The travelers ate well that night. They found out, through a lot of lines drawn in the dirt and complicated, hilarious pantomimed motion, that their hosts were a Kickapoo family originally from southern Kentucky, where the tribal hunting ground had been. Most of their people had moved on, or died from the small pox epidemics, and they too had come to this place by the Tombigbee. They lived by hunting, growing small crops, and fishing, much the way their ancestors had. Most of the people in the valley were aware of these scattered bands, but they let them be, sometimes trading goods with them for fish and game during lean times. As they sat, the grown man, whose name was Wahkeeny, shared his stash of tobacco with them, and they brewed chicory for the Indians. The fire was dying, and Lucius, who now was armed with bow and arrow and sported an eagle feather protruding from a thin strap of leather round his forehead, had settled down in his Mother's lap. The Indian boy, Lucius' new playmate, sat nearby fashioning several arrows for Lucius' quiver.

Suddenly Wahkeeny stopped in the middle of a long and rambling declamation in Kickapoo, and put his pipe down upon a rock. He muttered something to the teenage boy, and they both loped out into the darkness. Tom slipped a cartridge into his Colt and moved further from the fire. In a few minutes the man and boy had returned, the man's face betraying some anxiety. But at last he said "sleep now. Morning you go safe with Pali," Pali being the young boy's name. Wahkeeny then bid the goodnight and went into the lodge with his wife and Pali. The teenager, however, merely smiled and strolled out into the darkness, saying "sleep." And they did. For the first time in many days, they all slept soundly and long.

In the morning, Pali led them up the river to a place where stood a very ramshackle cabin. The cabin's chimney emitted a dark smoke, filling the air with an odor of strange and pungent spice. "You go there," said Pali. "Abigail, she waiting." Pali took each of them by the hand, bowing his head, and last of all Lucius. He smiled into Lucius' eyes, and slowly removed a beaded necklace that he wore, tying it around Lucius' neck. Then Pali turned and trotted into the forest.