Chapter 1: Section 7: Pages 63-64: Line 150 (1132)

 Since Roswell had only been in the asylum for a day or two, they found his equipment untouched by local scavengers or the landlord.

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Pynchon often shows his contempt for the police. I'm glad to see he treats landlords with the same disrespect. He has only mentioned landlords once before but in a similar context. Landlords hold an inordinate amount of power over people's lives and so they can, on a whim, evict a tenant or, as hinted at here, simply steal from a tenant who hasn't been around for a bit. The suggestion here might be that Roswell pays rent by the week and so just a few days didn't alert the landlord to his absence. But it also suggests that if Roswell had been incarcerated for a little longer, the landlord would have quickly swooped in and claimed his possessions, selling them off to pay for the missed rent. Or even that the landlord simply would have stolen from him if he thought he could, rent paid or not.

The mention of local scavengers points to two things: the general poverty level of the vacancies the visiting Ætherists have taken up and as a direct comparative to landlords. And the term, "landlord", of course, is a term rife with imperialist and capitalist symbolism, indicating that they are one of the bad guys of the novel.

Chapter 1: Section 7: Page 63: Lines 148-149 (1130-1131)

 "Better than that, my apprentice ran off when the coppers showed up. How'd you like to learn the deepest secrets of the photographer's trade?"

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Not only was Roswell just rescued from Hell, it's possible he was actually a devil too? Here he's offering Merle a Faustian deal to learn the "deepest secrets" of his vocation. You don't offer somebody a job by offering to teach them not just deep secrets but the deepest secrets. This sounds like a deal with the devil more than an offer of apprenticeship.

We still haven't gotten to the point of the story (Merle falling in love with Erlys) but at least we've now gotten the secret origin of Merle becoming a photographer. And that's probably an important part of how he met Erlys being that we know Merle loves to photograph naked ladies. Wait. Is that the deepest secret of photography? Women will readily take their clothes off so you can take sexy pictures of them? The amount of naked women I've seen based on my writing that doesn't include taking breaks to look at image searches of weird Rule 34 stuff pales in comparison. Maybe I'll drop the writing and pick up a camera? Or re-pick up a camera since I still have that fancy camera that I bought for my cross-country VW bus roadtrip off  of an office cubicle installer when I was managing the Netscape Warehouse back in the '90s (which include a huge bag of funny mushrooms thrown in the case because he loved me so much!). Knowing my luck, I'm already 135 years too late for women casting their clothes aside simply because a man points a newfangled camera in front of them. Stupid me being born so late into the 20th Century!

Chapter 1: Section 7: Page 63: Line 147 (1129)

 "Buy the next round, we'll call it even."

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Roswell Bounce purchases redemption easily enough. He goes from sinner to righteous with the purchase of a round of whiskeys. From Preterite to Predestined, as Pynchon might say.

Yeah, yeah. I know you can't go from Preterite to Predestined, theologically! The whole point is that each is already decided before you were even born! But, being that human beings are incapable of attaining that knowledge in life, they can still go from believing they're saved or lost from any moment to the next. Obviously they'll never actually know until they die. Although, they won't really know then either because they'll be, you know, dead. Non-existent. Back to the material from which they came. Deletion of the ego. The end. Kaput. That's all she wrote, folks.

Chapter 1: Section 7: Page 63: Lines 145-146 (1127-1128)

 "I could've been in the chapel at that dance where the fire broke out. Guess you saved my fundament, there."

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"the chapel at that dance where the fire broke out"
The Northern Ohio Insane Asylum has been painted as Hell and the fire which broke out began in the one possibly holy place in the entire complex. A chaotic reaction of evil against the holy trying to purify it.
    Roswell points out that he "could've" been in the chapel but wasn't. Probably because he's cynical. He's merely reacting as anybody might react when they've fled a dangerous situation: "It could have been worse. I could have died. I was just lucky enough to be where I was in the midst of the danger." But we all know Roswell never actually would have been in the chapel.

"saved my fundament"
Literally, "You saved my ass." But the word "fundament" is probably meant to make the reader think of fundamentalist religions, just to keep the "Insane Asylum as Hell" and "Saloon as Church" analogy going. Merle not only saved his ass but the continuation of his belief system.

Chapter 1: Section 7: Page 63: Line 144 (1126)

 "What a hell of a night," Roswell said.

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Just more evidence of the subtext in the previous line. Roswell describes the actions of the night as "a hell of a night" meaning it was crazy and exciting. But this can also be literal in that Roswell escaped from Hell, an insane asylum where he was held prisoner for his sins and which was, as they escaped, covered in flames.

Chapter 1: Section 7: Page 63: Line 143 (1125)

 Back in Whiskey Hill, they made a beeline for Morty Vicker's Saloon.

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Aside from the reiteration that Roswell and Merle spend much of their time drinking in various saloons around Whiskey Hill in Cleveland, I don't get much more from this sentence. My poor attempt at research turned up nothing on a Morty Vicker of Cleveland in the 1880s. So I guess I'll just have to pick apart his name for some clues?

Morty is short for either Morton or Mortimer. Let's go with Mortimer because it has a more interesting meaning: dead (or still) water. The name Vicker probably references "vicar", a priest in the Church of England. Could Pynchon just be having a bit of sly fun on a name equating one of the local saloons to a church, since all the discussion of Æther has revolved around talk of faith and God? Morty Vicker can be thought of as Priest Dead Water, the dead water being a reference to alcohol (with "Whiskey Hill" being a bit of help toward that interpretation?). Merle and Roswell have fled chaos, fire, and damnation to spiritual safety, to their church and its member with whom they spend most of their time.

Chapter 1: Section 7: Page 63: Line 142 (1124)

 By the time the fire was under control, the exhaustion and confusion were too advanced for anyone to notice as Merle and Roswell slipped away.

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Notice Pynchon never alludes to how the fire started. But if you follow the money (the money in this case is just somebody benefitting from the fire), we must assume it was set by Merle or Roswell. Probably Roswell since previous mentions of Merle rescuing other Ætherists (like Ed Addle) without a story of a fire leads one to assume Merle could handle it without nearly killing everybody. Also, Roswell seems like the kind of cynical jerk who would risk other people's lives, limbs, and properties to gain something he desired, like, um, freedom.
    But I don't think that's the point of this line, to encourage the reader to see Roswell Bounce as an arsonist. I'm sure the fire is a metaphor for Michelson and Morley's null result, the exhaustion and confusion a metaphor for the scientific community's response to the mortal wounding of Æther, and Merle and Roswell slipping away a metaphor for life going on in spite of drastic changes to one's environment, lifestyle, or culture.