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Chapter five "The Cheating Bookkeeper"
Grandpa said it was time for me to stop fooling around and
get down to business and I agreed with him.
Over the next four months he taught me about everything that
pertained to the business. I requested the book keeper to give me the books so
I could go over them.
He had a fit and accused Grandpa of not trusting him.
Grandpa asked me why I wanted to see the books and I told
him it had to be part of the learning process.
It only took me a short time to see the book keeper was
stealing from the ranch account. He was taking almost as much as the ranch was
keeping. I told grandpa about it and he went wild.
I had to convince him to settle down so we could get some of
the money back.
Grandpa knew Jenny’s pa was using the same bookkeeper and he
figured he was cheating him as he was doing to grandpa.
He took me to Jenny’s Pa Luke’s ranch and we met with him. He welcomed us and we went back to his office.
The book keeper was there and so were the books. Luke asked
for the books and for him to be able to explain anything we didn’t understand.
After a session of four hours I had everything I needed to
know. Luke looked for the book keeper and he wasn’t’ to be found. A search for
him was started immediately.
One of the hands said he left in a hurry about an hour ago
with his buggy.
Luke said, “Pecos you know
the short cut to town don’t you?”
He said, “Yes I sure do.”
“Then bring that man back and let’s see what he has to say
about what Randy has found.”
Three hours later Pecos
came back with the man in tow.
By this time I had explained to Luke how much the man had
pilfered from him. The man denied taking the money and said I didn’t understand
book keeping.
Luke said, “Okay go ahead and see if he wants to lie to you.”
The man said, “I’m ready to talk now.”
The man almost drowned this time and it took him several
minutes before he could speak. He was
exhausted but managed to say, “I have the money in a safety deposit box at the
bank.”
Luke and grandpa said okay but if he was lying there were
watering troughs in town to finish him off.
As they were leaving, I bumped into Jenny, and she turned up
her nose at me and I handed her the report from Pinkerton about her boy friend,
which showed that he was a fraud bilking young women out of all he could get.
I left with the ranchers to make sure the bookkeeper returned all he had stolen from them. As it turned out he was short a thousand, he
said he partied on.
Luke said if you think you can, then go ahead and find it.
As Pecos was dragging him to the watering
trough the man cried out okay I will tell you where the rest is.
As it turned out he had hid it in a small cave he had found
and when he reached in to get it he was bit by a viper and lost his arm as well
as suffering great pain. When he was
well enough he was incarcerated for five years.
Both Luke and Grandpa were singing my praises but I told
them it was Pecos who deserved the credit and
should get a reward.
They agreed and gave him a big reward for what he had done. Pecos said he didn’t know what to do with so much money
for he had always lived from month to month ranching.
I told him to put it in the bank and pretend it didn’t exist
until he wanted something special and then go buy it. He said that was what he
would do that except he wanted a new pair of boots and a new hat right now.
I said, “Then buy what you want and put the rest away for
later.”
He wanted me to go with him to the bank and get everything
set up proper, after he got his boots and hat.
TO BE CONTINUED
Thank you for sharing your continued story with us here at Tell me a Story. I am glad they caught the cheating bookkeeper.
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