The Monkey Wrench Gang

An hour before dawn, "in the dark, blue light" (185), Hayduke stumbles around, waking the gang's other three members. Bonnie, Doc, and Smith ride in Doc's Buick, with Bonnie driving. Hayduke takes his own jeep. As they drive down a deserted highway, Bonnie nearly collides with some "inbred underfed Indian horses" (188). They turn onto a dirt road, then onto "a sandy wagon trial" (188). They leave the Buick stashed in a spot not visible from the coal company's railway bridge. As the sun begins to rise, Doc hugs Smith and Bonnie to his broad chest and says they're going "to be heroes and live in fame" (189).

Hayduke arrives with the equipment necessary for blowing up part of the bridge to stop the coal train. Hayduke assigns Bonnie and Doc lookout positions then goes down to the bridge with Smith. Bonnie grumbles about Hayduke and Smith always getting to do the "dirty work" (190) but Hayduke assures her she'll have "a special treat" (190) for her. He also gives her cans of spray paint and tells her use them on the bridge's beams.

George and Hayduke set their dynamite in the rock ballast under the railroad tie closest to the bridge. They set another bundle of dynamite ten railroad ties back. Hearing an owl hoot, Hayduke and Smith look up to see Doc and Bonnie waving their arms. The two men grab their tools and "scuttle for cover" (193) as a small yellow cab comes across the bridge. It's an inspection car. From her lookout spot, Bonnie hears the men in the car laughing at her graffiti: "Custer wears an arrow shirt—Red Power!" (193). The car continues on without stopping.

Hayduke and Smith continue to work on the bridge. Hayduke comes back to Doc and Bonnie with the dynamite blaster. He hooks up the copper wires so Bonnie, under his instruction, can test it. Hayduke tells Bonnie to raise then slam down the handle when he gives the signal. He then tells Doc and Bonnie they should take Doc's station wagon back to camp; he and Smith will take the jeep. At camp, they should "make like tourists" (196).

Smith and Hayduke make the final adjustments to their explosive rig. As Bonnie prepares to handle the blaster, she and the men hear Doc's hoot signal. The train is five miles away. Doc comes down from his lookout spot to join Smith and Bonnie at the blast site. Hayduke scrambles up a nearby hill to get a better view of the train. As it comes into position, Hayduke raises his hand and arm up then down. Just at that moment, Hayduke sees "a young man with smooth, tanned and cheery countenance" (201) in the train's engine car. "True to all tradition" (201), the young engineer waves back at Hayduke. Hayduke dukes for cover.

At the blast site, Bonnie suddenly gets cold feet. She stalls until Doc comes behind her, places his hands over hers on the blaster and slams down the handle. This triggers the explosives. Although the train has moved past them, the explosives still take out enough of the bridge that the train rises off the rail then slides "with shrieking rigged wheels to the shattered bridge" (203). The engineer, seeing what's happened, climbs out of the cab and lands easily down an embankment.

The gang runs back to Doc's car. Doc and Bonnie get into the Buick, Smith and Hayduke in the jeep. Elated, they all sing old songs on their way back to camp, including "I Been Workin' on the Railroad."

Back at their camp in the evening, a young park ranger approaches Bonnie and Doc. "Tall, slim, able, not too bright" (205), he seems friendly at first. He asks them where they're from and Doc replies "California" (205). The ranger then asks why they have New Mexico plates on their car and whether one of them is a doctor. Bonnie replies that her husband is a doctor and they both live in New Mexico. The ranger asks if "the young fellow with the beard" (206) driving the blue jeep with Idaho plates is Bonnie's husband and Bonnie says he's her brother. She says her brother's heading to Baja, California and should be to Caborca now. The ranger smiles at Bonnie and says Caborca is in Sonora, not Baja. Doc begins singing a silly song.

The ranger then asks Bonnie about their "other friend" (206) and motions toward Smith's truck. Doc says that they "really can't say" (207). Bonnie clarifies that their friend said he'd be hiking and back in five days. She tells the ranger their friend's name is "Joe Smith" (207). Smiling again, the ranger asks how they're liking the area and whether they heard the news that evening. Bonnie and Doc both feign ignorance. The ranger then asks them where they were the previous night and why they left camp so early in the morning. This annoys Bonnie. The ranger apologizes, then asks if he can look inside their car. Neither Bonnie nor Doc replies.

The ranger again asks if they heard the news about the train. Bonnie says they heard the news and think it's "deplorable" (208). Doc says, "Anarchy is not the answer" (208). The ranger presses Doc to explain himself, but Doc remains obtuse. Bonnie says they heard it was "an automated train" (208) so no one got hurt. The ranger confirms it was automated but that there was "an observer on board" (208). He tells them that the observer jumped off before the train fell into the canyon. Bonnie asks why the observer didn't hit the gas or brakes "or whatever you do to a train engine" (209). The ranger says the train is electric so that when the bridge collapsed, it cut the train's power. He says someone also cut the nearby fencing and some sheep got electrocuted, which upset the Native Americans. The ranger offers, though, that it could have been Native Americans who cut the fence.

The ranger tells Doc and Bonnie, still playing ignorant tourists, that the power plant has to shut down for a few weeks. He asks again if he can look into Bonnie's car. At first, she agrees, then tells him he needs a search warrant. The ranger tells them he'll see about getting the warrant, which will probably take ten hours if the judge brings it by car, or a few hours if they bring it by airplane. Doc and Bonnie will have to wait there until the judge arrives. Bonnie finally agrees, rolling her eyes.

In the Buick's backseat, the ranger finds "heavy, waxy, fiberboard boxes" (211) marked with a "familiar oval brand" (211): DuPont. The ranger turns to Doc and tells him to stay in his chair. The ranger then uses his radio telephone to call for backup. He orders Bonnie to open one of the boxes. She hesitates then pulls the box open to reveal jars of "Death Smith Brand old fashioned Peanut Butter" (213). Upset, the ranger snarls at Bonnie to open the other boxes. In the "durable fiberboard dynamite boxes" (213) Bonnie and the ranger find various canned goods, books, and clothing. The ranger's chief, who's just arrived, demands to know where Bonnie got the boxes. Bonnie says she found them and gestures towards "several badly littered but vacant campsites" (213). The chief snaps his fingers and says it must have been "them goddamn crazy Shoeshine Indians" (213). Bonnie corrects his pronunciation of Shoshone. The chief says they'll have to get going and leaves muttering about "the Shoeshine Tribe" (213).

Bonnie yells, "Red Power!" (214) at the rangers as they drive away. Just then, Smith and Hayduke emerge from the shadows, wearing "sheepish grins" (214).

The gang agrees that Doc should return to Albuquerque to tend to his patients and cash checks to replenish their funds. Bonnie, however, wants to remain with Smith and Hayduke. Doc reluctantly agrees, allowing the gang to drive him to the Page airport, as he "cannot drive a car, or pretends he cannot" (215). As he departs, Doc tells Smith to "look after these children" (215), meaning Hayduke and Bonnie. Doc tells Hayduke he should "take" (216) his turn with Bonnie. Hayduke says it's Smith who really wants her; Doc says that if that’s the case, then Smith should take her instead. Finally, Doc tells Bonnie not to cry, though she does, and that he'll be back in a few weeks. Bonnie tearfully tells Doc that she still loves him.

After Doc departs, the gang heads to "the dim recesses of a familiar Page bar" (219). Bonnie puts some music on the jukebox, mostly rock and roll, and during a Janis Joplin song, one of the eight cowboys kicks the jukebox to get the record to stop. Bonnie yells at him "in her rawest Bronx snarl" (219) to put her record back on but the cowboy ignores her. He loads the jukebox with country records. Bonnie tries to push the cowboy away from the jukebox but he shoves her instead.

Seeing this, Hayduke feels "the moment had come" (220) for him. Again he starts his speech about being a hippie and jokes that he hears "even cowboys can get laid now" (220). This time, though, the cowboys react, slamming Hayduke's head into the corner of the jukebox.

When Hayduke comes to, he's in a motel room with Bonnie. She tends his wounds with a warm cloth. Hayduke can't remember what happened so Bonnie jogs his memory. Smith emerges from the bathroom with "one purple eyelid and an apparent deviated septum" (221). He helps Bonnie get Hayduke into the bathtub then goes out to get them something to eat. Bonnie bathes Hayduke, touching his penis when he gets an erection.

The group eats when Smith returns then Smith, "a tactful man" (221), leaves Bonnie and Hayduke. He goes to sleep in the desert on the sand "with tarantulas and sidewinders" (221), dreaming of his "neglected wives" (221). At the hotel, Hayduke and Bonnie have sex all night.