Summary

Ralph Fielding Snell leaves the reader with a short epilogue. Jack dies when finished with the story of Old Lodge Skins’s death. Snell is sorry, because there are hints that Jack’s later years are no less interesting than his first thirty-four.

Yet Snell is nagged by doubts about the truth of Jack’s story. Snell has checked facts against other records, and found them to be frighteningly accurate—where they can be checked. Jack Crabb himself, however, appears in no record, and when one looks at his claims — to be raised by Cheyenne, survive the battle at the Washita, learn gunmanship from Wild Bill Hickok, and scout for Custer’s army — it is hard to believe that any one person could do all that.

Snell also points out that Jack is not always correct. He claims that Crazy Horse never wears war...