Edgar swims along the bank of the river, unable to find something to cling to or pull himself out of the water. Edgar finds a pine with a low-hanging branch and uses this to pull himself to land. There is no road on this side of the river, but there are farms; Edgar walks to a house and finds an unlocked kitchen door; he enters and sees a semi-extinguished house fire in the middle of the room. As the last of the fire dies, Edgar seeks out the tenants, and a drunk man stumbles out of bed and falls on the floor.

Edgar tries the barn and finds the man’s infant and wife. He recalls stories about a family named Selby and guesses this is their residence. Not wanting to further upset the crying baby and mother, Edgar leaves as quietly as possible to seek aid at another house. Along the path from the Selby house, he finds the scalped and “mangled” body of a girl and suspects the “savages” (211) started the fire as well. Creeping around, Edgar discovers the body of a dead Native American nearby and steals the corpse’s musket.