IVIV20: They both knew, 356-359

[Paul Nightingale]

Pursuing the Golden Fang, Sauncho bringing Doc back to the here-&-now. The
"pair of greenish blobs" (356) recalls the "little blobs of color" on 351,
not to mention the "paint chips" on 354, or even the "cubist rose" on
355-356; and then, of course, the radio "sound[s] like a Gordita Beach bar
any night of the week" (356). The schooner proves elusive and again the
action is quite inconsequential. Sauncho ("Well, that lets us out") gives up
easily, perhaps oddly so, given his apparent enthusiasm for the chase
earlier, "moving faster than Doc had ever seen him" (354).

What follows will be observed at a distance by Sauncho and Doc; so possibly
their presence is now quite superfluous. Observers rather than participants;
observation and reading as participation. But then, fast-forward to the
section's closing exchange on 359: without Sauncho and Doc as witnesses
"[t]here'd be only the government story".

And so to "St Flip of Lawndale's mythical break, also known to old-timers as
Death's Doorsill" (358), a paragraph that begins by confirming their shared
knowledge/understanding. On 357 Doc suspects the Golden Fang is leading them
into a trap; a page later he thinks he sees the Preserved. He might put it
down to poor visibility, but again there is the recollection of an ethical
alternative.