They spend the night in Medicine Bow where Steve is introduced as a good friend of the Virginian’s. Unfortunately for the Virginian and the narrator, the town’s beds are all full. Steve makes a bet with the Virginian that he won’t have his own bed to sleep own to which the Virginian agrees. The Virginian goes out that night to play cards in the local tavern. We meet Trampas for the first time. He almost gets into a gunfight with the Virginian but the Virginian very smoothly handles the confrontation and nothing comes about because of it. Trampas comes off as a dangerous and cunning man who doesn’t seem fond of the Virginian. When he gets ready to turn in for the night, he scares the wits out of his bedmate by telling him

The pony in the corral was wise, and rapid of limb. The man might pretend to look at the weather, which was fine; or he might affect earnest conversation with a bystander: it was bootless. The pony saw through it. No feint hoodwinked him. Then the rope would sail out at him, but he was already elsewhere; and if horses laugh, gayety must have abounded in that corral. Then for the first time I noticed a man who sat on the high gate of the corral, looking on. For he now climbed down with the undulations of a tiger, smooth and easy, as if his muscles flowed beneath his skin. The others had all visibly whirled the rope; some of them even shoulder high. I did not see his arm lift or move. He appeared to hold the rope down low, by his leg. But like a sudden snake I saw the noose go out its length and fall true; and the thing was done. As the captured pony walked in with a sweet, church-door expression, our train moved slowly on to the station, and a passenger remarked, “That man kno!

Next day they were married and left to live in the mountains. Later they go to Molly’s house and he gets the approval from her family. The End

This is one of the first Wild West shootout scenes ever written:

Some topics in this essay:
Wild West, Mahwah Jersey, Scipio Virginian, Judge Henry, Judge Henry’s, West Boys, Bear Creek, Taylor Molly, Virginian Virginian, Creek Virginian, judge henry, virginian narrator, bear creek, medicine bow, lin mclean, judge henry’s, judge henry’s ranch, “don’t change, change clothes”, sent virginian, uncle hughey, “don’t change clothes”,