Lonesome Dove Chapters 95-102: "You're one of a kind, Gus"

The first time I read Lonesome Dove, I shed a few tears when Gus died. It was, perhaps, largely from just shock. I couldn’t believe that McMurtry killed one of the great larger-than-life characters I’d ever encountered. 

Rather than riding off into the Montana sunset with Clara or Lorie, he was left to be unceremoniously hauled back down to Texas by a st…