The blade went straight through the wood, and Walli cried out in pain.

Pleased by this response, Hans repeated the action, smashing holes in the guitar. With the surface weakened, the tension in the strings pulled the bridge and the wood surrounding it away from the body of the instrument. He prized away the rest of it, revealing the inside like an empty coffin.

“No propaganda,” he said. “Congratulations—you are innocent.” He handed Walli the wrecked guitar, and Walli took it.

The sergeant handed back their identity cards with a grin.

Karolin took Walli’s arm and drew him away. “Come on,” she said in a low voice. “Let’s get out of here.”

Walli let her lead him. He could hardly see where he was going. He could not stop crying.

CHAPTER FOUR

George Jakes boarded a Greyhound bus in Atlanta, Georgia, on Sunday, May 14, 1961. It was Mother’s Day.

He was scared.

Maria Summers sat next to him. They always sat together. It had become a regular thing: everyone assumed that the empty seat next to George was reserved for Maria.

To hide his nervousness, he made conversation with Maria. “So, what did you think of Martin Luther King?”

King was head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, one of the more important civil rights groups. They had met him last night at a dinner in one of Atlanta’s black-owned restaurants.

“He’s an amazing man,” said Maria.

George was not so sure. “He said wonderful things about the Freedom Riders, but he’s not here on the bus with us.”

“Put yourself in his place,” Maria said reasonably. “He’s the leader of a different civil rights group. A general can’t become a foot soldier in someone else’s regiment.”

George had not looked at it that way. Maria was very smart.

George was half in love with her. He was desperate for an opportunity to be alone with her, but the people in whose homes the Riders stayed were solid respectable black citizens, many of them devout Christians, who would not have allowed their guest rooms to be used for smooching. And Maria, alluring though she was, did nothing more than sit next to George and talk to him and laugh at his wisecracks. She never did the little physical things that said a woman wanted to be more than friends: she did not touch his arm, or take his hand getting off the bus, or press close to him in a crowd. She did not flirt. She might even be a virgin at twenty-five.

“You talked to King for a long time,” he said.

“If he wasn’t a preacher, I’d say he was coming on to me,” she said.

George was not sure how to respond to that. It would be no surprise to him if a preacher made a pass at a girl as enchanting as Maria. But she was naïve about men, he thought. “I talked to King a bit.”

“What did he say to you?”

George hesitated. It was King’s words that had scared George. He decided to tell Maria anyway: she had a right to know. “He says we’re not going to make it through Alabama.”