Trout Lake

Trout Lake is a stopping place on the mountain route to Roily, but it also becomes the setting for a decisive conversation about law, freedom, and the increasingly narrow choices facing Del Delaney and his companions. Beside the lake, Del asks The Kid how deeply he is wanted; by the time the party rides on the next day, the planned robbery and the danger of continuing as outlaws have been brought into the open.

A Waypoint on the Route to Roily

After reaching Montrose, the men discreetly ask about Roily so their interest will not attract attention. They learn that once they pass Trout Lake, they cannot miss the town. The lake therefore marks a practical stage in their approach, as well as the point beyond which their journey toward the proposed bank robbery becomes harder to treat as mere reconnaissance.

The Lakeside Conversation

The men camp beside the water and cook supper. The Kid remarks that fishing tackle would be useful at a place called Trout Lake, but Del is preoccupied with a more urgent question: how much trouble The Kid is in with the law. Del has been considering leaving the others, finding work riding, and avoiding another crime in the hope that his existing charges might eventually be dropped. The Kid answers that he is already deeply committed to outlaw life. He tells Del that he has killed three men and held up, or helped hold up, six banks, and says he has gambled away most of the money. His confession makes clear why he sees no realistic return to an ordinary life: another robbery, in his view, cannot leave him much worse off than he already is. John Smith is also implicated in the group’s predicament. He says that he helped The Kid rob one bank and faces a first-degree murder charge at home; Del, however, believes the killing might be treated as justifiable homicide because John was defending his home. The lake conversation thus exposes an important difference between the men’s situations: The Kid presents repeated robbery and killings as a closed path, while Del still searches for the possibility that one companion’s charge might be legally defensible.

Plans and Departure

The practical plan for entering Roily is to arrive as cowboys looking for work, stable the horses, take a room if the town has a hotel, and observe the place before robbing the bank when it opens. The Kid proposes leaving down the canyon if the escape route appears suitable, since riding uphill would slow them and timber might offer cover if the plan goes wrong. The prospect troubles Del, who recognizes that taking part in a robbery could decide his future through imprisonment, death, or further violence. Before dawn, Del reconsiders whether to leave but does not make that choice. The men rise before the sun clears the mountain wall to the east, build a fire, and cook breakfast in the cold morning air. An hour later they ride south, climbing the steep trail beside the lake toward Lizard Head Pass; beyond the pass, the descent leads toward Roily through a steep-walled canyon. Trout Lake is therefore both a pause in the journey and the last clear point at which Del weighs withdrawal against the course the group has set.