: They were joined by LaBoeuf , a Ranger with spurs that jingled and an ego to match. He wanted the killer for a different crime, one with a Texas price tag. Into the Territory

: In the chaos, Mattie found herself face-to-face with Chaney. She fired her father’s heavy Dragoon pistol, the recoil nearly snapping her arm, but the justice was done.

The journey into the Indian Territory was a slow descent into a world of dust and danger. They tracked through brush and over ridges, the silence of the wilderness broken only by Cogburn’s tall tales and LaBoeuf’s complaints. Mattie rode her pony, Little Blackie, with a grim determination that silenced them both.

Mattie lost her arm to the bite, and Cogburn disappeared back into the haze of the frontier. Years later, Mattie looked back on that cold winter. She never married, and she never found another man with the "true grit" of the marshal who saved her. She learned early that independence is a lonely road, but it’s the only one worth riding if you mean to keep your soul.