Blood Meridian

The men ride out of the city. In the group are a white man named Jackson and a Black man named Jackson. The two are enemies and no one aims to intervene in their argument. Earlier that morning, Glanton’s horde stopped at a house on the edge of Chihuahua City. They met a Prussian arms dealer named Speyer who has a shipment of pistols that he has agreed to sell to Glanton. Testing the pistols, Glanton shot a cat, chickens, a goat, a clay pot, and a bell. A group of Mexicans arrived at the house, alarmed by the sound of gunfire. Before the two groups could fight, Holden intervened. He calmly introduced the Mexican sergeant to every member of the gang, including the Black Jackson. Holden used academic language to play on the sergeant’s racist views. Holden bribed the sergeant and the Mexicans left.

While riding, Toadvine befriends a Welsh fugitive named Bathcat who brags that he has hunted the native inhabitants of Tasmania. Bathcat tries to gamble on which Jackson will kill the other. Toadvine declines. He notices that Bathcat wears a necklace made of human ears. Later, the narration says, Toadvine will cut Bathcat’s body down from a tree and see numbers tattooed on his arm. The group passes through lands where other groups have been killed by Apache warriors. They meet “a family of itinerant magicians,” and Glanton agrees that the magicians can ride with his men to Janos, though he offers them no protection (66). They cross the Casa Grandes River, pass the sites of historic massacres, and see bones on the ground.

At night, the oldest magician tells fortunes. The Black Jackson draws a card, but he does not understand why the magicians begin to whisper in Spanish. Holden translates, saying that Jackson should not drink “the demon rum” (69). When Jackson seems displeased, Holden tells him that he will eventually understand everything, just like “every man” (69). On Holden’s instruction, the old magician tells the kid’s fortune. However, the kid does not understand the meaning of the car he drawers, and he tells the magician to “get the hell away from me” (70). Holden prompts the magician to tell Glanton’s fortune. Before Glanton can reveal his card, however, the card vanishes. The magicians whisper in Spanish that Glanton has drawn a card that represents war and revenge. Glanton threatens a woman, but Holden convinces him to let her live. The next morning, the old magicians ride next to Glanton at the head of the gang. As they enter a town, Glanton shoots an elderly Apache woman in the head. He orders his men to scalp her and then sets up camp in the town. The magicians put on a show.

Glanton’s gang stops at a cantina in Janos. As the men drink, a local man runs a card-based scam. An old man approaches the kid, Toadvine, and Bathcat and–stumbling to communicate in English–thanks them for hunting the Apache, mourning the amount of blood spilled during the war. He wants them to kill Gomez but warns that their mission will be difficult, and they will never be able to forget what they have done.

The gang leaves Janos and passes through a recently abandoned camp. When the men stop that evening, Holden speaks to Toadvine about Grannyrat. Toadvine explains that Grannyrat has been left behind on the journey. Holden seems unconvinced but remains silent. The next morning, the gang continues the journey through mountains and forests. That night, without “rules real or tacit” (78), the camp separates along racial lines. When Black Jackson tries to sit at the white campfire, white Jackson chases him away. Black Jackson returns with a knife and kills white Jackson, ignoring the protestations of a former priest named Ben Tobin. The next morning, the gang sets out and leaves behind white Jackson’s headless corpse.

The gang encounters their first group of Apache at a beach. The men fire at the distant Apache warriors, whose arrows lack the range of the gang’s guns. Eventually, the Apache flee. Holden walks to the corpse of a slain Apache and takes his valuables before cutting off the dead man’s scalp.

The gang continues its journey beside a blindingly bright stretch of land littered with gypsum. The light blinds the horses, who do not recover for hours. That night, some of the horses are “required to be shot” (82). Later that day, two Native American members of the gang return after a long absence. They bring Grannyrat’s horse with them. Glanton, disgusted by Grannyrat’s desertion, burns Grannyrat’s possessions. Two days later, the gang encounters a large, abandoned carriage with its horses still attached. Checking inside, Glanton finds three dead bodies, including a young boy. He takes anything valuable, including two of the horses.

The gang rides past mountains and copper mines. In an abandoned Mexican town, it finds a large triangular building with smoke coming from its chimney. A man with a rifle answers the door, and Glanton forces himself inside. He discovers that the man is one of four survivors; three of the man’s colleagues have been killed by the Apache. Eventually, Glanton notices that a naked “Mexican or halfbreed boy maybe twelve years old” is hiding in the corner of the room (85). When Glanton asks about the boy’s identity, the men shrug. Later that day, Holden explores the nearby mine and lectures at length about geology, which he links to religion. That night, a storm rages as the men gather around a fire. Someone mentions that Holden is standing outside in the rain, “naked atop the walls, immense and pale in the revelations of lightning […] declaiming in the old epic mode” (86). The next day, Holden and Toadvine chat aimlessly about the weather. Glanton refuses to allow the men to join the gang; at the same time, someone discovers that the Mexican boy’s neck has been snapped. The starving men speak glowingly about the boy as Glanton and his gang ride away, leaving behind some supplies. That night, the gang hunts deer. The following night, the men meet a gang like their own. They pass each other peacefully.

One evening, the kid speaks to Tobin about Holden. To Tobin, Holden seems extraordinarily talented. He sings, dances, delivers lectures, and can speak numerous languages, including Spanish and Dutch. Tobin explains that Glanton’s previous gang was reduced in number due to death and desertion. The remaining twelve men were in a terrible state when they happened to encounter Holden “perched on this rock like a man waitin for a coach” in the middle of the desert (91). Holden and Glanton seemed to reach an agreement, and Holden joined the gang. According to Tobin, Holden is the true leader of the gang by some “terrible covenant” with Glanton (91). He decides what to do and where to go, and Glanton just agrees. The other members of the gang are unsure about Holden’s sanity, but he seems to be a genius.

Tobin gives an example of when the gang was being followed by a group of Native Americans but lacked any gunpowder to fight. Holden suggested that they avoid the Apache at first, then lead them into a trap. Holden, using his knowledge of chemistry, made up a batch of homemade gunpowder from natural potassium nitrate taken from a bat-filled cave, sulfurous brimstone from a volcano, and urine. The gang laid a trap and slaughtered the Apache. Tobin concludes that Holden is “a thing to study” (97). When the kid asks why people refer to Holden as a judge, Tobin falls quiet. He is worried that Holden will hear them.