- Enter the lieutenant.
- He's not a barbarian, he tells the priest. He let the dying man have his wish.
- He is genuinely surprised that the priest returned. Even a coward has a sense of duty, the priest remarks.
- The lieutenant has a vague sense that he's seen this priest before.
- Twice, the priest tells him, to the fury of the lieutenant, who feels a fool.
- The two men wait in the hut for the downpour to cease. They talk of card tricks, the trickery of the church, and whether or not the priest will be shot then and there. You know, small talk.
- The lieutenant gives the priest the "it's not personal; it's business" routine. He really, and we mean really, dislikes the Christian embrace of suffering. Wants its ideas eradicated. They're dangerous.
- In a sort of confession, the priest explain to "his enemy" that pride, not love of God, has fueled him since the persecution of the church began. He won't be a saint or a martyr or anything of merit, he believes. He thanks the lieutenant for hearing him.
- Without irony, the police officer tells him he's not afraid of the priest's ideas.
- The rain stops and the two of them leave the tent. The mestizo's outside. He berates the priest for distrusting him the whole time. What a piece of work.
- And then he has the audacity to ask for a blessing! The priest calls him superstitions, tells his betrayer he'll pray for him.
- On the ride back to the capital, the priest and the lieutenant talk of people rich and poor, the sincerity of religious belief, the justice of eternal damnation, the will to murder for the greater good, the truth or falsity of miracles, and the awfulness of God's love. They don't exactly see eye-to-eye.
- The lieutenant has no interest in setting the priest free, but he seems to respect him a little. He asks if there's anything he can do for him. The priest asks for the chance to confess to Padre José. The lieutenant surprisingly acquiesces.
- Once in the city, the boy who threw the bottle at the lieutenant calls out to them, asking if they caught the priest.
- The lieutenant tries to smile in response, but he just doesn't have it in him. This task has brought him neither a sense of victory nor hope for the future.