Better Safe Than Sorry

Banking is a risky business in the old west

Every man, woman, and child must take a risk

Tuck it in the mattress and see it turn to ashes if your house burns down

Take it to the bank and wait for some scum bag to blow up the safe and steal what they don't destroy

Each of these options poses an awful life-changing dilemma for the average person

Rarely does either option help the ones who work hard to scrimp and scrape, saving a little for their uncertain futures

Sadly, it is a fact that seldom does this problem bother those of greater wealth

After years of wheeling and dealing, they have perfected the art of covering and profiting from their losses

Fearful of returning to a life of misery, they have taken what are often unscrupulous and at best devious precautions

Each one is little more than a card sharp, having learned another way to gamble

They call it insurance, but it's truthfully just another form of gaming

Holding all the cards is not easy, so they connive behind each other's backs to create mutually beneficial consortiums

And Denver Barton is such a man, he knows only to well how this game is best played

Never was there one more cunning than this man who'd spent a lifetime taking risks

Somehow, he could always see a storm coming, even when the sun was shining in a bright blue sky

One of the things he used in his favour and used it to bet against his own demise

Right on song, he'd decided it was time for the Busted Gulch Bank to become the holder the Liberty Belles gambling profits

Raising a glass, he and the drunken Bank Owner toasted the transfer of funds publicly at the crowded bar, aboard the ship

Yes, he's not committing any crime, but I'm sure you can see the open invitation that rippled around the room and out into the world of scoundrels