The Diamond as Big as the Ritz Section 6 Summary

  • We cut to an afternoon with John, Percy, and Mr. Washington. Percy's father is showing John around the grounds; he points out the slave quarters. John has a hard time making conversation with this man of such excessive wealth.
  • Braddock explains that all their servants are descendants of the original slaves that his father brought with him from Virginia, and that they only brought a few of them up to speak English. The rest of them use their own dialect.
  • He then continues the tour with the golf course, which has no hazards (water, sand, etc.) whatsoever.
  • Onward they move – to a cage in the ground where Washington is holding prisoner all the aviators he has shot down. He is irritated that one of the men – whom he took out of the cage to teach his daughter Italian – has escaped.
  • Braddock sent two dozen henchmen to track and kill the escaped prisoners, but he can't be sure that any one of the men they all killed was the fugitive he sought.
  • When he opens the top of the cage in the ground, the men all shout up to Washington. Naturally, they would like to go home and resent being held against their will. Washington explains to John that he treats them all well, and that if there were any way to guarantee his mountain would be kept a secret he would let them all go. Braddock tells the men that, if they come up with such a solution, he will happily let them go.
  • After playfully arguing with the men, Braddock closes the prison and continues his tour.