In the chap­ter titled “The Tor­toise and The Hare,” the pro­tag­o­nist Howard W. Camp­bell, Jr. finds him­self in Israel, fac­ing a tri­al that he feels is immi­nent and over­whelm­ing. He express­es a sense of res­ig­na­tion, remark­ing that while he is phys­i­cal­ly con­fined, the nar­ra­tives of his­to­ry and art are still at play. As the tri­al approach­es, Camp­bell notes that many will tes­ti­fy against him, but no one will stand in his defense. The pros­e­cu­tion plans to intro­duce record­ings of his broad­casts, mak­ing him his own harsh­est crit­ic.

An array of char­ac­ters joins the pro­ceed­ings, notably Bernard B. O’Hare, who trav­els to irri­tate the pros­e­cu­tion with irrel­e­vant tes­ti­mo­ny, and Heinz Schild­knecht, a for­mer friend turned adver­sary who brings a sur­pris­ing cred­i­bil­i­ty to his claims against Camp­bell. This dynam­ic is com­pli­cat­ed by Schildknecht’s back­ground as a Jew and an active mem­ber of the anti-Nazi under­ground dur­ing the war, lend­ing weight to his alle­ga­tions.

Two oth­er for­mer asso­ciates, Dr. Lionel J. D. Jones and Iona Potapov (alias George Kraft), are unable to appear but send affi­davits that pro­vide lit­tle sup­port for Camp­bell. Jones claims Camp­bell is a mar­tyr for the Nazi cause, while Kraft sug­gests that Camp­bell was not sole­ly a Nazi but mere­ly an “idiot” in his polit­i­cal under­stand­ing.

As Camp­bell pre­pares for the tri­al, he exam­ines let­ters for­ward­ed from New York. One is from Cre­ative Play­things, Inc., which attempts to appeal to his nonex­is­tent role as an edu­ca­tor, dis­cussing the impor­tance of toys in fos­ter­ing a cre­ative envi­ron­ment for chil­dren. Camp­bell cyn­i­cal­ly responds, assert­ing that real-life expe­ri­ences are far more impact­ful than toys, dis­miss­ing the notion that chil­dren should be shield­ed from the harsh­er real­i­ties of life.

The sec­ond let­ter pitch­es an invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ty in a tung­sten mine, reflect­ing a com­mer­cial inter­est in him. The final and most sur­pris­ing let­ter, from some­one iden­ti­fy­ing as Harold J. Spar­row, reveals that he is the true iden­ti­ty of Frank Wirta­nen, claim­ing to have recruit­ed Camp­bell as an Amer­i­can agent dur­ing World War II and promis­ing to affirm Campbell’s effec­tive­ness.

In the tur­moil of impend­ing tri­al and rev­e­la­tions of his past, Camp­bell con­tem­plates his iden­ti­ty. He feels nau­se­at­ed at the prospect of free­dom, con­tem­plat­ing a sym­bol­ic hang­ing of his for­mer self, Howard W. Camp­bell, Jr., as he grap­ples with the real­i­ties of his actions and their con­se­quences .