These past few days, because new officers hadn't been recruited and trained yet, it was indeed the most worrying time for town security.
And now he was the sheriff - any public security incidents would be traced back to him. If large-scale or major violent incidents occurred, it would be a huge blow to his reputation.
Thinking of this, Henry immediately put on his coat, wore his hard-brimmed round hat, pinned on his sheriff's badge, and began patrolling.
He didn't plan to call Pete and the other four, because if there was any danger, the officer numbers would be further reduced.
Anyway, he had his space and could replenish hot water and food anytime, even take out a chair to sit down - patrolling wouldn't be so tiring.
If he really discovered bandits, he could also gain more release pearls.
Henry gave himself a thumbs up while patrolling.
When leaving this time, he wedged a dried leaf in the door crack half a meter up.
He planned to patrol until 1 AM, focusing on Linda's, Pete's, Mayor William's, and the four bars, since people have different levels of closeness.
Henry looked at his Patek Philippe pocket watch and found it was 10:28 PM.
Good, he only needed to work overtime for about 2.5 hours.
By this time it had become completely dark. Except for the bars, every household had their doors tightly closed, with only occasional gas lamps hanging at a few front doors providing some warm yellow light, seemingly driving away certain monsters hidden in the darkness.
Henry made another surprising discovery - tonight there were only a few scattered stars with weak starlight, yet he could see objects within about ten meters quite clearly in the pitch darkness.
Although not as clear as during the day, identification was no problem, and the outlines of objects were very distinct.
Worthy of being constitution LV3 that required 400 gray pearls to upgrade.
It seemed that upgrading constitution one more time would allow complete night vision.
He first went near Linda's house.
The fifty-meter distance took him less than a minute. Linda's front door also had a gas lamp, and there was a small garden of over a hundred square meters surrounded by a fence over a meter high.
This was something Bryan Mills had made as a play area for his wife and children.
Everything was normal. The border collie Paul was lazily lying on the garden grass.
Henry cursed Paul as a "lazy dog" in his heart, then passed the small garden and headed toward Pete's house.
Wait!
Border collies were border sheepdogs - they were very alert.
Moreover, he was very familiar with the border collie Paul, and it would run over wagging its tail every time.
Thinking of this, Henry turned around and walked back to the small garden gate.
Upon careful examination, Henry found something was indeed wrong. Paul was in a completely unconscious state, motionless.
It seemed the bandits had drugged it not long ago, and they would likely act soon, otherwise it would be troublesome when the drug wore off.
Of course, it might also be poison, but Paul wouldn't easily swallow poison.
However, there was no movement from inside the house, and all the lights were off.
Regardless, there was a situation here.
Henry walked back seven or eight meters, retreating into the shadows of a neighbor's house, waiting quietly.
In less than ten minutes, a thin white youth of twenty-seven or twenty-eight sneaked past the fence. Finding the border collie motionless, he poked his head to confirm, then turned and quickly left.
Henry thought about it and decided to wait in place.
What if there were other bandits?
Or maybe this gang split into two groups.
So guarding this key location would suffice.
After a few minutes, four cowboy-dressed fellows walked to Linda's yard gate, with one taking out lock-picking tools to open the lock.
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!"
The sound of flying knives cutting through the air at high speed rang out.
The other three only noticed that a throwing knife had suddenly appeared in the lock-picking bandit's neck, followed by a cool sensation on their own necks as pain came.
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!"
Four more flying knives pierced these four bandits' necks, forming crosses with the previous one.
"Thud thud thud thud." The four bandits fell one after another, their throats making gurgling sounds.
Henry continued waiting quietly.
More than ten seconds later, he noticed one new gray pearl and three white pearls had been added, with one white pearl having a flowing halo.
So he quickly walked to the several men and collected them all into his space, then retreated back into the shadows, releasing them one by one to loot their bodies.
Not bad - besides gaining four daggers and four Colt revolvers, there were also 48 throwing knives, one set of lock-picking tools, plus some bottles and jars.
It seemed one of these four unlucky fellows was a throwing knife expert.
At this time, over twenty meters from Linda's house, Gallaher and three others sat on horses, each leading another empty horse, waiting quietly.
The group waited nearly twenty minutes with no sign of Royce's four men, and the front remained completely silent.
The longer it went, the more eerie it felt.
All four became anxious and restless.
Gallaher said, "We're not waiting anymore. Let's go see, and be ready to shoot anytime."
After speaking, he spurred his horse forward first, and the other three followed.
When Gallaher reached Linda's house front, he found no abnormalities - Royce's four men seemed to have vanished into thin air.
But he and the other three soon wouldn't need to worry about this anymore.
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh"
Eight consecutive flying knives seemingly from the netherworld pierced the four men's throats in pairs, making them follow their companions' footsteps.
The bandits' death throes startled the horses into scattered whinnying.
Henry didn't use guns because he didn't want the horses to be too startled.
The four bandits fell heavily from horseback, with one unlucky fellow's high boots causing him to get caught in the stirrup and be dragged by the horse for dozens of meters.
After he stopped struggling, that horse also stopped.
The other three horses similarly quieted down.
At this time, several nearby houses stirred, but no one turned on lights or opened doors.
In the western deep night, it was best not to have too much curiosity.
Henry gathered the other four empty horses, then walked over one by one, freed that unlucky fellow's foot from the stirrup, and collected them all into his space.
Then he mounted a horse and drove the other seven horses back to his own stable.
Henry's grandfather had been town sheriff for ten years and had built a stable that could accommodate 12 horses next to his house.
After leading all the horses into the stable, Henry collected the eight Winchester rifles hanging on the saddles into his space, then closed the stable door and walked back to Linda's house again.
Linda's vigilance wasn't that high - there was no movement from inside the house.
Henry took out lock-picking tools to open the yard gate, walked to Paul's side, and found its belly rising and falling slightly - it seemed to be just unconscious.
So he took out a water pouch, opened it, and poured it over the dog's head.
By this time it should have been about an hour since Paul was drugged, so the drug's effect might not be much left. Paul was successfully awakened.
"Woof woof woof!" Paul enthusiastically greeted as soon as it woke up.
While taking out a large towel from his space to dry its body, Henry said, "Alright, stop barking, don't wake up Linda and the others."
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