Franklin stops Jennings and explains there is more to his own interest than he is revealing. Jennings apologizes for embarrassing Franklin and sits down in the woods to tell Franklin his own circumstances. Jennings, some years back, was accused of a horrible crime that he did not commit, but he cannot prove his innocence. Candy employed him in spite of this questionable background. The slander will soon follow Jennings to Frizinghall, but by that time Jennings will be dead—he suffers from a terminal illness and is kept alive now only by his copious use of opium as a pain-killer.