Money Lending and Other Sins III

At the stew pot

Once a first debt is in the donation box, the next conversation with Strauss takes place while Arthur tastes the camp stew. "How did you get on, Herr Morgan?", asks Strauss. Arthur reports on the debts he has collected, and Strauss answers: "Good, very good." "My pleasure", says Arthur.

Strauss takes him at his word: if it is pleasure he is after, there is one more debtor, a farmer and preacher he met in Valentine, Mr. Downes. Arthur knows him: "The opinionated little do-gooder... yeah, I know the one... I certainly know the type." When Strauss thanks him, Arthur answers: "There's no need to thank me... like you said... it's pleasure I'm after."

Downes is the man who stopped Arthur from beating Tommy outside Smithfield's Saloon in Americans at Rest. In Valentine he collects money for the poor.

Strauss warns: "He's more slippery than he seems. I've tried being polite... don't take any nonsense." "Nonsense, me?", Arthur replies. Strauss tells him to beat Downes if he does not have the money. "Well, I usually do...", says Arthur. "I know. I know...", answers Strauss.

Downes Ranch

Arthur rides to Downes Ranch, in the Heartlands, and finds Downes in his garden. "You owe me money", he tells him. "Oh, no-no, I'm... I'm...", Downes stammers. As Arthur walks up to him, Downes tries to hit him with a rake. Arthur blocks it and punches him.

Downes pleads: "Please... I have a family, sir... please." "I don't care about your family", Arthur answers, and he beats him. Arthur keeps demanding the money. Downes coughs, and blood lands on Arthur's face and in his mouth.

"Where's our money?", Arthur asks. "I don't have it." "Sell your place." Downes answers: "We already owe more than it's worth." Arthur tells him to sell his wife, his family or something: "We ain't your idea of charity. Is that clear?"

Edith Downes

His wife, Edith, and their son, Archie, come out of the house, and Downes ends up on the ground. "Thomas", says Edith. Arthur snaps at her: "What you looking at?" Edith tells him: "My husband isn't well. If we could just have more..." Arthur cuts her off: "Like I said, we ain't nobody's idea of charity. Get us the money!" He rides back to camp while the family gathers around Thomas.

Back at camp

"Ah, how did you get on?", asks Strauss. Arthur answers: "Not so good. He's almost dead... and they seem more or less destitute. You were a fool for lending them the money." Strauss replies: "Well, people who aren't desperate... don't seem so interested in my propositions." "Of course", says Arthur.

What follows

In chapter 3, in Sodom? Back to Gomorrah, Strauss tells Arthur that Thomas Downes has died and that his widow now owes the debt. Arthur goes back to Downes Ranch, where Edith pays the rest. Arthur is diagnosed with tuberculosis much later, in Saint Denis, in A Fork in the Road.

Arthur's report to Strauss

At the stew pot, Arthur's first answer depends on the debts of part II already collected:

• all three: "Fine, our accounts are up to date. Sad sacks the lot of 'em."
• two of them: "I made a start on things. Haven't recovered all of it yet."
• Lilly Millet only: "Got Lilly Millet's debt, made some bad decisions in her life."
• Chick Matthews only: "Collected on that ranch hand. Slippery feller, lucky I got him."
• Wróbel only: "Called in on the small holder, Wróbel. Didn't even speak English."

The stew

Arthur's reaction to the stew depends on the state of the camp's food. If it is poor, he spits it out and a notification tells the player to hunt better quality game. If it is average, he does not like it and throws the ladle back into the pot.

Mary's letter

If Arthur reads Mary Linton's letter in We Loved Once and True I before this mission has been played, a scene may play in which Strauss asks whether he is all right and brings up Downes, who borrowed "quite a sum" and does not seem to mean to repay it. Arthur apologizes for not having been to see him yet and promises a gentle reminder. Strauss: "Not so gentle. I don't like his kind. Superior." The mission then starts and cannot be abandoned.

Mission details

• Downes coughs blood on Arthur even if Arthur never hits him, and the cutscene that follows still shows him bruised.
• Arthur cannot wear a bandana or any other face covering in front of Downes: he takes it off, and the cutscene removes it anyway.
• Downes cannot be lassoed, hogtied or killed. His hat can be shot off before the beating, but Arthur cannot keep it.

• Come here, you maggot.

  Arthur, walking up to Thomas Downes

• Really? Threaten me, would you?

  Arthur, after blocking the rake

• You borrowed money from my business partner Herr Strauss. You owe him. You took the money. He wants it back. What's not to understand?

  Arthur, to Thomas Downes

• I said what you looking at, woman?

  Arthur, to Edith Downes

• Downes's plea for his family is one of the lines that can come back to Arthur on his last ride, in the mission "Red Dead Redemption", if his honor is low.
• After his diagnosis, Arthur writes in his journal that it was "the beating of that pathetic little fella Downes" that killed him, not the bullets, the horses or the fights.
• After the mission, the general store owner and the barber in Valentine can talk about the beating: the shopkeeper says Downes got tangled up with loan sharks. The owner of the general store at Wallace Station can comment on Downes's death.
• Edith Downes may later come to the Horseshoe Overlook camp to tell Strauss that her husband has died. If Arthur is nearby, he can say he did not mean to kill him; Strauss answers that the man was sick anyway.
• In Game Informer's ranking of the 24 members of the Van der Linde gang, published on 27 December 2018, Strauss comes 23rd; the entry blames his "cruel business" for Arthur's tuberculosis, caught while collecting from the Downes family.