Gladwyn

Then Gladwyn stood up and said he had someplace to go.

The Berrybender Narratives Larry McMurtry 2004

The tribe gave him a pipe and ample tobacco; his wives kept his pipe filled; Gladwyn smoked and rested.

The Berrybender Narratives Larry McMurtry 2004

Gladwyn at once handed the shotgun to Gorska Minor, who looked surprised.

The Berrybender Narratives Larry McMurtry 2004

Gladwyn yelled, and then realized at once that the task was hopeless.

The Berrybender Narratives Larry McMurtry 2004

By inadvertence he made the same discovery Gladwyn had made: the buffalo he knelt by was still breathing and still warm; also it was large enough to form a kind of barrier.

The Berrybender Narratives Larry McMurtry 2004

When visitors stared at him Gladwyn spoke loudly in Gaelic to impress upon everyone that he was a god, a holy fool, born of a buffalo cow.

The Berrybender Narratives Larry McMurtry 2004

“Though of course a grave loss, it may be the most sensible suggestion,” Gladwyn said, with as much restraint as he could muster.

The Berrybender Narratives Larry McMurtry 2004

He took a gun from Gladwyn—the man was shivering damnably—and shot the great shaggy bull, only to experience a startling change: the immediate disappearance of everything.

The Berrybender Narratives Larry McMurtry 2004

When he tried to struggle up he found that someone else had a grip on the rifle too—the briefly lost Gladwyn it was!

The Berrybender Narratives Larry McMurtry 2004

The chopping was soon done, but even when Gladwyn had been crammed into the cavity of the dead buffalo, sewing him in did not prove easy.

The Berrybender Narratives Larry McMurtry 2004