The Buffalo Hunter Hunter

Four days after Good Stab’s last confession, Arthur questions whether Blackfeet could know what cats were in 1870. He explains Good Stab’s account away as the story of a Blackfeet who survived a battle and then spent the winter trying to survive. Since the circumstances of his survival were so dire, Good Stab likely conflated fantastical hallucinations with real experience.

Arthur is upset to discover that Good Stab only pretends to eat the communion host he dispenses every Sunday. He also reveals that Good Stab ate none of the rabbit stew Arthur served him the previous Sunday. Though this only supports Good Stab’s claim that he only drinks blood, Arthur believes he is merely performing disinterest in food to convince himself it is true. He cites his inability to resist a parishioner’s offering of pease porridge as proof of his convictions.

Arthur administers the long-delayed funeral rites for the first murder victim. The funeral is mostly attended by Miles City residents who are curious about the man’s death. Good Stab is absent, though Arthur registers the presence of another stranger, who is well-dressed and traveling from out of state.

Arthur studies his teeth in the mirror when he remembers an offhand comment Good Stab made about the difference between their teeth. He dismisses the thought as vanity.

To test Good Stab on their next encounter, Arthur buys bacon from the butcher and then passes by the lodging house to ask if anyone has recently encountered any Blackfeet. He is directed to a camp at the edge of the city, where he encounters another Blackfeet named Amos Short Ribs. Arthur uses the bacon to gain Amos’s trust and then procures an orange cat from a nearby brothel to prove that Amos doesn’t know the word “cat.”

To Arthur’s surprise, Amos asks him about “The Fullblood,” whom he had seen leaving Arthur’s chapel. Amos implies his assumption that The Fullblood had been killed for committing violence against buffalo hunters. Amos doesn’t clarify what he means, prompting Arthur to wonder if he is confirming Good Stab’s link to the murders.

The well-dressed stranger from the funeral arrives at Amos’s tent and introduces himself as Dove, a Pinkerton detective from San Francisco. Dove explains that he has been sent to locate a missing family. Both recently discovered murder victims were members of this family.

Arthur’s meeting with Dove unnerves him. He recounts the details of the missing person’s case as Dove had explained it: a month earlier, the heir to a San Francisco newspaper had disappeared from home. His disappearance was tied to a man whom Arthur recognized at once as Good Stab. The heir turned out to be the first murder victim at Miles City. Shortly after his disappearance, his three sons also went missing. The second murder victim was one of the sons.

Dove wants to exhume the bodies to return them to California. Dove needs Arthur’s help, believing the murderer will admit to his crimes during confession. Arthur alludes to the idea that the murderer—or murderers—are Indigenous American. This prompts Dove to discuss the disappearance of a transport that the Pinkertons were guarding in 1870. Although Dove doesn’t explicitly mention what the men were transporting, Arthur deduces that this is the same transport in which Good Stab had discovered the Cat Man. Before they part ways, Dove suggests that the killer was fast and strong enough to carry the two victims without using a horse.

Good Stab attends the next Sunday service. When Arthur offers to stable Good Stab’s horse at the chapel, Good Stab declines because he doesn’t have a horse. He elaborates that animals detest him, which Arthur had previously observed with the city’s dogs. Good Stab adds that this is another consequence of his exile from the Blackfeet. Arthur reassures him that he is still Blackfeet in his heart, though Good Stab does not share his sentiment.

Good Stab is agitated when he sees the cat Arthur had taken from the brothel, now named Cordelia. Good Stab assures Arthur that there is nothing to worry about, so Arthur invites him to resume his confession.

Good Stab remains pinned to the blackhorn as the hunter who shot him approaches. While struggling to remove himself from the horn, the blackhorn awakens, still barely alive. Good Stab is reminded of a Pikuni blackhorn hunter named Kills-for-Nothing, whose face was torn off by a blackhorn she assumed was dead. Kills-for-Nothing went into the lake to protect her face from the sun. The skin of her face was placed in a medicine bundle, but it could not be used to cure her camp during an outbreak of smallpox. Tall Dog had surmised that Kills-for-Nothing’s skin would eventually fall back into the river, leading it back to her face.

Good Stab slices the blackhorn open and hides inside its carcass, eluding the hunters. The next day, Good Stab reemerges and is met by the blackhorn calves who were spared. This provokes Good Stab to declare war against the blackhorn hunters. He follows the hunters’ scent to their camp, leading the calves to the hunters. The hunters only see the calves, so they lure them with milk to kill them. Finally, Good Stab makes himself known, eliciting an angry warning from the hunters. Good Stab sneaks around the camp, quietly killing two of the hunters. Good Stab is hit with a tomahawk and nearly resigns the battle, but when a blackhorn calf licks him out of trust, he resolves to recover and kill the remaining hunters.

Good Stab feeds on one of the hunters, whose screams grab the attention of the others. A gunshot hits Good Stab, allowing him to drain the excess blood he’s consumed and recover his stamina. Good Stab escapes with the calf that licked him away. Later, he discovers the calf is white.