At dawn, James is awakened in the woods by Norman, who has fled after James’s escape from the logging camp. Norman explains that when Emmett returned and found James gone, Emmett began raging like a slave trader and threatened to beat and hang James. Norman ran all night while the others searched, and James lets the exhausted Norman sleep while he keeps watch.

When Norman wakes, James proposes a plan driven by their shared goal of buying freedom for their families. Because James cannot safely appear as a black man trying to purchase enslaved relatives, he suggests that Norman, who can pass as white, pretend to own him and sell him. James would then escape, and they would repeat the scheme until they had enough money for Norman to buy James’s wife and daughter and then free Norman’s wife. Norman recognizes the danger but agrees that, given slavery’s reality, the risk may be worth it.

Before leaving, Norman scrubs off his blackface in a creek, and the two discuss the prices likely placed on their wives. James shows Norman Emmett’s notebook, including one of Emmett’s racist songs, and reveals that he can write. Norman admits he can read some. James decides they should travel south, reasoning that a supposed white seller with an enslaved man would attract less suspicion there.

Over the next days, James and Norman walk through the wilderness, catch fish, and briefly enjoy laughter together, relieved to be away from pursuit. After nearly three days, they reach the Mississippi again and see a town across the water that James thinks may be Cairo. Since they cannot cross, and because Kentucky to the south offers a possible slave market, they continue until they reach a small town called Bluebird Hole.

At Bluebird Hole, James removes his shirt to look more like a laboring slave, and the two begin performing their parts. Norman adopts the name Brown, and James addresses him as "Massa." In town, white residents warmly receive Norman while ignoring James, confirming how easily Norman passes. Their act is immediately tested when an old white woman questions whether James spoke; coached by James, Norman answers by insulting James’s intelligence and humanity, then openly asks whether anyone might want to buy him.

Afterward, James remains frightened but focused on the possibility of freeing Sadie and Lizzie. He watches an old black woman at the general store and briefly doubts his own judgment, even wondering whether Norman’s race matters at all compared with whether he is trustworthy. James finally decides that the plan must continue. He gives Norman Emmett’s notebook so he will not be seen carrying it, but keeps his pencil, intending to go on reconstructing his story.