In the Distance

As the convoy carries on over the salt flats, Håkan again experiences terrible loneliness, “a void almost as profound as the emptiness that overtook him during the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean” (75). Like Linus, the fading Lorimer protected him and saw something worth nurturing in him. Lorimer’s theories gave Håkan a similar comfort to his brother’s stories, and the wilderness feels even more desolate without the scientist’s company. When the men decide to eat Lorimer’s animal specimens, Håkan tries to stop them even though one of them pulls a gun on him. Håkan nurses Lorimer back to health by following the instructions his friend provides in his few moments of consciousness. After his recovery, Lorimer observes that Håkan has grown significantly in height in a matter of weeks, a development that makes the astonished scientist wonder if Håkan represents the next phase of human evolution.

The convoy and Lorimer agree to part ways at Fort Squibb. On the way there, they discover a decimated village of Indigenous Americans with about a dozen badly injured survivors. The convoy wants to plunder the ruins, but Lorimer forbids them to take the villagers’ ponies. Håkan decides to stay with his friend and help tend to the wounded. One of the survivors, an elderly man with short white hair, is an experienced medical professional. The villagers only accept Lorimer’s treatment because the white-haired man approves, and he teaches Lorimer to boil his instruments and wash his hands before operating. As he helps the men treat the wounded, Håkan finds himself experiencing a sort of detachment that he believes dignifies others’ suffering in a way that compassion and pity do not. That night, the white-haired man shares a calumet with Lorimer and Håkan and confirms that their attackers were white men.

Five of the patients die, and their bodies are placed in the desert without ceremony or covering. Lorimer exults in the wisdom he sees in this tradition of leaving human remains for animals’ consumption: “This is true religion—knowing there is a bond among all living things. Having understood this, there is nothing to mourn, because even though nothing can ever be retained, nothing is ever lost” (89). The rest of the patients recover and thank Lorimer by giving him dinosaur teeth. One of the survivors, a warrior named Antim whose leg Lorimer amputated, agrees to take the scientist back to Saladillo. Håkan begins to fear that his brother needs him and anxiously wishes to go to him. Lorimer tells Håkan to continue his journey east with his blessing. He advises his friend to travel along a major immigrant trail, gifting him some gold, money, a case of surgical instruments, and a silver compass that was a gift from Blume, his mentor.

As a parting gift, the villagers mend Håkan’s clothes and shoes so they fit his colossal frame. Confident that he is prepared for his journey and equipped with a steed of his own, an unheard-of luxury in his humble Swedish homeland, he feels “larger and freer” and “maybe for the first time in his life, proud” (95). During the trek across the desert his pony, Pingo, develops colic. Håkan operates on the animal and rinses a large quantity of sand from its intestines. Despite Håkan’s best efforts, the pony’s condition deteriorates until his breathing becomes “a broken rustle, as if withered leaves were rolling inside his rusty windpipe” (100). The pony’s wound becomes full of maggots, and the creature emits terrible screams. Weeping, Håkan embraces the pony and administers a strong sedative. After Pingo falls asleep, Håkan cuts its carotid artery and packs up his makeshift camp.

Håkan discovers an elegantly carved wardrobe in the desert, and its mirror shows him his reflection for the first time since he left Clangston. Although he is emaciated and weathered by the elements, his eyes are “no longer fearful or curious, but dispassionately hungry” for something unknown (103). Eventually, the desert gives way to prairie, and he sees the mighty buffalo for the first time. Following the trail, Håkan comes upon a lodge of Indigenous American buffalo hunters and tanners who give him a meal. Continuing on his way, he passes many shallow graves. His first indication that he is approaching a wagon train is “the stench of civilization [which hits] him like a solid mass, rather than a vapor” (107).

A multitude of ox-drawn wagons plod westward along the trail, and Håkan recalls how Lorimer described the procession as “a massive city stretched out into one thin crawling line” (109). The wagon train is headed westward, and Håkan walks beside the trail in the opposite direction and tries in vain to find someone who will sell him a horse. A man named Jarvis Pickett invites him to join his family for a meal of buffalo meat, bacon, and corn flour fried in lard. Over the course of the evening, several people timidly approach Jarvis with offerings of tea, food, tobacco, and silver. Jarvis asks Håkan to be his bodyguard for a few weeks in exchange for a horse and saddle. Håkan finds it difficult to imagine that the hardworking families who make up the wagon train would wish to mutiny against the seemingly jovial Jarvis, and he wrestles with indecision.

At dawn the next morning, the wagons continue their journey. Jarvis constructs a makeshift target from a broken wagon wheel and tries to show Håkan how to use a pepperbox pistol. Jarvis misses until he aims at point-blank range. He explains that he has been voted captain of the party because he has made the journey three times, knows important people on the other side, and can guarantee at least 320 acres on arrival. He sums up the situation for Håkan: “So there it is: a man who knows the way and has something to deliver at the end of the journey. And yet. Contentions, dissent, distrust. Jealousy? I don’t know” (118). Håkan agrees to travel with Jarvis and carries the pepperbox pistol at the man’s insistence. The days pass in weary monotony.

During a rainstorm, a boy loses an arm while trying to help free a wagon from the mud. The boy’s father is initially suspicious of Håkan because he works for Jarvis, but the Swedish man’s confidence persuades him to let him operate on his son. The boy’s sister shows her injured brother a level of tenderness that Håkan has never experienced himself, and he is struck by longing. After the operation is complete, the man apologizes to Håkan for his harsh words and explains how, months ago, Jarvis told the pioneers that he would share his land with a select few. Even as they lavished him with gifts they could ill afford to spare and jockeyed for a place in this promised paradise, the people grew suspicious of Jarvis and the unusually slow pace their wagon train took toward its destination, causing mutiny to brew by the time Håkan arrived. A few days after the accident, Jarvis announces that he knows a shortcut. Three or four wagons continue down the trail, but the rest decide to follow Jarvis. The line of supplicants with gifts is even longer than usual that evening.

The wagon train’s ponderous pace becomes even more sluggish as they fight their way through grassland with no trails. Håkan often checks on his young patient, and the frequency of his visits is partly due to his affection for the boy’s sister, Helen, who shares Håkan’s feelings. She tries to pronounce Håkan’s name and writes it down on a piece of paper. Although Håkan no longer trusts Jarvis, he is reluctant to break ties with him because he worries what would happen to Helen and her family if someone less scrupulous took his place as the leader’s bodyguard.

One day, as the wagon train is passing through a ring of hills, they are surrounded by riders “wrapped in buffalo hides [with] painted faces and feathered heads” (128). The pioneers circle the wagons and arm themselves. Both the riders and the pioneers fire off several volleys, but no one is hurt. The riders retreat, and only half of them return for the second offense. Suddenly, a group of white riders appear from over the hills and chase away the painted riders. The besieged pioneers are filled with joy and relief, and Håkan and Helen share a tender moment in which she touches his hand and rests her head on his shoulder. When the pioneers welcome their supposed rescuers, Håkan sees that one of them still has traces of paint on his face. The imposters open fire on the crowd, indiscriminately killing men, women, and children. Håkan shoots one of the attackers in the heart with his pepperbox pistol. The raiders rape Helen and kill her, her father, and her brother. Overwhelmed with sorrow, Håkan screams and sobs as he kills and maims the attackers. His might and fury force the raiders to retreat.

Håkan buries Helen and her family. Jarvis and the other survivors insist on celebrating and drunkenly toast, “To the Hawk!” (134). A mortally wounded raider is left behind and says that he belongs to the Soldiers of Jehu, who call themselves the Wrathful Angels. The next morning, Håkan returns the pepperbox pistol to the slumbering Jarvis, takes a bay horse that belonged to one of the raiders, and rides away.