Father Dámaso begins his sermon, the transcript provided by a sexton. Occasionally, Dámaso loses his place and goes on tangents. The speech is antagonistic to secular government and argues in favor of religious influence in overseeing a country. As most of the congregation loses interest, Elías appears and warns Ibarra to stay near the priest during the benediction.

Father Salví is scheduled to give the benediction at the new school. As a ceremonial gesture, “the yellow man”—a foreman—is to use his designed pulley system to drop a time capsule into the foundation beneath the school. Ibarra does not abide Elías’s warning and enters the trench. The massive time capsule breaks the rudimentary pulley system and crashes into the pit. Ibarra is suspected to have been crushed—but instead, it is the “yellow man” who died.

Elías and Ibarra meet some time after the incident at the school. He informs the idealist that he has enemies (who see his education and wealth as a threat) but should not let on that he knows this. He also delves into how he came to learn something nefarious was going to happen, and that he physically intervened with the yellow man during the release of the time capsule.