48 Hours a Day

The miners and farmers from Bliss Town were sitting next to them. Although the two sides decided to work together, they had not worked on their communication. They were each doing their own things and still looked at each other with hatred.

A look of worry flashed across the sheriff’s face.

“What’s going on?” Zhang Heng asked. “We still lack manpower, and most of us here are inexperienced fighters as well. And the worst part is that there is an internal conflict between us. If we fight Cook in such a state, I am afraid there’s a high chance that we will lose.”

Zhang Heng did not answer the sheriff’s question, asking instead, “Do you know a lot about Cook?”

“No, most of my memories of him were when we were living in the same town. He was a very easygoing man. Similar to his wife and daughter, the whole family are devout Puritans. We were the first to arrive in the town with a covered wagon. I was only six at that time. It is probably hard to imagine now the difficulties and obstacles we encountered along the way at that time. There were robbers, Indians, and men with ill intent lurking everywhere. We had gone through many tough battles, and Cook is the best marksman among us. It is difficult to imagine a gentleman like him would fight so bravely.

“He is the most outstanding person among us, a natural leader, and he cares about everyone that matters to him. Without him, we wouldn’t have been able to reach a settlement. When the town was first established, we unanimously choose him as the sheriff. Nonetheless, he refused the position. He was the ‘family first’ kind of man. After he opened his own ranch, he wanted to spend all his time with his wife. Hence, we chose Thompson as the sheriff in the end.

“Now, Thompson was a respectable man in his own right, but unfortunately, he disappeared from the world in less than a year. On that particular day, he attempted to help a widow from town retrieve money that someone owed her. Tragically, he was ambushed by the debtor and his two brothers, and they shot him dead in the process. One of them was later caught and hanged in the next town. As for the other two killers, there were long gone before we could sentence them. Some said they fled to Japan, and others said robbers had killed them. Rumors even said they joined the army under different names. But in short, we couldn’t locate them no matter how hard we tried.

“Let’s talk about Morris next. He worked for four years as a sheriff. A robber shot him and blinded him in the eye during a crossfire with a group of robbers in town. But he miraculously survived the injury. Two years later, he retired as sheriff. After that, Thompson Jr, son of old Thompson, took up the position... During that period, Cook had two children, the first one was a boy, but unfortunately, he did not survive the birth. Then, the girl was named Mary. I think the Cook and his wife poured all their love for their deceased son into their daughter.

“Cook originally wanted a third child, but in the end, his wife died of dystocia. Neither adult nor the child survived. Cook was depressed for a while, but fortunately, he still had his daughter. Mary pulled him out from his depression and made him embrace life again. It was then when Matthew came into his life. Matthew’s father was an Indian from the Apache tribe, and his mother was a British immigrant. His birth was unexpected. Due to his Indian descent, the townspeople didn’t like him the least bit.

“I fought with him when he first arrived in the town. At that time, I was just a young man and couldn’t tell right from wrong. I beat him just because he wasn’t pleasing to my eye, but I didn’t expect that the fight would make us friends. Matthew said that he came to town to find a job, but at that time, I was just a poor boy, so I directed him to Cook. I knew that if there was one person in town that was willing to accept him, it had to be Cook.

“Sure enough, although Matthew didn’t know anything at the time, he was hardworking and had an open mind-he was willing to learn everything that was taught to him. It was apparent-Cook liked him so much that he treated him like his own son. Most people in this world are blind-eyed fools. Only a few possess the ability to look past a person’s gender, race, and appearance. It is more important to look at a person’s heart and mind. And Cook has the ability to do so.

“You know what happened later. I won’t say more. Matthew married Mary, and then the unfortunate incident happened. I still don’t know if what we did that night was right or wrong.” The sheriff paused. “...but I thought about it again later. I don’t think it was an accident that things got out of control that night. At that time, most of us were determined to avenge Mary. With Cook’s meticulous mindset, it would be impossible he didn’t know the situation we would be facing after killing Ruben and his men. That means he had made up his mind from the beginning to kill all the people in town.

“At that time, he was probably disappointed with the townsfolk. Considering how he did so much for this town, the people should have supported him. However, when Mary was killed, only a few were willing to stand by his side. He felt the town had betrayed him.

“I heard about what happened later. After the three of us broke up, he went to the east coast alone and killed United Pacific Railroad’s director. Then he came back and founded the Cook Gang. For the past decade, Cook has been the strongest and most terrifying gang in the West. They looted trains, ransacked towns, and even fought head-on with the rangers. Of course, they also suffered heavy losses. At one time, the people thought they had disappeared, but it didn’t take long for them to emerge again and become more brutal and powerful.

“Except for the larger towns, small towns like Glen all live in fear of the Cook Gang.” The sheriff looked into Zhang Heng’s eyes. “The reason I tell you about these past events is, so you know how terrifying Cook is. When a person like Cook with many excellent qualities decides to turn evil, the damage he can wreak beats any ordinary robber. I don’t know what happened to him after the three of us were separated. One thing’s for sure—I know he must be stopped at all costs.”

“In the beginning, he was simply obsessed with revenge. Everything he did afterward, however, was no longer about revenge. His hands were covered with the blood of many innocent people. He killed more ordinary folk than those powerful people died. He even lost count of the children that lost their fathers and wives that lost their husbands. He wouldn’t even bat an eyelid when he slaughters an entire stranger’s family. What happened in Bliss was no accident. If we don’t do something about him, I don’t know how many more crazy things he will do,” the sheriff said with a solemn expression.