Chapter 2

"I think the bank owns a nice large home that was recently built. The one who built it was killed before all the paperwork was finished and I think the bank owns it now," the man told me.

I asked him which bank and he told me there was only one so after the loading was done I headed for it. In the bank, after I told a clerk what I was after I was ushered into the President's office. He was trying to give me the brushoff until I told him I was interested in a large home with a lot of acerage and that I could pay in gold.

He got rid of me then but only because he called in his Real Estate vice president. Warren was a hell of a lot nicer to me than Bernard, the President, had been. Warren called for his buggy from the livery stable next door and we headed out of town to look the place over. I was impressed when we made it.

The main part of the grounds around the house was enclosed in a wooden fence. We had to stop and unlock the gate to get in. The house was magnificent. It was two story with the ground floor having the kitchen, dining room, living room, a large parlor and the Master bedroom and bath. I was surprised to notice running water and Warren was proud to announce there was running hot water in the master bath and kitchen once the hot water boiler had a fire going.

Shit, this was all great news to me. I took my time to look over the Master bedroom which Warren was oh so happy to point out. There was a bathroom with a claw foot tub attached to it and another door leading out of it to the other big bedroom on this floor.

"It's the same setup on both sides of the hall upstairs too. There is a bathroom between two of the bedrooms but the other bedroom doesn't have direct access to it." Warren said.

"I think it will do fine for my needs. How much is it?" I asked.

"I can't presume to set the price. You'll have to get with Bernard for that." he said.

"I see. Then you can tell Bernard I'm going to check around town and see what he's been asking for the place. If he tries to hold me up I'll just hire some carpenters and build my own place exactly the way I want it."

We mounted the buggy and headed back to town then. I noticed that Warren was heading directly for the bank and I let him. He was dismayed when I didn't follow him inside so I told him I was going to ask around and see what they'd been asking for the place we'd just looked at.

"But no one can tell you how much we have to have for the place except Bernard." he said.

"I don't give a shit how much you have to have for the place. I could tell its been finished for a while now so I already know either you're asking too much or there isn't anyone around here with the money to buy it. I'm going to find out what you've been asking for it, just like I said I would, then I'll come and make you an offer. I don't have to have a house right now, but I know you need to move that one, pronto. The way I'm guessing is that I'm the only one with gold in hand to buy the place right now. If I don't hear a decent price when Bernard starts talking I'll find somewhere else to live.

My little speech didn't sit any better with Warren than I'd thought it would but I walked on away.

Due to the gold I had saved up for once I had an advantage over a banker I'd never had before. This time I had the money and I knew damned well he'd be wanting all of it he could get. Fuck him. I knew there would be a hard bargain between now and the time I owned the house. I walked around town for a while and then got more gold out of my trailer's hidey hole.

With both my pockets loaded down I walked into the bank and headed for the head teller to swap some gold for more useable money. She was a little suspicious when I laid out ten of the ingots and told her I wanted to change them for money. She said they'd have to let the assayer look at them first even though they had mint marks on them.

"Fine," I said, and then went over and sat in one of the nice chairs they had spread around the lobby. It was only a couple of minutes before Warren and Bernard came over to talk.

Bernard hemmed and hawed and danced around while I let them do all the talking. He finally spit out that he wanted six thousand dollars for the house and the hundred acres it was on and he mentioned it was a firm price.

"It's also firmly more than I'll pay for the place. I'll ask around town and see what you've been asking for it. I'm not saying I don't have six thousand dollars to pay but I'm not going to jump in without doing a little asking around in town."

They lost interest in talking to me pretty quickly and drifted away. I had more than one reason for wanting to wait a while. Bernard might be the president of the bank but I knew damned well he didn't own it. I was going to spread the word around town that I was interested in the place and wait for the word to get back to the actual owners of the bank. Bernard could act as high and mighty as he wanted to, but I was sure he'd already had a firm talking to from the owners about how they were going to get out from under the big thing. Besides, I seemed to have time on my hands and the longer the big thing sat out there the more the lost interest on the money would stack up and keep worrying the actual bank's owners.

By and by the assayer came in and looked at my gold. He told the teller the ingots had marks from the mint on them and he explained how useless it would be for him to test them out. After he left she called me over and counted out my money which was mostly twenty dollar gold pieces. With my pockets full of more easily spent cash I left the bank and headed back to Liverman's cafe.

As soon as I was seated and had ordered I perked my voice up and addressed the whole cafe, asking if anyone in there knew of a house for sale. One older guy spoke up and told me he wanted to sell his house. He even told me he wanted six hundred dollars for it and the hundred acres it was on. He came over and introduced himself as Silas Jones and I asked him if he could wait until I got and ate my meal and then go and show me the house. He was happy to and he sat down at my table and we drank coffee until my meal came and I finished it.

After I paid my way out again Silas and I headed out. His horse was tied up outside. I asked him where I could rent or buy a horse and he pointed out the livery stable to me. He climbed aboard his horse and followed me over to it.

Gus, the livery man wasn't very talkative. He pointed out the nag he would rent out and I wouldn't be caught dead on it. I asked him if he had any for sale and when he admitted it I asked him to show me the best one he had. He pointed out a big bay mare and she looked pretty damned good. We settled on sixty dollars for the mare, a fairly good saddle, and a half assed bridle. I was on my way with my new ride in less than half an hour.

While we were riding to his house Gus told me that his kids were grown and his wife had died only about a month ago.

"I hadn't even thought about selling my place but if we can make a deal I'll sell my whole place, all my stock and equipment and I'll go and live with my oldest son. He's been trying to get me to do it since my wife died anyway.

Gus's house wasn't nearly as impressive as what the bank had to offer, but it was good enough. It was a six room place and the kitchen had a pretty nice wood stove in it. We settled on five hundred for the house, barn, hundred and fifty acres, and all his stock and equipment. He even said he was already mostly packed up and that he could get out this afternoon.

"The deed is down in my lockbox at the bank. We can go get it and I can sign it over to you right now. Hell, that suited me fine since I knew Bernard would know I had a place to sleep now.

We hadn't been in the bank five minutes before that head teller went into Bernard's office and spilled the beans. I could see him nearly throwing a fit, but I didn't say a word to him. After Gus signed the deed over he even had Warren notarize it for me and he asked the teller to empty out his account so he could take his money with him. He handed over what keys there were to me and I took off over to liverman's for another meal and after eating it I went to the biggest saloon in town, stepped up to the bar and ordered a schooner of beer.

It was a little slow in the saloon so I got to tell the bartender my whole story of trying to buy the big house and how I happened to buy Gus's place just now. He laughed about it and I knew if I did the same thing in the other two saloons the word would be all over town before tomorrow. It's just what I did. I made the rounds and told every bartender my tale before I finally rode out to my new house and just happened to get there as Silas was leaving. We said our good byes and he took off in his buggy while I went into the barn, unsaddled my new mare and put her away and then I went into my new house to get ready for the night.