In the after­math of their encoun­ters with the Gilenos, the trav­el­ers pushed deep­er into the moun­tains, con­struct­ing fires with high­land drift­wood. The kid, seat­ed cross-legged, mend­ed a strap with the help of an awl bor­rowed from Tobin, the expriest. Tobin not­ed the kid’s skill, imply­ing that, while he seemed to lack the expe­ri­ences of oth­ers, he had a nat­ur­al tal­ent for such tasks. Their con­ver­sa­tion revealed a mix of admi­ra­tion and curios­i­ty about the judge, whom they observed with a mix­ture of wari­ness and awe. Tobin extolled the judge’s abil­i­ties, mar­veling at his flu­en­cy in Dutch and his mul­ti­fac­eted tal­ents, declar­ing that the Lord bestows gifts uneven­ly among men.

As they repaired their gear, Tobin reflect­ed on the judge’s com­plex­i­ties, express­ing thoughts on divine inter­ven­tion or guid­ance through the “voice of the Almighty,” sug­gest­ing that God could com­mu­ni­cate through the least of crea­tures. The kid, uncon­vinced, claimed he had nev­er heard this divine voice. Tobin insist­ed that it would become appar­ent if it ever ceased, hint­ing at a deep­er spir­i­tu­al aware­ness.

In their stark wilder­ness sur­round­ings, Tobin recalled a pre­vi­ous dire sit­u­a­tion where the judge had saved their dwin­dling com­pa­ny with his unex­pect­ed resource­ful­ness. Just as they were on the brink of despair, the judge appeared alone, offer­ing a sup­ply of arms and a promise of resource­ful­ness. As the expriest described their sub­se­quent jour­ney through the treach­er­ous ter­rain, he detailed the judge’s metic­u­lous col­lec­tion of mate­ri­als for gun­pow­der, show­cas­ing both the judge’s intel­lect and uncan­ny deter­mi­na­tion.

After days of toil, they reached the top of a vol­canic moun­tain. There, Tobin vivid­ly described how the judge con­coct­ed gun­pow­der, mix­ing sul­fur, charred wood, and a pecu­liar twist of fate dur­ing the process, while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly fac­ing the encroach­ing threat of near­by Apache war­riors. Under pres­sure, they exe­cut­ed an ambush, turn­ing the odds sig­nif­i­cant­ly in their favor with their home­made ammu­ni­tion.

This moment marked the first of many vio­lent and piv­otal encoun­ters, encap­su­lat­ing the judge’s enig­mat­ic influ­ence on the group’s for­tunes, while rais­ing ques­tions about his true motives and the nature of his author­i­ty with­in their band. Their kill tal­ly reached aston­ish­ing heights as they slaugh­tered mem­bers of the aggress­ing native group, a reflec­tion of the bru­tal real­i­ty they inhab­it­ed, the judge becom­ing a cen­tral fig­ure of both rev­er­ence and dread .

In Chap­ter Ten of “Anthem,” the nar­ra­tor describes dis­cov­er­ing a house from the Unmen­tion­able Times after tra­vers­ing a chal­leng­ing moun­tain range and forests unseen and undis­turbed by human soci­ety. This house, dis­tinct in archi­tec­ture with its two sto­ries, flat roof, and pre­dom­i­nant win­dows, rep­re­sents a trea­sure trove of the past, filled with arti­facts, cloth­ing, and books from a civ­i­liza­tion long gone. Unlike the com­mu­nal liv­ing enforced in their soci­ety, this house sug­gests a more indi­vid­u­al­is­tic and pos­si­bly famil­ial unit exist­ed, with only two beds with­in and per­son­al gar­ments that vary in col­or and mate­r­i­al, unlike the uni­form attire the nar­ra­tor is accus­tomed to.

The dis­cov­ery is pro­found for both the nar­ra­tor and the Gold­en One, as they decide to claim this house as their own, mark­ing the start and the end of their jour­ney, choos­ing to live apart from the col­lec­tive soci­ety they’ve fled. The items with­in the house—books with unfa­mil­iar words, gar­ments of var­i­ous col­ors, and reflec­tive sur­faces that show their likenesses—spark curios­i­ty and awe, promis­ing a future of learn­ing and under­stand­ing about the world of the Unmen­tion­able Times.

The chap­ter clos­es with the nar­ra­tor, reflec­tive and antic­i­pa­to­ry, con­tem­plat­ing the new world spread out before them. They per­ceive it as wait­ing for a new begin­ning, a direc­tive or pur­pose they are yet to give. Despite the unknowns and the mas­sive cul­tur­al and his­tor­i­cal gap they face, the nar­ra­tor and the Gold­en One are res­olute in their deci­sion to not return to their pre­vi­ous lives, to explore and inhab­it this world that appears to open up with end­less pos­si­bil­i­ties and learn­ing. This chap­ter marks a turn­ing point, sym­bol­iz­ing a break from the past and a step toward a future filled with per­son­al dis­cov­ery and free­dom.