Heaven's Gold

Wilson Young robbed his first bank as a teenager, back when Reconstruction was still wreaking havoc in Texas. He became one of the most notorious outlaws of his day - so dangerous and elusive that he was finally offered a pardon by the governor if he would agree to stop his reign of looting. That was in 1888. Wilson then settled down to the respectable life of a saloon and whorehouse owner in Del Rio, Texas, a notorious border town.
The events of 1916 are changing the world too rapidly for the 58-year-old onetime gunslinger. His only child, the idealistic Leslie Young, is in France with the Lafayette Escadrille, learning how to fly a plane and shoot down Germans in order to make the world safe for democracy. While Wilson's friends own automobiles, electric lights, and telephones, he's not having any. Give up his horses? Not a chance.
With this whirlwind of change all around him, Wilson is longing for days past. He's been thinking more and more about the man he named his son after. Les Richter was part of Wilson's bank-robbing gang, but never truly belonged in it. Wilson always had to watch out for Les. Les was too good a man to kill without thinking, and Wilson knew that one day Les would hesitate before pulling the trigger and it would cost him his life. And that's exactly what happened nearly thirty years ago. But, Wilson wonders, is his long-dead friend looking out for him now?
When Wilson spots a newspaper article about a shipment of $250,000 in gold bars to the Federal Reserve Bank in San Antonio, the old outlaw decides to go after it. And he's not even sure why. He'll steal it and then give it back, he says, without a shot being fired. Wilson claims he wants to teach the U.S. Government a lesson and keep America out of the war. But Wilson's wife, Lauren isn't so sure. She's noticed a spiritual turbulence in Wilson that's never been there before. And in a stunning scene of epiphany, worthy of Flannery O'Connor, Wilson Young changes so suddenly that his world is forever transformed.