The posse takes out their ear-plugs and has a pow-wow in Tom Sutherland's house, but isn't entirely sure what to do. Finally, Robert decides to go looking for Tom Sutherland's spirit in the hunting grounds. Everyone else hangs out, except for Bart, who puts his ear-plugs back in and goes to sleep.

In the hunting grounds Robert calls Tom's spirit, and is able to get it to come. Tom is confused, and at first thinks that Robert is his guardian angel, there to help him find his way. Robert of course disavows him of this notion, but says he may be able to help him find his way anyway. Tom tells Robert about his last day, where he rode out to the ranch to see Tina. Rachel saw him on his way out of town, and he told her he was going to look at some trees. Robert is disgusted by this clumsy lie. The next time he saw Rachel she was waking him up, asking if he loved her, and screaming him to death.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, they hear screaming again and take off, leaving Bart and Robert in the house. The screaming turns out to be Minnie Tewkes in the preacher's house. Arriving there, they are just in time to find her dead, her hair bone white. They turn around and race back to their friends.

Who are having an interesting time. Bart awakens to growling from Ginger, and finds that one of his wax ear-plugs is stuck to the pillow. Rachel is there, looking normal rather than evil. She asks him, "Do you think I'm pretty?" He says yes. "You would never leave me, right?" He says no. At this point the posse storms back in, and Rachel hisses, turns transparent, and vanishes. This horrible sight makes Bart faint again.

And meanwhile, in the hunting grounds, Robert has given Tom his honest assessment of what has happened - Rachel must have followed him, run off and died somehow, turned evil, and the killed him and Tina and many others. Tom can't take this, and runs off crying - down into the roots of the great tree! Chasing him, Robert finds himself quickly deeper than he'd like. Suddenly a huge skeletal form emerges from between two roots and eats Tom in one bite. Robert awakens from his trance yelling in terror, mystifying the posse. Elder Tanner isn't pleased to hear that Tom has gone to a bad place, and stays up that night in a vigil for Tom's soul.

The next morning they and Ranger Rampant ride out to the ranch (they've filled in the ranger on their suspicions). Between Bart and the ranger they're able to figure out a good search pattern for Rachel's body, figuring she ran away from the ranch after discovering Tom and Tina. By noon, they've found a deep tangle of brush and barb wire, with a body shadowed in the center. They get some wire cutters and wade in, wondering how the body could be so deep in the wire, and why there is so much of it.

The answer turns out to be that it's not real barb wire, but some sort of evil plant. It tangles most of the party as they furiously try to cut their way free, sucking blood through its barbs. Bart is particularly savaged. The ranger throws something incendiary into the center, which finally makes the plant stop tangling, and they retreat to wait for it to burn.

Returning a while later when the fire has burned out, they find Rachel waiting there. She's upset - how could they burn her beautiful body! Now no one will want her! Elder Tanner tries to reason with her that it's time to rest, but she's having none of it and tries to kill him with screams. Before she can, however, Cady cuts her down with a soul blast (first narrowly missing the Elder with one). She vanishes, and this simplifies the gathering of her body considerably. They take the body back to town and hurriedly bury it (though with all the proper religious trimmings). Hopefully this will solve the problem, and they head to sleep... but post a watch.

While Bart and James are on watch, it becomes evident that it didn't work. Rachel comes back and tries to catch Bart's eye without alerting James. Bart pretends it worked, but tells James what he is up to on his way out. The posse watches from the upper windows of the boarding house as Bart goes out back to talk to Rachel.

She wants to know if she's pretty, and if he would leave her, and the conversation is going well until Bart starts telling her that he's a bad man, and a deserter. She isn't so pleased by this, and finally decides that he is a bad man and would leave her. So she tries to scream him to death, and despite weathering one scream, the second one gets him. Bart drops to the ground, stone dead, as the posse pounds down the stairs (and James jumps gracefully out the window, who knew he had it in him?). Rachel vanishes again.

They take Bart over to the church. Robert goes to the spirit world to help him find his way, but can't find him. He asks eagle, who arrives and pokes at Bart's body, pulling out first Bart's soul and then the evil soul from the tattoo. Both fall back into the body. Robert emerges from his trance and tells people that something strange is happening... maybe Bart isn't going to die. Or at least, maybe he's coming back.

The next day comes with a new plan, from Cady. It seems clear that one of the young men has to sweet talk Rachel somehow. Robert, of course, won't lie. Elder Tanner has a similar problem. And James is just ugly. Ranger Rampant volunteers, of course, until it's pointed out that he can't hear her. So Cady decides she'll have to do it, and emerges from her disguise kit a handsome young man. She goes and takes a room at the boarding house, and waits. Everyone else waits in the church with Bart's body, which starts to smell over the course of the day.

Cady meets with success when Rachel turns up to fluff a pillow. They get to talking, and Cady to flirting, and Rachel ends up inviting Cady to dinner. Which she accepts. Dinner at the O'Ryan house looks good, but tastes of ashes and worse things, straining Cady's poker face. Finally, after dinner, Rachel starts asking if she is pretty and if Cady would leave her, and Cady lays on the charm thickly. Finally, Cady gives Rachel a kiss, and Rachel fades away peacefully.

The next day Ranger Rampant leaves, and Bart is buried in a shallow grave. At the end of that day, however, he re-emerges, a bit confused - he remembers only a strange nightmare involving the army, and fighting, and running, and chopping wood. They ride out of town quickly, before the towns folk find out, and Bart drinks a lot to no effect. He's still dead. But now he's walking around.

The posse is starting to feel a pull again to follow the coin, as their evil taskmasters rein them in. Strangely, Bart feels no such compulsion...

LB: We are not waffly! It's not worth it! If we're all dead and have a hat full of blue chips, that's so not worth it!

LB: Between this and the call girl incident, Cady has decided that she must be the party's Ministry of Kissin' People. We'll have to see if that's worth the trouble.