- Frank gets home that night and finds Emil's horse in the stable. He goes through the house, but finds no one.
- Becoming more and more angry, he gets his shotgun, a Winchester 405.
- As he leaves the house, the narrator notes, he has no intention of using his weapon at all. He doesn't really believe he has any reason to do so. He only wants to feel "like a desperate man" (4.7.2).
- Frank stops before going into the orchard, and then decides to go back to the road, where a dense hedge conceals the orchard.
- As he goes there, he wonders to himself why Emil would have left his horse in the stable.
- At the corner where the hedge ends and the wheat field begins, Frank stops again. He hears some noise, a murmuring noise, like "water coming from a spring" (4.7.4).
- He parts the leaves of the hedge and peers through. There, he sees Emil lying in the grass with a woman, whom, for a second, he thinks might be one of Alexandra's farm girls.
- But it's only a second. He hears a second murmuring, more distinct than the first, and he acts mechanically. He grabs his shotgun and fires three times without stopping.
- The two fall away from each other, and Emil lies completely still, except for spasms in his hand. But Marie is still alive, crying and trying to crawl toward the hedge.
- Frank drops his gun and runs, hearing the cries fade, as it sounds like Marie begins to choke.
- He drops to his knees, and hears a moan from behind the hedge. Groaning and praying himself, he runs into the house, where he's used to being comforted when he's angry or in a "frenzy" (4.7.15).
- That's when he realizes that he's killed someone, that a woman is bleeding to death in the orchard, and… that the woman is his wife.
- Frank often gets himself worked up by imagining himself in desperate situations. But this is the real deal.
- He runs about, unable to figure out what to do. Finally, he untethers Emil's horse, saddles it, and decides to ride to Hanover, where he hopes to catch the night train to Omaha.
- As he rides, he can't forget Marie's cries. He's terrified most of having to go back, that she might still be alive, mutilated and suffering.
- How could she let this happen? he thinks. He remembers the times when he got worked up into a frenzy and grabbed his shotgun, and she struggled to take it away from him. Once it fired in the process.
- Why did she have to take this chance with Emil? he thinks. He imagines her taking other men down into the orchard. But that would have been fine, he tells himself, as long as this had never happened.
- Frank stops his horse. She's not to blame, he thinks. He's the one who's been trying to break her, he wanted his wife to be as bitter as he is. He refused to share in any of the pleasures she made for herself.
- Why had she made him do this? he thinks furiously. Then he remembers her cries, and he sobs, "Maria!"
- Halfway to Hanover, Frank stops to vomit. All he wants is to be able to go back home, to his own bed, and be comforted by his wife.