A Native American, Crazy Lightning, watches over a ghost town.
Two cowboys come up and confront him, only to be cowed by Crazy Lightning's control of a posse of snakes. They are stuck in a repeated loop of a day. Crazy Lighting says they are doomed to continue until they learn history.
Tim, who has been walking through the desert since the events of last issue, comes upon Crazy Lightning and asks him to let the others go. He refuses, but they talk, since Tim is British and not related to the American settlers.
However, Tim doesn't take him seriously, and Crazy Lightning turns into a giant snake, and calls himself Grandfather. He bites Tim, and says he'll die unless Tim is properly respectful. Tim calls him Grandfather and he bites him again, curing him. However, it also makes Tim grow a snake skin and freeze up, connecting with his "inner snake," as Grandfather tells him to consider how life is a cycle.
Tim sheds his skin and wakes up. Tim now feels more relaxed, and more in touch with nature. He is now able to dodge Grandfather's strikes.
Grandfather says he is the ghost of everything that died in the area from someone else's ego. He coalesced when a movie company set up a town to make cowboy films, which were even more disregarding of Natives than the real cowboys.
But, he wants to let them go, too, so he deputizes Tim to see if any of them care about anything besides themselves. Tim is soon set upon by the town roughs, but he magically takes their guns away.
However, Tim is indeed unable to find any worth in the settlers, and returns to Grandfather. They talk some more, and then Tim goes on his way.
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