My last reading of the Lonesome Dove series, so the end of Gus and Call's adventures. Although Comanche Moon is not the chronological end, it overflows with the feelings associated with endings: the bitterness of the chief seeing the old ways getting lost, anger of his son for not understanding his ways, the moral tiredness of the two rangers, and the feeling of having missed something while they were on one of their mostly useless expeditions.

Augustus recognized the little scatter of rocks by the water's edge where Matty had found the turtle; he recognized the crags to the north and even remembered the small mesquite tree--st small--where he and Call had snubbed a mustang mare they were trying to saddle.

No trace of the rangers' presence remained, of course, but Augustus was, nevertheless, glad that he had come. Several times in his life he had felt an intense desire to start over, to somehow turn back the clock of his life to a point where he might, if he were careful, avoid the many mistakes he had made the first time around. He knew such a thing was impossible, but it was still pleasant to dream about it, to conjure, in fantasy, a different and more successful life, and that is what he did, sitting on a large rock by the river and watching the brown water as it rippled over the rocks where Matty had caught the turtle.

It felt more of an ending than The Streets of Laredo, as it was already the end of the "old ways" for both rangers and Indians.