- Sick of waiting—and a bit more worried than she originally let on—Elizabeth goes out looking for her husband.
- As she walks, Elizabeth debates whether or not she's being overly jumpy/foolish. Ultimately, she decides not to go to the pub to find him; instead, she calls at a neighbor's and asks if her husband made it home. He had, and he was back out at the pub now.
- Mrs. Rigley treats Mrs. Bates with respect, acknowledging that she probably wouldn't want to go into the pub herself to check for Bates. So, Mrs. Rigley offers to go down there herself and ask her husband about Mr. Bates's whereabouts. Mrs. Bates waits in her house while Mrs. Rigley runs that errand.
- Then, the Rigleys return together. Mr. Rigley said Walt was not at the Prince of Wales, and Mrs. Rigley suggested he might be at another pub, the Yew.
- Rigley claims he hasn't seen Walt since they were knocking off work for the day. They had left Walt behind, and he said he would catch up with them later.
- Rigley offers to go look for Walt at someplace he calls "Dick's," escorting Mrs. Bates home before setting off on that errand.
- Mrs. Bates settles into her sewing again. In the distance, she can hear the 9 o'clock deputy going down into the mine for a safety check.
- At about a quarter to 10, Walt's mom shows up. Uh oh... that can't be good.
- The older woman is in quite a state, so Elizabeth gets worried that Walt is dead. She asks if that's the case, and the older woman clarifies that he's (hopefully) not. Jack Rigley had simply come by her house to say he had had an accident and asked that she go sit with Elizabeth.
- They sit there for a bit chatting about Walt.
- Then, at around 10:30, a man shows up saying they are bringing Walt. He is dead.
- The man explains how Walt died; apparently he got trapped down in the mine when the ceiling fell in, and he was smothered as a result. Some men are about to bring Walt's body home (guess all that talk about men carrying Walt home was pretty prophetic, huh?).
- As Elizabeth and her mother-in-law are waiting for the men to come, Elizabeth starts preparing to lay Walt out in the parlor (whoa, another piece of bleak prophecy—Elizabeth totally called that he would be sleeping on the floor that night).
- The manager of the "pit," the doctor, and a collier named Jim bring Walt's body into the house and lay him on the floor in the parlor. In the process, one of the men manages to knock over a vase of chrysanthemums in there.
- Then the three men chat with Elizabeth and her mother-in-law. The manager is upset, lamenting the fact that Walt was left down there alone. He makes a curious comment about how it was almost like the cave-in had happened on purpose.
- At this point, Annie calls down to her mom, wondering what was going on and asking if her dad was home. She was concerned because she could hear a weird noise (which was her grandmother moaning). Elizabeth goes up to calm her down, and the men leave.
- When Elizabeth returns, she and her mother-in-law work on laying Walt out formally. That involves stripping him down, washing him, etc.
- Walt's mom remarks that she thinks he looks pretty peaceful, and she hopes that he "made his peace" before passing (2.127).
- The story ends with Elizabeth's reflections on death, marriage, and childbearing. She also contemplates her relationship with Walt in particular, now looking at it in an entirely new light.