title: Bone by Bone: A Novel
author:  Peter Matthiessen 
description: In <I>Bone by Bone</I>, the final chapter of Peter Matthiessen's Everglades trilogy, the man known variously as "Desperado" and "Emperor" Watson finally tells his own story--and a hard, ruthless, and singularly bloody tale it is. Brought up in the chaotic aftermath of the Civil War, Watson flees South Carolina after he's tagged for a murder he didn't commit. <I>Bone by Bone</I> follows his exile in the Indian Territories, his arrest for the murder of Belle Star, and his years in Florida, where he struggles to carve a sugar-cane empire out of the Everglades before being gunned down by a howling mob. "There's some that would say that Edgar Watson is a bad man by nature," he muses near the end of his life, but later declares, "I don't believe that men are born with a bad nature." So is Watson's fate nature or nurture? Is he a killer born or a killer made? This question lies at the heart of Matthiessen's tale as well as its precursors, <I><a href="/exec/obidos/search-handle-url?index=books&field-keywords=Matthiessen%20and%20Killing">Killing Mister Watson</a></I> and <I><a href="/exec/obidos/search-handle-url?index=books&field-keywords=Matthiessen%20and%20Man's">Lost Man's River</a></I>. Answering it would mean nothing less than answering the problem of evil itself.
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  BONESETTER
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  By
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Laurence Dahners
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Copyright 1999 Laurence E Dahners
  
  
  Kindle Edition
  
  
  
  
  
  This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.
  
  
    
  Prologue
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “Bonesetter.”
  
  
  
  
  
  A humble childhood had the boy who would one day be known as such.
  
  
  
  
  
  He was born one cold and bitter winter night to a woman called Donte, who
  gathered and cooked for the Aldans tribe. His father Garen was a flintworker.
  Garen named his son Pell, a term in their language for a flake of flint.
  
  
  During Pell’s seventh winter, before Garen had taught his son more than the
  rudiments of flintworking, Garen developed pains in stomach, then fevers, then
  agony. He died a few days later. When Garen knew that his death approached, he
  called to Pell. Mildly delirious from the fever, Garen gritted his teeth
  against the pain. He said, “I have seen the death spirit Pell—and know it
  comes for me.” Garen gasped a moment, but then continued, “I hope that you
  wi