- Mr. Lehr and his sister, Miss Lehr, have been caring for the priest since the foreman brought him to them three days before.
- For the priest, this is a time of luxury: wearing nice clothes, drinking clean water that didn't have to be boiled, bathing on a cool stream, the idleness of not being hunted.
- He discusses the luxuries of the Catholic Church with them. They're Lutherans who don't subscribe to the inessentials of the priest's faith.
- The priest learns from them that saying Mass is illegal here as well, but the penalties are much less severe. He'd be fined or thrown in prison for a week if he couldn't pay, but no one would think to shoot him.
- More luxury comes when he reenters the village. People approach him and kiss his hand. They ask for confession and Mass. He's wanted again. One skeptical schoolmaster bothers him not a bit.
- And he can make money again and not live as a beggar. The people here are poor, but they're willing to pay some for Mass and a hundred baptisms. Authority returns to his voice.
- A parishioner sells him brandy. He drinks and reflects on his own piety and how it keeps him in a state of sin. Still, he drinks.
- In the late evening, the priest chats with Miss Lehr. She remarks about having once had her eyes opened by reading a newspaper that covered police-related news. The priest has just heard confessions, tasting brandy all the while.
- In the morning after saying Mass he is to head out to Las Casas, a city where the respectable life of a priest should only improve for him, but guess who shows up.
- If you answered "the mestizo," then give yourself 30 points!
- Things get a little weird here. Upon speaking to the mestizo, the priest gets the sense that his would-be traitor is the only real thing all around him, as if everything else is a dream.
- The mestizo claims to be on an errand of mercy, not treachery. The American criminal has been shot, is dying, and needs a priest.
- Seeing through the trap, the priest starts on his mule toward Las Casas while the mestizo abuses him, calling him a bad priest.
- As proof, the mestizo explains how the American was shot while taking an Indian boy as hostage. This and a note ostensibly written by the dying man convince the priest that the man is in fact dying. But it's a trap, Admiral Ackbar!
- Well, duh. He knows it's a trap, but he also knows he has a responsibility to the dying man.
- Leaving town with the mestizo, the priest gives the skeptical schoolmaster all of his remaining money to spend on the people of the town. He knows he won't need it where he's going.
- The mestizo is incredulous at the priest's obvious distrust of him.
- The priest offers him a sandwich.