Kino fights the intruder

Kino fights the intruder who enters his brush house in the dark to steal the great pearl, an attack that marks the first physical violence directly tied to the pearl and deepens Kino's paranoia and resolve. The event transforms the pearl from a symbol of hope into a magnet for danger, forcing Kino to confront the evil that the treasure has summoned into his home.

The Attack in the Dark

After the doctor's visit and the neighbors' departure, Kino and Juana lie down on the sleeping mat. Juana cradles Coyotito in her arms instead of placing him in his hanging box, and the last embers in the fire hole go out. Kino's brain burns even during sleep; he dreams of Coyotito reading from a book as large as a house, but darkness spreads over the page and the music of evil returns. He awakens with the evil music pulsing in him, lying in the darkness with his ears alert. From the corner of the house comes a sound so soft it might have been simply a thought—a little furtive movement, a touch of a foot on earth, the almost inaudible purr of controlled breathing. Kino holds his breath to listen, and he knows that whatever dark thing is in his house is holding its breath too. For a time no sound comes, and Kino might have thought he imagined it. But Juana's hand creeps over to him in warning, and then the sound comes again: the whisper of a foot on dry earth and the scratch of fingers in the soil.

Kino's Violent Response

A wild fear surges in Kino's breast, and on the fear comes rage, as it always does. His hand creeps into his breast where his knife hangs on a string, and then he springs like an angry cat, leaping, striking, and spitting for the dark thing he knows is in the corner of the house. He feels cloth, strikes at it with his knife and misses, strikes again and feels his knife go through cloth. Then his head crashes with lightning and explodes with pain. There is a soft scurry in the doorway, running steps for a moment, and then silence. Kino can feel warm blood running from his forehead, and he hears Juana calling to him in terror. Coldness comes over him as quickly as the rage had, and he says he is all right, that the thing has gone.

Aftermath and Growing Tension

Juana works quickly at the fire, uncovering an ember and shredding little pieces of cornhusk over it to blow a tiny flame into life. From a secret place she brings a little piece of consecrated candle and lights it. She dips the end of her head shawl in water and swabs the blood from Kino's bruised forehead. Kino insists it is nothing, but his eyes and voice are hard and cold, and a brooding hate is growing in him. The tension that has been building in Juana boils to the surface; her lips thin and she cries harshly that the pearl is evil, like a sin, that it will destroy them. She begs Kino to throw it away, to break it between stones, to bury it and forget the place, to throw it back into the sea. But Kino's face is set, his mind and will are set. He says this is their one chance, that their son must go to school and break out of the pot that holds them in. Juana warns that it will destroy them all, even their son. Kino hushes her, saying that in the morning they will sell the pearl and then the evil will be gone. For the first time he knows that his knife is still in his hands; he raises the blade and sees a little line of blood on the steel. For a moment he seems about to wipe the blade on his trousers, but then he plunges the knife into the earth and so cleanses it.