Summary

Chapter 26 opens from Juke’s point-of-view. From his jail cell, Juke could hear a woman, whom he assumed was black, singing. The sound comforted him.

One day, he got a cellmate: Bob Pruitt, a millworker who George Wilson was punishing for talking to a reporter about an accident at the mill that caused Pruitt’s son to be badly injured. Pruitt told Juke that George hired a new man to make and sell whiskey for him outside of town. Pruitt suggested that someone ought to kill George, and that Juke would be the man to do it, since he already killed Genus. Juke halfheartedly denied killing Genus, and said that he didn’t like the way killing feels.

After Pruitt was bailed out, Juke was alone in the jail again, save for the bailiff and the mysterious woman. One night, he thought he...