Titch and Wash head back to Norfolk. While Wash understands Titch’s reasoning, Wash nevertheless feels “anger” and “betrayal” because he thinks that Titch tried to get rid of him (168). They seek passage on a new ship with a strict captain named Michael Holloway and a friendly second named Jacob Ibel. As the ship takes off, Wash thinks he catches a glimpse of the bounty hunter and imagines him to be “cruel, hawkish, without mercy” (170).

While they are out at sea, Titch asks Michael and Jacob why they’re setting out so early for the north. They confess to him that they are seeking the wreck of a whaler to find and take the oil buried on a nearby island. They sail north into colder waters, disembarking in the bay. Titch looks for someone who will guide him to Mr. Wilde’s last known camp, and they find an old, deaf man who Titch recognizes as Mr. Wilde’s assistant, Peter House. Titch realizes that Mr. Wilde is alive, and together they take a sled to the camp “into the great, echoing domes of snow” (178).