You read in the papers and heard on the radio how they been looking for her in twenty-three states because she was a witness in a big murder in New Orleans, an’ how she was hiding out right here on this farm. Of course, we didn’t even know who she was until the day the gangsters got her an’ opened up on her an’ my son Billy.” The noise was dying down now.
Somebody yelled, “Let him talk.”
Pop kind of gulped, like he had a catch in his throat. “Well sir, men,” he went on. That there girl, Miss Choo-Choo Caroline, is lost right here on this farm somewhere—and men, she saved my son’s life. I want her found, so I can thank her.” He kind of broke down then, and had to wait a minute before he could go on.
“What she done, men, was the bravest thing I ever heard of in my life. But wait a minute, everybody. Wait a minute. I see my son down there in the crowd right now, and I’m goin’ to let him tell you in his own words. Billy, will you come up here? Make way there, men, and let him through.”
I gulped down the last of my hamburger and started towards the stage. Everybody moved aside to let me through. When I got to it, Pop leaned down and caught my hands to lift me up, and there I was right in front of everybody. He put an arm across my shoulders. The crowd let out a cheer.
“Now, son,” he says, pulling me over in front of the microphone and lowering it a little, “I want you to tell everybody out there what a heroic thing that girl done, savin’ your life, an’ how much you think of her.”
I started out. I told ‘em how we was swimming and how the water suddenly started getting chewed up all around us with that noise the guns was making on the other bank. And when I was telling how she caught me by the neck and pulled me under the water and towed us along till we was under the bushes, I looked around and doggone if Pop wasn’t crying. He was trying to hold back the tears, kind of gulping like he was swallowing something too big for his throat, and then at last he had to haul out his handkerchief and dab at his eyes. When I finished up everybody was cheering and waving their hats.
“We’ll find her, Billy,” they yelled.
Pop took hold of the microphone again, and had to clear his throat a couple of times before he could talk. “There you are, men,” he says. “That’s the kind of girl Miss Choo-Choo Caroline is. Besides bein’ one of the most beautiful women that ever lived, she’s one of the bravest. An’ now she’s been lost down there in that wild river bottom for over eighteen hours with hardly a stitch of clothes on, nor nothin’ but that little patch of diamond-covered ribbon half the size of your hand, with the mosquitoes bitin’ her all over that lovely body an’ brambles scratchin’ her on the legs, an’ nothin’ to keep the night chill off. We got to find her, men. We just got to find her.”
The crowd let out a big roar then. It was getting bigger all the time. Then I saw Uncle Sagamore coming up on the stage.
Pop went on. “An’ now here’s my brother Sagamore, that’s in charge of the search. He’s been up all night without a wink of sleep, goin’ back and forth across that bottom tryin’ to find her. And he ain’t goin’ to give up as long as there’s a breath left in his body. He knows the river bottom like you know the palm of your hand, and he’ll tell you anything you want to know about it.”
Everybody cheered Uncle Sagamore. He took hold of the microphone and shifted his tobacco over into the other cheek, and says, “Well sir, men, I ain’t no hand at makin’ speeches. You all know that. I’m just goin’ to tell you I appreciate you comin’ out to help an’ I know you’re going to be just like me. You’re goin’ to be right here, by hell, till that girl is found.
“Now, naturally, a man can’t look all the time. We wouldn’t expect him to. He’s got to have a little rest now an’ then, so there’s refreshment up here, and entertainment for when you get tired.”
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