ATDTDA (10): Slowly the disorder abates, 289-295

[Paul Nightingale]

Frank's experience in Telluride is reminiscent of Conrad's Marlow, the
opening description of the town (281-282) now followed by a failure to find
out anything other than hearsay: "Frank had contracted a case of the
Rampaging Meldrummitis, having heard of little else all day." (289) Bob has
yet to be encountered; ditto Bulkley Wells, "inaccessible as ever".

In the first instance, Frank came to town following Wren's advice to
disguise himself and wait for information; as he put it, "[w]hat you folks
call research" (280). Yet he only has any kind of success when woken from
sleep by banging on the door; structurally, then, Bob's arrival (290) has
the status of a dream. Bob seems to think Frank is with La Blanca, which
reminds us that some locals "liked to imagine they knew what she was after,
which in their dreams always took some form of relief from her deaf runt of
a cabinmate" (288). Similarly, Bob's appearance is marked by "a mustache so
wide Frank could wear its owner had to turn a little sideways to get through
the doorway" (290). Apart from Slothrop's zoot that might recall Loomis'
suggestion "to grow a mustache, soak some of that [snot] up", followed by
Ellmore's observation that Bob "eats [death-dealing chilles] like peanuts"
(289).

Bob himself thinks there are other uses for the (outsized) mustache: ".
years pass, legends o' th' West keep growing, folks mutter under their
mustache when they think you can't hear" (290), perhaps working on the
assumption that one as deaf as Bob won't be able to lip-read. The badman is
racked by insecurity and paranoia.

The second part of the section sees Frank introduced by Bob to Merle, who
reappears as a substitute for Bulkley Wells. When Frank "go[es] into his
pitch" (291) Merle echoes Ellmore's scepticism, yet invites Frank to meet
him the next day. So far Frank has persuaded no one that his ideas about
zinc will prove profitable, but it gets him from one page to the next. As a
narrative agent he consistently fails to make progress, if by that we mean
'achieve what he sets out to achieve'; he nonetheless finds himself caught
up in the narratives of others, which is pretty much been his fate since
Reef took him from Golden (199).

In the Cosmopolitan, when Bob appears ready to explode, Frank starts to take
cover; Bob, however, has other ideas, assuming Frank will provide
"assistance, in a back-watching way" (292). Earlier, Reef joked about Frank
providing back-up in Nochecita, observing:  ". everybody has to have
somebody to make em look good, which just happens to be you in this case"
(200). Similarly, Wren wanted an escort to Denver Row (275). When the
Japanese leave Merle tells Frank that, posing as tourists, they are in fact
anti-Tsarist agents/spies: a successful disguise, or not, depending on how
it's viewed. Merle lets Frank know that he has seen through the Japanese
"cover story" (294). Perhaps a hint that he knows Frank isn't as he seems to
be?

Moreover, Merle's reference to "an anti-Tsarist crowd of our own ... and we
call em the Finns" might recall Veikko (83-84), which in turn will recall
Webb, known to both Veikko and Merle at that time. The reader has been
prepared for the comedy of the Kodak-toting Japanese tourists by the
slap-stick associated with Bob; Frank has stayed out of it all, his
experience of the "strange optical illusions" (293) recalling his alienation
when arriving in Telluride at the start of the chapter (281-282). Yet
Merle's explanation makes all the connections; and Frank ends the chapter
where he began, listening to local folklore (295).