The Professor's House

Part 2 consists of Tom Outland’s first-person account, as told to St. Peter, of the time he spent with Rodney “Roddy” Blake in New Mexico.

Tom meets Rodney at a railway workers’ poker game in Pardee, New Mexico. Rodney, a newcomer in the area, wins a large amount of money but is too drunk to look after it, so Tom helps him back to his lodgings and stays the night. In the morning, he refuses Rodney’s offer to split his winnings and insists on opening a savings account instead. Rodney and Tom become friends. When Tom gets pneumonia, his doctor recommends that Tom give up night work and find a job where he can work in the open air. Rodney finds them both jobs with the Sitwell Cattle Company.

Rodney and Tom herd cattle near a landmark named the Blue Mesa throughout the summer. Other settlers claim that the Blue Mesa is impossible to climb, but Rodney and Tom decide to attempt it. In October, the foreman, John Rapp, comes to take them to the winter cabin near the mesa.