- We're back to Robert Jordan and Primitivo, who are listening to the firing from the hilltop after the planes have left. After it stops, they know Sordo is lost.
- Maria comes up from the camp with the stew, giving some to Agustín and Eladio (who's replaced Anselmo), and then approaching Primitivo and Robert Jordan.
- Robert Jordan invites Maria to stay, but she has to return. Pilar is giving her "instruction," she says. She blushes and smiles.
- Primitivo is still very unhappy that they did not help Sordo.
- An hour passes. Robert Jordan sees riders coming down the slope of Sordo's hill, followed by riderless horses bearing the burden from the battle. Though he doesn't know it, one of them is carrying the heads.
- Lt. Berrendo, following the horses with a cavalry column, is thinking to himself about how barbarous that head business was. But it's standard policy for identification. He says a few more prayers.
- From his own vantage point on the road to La Granja, Anselmo sees the riders, recognizes El Sordo's rifle on one of the horses, and knows what's happened. He prays that he'll comport himself well in battle the next day.
- Anselmo reaches the camp, where Fernando is on sentry duty. He asks Fernando if he knows of Sordo's fate, and is told that Pablo has already told everyone of it.