Mountain Woman Snake River Blizzard (25 page)

The two mounted and a frisky Red Bird wanted to race, but Kate held him in check.  There was still a cover of snow and with the melting and freezing there was ice under the snow.  She didn’t want him to slip and fall.

They stopped at the telegraph office first
and there were no wires.  The next stop was the police station.  Chief Kincaid heard them and came to the front.

“Thanks to you two, everything is quiet now.  The Knorr and
Günter
feud was averted.”

“That’s good to hear,” Kate said.  “We owe Grandmother Gretchen thanks for pointing us in the right direction.”

“If nothing is brewing,” Man said.  “We have business in town.  Send somebody out to get us if anything breaks or we get a wire from Chief Marshal Meek.”

“Will do,” Kincaid said.  He walked to the door w
ith them.  He gazed toward the north.
“I
t’s about time for another snow
storm to roll in.  My bones were aching this morning.  That’s always a good sign of a change in the weather.”

“It’s that time of the year,” Kate said.  “We all know we
’ll
have more snow before spring gets here.”

They rode to the bank next and met with the president.  Man explained his project on constructing homes.

“Are you here to obtain financing?” the bank president asked with a worried expression on his face.

“No,” M
an said.  “We have the capital.  I
n fact
,
I want to make a deposit to cover the construction cost.  Should we be out on a case, we have hired Roy and Dan Shobert to construct the homes.  As they p
urchase ma
terials, D&D Lumber
Company
will present you a stat
ement.  I want it signed by Daniel or David Wilcox as well as Roy or
Dan
Shobert
.  Look it over for reasonability and pay it out of our account.”

“This is highly unusual,” the banker said.  “But, I s
ee no reason why it won’t work.  We must establish trust and the two Wilcox brothers are honest men.  From the comments about the two Shobert boys, I don’t anticipate any problems.  I’ll keep an accurate account on the expenses.”

“Good,” Man said. 
He pulled the money belt from around his waist, counted out five thousand, and placed it on the desk.
  “
We want to open a business account in the name of K&M Construction Company.  
With what we have in our
personal
account and this, it will
cover the cost until we get back.
  If the cost exceeds the business account, pull the short fall from our personal account.  That will only happen if we are gone for an extended period of time.  We’re starting two homes.
”

“That’
s not a problem
,
either,” he said.

“We know this may be in inconvenience to you,” Kate said.  “But, I expect that whoever buys the houses will finance them t
hrough your bank, so we all win.  B
esides
,
the only way Coeur d’Alene will grow is with suitable housing.”

“I had already considered that,” the banker said.
 
“I
f I may ask,
where are you going and do you know how long you’ll be gone?”

“We’re waiting for a wire from Chief Marshal Jo
e
Meek
,” Kate said
. 
“
When Valdez and Engledow are located
, we’
ll be gone.  Where the trail takes us will determine when we’ll be
home.”

“I see,” he said.  “I heard about the Elm
er Knorr case you two solved, and g
ood riddance on Bedford Nail.  He and his establishment were a black eye on Coeur d’Alene.  Those gaming tables and dealers were robbing the poor fishermen and others stupid enough to gamble there.”

Man and Kate shook hands with the
banker, went out,
and mounted their horses.  “Where next?” she asked
.

“
D&
D Lu
mber
Company,” he said.

They w
ere met by a clerk and Man said, “We’
d like to visit with Daniel or David Wilcox.
”

“They are both here, co
me with me,” he said.  The two m
arshals were shown to an office with two desks.  Two men that were obviously brothers
from their appearance
stood when they saw Kate and Man.

Man i
ntroduced
Kate
to the owner of the company
.  “We came to discuss business,” Man said.

The four sat at a table and Kate and Man explained their proposition.  Both of the men were smiling, especi
ally when Man explained how the
building materials would be paid.

Daniel was the first to speak.  “We’ll be happy to work with Roy and Dan Shobert.  Invoices for materials will be taken to
the bank every Friday
,
if that’
s suitable with you,” he added.

“That works for us,” Man said.  “We’ll audit them when we can and if there’s a problem, we’ll come see you.  You treat us fair and square and we hope to do a lot of business in the future.  We have forty acres we plan to put into quality homes for good residents of Coeur d’Alene.”

That brought another huge smile from the two men.  “You can count on us,” David said.  “We would never
even think of any
thing underhanded with the two m
arshals that put down that skunk Bedford Nail.”

As with the banker, they were escorted to the front door and were given a friendly pat on the back and a firm handshake.  The two merc
hants stood on the porch and wa
ved as Kate and Man rode away.

“Where now?
” she asked.

“
Cliff
Landers
’ s
tore,” he said.

Cliff
had a customer when the
y walked inside
.  Kate started around the store looking.  “We need to replenish our supplies in the packs,” she said.  “While we have time, I’ll do some
shopping.”

“Remember
,
we’re on horse
back,” he said.

“As opposed to what?”
she teased, since they hadn’t taken the wagon out of the barn in quite some time. 
“
I won’t
buy more than
our horses can carry. 
I expect
Cliff
has a couple of sacks we can
use
.
”

She started around the store and as she selected an ite
m, she handed it to Man to take
t
o the end of the counter. 
Cliff
finished with the customer,
and the pile of supplies ha
d grown to a sizable
amount.  
Cliff
began entering the amounts on
a tablet as he moved each item to another pile.

“Planning a long trip?” he asked.

“We never know,” Kate said.  “We’re getting ready to g
o after Valdez and Engledow when
the
y
surface.”

A huge frown crossed
Cliff
’s face at the mention of the two names.  “I know this is awful,” he said, “but I hope you don’t bring them back.  Lucille has been through enough without having to relive that during a trial.”

“We’ll have no choice should they
surrender
,”
Kate said.  “We’re obligated to give them that opportunity.”

“I understand,”
Cliff
said.

“We came to see you for another reason as well as buy
ing
supplies,” Man said.

“Let me
finish the tally before we
move on to
something else,” he said.
  “I have a one
-
track
mind.”

He picked up a sack of rice and put it on the scales.  “You
must like rice,” he commented.

“It’s light
weight to carry and keeps well,” Kate said
. 
“And a cup of rice with jerky will feed both of us two meals,” she added.  “That’s important on a long trip in the wilderness.”

“I know that,” he said.  “I outfit trappers every fall and rice is a staple to them.  I keep an abundant supply on hand as well as jerky, parched corn and pemmican.   I have an Indian woman make it for me.  There’s a big demand for it from trappers, hunters and fishermen.”

He finished putting down the numbers and added.  He wrote the total at the bottom and then handed it to Kate.  “Please check my figures,” he asked.

She finished and nodded agreement.

Man took out his wallet and paid for the supplies.  “Do you have a couple of sacks we can
use?” Kate asked.

Cliff
nodded and went in the back and
returned
with two flour sacks.  “This should hold them,” he said.

He put the purchases in the sacks and then asked, “What was the other business
did
you wanted to discuss?”

“I’ll get right to the point,” Man said.
 
“We have started a home construction business as you know from ta
l
king with Lucille.  We marked off home sites this morning and Roy and Dan are going to start two houses.  If you’re interested, we would be happy to build one especially
designed
for you
and Lucille
.”

“I’m definitely interested.  I haven’t asked Lucille to marry me, but I intend to do that this weekend.
 
How much are you a
sking for the houses?”

“T
hat will depend on a few things.   The size of the house, types of materials, and how much finish work you want, fireplaces and such.   Also, you’ll need to decide on the lot size. 
If you
’ll
sit down with Lucille and
the boys and decide what you want,
then we
can give you a reasonable bid
.”

“I understand,” he said.  “I need to talk to the banker about financing
,
as well,” he said.  “When do you need to know?”

“I expect Roy and Dan will start construction so
on, but we’
re building two homes at the same time.  They can start on the other, but it would be cheaper on you if Roy and Dan can sub-contract two foundations and fireplaces for both at the same time.  That will get
us
a discount
on the bid.”

“I understand,” Cliff said.  “Would Monday be soon enough?”

“Of course,” Man said.

Cliff
reached for Kate’s hand.  “Do you think Lucille will marry me?” he asked in a low voice.

“Kate had to stifle a chuckle and wanted to say, hell yes, in a heartbeat, but held it in check.

“Ask her,” she said.  “That’s the only way to find out.  Should she say yes, then it will be
the right
time to discuss the housing issue.”

“I know where I live now is much too small for us.  I have one room behind the store.
  And her house is little more than a shack.  I’d like to start our new life right.  I want to give her
,
and the boys
,
a proper home.
”

Kate nodded and smiled at him.

“I hope we don’t have to leave before Monday,” Man said.  “If we do, we’ll have to wait until we get back to start your new home.  We have to be in agreement on the price.”

“I appreciate that,”
Cliff
said.

He helped carry the two sacks out to the horses.  They tied a sack behind each saddle.”

“Whe
re now?” Kate asked.

“Unle
ss you have another place to go?” he said.  “Home.”

“I don’t.  W
e did everything we in
tend
ed to
in town.”

Man touched Arabian’s side
s
with his spurs and turned toward home.

They found Roy and Dan hard at work building fences between the home sites.  They stopped and talked with them.  “We have everything squared away at the bank a
nd with D&D Lumber
,” Man said.  “We talked to
Cliff
and he said he would give us an answer
on building
a home by Monday.”