Summary

Chapter Seven, “Carnival of Alligators,” opens several months after the departure of Riggs and his men. The environment has continued to shift, and Kerans, Bodkin, and Beatrice have grown increasingly isolated from one another. One morning, a hydroplane arrives and interrupts the quiet of the lagoon. Soon afterward, Kerans hears further movement, and divines that the pilot of the hydroplane, who wears a white suit, is not alone. He exits his domicile to observe several other ships tearing through the jungle, destroying the vegetation and bombing the water.

Kerans moves to leave in his catamaran, but it is unmoored from where he has lashed it by the disturbance in the water and quickly destroyed by the alligators. A caiman spots Kerans in the low rushes and moves toward him. Kerans is able to get himself ashore just in time to avoid being bitten...