Gloria remains in hiding as deputies keep patrolling Lower Spruce, neighbors grow afraid to help, and someone throws rotten eggs at Miz Lottie’s house. Angry over Robert’s imprisonment, her father’s exile, and the danger closing around them, Gloria focuses on the family’s plan to flee Gracetown after Robert escapes. While Miz Lottie helps Gloria sort old dresses to take north, the adults talk through the escape logistics: Waymon will scout and drive, Uncle June will cut the fence near the Reformatory, and they must get Miz Lottie’s unreliable truck ready for the final flight.

A knock at the front door interrupts the planning and frightens everyone, but the visitor is Marian Hamilton, the volunteer director of the Negro band at the Reformatory. Marian says she came on her own because she admires Robert’s father and wants the family to know Robert is alive, recovering, and gifted on the trumpet. Under questioning, Marian admits Robert was beaten badly enough to spend a night in the infirmary, says Haddock has taken a special interest in him, and reports the rumor that Robert is helping Haddock and Boone search for ghosts. Miz Lottie and Gloria believe this immediately because Robert has spoken of haints before, while Waymon rejects the idea as nonsense.

As the conversation deepens, Uncle June reveals more than usual about his own time working at the Reformatory, describing the dreams, anger, and mental damage the place leaves behind. Marian offers practical help when she hears that deputies are harassing Gloria, and she invites Gloria to stay in her spare room. Gloria goes with her to Sunny Hill, a newer Black housing development that feels orderly, modern, and far removed from Miz Lottie’s crowded, threatened home. Inside Marian’s neat house, Gloria is struck by the piano, records, television, and the resemblance Marian bears to her mother, and she is strongly tempted to confide the escape plan.

That night Gloria overhears Marian speaking with her brother Percy, Robert’s dorm master. Percy confirms that Robert was taken to be whipped because he had been asking about escape, and he minimizes the violence as necessary discipline; Marian condemns the cruelty and the Reformatory’s obsession with ghosts. After Percy leaves, Gloria tests Marian by saying Robert should run away, but Marian reacts with alarm and warns that boys who run are hunted down and sometimes killed. Gloria now has both a safer hiding place and more terrifying knowledge: Robert does have an ally inside, but the escape plan is even deadlier than she had understood, leaving her feeling protected yet profoundly alone.