ATDTDA (7): Slung over a packhorse, 198

[Paul Nightingale]

A brief section in which the action focuses on Jimmy
Drop. Jimmy recognises Deuce, but appears to object to
the abduction of Webb. The exchange with the 
"fandango girl" is comical, even slapstick; and this
again must distance the reader from Webb, who has
"vanished" by the time Jimmy returns to the 
darkening streets. The passage as a whole might be
considered pointless insofar as it remains
inconsequential; nothing (in scare-quotes) happens 
(ditto). However, it does illustrate the broader
narrative concerns of the novel, most clearly the
refusal to centre the narrative: the passage has its 
own internal logic (Jimmy's participation, the
interaction with the girl), one that refuses to give
ground to Webb/Deuce/Sloat.

In this chapter as a whole, Webb has been an elusive
character. His patriarchal authority has been
challenged; he has rejected his family, what all along
has been his cover; he has reinvented himself as
father-figure to Deuce, fantasising about an
alternative state of affairs, one that would allow him
to introduce Deuce to Lake, hence re-establishing
patriarchal authority. He has claimed that 'everyone'
steals from the mine, then insisted that he has been
framed, hence excluding himself from whatever
constitutes 'everyone'. He has found himself involved
with Deuce and Sloat, effectively a plaything as they
rehearse their relationship. Finally, he has been
marginalised, "slung over a packhorse", as Jimmy Drop
briefly becomes a protagonist (of sorts). In the
previous section, Deuce mocks him, calling him "a
major figure in the world of criminal Anarchism"
(197). Not least, this is an ironic reference to the
way in which Webb has become anything but "a major
figure" in the novel.

The final sentence: a filmic fade to black, perhaps.
It echoes the earlier reference to Webb "watch[ing]
the light over the ranges slowly draining away".