James lies down in a tent with Norman and a clarinet player called Big Mike. In the night, James wakes to someone touching his ear and then finds Polly's father crouched over him, trying to touch what the man thinks is a wig. James has to shout without revealing either his educated voice or his full disguise, and the commotion wakes the troupe.

Daniel Decatur Emmett rushes in with a lamp and confronts the intruder. Polly's father fixates on James's hair and says he knew something was wrong, but Emmett turns the exchange back on him by asking whether Polly's daughter knows he crawls into tents at night to touch sleeping men. Unable to defend himself, Polly's father backs out and runs.

Emmett immediately understands the danger: Polly's father may return and discover that James's hair is real, not a wig. Emmett orders everyone to pack up and leave at once. James is badly shaken, Big Mike puts a steadying hand on him and gets him working, and as the troupe pulls out through the muddy road Emmett surprises James by saying, "I'm sorry."

While they travel away from town, James says the trouble is his fault, but Emmett says James may be the reason without being to blame. Emmett then sings a new song, "Dixie's Land," and asks James what he thinks. James praises it in slave dialect, Emmett answers with dismissive sarcasm, and then says he is not even sure why the troupe is running, though James knows exactly why.

James next asks whether Emmett owns him now that Emmett bought him at the livery. Emmett says James does not belong to him, but claims James is instead a hired tenor who must repay the two hundred dollars Emmett spent. Emmett offers one dollar per performance rather than per day, effectively turning purchase into debt bondage; James recognizes the difference as only a new form of slavery and pointedly refuses when Emmett asks him to repeat that insight.