True Grit: Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

Mattie, Rooster, and LaBoeuf ride long past “dinnertime,” but Mattie tries hard not to complain. Finally, they stop at a small store on the river, where they have dinner. During this short break from riding, Rooster speaks to the owner of the store and then asks two boys who have been hanging in front of the shop to ferry him, Mattie, and LaBoeuf across yet another river, where they get off and ride along a thin, overgrown path. In addition to a decent dinner of fish, the trio has gained information from their stop at the store, since the owner told Rooster that Lucky Ned Pepper was last spotted at a store named McAlester’s, which is near the train tracks. Accompanying Ned were two criminals, “a robber called Haze and a Mexican.” Armed with this information, Rooster says they should try to find Ned’s gang before they escape the area.

Rooster and LaBoeuf decide they should ride another fifteen miles before going to sleep, since they’re roughly sixty miles from McAlester’s. The idea of riding so far before setting up camp dismays Mattie, and she can’t help but groan. “How do you like this coon hunt?” Rooster says, but she tells him not to watch out for her, insisting that she’s doing fine. LaBoeuf then asks Rooster if Chaney was seen with Ned Pepper, and Rooster says that he wasn’t at McAlester’s, though he’s certain he was with the gang during their robbery of a mail train several days ago.

When the trio finally reaches a stopping point for the night, Mattie is exhausted. After shakily bringing up a bucket of water from the stream, she declares that she won’t do it again, saying she’s too tired and that the water tastes bad. Hearing this, LaBoeuf chastises her for complaining, saying she’s lucky to be “traveling in a place where a spring is so handy.” Going on, he says that in Texas a person can travel for a long time without seeing water. “I have lapped filthy water from a hoofprint and was glad to have it,” he brags, and Rooster makes fun of him for the comment, saying that all Texans claim they’ve drunk from a hoofprint. When Mattie tells Rooster that LaBoeuf is a Texas Ranger, he simply makes fun of the man, disparaging his Texan vanity. In turn, LaBoeuf speaks disdainfully about U.S. marshals.

After they eat some of the “corn dodgers” that Rooster brought along, Mattie asks the men if they’d like to hear her tell the story of “The Midnight Caller.” “One of you will have to be ‘The Caller,’” she says, but neither of them takes her up on this offer. She puts her bedding on the ground and tries to sleep, though she finds it difficult because she’s uncomfortable on the hard soil. The next morning, she wakes up to find snow coating her face, and Rooster says that if it continues to snow, they’ll have to “take shelter” later that night.

Mattie, Rooster, and LaBoeuf ride all day through the snow, having trouble finding the path. While stopping at a river for a moment, LaBoeuf sees a turkey and kills it, fastening it to his saddle and taking it along. Later, Rooster accepts that they won’t get to McAlester’s before nightfall, so he directs the group to a small manmade “dugout,” a cave-like structure set into “the narrow end of a V-shaped hollow or valley.” When they arrive, they see smoke coming from the chimney and a light shining beneath the door. Rooster gets off his horse and approaches with his rifle, stomping so he’ll be heard. Soon enough, the door opens, and a man asks who’s there. When Rooster says he’s with a group of three and looking for shelter, the voice says there’s no room inside and slams the door.

Taking off his coat, Rooster tells LaBoeuf to climb onto the ridge and drape it over the dugout’s chimney. This fills the structure with smoke, and the door swings open to the accompaniment of two “fiery” shotgun “blasts.” Pointing his rifle into the dugout, Rooster returns fire, and Mattie hears a “yelp of pain.” “I am a Federal officer!” Rooster shouts, asking who’s inside. When the man tells him to “keep riding,” he recognizes the voice, identifying him as an outlaw named Quincy. Rooster says, “Quincy, I know it is you! […] This is Rooster Cogburn! Columbus Potter and five more marshals is out here with me!” He threatens to burn down the cottage if he and whomever he’s with don’t come outside.

Quincy says his partner, Moon, can’t come out because he’s been shot in the leg. Nonetheless, he drags him outside and surrenders, at which point Rooster and LaBoeuf search them and confiscate their weapons. They then take them back into the dugout and give Moon a handkerchief to tie above his leg wound. Inside, they find a pot of food over a bed of coals, and Rooster notices that it’s quite a large portion. “Was you boys looking for company?” he asks, but Quincy simply says the meal is supposed to serve as both dinner and breakfast. Cutting to the chase, Rooster asks if Quincy has seen Ned Pepper, but Quincy pretends he’s never heard that name.

Seeing that Quincy won’t give him any information, Rooster zeroes in on Moon, telling him that his leg will have to be amputated if they don’t take him for help soon. He promises to take Moon to McAlester’s if he gives him information about Ned Pepper. Just as Moon starts to talk, though, Quincy tells him to be quiet. During this interaction, LaBoeuf goes outside and looks around. When he returns, he tells Rooster that there are six horses in a nearby cave, and it soon becomes clear that Quincy and Moon stole them. As Rooster continues his interrogation, the entire group sets to work preparing the turkey LaBoeuf shot, and Rooster even lets Quincy use a knife to cut the frozen bird into manageable pieces.

While the others cook, Moon drinks whiskey to dull his pain. Looking at Mattie, he asks why she’s there, and she tells him she intends to catch Tom Chaney. She also tells him she has a “good lawyer” who can help him if he cooperates, but Quincy tells Moon to stop talking to her. Hearing this, Mattie says she doesn’t like the “look” of Quincy, and he tells her she’s one to talk. LaBoeuf points out that they should separate Quincy and Moon, since Quincy is keeping Moon from speaking freely, but Rooster insists that Moon is “coming around.” Finally, Moon admits that they saw Ned Pepper and Haze two days ago. “Don’t act the fool!” Quincy erupts. “If you blow I will kill you.”

“I am played out,” Moon tells Quincy. “I must have a doctor. I will tell what I know.” Reacting to this, Quincy swings his knife down onto Moon’s hand, cutting off four of his fingers. Seeing this, LaBoeuf shoots Quincy in the neck, and Mattie dives to the ground. Moon is “bleeding terribly from his hand and  from a mortal puncture in the breast that Quincy gave him” on his way to the ground. Knowing he’s going to die, Moon tells Rooster that he saw Ned and Haze two days ago at McAlester’s. He also says they’re planning to rob another train and that they’ll be coming back to the dugout to retrieve the stolen horses, exchanging them for their tired ones to make a speedier getaway. After imparting this information and asking Rooster to give his belongings to his brother, Moon dies.

After searching Quincy’s corpse, Rooster finds one of Frank Ross’s gold pieces in his pocket, delighting Mattie. Anticipating the arrival of Ned Pepper and his cronies, Rooster tells LaBoeuf to hike up onto one of the opposing ridges while he and Mattie climb up the other. Before they do this, they tidy up the dugout and make it look like there’s someone inside, intending to lure the bandits into the cottage, effectively trapping them in the “V-shaped valley.” “There is nothing in this plan but a lot of killing,” LaBoeuf says, but Rooster ignores him, saying that this is how they must treat Ned and Haze, both of whom will always put up a fight because they know they’ll be hanged if they’re arrested.

Once they’re atop the ridge, Mattie asks Rooster about his life before he was a marshal. He explains that he has done a number of jobs and then talks about his time during the Civil War, when he fought in Missouri. He says he lost his eye in Kansas City and would have died if the notorious bandit Cole Younger hadn’t “crawled out under a hail of fire and pulled” him to safety. He then says that Cole doesn’t deserve the reputation he has, insisting that Jesse James is the one who committed the violent act for which everyone holds Cole accountable. When Mattie asks if Rooster knew Jesse James, he says that he doesn’t remember him, but that Potter claimed he was in the same group as them. He does, however, remember Frank James, who was quite vicious.

Mattie points out that Rooster is working for the “Yankees” now, and he acknowledges that things have “changed.” After the war, he and Potter surrendered to the Union and were given a “one-day parole and told” to “report back” the next morning. However, they heard that a “Kansas major [was] coming in that night to look over everybody for bushwhackers,” and since they themselves were considered “bushwhackers,” they fled. On their way, they robbed a group of soldiers, and Potter went to Arkansas while Rooster went to Illinois, where he lived under a fake name, married a widow, had a son, and opened a restaurant. After a while, though, his wife tired of his ways and left him, taking along their son. At this point, Rooster shut down the restaurant and went to Texas to hunt buffalo.

Mattie tells Rooster she’s heard rumors that he was a bandit, and though he refutes this claim, he admits that he has robbed “high-interest banks,” though he suggests that he was “doing a good service,” adding, “I never robbed no citizens.” Still, though, he found himself on the run at one point when he was living in New Mexico. Speaking of this period, he tells a story about riding straight at seven armed men with the reins in his teeth, shooting them with both hands as he went. “I guess they was all married men who loved their families as they scattered and run for home,” he says, but Mattie doesn’t believe him. Nevertheless, he continues to tell absurd stories as she begins to fall asleep.

At one point, Rooster tells a story about shooting at a malicious man and getting caught by two marshals, one of whom turned out to be Potter, who pretended not to know him and took him back to Fort Smith. Instead of arresting him, he got Rooster a job as a marshal. “Well, there is no beat of a good friend,” Rooster says.

Mattie snoozes as Rooster talks on and on. Finally, he shakes her awake and points to Ned Pepper and his gang, who have just appeared before the dugout. There are six of them, but Mattie can’t see their faces to know whether or not Chaney’s with them. Stopping before the dugout, Haze calls out for Quincy. When he receives no reply, the gang becomes suspicious. After stopping to think for a moment, Ned takes out a revolver and shoots it three times in the air. Suddenly, a shot sounds out from LaBoeuf’s ridge, and Ned’s horse falls to the ground. This creates a commotion, as LaBoeuf continues to shoot at the bandits and Rooster joins in, swearing at LaBoeuf for acting too soon. The bandits fire up at the ridges while scrambling to remount their horses. 

Amidst the excitement, Haze is killed and Ned Pepper is left stranded without a horse, though a young bandit turns around and rides over to him. Just when he’s about to pull Ned onto the horse, though, LaBoeuf shoots the young man, at which point Ned jumps into the saddle and rides away while another bandit—named The Original Greaser Bob—hangs off one side of his horse for protection, successfully escaping in this stylized manner. When the fighting ceases, Mattie, Rooster, and LaBoeuf collect the remaining horses, and Rooster yells at LaBoeuf for his premature shot, though LaBoeuf is distracted by the fact that his shoulder has been wounded. Apparently, a bullet shattered the stock of his rifle, which sent splinters into his skin.

As LaBoeuf and Rooster argue, LaBoeuf claims that he couldn’t see very well and was in the process of moving to a better vantage point when Ned shot his revolver into the air. Thinking the fighting had begun, he took the first shot possible. Despite this story, Rooster accuses him of having fallen asleep and then startling awake when he heard Ned’s gun. Interrupting their dispute, Mattie urges them to do something of use, and LaBoeuf suggests that they pursue the bandits. Rooster, on the other hand, wants to take the horses and fallen criminals back to McAlester’s to “establish a prior claim to any reward” they might get for them, thinking that other marshals will soon try to take credit for what happened.

After searching the saddle bags on Haze’s horse, Rooster finds ammunition for the kind of rifle that Chaney shoots. “Thus we had another clue,” Mattie writes. “But we did not have Chaney.” She then tends to LaBoeuf’s wound before the trio sets off for McAlester’s. On the way, they hear from passersby about the train robbery at the Wagoner’s Switch, where Ned Pepper’s gang killed two train employees, stole from the safe, and robbed the passengers. When they’re not talking about the heist, LaBoeuf tries to discuss the war with Rooster, saying how badly he wanted to be on the front lines, though he was so young that he only got to work in the “bullet department” of the Union army for six months before the war ended. Rooster remains tight-lipped about this topic.

Eventually, Rooster lets it slip that he fought with “Captain” Quantrill. “Captain Quantrill!” LaBoeuf says, but Rooster warns him to let the matter go. Sensing a fight developing, Mattie interrupts and distracts the two men by talking about the horses the bandits left behind. Before long, the trio reaches McAlester’s, where LaBoeuf sees a young Native American man who has some “medical training” while Rooster and Mattie visit Rooster’s friend Captain Boots Finch, who commands the Choctaw Light Horse, a group of policemen who exclusively handle Native American crimes. Captain Finch tells them that Ned recently came through with Haze and the Mexican gangster known as The Original Greaser Bob. He then agrees to take care of the dead bandits’ bodies and to collect a reward for the recovered horses, saying he’ll split the earnings with Rooster, who plans to continue chasing down Ned Pepper.

Rooster urges Mattie to stay behind while he and LaBoeuf continue the manhunt, insisting that this portion will be the hardest. “No, I am going along,” Mattie insists, and even LaBoeuf says, “She has come this far.” Still, this doesn’t convince Rooster, so LaBoeuf adds, “I think she has done fine myself. She has won her spurs, so to speak.” Giving up, Rooster agrees to let her come, and the trio leaves at noon, riding fast toward the area Rooster thinks the bandits have fled.

After forty minutes of “hard riding,” the trio stops and sees that Captain Finch is chasing after them. When he reaches them, he delivers a message, saying that Odus Wharton apparently broke out of jail that morning. Mattie notes that Rooster doesn’t seem upset by this news. Rather, he is mildly tickled to hear that Odus has behaved so badly, since this means Goudy—his lawyer—won’t be able to convince the president to help his case. This will be a huge “expense loss” for Goudy, which makes Rooster quite happy.

After delivering his news about Odus, Captain Finch looks at LaBoeuf and asks if he’s the one who shot Ned Pepper’s horse. “Yes,” Rooster replies, “this is the famous horse killer from El Paso, Texas. His idea is to put everybody on foot. He says it will limit their mischief.” Angry that Rooster’s making fun of him, LaBoeuf offers an excuse, claiming he didn’t have time to find a “rest” upon which to steady his rifle. Finch tells him not to feel bad, since many people have missed Ned, including Rooster himself. “I reckon [Rooster] is on his way now to missing him again,” Finch jokes. Hearing this, Rooster finishes off a bottle of whiskey, throws it in the air, and shoots at it—completely missing. When the bottle hits the ground, Rooster fires at it several times before finally hitting it.

As Rooster reloads his gun, he claims that Lee has been selling him bad “shells,” and LaBoeuf says, “I thought maybe the sun was in your eyes. That is to say, your eye.” To defend himself, Rooster grabs several “corn dodgers” from his saddle, throws one in the air, shoots at it, and misses once again. On his next try, he finally hits it, prompting LaBoeuf to try to the same thing, except that he throws two dodgers in the air, though he only hits one. At this point, Captain Finch joins in, and the three men become obsessed with the idea of shooting two dodgers before they hit the ground, though none of them succeeds for a long time. Finally, Finch hits two while using a rifle instead of a pistol, but Mattie tells them to focus on the task at hand: catching Ned Pepper and his gang.

Having gotten distracted by the marksmanship competition, Rooster has started drinking heavily. He doesn’t let up as they resume the ride, becoming so drunk that he babbles to himself about his past. Mattie isn’t sure if he knows she and LaBoeuf are listening, though she suspects he likes the idea of them paying attention to his long-winded stories as he leads them toward Ned Pepper. At one point, he even falls off his horse. The trio rides long into the night until Rooster finally declares that they’re most likely four miles away from the bandits. They stop for the night, and Mattie is so tired that she quickly falls asleep on the ground.