Summary

Chapter 20 is titled “Dressed to the Nines.” When Estreya brings the travelers bones that he had found, China cannot help wondering where they came from, and imagining what might happen to their own bones. Meanwhile, the travelers get into the habit of sleeping grouped together around the fire, trying to keep themselves both safe and protected from raiders. One night they are wakened by a howl from Estreya, and find that a group of six Indians, including a woman and a child, have been killed and left nearby. They have become, China says, “little more than carrion for the birds” (84). This leads Liz to adopt a more formal, official-looking way of traveling and behaving, one that gives an impression of importance supported by the papers of employment on the ranch she and her husband are employed on. They are “dressed...