_ CHAPTER II. WHERE WE THREW IN
"Well, Curly," says Old Man Wright to me one day a couple of months after we had our first talk, "I done it!"
"You sold her?" says I.
"Yes," says he.
"How much did you set 'em back, Colonel?" says I; and he says they give him a million and a half down, or something like that, and the balance of four million and a quarter deferred, one, two, three.
That's more money than all Wyoming is worth, let alone the Yellow Bull Valley, which we own.
"That's a good deal of money deferred, ain't it, Colonel?" says I.
"Well, I don't blame 'em," he says. "If I had to pay anybody three or four million dollars I'd defer it as long as I could. Besides, I'm thinking they'll defer it more than one, two and three years if they wait for them grangers to pay 'em back their money with what they can raise.
"But ain't it funny how you and me made all that money? It's a proof of what industry and economy can do when they can't help theirselfs. When Tug Patterson wished this range on me forty years ago I hated him sinful. Yet we run the ditches in from year to year, gradual, and here we are!
"Well, now," he goes on, "they want possession right away. We got to pull our freight. You and me, Curly, we ain't got no home no more."
That was the truth. In three weeks we was on our way, turned out in the world like orphans. Still, Old Man Wright he just couldn't bear to leave without one more whirl with the boys down at the Cheyenne Club. He was gone down there several days; and when he come back he was hungry, but not thirsty.
"It's no use, Curly," says he. "It's my weakness and I shore deplore it; but I can't seem to get the better of my ways."
"How much did you lose, Colonel?" I ast him.
"Lose?" says he. "I didn't lose nothing. I win four sections of land and five hundred cows. I didn't go to do it and I'm sorry; because, what am I going to do with them cows?"
"Deed 'em to Bonnie Bell," says I. "Trust 'em out to some square fellow you know on shares. We may need 'em for a stake sometime."
"That's a good idea," says he. "Not that I'm scared none of going broke. Money comes to me--I can't seem to shoo it away."
"I never had so much trouble," says I, "but if you're feeling liberal give me a chaw of tobacco and let's talk things over."
We done that, and we both admitted we was scared to leave Wyoming and go to Chicago. We had to make our break though.
Bonnie Bell was plumb happy. She kept on telling her pa about the things she was going to do when she got to the city. She told him that, so far as she was concerned, she'd never of left the range; but since he wanted to go East and insisted so, why, she was game to go along. And he nods all the time while she talks that way to him--him aching inside.
We didn't know any more than a rabbit where to go when we got to Chicago; but Bonnie Bell took charge of us. We put up in the best hotel there was, one that looks out over the lake and where it costs you a dollar every time you turn round. The bell-hops used to give us the laugh quiet at first, and when the manager come and sized us up he couldn't make us out till we told him a few things. Gradual, though, folks round that hotel began to take notice of us, especial Bonnie Bell. They found out, too, like enough, that Old Man Wright had more money than anybody in Chicago ever did have before--at least he acted like he had.
"Curly," says he to me one day, "I got to go and take out a new bank account. I can't write checks fast enough on one bank to keep up with Bonnie Bell," says he.
"What's she doing, Colonel?" I ast him.
"Everything," says he. "Buying new clothes and pictures, and lots of things. Besides, she's going to be building her house right soon."
"What's that?" I says.
"Her house. She's bought some land up there on the Lake Front, north of one of them parks; it lays right on the water and you can see out across the lake. She's picked a good range. If we had all that water out in Wyoming we could do some business with it, though here it's a waste--only just to look at.
"She's got a man drawing plans for her new house, Curly--she says we've got to get it done this year. That girl shore is a hustler! Account of them things, you can easy see it's time for me to go and fix things up with a new bank."
So we go to the bank he has his eye on, about the biggest and coldest one in town--good place to keep butter and aigs; and we got in line with some of these Chicago people that are always in a hurry, they don't know why. We come up to where there is a row of people behind bars, like a jail. The jail keepers they set outside at glass-top tables, looking suspicious as any case keeper in a faro game. They all looked like Sunday-school folks. I felt uneasy.
Old Man Wright he steps up to one of the tables where a fellow is setting with eyeglasses and chin whiskers--oldish sort of man; and you knowed he looked older than he was. He didn't please me. He sizes us up. We was still wearing the clothes we bought in Cheyenne at the Golden Eagle, which we thought was good enough; but this man, all he says to us was:
"What can I do for you, my good people?"
"I don't know just what," says Old Man Wright, "but I want to open a account."
"Third desk to the right," says he.
So we went down three desks and braced another man to see if we please could put some money in his bank. This one had whiskers parted in the middle on his chin. I shore hated him.
"What can I do for you, my good man?" says he.
"I was thinking of opening a account," says Old Man Wright.
"What business?" says he.
"Poker and cows," says Old Man Wright.
The fellow with whiskers turned away.
"I'm very busy," says he.
"So am I," says Old Man Wright. "But what about the account?"
"You'd better see Mr. Watts, three windows down," says the man with the whiskers. So we went on a little farther down.
"How much of a deposit did you want to make, my good friend?" ast this new man, who had little whiskers in front of his ears. I didn't like him none at all.
Old Man Wright he puts his hand in his pocket and pulls out a lot of fine cut, and some keys and a knife and some paper money, and says he:
"I don't know--it might run as high as three hundred dollars."
The man with the little whiskers he pushes back his roll.
"We couldn't think of opening so small a account," says he. "I recommend you to our Savings Department, two floors below."
Old Man Wright he turns to me and says he:
"Haven't they got the fine system? They always have a place for your money, even if it's a little bit."
"Hold on a minute," says he after a while and pulls a card out of his pocket. "Take this in to your president and tell him I want to see him."
That made the man with the little whiskers get right pale. His mouth got round like that of a sucker fish.
"What do you mean?" says he.
"Nothing much," says Old Man Wright. "I may have overlooked a few things. I was wrong about that three hundred dollars."
He flattens out on the table a mussed-up piece of paper he found in his side pocket.
"It wasn't three hundred dollars at all, but three hundred thousand dollars," says he. "I forgot. Go ask your president if he'll please let me open a account, especial since I bought four thousand shares in this bank the other day when I was absent-minded--my banker out in Cheyenne told me to do it. You can see why I come in, then--I wanted to see how the hands in this business was carrying it on, me being a stockholder. Now run along, son," says he, "and bring the president out here, because I'm busy and I ain't got long to wait."
And blame me if the president didn't come out, too, after a while! He was a little man, yet looked like he'd just got his suit of clothes from the tailor that morning, and his necktie too--white and rather soft-looking; not very tall, but wide, with no whiskers. I didn't have no use for him at all.
The president he came smiling, with both his hands out. He certainly was a glad-hand artist, which is what a bank president has to be today--he's got to be a speaker and a handshaker. The rest don't count so much.
He taken us into his own room. I never had knowed that chairs growed so large before or any table so long; but we set down. That president certainly knew good cigars.
"My dear Mr. Wright," says he, "I'm profoundly glad that you have at last came in to see us. I knew of your purchase in our institution and we value your association beyond words. With the extent of your holdings--which perhaps you will increase--you clearly will be entitled to a place on our board of directors. I'm a Western man myself--I came from Moline, Illinoy; and perhaps it will not be too much if I ask you to let me have your proxy, just as a matter of form." He talks like a book.
We had some more conversation, and when we went out all the case keepers stood up and bowed, one after the other. We didn't seem to have no trouble opening a account after that.
"The stock in this bank's too low," says Old Man Wright to me on the side. "That's why I bought it. They're going to put it up after a while; and when they start to put things up they put 'em farther when you begin on the ground floor. Do you see?"
I begun to think maybe Old Man Wright was something more than a cowman, but I didn't say nothing. We went back to the hotel and he calls in Bonnie Bell to our room.
"Look at me, sis," says he. "Is they anything wrong with me?"
She sits down on his knee and pushes back his hair.
"Why, you old dear," says she, "of course they ain't."
"Is they anything wrong with my clothes or Curly's?" he says.
"Well now----" she begins.
"That settles it!" says he; and that afternoon him and me went down to a tailor.
What he done to each of us was several suits of clothes. Old Man Wright said he wanted one suit each of every kind of clothes that anybody ever had been knew to wear in the history of the world. I was more moderate. I never was in a spiketail in my whole life and I told him I'd die first. Still, I could see I was going to be made over considerable.
As for Bonnie Bell, when she went down the avenue, where the wind blows mostly all the time, she looked like she'd lived there in the city all her life. She always had a good color in her cheeks from living out-of-doors and riding so much, and she was right limber and sort of thin. Her hat was sort of little and put some on one side. Her shoes was part white and part black, the way they wore 'em then, and her stockings was the color of her dress; and her dress was right in line, like the things you saw along in the store windows.
It was winter when we hit Chicago and she wore furs--dark ones--and her muff was shore stylish. When she put it up to the side of her face to keep off the wind she was so easy to look at that a good many people would turn round and look at her. I don't know what folks thought of her pa and me, but Bonnie Bell didn't look like she'd come from Wyoming. Once two young fellows followed her clear to the door of the hotel, where they met me. They went away right soon after that.
Bonnie Bell just moved into Chicago like it was easy for her. As for Old Man Wright, about all him and me could do was to go down to the stockyards and see where the beef was coming from. We looked for some of our brand, and when he seen some of the Circle Arrow cows come in he wouldn't hardly talk to anybody for two or three days.
I never did see where Bonnie Bell's new house was, because she said it was a secret from me. Her pa told me that he paid round two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars for the land, without no house on it.
"Why, at that," says I, "you'll be putting up a house there that'll cost over six thousand dollars, like enough!"
Bonnie Bell hears me and says she:
"I shouldn't wonder a bit if it would cost even more than that. Anybody that is somebody has to have a good house, here in Chicago."
"Are we somebody, sis?" says Old Man Wright, sudden.
"Dear old dad!" says she, and she kisses him some more. "We'll be somebody before we quit this game--believe me!"
"Curly," says the old man to me soon after, "that girl's got looks--Lord! I didn't know it till I seen her all dressed up the way she is here. She's got class--I don't know where she got it, but she has. She's got brains--Lord knows where she got them; certain not from me. She's got sand too--you can't stop her noways on earth. If she starts she's going through. And she says she only come here because she knew I wanted to!" says he.
"What's the difference?" I ast him. "We fooled her, didn't we?"
"Maybe," says he. "I ain't shore."
Well, anyway, this is what we'd swapped the old days out on the Yellow Bull for. We'd done traded the mountains and the valley and the things we knew for this three or four rooms at several hundred dollars a month in a hotel that looked out over the water, and over a lot of people on the keen lope, not one of them caring a damn for us--leastways not for her pa or me. _