Late at night, Downs Ranch.

In the deep night, everything is always quiet. Birds, beasts, men and women all fall asleep at this time. Even the moon rising in the sky hides its body that shines so brightly at night behind the clouds.

Mattie Rose, who won't turn ten in another month, may be the only one who can't sleep now.

She was just an ordinary little girl in the town of Valentine, and perhaps she once enjoyed a relatively wealthy life.

His father’s name was Frank Ross. He was a businessman during his lifetime, mainly engaged in the business of selling cashmere. He purchased high-quality cashmere in Valentine and Emerald Ranch, and then resold it to Annesburg further east, or to the west in West Elizabeth.

Blackwater Town, or St. Denis in Lemoyne State in the south, or other places where there is a demand for fine cashmere, in order to make profits. In addition, livestock selling, fur transportation, as long as it is the business of Western merchants, as long as

If there is a suitable business opportunity, he will take it.

This business was quite profitable, at least enough for Mattie and her mother, who settled in Valentine, to live at least a middle-class life in a big city. However, Mattie only enjoyed this kind of life for eight years.

, if we count from the time she started remembering, it would only be six years at most.

One day more than a year ago, due to work reasons, Frank Ross hired a cowboy named Tom Chaney in Van Horn, south of Annesburg, to help him train a group of wild horses he had just purchased. However, he did not expect that

This Tom Chaney was actually a habitual livestock thief. He took a fancy to Frank Ross, a wealthy and generous trader. He used smooth talk to get the horse training position, and then when they went from Van Horn to Wa

On the road to Lundin, on a night as dark as tonight, Tom Chaney killed Frank Ross with a Litchfield repeating rifle, took away his belongings and horses, and walked away.

go.

The body of Frank Ross was discovered by a vendor who passed by there early in the morning. Seeing that the body could still be identified, the kind-hearted vendor took the body back to Valentine. Only then did the orphans and widowers know that

The pillars of the home collapsed.

Mattie's mother was just a housewife who couldn't settle accounts, was illiterate, and was short-sighted. After her father died, various complicated situations followed one after another, leaving the mother overwhelmed. In the end, Frank Ross's original business partner was named "

All the properties left by Frank Ross were purchased at a low price through "legal" methods. What's more, the money never comes singly, in the next month, this simple housewife of Mattie invested all the money into a property owned by a former

The so-called "sunrise industry" of a man named Tobin Winfield, a decent gentleman who served as the mayor of a town, undoubtedly ended up in ruins. Since then, this small family has reached the middle class in one step and become a

abject poverty.

Therefore, the only person in the family who was literate, able to count, and knowledgeable, that is, Mattie, took the lead. The family's accounts, arrangements for food, clothing, housing, transportation, and interactions with outsiders were all placed on her shoulders.

.

In addition, she also has to shoulder a certain part of the responsibility for making money. Her mother now mainly works on the ranch in the town. Female workers are weak and timid, and cannot do many jobs, so they don’t earn much. In order to

To maintain this almost broken family, Mattie worked as a helper in Valentine's hotel, grocery store, clothing store, and even a mixed tavern. Although she didn't earn much, it was at least a small amount of income.

The hardships of life have trained this girl, making her perseverant, brave, and sharp-tongued. In addition, she is naturally much smarter than the people around her who have mediocre lives, making this girl who is not yet ten years old even smarter than some older people.

She is much more mature at ten years old.

However, a little girl of this age will have some girlishness, which is inevitable. Take Mattie herself as an example, she has always liked the white floral dress in the tailor shop in the town. Of course, it is impossible for her to be like that.

Like other girls, when she sees something she likes, she will just beg her parents to pay for it. However, she has already calculated it. She can save at least 10 cents every week. According to this progress, she can just do it.

Giving this dress as a birthday gift to herself on her tenth birthday may be a very personal wish, but at least it will give her more motivation to live hard and make money.

After all, the pursuit of a better life is right for everyone.

However, her luck seems to have never been better, or perhaps the god who controls misfortune has never gone away at all.

Earlier today, she remembered that it should have been shortly after noon when a man in strange robes and a slovenly cowboy came to town. They clamored crazily and asked Sheriff Malloy for someone.

She also knew a young gentleman who had just left the town not long ago. He was a bounty hunter, generous in spending, and very capable. Mattie respected him in her heart. Seeing those two people so arrogant, she was still young.

She was a little angry, knowing that if she pushed forward, she would definitely suffer misfortune, but she still taunted and laughed at the two people loudly, so now she stayed in this pasture, tied up and locked in the barn, with a group of people.

Dirty and smelly horses were kept in the same room together, making it difficult to sleep all night.

She knew that this ranch belonged to Thomas Downes, the town's pastor. He was a consumptive man and his family was not very wealthy, but he was kind-hearted and never gave up on supporting the homeless and suffering children. Mattie was still there

She had received financial support from him before she officially started working, so she knew that Pastor Downes was a good man and that their family, Mrs. Edith Downes and Pastor Downes' son Archie Downs, were all willing to help others.

A good person with a kind heart.

However, this place has now become the domain of people wearing strange robes and sloppy cowboys. The original owner here, Mr. Thomas Downs, was hung on the gate of the cattle pen. His thin body was already a little black, and his face was full of

The stained blood showed that he had suffered inhuman abuse.

As soon as Mattie arrived, she was thrown into the barn by the sloppy cow who spoke with an Irish accent. There was another young man in the barn who was also tied up and still inside. It was Archie Downs.

At this time, he was sleeping with his eyes closed, but his sleep was not restful. From time to time, the words "Dad" and "Mom" would pop out of his mouth, his face was painful, and his head was covered in cold sweat.

As for Mrs. Downs, Mattie didn't see it with her own eyes, but only heard her voice, Mrs. Downs's pleading and crying, but every time she heard this voice, it would always be quickly replaced by evil men.

Laughter and obscene language cover up the past in an extremely crude and outrageous way.

Mattie only had a partial understanding of what happened to Mrs. Downs, but at least Mrs. Downs was still alive, which was actually a good thing, although she didn't know how long a woman could sustain herself in that situation.

In fact, from a personal selfish point of view, Mattie hopes that Mrs. Downs can be tenacious enough to last as long as possible, because she knows that according to the nature of these heinous gangsters, if Mrs. Downs is played by them

A cold corpse, then she is the most suitable successor to Mrs. Downs.

As for whether someone will come to save them, Mattie doesn't know, and she won't put her hope on it. More than a year of hard life has made her understand that it is better to ask for others than to ask for yourself in everything. Even relatives may deceive themselves. Others

People cannot be completely trusted, let alone a fictional character similar to those in third-rate knight novels who draw swords to help when the road is rough.

Therefore, although she did not accept her fate from the bottom of her heart, she had to admit that she might really have to deal with it here in her life.

Suddenly, Archie let out an extremely frightened cry and straightened up. However, due to being restrained by the rope, his attempt to lift the carp ended in failure and he could only roll on the ground twice like a dead fish.

"Damn scum," Archie scolded fiercely, and after finally adjusting his posture, he raised his head and noticed that Maddie was staring at him with her beautiful blue eyes. He couldn't help but feel a little shy and said,

"Oh, hey, Mattie, aren't you asleep yet?"

"Can't sleep," said Mattie, "what were you dreaming about?"

"Oh, it was just a nightmare. It's nothing. I can't remember it at the moment." Archie said, pretending not to care.

"Maybe he was dreaming about his dead father and his humiliated mother." Mattie didn't say this. She had noticed very early on that this young man who was probably powerless had changed his mind since her arrival.

, it seems that he has been pretending to be strong, and he seems to want to use this emotion to appease Mattie, who is still a little sister to him.

"I should play this role," Mattie thought, "after all, I have much more experience in this area than he does."

"Go to bed early, Mattie," Archie said at this time, "save your strength and don't let those bad guys think we are weak."

Mattie suddenly asked, "Archie, haven't you thought about escaping?"

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

"Go to Valentine," Marty said, "go to Sheriff Malloy. He won't sit idly by. As long as we escape and tell him the situation here, he will definitely bring everyone in the town with him."

Police, destroy all the bad guys here."

"Don't be stupid, Mattie," Archie said bitterly, "Chief Malloy is the Sheriff of Valentine. He will only manage the cases that happen in Valentine Town and will not care about us.

Side. And do you know how many people are here? There are more than 20 people! And everyone is armed and vicious. Even if the police chief comes, he will not get any benefits."

"Then what should we do? Wait to die?" Mattie was a little angry at this time.

"No, we are not waiting to die, Mattie," Archie joked and laughed at himself, "We are trying to live and then wait for the miracle to happen."

"I think you've lost your mind." Mattie turned her head away angrily and stopped talking.

Archie did not argue with Mattie, because he knew that Mattie was a girl with a strong sense of purpose, so he turned around and leaned on a pile of stacked sacks filled with horse feed while praying.

Stop having those dreams and fall asleep again.

The night is short for those who fall asleep, but very long for those who have insomnia.

After all, Mattie is just a child. She has experienced too many thrills today. She is already exhausted physically and mentally. Therefore, no matter how many thoughts are in her mind, she cannot resist the waves of sleepiness that are coming her way.

After a while, he entered a state of half-dream and half-awake.

While half asleep and half awake, she seemed to hear some noise, like the clicking sound of someone stepping lightly on the dead branches that fell on the ground, and the subtle creaking of the fence and the sound of someone landing when someone climbed over the fence. Then,

It was a sound similar to the sound of a sharp knife being pierced into pork and a muffled sound belonging to a human being.

In addition to being more rational and smart, Mattie also has a talent that ordinary people don't have, which is excellent hearing. She can identify the number of a group of livestock from dozens of meters away simply by hearing. If she gets closer to a distance of twenty meters, she can

You can even hear the age and health of an animal directly with your ears to determine whether the fur it produces is of high quality.

Those strange sounds disturbed Mattie, but she couldn't be sure whether they came from reality or from dreams. The surge of sleep overwhelmed her, and she gradually became unable to hear any sounds.

It wasn't until a gunshot suddenly rang out in the quiet night that Mattie woke up like a person who had fallen into the water and was pulled out of the water by a sudden force.

Mattie heard intensive gunshots coming from outside the barn. The sound both frightened and surprised her.

"Archie, Archie, wake up!" Mattie shouted to Archie.

Archie slept so deeply that the gunshots outside didn't wake him up for a moment, but Mattie's shouts still succeeded in waking him up. He woke up with sleepy eyes, but the intensive gunshots instantly woke him up from sleep.

Pulling it out completely, he asked with some horror: "What's wrong? What happened?"

"I really didn't expect that you were right," Mattie said happily, "Someone came to save us!"

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

After Brandy, Arthur, Charles, and Lenny assassinated six or seven people who were on guard duty, they were eventually discovered by others in the ranch, and a fight broke out between the two sides.

As the gang's melee leader, Charles bravely rushed to the front. He used his bow and arrows to give powerful counterattacks to the enemies who shot at him, while slowly pushing the battle line forward.

He turned his head to avoid the enemy's insidious shot, and he opened his bow and nocked an arrow. The sharp arrow flew out from his hand and the bowstring, accurately piercing the head of the enemy who fired the shot. He glanced at the man who had just died.

The man in white robes in his hands expressed his opinion loudly: "Cultists and the O'Drisco Gang, this combination sounds awkward."
To be continued...