- After several crossings, and nearing the end of their energy, they finally find the ladder. They dress, a little giddy in their relief. Henry is putting on his second boot, pulling on the loops, while jumping up and down one footed. He slips and falls, and Dan and Jason start to laugh, but as Henry tries to work back toward the middle of the top, he keeps slipping further down the slope of the tank.
- Again Dan, Magda, and Jason form a human chain, reaching out to Henry. When he reaches for Magda's ankle he slides away… and off the edge of the water tank.
- They hear a loud clang. Magda screams, then sobs hysterically—Henry is gone. Jason pulls her back up to safety. He admits, "I want to sob hysterically too, but a part of me—the Kahuna part—knows that we have to pull ourselves together before we can afford to fall apart" (19.28).
- A groan lets them know that Henry is still alive. He didn't fall the full two-hundred feet to the ground, but thirty or so to the upper catwalk. His leg is badly broken, though. They have just a moment to wonder how they are going to get him down when they are flooded by bright light and a voice over a loudspeaker commands them to come down.