jonah james did not go broke after the poker game with buck gray. far from it.
as the years went by, he kept his shipyards and a few ships - though nothing compared to what buck gray had - and some feed lots and some hotels and a distillery or two. where he made some good money was in them new department stores. he had some stock in railroads. and factories making all sorts of goddamned things you never heard of but they made money.
and he had a town - jamestown - named after him.
but as he grew old he got bitter. his three sons were worthless louts, damned good at spending money, but with not so much interest in making it.
his daughter, taffeta, was the only one of his offspring who showed any interest in growing the family fortune.
but if truth be told, jonah himself did not really exercise himself much over what would happen after he was gone.
any more than he had concerned himself when he was young with the warnings of preachers about the next life.
no, what riled jonah was the here and now.
what riled him was that there were sons of bitches - not just buck gray - who had done better than him.
some of them a damn sight better.
it was just nature’s way that he resented it.
and with nothing much to do when he got old and lame he had time to think about it.
jonah had an office which took up a lot of the third floor of his big house in jamestown. the big windows opened out on to a porch which overlooked the muddy river that flowed past the town.
one fine spring day jonah was sitting outside on the porch with his daughter taffeta, known as taffy.
taffy was gradually taking charge of jonah’s enterprises.
the subject of shipyards came up, and jonah recounted the tale of his losing the patent for ship caulking pitch to buck gray in the poker game.
taffy was horrified. this did not sound at all to her like a modern and respectable way to do business.
but jonah, who had told the story as an amusing yarn illustrating the freewheeling days of yore, and despite his general resentment of buck gray, would have no truck with any suggestion that courts or lawyers should be brought into what had been an honorable affair between gentlemen.
and there the matter rested, but taffy filed the information away in her mind. and made a note of it in her diary when she was alone.
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