James walks a long distance with Emmett’s troupe until the tight boots they found for him raise blisters so painful that he removes them and goes barefoot. As he walks, James keeps thinking about Huck and concludes that Huck has not escaped the men who took him, because Huck would have returned if he could.

The troupe reaches a rough logging settlement filled with shacks, mills, and enslaved Black laborers working under white overseers with whips. Seeing the scarred backs of the shirtless enslaved men sharpens James’s awareness of the violence around him and of his own vulnerable position. While helping raise the tents, James speaks with Big Mike about places he has never seen and asks whether Emmett and the troupe truly oppose slavery, but Big Mike’s indifferent answers reveal little real principle.

After food is prepared, Daniel Emmett returns from town and announces that the settlement is so rowdy and dangerous that James must stay behind while the troupe performs. A band member translates Emmett’s ornate speech bluntly: if the townspeople realize James is Black, they are likely to kill him. James understands that Emmett is protecting his investment as much as James’s life, especially after already losing another tenor.

James is left doing the camp work while the white performers blacken their faces for the show. As they gather to leave, Norman gives James a look that tells James Norman knows he intends to flee. Once the troupe is out of sight, James takes bread, the too-tight shoes, and, to his own surprise, Daniel Emmett’s leather notebook of songs, then runs into the woods.

As James escapes, he tries to understand whether he is fleeing Emmett, slavery itself, or trying to get back to Huck. He knows he may now be hunted not only as an escaped enslaved man but also for theft, debt, and other suspected crimes. Even so, James runs hard through trees, creek beds, and river branches until darkness stops him, and he finally eats some bread and falls asleep.