Because Judge Thatcher might soon free himself or be found and warn others, James no longer limits his travel to night. He pushes forward for nearly three days toward Edina, despite hunger and exhaustion, because he knows Thatcher now knows his destination. By the time James reaches the edge of a cornfield, he has run out of biscuits and is desperate for food.

At the field, James startles another enslaved Black man, April, and explains that he is a runaway from Hannibal searching for the Graham farm, where Sadie and Lizzie were taken. April tells James that Graham is known as a breeder who raises enslaved people for sale, confirming James has reached the right region. While waiting in the corn for April to return, James reads William Brown's narrative and is shaken by how closely Brown's story resembles his own, which deepens James's longing to reach freedom with his wife and daughter.

James wakes to find April and Holly beside him with food. They share chicken necks, gizzards, and rice, and Holly confirms that the Graham place has a terrible reputation even though she has not seen it herself. When James says he is going there immediately, April challenges the recklessness of that plan. James admits he is wanted for being a runaway, kidnapping, theft, and murder, and when Holly asks whether he is guilty, James answers that he is, underscoring both the danger behind him and his refusal to turn back.

That night James crosses the valley and reaches the Graham property, where he sees slave quarters, latrines, and four enslaved men chained together near a bowl of mush. The men explain that the place is the Graham farm and that women are kept in another camp; one says he saw a woman with a little girl arrive about two weeks earlier, giving James hope that Sadie and Lizzie are there. Using Thatcher's kitchen knife, James frees the men, asks whether they want to run, and declares that he is going north with his family. After briefly checking the stolen pistol, James rejects patience as impossible under the circumstances and urges immediate action. The freed men give their names as Morris, Harvey, Llewelyn, and Buck, and Buck joins James's desperate plan.