The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky: Part 3 Summary & Analysis

Scratchy Wilson rounds a corner and struts right into Yellow Sky’s main street. For “decoration,” he wears a maroon flannel shirt made by Jewish women on New York’s east side, while his red-topped boots with “gilded imprints” invoke “sledding boys” from New England. Brandishing a revolver in each hand, Wilson whoops and hollers into the night, but only silence responds. He stalks the town’s windows and doorways like a “midnight cat” in search of prey, but hears only his own yells echoing through the night. There is “no offer of fight” from anyone.

Incensed at the lack of attention he receives in the street, Scratchy turns towards the Weary Gentleman, where he confronts the barkeeper’s dozing dog. The dog, who “had not appreciated the advance of events,” gets up and walks away until Wilson’s yells inspire the animal to gallop. Scratchy makes sport of the dog’s fear, forcing the poor animal to dodge multiple bullets before it scurries away.

Having finished tormenting the dog, Scratchy Wilson hammers the saloon’s door with his revolver and demands a drink. Unable to break down the door, he sticks a piece of paper into it with a knife, then fires at the paper from across the street. He barely misses and, acting as if the town were his plaything, fires a rash of bullets into multiple windows. Wilson, however, soon gets bored shooting at dogs and saloons, and “the name of Jack Potter, his ancient antagonist, entered his mind.”  

Sensing that only Jack Potter can give him the fight he craves, Scratchy Wilson heads towards the marshal’s house “chanting Apache scalp-music.” When he arrives at the adobe dwelling, Wilson howls out multiple challenges mingled with “wonderful epithets,” but hears nothing in return. After “churning himself into deepest rage over the immobility of a house,” Scratchy pauses to reload his guns.