Dust of the Desert guide

Summary

Characters

• GrantAlso HickmanLeadFrom Chapter 1
• The Pullman conductorGatekeeperFrom Chapter 1
• QueleleHelperFrom Chapter 2
• BeniciaAlso DonojuLoveFrom Chapter 2
• HamilcarAlso UrgoVillainFrom Chapter 2
• DocAlso StooderHelperFrom Chapter 3
• BimAlso BagleyHelperFrom Chapter 3
• PadraicGuardianFrom Chapter 5
• Michael O’DonohueOtherFrom Chapter 5
• ’CepcionHelperFrom Chapter 5
• AngelHelperFrom Chapter 7
• BellyHelperFrom Chapter 8
• RojoOtherFrom Chapter 11
• GuadalupeHelperFrom Chapter 12
• YgnacioVillainFrom Chapter 19

Chapter by chapter

Storylines

• Grant takes a protective interest in the red-haired girl, approaching her and obstructing the man he suspects intends to follow her; he subsequently discovers her seated nearby.

  • Benicia thanks Grant, exchanges names and personal information with him, and learns they share a destination. Their conversation develops mutual intimacy before she ends it for propriety. Grant intends to maintain contact subject to her wishes.
  • Grant's protective interest develops into acknowledged love and a resolve to pursue Benicia, without evidence that she reciprocates.
  • Grant and Benicia reunite, and their acquaintance develops through daily visits, intimate conversation, shared humor and comradeship.
  • Benicia welcomes Grant's presence; he tries to warn her, intervenes when Urgo torments her, and disarms and expels him despite aggravating his wound.
  • Benicia's accusation and attempt to have Grant restrained obstruct his protective involvement with her.
  • Grant supports and shields Benicia at the funeral, and she renews her reliance on him.

• The Spanish-speaking man restrains the red-haired girl and apparently seeks her attention despite her resistance; she frees herself, but his subsequent intentions remain uncertain.

  • Benicia's defensive use of concealed steel establishes active resistance to Hamilcar's harassment. He continues watching her and apparently attempts another approach, then claims to be her protector and future husband.
  • Hamilcar persists in trying to accompany Benicia despite repeated refusals; the driver defeats this attempt by driving away and dislodging him.
  • Hamilcar renews his courtship, Benicia resists with her pronged hair weapon, and she ejects him at the station. His unwanted pursuit continues despite her resistance.

• Grant and the Spanish-speaking man dispute a Pullman seat. The conductor upholds Grant's claim and directs the other man elsewhere, settling the seat dispute but leaving personal hostility.

  • The personal hostility left by the settled seat dispute escalates into a confrontation over Grant's contact with Benicia, with threats from Hamilcar and open defiance from Grant.
  • The personal hostility surviving the settled seat dispute continues through Grant's laughter at Hamilcar's fall and Hamilcar's explicit threat.
  • The continuing personal hostility escalates from verbal challenges to a struggle in which Urgo attempts to use his pistol and fires at Grant before being expelled.

• The Spanish-speaking man expresses a veiled intention to retaliate against Grant for his perceived discourtesy.

  • Hamilcar identifies himself as Colonel Hamilcar Urgo and renews his implied threat of retaliation in Mexico. Grant declares his own military background and defies the intimidation; no retaliation is yet carried out.
  • Hamilcar makes his previously veiled intention of retaliation explicit by threatening Grant with reprisals.
  • The threatened retaliation is carried out through the counterfeit trap and Grant's resulting imprisonment; Grant explicitly connects the trap to the earlier threat.

• Benicia plans to meet Quelele at Arizora and travel a hundred miles to her family home after two years away studying music.

  • Benicia reaches Arizora and departs with a driver in the speeder, advancing her onward journey; these events do not establish the driver's identity or her arrival home.
  • Quelele brings Benicia across the desert to Casa O’Donoju, where she enters the house and reunites with her father, completing her planned homecoming.

• Hamilcar claims authority over Benicia as her protector and prospective husband and seeks to stop Grant from addressing her. Grant insists he will continue speaking to her unless she objects; Hamilcar's marriage claim remains unverified.

  • Benicia explicitly rejects Hamilcar's attempts to accompany her and leaves without him, challenging his asserted authority. His marriage claim remains unverified.
  • Benicia actively rejects Hamilcar’s renewed advances and ejects him at the station, further challenging his asserted authority over her. His marriage claim remains unverified.
  • Hamilcar pursues his claim to Benicia by threatening her father, and she is informed of this coercion.
  • Benicia mocks Urgo, refuses his demand for a private conversation and rejects his continued narrative. His claim to authority remains contested, and Grant forcibly removes him.
  • Urgo attempts to take Benicia by force. Grant frees her and escapes his subsequent attack; Urgo falls out of sight, leaving his fate uncertain.

• Grant resolves to find and win Benicia after recognizing that he loves her; her reciprocation is not established.

  • Grant develops a concrete intention to locate Benicia's home and determine how to reach it, but imprisonment incommunicado prevents him from pursuing her.
  • Grant finds Benicia, grows closer to her and renews his resolve to win her love; romantic reciprocation remains unconfirmed.
  • Grant explicitly declares his love and commits to remaining because of Benicia's danger. His declaration moves her deeply, but her belief in the curse obstructs giving love; his interpretation of her expression does not establish reciprocation.
  • Benicia's love is now established, but she renounces acting on it and ends Grant's pleading. Grant rebels against this barrier.
  • Grant still wishes to express his love, but Benicia's grief initially restrains him, and her subsequent hatred and murder accusation create a greater obstacle.
  • Benicia's accusation wounds Grant and destroys their immediate connection. Her recognition of his innocence and distress at his departure create an opening, but neither reconciliation nor reciprocated love is established.
  • Benicia recognizes Grant's continuing love and turns to him, but her belief in the curse still prevents their union.
  • Grant offers Benicia emotional relief, but her absorbing determination to escape the curse and her evasiveness obstruct intimacy. Understanding her preoccupation eases his hurt without removing the barrier.
  • Benicia's reciprocal love becomes openly acknowledged, fulfilling Grant's wish to win her love.

• Grant seeks information from Doc about the venture, following Bim's instructions.

  • Imprisonment incommunicado prevents Grant from returning to Doc to seek information about the venture.

• Bim joins Doc's venture, and Doc authorizes recruiting Grant as a capable, discreet engineer.

  • Bim learns the treasure enterprise's substance but makes his participation conditional on including Grant; he insists on remaining to locate Grant and tells Doc to proceed alone.
  • Bim leaves to search for Grant and continues to insist on including him before the expedition begins.
  • Bim explains why he recruited Grant and argues for the treasure venture, but Grant decides to refuse participation.
  • Bim explicitly renounces participation in Stooder's treasure venture.

• Bim promises to withhold the venture's details from his letter, leaving Grant informed of its existence but not its substance.

  • Bim discloses the venture's object and explains that Doc required secrecy in correspondence.

• Grant seeks a reunion with Bim, but finds him away until an expected return on Friday.

  • Grant's confinement and loss of outside contact obstruct his intended reunion with Bim.
  • Bim returns, but Grant's disappearance and removal with the chain gang prevent their reunion.
  • Bim searches persistently, learns where the living Grant is being treated, and sets off by car; their reunion has not yet occurred.
  • Bim finds Grant and reunites with him in his bedroom.

• Doc's baffling reception and bluffing alienate Grant, who leaves in anger and makes further contact conditional on Doc being sober.

  • Doc regrets his reception of Grant and offers a reward to locate him, but no reconciliation with Grant occurs.

• Grant and Hawkins form a gambling alliance that becomes mutual support under attack; Hawkins helps protect Grant from the crowd.

• Hamilcar directs the targeting of Grant, whose genuine coins are secretly replaced with counterfeits. He subsequently professes willingness to help; Grant recognizes the trap and connects it to Urgo's earlier threat, but the crowd treats him as culpable.

  • Grant increasingly understands his vulnerability to Hamilcar's scheme and concludes that the hearing itself is rigged by him. The accusation now has supporting witness testimony, although these events do not independently establish Hamilcar's control of the court.
  • Bim obtains fragments implicating Hamilcar in Grant's disappearance, although Hamilcar's motive remains unknown to him.
  • Grant recognizes Urgo's surprise at his survival and exploits his anxious response, threatening disclosure to Padraic while offering conditional privacy. Urgo's hostility persists beneath the temporary armistice.
  • Grant abandons concealment and tells Padraic and Benicia that he holds Urgo responsible for his wound and preceding ordeal. Urgo remains uncertain whether Grant has disclosed this to Padraic.
  • The confessed murderer identifies Urgo as directing another attack involving Grant: he ordered the killing with the knife in the wounded American's room.

• Framed as a counterfeiter, Grant faces a violent crowd and imprisonment on accusations of counterfeiting and resisting officers; confinement incommunicado prevents outside contact.

  • Imprisonment becomes a formal prosecution supported by testimony Grant denies. His expectation of easily disproving the charge gives way to recognition of a rigged hearing and serious danger. He is sent toward Hermosillo, shackled to other prisoners and marched into the desert.
  • Custody escalates into sustained abuse and an apparent impending execution. Grant breaks from the prisoner line under fire and falls into the arroyo wounded; his escape remains uncertain.
  • The persecution culminates in his abandonment as dead after an apparent execution attempt. He survives outside custody, but the counterfeit accusation has not been cleared.
  • Urgo identifies Grant as an escaped convict and threatens renewed intervention by the rurales.

• Benicia deliberately remembers Grant Hickman’s name, showing a continuing interest in him whose nature remains uncertain.

  • Benicia singles Grant out as the exception to her disappointment with American men and recounts their farewell, further establishing his significance to her without confirming romantic reciprocation.
  • Benicia's interest becomes personal tenderness, active care and growing intimacy with Grant.
  • Benicia attempts to thank Grant and experiences unprecedented emotion at his declaration, but presents the hereditary curse as a prohibition on giving love.
  • Benicia's declaration establishes that her interest in Grant is romantic.

• Benicia and her father develop close companionship during her childhood; on her return, she learns that he has great need of her.

  • Benicia notices her father's concern and seeks closeness; he offers to leave the Garden for her sake, while she affirms her desire to remain with him.
  • Padraic's death ends their living companionship; Benicia reaches his bedside and accepts his death.

• Padraic encourages Benicia to pursue further harp studies away from the desert; her two years in American cities broaden her education.

  • Padraic renews the prospect of a life beyond the desert, but Benicia explicitly chooses to stay in the Garden with him.

• Grant seeks legal representation and American consular intervention to contest his prosecution, but obtains neither at the hearing.

• The authorities order Grant transferred with other prisoners to Hermosillo for trial; the transfer begins on foot, chained to the prisoners, into the desert of Altar.

  • The forced march continues, but the warning that Grant may not arrive and his recognition of an apparent execution plan cast doubt on the stated destination. His flight interrupts his transfer without establishing his safety.
  • Grant survives outside the prisoner column and is taken to Belly's house; his transfer to Hermosillo cannot continue as ordered.
  • Grant's transfer ends in abandonment as dead following a staged escape execution, preventing his arrival for trial.

• Doc undertakes to locate Grant through his informants; he and Bim learn that Grant was sent toward Hermosillo and may never arrive.

  • Doc mobilizes his information network with a reward and receives a report locating Grant alive, wounded, and under Belly's care at Babinioqui.
  • The search has information that Grant is wounded, and Bim goes into Sonora to seek Belly and Grant; a reunion is not established.
  • Bim follows the report of Grant's survival, learns his whereabouts through Belly, and reaches him.

• Bim angrily rejects Doc's suggestion that Grant betrayed their purpose.

• Padraic knows about the expedition and may have an interest in it; Doc discloses this possibility to Bim.

• Grant seeks to survive the guards' apparent plan to kill the prisoners, breaking from the line and reaching the arroyo despite being shot.

  • Grant survives the shooting, receives treatment, and is expected to live. Protection and a secret evacuation are arranged, but his recovery and arrival at the Garden remain pending.
  • Grant is confirmed to have survived the shooting and to be receiving treatment, although his wound and recovery remain unresolved.
  • Grant survives the shooting, reaches shelter and recovers sufficiently to leave his sickroom.

• Belly and Padraic seek to protect the wounded Grant from further attack; Padraic sends Quelele to fetch him when movable and bring him secretly to the Garden by night.

  • Quelele brings the wounded Grant from Belly's care to Casa O'Donoju, where Padraic installs him in a bedroom.

• Padraic suspects Benicia has withheld an experience from her time away; she tells him about the exceptional train acquaintance, but his suspicion is not explicitly settled.

• Padraic proposes selling the Garden and taking Benicia into the wider world to broaden her prospects, but she emphatically refuses.

  • Padraic's death makes his proposed departure into the wider world with Benicia impossible.

• Hamilcar threatens Padraic unless he gives him Benicia; Benicia learns of the threat.

  • Padraic is confirmed murdered, and Bim suspects Hamilcar arranged it. The suspicion connects the death to the earlier threat without establishing responsibility.
  • The confession implicates Urgo in arranging Padraic's murder, escalating his earlier threats; the testimony does not explicitly establish the murder's connection to his demand for Benicia.

• Benicia insists on preserving the Garden and continuing her life there with her father.

  • Benicia can no longer continue life in the Garden with her father, although the future of the Garden itself remains unsettled.

• Doc warns that O'Donoju may discover and preempt the secret treasure enterprise, creating pressure to proceed while Bim refuses to leave before locating Grant.

  • With the joint expedition still blocked by Bim's insistence on Grant, Doc proceeds independently, secures a guide and identifies the mission bell, materially advancing the treasure enterprise.
  • Urgo's account strengthens Bim's belief in the treasure report, and locating Grant removes the search obstacle, but Grant refuses to join.
  • Bim now intends to stop Stooder's search, while Benicia commits to a treasure expedition with El Doctor and Grant joins her.

• Padraic shelters Grant and supports his recovery, postponing questions until he is stronger; Grant begins to confide in him but withholds Urgo's involvement.

  • Padraic continues sheltering Grant despite an explicit threat of punishment.
  • Padraic thanks Grant for defending Benicia, receives the previously withheld account implicating Urgo, maintains his hospitality despite threats, and offers safe transport once Grant recovers.

• The authorities count Grant as dead after the staged escape execution, while he survives at Casa O'Donoju.

  • Urgo discovers that Grant survived, ending the concealment from him; these events do not establish that the authorities generally learn Grant is alive.
  • Urgo knows Grant survived and is sheltering with Padraic, compromising the concealment of his survival; a broader official correction of his presumed death is not established.
  • Urgo discovers Grant is alive and threatens Padraic for harbouring him. Grant's survival is therefore known to Urgo, although these events do not establish a general correction of the authorities' death account.

• Grant inadvertently mentions Stooder to Padraic, notices his concealed reaction, and suspects a connection between Bim's enterprise and Casa O'Donoju.

  • Bim confirms that the mission in Urgo's family-history account is the object of the enterprise, establishing a connection without explaining Padraic's earlier concealed reaction.

• Grant sends Bim a brief account of an accident and promises to return to Arizora when able; Benicia undertakes to route the note through Quelele.

• Urgo uses the O'Donoju family history and an ancestral curse to distress Benicia, continuing despite her demand that he stop; Grant intervenes violently and expels him.

  • Grant remains disturbed by Benicia's inherited tragedy and tells Bim how Urgo used the history to insult her and provoke his intervention.
  • Urgo leaves and Padraic thanks Grant for his intervention, but Urgo's curse story continues to distress Benicia. Her father's confirmation reinforces the belief that Grant now tries to dislodge.

• Doc independently reconnoitres the buried mission while Bim searches for Grant; he obtains Guadalupe as a guide and identifies the buried mission bell, but has not yet recovered the treasure.

  • The buried beam strengthens Doc's conviction that he has found the mission, but water and radiator shortages force his departure before excavation. Wind subsequently alters the landmarks needed to relocate the treasure.

• Doc marries Apolinaria and gives her diamonds, then loses her to typhoid and buries her near Cuprico.

• Prospectors seek Apolinaria's grave after hearing Doc's claim that it contains diamonds; they eventually conclude that he lied, damaging his credibility without establishing whether the claim was false.

• Doc treats Guadalupe's wife's asthma, establishing a connection with the household through which he learns about the buried mission and its treasure.

• Guadalupe attempts to evade Doc's demand to guide him to the treasure, then yields after Doc frightens him with apparently uncanny manipulation of water.

• Bim commits to supporting Grant against Urgo; their reunion restores Grant's spirits, and Grant confides his ordeal and his defense of Benicia.

  • Bim physically supports Grant, declares friendship toward his protectors, learns of Urgo's arrest threat, and urges an early departure.
  • Bim physically intervenes for Grant, undertakes an investigation, notices a man's evasive behavior during the ordeal, and accompanies Grant when he leaves.
  • Bim supports Grant's proposed removal of Benicia and discloses his break with the treasure scheme.
  • Bim supports Grant against Urgo through coordinated defensive positions and crossfire.

• Urgo threatens a rurales visit and the arrest of both Grant and Padraic for sheltering an escaped convict; Padraic maintains his hospitality despite the threat.

  • The arrest threat prompts Grant to propose departure and Bim to urge it. Benicia and Padraic insist on sheltering Grant until he can travel, with a safer westward route proposed.
  • Benicia reports El Doctor's warning that rurales are gathering with Urgo and expects an attack.
  • Hamilcar turns his threatened rurales intervention into an armed expedition toward the Garden, intending to capture Grant.

• Bim declares friendship toward Padraic and Benicia in gratitude for their help to Grant.

  • Benicia suspects Bim of complicity in murder and robbery. He submits to the ordeal and another man confesses, but her trust in Bim is not explicitly restored.

• Grant wishes to champion Padraic and Benicia against their danger, initially waiting for their confidence and then pledging that he cannot leave Benicia endangered.

  • Grant acts on his protective commitment by raising the alarm and taking responsibility for entering Padraic's chamber before Benicia, where he discovers Padraic wounded.
  • Grant gains Bim's support for protecting Benicia but feels powerless, withholds his intended pledge during her grief, and then faces her accusation and threatened restraint.
  • Grant actively protects Benicia and commits to accompanying her treasure expedition.
  • Grant supports Benicia’s expedition and learns that armed pursuit was anticipated; Quelele subsequently confirms the pursuers are approaching fast.
  • Grant defends the party and personally frees Benicia from Urgo, surviving their close struggle.

• Grant proposes leaving with Bim and Quelele to protect Padraic from arrest, but Benicia and Padraic oppose immediate departure.

  • Urged by Benicia to leave, Grant commits to departing tomorrow; he subsequently commits to joining her treasure quest.

• Padraic promises Quelele will take Grant west through El Infiernillo to Cuprico when he can travel, avoiding Urgo's traps.

• Benicia believes her red hair marks a hereditary curse that forbids her to give love; Grant challenges this belief after declaring his love.

  • Benicia acts on her inherited-curse belief by renouncing love, while Grant judges that belief irrational and resists her decision.
  • Benicia now attributes her father's death to the curse and continues to refuse union. She pursues a proposed remedy, while Grant abandons forcing her departure and joins her quest.
  • After recovering and dedicating the treasure, Benicia declares her love, overcoming the prohibition she associated with the curse.

• Padraic is discovered with a dagger wound in his breast. The attacker and circumstances remain unknown; Grant believes a fleeing murderer threw the bloodied dagger through his window, but this explanation is unconfirmed.

  • Padraic's death is confirmed as murder. Grant suspects the returned dagger was intended to frame him, Bim suspects Hamilcar, and Benicia interprets the dagger and bloody fingerprints as evidence against Grant. The killer and circumstances remain unestablished.
  • A young man confesses to Padraic's murder and describes Urgo's coercion, the marked-peso signal, and the order to use the knife in Grant's room. The exact handling of the knife afterward remains unconfirmed.

• Grant and Bim seek to respond to the apparent attack and intercept a possible fleeing assailant; Bim orders the servants to catch anyone lurking in the gardens.

  • Grant and Bim organize a mounted search of the Garden and both directions of the road through Quelele and inspect the dagger for evidence. No capture is established.
  • The search for the assailant culminates in the young man's exposure during the ordeal, confession, and binding.

• Bim commits to helping protect Benicia after Padraic's murder.

  • Bim renews his intention to support Benicia and offers to relay Belly's message to spare her further distress.
  • Bim acts on his commitment to protect Benicia by organizing refuge and armed defense.

• Benicia concludes that Grant murdered her father because the dagger was found in his room and its fingerprints appear to match his bloody prints on Padraic's door. She confronts him with hatred and directs Quelele to restrain him; binding has not yet occurred.

  • Grant avoids restraint, remains available for questioning, and submits to the ordeal. The actual murderer's confession removes Benicia's belief in Grant's guilt, leaving her ashamed and intent on penance.

• Benicia subjects the household and village men, including Grant and Bim, to a kettle ordeal to identify Padraic's murderer; the suspect who avoids touching it confesses.

  • Ygnacio's confession and death sentence establish the outcome of the ordeal.

• Urgo coerces the young man into murdering Padraic by threatening his imprisoned brother, signals the killing with a marked peso, and requires him to use the knife in Grant's room.

  • Ygnacio is identified as the confessed murderer, and his compliance is explicitly attributed to saving his brother; Urgo's accountability remains unsettled.
  • The retrospective account confirms that Hamilcar ordered Ygnacio to kill Padraic.

• Benicia resolves to make penance before Grant for falsely accusing him, but he leaves with Bim before any reconciliation occurs.

  • Benicia expresses contrition and renewed reliance, and Grant understands her unspoken amends.

• Doc plans to return to the buried mission with excavation equipment to recover the pearls; he records its location and conceals the exposed remains, but shifting sand undermines his mapped landmarks.

  • The unusable car and Doc's worsening condition prevent an equipped return to excavate the mission. He unknowingly recovers his dropped map, but delirium redirects him toward a supposed bell.

• Doc and Guadalupe seek to survive a sandstorm after their car stops and their drinking water is exhausted; they shelter beneath the car, but the radiator yields no usable water.

  • Escape must proceed on foot. Guadalupe leaves Doc behind, and Doc loses both Guadalupe's footprints and his own return trail before severe dehydration brings delirium; neither man's arrival at safety is established.
  • Water-bearing root restores Doc's strength and rational thought, allowing him to resume walking, but exposure, continued water loss and an uncertain route leave his survival unsecured. Guadalupe's fate remains unknown.
  • Rain saves Doc from imminent death by thirst; he reaches shelter but remains weak and dazed.

• Doc tries to make Guadalupe stop and sleep, but Guadalupe refuses, breaks free of his grip and leaves him behind.

• Doc follows what he believes is the buried mission's bell toward a mountain cleft, seeking its treasure while delirious from thirst.

  • The bells belong to Doc's thirst-induced hallucinations. Once rehydrated, he turns to finding supplies and a village rather than pursuing the supposed summons to the treasure.

• Condemned for the murder and abandoned without water, Ygnacio seeks to survive and escape north to unfamiliar Papago communities; moisture-bearing roots restore his strength and supply his journey.

  • Ygnacio remains alive and continues his journey after sharing his limited survival supply with Doc; arrival among the Papago communities is not established.

• Benicia intends to keep news of Padraic's death from the man who provoked it until ordinary rumour reaches him.

• Grant plans to take Benicia away without her consent to free her from her belief in the curse. Bim supports him, but Grant ultimately abandons force in favour of accompanying her quest.

• Bim promises to stop Stooder's Lost Mission search, even by arranging his arrest for bootlegging.

• Belly insists on delivering his message directly to Benicia; she agrees and receives him privately, but the message's content remains undisclosed.

  • Benicia explains Belly’s disclosure: he knows the treasure’s inherited secret and agreed to reveal it out of love for Padraic.

• Benicia seeks relief from the ancestral curse through recovery and religious restitution of the Lost Mission treasure, following El Doctor's proposed remedy.

  • Benicia leaves the Garden with the party heading toward Pinacate, beginning travel in pursuit of the treasure remedy; recovery and restitution remain unfulfilled.
  • Benicia pursues the treasure into Pinacate and reveals the report that it was removed from the Lost Mission to Elder Brother’s cave.
  • The approaching attackers interrupt Benicia's hopes of obtaining relief through the treasure quest, and the party cannot retrieve El Doctor.
  • Benicia finds the sacred treasure and dedicates it to the Church, then freely declares her love. Physical restitution to the Church is not yet recorded.

• Benicia will seek the Lost Mission treasure with El Doctor; Grant commits to joining them tomorrow.

  • Grant accompanies Benicia on the departing expedition. El Doctor's participation is not established by these events.
  • Grant accompanies Benicia’s expedition into the gorge, where Belly proceeds alone toward the dwelling associated with the treasure. Recovery remains outstanding.
  • The expedition takes defensive refuge while El Doctor remains across the gorge, beyond timely retrieval.
  • Belly leads Grant and Benicia to the cavern, where they discover the sacred treasure and green pearls, achieving the expedition's search objective.

• Hamilcar commits to capturing Grant and subjecting him to prolonged torture, assembling ten rurales and leading them toward the Garden.

  • Hamilcar and the rurales continue pursuing the party and are spotted approaching fast; Grant has not been captured.
  • Urgo's force reaches and attacks the party, but crossfire and flooding defeat its advance. Grant escapes Urgo's grip and throws him to the ledge's edge, from which he slips out of sight; capture and torture are not achieved.
  • The surviving rurales flee and Hamilcar dies, ending his plan to capture and torture Grant.

• Hamilcar plans to conceal his armed force, approach Benicia politely, feign surprise at Padraic's murder, and inquire after Grant.

  • Hamilcar's death makes his planned deceptive approach to Benicia impossible.

• Quelele and Bim bypass the rurales through the desert and return to Casa O’Donoju ahead of them; the household party then departs southwest toward Pinacate.

  • Bim and Quelele return ahead of the rurales, and the household party completes its departure and reaches the shelf in Pinacate.

• Doc plans to retrace the footprints to the car for supplies, then follow them to the Sand People's village; discrepancies in the trail undermine his belief that it belongs to Guadalupe.

• Ygnacio gives the delirious Doc part of his scant supply of water-bearing root, saving him without Doc recognizing his benefactor.

• Doc intends to retaliate against Guadalupe for abandoning him.

• Bim fears Doc will regard his participation in Benicia’s treasure expedition as betrayal.

• Belly approaches Iitoi’s dwelling alone with ritual gifts after overcoming his hesitation.

  • Belly returns from his approach with permission to take Iitoi's gift and guides the others to the cavern, though he refuses to enter.

• An apparent approaching storm threatens the expedition’s shelf with runoff; Bim looks for an escape route but apparently suspends the search.

  • The anticipated storm becomes a cloudburst and flood. The party reaches higher refuge, but tethered animals and Grant's hazardous movement show that the danger remains active.
  • The storm ends, and Grant carries Benicia across the gorge to Bim's side.

• Bim seeks to rescue the emaciated Stooder from the exposed wash and carries him to shelter under fire.

  • Doc is confirmed alive in Bim's refuge, having survived the rain, although he still needs care.

• Grant searches for the missing Benicia, discovers Urgo dragging her away, and frees her before surviving Urgo's counterattack.

  • Grant brings Benicia across the gorge to Bim, and Urgo's death ends the immediate threat from her abductor.

• Bim plans to prepare food for the weakened Doc if dry wood can be found.

• Benicia declares her love to Grant, establishing reciprocation of his previously declared love.

Places

El Paso, Arizona, Arizora, Mexico, Sonora, The Garden, International Hotel, Sonizona, Dos Cabezas, The Mexican jail, Desert of Altar, The Gulf, Casa O’Donoju, Caborca, Pajarito, Nose of the Devil, Garden of Solitude, Calle San Lazar, Hermosillo, Border Delight pool hall, Altar, El Rancho del Refugio, Tucson, Babinioqui, Mexico City, York, Four Evangelists mission, Road of the Dead Men, Donegal, Jail, Mission of the Four Evangelists, Cuprico, El Infiernillo, Growler range, Magdalena, Papago village, Yuma Desert, O’Donoju house, Pinacate sierra, Cave of Elder Brother, Shrine of the Four Evangelists