“How about you, Colonel Klink,” Bob says to the German. “You like zee puzzy?”

“You will go on the Harley Davidsons?” the German says.

“How else?”

“Wonderful!”

They ride off a few minutes later, Pedro and Bob on one bike, Johnny and the German on another. Bull goes to bed, and Antonia, Elijah, Real Deal, and Yuma play five-card stud. They talk about going to New Orleans when this is over, and Elijah tells stories about when he lived there back when Spain still claimed it.

“Just like now, whatever you wanted, someone there had,” he says. “Every way to kill yourself you could think of.”

Bob and the others get to the cathouse, which is really a trailer park strung with Christmas lights, a double-wide serving as parlor and bar. Jenny’s long gone, but Pedro finds another girl to his liking, and the others choose from the rest.

The men gather in the parlor afterward to drink, play pool, and flirt with the whores. The German teaches them a drinking song, “Ein Prosit, ein Prosit, der Gemütlichkeit, Ticky Tocky Ticky Tocky, Oi oi oi,” and they sing it so loudly so many times, the bouncer tells them to hit the road.

Back at Bull’s, the card game winds down. Antonia and Elijah go to their cabin, and Antonia settles into bed to read.

“What’s The Other Side of Midnight?” Elijah asks about the paperback in her hands.

“It’s trash,” she says. “Rich people doing each other dirt. She loves him, he doesn’t love her, he loves her, she doesn’t love him, they marry the wrong people. It goes on and on. The writer must’ve been being paid by the word.”

“We sure got lucky, didn’t we?” Elijah says. “The way this worked out with Beaumont?”

“At least we won’t waste any more time searching,” Antonia says.

“Or dealing with Bob’s tantrums.”

Bob and the others return, and Antonia turns out the light and pulls the shade.

“I don’t feel like dealing with a bunch of drunks,” she says.

“Me neither,” Elijah says.

He lies down beside her and drifts off to the whisper of turning pages.

After a long, fidgety day, the Fiends bust out of their cabins as soon as the sun sets. Bull grills hamburgers and sells them for a quarter—fifty cents with chili and cheese—and Bob passes a bottle of tequila.

“Where’s the Kraut?” Johnny says.

“He took off this morning,” Bull says. “Looked like hell.”

Fed and buzzed, the Fiends mount up and ride to Beaumont’s place, stashing their bikes in the garage. Beaumont invites them inside. They shoot the shit on the patio in the middle of the house while waiting for Jesse.