The novel is set in the cow country of northern Nevada at the beginning of spring, sometime in the late nineteenth century (there don’t seem to be any Native Americans left in the area, but there are no telephones or automobiles either). Two cowboys, Art Croft and Gil Carter, have been cooped up all winter and ride to the town of Bridger’s Wells to shake off the emotional effects of their winter isolation through drinking, card-playing, and general socializing with hands from other ranches. But the conviviality is more than a little forced, for the men have not yet lost the hard edge that the deep cold and blizzards have given them, and they are especially riled when their talk turns to the cattle rustling that has become more commonplace in the area.
When a rider announces that
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Citation: Kich, Martin. "The Ox-Bow Incident". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 January 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=13855, accessed 25 November 2024.]
