Chapter 14
- New setting alert, Shmoopsters. Two kids named Sparrow and Weasel pull up their boat when they see a stabbed guy floating in the river—it turns out the dude's alive, so they bring him back to someone named Keller.
- We find out that they're in a group of inlets off the River Vespera called The Fingers, where a lot of debris gets caught up. The people that live there take what they need from whatever drifts by—they're scavengers, in other words. They bring the body back to their friend Keller, who affectionately dubs them "water rats" and recognizes their find as Dr. Torrens.
- Torrens wakes up and is surprised to be recognized. Keller introduces himself as the author of "Old Kasperl," which is the name of a comic strip that criticizes Cabbarus—Keller was almost hanged for his work, so he went AWOL.
- Torrens says that he killed the sailor who was hired as an assassin by Cabbarus. He feels guilty, but is happy that he fell into the hands of friends, not enemies. Torrens thinks it's awful that the kids are on their own in The Fingers, but Keller says that it's great, compared to being beggars in a city.
- When discussing their mutual hatred of Cabby, Keller says that those that loathe him are too spread out, but he'd heard rumors of one guy leading the opposition.
- Keller and Torrens leave The Fingers, and after Keller convinces Sparrow to give Torrens his purse back, the kids row them out of the swamp.