The story then passes to a flashback of Roland's childhood. After a training session with Cort, Roland and Cuthbert go looking for something to eat because they lost the session and it was Cort's orders to have them go to sleep with no supper. However, Hax gives them some pie telling the boys "Not to get him in trouble". They the go to eat under the stairs. Later that day Hax is hanged, and when the noose tightened, Hax was still trying to speak. He didn't confess to what he did saying that he has remembered the face of his father. Cuthbert says he enjoyed seeing the hanging happen.