The dead white people get coffins and the black people just get thrown into a ditch. Tea Cake runs away from the job and makes it back to Janie. He suggests that they leave immediately and go back down to the Everglades. Tea Cake finds many of his old buddies. He and Janie practice shooting more.
Odd things start happening to Tea Cake.
He gets a bad headache, he's hungry one minute and not the next, has a nightmare, and throws a glass of water on the floor. Janie gets nervous and gets a doctor. The doctor thinks that Tea Cake was bit by a mad dog, and he warns Janie to stay out of his way when he gets in a fit of rage. He gives her some pills to give to Tea Cake and says that he's going to order the serum that Tea Cake should have had immediately after being bit. Janie will do or spend anything to make Tea Cake better.