Handcuffed, John Grady Cole and Lacey Rawlins are driven north on their horses for three days. At night, they are manacled to their saddle stirrups and forced to sleep under one blanket this way. They arrive in Encantada, and, while sitting on a bench on the main street, John Grady gestures to two little girls, asking for cigarettes. Rawlins calls him a ladies’ man and talks to him for the first time since their capture.
John Grady and Rawlins start to argue. John Grady wants to get their problems out in the open and says they are there because of some lie. Rawlins retorts, “Or some truth.” He reminds John Grady that he tried to reason with him (the implication is that he’s referring to Alejandra). John Grady says some things aren’t reasonable. Grudgingly, Rawlins says he has not quit John Grady. The little girls bring the cigarettes and ask if they are robbers.
John Grady and Rawlins are taken to an adobe prison on the north end of town and find that Blevins is already in the cell. They question him without results. But an old man, also imprisoned in the same cell, tells them that Blevins has killed three men. Blevins says only one died. In order to retrieve his pistol, he returned to Encantada after working for two months. Then he told his captors about John Grady and Rawlins. He can’t walk because his feet have been broken.
John Grady dreams of horses that night as he sleeps. In the morning, Rawlins is questioned and asked to strip off his trousers; he is struck on the back of the head. They say he is lying about who he is. He says they are cowboys who have come to work in Mexico. He is asked why the horses have no brands or papers. Then John Grady is questioned. They are accused of having come to Mexico to steal horses. John Grady is told they will be taken to Saltillo.
John Grady tells his interrogators, “There aint but one truth.” But they persist in asking questions about Blevins. Back in the cell, John Grady tells Rawlins that he thinks they want a deal to kill Blevins. This upsets Rawlins, but then he gets angry with Blevins and threatens him. John Grady says, “Let it go.”
Three days later they are taken from the dark cell into the sunlight and put on a flatbed truck with three guards. They are heading back south to Saltillo. They stop for a break, and the captain has ordered a guard to take Blevins away from the other two. Before he goes, Blevins takes off one boot and gives John Grady his money. The captain and the charro take him into the trees and after “a long time” John Grady and Rawlins hear a pistol shot.
In Saltillo the truck makes various stops before they arrive at the big prison. While waiting in a room, John Grady tells the captain he didn’t have to kill Blevins. The captain tells him, “A man does not change his mind.” They are locked in a cell and sleep on iron bunks with greasy mattresses. After breakfast in the morning, they are turned loose into a common yard where they have to fight all day. The next day it is the same thing. By the third day, the fights are mostly over, and on the fourth day, Sunday, they buy new clothes with Blevins’ money. They share a can of tomato soup they’ve purchased. Rawlins laments, “All over a goddamned horse.” John Grady says it is not about a horse.
A man called Perez has them brought to him and he offers them protection, but no deal is made. The next day, Rawlins is attacked and cut with a knife. John Grady takes him to the gate, and the captors take Rawlins. John Grady goes to see Perez, who, it is rumored, is not a prisoner at all. How much power Perez has no one knows. John Grady arranges to buy a knife. He has another conversation with Perez, which involves a little speech from Perez about the mind of the Anglo. Perez says Americans are godless. There is a prison fight initiated against John Grady by a hired “cuchilero,” or slasher (a fighter with a knife). John Grady is badly injured, but he survives because he kills the other man with his knife. John Grady is taken to Perez’s room. As his wounds are healing, he thinks of his father and horses. Finally, he is taken to the commandante’s office and handed an envelope of money and learns Rawlins is waiting outside for him.
John Grady and Rawlins are let out of the prison and catch a bus to the center of Saltillo. They go to a hotel for food and a room. In their conversations, John Grady makes it clear that he does not want to leave Mexico, because he wants to see Alejandra and he doesn’t want to leave the horses. Rawlins is worried for John Grady and talks about Blevins. He still can’t believe that Blevins was shot.
They figure that the money John Grady was given in the envelope and their release was procured by Alejandra’s great-aunt. They buy new clothes and Rawlins catches a bus for Nuevo Larado. John Grady spends a week seeing surgeons, and, finally, the stitches are removed from his face and belly.
John Grady takes a bus heading north to Monclova.
