This chapter acts out in human tragedy what the previous chapter discussed in the abstract: the idea of the world as a realm of endless, irreconcilable conflict. When Sotillo's forces land and take possession of the harbor, prisoners are taken, Captain Mitchell is forcibly abused, and Teresa is (indirectly) killed. No vast ideal motivates Sotillo: he is after plunder which has vanished, and his use of military power amounts to a groping in the darkness for knowledge, in essense no different from his prisoners who perform the same task helpless in their cell. Knowledge -- the true whereabouts of the silver -- is denied to all parties, and the subsequent action will proceed on the basis of mistaken judgment, self-deception, and outright trickery. Throughout, the metaphor of "war time" is used to portray a world in which the strong triumph by virtue of their strength, toward goals defined by pure greed.