be delighted to help. For the first time in weeks, he dares to hope that in the evening he will not feel worried, won’t have to fear Johanna running off and getting hurt.

Mrs. Gannet has prepared some divinity fudge for Johanna and offers her a piece. Johanna signs to the Captain the Kiowa sign for poison. He asks Mrs. Gannet to take a bite first. She understands, takes a bite of the fudge to show Johanna it’s safe, and then offers her the other half. She accepts it and eats it, but doesn’t seem to know what to think of it. The Captain leaves their room to go to his.

He begins writing a letter to his daughters. From his letter, we learn his daughters’ names, Elizabeth and Olympia. Elizabeth’s husband lost his right arm in the war, and Olympia’s husband was killed. The Captain wants them all to travel to live with him in Texas, citing many positive aspects of the state, mentioning several advantages and hiding or simply not mentioning anything negative, and also not addressing the many dangers that the road entails. He writes to them about some property that once belonged to their mother’s family, the Betancorts, and asks his daughter, Elizabeth, to write to a certain Señor Amistad de Lara to inquire about specifics. While he is writing the letter, Johanna is in the other room, banging against the wall and calling out his name. He bangs back from time to time, says her name, and tells her to go to sleep. He listens as Mrs. Gannet sings to Johanna. He wonders why he hasn’t shown Mrs. Gannet more attention, and then remembers it’s because his daughters wouldn’t take it well, and would feel he was being disloyal to the memory of their mother.

We learn that the Captain is 71 years old.

Eventually, Johanna falls asleep, or at least the noise has died down. It is nearly 8pm, time for him to go and do his readings.

Inside the playhouse, before the readings, the Captain ruminates on the state of Texas politics: that the state is still under Marshall Law, that there is strong political infighting within the Republican Party, that the gubernatorial race is heated, and that the current political situation will make clearing up the title to the Betancort lands a lengthy process.

He greets the crowd the way he normally does: by thanking the host and commenting on the roads he’s travelled getting there. He begins with a story from a foreign paper, this time from the London Times. He tells the crowd about how the British Colonial government wants to conduct a census of all the peoples under their rule and how the Hindu tribes rebelled. The crowd agrees in unspoken unison on the inability for rational thought in those types of people. He reads to them about the packing plants in Chicago, sparking future business ideas in many. He reads them several more stories, anything and everything so long as it doesn’t have anything to do with state politics.

At the end of the reading, a man from the crowd questions the Captain as to why he isn’t reading from Governor Davis’s state journal, to which the Captain replies it is because, if he did so, there would be an open brawl within minutes, perhaps even shooting, elaborating that no one can talk about Texas politics calmly and rationally anymore. He cites the two US soldiers in the back standing guard.

As he is leaving the theater, the pale-haired man from earlier accosts him. We learn his name is Almay, and he wants to buy Johanna from him. It isn’t directly stated, but the Captain understands that Almay wants her for purposes in prostitution. The Captain reflects how it’s a good thing he doesn’t have his revolver with him; otherwise, he would be very tempted to shoot Almay right then and there. Almay even lightly threatens him, stating that he is being a reasonable business man and wanting to avoid problems, even though he could take the girl from him with force out on the road. The Captain is wise, as Almay is escorted by two Caddos Indians, his hired goons, and avoids a direct refusal, rather offering to meet him tomorrow morning at 7am, to discuss a price.

The Captain then rushes to the stables and gets the wagon and horses ready to leave, giving instructions to the drunken stableman. He hurries over to the hotel and informs Mrs. Gannet that they have to leave tonight. He takes leave of Mrs. Gannet, asking her for the honor of calling upon her on his return to Dallas (a fancy, round-about-way of asking someone out back then).

He and Johanna take the road south, knowing that Almay and his Caddos expect him to take the Meridian Road southwest. He plans on going west later in the night to connect to the Meridian Road, all in an attempt to delay the others from catching up to them. He mentally takes inventory of his armaments and knows they are lacking for a full-out fight. The country south of Dallas is sparsely populated and Indian raids are to be expected.

In the night, they see lights burning in the windows of a farm house. Johanna cries out, “sau-podle” (98), portending death. The Captain tells Johann to ignore it, to imagine it was just a night hawk they’d seen.