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all over the place. If something happens to him, the law’ll be on our side. You just remember that, Ford.”
    A woman with a regal face framed perfectly by her blue bonnet passed by. Harry not only tipped his hat but gave her a small bow. She smiled, pleased. Youdidn’t see a whole lot of bowing in a mountain town like Willow Bend.
    Connelly said, “We’re here to have some fun since we wrapped up that revenue case. Now Washington told us to help out the sheriff finding this Mike Chaney.” He laughed. “Chaney could run for office, the kind of publicity he’s getting. The thing is, he’s messing with six banks that are the pride of the National Banking System. And don’t forget Chaney was the guy who probably killed Sloane, the federal guy the boss sent out here before us, just like he killed Nick Tremont’s boy.”
    “I heard that was self-defense, that Tremont drew down on him.”
    “Well, that’s what you’d expect Chaney to say, isn’t it?”
    “This Flannery really foreclosing so he can sell the land to some Eastern circuit?”
    Connelly made a clucking sound. “Why, I do believe you think he’s doing the right thing, helping all these poor farmers and ranchers. That’s why I say he could run for office, he gets any more popular. The thing you seem to forget, Ford, is that he’s breaking federal law. This isn’t homegrown money he’s stealing; this is the real thing, money printed in Washington, D.C., and printed on government presses.”
    Not until after the war did the government step in and demand that the currency become federalized. Until then banks could print their own currency. Banks failed by the score and everyday people were cheated out of millions. By that point there was only one kind of currency and banks had the right to call infederal help if they were getting robbed. Connelly and Pepper would be hunting for the local Robin Hood.
    “He’s a banker, Ford. He makes money by investing. If these people can’t pay, he has a right to foreclose.”
    “Some banks take the long view. They see that it’s good to help local people stay in business, even if they have to float them for a while and let them pay when they can.”
    Connelly shook his head, pulled a gold watch from his coat pocket. “He’s a banker, not a priest. Why shouldn’t he make money when he can?”
    “The way people seem to like this Chaney around here, it might cost him a lot of business. They might go somewhere else.”
    “That’s where John is sitting pretty,” he laughed. “There’s no other bank within sixty miles of here.”

Chapter 7
    “T his is getting to be a convention,” Sheriff Daryl Nordberg laughed after I had introduced myself and taken the chair he’d offered me. “I can’t remember ever having this many federal agents here at the same time.”
    “I’m here unofficially.”
    He was square. Square head; big, square shoulders; wide, square hands. The blue Swedish eyes were friendly enough but the mouth hinted that the friendliness could disappear fast. He wore a khaki uniform. Despite his thinning hair, he looked no older than midtwenties to me.
    The office was also square. Two pine filing cabinets, a glassed wall case holding three different types of rifles, and a four-shelf bookcase behind him. There were three photographs of the same pretty young woman. In one of the photographs, he stood close enough to her to have his arm around her shoulders.
    “I guess I don’t know what you mean by unofficial.”
    “Connelly and Pepper have an argument with the other agent, the one who came to replace Jim Sloaneand to find out how he died. I’m worried that something might happen. I want to get to the agent before anything does.”
    Blond eyebrow raised. “Connelly and Pepper, you say?”
    I nodded.
    “There’s a pair of characters for you. They dress like some kind of theater boy.”
    “It’s an act.”
    He nodded, looked unhappy. “I found that out. Somebody said something to one of