Chapter Seven—Homer Kragan’s Cigar

     I rode out to Gail Sanders’ Clearwater ranch. Bushy Mustache was standing in the same spot he was two days before—I doubt he’d ever moved—and he just jerked a thumb towards the house. I knocked, but went in.
     “Gail?”
     She came from the hallway to the left. She didn’t look especially happy to see me. “Hi, Robert. What can I do for you?”
     “We need to go to the bank. You and me. Talk to Kragan.”
     “You want to tell me why?”
     “Of course. Jim Perry is dead and you’re going to buy that land.”
     She blanched at that. “He is? I am?”
     “Yes, he is and yes, you are. Come to the bank with me and I’ll tell you how it works.”
     She hesitated, but I definitely had her interest. “All right. I told you the other day that I can’t afford to buy my ranch, much less his, but if you’ve got some creative financing scheme up your sleeve, I’ll at least listen. Let me change clothes real quick. Have Karl saddle my horse for me.”
     So we rode into town together. “Jim Perry is dead?” she asked. “How? What happened?”
     “Lead poisoning.”
     She smiled at that. “You gave it to him, I suppose.”
     “Yeah.” I told her what had happened since I had last seen her.
     “So Jim Perry is really dead, huh.” She said it like she found it hard to believe. “He doesn’t have an heir.” She looked at me. “What makes you think I can buy the Circle P?” Circle P was what Perry called his ranch.
     “I think you can. Let me tell you about it when we get to Kragan’s office. That way I won’t have to explain it twice.”
     “Ok.”
     We got to the banker’s office just after 1. He was there. “So Gail Sanders is the buyer you were talking about?” he asked me. He shook his head. “People in this town won’t cotton to her owning all that range any more than they would Jim Perry.”
     “How many acres are out there, Kragan? All total, Perry and Sanders land.”
     “Over 250,000, split pretty even, though Clearwater has a little more.”
     I looked at Gail. “You want those settlers off your land.”
     “You know I do.”
     “How much land does each have?”
     “They all bought a quarter section, 160 acres.”
     “How many of them are there?”
     “10 families.”
     I nodded. “Here’s what you do. Buy Perry’s land and file on your own. Kragan will put up the money. Go to each of the settlers on your land—land you claim—and tell them you’ll give them 240 acres of prime land on the other side of the river in exchange for what they have now. They can pick the spot. Then you divide up the rest of Circle P into quarter sections, advertise back east and wherever, and start selling off the plots. Buy some of the vacant lots and empty buildings in town, because when people start moving onto that range—let’s call it West Clearwater now to distinguish it from your East Clearwater ranch—there’s going to be a boom in this town. As well grassed and watered as that land is, it will hold dozens of families. They won’t live in town, of course, but the people who’ll come to service them will. You’ll make enough to pay off your loan to Mr. Kragan and be rich ten times over. And you’ll have all your land back.”
     Kragan wasn’t overly happy about it. “She’ll have to put up Clearwater—her ranch—for collateral.”
     I looked at Gail. “Are you willing to do that?”
     “Robert, as you’ve been so persistent in pointing out to me, I don’t really own it.”
     My gaze shifted to the banker. “It’s really up to you, Mr. Kragan.”
     Gail looked at Kragan. It was obvious he was thinking because he was working that cigar back and forth across his mouth like it was a hot potato. “Will my land be enough collateral to pay for Perry’s land? And some of the lots in town?” Gail asked the banker.
     “I imagine it will. Problem is, who knows what Perry’s land is worth? I can tell you what Atkins and the others bought their quarter sections for, but each piece of land would be different. Best thing you can do is go file on it immediately in the land claims office and let them determine its worth. They’ll give you an appraisal based on total acreage. Come back and let me know what it is and we’ll work out a deal. Probably won’t be as high a price as you think it will because there’s been no demand for it. Well, Perry’s had it.” He nodded. “I think it will work.” Then he looked thoughtful. “Miss Sanders, you might be tempted to keep all of the Circle P, or at least that which you don’t give to your settlers. I wouldn’t do that. I think you know that your reputation in this town is, well, about down there where Jim Perry’s was. If you handle this right, do what Mr. Constance says, you can get all of your original land back, and be a major town benefactor by dividing up and selling—what did Constance call it?—West Clearwater.”
     Gail was still a little concerned. “That’s going to put me pretty deep in debt.”
     I told her, “Gail, you’ve been living off free land for almost all your life. Now is the time to do it the right way. Buy the land and make it pay. Over time, I have a suspicion you’ll come out way ahead, with what you’ll get from Perry land. Otherwise, you have no legal way to stop people from squatting on what you’ve been using all these years.”
     Kragan added, “I think the payoff will be worth it. And I’ll make this deal with you. You borrow from me to buy Perry’s land and your own. If you file on your land, you’re going to have to pay whatever the land assessor says it’s worth. But if you can’t make it go, I won’t foreclose on your land, I’ll just foreclose on Perry’s—West Clearwater and any lots you might want to buy in town. I think Constance has hit on it. Divide that land up and it will bring in lots of folks. Town’ll boom. Railroad will hear about it and come through. We’re sitting on a potential gold mine here.”
     Kragan’s eyes were gleaming like diamonds and he was almost drooling. The man was greedy, no doubt about it, but I think he saw the merits of the plan. I didn’t see any reason to stay around, so I stood up and said, “Well, I’ll let you two hammer out the details…”
     But Gail stopped me. “Robert, would you…stay? This is a little… overwhelming, and I’d like your help, at least until I can see what all is involved.”
     I sat down. “Are you interested?”
     “Yes.”
     “Even if it means going deep into debt?”
     “Yes. Especially if Mr. Kragan gives me a guarantee he won’t foreclose on it.”
     “I’ll do that,” Kragan said. I thought that was pretty big of him. In fact, I thought that was very big of him. In double fact, I didn’t really think he’d honor his word if push came to shove. He could have all of Gail’s land, too, sell it for a mint and really be in hog heaven. But, either way, he was going to come out of it in the green by a wide margin. I did a bit of quick calculating and, at a quarter section each, Perry’s land could easily hold several hundred settlers. Of course, some might want more than a quarter section, but still…lots of people. And that meant lots of business for the town. Lots of new businesses for the town. People who would want to borrow money to start those businesses. Borrow money from Kragan’s bank….
     He was probably at least 3 hours ahead of me on all that.
     I stayed around and helped. Before the day was over, Gail had gone to the land claims office and filed on all the land that had not yet been claimed of the old Perry and Sanders homestead. “Will you talk to the settlers with me? Convince them to move?” she asked me.
     I nodded. “Anything I can do to help.” Why not? I didn’t have anything else to do.
     “You’ll want a piece of the new land, of course.”
     I stopped and looked at her. Then chuckled. “Never really thought about it.” I shrugged. “I don’t have any money, Gail. I couldn’t afford it.”
     She smiled. “Well, maybe we can work out something.”
     I didn’t press her on it. Frankly, I had mixed emotions about staying. Yes, I liked the area. No, I didn’t like what had happened. I didn’t want to get a reputation as a fast gun in River Bend. Problem was, I already had it. Jim Perry was fast, but I nailed him easily and I heard the comments: “Never say anybody move so fast”…”Man, he’s fast”…holy moley, that was unbelievable…” That kind of stuff gets around and every hotshot who thinks he’s slick with a gun would want to challenge me. Of course, like I did initially with Jake Barton, I didn’t mind ignoring them and I didn’t give a hoot what they thought about me. But it was a headache I didn’t have to have if I moved somewhere else and just took a cowpunching job. Do I want my own ranch again? Well, yes, of course…Here?…I don’t know…I’d have to think about it. Kragan would probably loan me the money if I put up the land as collateral, though I don’t especially like a bank owning my property. But there was time to give it some thought. I was in no hurry to leave.
     Over the next few days and weeks, the wheels slowly began to turn and things slowly began to fall into place. Some of the settlers on Gail’s land balked about moving, but they all agreed to at least go and look over the new land. There was some prime water and grass property available and when the balkers saw it, they immediately agreed to a straight-up trade. When the last one signed the papers, I saw tears come to Gail’s eyes.
     “I’ve got all my father’s land back now,” she whispered. I was happy for her.
     This was a long-term investment, of course, so it would be years before the thing came to full fruition. But the foundations were put in place, and that was all that could be done for the time being. Gail put her land for collateral, bought it all and the remaining Perry land—over 125,000 acres—with money borrowed from Kragan—he was going to make a killing and he knew it. She then had the Circle P surveyed, and started advertising. And she bought up some prime property in River Bend—what Kragan himself didn’t buy, that is. She owned a lot in the Clearwater Valley and people were a little skeptical at first, but over time they would come around. Hopefully. Whether I would stay around or not, I wasn’t sure. But I was happy for Gail.
     I didn’t know whether to be happy for me or not. I generally wasn’t because two names kept coming into my head…Robin…Julie…
     And usually in that order.