The heroes had already concocted a bold and audacious plan centering on Cady's incognito spell to get the coin out of the museum car. It goes off without a hitch, and that's all we have to say about it. They send a telegram and receive by crow-mail some gold dust and train tickets in payment.

The next morning they're having breakfast and contemplating getting out of town when an older man approaches them. In a very loud voice, he tells them, "THE MARSHALL SAID YOU WERE THE ONES TO SEE ABOUT A PROBLEM I HAVE" and flashes a Texas Ranger badge at them. They try to say something to him, but he points at his ears. "I CAN'T HEAR ANYTHING RIGHT NOW." He produces a slate and some chalk. They suggest that going upstairs would be a good idea to make the discussion more private, and he agrees. Thankfully, Robert discovers that he understands Indian sign, thus providing a quicker method than the slate.

It turns out that there is a town back in Texas, Sweet Home, where something has been screaming folks to death. The Ranger happened upon it and had to deafen himself with his pistol in order to escape town to get some backup. Here in El Paso, Marshal Stoudenmire indicated to him that the posse might have some experience in dealing with weird stuff. The screaming thing is killing people every night, so there's no time to lose. The group, warming up to the hero thing, signs up immediately. They do, however, buy some bees-wax to stop their ears with before heading off, as well as some castor oil. "IT'S PRAIRIE TICK SEASON, YOU MIGHT WANT SOME CASTOR OIL."

The trip there is mercifully free of prairie ticks, possibly because everyone sleeps with a kerchief tied around their face. The only strange event is that Bart is awakened the final morning of the journey by a jackalope sniffing his nose! No one else sees it, and they give him a bit of a ribbing about whether the jackalope was really there. The only other thing about the trip is that the ranger, whose name is "Longhorn" George Rampant, fancies himself a ladies man, and spends his trip being roughly charming to Cady and Tobey at the top of his voice. Cady makes fun of him while he can't hear for a while, but eventually it just seems mean.

Also that last morning, Cady uses her fortune telling on Tobey, and it goes somewhat awry. She sees a screaming, transparent tattered woman, and some barb wire, and then she sees Tobey fighting many things she is glad not to get too much of a good look at, and Tobey dying and being buried, and then confusingly fighting more things afterwards... no one knows what to make of this.

Coming in to Sweet Home, they note that the farmers have put up barb wire fences, which have obviously been cut and patched in some places. They also run into John Johnson hoeing in his fields, and he is happy to see the Ranger and some reinforcements. He's convinced that the local rancher is somehow to blame. In the town itself, they talk to Major Tom, a Confederate veteran with one arm who runs the store and the bar. He pours them free drinks and gives them a rundown on the deaths. They started with Tom (a different Tom!) Sutherland, a new arrival (for Sweet Home new is a year ago). Afterwards there was a day off, but then the smith was killed, and then the preacher. Then Seamus O'Ryan tried to go for help, and was killed in the daytime as he tried to ride out of town. His wife Colleen was killed that night, but their daughter Rachel is still alive. Several others have been killed since, including the little Upman girl, Tina. The only recent arrival in town is Miss Minnie Tewkes, a schoolteacher who is living with the preacher.

The posse also interviews Minnie, who is a bundle of nerves. She doesn't know much about it, or whether the preacher had any ideas. The whole interview is mostly a loss, though they at least establish that she's scared.

"This town is a nice place, right?" "Well, it was, until a couple of weeks ago." - Minnie's question and Robert's blunt reply.

Then they all decide to ride out of town to the Circle O Ranch, run by Mr. Aux, except for Cady who rides the fences some to see what she can see (which turns out to be nothing). At the Circle O, the rest of the posse meets rancher Aux and learns that his daughter Tina was the first death at the ranch. Since then a few ranch hands have died, one going for help. Putting the timeline together makes the initial death Tom, Tina, and then the smith. Mr. Aux mentions that his Irish cook, Cookie, claims it's a banshee.

So of course the talk to Cookie. He thinks it's a banshee, except that those normally don't kill people themselves, they scream outside a house where someone will die. He's a general trove of Irish ghost stories, mostly confirming Cady's earlier attempts to think about how you deal with ghosts. The other interesting data from him is that Tom was seeing Tina for a couple months before things started. Everyone at the ranch knew, and it was all proper, but the town didn't know because they don't like the ranchers. Everyone thinks this is interesting. They stay and are fed dinner. Back at the boarding house, Cady and Longhorn get fed as well, and Cady observes Rachel O'Ryan helping make the beds. She's a young woman of maybe sixteen, fairly quiet and withdrawn. Cady then goes to observe the graveyard, but due to a miscasting of her spell observes the dead bodies all too well, becoming convinced that she's already dead. Or if not dead, it doesn't matter, since everyone is going to die.

When the rest of the posse rides back, they put wax in their ears (fearing the screaming thing after dark), complicating their attempts to find Cady. When they do find her, the fact that they can't hear her convinces her she really is dead. Thankfully, Robert removes the wax and things are sorted out. Bart stays with Cady while everyone else decides to go talk to Rachel. She's a great candidate to be a jealous killing spirit, except for not being dead. They head to the O'Ryan house.

That's all sorted out, though. After a few ineffective questions, Robert starts asking her how she felt about Tom (she liked him, and had hopes) and then asks her if she knew about him seeing Tina. This makes her made, and she starts to scream, turning from the mild girl into a tattered spectre. Everyone starts stuffing wax in their ears, and somehow Robert survives a couple of direct screams before he can get waxed. Not being able to hear seems like protection, and James starts doing last rites in an attempt to put her down. Elder Tanner and Robert head upstairs hoping to find her body somewhere (the don't). Tobey discovers that Rachel is insubstantial when she tries to gag her.

Unfortunately at this point Rachel realizes her screams aren't working and starts to try to stick her head into her target's before letting loose her scream. This gets around the ear plugs, and several posse members have narrow brushes with death. Rachel never gets a really good scream in, though, and they survive. Cady and Bart arrive in time to catch everyone running out. Cady does use her soul blast on Rachel and it works to some extent. The final straw occurs when Elder Tanner uses his protection miracle to fend Rachel off. This, combined with the soul blasts and her difficulties actually killing anyone cause her to vanish again. The posse is left huddled in Tom Sutherland's house (they ran there, hoping again to find her body there and again thwarted), with far too much of the night left to go...