“They are different when they come back.”

Britt Johnson warns the Captain (and, vicariously, the reader) about the state-of-mind of returned captives and the difficulties in reintegrating them back into their old lives, and into European-American society. It introduces the topic of those caught between two very different worlds/cultures.

“It was in fact an excursion wagon painted a dark and glossy green and in gold letters on the sides it said Curative Waters East Mineral Springs Texas and he had no idea how the wagon had come all the way from near Houston to the little town on the Red River. The wagon surely had a story all to itself that would now remain forever unknown, untold.”

The narrator places into the mind of the reader the idea of the transitory nature of life, its circular motion, and the importance of the present, an idea contrasting with the theme of memory and its importance. Though the wagon was previously used for something entirely different than the purposes for which the Captain has in mind for it, the metaphorical worth of its previous use—a vehicle for healing—remains intact.

“Then at last he was doing what he loved: carrying information by hand along through the Southern wilderness; messages, orders, maps, reports […] He always recalled those two years with a kind of wonder. As when one is granted the life and the task for which one was meant.”

The Captain knew from an early age just how much he loved and cherished the power of news and the written word, so much so that despite war and hardship, his raison d'être never waned. Further, he believes that by sharing news with others, he can make rural Texas society a better place.