The narrator wakes up blindfolded in the kitchen. He is surprised to see that the Sergeant’s bicycle has moved from its previous position in the hallway by itself. He decides not to be afraid, because he cannot “afford to be frighted of anything which could assist” (176) him in his escape. He observes the bicycle’s beauty and decides that he likes it, “even better than I had liked some people with two legs. I liked her unassuming competence, her docility, the simple dignity of her quiet way” (177). The narrator realizes he and the bicycle are both afraid of the Sergeant, and that they have to help each other.

He takes the bicycle outside and they ride off toward the right, away from eternity and the direction the Sergeant and MacCruiskeen went. He knows the battle must be over and the one-legged men must have lost their faculties as a result of seeing the painted bicycle. He and the Sergeant’s bicycle are attuned and the ride is pleasurable. He realizes he has arrived at old Mathers’s house and is near home.

The narrator is startled to see a light in the upstairs window. He searches the house and doesn’t find anyone, but is left with the sense that there is “someone unspeakably inhuman and diabolical” inside (184). He goes back outside to the bicycle but can’t decide what to do. He decides to throw a large stone through the window. He does, and a shadow appears at the window. 

He hears sound behind him and turns around to see a large policeman. The policeman asks the narrator to follow him for a private conversation. The policeman climbs through a window into Mathers’s house and the narrator follows. They go through a narrow passage and the narrator realizes he is in a tiny police station inside the walls of the house.

The narrator realizes the policeman has the head of Mathers. He says he thought Mathers was dead, and the policeman says he also thought the narrator was dead. The narrator says he escaped, and the policeman asks if he is sure. He isn’t.

The policeman introduces himself as Policeman Fox, and asks what the narrator thinks of his station. The narrator replies that it is nice but wonders why it is inside the walls of another house. Fox says it’s to save money on the rental rates. The narrator prepares to leave, planning to go to his own house, but first asks if the policeman knows where the money box is. Fox asks the narrator if he likes strawberry jam, then about his thoughts on the “underground paradise” he visited with MacCruiskeen and the Sergeant (193). The narrator replies that he thought it was miraculous, and Fox says there is a simple explanation for it. He elaborates that he found the money box; it is what made the miracles of “eternity” work because it contained four ounces of omnium. The narrator thinks of all the impossible things he can do with the omnium, which Fox says is back at his house now. He again moves to leave and go home.