Part 3 Chapter 25 Summary

Harry and Hookum Sikh walk around the fortifications firing chain shot into the jungle. The community's problems increase. An epidemic of cholera is rumored to be starting, and the ramparts continue to melt and be reinforced between the intermittent periods of rain. The flies are so thick around the Padre as he reads Bible passages to the dying men that he sometimes imagines the flies are part of the text itself. The conditions in the hospital are horrendous, with the sick and dying crying out in pain.

A debate over the proper treatment of cholera victims erupts. Community members write the name of their chosen doctor on a card that they keep with them at all times. Sometimes people cross out one doctor's name and write the other's, if convincing arguments are made on one side. At the end of a...