Rawlins is very angry with John Grady, who defends himself by saying that some things (meaning passionate love affairs) aren't reasonable. After several days of hard riding, John Grady and Rawlins are put in a small jail cell in an adobe building and find Blevins there with broken feet. A fourth dweller in the cell, an old man, tells the boys that Blevins has killed three men, but Blevins says only one of the men died. After earning money on a farm for two months, Blevins went back to Encantada to retrieve his pistol. Having his horse was not enough for Blevins, and his return to the town where he retrieved his horse has now jeopardized three lives (his own, John Grady's, and Rawlins'). During a transfer south to Saltillo prison, Blevins is shot and killed in the woods. John Grady and Rawlins, after much fighting in the Saltillo prison yard, are both severely wounded. Finally, John Grady is given an envelope of money by the commandant, and they are released. They figure out that Duena Alfonsa, the great aunt of Alejandra, the young girl John Grady loves, has bought their freedom.
Rawlins decides to go home to Texas by way of Nuevo Larado, but John Grady wants to see Alejandra and also try to get their horses back. Rawlins is afraid for John Grady, who reassures him that he is not Blevins. John Grady makes it to La Purisima where the great aunt tells John Grady that Alejandra has promised never to see him again in turn for her great-aunt sending the money to release him from prison. The great-aunt, Duena Alfonsa, also tells John Grady how he has disappointed Senor Rocha by lying and denying any knowledge of Blevins. John Grady claims he wasn't allowed to tell his side of the story, but she says that does not matter. She gives him a horse and he rides to Torreon where he calls Alejandra in Mexico City. She agrees to meet him in Zacatecas, and they both take trains to meet there. Despite their love and his entreaties, she refuses to marry him. He gets drunk but makes his way back to Torreon and the grullo horse, the wild one he first broke with Rawlins a few months before.
