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Seamus chuckled darkly before pulling out a small ledger, running his nicotine stained finger down the columns. "Let's see now... gold pocket watch, 10 dollars a piece. Silver pocket watch, 8 dollars a piece. Gold plated buckles, 3 dollars each. Silver clam buckles, 1 dollar a piece. Them silver rings, 3 dollars a piece." He tapped the page. "Comes to 89 dollars for the whole lot."
Caleb's Past Life Memory skill instantly confirmed these were the exact prices from the game. The items' pristine condition likely kept their value high. "That's fair," he nodded. "I accept."
Seamus counted out eighty-nine dollars in worn bills, sliding them across the makeshift table. "Pleasure doin' business with a man who knows value when he sees it."
Caleb tucked the money into his satchel. "Why thank you, mister. Pleasure doing business with you. I'll come again when I've got more to sell." He hesitated, then added casually, "You don't happen to sell items that can produce loud noises, do you?"
Seamus's smile turned knowing. "I do sell some items that can make considerable noise. Why? Wanna buy one?" His hand drifted toward a crate beneath the table.
Caleb shook his head. "Not today. Just good to know for future reference." The confirmation that Seamus sold dynamite was valuable intel.
As Caleb turned to leave, he suddenly remembered his other objective. "Before I go... you mentioned livestock rustling's been troubling the ranch?"
Seamus's expression darkened. "Aye, been happening regular like. Every three days like clockwork. Ranch hands patrol constantly, but the moment they slack off - poof! Cattle, sheep, pigs, gone. They've tried tracking 'em, but I think they lose 'em in the dark every time." He spat in disgust. "Damned nuisance for both my legitimate and... other business."
Caleb frowned. The pattern matched Valentine's rustling exactly. Were frontier ranchers really this incompetent, or was there more to it? "Any idea where they take the stolen animals?"
"If I knew that, I'd have collected the reward myself," Seamus grunted. "Talk to the ranch hands if you want details. A big fella named Clive usually oversees the night watch."
Thanking Seamus, Caleb mounted Morgan and rode into Emerald Ranch proper. The settlement had a tired, beleaguered air. To the left stood fenced pastures with listless livestock mostly cattle, to his right, ranch hands milled about with wary exhaustion.
Spotting a grizzled big man in a leather vest talking loudly, Caleb approached. "Excuse me, are you Clive?"
The man turned, eyes narrowing. "Who's askin'?"
"My name Caleb Thorne. Heard you've got rustler troubles. I recently helped Tom and Jed over in Valentine with their missing livestock there and they informed me that in Emeral Ranch, something similar happened. Thought I might offer my services here."
Clive's posture relaxed slightly. "Valentine, eh? Jed's my cousin works, he has said in his letter that some outsider actually solved their problem, so it's you then." His skeptical once over made it clear he didn't believe that the outside mentioned by Jed stood before him. "What's your angle?"
"No angle. Just a man who knows his way around tracking after dark." Caleb patted Morgan's neck. "My horse here's got better night vision than most. And I've got..." He tapped his temple meaningfully. "Good instincts in this kind of matter if I say so myself."
After a long pause, Clive sighed. "Alright, mister. Here's the situation." He gestured toward the eastern pastures. "Every three nights, about 3 heads go missing. Always from different pens. Little to no tracks, small noise, and when we realize the animal was gone, we have searched around but no results." He then lowered his voice. "We even have sent our dogs, but they suddenly stop tracking and just stay put like they can't track or smell the livestock anymore."
"Mind if I examine the pens?"
Clive shrugged. "Knock yourself out, mister. Just don't interfere with the night watch. We're doubling patrols tonight."
As Caleb dismounted to inspect the perimeter, his enhanced Perception picked up details others might miss, which was that there was a fence damaged, where it was cut to make space and then carefully repaired afterward.
He also saw some faint track of the cattle marks leading toward the tree line, and could smell the unusual smell that lingered in the air, Clive and the ranch hands could think it was the livestock smell but for Caleb, this was a different smell as it smells like mint and many things mixed into one.
His suspicion grew, and Caleb followed the trail into the small forest to the southeast of the pens. When he reached there, he activated his Eagle Eye and spotted a hidden makeshift pulley on the tree branch, discarded burlap sacks smelling strongly of mint and several things mixed in it as well, and then several tracks of not just one but two wagon ruts heading northeast.
"Well, well," Caleb murmured. "It's a sophisticated operation, one that was much smarter than the ones in Valentine." The mint that was mixed with other herbs would mask the animals' scent from dogs, while the pulleys suggested they'd been loading livestock silently onto wagons.
Returning to Clive, Caleb laid out his findings to Clive and the ranch hands. Clibe and the ranch hand's face paled. "That explains why chasing and tracking with our dogs never worked, they're already gone by the time we notice! Stupid that we don't expand our search area!"
"It's not stupid, you all just don't think of it that way, I'm also surprised as this is the first time I saw an elaborate rustling. Here's what we'll do." Caleb then outlined a plan, which consisted of, making a bait pen, where they would isolate some cattle in the most vulnerable pasture, put some hidden watch, station men along the route they had found, and then wait for the right timing, strike as they're loading the wagon
Clive agreed eagerly. "We'll set it up tonight. You'll join the ambush?"
Caleb nodded. "Wouldn't miss it. But first, I've got another errand east of here."
Following his memory's guidance, Caleb rode to to the east of Emerald Ranch and searched around for the cabin, which he knew was inside the forest to the left of the road and from his map function he soon found the road that was made like cut lines and followed it.
Soon he arrived at the cabin, where it was like in the game. Getting off from Morgan, he takes out his Schofield just in case even though he remembers that inside the family that lived here was all dead, and then pushes the door inside.
The cabin's interior was exactly as Caleb remembered from the game, a tragic family tableau frozen in death. The father slumped against the dining table, the mother called down near the dining table, trying to reach their son who slumped dead forward in his rocking horse, and the grandmother still seated in her rocking chair as if merely asleep. The air hung heavy with the scent of decay and woodsmoke.
Caleb pushed down the bile rising in his throat from the smell inside and moved directly to the nightstand beside the grandmother's chair. The drawer slid open with a creak, revealing the prized fountain pen nestled in its velvet lined box. The silver plating gleamed even in the dim light, completely untouched by time. He carefully placed it in his satchel.
Turning back to the deceased family, an unfamiliar pang of guilt twisted in his chest. In the game, he'd looted their house for any loot without a second thought. But standing here now, seeing the way the mother's arms trying to reach her child...
"No," Caleb muttered to himself. "They deserve better."
He remembered the lantern hanging by the door outside. A plan then was formed. Going outside and taking it down, he placed it carefully on the dining table, then methodically arranged flammable materials around the room, curtains pulled down, blankets piled near the bodies. With one last look at the family, he stepped outside.
Then he shot his Schofield and its sound shattered the forest's silence. The bullet struck true, igniting the lantern's oil in a whoosh of flames that quickly spread through the dry cabin.
Caleb watched as firelight danced behind the windows, the roof catching fast despite the stone walls. Soon, the entire structure was engulfed, a blazing pyre to send these forgotten souls to rest.
Morgan snorted nervously at the growing inferno. "Easy girl," Caleb soothed, mounting up. As they rode away, he didn't look back.
By twilight, Caleb returned to Emerald Ranch where Clive and six ranch hands waited nervously near the prepared bait pen.
"You find what you needed?" Clive asked, eyeing the distant glow on the horizon.
Caleb simply nodded. "Let's focus on the task at hand."
They took positions along the rustlers' expected route, Caleb and two men near the pulley system, Clive and the others spread along the treeline. The wait stretched endlessly, the only sounds being the occasional lowing of cattle and the chirp of crickets.
Then, right on schedule, shadows emerged from the woods, where two wagons soon were parked near the pulley system. Caleb's enhanced Perception picked out eight figures moving with precision, where two "Cutters" with wire tools, three "Herders" carrying those scent masking burlap sacks, and three "Guards" with carbine repeaters at the ready.
The operation unfolded exactly as predicted. The fence was cut silently, three cattle ushered toward the trees, and the pulley system prepared for loading. Caleb let them commit fully before giving the signal, a perfect imitation of a raven cry.
Immediately Clive and his men opened fire from concealed positions, Caleb activated Dead Eye, killing the three rustlers with precise shots to their heads using his Schofield, and he also made a well placed shot round shattered the pulley mechanism.
The three cattle panicked when they heard the gunshot, and one of them kicked one rustler square in the chest causing his ribs to crack and killing him instantly, and the remaining rustlers broke for the woods but were run down and captured by the ranch hands.
In the chaotic aftermath, Caleb attempted to interrogate the captives, but they remained tight lipped even when faced with Clive's threats. Their discipline suggested this was more than simple banditry, these were professionals.
Clive clapped Caleb on the back, his earlier skepticism replaced by open admiration. "Damn fine work, mister! If it weren't for your help, we'd still be chasing nothing and lose more cattle, sheep, and pigs. Mr. Barlow, the ranch owner, will want to thank you proper tomorrow when he hears the news."
Caleb wiped soot from his revolver. "Glad to help. Mind if I bunk here tonight? Didn't bring my camp gear since I planned to ride back to Valentine."
"Course! We've got a spare cot in the bunkhouse," Clive said. Then, lowering his voice, "Between you and me? That reward's likely to be mighty generous. Barlow's been losing sleep over these rustlers for weeks."
The bunkhouse cot was lumpy, but after the day's events, Caleb slept like the dead. He woke to Clive shaking his cot.
"Barlow wants to see you, mister. And... you might want to see this." Clive's face was grim.
Outside, a disturbing scene unfolded. The four captured rustlers hung from the ranch's barn, their necks snapped at unnatural angles. A crude sign reading "THIEF" hung around each corpse.
"Wasn't us," Clive said quickly. "Found 'em like this at dawn and we don't know how they get out from the locked cabin we store 'em into. Either they didn't want to be handed to law or someone didn't want them talking."
Caleb examined the bodies. Professional knots. No struggle marks. This was an execution, not frontier justice. But why does that concern him? They would be hanged anyway, and he doesn't want to incur the interest of whoever paid these rustlers.
Then he saw Mr. Barlow who turned out to be a wiry old livestock baron with eyes like flint. He counted out 250 dollars in cash without preamble. "Double the reward I offered," he growled. "And another hundred if you keep quiet about how this ended." His gaze flicked to the corpses. "I don't want it go out and ruin my ranch reputation, got it?"
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Name:Caleb Thorne
Age: 23
Body Attributes:
- Strength: 6/10
- Agility: 6/10
- Perception: 8/10
- Stamina: 6/10
- Charm: 5/10
- Luck: 5/10
Skills:
- Handgun (Lvl 1)
- Rifle (Lvl 1)
- Firearms Knowledge (Lvl 2)
- Past Life Memory (Lvl MAX)
- Knife (Lvl 1)
- Blunt Weapon (Lvl 1)
- Sneaking (Lvl 1)
- Horse Mastery (Lvl 1)
- Poker (Lvl 1)
- Hand to Hand Combat (Lvl 1)
- Eagle Eye (Lvl 1)
- Dead Eye (Lvl 1)
- Bow (Lvl 2)
Money: 501 dollars and 99 cents
Bank: 40 dollars, 2 gold bars, and a large bag of jewelry