And she's busy, workin' around, but listening. I tell you, Hannes, within the next three months that woman knows more about what's happenin' in California than anybody! "Stearns isn't hurting for money, she's an attractive woman, so he doesn't dun her. When she's in business for about six months, she's been in Los Angeles about a year, you understand, then her ship comes in. "I mean that ship comes back from China and she has sold those otter skins to the Chinese for ten times what she paid for them. She pays off Stearns and she's free an' clear with money to work with. "So she stocks her bookstore, orders more books, papers, and such, and then goes up and down the coast, me helping, buying otter skins, cowhides, anything she can sell. "She goes out to remote ranches which have a time gettin' hides down to the shore where they can be sold to the ships. She buys cheap. "She lives like she always did, goes about her business with a friendly smile and a kind of wide-eyed innocence. She owns her bookstore building, she owns another building close by, she owns a small ranch, some horses and cattle, and she operates her bookstore like it was a bank.
