This brief chapter piles one evil thing on top of another evil thing, and finally Kino is reduced to desperation. Significantly, everything evil that happens to him is directly related to the Pearl of the World, and Juana knows this. At the beginning of the chapter, she silently rises from her sleep, goes quietly to the fireplace stone and removes the great pearl. Then, like a shadow, she disappears through the doorway. A rage surges in Kino, and he catches up with her at the beach just at the moment that her hand is raised to throw the pearl back into the Gulf. Kino strikes her; "his teeth [are] bared. He [hisses] at her like a snake." Already, there is a major change occurring within Kino; he is becoming more and more like an animal — even in his treatment of Juana who, because of her upbringing, accepts such treatment. She knows that there is murder in the heart of her husband, and she accepts it without understanding it. In the same way, she knows that she needs a man; she does not know why, but she knows that Kino is a man, and she cannot live without a man.
For the third time, Kino is attacked by some dark, unknown figures. This time the pearl is knocked from his hand, but this time, Kino is able to shove his knife into one of the assailants before the others knock him unconscious. He remembers hands and fingers, however, searching his body before he loses total consciousness.
When Juana recovers from the blows that Kino gave her, she follows her husband and finds him lying unconscious on the path, with a dead stranger close beside him. Juana now realizes that something of the old peace, the peace that existed before the time of the pearl, is gone forever. It is ironic that only a day before, they thought that all future times would be counted in terms of all the happiness they would have as a result of Kino's finding the pearl. "They knew that time would now date from Kino's pearl, and that they would discuss this moment for many years to come." In contrast, the future is now to be counted in terms of sadness and misfortune from the day of the discovery of the pearl.
