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Soon the sheriff arrived, followed by several armed men. Two of them went around back while the sheriff came up to the front steps. Rosa and I were scared to death. The sheriff came right to the point. ?Where?s Roy?? Mr. G. said ?I can?t tell you.? The sheriff came back: ?You can?t, or won?t.? Mr. G. said ?What?s the difference??
About that time the men came from around back and told the sheriff the buckboard was gone. The sheriff said: ?Don?t worry, we?ll get them.? Then they left. Mr. G. called everyone together once again and said: ?Don?t worry, there is no way they will ever be caught.? Mr. G. knew most young black men ended up catching a train to the north but he had other plans for Roy and Esther. He told Zack to go and tell Esther?s family what had happened and to make sure they understood that everything would be OK.
A few weeks had gone by when the sheriff came by to tell us they had been unable to locate Roy but would keep looking. The next week when we went to the store Mr. G. called all of us outside and said a letter had arrived from Roy and that it was from Los Angeles. Since Zack could not read Mr. G. read it aloud.
?Esther and I drove to New Orleans, sold the buckboard and bought train tickets for Los Angeles. We were married in New Orleans and spent the night in a small hotel not far from the French Quarter. When we arrived in Los Angeles we had enough money for a small apartment and I found work the next day. Everything is fine with us now.?
?I especially want to thank Mr. G. for everything he has done for us. I will be forever in his debt.? He enclosed a return address and Mr. G. said that it would be a good idea for everyone to write them a letter. He said we should give them to him and he would take them to a town not far away to mail them just in case someone here might see them.
Mr. G. decided it was time to see if he could get Bubba to agree what had happened was not Roy?s fault. He went to see his lawyer and then went to see Bubba. When he arrived Bubba?s mother came to the door and asked, ?What are you doing here?? Mr. G. just said he needed to talk to Bubba.
They all went into the living room and Mr. G. asked Bubba how he was doing. He said OK, but that he was a little sore. He then told Bubba he would like to get Roy?s name cleared and in order to do that Bubba would have to agree it was an accident. Bubba?s mother asked how that could be. When she saw the sheepish look on Bubba?s face she knew.
Bubba signed the document Mr. G?s lawyer had drawn up and Mr. G. thanked him and told him he had done the right thing. Then he took it to the district attorney and had all the charges dropped.
Things settled into a regular routine for the next few years. The children were all healthy and growing and Mr. G. had somehow managed to cope with the loss of Mrs. G. He began to educate me on how to run the farm, even taking me into his confidence on his financial matters.
It seemed he had become fairly wealthy in spite of the depression.
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