ummm.....

This chapter was great, but it got confusing after a while. I wasn't exactly following why the kid and Tobin were running from the judge.

I'll comment on the dialogue; there seems to be a lot of it in this chapter. Toadvine is talking to the kid after he's shot and the kid is just a jerk, even though he's probably not trying to be. "How much water you got?" "Not much." "What do you want to do?" "I don't know." And more short answers that don't really say anything. Then, later on, this one: "Where is the judge?" said the kid. "Where indeed," (says Tobin). But I think this one means something more. The judge could be anywhere. No one could really know. It's kind of a jerk way to say it though. And then after that, Tobin says "You'll not kill him," talking about the judge. Yep, this guy can't be killed. Earlier the kid shot at him, and it seemed as though he was trying to miss. Earlier he had hit Yumas one after another from further distances, but he misses the judge by quite a bit. Maybe he can't be killed.

Toadvine says "Let's see your color (283)." I haven't any idea what this means. He's talking to the judge about buying his hat. Maybe color means money or something. I'm not sure. And judge quotes "some term in latin." I thought it was weird that he didn't include an actual phrase. I doubt he was too lazy to find one; maybe it's just that the quote doesn't matter so much as the fact the judge recites them so often does.

"He was sitting in the sand and he made a tripod of three fingers and stuck them in the sand before him and then he lifted and turned them and poked them in again so that there were six holes in the form of a star or a hexagon and then he rubbed them out again." This is Toadvine, and this action seems to be all but arbitrary. We all like playing in the sand, but I don't know why the passage is included in the book, because it doesn't really show how Toadvine is feeling. He is talking about being arrested. They ask him why and he doesn't answer, instead he just plays in the sand. I guess it's just showing he doesn't want to answer, and is reluctant to talk about his past.

I liked this quote: "We will cook impartially upon this great siliceous griddle I do assure you." This is the judge speaking. I just think it sounds cool, the desert being a griddle and all. Oh, and then the judge calls himself "a simple man (284)." As far as we've seen, he's far from simple and for him to say so is clearly a lie. I'm not sure.

penitent scurrilous neolithic (from the simile describing the idiot "shambling along behind them like some dim neolithic herdsman.)