boys to their parents. The family quickly moves past the event. Nine years go by, and Helton's incomparable work ethic continues the farm's prosperity. The Thompsons come to view Helton as one of the family; his traits of rarely speaking, never smiling, and continually playing the same song on his precious harmonica are oddities that they simply accept. An offensive and irritating stranger named Homer T. Hatch shows up at the farm. Like Helton, he has come to Texas from North Dakota, and says he is there to find Helton. Hatch annoys Thompson immediately with his grating banter and subtle insults. Hatch eventually reveals that he is a bounty hunter, and Helton is an escaped mental patient who must be returned to the asylum. Helton had killed his only brother with a pitchfork after he lost one of Helton's harmonicas and refused to replace it. Thompson is stunned by this news and unwilling to give up Helton, instinctively sensing that Hatch is an evil man. Thompson has a vision of Hatch driving a knife blade into Helton's stomach. The farmer rushes to Helton's defense, striking Hatch with an axe blade and killing him. Ellie comes on the scene only in time to see Hatch lying on the ground and Helton running away. The fleeing Helton, in the midst of an apparent "mad" episode, is killed by the sheriff's men. When found, Helton's body bears no mark of a knife; it appears that Hatch's attack on Helton was merely Thompson's hallucination. Thompson impresses on Ellie the importance of her swearing that she witnessed Hatch attacking Helton, and she reluctantly agrees. After a perfunctory trial, Thompson is acquitted on the ground of self-defense/defense of another. Thompson continues to relive the killing, sometime wondering if he could have sent Hatch away, other times certain that he had no choice. Worse, he is sure that the community regards him as not innocent, and fears that he has become an outcast. He decides to pay a visit on every household of the small farming community, accompanied by the unwilling Ellie, in an attempt to regain his reputation. His efforts are unsuccessful; both he and Ellie can see that they have lost the esteem of their neighbors and former friends. Thompson realizes that even his wife is afraid of him and that their now nearly grown sons no longer trust him with her. He decides that