Late at night, Downs Ranch.

The deep night is always quiet, whether it is birds and animals, or men and women, they all fall asleep at this time, and even the moon that rises to the middle of the sky hides its radiant body behind the clouds at night.

Mattie Rose, who will turn ten in a month, may now be the only one who can't sleep yet.

She was just an ordinary little girl in Valentine's Town, and she may have enjoyed a relatively wealthy life at one time.

His father's name was Frank Rose, and he was a businessman, mainly engaged in the business of selling cashmere, buying high-quality cashmere from Valentine and Emerald Ranches, and then selling it further east to Anisberg, or to the west to Blackwater, West Elizabeth, or to St. Denis in the south of Lemon, or other places where there was a demand for fine cashmere, in addition to making a profit, livestock sales, leather transportation, as long as it was the business of western traders, as long as there was a suitable business opportunity, he would do it.

The business was lucrative, at least enough for Martie and her mother, who had settled in Valentine, to live at least a middle-class life in the big city, but Marty had only enjoyed it for eight years, or six years at most, since she could remember.

One day more than a year ago, Frank Rose hired a cowboy named Tom Channey in Van Horne, south of Anissberg, for work reasons to help him train a batch of wild horses he had just purchased, but he did not expect that this Tom Lane was actually a habitual stealer of livestock. Chaney kills Frank Ross with a Lichfield repeating rifle and snatches his belongings from him along with his horse.

Frank Ross's body was found by a trader who was passing by in the early morning, and when the kind trader saw that the body was still recognizable, he brought the body all the way back to Valentine, where the orphans and widows learned that the roof of the family had collapsed.

Marty's mother was a housewife, unsettling, illiterate, and short-sighted, and after her father's death, a variety of complications ensued. In the end, Frank Rose's original business partner bought all the property left by Frank Rose at a "legal" price, and the misfortune was that in the following month, the money was invested by Marty's simple housewife into the so-called "sunrise industry" of a decent gentleman named Tobin Winfield, who had been the mayor of a town.

As a result, the only person in the family who is literate, able to count, and knowledgeable, that is, Marty, took the lead, and the family's accounts, arrangements for food, clothing, housing and transportation, as well as interactions with outsiders and other heavy responsibilities were all pressed on her shoulders.

In addition, she also has to shoulder a part of the responsibility of making money. Her mother now works mainly in the pastures of the town, and the female workers are too weak and timid to do a lot of work, so they don't earn much, and in order to maintain this almost broken family, Mattie works in Valentine's hotels, grocery stores, ready-to-wear stores, and even a mixed tavern, although it is not much, but at least it is a small income.

The hardships of life had tempered the girl, making her tenacious, courageous, and sharp-toothed, and the fact that she was naturally much smarter than those around her who had lived a mediocre life, made the girl, who was not yet ten years old, even more mature than some people ten years older than her.

However, a little girl of this age will have a little girlish heart, which is unavoidable, take Marty herself, she has always liked the white floral dress in the ready-to-wear shop in the town, of course, she can't be like other girls, see anything she likes, she will only beg her parents to pay for her, but she has already calculated, she can save at least 10 cents a week, according to this progress, she can just give this dress to herself as her own birthday gift on her tenth birthday, This may be a very personal wish, but at least it will give her more motivation to work hard and earn money.

After all, the pursuit of a good life itself is right for anyone.

However, her luck never seemed to have been good, or perhaps the god of doom had never been far away.

Earlier today, she remembered that it should have been just after noon, a man in a strange robe and a scruffy cowboy came to town, they shouted frantically, and asked Sheriff Malloy for someone, that person she still knew, a young gentleman who had just left the town not long ago, he was a bounty hunter, generous and skilled, Marty respected him very much, seeing those two people so arrogant, she was still a little angry in her heart, knowing that if she was strong, she would definitely suffer a catastrophe, But she still laughed and laughed at the two men loudly, and so she remained in the pasture now, locked up in the barn, and could not sleep all night with a herd of dirty, smelly horses.

She knew that the ranch belonged to the town's pastor, Thomas Downs, who was a tuberculosis and his family was not very wealthy, but he had a good heart and never gave up sponsoring the homeless and suffering children, and Marty had been sponsored by him before she had even officially started working, so she knew that Pastor Downs was a good man, and that the family, Mrs. Edith Downs and Archie Downs, the son of Pastor Downs, were good people who were helpful and kind-hearted.

But now that the place had become the preserve of men and scruffy cowboys in strange robes, the original owner, Mr. Thomas Downs, was hung from the bars of the bullpen, his thin body blackened, and his face covered in blood as a sign of inhuman abuse.

As soon as Marty arrived, she was thrown into the barn by the sloppy ox with an Irish accent, and there was another young man in the barn, who was also tied up and still inside, it was Archie Downs, who was sleeping with his eyes closed, but he was not sleeping peacefully, and from time to time the words "Daddy" and "Mommy" would pop out of his mouth, and his face was painful and covered with cold sweat.

As for Mrs. Downs, Marty had not seen it with her own eyes, but had only heard her voice, Mrs. Downs' pleadings and weepings, but every time it was heard, it was always quickly muffled by the men's wicked laughter and obscene foul language.

Marty only knew what was going on with Lady Downs, but at least Lady Downs was still alive, which was a good thing, though she didn't know how long a woman would last in that situation.

In fact, from a personal point of view, Marty hoped that Mrs. Downs would be tenacious enough to hold out for as long as possible, because she knew that according to the nature of these heinous bandits, if Mrs. Downs was played with as a cold corpse by them, then she would be the most suitable successor to Mrs. Downs.

As for whether someone will come to save them, Marty doesn't know, and she won't pin her hopes on it. After more than a year of hard life, she understands that it is better to ask for others than for herself, even if she is a relative, she may be in a trap, and others cannot be fully trusted, let alone a fictional character similar to the kind of third-rate knight novel who draws a sword to help each other.

Therefore, although she does not accept her fate from the bottom of her heart, she also has to admit that she may really have to explain here in this life.

Suddenly, Archie let out a cry of extreme horror and straightened up, but because he was bound by the rope, he finally failed to fight the carp, and could only roll on the ground twice like a dead fish.

"Damn scum," Archie scolded viciously, finally adjusting his position, he looked up and noticed that Martie was staring at him with her beautiful blue eyes, and involuntarily a little embarrassed, and said, "Oh, hey, Marty, haven't you slept yet?" ”

"I can't sleep," said Mattie, "what are you dreaming about?" ”

"Oh, it was just a nightmare, nothing, I can't remember it now." Archie said as if he didn't care.

"I guess I dreamed of my dead father and my humiliated mother." Marty didn't say that. She had noticed early on that the young man, who was probably helpless, had been pretending to be strong ever since she arrived, and he seemed to want to use this emotion to appease Martie, who seemed to him to be a little sister.

"I'm supposed to play this role," Mattie thought, "because I'm much more experienced than he is." ”

"Go to bed early, Marty," Archie said, "and save your strength, and don't let the villains think we're weak." ”

Marty suddenly asked, "Archie, haven't you ever thought about escaping?" ”

"Run?" Archie first asked in surprise, and then said with a wry smile, "This is my home, where can I escape?" ”

"Go to Valentine," said Marty, "and go to Sheriff Malloy, he won't sit idly by, and if we get out and tell him what's going on here, he'll take all the police in town and get rid of all the bad guys here." ”

"Don't be stupid, Marty," Archie said bitterly, "Sheriff Malloy is Valentine's sheriff, and he will only manage the cases that happen in Valentine's town, not ours. And do you know how many people are here? More than 20 people! And everyone is heavily armed and vicious, and even if the sheriff comes, he will not get any favor. ”

"So what do we do? Waiting to die? Marty was a little angry at this point.

"No, we're not waiting to die, Marty," Archie said as much as a joke and a self-deprecation, "we're trying to survive and wait for a miracle to happen." ”

"I think you're dazed." Marty turned her head away angrily and stopped talking.

Archie didn't argue with Martie, for he knew that Martie was a stubborn girl who had a lord's eye, so he turned around and leaned against a pile of bags full of horse feed, praying that he would not have those dreams again, and fell asleep again.

Nights are short for sleepers and long for insomniacs.

After all, Marty is just a child, and she has already been physically and mentally exhausted after experiencing too many thrills today, so no matter how many thoughts she has in her brain, she can't bear the surging waves of sleepiness, and after a while, she enters a half-dream-half-awake state of sleepiness.

Half-asleep and half-awake, she seemed to hear something, like the click of a person gently stepping on a dead branch that fell to the ground, and the subtle creaking of a person as he climbed over the fence and the sound of a person falling to the ground, followed by a sound similar to a sharp knife piercing into pork and a muffled grunt belonging to a person.

In addition to being more rational and intelligent, Marty also has a talent that ordinary people do not have, and that is excellent hearing. She can discern the number of animals in a herd from a few tens of meters away by hearing alone, and if she is close to a distance of 20 meters, she can even hear the age and health of the animals directly with her ears, so as to judge whether the fur it produces is of good quality.

The strange sounds disturbed Marty, but she couldn't decide if it was from reality or dreams, and the slumber overwhelmed her, and she gradually lost hearing any sounds.

It wasn't until a gunshot suddenly exploded in the quiet of the night that Marty woke up like a man who had fallen into the water and was pulled ashore by a sudden force.

Marty hears a dense burst of gunfire outside the barn, a sound that scares and surprises her.

"Archie, Archie, wake up!" Marty called out to Archie.

Archie slept so dead that the gunshots outside didn't wake him up for a while, but Marty's shouting managed to wake him up. He woke up with sleepy eyes, but the dense gunfire instantly pulled him out of his sleep, and he asked with some horror, "What's wrong?" What happened? ”

"I really didn't expect you to be right," said Marty, delighted, "and someone came to our rescue!" ”

At this time, in the Downs Ranch outside the barn.

After Brandy, Arthur, Charles, and Lenny assassinated six or seven men who were on guard on the perimeter, they were eventually discovered by the rest of the ranch, and the fire on both sides began.

As the gang's melee officer, Charles bravely rushed to the front, slowly pushing the line forward while giving powerful counterfire with his bow and arrows to those who shot at him.

He turned his head, dodging the enemy's insidious cold gun, and opened his bow and arrows, sharp arrows flew out of his hands and bowstrings, piercing the head of the enemy who had released the cold gun, he looked at the white-robed man who had just died in his hands, and said his opinion loudly: "Cultists and the Odrisko gang, how awkward this combination sounds. ”

"I feel the same way," said Arthur, holding a Lancaster repeating rifle behind a haystack, and with two precise shots to bring down two enemies hiding behind the walls of the house, "our big man is really going to make trouble for us?" ”

Brandi, known as the "big man", put down an enemy who wanted to pounce on him from the side with the butt of a gun, made up a shot in the enemy's face, and said angrily: "Okay, okay, it's all my fault, satisfied?" ”

"Brandy, don't forget the mission of this trip," Lenny fired three shots in succession, temporarily suppressing the opponent he was facing, before retracting from cover and reminding, "We are enough here, you go and look around, is there the little girl you are looking for." ”

Brandi nodded, dodging the bullets and climbing over the wooden fences that dotted the ranch to find the man he was looking for.

There are only two facilities in the Downs family's ranch that can be called buildings, one is their hut and the other is the ranch's barn, and now, there are the largest number of enemies gathered on the hut, and it is unrealistic to go there to find the current situation, so Brandy walked to the barn.

He shot through the head of the Odrisco gang member with a gray-black hood on his head and kicked the barn door open.

Brandi had expected that the barn would also contain a few enemies who wanted to sneak up on him, but in fact, he only saw a herd of dirty, smelly horses tethered to the corrals, and two hostages, one large and one small, who had almost untied their ropes.

"Don't be nervous, I'm here to save you," Brandy said to soothe the two people who looked a little panicked when they saw him, and then turned his gaze to the little girl, "I guess you must be the kidnapped little girl the sheriff said, right?" Where have we met? ”

"Yes, Mr. Manny," said Marty, delightfully, "my name is Mattie Rose, and you certainly don't remember the name, but you do remember the little girl who worked in the hotel. ”

"Ah, I remember, it's you," Brandy suddenly realized, and then he noticed the broken oil lamp on the ground, the severed rope, and the glass shards in the little girl's hand, and said, "Break the oil lamp, cut the rope with the glass shards?" I can't see it, you're pretty smart. ”

"You know, the boss won't allow a small helper to appear too smart." Marty smiled well, but spoke like a little adult.

"Funny little girl," Brandi smiled and asked, "will you shoot?" ”

"My father taught me how to use a gun." Marty replied.

"Very well," Brandi said, pulling his Schofield revolver from his waist, "take it, and if you see someone threatening your life, don't hesitate to shoot him." My buddies are still out fighting, so I'll be staying soon, and remember to protect myself until I come back. ”

"Sir," Archie called out to Brandy, and asked eagerly, "sir, have you found my mother?" How is she now? Still alive? Did those people abuse her? ”

"We haven't made it to the cottage yet, Mr. Downs," replied Brandy, "but I'm sure your mother will be fine, and you will wait here for me, it won't take much time." ”

By the time Brandi came out of the barn, the combat had shifted from long-range combat to hand-to-hand combat.

Arthur held his hunting knife, slashed his opponent's arm with lightning speed, and then took advantage of the opponent's retreat to withdraw his hand, his free left hand grabbed the opponent's collar, and his right hand simply sent the hunting knife into the opponent's throat.

He tossed his opponent's bloody corpse aside like garbage, turned around and shot an enemy who tried to sneak up on him, caught a glimpse of Brandi coming out of the barn and running this way, and asked in a loud voice, "How's it going?" ”

"It's been found," replied Brandy, "but he's been tied up for too long, and his hands and feet aren't very sharp at this point." ”

"Great," Charles said, "We have avoided another tragedy that shouldn't have happened, and we have avoided another tragedy that shouldn't have happened, haven't we?" ”

"So to speak, but I think if we can find the mistress of this house in this house, then we can avoid one more tragedy." Brandi pulled out the "Major" No. 3 revolver and Flaco's revolver from his waist and began to harvest the remaining enemy heads one by one.

"Let's just stop the loss in time," Lenny grabbed his opponent's neck with both hands like electricity, and threw two punches at the front door, then pressed his opponent's head with both hands, slammed him to the wooden fence on the side, and said, "The one hanging on the cowshed over there must be the man of this house." ”

"Is Downs dead?" Brandi turned his head to look at Thomas Downs' hanging body and thought, "What a surprise." ”

The battle was soon over, and the twenty rabble of the Odriske Gang and the "Seventh Generation" Sect were no match for the four good men of the Van der Linde Gang, and even Lenny, who was not very good at fighting, was not much better than these rabble.

Arthur found the frail Mrs. Downs in the back room of the cottage, who had been deranged from the torture of the past few days. Brandi returns to the barn and takes Archie and Marty out, and the Downs mother and son are finally reunited.

Ten minutes later.

Brandy shoved a wad of about a hundred dollars into Mrs. Downs' hand, and said, "This area is not very peaceful now, and these fellows' accomplices may come here again in a few days, so don't delay, get out of here quickly, and then go wherever you want, this money should be enough for you to settle down." ”

"Thank you, sir, thank you," Mrs. Downs sobbed gratefully, "if it weren't for you, I might have really died at the hands of these scumbags, just like my poor husband, who saved us and gave us back the money, and I don't know how to repay you for your kindness." ”

"It's enough to think in your heart," Brandi smiled, turned around, and helped the little girl Marty on the horse, and then turned over on the horse, "remember, there is nothing wrong with being kind to others and helping others, but you must also do what you can, and don't be like Mr. Downs, who can't open the pot at home, and borrow money for charity." ”

Mrs. Downs and Archie looked at Brandi in surprise and asked, "How do you know ......?"

"Of course I've got my way to know," beckoned Brandy, holding the brim of his hat, smiling, turning his horse's head, "Come on, brothers!" We have a lot of business ahead of us! ”

Leaving the Downs Ranch, the four horses galloped towards the town of Valentine, and by this time, the east was gradually turning white.

"We haven't slept all night to accompany you in this work," said Arthur, yawning, "boy, how are you going to make it up to us?" ”

Brandi laughed heartily, "To Valentine, I'll invite you to drink!" ”

"Little girl, where is your home? We'll send you back later," Lenny wanted to ask the little girl some questions, but when the little girl didn't respond, he turned his head and said, "Yo, asleep?" ”

Brandi lowered his head and looked at the little girl who was sleeping naturally on his chest, and he couldn't help but feel a little pity for the child. He looked up and said to Lenny, "This child has been tossing for a day, let her get a good night's sleep first." ”

The day is getting brighter, and a new day has begun.