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big bottom down there. Three or four miles across.
Even so, they ort to find her by daylight.
Reckon we ought to go ahead and distribute them
hand bills? I asked.
Oh, sure, he says. Got to do everything we can
to help out. By the way, though, if I was you I
wouldn t mention nothing about them to the shurf.
Them beaurocrats always want to run thing their own
way, an they get all fussed when somebody like a
ordinary citizen tries to help out.
Sure, I says. I won t say nothing.
All the men was gone from the cars now except the
one playing the records in the sound truck. Pop
reached in the trailer and took out the two boxes of
hand bills and carried them up to our car.
Just as we was putting them in the seat Uncle
Sagamore rode up on his mule. I could just barely see
him in the dark. He had to get down to talk, because
the record playing in the sound
truck made so much noise.
You about ready to go, Sam? he asked.
Just startin now, Pop says. How is the search
goin ?
The Diamond Bikini 140
I made one sweep down across the bottom an
back, but didn t see a sign of her. Didn t even see any
of the searchers. Lots of ground down there.
Pop got in the car and leaned his head out the
window. They re goin to need all the help they can
get, an that s a fact, he says. By the way, here s
one of the hand bills.
Uncle Sagamore struck a match and read it.
Hmmm, he says. Sure got a nice ring to it. Matter
of fact, I reckon you better get everybody lined up
an tell em to be here by daylight, before you throw
many of them things around. Might not even get in, if
they don t hurry.
Can I go with you, Pop? I asked.
They both turned around like they d forgot I was
there. Say, Pop says, you go on up there and
unroll your bed and get some sleep.
But Pop
You do like I tell you. And don t you go off down in
that bottom any more. I ll bring you some jaw-
breakers.
All right, I says. I went back and sat down on the
step with Sig Freed. Pop and Uncle Sagamore talked
for about five minutes more and then Pop drove off.
Uncle Sagamore came back down through the yard,
leading the mule. He sat down on the step next to me
to rest for a minute.
You might as well go to bed, he says. Ain t no
use you stayin up.
Just then Uncle Finley came tearing out through
the door in his nightshirt. He was barefooted, and his
bald head was shining in the lamplight coming
through the window.
What s that there awful racket? he yells. How s
a man goin to get any sleep, with all that bellerin
an screechin ?
Uncle Sagamore spit real careful and wiped his
mouth with the back of his hand. Why, that there s
just the shurf s sound truck, Finley, he says. Ain t
nothin to get excited about. Seems like there s a
The Diamond Bikini 141
nakid cooch dancer wanderin around out there an
he s tryin to toll her in.
I knowed it, Uncle Finley says. Just what you d
expect around this here place. Nothin but sin.
Everybody s goin to drowned. Cooch dancers runnin
in an out of the bushes a-shakin theirselves at
people, an horns a-honkin all hours of the day an
night so decent people can t sleep. It s a comin . The
day s a comin , an it ain t going to be long. You re
gonna see em come pourin in here beggin to be let
aboard, but I ain t going to take em. Not a one.
Well sir, Uncle Sagamore says, that sure is
rough on the rest of us, but if that s the way you and
the vision got her figured, I reckon that s the way it s
got to be. If it was me, though, doggone if I wouldn t
try to squeeze over and make room for that there
cooch dancer, anyway. She wouldn t take up much
space, an she could sit in your lap.
Uncle Finley says, Hmmmmmph! and went back
in the house.
Uncle Sagamore got on his mule and went back
around the house towards the bottom. The sound
truck went on playing music, and every once in a
while the man would talk into the microphone. This
way, Miss Caroline. Follow the sound.
Then there would be another record.
I stretched out on my bedroll and tried to get some
sleep, but the loudspeaker made so much noise I
didn t have any luck. I got to worrying about Miss
Harrington, down there all alone and scared, with
her feet sore and the mosquitoes biting her, and that
didn t help any either. But I d promised Pop I
wouldn t go back and look for her any more tonight,
so I didn t. I would of gone anyway in spite of the
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