Robert has a visitor as he camps outside of town far away from any women. The visitor is a detective named Daniel Turney, who claims to have been watching the Dragon Blossom House. One question leads to another, and Daniel learns a lot about the posse. He ends up heading to intercept them and prevent them from traveling on the water.
Which he does, after a tense moment at the Kirin Inn. He tells them that Grimme's people are watching the docks too well for that to be safe, and recommends riding to Sacramento and taking the rail from there to Portland. There's a rail to Portland? Great! They head to Sacramento, Daniel in tow. He asks lots of questions on the trip there, and mostly accepts all the supernatural answers without comment. He also tells a few ghost stories of his own. Though it is never mentioned, it seems that Daniel's employers have deep pockets and are concerned with the Northern states. Everyone decides he's probably a Pinkerton working for the US Government. They let him tag along because he seems harmless and seems to know what he's getting into.
In Sacramento Cady and Bart take some time to gamble, and James and the others meet with the local CSA supporters, who want James's gun arm to make sure the mayoral elections in a month aren't unduly influenced. James allows as how he's just passing through, and they leave the job offer open if he comes back soon. Afterwards, the local Sheriff interrogates James a bit on the street to learn what the CSA supporter wanted. There's clearly a conflict here, and the posse is having none of it.
They travel up to Portland on an empty lumber car (it's cheaper, and the open car allows them to tie up James and Joseph, both of whose manitous are getting frisky). Everyone's evil spirit is unhappy to be traveling to Portland and alleged control by good shaman, so there are a lot of attempts at freedom on the way up. Only Cady's spirit succeeds - she's not even tied up, and jumps off the train. Bart goes after her and though they spend a while trying to get back on a train, ending up walking to a town some hours away, no lasting harm is done. Meanwhile, Daniel has James and Joseph locked up in the Portland jail while the others wait for Bart and Cady to catch up, for their own safety.
They purchase some mules and head for the mouth of the Columbia. The trip is green and mostly peaceful, until midway through when Cady spots a jackalope in the brush. She tries to soul blast it, but misses. This apparently makes it mad, and it comes back.
At this point it's important to mention that to prevent being possessed and running away, everyone (except Daniel) is tethered to the mule train.
The jackalope attacks, spearing Cady in the stomach. James starts shooting at it, but the damn thing is incredibly good at dodging. It decides discretion is the better part of rabbitivity and runs off again. Joseph, who has untied himself to go heal Cady, suddenly decides to run off after it. Bart then unties himself and runs down Joseph, who tries to persuade Bart that he's just looking for the jackalope, and then tries to shoot Bart with the blessed bullet meant for James. It creases Bart's skull, but that's all, and the gun has no more bullets in it. Bart uses the horse story to put the possessed preacher to sleep, and when he comes to he's recovered, and is once again tethered to the mule train.
Luckily, there are no further incidents. When they arrive at the coast, they are able to find the tribe they are looking for near the mouth of the Columbia river. Too Wet Dog tells them that he can only help the living, not Bart or Tobey, and that they will need to seal their tattoo with two pledge tattoos (one above, one below). One pledge will be to honor and protect the native peoples of this land. The other pledge should be decided by each person individually. Aside from that, the way will be hard, and painful - first they must purify, before they can have the tattoos. They agree to do these things.
The next day begins with a sweat lodge. After that, James, Joseph, and Cady are taken to a hill that overlooks the Pacific. There they are placed on bone hooks and suspended on giant wooden disks - sun wheels. Too Wet Dog tells them they will be there for three days.