Eastward Bound

Leaving Colter

Arthur rides back from the train to find the camp loading the wagons. Dutch says the weather seems stable; Hosea reminds him they just robbed a Cornwall train. Dutch declares: "the worst is behind us." Hosea proposes Horseshoe Overlook, near Valentine: "We'll be able to hide out there no problem... as long as we keep our noses clean." Charles and Abigail help John into a wagon. Dutch puts Arthur and Hosea in the same wagon, saying the two like to talk about "what's gone wrong with old Dutch."

Out of the snow

The convoy passes the frozen Lake Isabella and crosses a stream out of the snow. Dutch then sends Micah and Lenny ahead to check the road. Micah complains about being paired with "the boy", then tells Lenny he can buy him a whisky.

The convoy later goes under a railroad bridge into Big Valley, in West Elizabeth, and rides into the Dakota River next to Cumberland Falls, on the border with New Hanover.

The broken wheel

Once the wagons are over the river, a wheel comes off Arthur and Hosea's wagon. The wagon ahead, carrying Bill and Charles, with Javier riding alongside, stops. Hosea turns down Javier's help; Charles stays behind, and he and Hosea hold the wagon up while Arthur puts the wheel back on.

The riders on the cliff

Three riders watch them from a cliff. Charles says: "If they wanted trouble... we wouldn't have seen them." Hosea says: "Poor bastards... we really screwed them over down here." The riders are Rains Fall, Eagle Flies and Paytah, of the Wapiti tribe. Later in the game, in Saint Denis, Rains Fall tells Arthur: "We saw you on the wagon train... crossing the river at Cumberland Falls."

Charles's story

Charles rides on in their wagon. Hosea explains that the native people of the Heartlands lost the land and were killed or moved to reservations, and that he heard the Army there was particularly harsh. Charles asks: "How do you rob and kill people pleasantly? We don't, in spite of Dutch's talk." Hosea says he was simplifying "for the benefit of our blockheaded driver"; Arthur answers that Hosea is "a conman, Charles, born and bred."

Arthur asks Charles about his tribe. Charles says he does not know if he has one. His father was a Black man who lived with his mother's people for a while; when they were forced off their lands, the three fled. Soldiers later took his mother, and they never saw her again. His father drank, and at around thirteen Charles struck out on his own. Hosea says it was about the age they found Arthur: "A wilder delinquent you never did see. But he learned fast." Arthur answers: "Not as fast as Marston, apparently." When Charles asks what the problem is between the two, Arthur says: "It's a long story."

Valentine and Dutch

Hosea describes Valentine as a livestock town of "Cowboys, outlaws, working girls." He says there are probably O'Driscolls there too, and hopes there are no Pinkertons. He asks Arthur: "how low do you think Dutch is really going to lie?" He adds that it "isn't like Dutch to lose his head like that." Arthur answers that things go wrong sometimes and that the three of them must have got it right far more often than wrong. Hosea gives Arthur yarrow and ginseng he has been preparing. At the entrance to the site, Javier waits by a rock, shows them the track and jumps onto the back of the wagon.

Horseshoe Overlook

At the new camp, Dutch says: "Gentlemen, we have survived." He adds: "Now it is time to prosper." Hosea answers: "Arthur and I were about to prosper in Blackwater. We were on to something big... then Micah got you all excited about that ferry and here we are." Dutch answers that they have all made mistakes, but that he kept the gang together and "kept the nooses off our neck." Hosea says he does not have long and wants people safe before he goes. He says they are now stuck "east of the Grizzlies and out of money... and a long way from our dream of virgin land in the west."

Dutch's plan is to make some money, go around the law, "be west of Uncle Sam" and buy land within a few months. Strauss leaves for the nearby town to "strike up a little business." Dutch says: "I prefer robbing banks to usury... seems more dignified somehow."

Dutch gathers the gang. He tells them they are safe but "far too poor", and that everyone must get to work. Hosea tells them to stay out of trouble: "Remember, we are itinerant workers." Dutch completes the cover story: "Laid off when they shut down our factory to the north." He adds: "Uncle, Reverend Swanson... no more passengers." Hosea points them to Valentine: "All mud and morons if I remember right." Pearson asks for real food every day, and Dutch sets out a box: "the camp gets its slice." Susan shows Arthur to his tent.

A couple of weeks later

The title card "Chapter II: Horseshoe Overlook" appears, followed by "A couple of weeks later..." Arthur writes in his journal: "We got off the mountain and rode east into some pretty enough country called the Heartlands. Ain't been this far east in many a year. Dutch seems a little better." He adds that Dutch's eyes are "sparkling once more", that he seems to think a little clearer, and that they all feel a little happier in spite of Blackwater.

Hosea then brings Arthur a cup of a hot drink. He tells him that Bill, Charles and Javier are already in Valentine, that Swanson "found something" at the train station by the lake, and that Strauss came back with "that creepy little smile on his face." Asked about his own plans, Hosea says: "I'm gonna read a book." The mission ends there.

After the mission: the camp at Horseshoe Overlook

What changes at camp:

• Lenny and Micah are at camp right after the mission. If the player saves and reloads, or Arthur leaves camp, they are gone, and Susan tells Arthur they have been sent scouting out west. Lenny does not return until "A Quiet Time".
• Swanson, Charles, Javier and Bill are missing from camp. Swanson returns during "Who is Not Without Sin", Charles and Javier after "The First Shall Be Last", Bill after "Americans at Rest".
• Uncle is asleep and can only be disturbed to start "Polite Society, Valentine Style". With Strauss, he is the only person at camp with no new dialogue after this mission.
• Karen, Tilly and Mary-Beth may tell Arthur they are bored until "Polite Society, Valentine Style" is completed, and Hosea may tell Arthur to go and bother Uncle.

Mission failure

The mission fails if the player:

• assaults, kills or abandons Hosea or Charles, or Javier once he is picked up;
• leaves the route to Horseshoe Overlook;
• destroys or abandons the wagon;
• dies.

The mission counts toward Gold Rush (70 Gold Medals in story missions) and Best in the West (100% completion).

• So, we getting out of this hellhole?

  Arthur, back at Colter from the train

• See... you ain't so useless after all.

  Arthur, to Hosea, once the wheel is back on

• That depends... are we still heading west, in search of fortune and repose in virgin forests, as we planned? No.

  Hosea, when Arthur asks whether they are still heading the right way

• Here we are, gentlemen. Home sweet home.

  Hosea, arriving at Horseshoe Overlook

• Would you just look around you. This world has its consolations.

  Dutch, to Hosea, at the new camp

• Everything apart from my money.

  Arthur, when Susan says most of his things from Blackwater were saved

• Miss Jackson... I've seen shit with more common sense than you. Do it properly.

  Susan, to Tilly

• Arthur writes a two-page journal entry after this mission.