Blood Meridian

The kid and Toadvine are shackled in a jail cell. Each day, they are paraded through the streets of the Mexican city by a guard with brass teeth who forces them to remove their hats whenever an overweight priest rides past on a cart. The kid and Toadvine plot to kill the “goldtoothed pervert” and escape, enlisting another prisoner into their plan (57). The man is a veteran from Kentucky named Grannyrat Chambers, who has returned to Mexico in search of his lost love. He tells them stories of fighting in the war against Mexico. He was part of an American army that conquered Chihuahua City during the war. He remembers American troops raiding Native American graves and scalping the corpses to collect the reward money.

From their position, the prisoners can watch the people passing through the streets. They see a group of “itinerant degenerates” (59), who have come to Mexico to make their fortunes in the dangerous country. They see vicious, drunken men who decorate themselves with animal pelts and their horses with human hair, ears, and teeth. Surprisingly, at the head of this “reeking horde of rabble” is Holden (60). The men are led to the governor’s mansion.