On Tuesday night, after Boone allows the boys another shower because they are covered in mud and pine needles from visiting the Box, Redbone returns to the radio room for a few minutes of laughter. Robert cannot join him. Shaken by seeing Cleo imprisoned in the dark and afraid Redbone will be next, Robert goes alone to the bathroom, first thinking of his mother but then deciding he must stop calling her to the Reformatory, where Boone and Haddock could exploit any spirit that comes near him.

In the shower stall, Robert calls for Blue by the name Haddock used, Kendall Sweeting. Blue finally appears first as steam, then as a voice, and then in a mirror reflection. Blue angrily assumes Robert wants more ghosts for Haddock’s jar and says none of the dead deserve that fate, but Robert breaks down and explains that Boone has locked Cleo in the Box and will punish Redbone next if Robert does not produce another spirit.

Blue still refuses to surrender more of the dead lightly, yet he also reveals that he has been working on Robert’s bigger problem. Blue says he may be able to get Robert the key to Haddock’s drawer by Wednesday or Thursday, which would let Robert steal the photographs and the ash jar before meeting Gloria on Friday. When Robert realizes Blue knows about the escape plan, he tries to bargain: if anything happens to Robert or Redbone, Blue will lose the only boys who can call him and hear him.

The conversation shifts as Robert presses Blue to help more directly. Blue says he can distract Haddock on Friday by tormenting the dogs and pulling Haddock away from his office, but he warns that escaped boys are still hunted hard by trained tracking dogs and eager men who treat a chase like sport. Robert, newly frightened by how dangerous the plan really is, insists that he first needs another spirit by Wednesday to survive Boone’s demands.

Robert asks Blue to find someone willing to enter the jar only until Friday, when Robert promises to release the ashes in the creek. Blue explains that the jar is far worse than the dead’s present condition, describes Boone and Haddock’s dust as grave dirt that lures and hexes spirits with a false sense of rest, and resists helping. At last, under pressure, Blue reluctantly names Henry Jackson, a man killed by Haddock while running, and tells Robert to look near the old well by the butcher’s and call for him there.

Before Robert can say more, Redbone enters the bathroom looking for Blue. Fearing Redbone might betray Blue out of desperation, Robert lies and says he was only speaking to his mother and asking her to stay away. Redbone accepts that answer, urges Robert to keep calling for Blue because Boone still expects another ghost, and leaves Robert holding the fragile new plan in secret.