Johnnie was profuse, but somewhat incoherent in his thanks. "Much
obliged to meet you, Mr. Postmaster. An'--an' if you ever hit the
trail for God's Country I'll sure--I'll sure--Us boys at the B-in-a-Box
we'd be right glad to--to meet up with you. Tha's right, as the old
sayin' is. We sure would. Any ol' time."
The cowpuncher's hat was traveling in a circle propelled by red,
freckled hands. The official cut short Johnnie's embarrassment.
"Do you know the way to Police Headquarters?"
"I reckon I can find it. Is it fur?" The man from Arizona looked down
at the high-heeled boots in which his tortured feet had clumped over
the pavements of the metropolis all morning.
"I'll send you in a taxi." The postmaster was thinking that this babe
in the woods of civilization never would be able to find his way alone.
As the driver swept the car in and out among the traffic of the narrow
streets Johnnie clung to the top of the door fearfully. Every moment
he expected a smash. His heart was in his throat. The tumult, the
rush of business, the intersecting cross-town traffic, the hub-bub of
the great city, dazed his slow brain. The hurricane deck of a bronco
had no terrors for him, but this wild charge through the humming
trenches shook his nerve.
"I come mighty nigh askin' you would you just as lief drive slower," he
said with a grin to the chauffeur as he descended to the safety of the
sidewalk. "I ain't awful hardy, an' I sure was plumb scared."
A sergeant took Johnnie in tow and delivered him at length to the
office waiting-room of Captain Anderson, head of the Bureau of Missing
Persons. The Runt, surveying the numbers in the waiting-room and those
passing in and out, was ready to revise his opinion about the possible
difficulty of the job. He judged that half the population of New York
must be missing.
After a time the captain's secretary notified Johnnie that it was his
turn. As soon as he was admitted the puncher began his little piece
without waiting for any preliminaries.
"Say, Captain, I want you to find my friend Clay Lindsay. He--"
"Just a moment," interrupted the captain. "Who are you? Don't think I
got your name."
Johnnie remembered the note of introduction and his name at the same
time. He gave both to the big man who spent his busy days and often
part of the nights looking for the lost, strayed, and stolen among New
York's millions.
The captain's eyes swept over the note. "Sit down, Mr. Green, and
let's get at your trouble."
As soon as it permeated Johnnie's consciousness that he was Mr. Green
he occupied precariously the front three inches of a chair. His
ever-ready friend the cow-boy hat began to revolve.
"This note says that you're looking for a man named Clay Lindsay who
came to New York several months ago. Have you or has anybody else
heard from him in that time?"
"We got a letter right after he got here. He ain't writ since."
"Perhaps he's dead. We'd better look up the morgue records."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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