Summary

After lighting the fire, Moran thinks about his impaired knee, and decides to fashion a stick to help him walk. Realizing the knife is with his son, he decides to use their umbrella as a walking aid instead – he climbs up to a knoll, and imagines he is seeing his son returning from the trip. Moran ruminates on various things, particularly on his diminishing food supply. He again tries to remember what he is supposed to do with Molloy when he finds him; he finds himself turning away from these “missing instructions” in the “depths of his memory…towards other unknowns” (143). Moran says that he should relay an incident that occurred before he continues on with his report.

On the evening of the second day, Moran was sitting by the fire, waiting for his son to return. A man appeared and came right up...