Ferro's rescue aboard the Canela Fina is the failed ransom handover that becomes a midnight boarding and a brawl, ending with Father Ferro recovered but the conflict over the church still intact. The sequence brings Lorenzo Quart, Macarena Bruner, and Pencho Gavira onto the yacht where Don Ibrahim and his associates have confined the priest; its disorderly violence gives way to a quiet, uneasy gathering on deck, not a reconciliation.

Causes and the failed handover

The rescue begins with an appointment that has already gone wrong. At a closed water-sports pier, Quart and Macarena wait in darkness near the Arenal, with the lit dome of the Maestranza theater and an angle of Banco Cartujano visible beyond the terraces. The Canela Fina lies about three hundred meters along the river, moored between them and the illuminated Tower of Gold. Macarena watches the silent yacht, expecting the man Gavira sent to arrive; she grows tense as the appointed meeting time passes.

After midnight, Celestino Peregil still has not appeared with the ransom money he had promised to bring at eleven. Macarena leaves for a telephone booth to call Gavira. He tells her that Peregil had committed to the arrangement, says he cannot explain the failure, and promises to join them shortly. When he arrives, he too cannot account for Peregil's absence. The missing payment changes the practical task: instead of completing a handover, the three must go to the vessel and find the priest themselves.

Boarding the yacht

Quart, Macarena, and Gavira approach quietly. Two thick mooring ropes hold the yacht at the quay; on deck, discarded ropes, damaged lifebuoys, tires, and old furniture make the boarding place look neglected. Quart puts away his wallet and folds his jacket over a seat, and Gavira follows his example. They move along the upper deck, hearing a possible scrape below and noticing a faint light at a porthole. At the bridge, a covered helm and instruments stand near a wooden door with radio noise behind it and a line of light beneath the threshold.

Quart takes an iron bar from the binnacle before opening the door. Inside, Don Ibrahim spills coffee on his trousers as the tall priest appears in the doorway in shirtsleeves and a clerical collar, holding the bar. Gavira is recognized behind him, and Macarena enters after the two men. Potro del Mantelete rises from a bunk in a T-shirt, his Legionnaire tattoo visible on a sweat-sheened shoulder, and looks to Don Ibrahim to judge whether the visitors are expected. Quart says that they have come to talk, but Macarena immediately asks where the captive is and moves toward the closed cabin.

The fight and Ferro's release

Macarena's advance sets off the violence. Potro blocks her way; when Gavira moves toward her, Potro punches him into a bulkhead. The blow turns the confined room into a chaotic fight: Potro begins swinging at whoever moves, Gavira and Don Ibrahim clash, and Niña Puñales emerges after hearing the noise. As Macarena presses toward the cabin where the older priest is held, Niña attacks Gavira, who slaps her back into the cabin. Don Ibrahim's attempt to calm the others collapses, and he charges Gavira.

The fight spreads through the darkened vessel. Potro strikes the tall priest, who grabs a lamp to keep from falling; the lamp's wiring tears loose and the yacht goes black. In the confusion, Don Ibrahim crawls across the floor, is struck by an elbow, and tries to find Niña. He gets her toward the bridge and deck, then leads her and Potro off the yacht to the quay. The escape of the three does not end the struggle aboard: Quart, Macarena, and Gavira bring Father Ferro out to the upper deck.

Aftermath and unresolved conflict

The rescuers and the priest sit together under a lantern, battered and in pain. Gavira has a swollen cheek that is beginning to close his right eye; Macarena has a superficial scratch on her forehead and a dirty face. Quart's jaw is stiff from a punch, his ear rings, and he checks a tooth with his tongue. The deck is strewn with broken seats. In the midst of this wreckage, Father Ferro says nothing and offers no visible gesture of thanks; he stares over the black river as if far away.

Gavira is the first to speak. He does not evade responsibility: he explains that Peregil misunderstood his instructions and says that he came to repair the damage as far as he can. He offers the priest satisfaction, even proposing that Peregil be dismembered once he finds him. But the offer does not amount to a change of policy. Gavira makes clear that rescuing Ferro is separate from his stance toward the church. The priest has been brought back; the dispute that made the rescue necessary remains.