Exhausted and injured, Luke crept out from hiding in the boxcar when confronted by the white worker, Mattie. Luke, weak and dizzy, accepted Life Savers from Mattie and explained he was hungry and thirsty. When Mattie asked about Luke’s torn ear, Luke said he had been in trouble and asked not to be reported.

Mattie revealed that three men were waiting at the yard: a man claiming to be Luke’s uncle, two companions, and one a cop from Wrightsville Beach. They said Luke ran away from Massachusetts. Luke, alarmed by the presence of a cop, insisted his parents were dead, that he had been kidnapped, and that the men were lying. He begged Mattie to let him stay hidden, saying he had been held somewhere where his ear was mutilated and he was nearly drowned in a tank.

Mattie hesitated but admitted he had run away from home himself and disliked the look of the waiting men. He told Luke the train was in Wilmington and would stop next in Georgia, then Tampa, ending in Miami, and that those places would likely be watched. He suggested a small interim stop might offer a chance to slip away.

When another worker shouted for Mattie to sign out and asked if he had seen a kid, Mattie partially closed the boxcar door, told Luke to hide, and lied to his coworker, denying seeing anyone. Luke, terrified, listened as Mattie covered for him.

About ten minutes later, as Train 9956 pulled out with one hundred cars, a shadow appeared at the door and a grease-spotted bag landed inside. Mattie, unseen, wished Luke “Good luck, outlaw,” and disappeared.

Luke devoured the food— a cheese-and-sausage biscuit, a Hostess Fruit Pie— and carefully rationed a bottle of water. Rehidden behind machinery, he felt a fragile hope return and silently prayed for the man who had helped him.