Felicity falls asleep on cue, and the group observes a large tether now pointing roughlynorth-east, and about twenty smaller ones in all directions (rather thicker than the many smaller ones that they saw in London). Gertrude and Audrey take bearings; the others go into the centre of the town to see if they can hunt more Marias.

They find, instead, the beginnings of a mob muttering about “that Mrs Jones”, a hundred people or so working themselves up; Lin Tan runs back to warn the others, while Bessie and Milly go after Maria. (They try to evade; but Milly is obvious about it, while Bessie sneaks about and punches them from behind. These are much more substantial than the ones recently seen in London, but they go up in flames quite readily, and leave no remains.)

Lin Tan gets a confused Mrs Jones to safety at the police station, while Gertrude waits for the mob and tries to talk it down, with limited success, making herself a target too. She ends up running away to try to draw some of them off, while occasional half-bricks and lanterns start smashing the downstairs windows. Audrey attempts to dismiss the crowd from the upstairs window, then tries to wake Felicity, but without success even when poking her in the arm with a sharp knife; she smothers the fire downstairs. Gertrude gets back, and they start carrying Felicity into the garden.

Lin Tan gets back with the first wave of the police, which is about as the members of the mob start to stagger around looking confused; it’s been about half an hour since this all started. The fire brigade deals with the remainder of the fire; the group finds new lodging.