In this chap­ter, Jim asks Mr. Hal­loway if souls can be bought, to which Mr. Hal­loway responds by ques­tion­ing the moti­va­tions behind such actions. He reflects on the nature of souls, sug­gest­ing that rather than sim­ply want­i­ng to acquire souls, cer­tain crea­tures thrive on the emo­tion­al tur­moil and guilt borne from human sins—specifically, the kind of souls tor­ment­ed by regret and self-damna­tion. He likens the car­ni­val to human­i­ty ampli­fied, where indi­vid­u­als chase and inflict pain upon each oth­er, cre­at­ing an atmos­phere ripe for exploita­tion by the car­ni­val.

Mr. Hal­loway con­tem­plates the idea of death, assert­ing that it does not exist as a tan­gi­ble being but is rather an abstract con­cept, some­thing peo­ple fear more than the known. He elab­o­rates that the car­ni­val takes advan­tage of this fear, using illu­sions that hint at death to pro­voke pan­ic in peo­ple, ensur­ing they are drawn in by the car­ni­val’s decep­tion. He argues that the car­ni­val exploits human vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties, say­ing that it could be a “mad­ness” induc­ing expe­ri­ence with its decep­tive mir­rors and music, entic­ing peo­ple to con­front their own reflec­tions and the ephemer­al nature of life.

Will express­es con­cern for Miss Foley, sug­gest­ing that she has fall­en vic­tim to the car­ni­val’s manip­u­la­tions and may be suf­fer­ing. Mr. Hal­loway reflects on the car­ni­val’s inhabitants—what they might have once been and how they now embody their sins due to their long pur­suit of deliv­er­ance from regret. After some dis­cus­sion about poten­tial actions to save Miss Foley and oth­ers, the top­ic shifts to their next steps, and the atmos­phere becomes tense as they real­ize they are not alone.

Sud­den­ly, the mood shifts when they sense some­one enter­ing the space, lead­ing Mr. Hal­loway to instruct the boys to hide. In a moment of ten­sion, they van­ish into the library’s shad­ows, leav­ing Mr. Hal­loway to con­front the unknown pres­ence him­self, illus­trat­ing a dan­ger­ous cli­max that empha­sizes the chap­ter’s themes of fear, intro­spec­tion, and the grip of the car­ni­val on the human psy­che.

Wait­ing ai