Chapter 5

Robert had only an hour to wait before Maria drove up to the front of the building.

She and Cathy had no trouble at all on their trip. It was late and Robert decided to stay the night in Hermosillo before going on to Bahia Kino.

Maria drove them to a nice inn. They rented two nice rooms and got a good night's sleep.

After a good breakfast they continued their journey.

Just before entering Bahia they were driving along side lush pasture land that was returning to scrub brush and most of the fencing was in bad repair.

Robert asked Maria about the reason such good land was going to waste.

Maria told of that being a fine cattle ranch when she was a child. The owner had died and left the place to his son.

The heir had gambled and drank all the money he got for the cattle away in less than two years. He had died years ago of excessive drinking.

Maria said the place had been for sale for years but no one had wanted it. She said that the land ran behind the whole village of Bahia and was even the flat meadows across the road from their home.

The land was a total of four thousand hectares and had at one time grazed four hundred head of cattle.

Robert wanted to see it before going to their home.

Maria drove between stone columns that had once had gates.

They were in a large grove of trees, many were pecan and walnut trees.

Alongside the road in the grove were nine stone houses in bad repair. Maria said that the Vaqueros had lived there when there were cattle.

She drove to a big stone barn with the roof blown away and several other smaller buildings that looked to be still usable.

The cattle handling pens and fences around the barns were in good shape. They were of stone.

Robert asked where the owner had lived. Maria said he had lived in town.

The largest of the stone houses had been the home of the ranch foreman.

The drove back to the highway and it was only a short way to the turn to Leon's home.

They found Edna in the vegetable garden picking the ripe produce.

Edna was pleased to see them. She wanted them to come in and visit but Robert was anxious to get home. Edna said Leon was in town. They would plan to come visit later.

At their house they found that the new air-conditioning units had the house cool.

Leon had a thick concrete slab ready near the well and behind trees so that the new generator was as far away from the house as possible. Robert thought that they would not hear the noise at the house when it was running.

Edna and Leon came late that afternoon. The plans for the wedding were made and there was very little Robert, Cathy or Maria needed to do.

Robert hired Leon to mow a three hundred feet wide strip a half mile long in the pasture land across the road from his house.

He was going to contact the bank of Hermosillo the next morning and if possible lease that strip for a landing field.

After a light dinner the five of them sat on the terrace sipping after diner drinks and discussed the wedding plans.

The wedding service was to be in the Cathedral and the Bishop from Hermosillo would do the honors.

After the wedding the fiesta would start. The reception would be in the Grand Pavilion at the Promenade Park.

The Fiesta would go on until the booze ran out, sometimes they had lasted over a week.

Robert asked about a dress for the Bride. That was a big problem they were told. Leon had counted on one of his Aunts to make the wedding dress for Edna.

She was in the hospital in Hermosillo with cancer and was not expected to live.

Robert suggested he fly them to Mexico City and let him buy the most beautiful dress in Mexico for the most beautiful bride in Mexico.

Leon protested that what he was offering to do was too much for a wedding gift.

Robert replied that nothing was too much for such a fine lady.

They drove to Hermosillo three days later and flew to Mexico City.

Robert had called the bank handling the property across the road. They gave their permission to mow and use that strip for a landing field. They wanted to meet with him soon concerning the possible sale of the lands to him.

Leon had sent his big tractor and farm help and mowed for a landing strip for Robert to use when they returned from Mexico City.

They had a ball in the Capital.

The ladies shopped until they nearly dropped. Leon and Robert bought new tailor made suits and fine linen shirts for the wedding.

They spent three days in Mexico City before it was time to leave.

Robert promised to bring them there if they liked for the honey moon.

The second day Robert slipped away from the others and went to the Bank Of Switzerland. He had an appointment with the C.E.O. of their operations in Mexico.

Robert introduced himself and began to explain his financial position in the U.S.

The banker told Robert that after his request for an appointment he had asked for a complete report on his net worth. He was impressed with Robert's holdings and no further references were needed.

They sat down and Robert told him that he possessed six hundred and twenty pounds of gold stolen from the U.S. government one hundred and twenty three years ago. He explained that he could get the gold from Alabama to Mexico City and wanted to know if this bank was interested in purchasing it.

The banker said that his bank was falling short of fulfilling it's world commitments. If such a large amount of gold could be purchased he would offer four dollars an ounce over the world market price of the day of delivery.

Robert asked if his bank could receive the gold at the airport and transport it by armored car to the bank for weighing.

The Swiss Bank would be glad to provide such a service the banker said. Robert asked about creating an account with the bank in Zurich that could make transfers of sums to a bank in the U.S. or Mexico when requested.

The banker suggested that such an account could be set up in his bank in Mexico City and might be more convent and less costly.

Robert agreed and they opened the account with ten thousand dollars that Robert thought he could spare from his money belt.

By the simple use of a secret account number and a pass word Robert could transfer sums to any where in the world.

He was issued a check book before he left the bank and signed a signature card. He could write checks up to the amount of the account any where in the world.

Robert left the bank and met with his party for lunch.

Edna, Cathy and Maria had found the perfect dress for Edna to wear for her wedding. Cathy and Maria had found dresses complimenting Edna's.

It was time to leave for home.

Robert had to avoid several thunder heads on his route to Hermosillo but when he landed there it was hot and dry.

Leon and Edna were to drive the Expedition from Hermosillo to Bahia Keno and Robert would fly the plane with Cathy and Maria to the new landing strip there.

Robert landed on soft grass and taxied back to directly across from the drive way to the house.

They carried their luggage and the boxes of their purchases to the house.

Hours later Leon and Edna joined them for dinner.

After the evening meal Maria drove Leon and Edna home.

The next day Robert called and made an appointment with the bank at Hermosillo. He offered to fly there and meet with them concerning that Ranchero they were handling. The one they had wanted to sell for years at Bahia Keno.

Robert asked that a car pick him up at noon the next day at the airport.

The meeting was cordial, The bank really wanted to dispose of that property.

The bank offered to sell him the property for a tenth of it's worth but there was back taxes due. They informed him that a sum of nearly ten thousand American dollars was due the Mexican government. Robert was offered that beautiful piece of land for ten thousand dollars to the Republic Of Mexico and twenty four thousand dollars to the bank.

HE TOOK THEIR OFFER !!

Robert flew home after calling his bank in Birmingham and authorizing the money to be transferred to the bank in Hermosa.

At home he told his ladies that they were now Cow Girls and they should act the part after Leon's and Edna's wedding was over.

He asked Maria if she could suggest any one that could manage a pure bred cattle operation that could produce top notch bulls for the Mexican cattle industry.

Mara had a Cousin. (She had a Cousin or Uncle for anything ! )

Robert met with Maria's Cousin the next day.

Mario Sanchez was a graduate of the University Of Mexico in veterinarian medicine. He had a clinic in Hermosillo.

( In a country where no one spent money on animals he was about to starve in his profession. )

Robert outlined his desire to begin to produce high quality breeding stock for sale in Mexico. He wanted to market the finest bulls in Mexico.

Much of the real pasture land he had seen was rich with good grasses but most of the cattle grazing it were of poor quality. The kind of cattle that in the states would be slaughtered for fast food hamburgers.

He wanted to be able to produce good live stock in a short time.

He wanted to produce bulls that would improve the offspring of any herd.

He told Mario that he wanted him to find pure bred and registered Charolais Cattle.

Robert wanted to start with four hundred head. The cattle were to be purchased in Mexico.

If not Robert promised to import from the U.S. at least two hundred head.

Mario was to plan to artificially inseminate them with world class semen from the finest bulls available.

Robert planned to begin as soon as possible the ovary transplanting to recipient cows.

Robert asked Mario if he was qualified to do that. Mario said he was.

Robert commissioned an uncle of Maria's to repair the houses and barns on the ranch.

The buildings had no plumbing. Water came from a large dug well and had been carried to the houses in buckets. There was the remains of an "Out House" toilet behind each house.

He wanted septic tanks and sewer installed for each house. He wanted modern baths built for each house and the barn.

Robert commissioned a new deep well be drilled and water to be fed to all the houses and outbuildings.

Butane was available and Robert instructed that Gas cooking stoves, refrigerators, hot water heaters and new kitchen cabinets be purchased and installed for each house.

He bought butane tanks for each house and had them filled.

The metal roofs on the houses were good but rusty. Robert wanted them cleaned and painted with a good epoxy coating. He chose a bright red finish.

The barn and two of the outbuildings needed new roofs. They were to be Red to.

Robert asked Maria if she had an uncle that did fencing. He wanted to start erecting new fences around the ranch and fence off the landing strip.

Maria didn't have an uncle that did that but had a cousin that did.

He wanted all the fences made new and the pastures cleared.

Robert commissioned a hanger to be built to house his airplane across the road from the gates to his house on the beach.

In two weeks nearly all the men and many of the women in Bahia Kino were indirectly on Robert's pay roll.

Robert was going to need a lot of cash soon.

He called his friend with the Swiss Bank in Mexico City.

The banker was getting extreme pressure from the main bank in Switzerland to help them meet their commitments in Europe.

The flow of gold from South Africa had slowed to Europe and was going to China and other countries in the far east.

The banker said his bank was paying three hundred and eighty four dollars an ounce. If Robert wanted to sell them his gold within that week he could offer him four dollars more per ounce for that large a transaction.

Robert promised to deliver the gold at the airport in Mexico City early in the morning two days later.

He spent the remainder of the day removing the gold from it's hiding place in the fuel tank of the generator and packing it in the plane.

Before good day light the next morning he departed his grass field and flew to Durango. He got fuel and continued on to Mexico city, arriving after dark that night. He slept in the plane with a pistol under his pillow.

Before six the next morning he called his friend and gave his location at the airport. By eight he and the gold were in the garage under the bank. The bank had sent an armored car and a limousine.

The gold was weighed as Robert watched.

There was six hundred twenty four pounds by the Bank's scales. That computed to the sum of three million eight hundred fifty three thousand and eight hundred and twenty four dollars.

Robert had that deposited to his account there and was given a ride in the bank limousine back to his plane.

Robert had gotten fuel the night before and he took off as soon as possible.

He flew non stop to Hermosillo, arriving late in the afternoon. Robert topped off his tanks with fuel and flew in to his grass strip at Bahia Kino before dark.

Maria and Cathy had missed him a lot and were very attentive.

Robert had a shower and a shave and afterward brought his darlings up to date sexually and about his trip.

Neither had known about the gold and Robert had to tell the story of how his ancestor had acquired it and how he had gotten it to Mexico.

Two weeks after his return from Mexico City Robert felt that everything was getting done on his Ranchero. Eight of the houses were finished and ready to be occupied by farm labor.

The larger house for Mario was so near complete that he had moved his wife and four kids in.

Miles of new fence had been built and the work was nearly finished on the barns.

Mario had not been able to locate Charolaise cattle good enough for what Robert intended in Mexico.

He had been taking applications for cow hands and had hundreds.

Word got out that the houses to be used for workers there were finer than the homes of most of the ranchers they worked for.

Nearly every cattle hand for hundreds of miles had applied for a job.

Robert told Mario to employ two men.

He was to check them out from birth.

No heavy drinkers, no one that had ever been in jail, and only mature experienced men were to be considered.

Only men with experience with cattle could become employed.

All must have a drivers licensee and have a lot of experience with farm tractors.

Robert wanted Mario to hire married men with families only.

Mario told Robert he had two men in mind. He had met them while he was at the places they worked while he was making a call as a Veterinarian.

Robert asked that Mario check them out before offering them a job.

Mario asked Robert how much he was willing to pay.

Robert had checked and other Ranchers paid about five dollars a day or thirty dollars a six day week.

He told Mario to pay six dollars a day, or thirty six dollars for a six day week.

Robert had to drive by the ship yard in town every day to go to Ward Ranchero.

He had watched the sand blasting of that sea-going house yacht as it was being done. The painting was done in epoxy and the hull was a pretty blue. The small ship's topside was in white.

One day Robert stopped and talked to Maria's uncle Antonia about the vessel.

Antonia at that time had a bill due of four thousand for towing the ship in from at sea. He had spent twelve thousand sand blasting and painting her. He was asking twenty thousand for her as is.

Robert told him he might wait a long time before anyone would pay that for a boat that would not run.

Antonia agreed but the owners had authorized the painting. Before it was finished they had notified him in writing that they could not pay his bill of four thousand for towing. They had told him to sell the thing to get his money.

Robert asked how much the engine repairs would cost.

Antonia said that he had taken down the engine and that the repairs were not as serious as his first estimate.

The engine had seized up from the lack of oil but every thing was fine but the cylinder walls and pistons.

He thought his ship yard could re-build that engine for less than seven thousand.

Robert asked if he might go aboard the small ship.

Antonia escorted him through her.

There were five nice state rooms with either bunks or queen size beds. There was a big dining and lounge area. The galley was filthy but well equipped for serving meals for large numbers.

There was crews quarters under the after deck and behind the engine room.

There was full toilet facilities there and even two small state rooms for if part of the crew were female. The whole ship was air conditioned and there was a large generator for use when the main engine was shut down.

The bridge deck had three hundred sixty degree vision from the control position and full radio and Loran equipment.

Robert asked if he was looking at an auto-pilot control and was told he was.

Robert found a recent Coast Guard Certification where the ship had been certified at Miami the year before.

Robert told Antonia that he would be willing to pay him thirty thousand for her if the small ship was nice and clean and ran well after he rebuilt that big engine.

Antonia said that he knew nothing about the radio or radar of the ship but would have experts check all of that and if anything needed repairs that would be extra.

Antonia shook Robert's hand and told him he had a deal.

Robert asked if he thought the ship could be ready for his brother's son Leon's honeymoon. Robert reminded Antonia that the wedding was only three weeks off.

Robert informed Antonia that he was going to give them a honeymoon trip. He said that at first he had planed to fly them to Mexico City and set them up for a week in a fine hotel.

Leon nor Edna were that impressed with Mexico City.

Robert thought that a cruse to Acapulco and back might be more interesting to them. Robert would want the ship to dock for four days. He would make reservations for the honey mooners at a beach front hotel for those four days and the crew could enjoy Acapulco.

They would return back here.

Robert said he would pay for a crew and all expenses for such a trip, he would expect Antonia to handle all the details.

Antonia said "Consider it done".

Several days later Robert met the owner of the largest saloon in town.

Robert told him he wanted Leon and Edna's wedding to be talked about for years.

He asked if the Cantina owner could set up a bar in the park and serve free drinks for one week, day and night.

He would want shrimp and other sea food to be served and a band playing for the whole week.

Robert told the Cantina owner he was going to contact the owner of the other saloon in town and ask if he could serve beer, soft drinks and Tacos at the other end of the park. He would ask him to have music also.

Robert asked for an estimate of cost and told him he would be back the next day.

Robert saw the other Cantina owner that afternoon. He left him pondering on how much he should charge.

Robert contacted the President and C.E.O. of the Ward corporation in Birmingham Alabama. Robert told him of his plans of starting a breeding program for fine bulls on a ranch he had bought in Mexico.

Robert wanted to purchase two hundred really good Charolais cows from the Ward cattle operations.

He offered to buy semen from the present national champion bull owned by the Ward Cattle Company.

Robert told his friend ( And Grand Fathers Brother ) that he was expecting to pay a fair price and not wanting any favors.

He requested the cattle be shipped as soon as possible and would like several of the Ward breeding experts to be flown to his grass strip at Bahia Kino. He promised them a working vacation for a month. They could bring their wives or girl friends.

Robert again stated that he was willing to pay what ever he was invoiced.

The elder Ward asked if he and his wife were invited to.

Robert told him that they certainly were and that he would enjoy their visit for as long as they could stay.

Robert explained that he had a fine home on the beach and yet other than that there was little of interest there.

Robert told his grand uncle that Bahia Keno was just a tiny fishing village on the coast of the Gulf of California.