Robert waits handcuffed to a hot banister behind the courthouse, hoping Gloria will arrive with help before he is taken away. Instead, a state worker named Mr. Loehmann pulls up in a new station wagon to transport Robert to the Reformatory. Mr. Loehmann immediately notices that the court has sent Robert without proper paperwork, orders the deputy to remove the cuffs, and speaks to Robert more respectfully than the deputy does. Their exchange also reveals tension between the local deputy and Mr. Loehmann, who is treated as an outsider and insulted for being Jewish.

Once Robert gets into the car, the ride briefly feels like a reprieve. He is delighted by the clean seat, the radio, the cool air, and the freedom of riding up front without handcuffs. Mr. Loehmann tells Robert that he moved from New York to Gracetown because his mother is ill, and Robert blurts out that his own mother recently died. Robert almost reveals too much about his father’s hidden whereabouts, then stops himself, remembering that his father is in danger.

When Mr. Loehmann learns that Robert has not eaten since the night before, he angrily gives Robert his own egg-salad sandwich. Fed and calmer, Robert finally explains that Lyle McCormack started the fight by pushing him first. Mr. Loehmann says he can note that in Robert’s file and mention it to Judge Morris, but he warns that it is unlikely to help because the McCormacks are powerful and the judge already considers a six-month sentence merciful. He explains that some boys are sent away indefinitely, meaning until adulthood, which shows Robert how little fairness governs his case.

Robert then asks whether the Reformatory’s ghost stories are true, but Mr. Loehmann dismisses ghosts and says Robert has more immediate dangers to fear. Delayed by cows in the road, Robert remembers Sammy’s brother Luke, who was sent to the Reformatory, came back looking broken during a family visit, spoke fearfully about haints, and later died there under suspicious circumstances. The memory makes the place seem even more terrifying.

Before the drive ends, Mr. Loehmann gives Robert the clearest warning yet: the Reformatory is not really a school but a prison, the county profits from sending boys there, and the staff will look for reasons to keep him. He tells Robert that if he wants to get home with any childhood left, he must be invisible and avoid showing either trouble or talent. Robert briefly longs to flee when he sees a peacock by the roadside, but he cannot escape. By the end of the ride, Robert fully understands that he is being delivered into a dangerous institution, and he sits in silence and fear.