Intruder In The Dust

Charles returns to his uncle’s house, passing a “weathered battered second-hand looking pickup truck” outside (74). He presumes this truck belongs to one of his uncle’s farmer clients. He desperately wants to tell his uncle about Lucas’s request, so he interrupts the meeting. Rather than a farmer, however, he finds his uncle sitting with an elderly white woman named Miss Habersham. When Charles tells his uncle about Lucas’s request, Gavin dismisses it. He assumes that Lucas is lying to get himself out of trouble. Digging up the body, he believes, would only incense the Gowrie family further.

Charles leaves the office. He ponders what to do next, but already feels certain that he will dig up the body. Planning the route to the cemetery in his mind, he worries that he will not be able to make it on time on his horse. Aleck Sander will help him, he knows, and he is quickly proved right. As the two boys prepare the horses, Miss Habersham comes to them. She wants to help Lucas. Charles remembers that she and Molly (Lucas’s late wife) were close, “almost inextricably like sisters, like twins” (87). She offers them the use of her truck, so Aleck rides with her while Charles takes the old horse Highboy along the road to the cemetery.