Pascal leads the narrator (as Sadie) on a walk across an iron bridge and along a footpath beneath a limestone overhang. He explains that ancient peoples used carved notches in the rock to attach animal skins as walls, making them feel they are standing in prehistoric dwellings. The narrator feels uneasy, as if Bruno's ancient humans are invisibly present.

Pascal points out the Château de Gaume and recounts the history of the Cagots, the religious wars, persecution, and the château's conversion to a prison—getting some details wrong, though the narrator silently knows better. He cites Lacombe's view that figments of an older species may still linger, and explains that Jean Violaine disagrees, leaving Le Moulin's members as 'children of a divorce' between the two thinkers.

Descending toward a river bend used as a swimming hole, Pascal warns that the government plans to divert the river to serve large agricultural irrigators, threatening the region. He frames the issue as one for locals to solve, distancing Le Moulin. The narrator privately reflects on Lucien's complaint that Pascal admits nothing, and reaffirms her own neutral mission: to find or manufacture evidence that the Moulinards are a threat so police can shut down the commune.

They watch boys taking turns on a rope swing. A small boy in French braids and a beaded necklace directs the others, then climbs forty feet up the tree, crosses himself, and jumps fearlessly into the river. Pascal reveals the boy had attended Le Moulin's open-enrollment school—modeled on a 1960s English experiment—but was expelled after he impregnated his teacher when he was eleven.

Pascal recounts how the commune debated the philosophical question of when adulthood begins but ultimately asked the teacher to leave. The boy's local parents agreed not to involve authorities if the teacher surrendered the baby for them to raise; she complied, gave birth in their care, declined to visit, and moved to Corsica. The boy, now thirteen, lives with grandparents. Pascal frames the resolution as humane community dialogue rather than state intervention.