The narrator is on his way to a house on fire when he sees a woman running away from the scene. The narrator thinks that the woman is the thief from the previous chapter, who has stolen the power of the fire. He wonders if the woman will fall in love after the fire breaks out, and wonders if he will be able to spontaneously combust in the fire, as he wished he could do two years earlier. He is overcome with terror at the sight of the flames, and feels that he has never experienced such a hopeless situation before. He thinks that he must get out of the house before it catches fire, and he wonders if it would be better to use the fire ground as a way to loot it.