James lies in the cave badly weakened by the rattlesnake bite. His face and limbs feel numb, the bite burns, and fever and chills drive him in and out of consciousness. In his delirium he sees Sadie and Lizzie, then imagines himself in Judge Thatcher’s library, remembering the danger of being an enslaved man who can read and who has taught others to read.

James’s fever dream turns into a long imagined conversation with Voltaire. Voltaire claims to oppose slavery while still arguing that Black people are biologically different and can only become equal by acquiring European manners and skills. James challenges the contradiction, asks how cruelty like slavery can exist if humans are not inherently bad, and even frames the issue in philosophical terms about natural and civil liberties.

Huck’s voice interrupts the dream and brings James partly back to himself. Huck says James has been talking strangely in his sleep and asks about words like “Raynal” and “hierarchy,” noticing that James did not sound like himself. Realizing he may have exposed his education, James quickly slips back into his performed slave dialect, invents a story about Raynal, suggests the snake may have put demons in his blood, and clings to his “lucky” piece of glass to deflect Huck’s suspicion.

After Huck leaves to check the berries, James remains sick, frightened both of dying and of talking too freely again if he sleeps. He reflects bitterly on how enslaved people must depend on others to argue for their humanity. Later Huck returns with blackberries and says he has set the trotline for fish, but the floodwater is still high and fast, carrying them farther from shore. James looks slightly better by the end of the chapter, though he is still in pain and danger.