Brides of Iowa by Connie; Stevens

in that hole, was ya?” Cully started to chuckle.
    “Well, I was just going by the way our stove upstairs looks.”
    Cully’s toothy grin punctuated the man’s amusement. “You’d best stick to runnin’ the store, Gideon. You ain’t never gonna make a living installin’ stoves.” Cully cackled.
    Gideon pressed his lips together and decided not to embarrass himself by offering to help. He set to work rearranging the displays out front.
    “Hey Gideon, what’s going on?”
    Gideon turned. “Mornin’, Ty. What are you doing in town again? I usually don’t see you more than once a month.”
    Ty stuck his hand deep inside the gumdrop jar. “I heard from one of the stage drivers that he dropped off a guy here who might be willing to make a land deal. I came in to see if I could find him.”
    Gideon scratched his head. “There was a man who got off the stage the other day. Name was Behr. He mentioned something about attending to some business.”
    Ty chewed thoughtfully for a moment and tossed a couple more gumdrops in his mouth. “He didn’t say what kind of business?”
    “No, it was none of my concern. I was just happy to make a sale.”
    Ty nodded like it all made sense to him. “One of the stage drivers said this guy might be connected with the railroad.”
    “Railroad?” Gideon frowned. “I read in the paper awhile back that the Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska decided to route that connecting line about fifty miles south of here. There was some talk for a while of the Illinois Central taking over that line.”
    After gathering up another handful of gumdrops, Ty shrugged. “I know as much as you do. Figure I’ll ask some questions and see what the answers sound like.”
    Gideon propped one foot on a crate of canned goods. “I had a real strange meeting today with Mr. Sewell.”
    “Roland Sewell at the bank?”
    Gideon nodded. “You know that parcel of land east of town that I’ve been looking at?”
    Ty arched his eyebrows and swallowed. “You finally gonna buy that piece? Hey, that’s great. Nice stretch of land. A little too hilly for planting wheat and corn, but you’ve always wanted to breed horses. That’s some mighty pretty pasture land.”
    Gideon scratched his head. “When I checked at the land office last week, they said the bank owned it. But today, Mr. Sewell told me it wasn’t for sale. Don’t you find that a little odd?”
    Puzzlement drove Ty’s eyebrows into a furrow. “That doesn’t make sense. Why would the bank want to hold a piece of land?”
    Either insight or speculation—Gideon didn’t know which—fit some tentative pieces into place. “Unless …” He rubbed his hand over his chin and looked straight at Ty. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
    “Talk of the railroad coming through might drive up the price of land sky-high.”
    Gideon caught the corner of his lip between his teeth. “If the rumor is true, it might. When you get done talking with Mr. Behr, can you drop by and let me know what you found out?”
    Ty tossed his hat on his head. “If it’s anything worth passing on, you’ll be the first to know.”
    “Thanks, buddy.”
    “Sure thing.” Ty started for the door.
    “Uh, Ty?”
    “Huh?”
    “That’ll be four cents for the gumdrops.”
    “Put it on my account.”
    “You don’t have an account.”
    “Oh. Well, could I open an account?”
    “For four cents’ worth of gumdrops?”
    Ty pulled out his pocket linings and raised his shoulders, chagrin on his face.
    Gideon laughed and shook his head. “Get out of here, you gumdrop thief.”
    “See you later.”
    “You better have a nickel on you when you come back.”
    “A nickel? You said four cents.”
    “I charge interest.”
    “Gideon, you got a catalog for stove parts?” Cully’s request rang like a dirge in Gideon’s ears. He pulled the catalog from underneath a shelf and pushed it across the counter to the old gent. Cully flipped through the pages and turned the book around