In the late win­ter of 1878, the pro­tag­o­nist finds him­self on the des­o­late plains of north Texas. He sets up camp beside the Dou­ble Moun­tain Fork of the Bra­zos Riv­er, where he encoun­ters an old hunter. Shar­ing sto­ries, the hunter rem­i­nisces about the once-thriv­ing buf­fa­lo herds that have van­ished under the relent­less gun­fire and exploita­tion of hunters. He describes the elab­o­rate hunt­ing expe­di­tions that now lay aban­doned, illus­trat­ing the hor­ror of hun­dreds of thou­sands of buf­fa­lo car­cass­es left to rot amidst the relent­less buzz of flies and the har­row­ing pres­ence of wolves.

As the night pro­gress­es, the pro­tag­o­nist rides through eerie land­scapes lit­tered with the bones of the extinct herds. He observes bone-pick­ers labor­ing among the skele­tal remains, gath­er­ing what’s left of the crea­tures to sell. The stark imagery of their grim work con­trasts with the silence of the plains, haunt­ed by the ghosts of what once exist­ed. Approach­ing a group of ragged indi­vid­u­als, he inter­acts cau­tious­ly. They seek tobac­co and whiskey, reveal­ing their mis­er­able exis­tence in this des­o­late land filled with despair and loss. The pres­ence of a neck­lace made from human ears rais­es sus­pi­cion and leads to a con­fronta­tion through a series of esca­lat­ing dia­logues sur­round­ing the grotesque tro­phy and its pos­si­ble ori­gins.

Amidst the ten­sion, the group’s youth speaks, sug­gest­ing a com­bi­na­tion of brava­do and vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty. Under threats and taunts, the pro­tag­o­nist asserts his iden­ti­ty, claim­ing knowl­edge of the ears’ ori­gin while also con­fronting the boys’ assump­tions about their val­ue. As ten­sions sim­mer and clash, the dynam­ics shift, reveal­ing the per­va­sive cru­el­ty of their shared lives and mem­o­ries of vio­lence.

Events take a dark­er turn when the youth of the group is fatal­ly shot, their col­lec­tive grief stark against the waste­land they inhab­it. At the same time, the harsh real­i­ties of orphaned chil­dren sur­viv­ing in an unfor­giv­ing world come to light. As the pro­tag­o­nist observes the after­math of vio­lence and loss, he even­tu­al­ly finds his way into a dark town lit by flick­er­ing lamps, where he seeks solace in whiskey, only to encounter the Judge, an enig­mat­ic fig­ure who embod­ies the pri­mal chaos and bru­tal­i­ty that per­vades their exis­tence. The chap­ter cul­mi­nates in a chaot­ic scene with­in a saloon, filled with laugh­ter and vio­lence, blend­ing mer­ri­ment with an under­tone of inevitable dread, under­scor­ing the nov­el­’s themes of sur­vival amidst the des­o­la­tion of the West.