Oakhurst knows that drinking is unconducive to his way of life as a gambler he must always keep his focus unhindered. Oakhurst is a non-drinker, and he placidly watches as Uncle Billy’s behavior switches from combative to lethargic, the Duchess acts increasingly sentimental, and Mother Shipton falls asleep.
He pleads with the others to keep traveling, but instead, they get drunk. Oakhurst does not want to stop here because he knows they have not even made it to the halfway point to Sandy Bar additionally, the party’s provisions are too meager to accommodate such delays in travel. After only a few hours traveling a difficult trail, the Duchess claims she cannot ride anymore and dismounts her horse. The journey includes leaving the “moist, temperate regions of the foothills into the dry, cold bracing air of the Sierras” (Paragraph 8). It was distant a day’s severe travel” (Paragraph 8). To reach Sandy Bar, their place of exile, the travelers must cross “a steep mountain range.
