For example, shooting several holes in someone while they're drunk, or in the dead of night, ambushing in shadows to pierce an opponent's skull with a cold shot.
In short, what Westerners discussed on street corners was gunfights - there was hardly any mention of dueling.
Barrett's many previous duels had all taken place in relatively formal settings.
Ordinary people privately wished they could ambush early and shoot out their opponent's brains.
There were indeed two groups of bandits planning to cooperate with Barrett to blow out Henry's brains.
Besides super assassins who were particularly confident in their skills and methods, ordinary bandits planning to target Henry basically acted in gang form.
Otherwise, even if they managed to get Henry's head, they couldn't make it out through the 85 miles of treacherous mountain roads.
One of these two gangs was called the Wild Wolf Gang, with 12 members, all deployed this time, led by boss Wolf.
The other was called the Skull Gang, with 8 members, also fully deployed, led by boss Bond.
Both were notorious, ruthless, and crime-ridden powerful gangs.
Both gangs had arrived in town this morning, posing as ranch owners and fur traders respectively.
They all knew that the assassins who had arrived yesterday had already been sent to hell by Henry, so they hadn't acted rashly today.
Instead, they familiarized themselves with the terrain and town situation, looking for suitable timing and assassination plans.
Now hearing about this duel event, they immediately felt opportunity had come.
Henry couldn't possibly focus entirely on his duel opponent Barrett while still having attention to spare for other gunmen, right?
Not putting ten or eight holes in him would be letting down the dozens of miles of mountain roads they'd traveled for this!
When Henry left the bar, it was nearly 10 PM. He simply patrolled the town directly while thinking about his actions for the next few days.
As for the duel with Barrett, Henry didn't take it to heart at all.
From the moment Barrett insisted on dueling, he was already a dead man in Henry's eyes.
No matter what reasons Barrett had, no matter how honorable he was, Henry would take his life.
Because as a sharpshooter, Barrett must have strong confidence in his marksmanship and would have a direct sense of whether his bullets hit their target.
So he would easily discover Henry's bullet-dodging secret, though he wouldn't know why.
During normal gunfights, no one could see bullet trajectories clearly, and no one could know whether Henry should have been hit.
So Barrett, who might see through the mystery, could only die.
Moreover, after the duel, even if Barrett didn't die, he would be wounded and might never return to his peak, greatly reducing his value.
What gave Henry a headache now was how to escort Linda to Denver train station.
Fresco Town was surrounded by mountains in the central-western Rocky Mountains, west of Denver, generally over 2,000 meters above sea level, with many nearby peaks, including Longs Peak at 4,346 meters.
Outsiders were almost all personnel related to mining and livestock industries, though there were also many bandits robbing in the surrounding areas.
After all, once something happened, they could drill into the deep mountains and forests and basically be very hard to find.
The terrain was mainly mountains, plateaus, and basins, with dried-up riverbeds and cliffs everywhere.
This terrain was particularly favorable for ambushes, so if Henry was to escort Linda to Denver to catch a train, he really needed to be especially cautious to avoid capsizing in the gutter.
As for going to Georgetown, over twenty miles away, to catch a train, that was mainly for freight with pitifully few passenger services. If others obtained Henry's itinerary and sabotaged trains in dangerous locations, Henry might end up accompanying the train car down hundreds of meters into mountain valleys.
Although trains could reach 120 kilometers per hour on plains in this era, they could only manage 60 kilometers in mountain areas at best, and in many curves or dangerous areas, they might only go 20-plus kilometers per hour.
This speed could easily be caught up to by mounted bandits, making robbery or sabotage very simple.
So taking trains was impossible. Henry had to keep firm control of his safety initiative.
After patrolling until 1 AM again, Henry returned to his house to rest.
When Henry arrived at the police station the next morning, Pete immediately entered his office and closed the door.
"Henry, how confident are you about the duel?" Pete asked.
"One hundred percent, of course. Didn't you place a bet?" Henry laughed.
"No, I can't gamble with your life," Pete spread his hands.
Henry felt warmth in his heart and said, "Don't worry. I even bet 200 dollars on myself. Also, I'll arrange four officers for you in a moment. Take them to guard Linda's house. I'm worried someone might try to kidnap or rob her while I'm dueling. Tell Linda not to worry about me."
"Alright," Pete said.
Henry arranged police station matters, then went to the church in the square to find Pastor Philip.
Time quickly approached noon.
Henry brought Luke and 16 new officers to the town square area more than half an hour early, checking all six nearby locations suitable for high-ground ambushes, leaving 2 officers at each location.
Henry handed his "one-in-a-thousand" Winchester rifle to Luke to carry, having him and four new officers maintain order around the square.
The square was 50 meters by 50 meters, with a small church occupying over an acre in one corner.
Formal European aristocratic duels required witnesses to inspect weapons, specify how many shots to fire, determine stopping conditions, etc. - all of this was omitted here.
There was also no limit on how many pistols to use.
In expert duels, there couldn't be much room for error, and dual pistols weren't necessarily better than single pistols.
At least single pistols were much easier to control than dual pistols.
Pastor Philip gave Barrett and Henry final words of persuasion. Finding no effect, he had both men walk to appropriate positions and stand ready.
The town ran east-west, and the two men stood facing each other about 30 meters apart in the center of the square, arms hanging naturally, eyes on each other.
They chose noon because the sun would be directly overhead, creating no unfair glare for either party.
Today the weather was clear with cloudless skies, the air dry and hot, feeling like heat waves were rising from the ground.
There were no spectators behind the two men to the east and west. The north and south sides of the square were packed with dense crowds two or three layers deep, estimated at four or five hundred people.
Mayor William and six guards watched quietly from the church entrance.
Four new officers stood two on each side, with Luke positioned about 25 meters away on the south side.
The Wild Wolf Gang and Skull Gang members were distributed on Henry's north and south sides respectively.
They were also afraid that standing on different sides would result in friendly fire, so all gang members stood on one side, not knowing that another equally predatory group was directly opposite.
Members of both gangs were still admiring their respective bosses' brilliant moves - not going to high ground for ambushes, but choosing close-range concentrated fire instead, otherwise they would have been exposed just now.
(End of Chapter)
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