Henry walked back to the basin where the horses were tethered.
The release life progress bar is now at 3.8.78%.
Below the progress bar are 144 gray beads, 71 white beads, 8 green beads, and 248 empty gray bead shells, 92 empty white bead shells, and 2 empty green bead shells.
This time, 5 green beads, 57 white beads, and 65 gray beads were added.
Only two of the green beads had a talent or skill aura flowing around them.
This is roughly equivalent to 579 gray beads, enough to upgrade another talent.
The upgrade should wait until it's safe; there's no rush.
Henry had just counted 82 horses remaining in this basin; about twenty-something must have run away.
The bandits' logistics supply wagon was also still there.
He integrated an empty gray bead shell into each of the 82 horses and stored them in his Storage Space. Henry now has 120 horses in his space, occupying about 50 cubic meters.
There are still 166 empty gray bead shells left, which is also enough for Henry to use.
Henry also put the bandits' wagon and its supplies into his space.
More than ten minutes later, Henry returned to the convoy, allowing Richard and the others to breathe a sigh of relief.
The group immediately sped up along the mountain path towards Fresco Town.
After passing the first half of the journey, Henry vigilantly observed the mountain peaks on both sides.
For safety, they should have searched this area as well.
But it was already 5:42 PM, and there wasn't much time, so Henry could only take the risk.
If there really was a large force from Fresco Town ambushing here, Henry himself would be fine, but the others would most likely lose their lives. Perhaps only Edith, whom he paid special attention to, would be spared.
Fortunately, Henry's effective crackdown on criminals in the past few days meant this situation did not occur.
The group successfully passed through this Death Valley.
At 6:15 PM, Henry saw the people on the hill from a distance.
When he got a little closer, he took off his hat from the carriage and waved to signal.
Linda, Pete, Mary, Charles, Owen, and the others on the hill cheered joyfully; it had been a full 6 hours!
Henry stopped at the foot of the hill and waited for everyone to come down.
Without much introduction between Linda and Edith, Henry had a ranch-born police officer drive the carriage in his place. He mounted his police horse and directed everyone to set off as quickly as possible.
When there are many people, actions are slow, and it was already more than ten minutes later when they set off again.
Fortunately, everything went smoothly afterward. The group took half an hour to pass through Death Valley and reach the valley exit on the Denver side.
"Charles, we'll cross Hangman's Hill tomorrow. Let's find a place to camp for the night immediately. We need to set up camp and establish a Warning Line before dark," Henry instructed.
"No problem, there's a hill about two miles ahead that's suitable for us to camp," Charles replied, then spurred his horse to lead the way.
Nights in the Western Wilderness present many dangers, such as venomous snakes, scorpions, Cougars, gray wolves, Black Bears, bandits, natives, etc., as well as natural disasters like floods, lightning strikes, tornadoes, and landslides.
Therefore, camping in the Western Wilderness absolutely requires caution.
More than ten minutes later, the group arrived at a flat piece of ground at the foot of the hundred-meter-plus hill Charles mentioned. The Colorado River was fifty to sixty meters past this ground.
All the men, including Richard, except for the women and children, began to set up tents, build bonfires, and fetch water with canteens.
Soon, with everyone working together, two bonfires and ten canvas tents capable of housing 2-3 people were set up.
With fire and water, using cooking tools like kettles and Netherlands ovens, the aroma of coffee, bread, beef jerky, pickled pork, and bacon soon wafted over the campsite.
Henry also took out two large bags of biscuits and dried fruits like raisins and blackcurrants from his luggage—which was actually his space.
Dried fruit is a must-have in Western chuck wagons; it can add flavor to beans, meat, and bread, or be eaten as a sweet treat.
Children especially loved it. This bag of dried fruit made Becky and Andre run around happily like colorful butterflies.
With 20 adults working together, this place, which was a wild mountain half an hour ago, quickly turned into a picnic dinner party-like venue. The two lively children added an extra touch of joy to the wilderness.
Henry watched this scene and felt an inexplicable sense of accomplishment, as if he was protecting the women and children of his territory, allowing them to live carefree.
—
Fresco Town, Raphael was reporting to Mayor William again.
"...It can be concluded that all the men at Dwyer Manor must be dead, otherwise they wouldn't have failed to show up these past two days. According to the two police officers White sent to the manor, there are only a dozen or so women inside, and they are in very poor condition. When the two police officers went there, they even fired shots to drive away several gray foxes and coyotes."
"According to the dozen or so women, a powerful bandit gang attacked Dwyer Manor around 5 AM yesterday morning, even using explosives. All the guards either died or disappeared, and there was also infighting afterward, resulting in the deaths of all remaining men."
"The McKinley Metal Smelting Plant was attacked by a powerful force last night. An entire company of over 200 people must have been completely wiped out, and even their bodies were taken away, showing the strength and composure of the opponent."
"Later, riots broke out at the silver and copper mines and the smelting plant, further expanding McKinley's losses. The McKinley Family suffered huge losses this time."
"Town Committee Member Barak took in the dozen or so surviving women from Dwyer Manor. He should have also telegraphed the McKinley Family Person in charge in Denver."
William pondered for a moment, then instructed Raphael to continue monitoring the situation at the mines before dismissing him.
"What is Henry's connection to this powerful force?"
William was particularly puzzled by this now.
Because he was very clear about Henry's life trajectory since childhood.
A powerful force doesn't just emerge suddenly; there's always a period of accumulating strength beforehand.
So William was truly a bit confused now.
However, he was confident that Henry would not do anything detrimental to him; this could be seen from Henry's daily behavior.
—
Denver McKinley Family Manor, Brendan's face was pale, and his brows were tightly furrowed. He had already learned from Barak's telegram about what had happened at Dwyer Manor and the mines in the past two days.
The losses were simply too great. In just about ten days, since the gold mine seizure plan began, the McKinley Family had lost over 400 private soldiers, consuming almost two-thirds of their private armed forces in the West.
Direct economic losses also exceeded 150,000 us dollars, and if losses from work stoppages and so on were included, it would be well over 200,000 us dollars.
Brendan finally felt the tip of the iceberg of the Sinclair family's hidden power—a casual counterattack caused a fatal blow to his side.
However, this was normal; the saying "if you try to catch a tiger but fail, you'll suffer for it" applies everywhere.
Now, Brendan's biggest concern was whether Richard and his group could safely reach Fresco Town to mediate for him.
He also finally learned that Henry was escorting Sheriff Brian's widow to Denver to catch a train this morning.
Therefore, Henry and Richard would most likely meet.
Brendan was now particularly worried that Henry might find an opportunity to eliminate his 31-person escort team along with Richard and the others.
But even if Richard could successfully reach Fresco Town, it would be after 7 PM.
By then, the town's telegraph office would also be closed.
Regardless, Brendan could only confirm Richard's whereabouts tomorrow morning.
--+--
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