"Speak the truth," Henry said, his voice a low, dangerous purr. "You know who I am, don't you? I'm the Sheriff. I don't kill people without reason. But if you don't cooperate…" He pulled the gag from Bick's mouth.
"I'll talk, I'll talk!" the young outlaw sputtered. "Sheriff, please, just arrest me!"
"Your life is in your own hands right now. Your friend over there can talk too. I'll be asking him the same questions. If you lie…"
"I won't, I swear, Sheriff! I'll tell you everything!" Bick said, and the words came pouring out in a panicked flood.
"We're the Dodge Gang, from Kansas City. The whole gang is over five hundred strong, split into four crews. Our crew, the one with 136 men, is led by 'Cross-Eye' Frank. One of our members, Bond, took seven other guys and went to Frisco to kill you under the name 'the Skull Gang.' You killed them all."
"Frank found out a few days ago, heard about the ten-thousand-dollar bounty on your head, and decided to come for you himself."
"The rest of our crew, 128 of us, are all here. They're waiting in ambush in Dead Man's Gulch. The twenty-five of us were just watching the horses."
Henry did a quick mental calculation. The twenty-five horse guards were all accounted for.
"Where are they positioned? How do they communicate?"
"I don't know their exact positions, sir. They use signal flags. If we have a problem, we're supposed to go to that rock over there and send a signal. There are seven different signals. I can tell you what they are…"
After Bick had explained the signals, Henry stuffed the gag back in his mouth and went over to the other young outlaw, waking him with the same brutal method. This one confessed even faster than the first.
Henry compared their stories. They matched. After getting a bit more information on the Dodge Gang, he gagged the second man as well.
He walked over to Richard Mellon. "Mr. Mellon, can you shoot?"
"Yes."
"And you, ladies?"
Madeline and Edith shook their heads, but Edith quickly added, "My name is Edith. I'm skilled with a bow."
Henry looked at the young woman, who bore a striking resemblance to the actress Catherine Zeta-Jones from his past life. He smiled. "Very good, Edith. You were very brave back there."
He turned to Richard. "Mr. Mellon, I've already taken care of the eighteen other men who were guarding the horses. You have nothing to fear from them. I want you to take the weapons from these dead men and protect the ladies in this cave. The remaining 103 outlaws are my problem."
"Of course," Richard replied immediately. "It would be an honor to fight alongside you."
Henry clapped him on the shoulder in a gesture of encouragement, then took the two red-and-yellow signal flags and walked out of the cave.
Richard quickly armed himself with a rifle and a pistol from the dead card players.
Henry pulled his hat down low to obscure his face. He hid behind the signal rock, held out the flags, and sent the message: We have a problem. Send men.
Jim, who had been watching the rock impatiently, saw the signal immediately. "Boss," he said to Frank, "Russell is signaling a problem. Wants us to send men. It's probably those nobles acting up. I'll go check it out."
"Henry should be here any minute," Frank said. "Take five men. Be quick about it. And no trouble."
Jim grabbed five of his cronies and headed off. The thought of the beautiful young noblewoman made his blood run hot, and he practically flew down the path.
Henry sent the signal a few more times, then returned to the cave. He gestured for the others to remain silent as he retrieved the three knives from the bodies of the outlaws, wiped them clean, and returned them to his sheath. He then tossed the five corpses down the mountainside, out of sight, so the approaching men wouldn't smell the blood.
He took up a position behind two fir trees at the mouth of the cave, used a grey pearl to restore his health to 100%, and waited.
A dozen minutes later, he heard voices approaching. He shifted his position, melting deeper into the shadows.
A few moments later, a voice called out. "Russell, are you getting old? Can't even handle a few captives?"
Six men rounded the corner by the signal rock.
Just as they came within a few meters of the cave entrance, Henry moved.
He activated his Super Reflexes. His hands became a blur.
Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!
Four throwing knives, silent as death, flew from the shadows and buried themselves in the necks of the four men in the rear. Henry launched himself forward.
He covered the five meters in the blink of an eye.
A right hook. A left hook.
Less than half a second had passed. The two men in the lead, Jim included, had only just registered the movement when Henry was on them. Jim tried to raise his hands to block, but before he could even lift his arms, a fist like a cannonball slammed into his jaw. The world exploded in a shower of stars, and he collapsed, unconscious.
The other man suffered the same fate.
From inside the cave, Richard and the others only saw a black shadow flash past, followed by the sound of two bodies hitting the ground. They were completely stunned.
Henry walked back into the cave, chopped the two conscious captives on the back of the neck to knock them out again, removed their handcuffs, and then went and cuffed the two new arrivals, Jim included. He dragged them back into the cave and tossed them onto the rocky floor like sacks of garbage.
Edith and Madeline felt a surge of satisfaction seeing the lecherous outlaw lying there, helpless. These powerful, dangerous men were like toys in Henry's hands. The thought was both terrifying and thrilling.
Edith, especially, found her eyes sparkling, shining like sapphires as she watched him.
Henry pulled on a pair of gloves, removed the gags from the first two captives, and stuffed them into the mouths of the new ones.
Then he went to work on Jim, waking him with a sharp, calculated application of pain. When he finally removed the gag, the terrified outlaw answered every question without hesitation. A lecherous sycophant is rarely a man of strong will.
And besides, he could see the other two captives, alive and relatively unharmed. As long as he cooperated, he had a chance to live. And in the West, for men like him, life was the only thing that mattered.