Chapter 30
Righty breathed more than one sigh of relief when he saw that Janie went for the annuity story. But he knew credible stories like that were about as abundant as four-leaf clovers, and he knew it was time to start getting some clean money fast so he could start scrubbing all those dirty falons he was getting.
He had promptly purchased a small abandoned structure near the center of downtown Ringsetter (a former grocery store) and decided he was going to turn it back into a combination of a hardware and grocery store. After all, besides bare-knuckle brawling, lumber hauling, and his newly acquired skills in growing and selling Smokeless Green, store work was just about the only area he had any practical experience in.
He was pleased as he passed the store to see that a beautiful sign was already being placed on top of the structure:
RICH’S GROCERIES & HARDWARE
Today, he had two important projects. The first was to go and try to set up an inventory agreement with Mr. Hoffmeyer. He had had a very positive instinct about the man when he first met him, and he suspected he just might come in handy with the kind of work he found himself getting into. But he had no plans to rush anything. Secondly, he was going to make the biggest sale of Smokeless Green today that he had ever made. It was going to be ten pounds and would sell for $100,000 falons. He was really pleased with the efficiency of those seeds. He found that once he removed a large bulb from the stem usually it was replaced within a couple weeks, and the plants reached a good seven feet tall. He had to pull down on the tallest ones to bring the bulbs within reach. He had spent the better part of last night out in the woods with a scale packaging the contents for today’s transaction.
Nonetheless, he noticed that—while it was a good problem—he had a problem on his hands. The orders were becoming more frequent and bigger and bigger. He had already tripled the size of his initial garden, and he was out there every night for at least an hour carefully watering the plants on any night it didn’t rain. Fortunately, he had barely even made a dent in one of the barrels, but he noticed that none of the plants produced any seeds themselves.
He found this quite frustrating, as he realized he was dealing with a finite source. On the other hand, perhaps by the time he got all the seeds from those barrels planted, that would be a good time to quit. After all, he could hardly even fathom the riches those seeds would provide, especially if the price kept going up like it had been, although he noticed the increases in price had been getting slower and slower, and he suspected they were near their maximum.
Nonetheless, they were mighty high right now, and he intended to continue capitalizing on that as long as he could, lest the Safety in Selegania Act be found unconstitutional and invalidated by the Supreme Court or perhaps even repealed by the senate if the senators felt the law had been a failure. He didn’t know what to expect there, but what he did know was he didn’t want to end up regretting the rest of his life that he hadn’t worked harder to take advantage while there were riches to be made. He was going to have to do whatever it took—strategize, work longer hours, anything.
He knew that with the kind of quantities he was carrying around now, he could no longer just hoist it into his saddlebags and be prepared to defend it with his brass knuckles. He had constructed a false bottom to his wagon, and over the top he had inserted a steel plate. A very inconspicuous keyhole underneath the driver’s side of the wagon seat released the steel plate. A board covered the steel plate and matched the surrounding floor boards perfectly.
He had acquired this service in Sivingdel and explained to the carpenter that he occasionally had to carry large quantities of cash, due to his payments on sold inventory. Furthermore, he had acquired a large, oval-shaped piece of steel that he could put around the spokes of his wagon to ensure it wasn’t stolen easily.
Righty saw that he was at his destination. He parked the wagon, locked the front left wheel, and entered the building. He recognized the secretary immediately, and it appeared the recognition was mutual.
“May I help you, sir?” she asked.
“Yes, ma’am. I’m here to see Mr. Hoffmeyer.”
“Do you have an appointment?”
“I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint you again on that.”
She smiled casually. “I’ll go see if he is available.”
She came back about ten minutes later and said, “Mr. Hoffmeyer will see you now.”
She walked him to Mr. Hoffmeyer’s office.
“Mr. Simmers,” Mr. Hoffmeyer began warmly. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”
“I’ve started a small store, and I’m looking for an inventory supplier.”
“Well, I’ll be. Not too long ago you were an employee. Now you’re a business owner. Congratulations.”
His congratulations seemed warm, but his eyes seemed shrewd, as if communicating the brain behind them suspected there was more to the story. That didn’t particularly bother Righty. His store was going to have to do a lot more for him than provide hammers and chickens, and Mr. Hoffmeyer was his best prospect for locating a man to do something like that.
Righty and Mr. Hoffmeyer began poring over various terms and conditions of their prospective business relationship, and they did a little dickering over inventory prices. Righty found himself glad that he had learned a lot about inventory during his tenure at Roger’s Grocery Store. Mr. Hoffmeyer hadn’t exactly tried to cheat him. But he drove a hard bargain. Righty practically felt he was in a sparring match.
Nonetheless, they did eventually arrive at a bargain both seemed to find fair.
They shook hands, but before Righty could leave, Mr. Hoffmeyer said, “You going to do all your accounting on your own?”
Righty looked at him closely. He suspected Mr. Hoffmeyer might be broaching a topic he himself certainly planned to raise, although he wasn’t sure if now was the right time. Mr. Hoffmeyer’s eyes looked shrewd.
“Some of my clients prefer to outsource the accounting work to us. Or, sometimes clients ask us for a good recommendation concerning accountants,” Mr. Hoffmeyer said.
“I think I should be able to handle it at first. Like you said, just recently I was an employee. I can’t expect the store to become a success over night. I should be able to handle the accounting for now; I did a lot of that with Rog. On the other hand,” and now it was Righty’s eyes to allow a little cunning to dance both on the surface of his eyes and on the sound waves of his voice, “if the business were to grow faster than I expect, then I suppose I might find myself taking you up on your offer.”
“I think it would be a good conversation to have. I have some accountants who are particularly adept at dealing with unexpected profits.”
“Well, we just might be seeing each other again, Mr. Hoffmeyer,” Righty said, and they shook hands a second time, and Righty felt confident Mr. Hoffmeyer could connect him to a good money scrubber. However, he had been sincere himself in that he needed to get a little actual business going in the store before it suddenly started generating large profits.