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<blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 1847134" data-attributes="member: 8530"><p><strong>Chapter Thirty-nine, “The Death of Curly Bill Brocius”, January 7th, 1882:</strong></p><p></p><p>Jake had slipped through the door and Kate tried hard not to think about the fact that she was alone out here and prayed the walls were thick enough to block the sounds of gunfire.</p><p></p><p>Nanuet wipes some sweat from his brow, swallows and winks at Jake who apparently has him covered now. "Keep an eye on him, while I watch Ruby." he says. Nanuet tries to find a spot that will offer him a little more cover where he can still see Ruby and fire behind the curtain that she is near if necessary.</p><p></p><p>"Listen," Ruby says bluffing, "I've already had to kill about seven men today and that's normally my per day limit so you might as well come out now before I have to make a new limit..." as she says this she points the shotgun right at the curtain she is standing in front of. Okay, I'm coming out" the man states. The rifle begins to lower. Jake turns and fires one of the barrels of the shotgun to where he thinks the body holding the rifle is standing and then moves to the wall to make a return shot difficult. A second voice from further back in the room behind the curtain says "It's a trick. Told you not to trust these Earps." </p><p></p><p>Ruby sticks the shotgun through the curtain and fires. The rifle crashes to the floor along with the sound of a body dropping. Do I sound like an Earp?" Ruby says as she pumps the shotgun. She pulls the curtain down. It might be foolish as it is giving her cover but without seeing her enemy she could be shot with no chance of getting out of the way.</p><p></p><p>As the curtain goes down two shots thunder from the back corner of the room that the opponent is in. The shots fly out into the room, one striking the ceiling for a thunderous explosion and the other hitting the table, causing the table to split in half and also burst into flame. Neither Jake or Nanuet are physically hurt by this, but Nanuet looses his footing and falls back against the wall. Ruby sees the other man near the curtain lying dead on floor, her shotgun blast having made a mess of his torso. "Want some more of that you witch" the male voice yells out. </p><p></p><p>Kate tries to ignore the shots coming from behind the door. She had no way of knowing who fired them, or who might have gotten hit. Knowles is her task now. She just hoped she wasn't the last one here when the shooting stopped. Knowles says to Kate "Lady, I ain't gonna cause no trouble here. I recognized that necklace your shaman had on. I don't want any Apache medicine man placing any curses on me." She replies, “How comforting. I think I'll keep an eye on you anyway, just in case. There seem to be all sorts of surprises around here."</p><p></p><p>"Is that all you got?" she says trying to feign some confidence. She knew that if anyone had been hit by either of those massive blasts there would be no hope for them surviving. Ruby hopes the shooter has to reload and she takes the opportunity to empty Jake's shotgun into the back corner. Then she drops the shotgun, pulls out her pistol and tries to get up against a wall with the hardest angle for the shooter to get her. Then she starts praying.</p><p></p><p>Immediately after firing the shot into the back corner she hears the voice say "Owww". The voice then repeats her own line of "Is that all you got?" Simultaneous to her yelling this she did hear some snapping and clicking sounds that may have been the sounds of him reloading his weapon. "I'd better not let him get another shot off," thinks Ruby. "That and I must be absolutely crazy..." </p><p></p><p>She moves up into the room until she sees whoever is there. She doesn't think, she just moves. A large barefoot man with a hairy chest wearing only a pair of blue jeans is crouched in the far corner of the room holding in both hands a type of firearm best described as a hand-cannon. The dresser is partially destroyed by her prior shotgun blast, leaving his upper chest and head exposed and one of his legs is bleeding. She has the advantage over him as he has just finished reloading. </p><p></p><p>She fires first, the shot hitting his chest two inches below the Adam's apple. His mouth drops open and his hands shake as he fires back. Ruby watches the man go down, surprised that she hit him. When did she become such a desperado? But he still manages to get off a shot before dying. It goes high, hitting the ceiling five feet above her head with a loud explosion that causes her to drop to the floor beneath a shower of falling stones. And with that her eyes roll up and she passes out.</p><p></p><p>Jake rolls over to the corner and points his shotgun into the carnage that Ruby has been shooting into. Quickly when he is satisfied that section of the cavern is quiet he will listen for any activity behind the other curtains and look for motion of them, shadows moving or tell tale feet below them. Both men in the room who she shot appear to be dead. Ruby is covered in rubble and also is not moving.</p><p></p><p>As soon as he realizes that Ruby is hurt he hurries over, kneels, puts his shotgun down next to him and starts removing the fallen rubble from her. Quietly, "Nanuet, check the other curtains". Jake while working positions himself to keep his sidearm clear. Nanuet goes down the other two hallways and uses the rifle to move the curtains aside. Both rooms appear to be currently unoccupied and each of these rooms has two beds in it. One of these rooms has rugs and wall hangings of Native American designs, specifically the Cherokee tribe. </p><p></p><p>Jake clears the rubble off of Ruby looking for evidence of gunshot wounds. He finds none, although she in bleeding from several cuts and scratches on her face and neck. He is busy surveying the cuts and does not notice when her eyes then blink open as she sees him lying over her with a look of concern on his face. Ruby smiles up at Jake. “Jake, I didn’t know you cared…. Owww…” She says as she winces in pain as he is looking her over. </p><p></p><p>Nanuet comes back to the area where Ruby and Jake are amid the rubble. Before speaking he checks to make sure the man she was firing at is dead. "The rest of the room seems empty. How is she doing?" Nanuet looks Ruby over and takes another stone, one of the inch-and-a-half long ones sensing that her injury is less severe than Jake's was, off the necklace placing it in her hand and saying the command word. Ruby feels a tingling sensation come over her. The healing spell acts similar to the other, with the blood from the cuts and scratches on her faces receding back into her body and then sealing over, leaving behind no evidence of the injuries. When it stops she suddenly feels better. She uses Jake’s help to get up, just in case. When she feels her legs are steady underneath her she lets go. She pats her body all over to make sure it’s all still there. </p><p></p><p>“I think we’d better keep this one around,” as she points to Nanuet. “Nanuet, that is amazing. How can you do that? I feel great and I think I almost just lost my head. And Jake’s arm looks pretty good too.” Nanuet smiles at Ruby and says "A gift from a friend. Unfortunately it runs out, so let's try to stay healthy if we can." She replies,"Must be a good friend Nanuet." The elf then states, "Lets check on Katherine and see how she is doing then search this room. I am sure we can find some useful stuff."</p><p></p><p>"Alright, up, but keep those hands behind your head," Kate told Knowles after Nanuet gave her the all clear. "We're going back in the room now. I'll be right behind you. I'll tell you when to stop. We'll find you a nice, new place to sit. Let's go." Kate watched him rise and then followed him back through the door. She was grateful the man couldn't see her face when they walked into the room. She swallowed hard to keep from throwing up. "Where do you want him?" Nanuet heads over to Katherine and Harvey Knowles, and starts patting him down looking for any weapons hidden or otherwise. Ruby walks over to Katherine. She still has some blood on her but no signs of any cuts. She wipes her face on her sleeve. "Are you ok?"</p><p></p><p>"Yes, I'm okay. Only one man shot at me, and Nanuet pushed me out of the way. I'm so sorry I got you involved in all this. I didn't think... Well I didn't think it would be like this." Her eyes moved around the room again and then back to Ruby's blood-stained clothes, and her stomach went queasy again. "I think the question is are you okay?"</p><p></p><p>She turns back to Katherine. "I'm ok. That big hairy bastard would have tried to kill all of us I think, luckily I got him first. I'm really not that good with a gun..." Ruby contemplates for a moment. "Nanuet has been very helpful to have around. We have to hang onto him." </p><p></p><p>"Listen Katherine, these days you have to be careful what you get yourself into. And a gal has to be able to defend herself, you never know when you're going to get into trouble. But there was some reason why we ended up here and we're gonna find out what it is." She wipes some more blood off her face and onto her other sleeve. "I don't think what's his name is going to want these clothes back though."</p><p></p><p>"After this, I think staying out of trouble will become my new profession. Getting my friends shot at isn't really working for me. So whatever reason we ended up here for had better be a damn good one." She gives Ruby a small smile and says very quietly "I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't been here. Even if I could hit the broadside of a barn, I don't think I could...." She gives Ruby's hand a squeeze. "Thank you." </p><p></p><p>Kate lets her eyes move around the room again, and this time her stomach stays in place. She begins to record the details of the place in her mind when she notices something. "Oh, look, books," she says and moves trance like over to the bookcases as she tries to straighten out her now torn clothes.</p><p></p><p>Looking at all of the bookcases she does a rough count and concludes that there are between 500 and 600 books, most of them bound in fine leather with gold lettering. She also soon discovers that roughly 60% of them are in Spanish, 15% are in French, another 10% are in Latin, 10% are in Greek and only 5% are written in English. The books in English are all European history.</p><p></p><p>Once he feels he has found anything that might cause trouble Nanuet has Knowles sit against the wall. "Now, tell us all about these cattle you have Mr. Knowles." He replies, “Down in the lower caves with the rest of the men, think we have around eighty or so." He then gestures to the body lying on the floor near the table and says "You going to do that to me too?" Ruby overhears KNowles statement as she is talking to Katherine. She interjects, "No, I'm going to do that to you if you don't behave yourself and answer all of my companions questions..."</p><p></p><p>Nanuet continues to grill Knowles: "We aren't sure yet, depends on if I like the answers you give me. I want to know more about the cattle, everything you know. Where did you get them from and who brought them here for starters. Someone mentioned re-branding the cattle, I want to know about that as well. Feel free to throw in any details you think we might like to hear." Ruby adds from where she is standing... "Like what dealings you have with the Earps for example..." </p><p></p><p>Knowles goes into detail. "The operation is run, make that was run, by Curley Bill Brocius. Two of his main assistants were Tom and Frank McLaury" and he grestures to the other two men lying dead in the room. He then goes on in detail how Brocius was a cattle rustler from Texas who fled when the Texas Rangers came close to catching him. Shortly after his arrival in the area Curley Bill shot and killed Fred White, the Marshall of Tombstone, but he claimed the gun went off by accident and actually managed to get acquitted for the killing. </p><p></p><p>He then made the mountains near Galeyville the base. For the past six months this location was perfect because Arcade's Gang had managed to convince both the U.S. Army and the County Sheriff to stay out of the mountains, so they had little fear of being apprehended. For the past few months the law hadn't even bothered going into Galeyville, so Brocius was able to go there with impunity." </p><p></p><p>Knowles then describes in details of the operation. How they have literally hundreds of men working for them on and off, operating in a 300 mile radius, all the way from El Paso, Texas, up to Albuquerque, New Mexico, across to Flagstaff, Arizona, down to San Diego, California, and all of northwestern Mexico. There's no specific hierarcy for the group, nicknamed "The Cowboys", those who Curley Bill trusts would just be sent to go out and find what they could and bring them back. </p><p></p><p>He says that the cave below has a branding operation, with brands consisting of various lines, curves, symbols, letters and numbers used to alter existing brands on the cattle into something entirely different. Nanuet notices that Knowles makes no mention of the Apache during any of his discourse. He does look up at Ruby and say "Dealings with the Earps! We thought YOU were the Earps."</p><p></p><p>Ruby looks around the room. "Does anyone in here besides this guy think I'm stupid? What was said was told you not to trust these Earps. That would mean there had been some kind of dealings going on. What?" The man says "The Earps are the enemy, always have been. How do I know what any of them said! You had me outside with a gun to my head." Jake calls Ruby over to where they are both out of earshot of Katherine and says "I think that Curley Bill was actually making that comment to his friend about the Earps in reference to us. At that point you had just talked the guy by the curtain into surrendering and then I shot at him."</p><p></p><p>Nanuet asks, "We tracked some cattle from Promise City, about 50 head or so. Who was on that operation Knowles replies, "Tom and Frank McLaury were on that one, seems that some fool cattlemen from Nevada went right by the McLaury ranch up near Tombsone with all of them well fed cows. Seemed to them like too good a thing for them to pass up. So they rounded up some friends from Promise city, Gifford something-or-other and another guy called Pinto Joe." </p><p></p><p>Nanuet asks, “And just how did you get yourself through the Apache territory?" That comment gives him reason to pause. He then eyes Nanuet with suspition and says "Hold on a minute, you said something about having a message from Geronimo. I think you're lying to me." </p><p></p><p>Nanuet asks, "And how many men do you have in the lower caverns now?" Knowles states, "I ain't answering any more questions. I've always trusted Indians to speak the truth with me, but you ain't. So I'm done talkin' " Nanuet laughs "OK Knowles, as you please. Geronimo will have plenty to say to you I think. And you have a lot to think about between now and when you have the chance to speak with him." Nanuet suggests that Knowles be tied up while they discuss their plans. Kate pulled herself away from the books and moved over to help secure Knowles. They tied him securely and included a gag, since he was no longer as cooperative.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Silver Moon, post: 1847134, member: 8530"] [B]Chapter Thirty-nine, “The Death of Curly Bill Brocius”, January 7th, 1882:[/B] Jake had slipped through the door and Kate tried hard not to think about the fact that she was alone out here and prayed the walls were thick enough to block the sounds of gunfire. Nanuet wipes some sweat from his brow, swallows and winks at Jake who apparently has him covered now. "Keep an eye on him, while I watch Ruby." he says. Nanuet tries to find a spot that will offer him a little more cover where he can still see Ruby and fire behind the curtain that she is near if necessary. "Listen," Ruby says bluffing, "I've already had to kill about seven men today and that's normally my per day limit so you might as well come out now before I have to make a new limit..." as she says this she points the shotgun right at the curtain she is standing in front of. Okay, I'm coming out" the man states. The rifle begins to lower. Jake turns and fires one of the barrels of the shotgun to where he thinks the body holding the rifle is standing and then moves to the wall to make a return shot difficult. A second voice from further back in the room behind the curtain says "It's a trick. Told you not to trust these Earps." Ruby sticks the shotgun through the curtain and fires. The rifle crashes to the floor along with the sound of a body dropping. Do I sound like an Earp?" Ruby says as she pumps the shotgun. She pulls the curtain down. It might be foolish as it is giving her cover but without seeing her enemy she could be shot with no chance of getting out of the way. As the curtain goes down two shots thunder from the back corner of the room that the opponent is in. The shots fly out into the room, one striking the ceiling for a thunderous explosion and the other hitting the table, causing the table to split in half and also burst into flame. Neither Jake or Nanuet are physically hurt by this, but Nanuet looses his footing and falls back against the wall. Ruby sees the other man near the curtain lying dead on floor, her shotgun blast having made a mess of his torso. "Want some more of that you witch" the male voice yells out. Kate tries to ignore the shots coming from behind the door. She had no way of knowing who fired them, or who might have gotten hit. Knowles is her task now. She just hoped she wasn't the last one here when the shooting stopped. Knowles says to Kate "Lady, I ain't gonna cause no trouble here. I recognized that necklace your shaman had on. I don't want any Apache medicine man placing any curses on me." She replies, “How comforting. I think I'll keep an eye on you anyway, just in case. There seem to be all sorts of surprises around here." "Is that all you got?" she says trying to feign some confidence. She knew that if anyone had been hit by either of those massive blasts there would be no hope for them surviving. Ruby hopes the shooter has to reload and she takes the opportunity to empty Jake's shotgun into the back corner. Then she drops the shotgun, pulls out her pistol and tries to get up against a wall with the hardest angle for the shooter to get her. Then she starts praying. Immediately after firing the shot into the back corner she hears the voice say "Owww". The voice then repeats her own line of "Is that all you got?" Simultaneous to her yelling this she did hear some snapping and clicking sounds that may have been the sounds of him reloading his weapon. "I'd better not let him get another shot off," thinks Ruby. "That and I must be absolutely crazy..." She moves up into the room until she sees whoever is there. She doesn't think, she just moves. A large barefoot man with a hairy chest wearing only a pair of blue jeans is crouched in the far corner of the room holding in both hands a type of firearm best described as a hand-cannon. The dresser is partially destroyed by her prior shotgun blast, leaving his upper chest and head exposed and one of his legs is bleeding. She has the advantage over him as he has just finished reloading. She fires first, the shot hitting his chest two inches below the Adam's apple. His mouth drops open and his hands shake as he fires back. Ruby watches the man go down, surprised that she hit him. When did she become such a desperado? But he still manages to get off a shot before dying. It goes high, hitting the ceiling five feet above her head with a loud explosion that causes her to drop to the floor beneath a shower of falling stones. And with that her eyes roll up and she passes out. Jake rolls over to the corner and points his shotgun into the carnage that Ruby has been shooting into. Quickly when he is satisfied that section of the cavern is quiet he will listen for any activity behind the other curtains and look for motion of them, shadows moving or tell tale feet below them. Both men in the room who she shot appear to be dead. Ruby is covered in rubble and also is not moving. As soon as he realizes that Ruby is hurt he hurries over, kneels, puts his shotgun down next to him and starts removing the fallen rubble from her. Quietly, "Nanuet, check the other curtains". Jake while working positions himself to keep his sidearm clear. Nanuet goes down the other two hallways and uses the rifle to move the curtains aside. Both rooms appear to be currently unoccupied and each of these rooms has two beds in it. One of these rooms has rugs and wall hangings of Native American designs, specifically the Cherokee tribe. Jake clears the rubble off of Ruby looking for evidence of gunshot wounds. He finds none, although she in bleeding from several cuts and scratches on her face and neck. He is busy surveying the cuts and does not notice when her eyes then blink open as she sees him lying over her with a look of concern on his face. Ruby smiles up at Jake. “Jake, I didn’t know you cared…. Owww…” She says as she winces in pain as he is looking her over. Nanuet comes back to the area where Ruby and Jake are amid the rubble. Before speaking he checks to make sure the man she was firing at is dead. "The rest of the room seems empty. How is she doing?" Nanuet looks Ruby over and takes another stone, one of the inch-and-a-half long ones sensing that her injury is less severe than Jake's was, off the necklace placing it in her hand and saying the command word. Ruby feels a tingling sensation come over her. The healing spell acts similar to the other, with the blood from the cuts and scratches on her faces receding back into her body and then sealing over, leaving behind no evidence of the injuries. When it stops she suddenly feels better. She uses Jake’s help to get up, just in case. When she feels her legs are steady underneath her she lets go. She pats her body all over to make sure it’s all still there. “I think we’d better keep this one around,” as she points to Nanuet. “Nanuet, that is amazing. How can you do that? I feel great and I think I almost just lost my head. And Jake’s arm looks pretty good too.” Nanuet smiles at Ruby and says "A gift from a friend. Unfortunately it runs out, so let's try to stay healthy if we can." She replies,"Must be a good friend Nanuet." The elf then states, "Lets check on Katherine and see how she is doing then search this room. I am sure we can find some useful stuff." "Alright, up, but keep those hands behind your head," Kate told Knowles after Nanuet gave her the all clear. "We're going back in the room now. I'll be right behind you. I'll tell you when to stop. We'll find you a nice, new place to sit. Let's go." Kate watched him rise and then followed him back through the door. She was grateful the man couldn't see her face when they walked into the room. She swallowed hard to keep from throwing up. "Where do you want him?" Nanuet heads over to Katherine and Harvey Knowles, and starts patting him down looking for any weapons hidden or otherwise. Ruby walks over to Katherine. She still has some blood on her but no signs of any cuts. She wipes her face on her sleeve. "Are you ok?" "Yes, I'm okay. Only one man shot at me, and Nanuet pushed me out of the way. I'm so sorry I got you involved in all this. I didn't think... Well I didn't think it would be like this." Her eyes moved around the room again and then back to Ruby's blood-stained clothes, and her stomach went queasy again. "I think the question is are you okay?" She turns back to Katherine. "I'm ok. That big hairy bastard would have tried to kill all of us I think, luckily I got him first. I'm really not that good with a gun..." Ruby contemplates for a moment. "Nanuet has been very helpful to have around. We have to hang onto him." "Listen Katherine, these days you have to be careful what you get yourself into. And a gal has to be able to defend herself, you never know when you're going to get into trouble. But there was some reason why we ended up here and we're gonna find out what it is." She wipes some more blood off her face and onto her other sleeve. "I don't think what's his name is going to want these clothes back though." "After this, I think staying out of trouble will become my new profession. Getting my friends shot at isn't really working for me. So whatever reason we ended up here for had better be a damn good one." She gives Ruby a small smile and says very quietly "I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't been here. Even if I could hit the broadside of a barn, I don't think I could...." She gives Ruby's hand a squeeze. "Thank you." Kate lets her eyes move around the room again, and this time her stomach stays in place. She begins to record the details of the place in her mind when she notices something. "Oh, look, books," she says and moves trance like over to the bookcases as she tries to straighten out her now torn clothes. Looking at all of the bookcases she does a rough count and concludes that there are between 500 and 600 books, most of them bound in fine leather with gold lettering. She also soon discovers that roughly 60% of them are in Spanish, 15% are in French, another 10% are in Latin, 10% are in Greek and only 5% are written in English. The books in English are all European history. Once he feels he has found anything that might cause trouble Nanuet has Knowles sit against the wall. "Now, tell us all about these cattle you have Mr. Knowles." He replies, “Down in the lower caves with the rest of the men, think we have around eighty or so." He then gestures to the body lying on the floor near the table and says "You going to do that to me too?" Ruby overhears KNowles statement as she is talking to Katherine. She interjects, "No, I'm going to do that to you if you don't behave yourself and answer all of my companions questions..." Nanuet continues to grill Knowles: "We aren't sure yet, depends on if I like the answers you give me. I want to know more about the cattle, everything you know. Where did you get them from and who brought them here for starters. Someone mentioned re-branding the cattle, I want to know about that as well. Feel free to throw in any details you think we might like to hear." Ruby adds from where she is standing... "Like what dealings you have with the Earps for example..." Knowles goes into detail. "The operation is run, make that was run, by Curley Bill Brocius. Two of his main assistants were Tom and Frank McLaury" and he grestures to the other two men lying dead in the room. He then goes on in detail how Brocius was a cattle rustler from Texas who fled when the Texas Rangers came close to catching him. Shortly after his arrival in the area Curley Bill shot and killed Fred White, the Marshall of Tombstone, but he claimed the gun went off by accident and actually managed to get acquitted for the killing. He then made the mountains near Galeyville the base. For the past six months this location was perfect because Arcade's Gang had managed to convince both the U.S. Army and the County Sheriff to stay out of the mountains, so they had little fear of being apprehended. For the past few months the law hadn't even bothered going into Galeyville, so Brocius was able to go there with impunity." Knowles then describes in details of the operation. How they have literally hundreds of men working for them on and off, operating in a 300 mile radius, all the way from El Paso, Texas, up to Albuquerque, New Mexico, across to Flagstaff, Arizona, down to San Diego, California, and all of northwestern Mexico. There's no specific hierarcy for the group, nicknamed "The Cowboys", those who Curley Bill trusts would just be sent to go out and find what they could and bring them back. He says that the cave below has a branding operation, with brands consisting of various lines, curves, symbols, letters and numbers used to alter existing brands on the cattle into something entirely different. Nanuet notices that Knowles makes no mention of the Apache during any of his discourse. He does look up at Ruby and say "Dealings with the Earps! We thought YOU were the Earps." Ruby looks around the room. "Does anyone in here besides this guy think I'm stupid? What was said was told you not to trust these Earps. That would mean there had been some kind of dealings going on. What?" The man says "The Earps are the enemy, always have been. How do I know what any of them said! You had me outside with a gun to my head." Jake calls Ruby over to where they are both out of earshot of Katherine and says "I think that Curley Bill was actually making that comment to his friend about the Earps in reference to us. At that point you had just talked the guy by the curtain into surrendering and then I shot at him." Nanuet asks, "We tracked some cattle from Promise City, about 50 head or so. Who was on that operation Knowles replies, "Tom and Frank McLaury were on that one, seems that some fool cattlemen from Nevada went right by the McLaury ranch up near Tombsone with all of them well fed cows. Seemed to them like too good a thing for them to pass up. So they rounded up some friends from Promise city, Gifford something-or-other and another guy called Pinto Joe." Nanuet asks, “And just how did you get yourself through the Apache territory?" That comment gives him reason to pause. He then eyes Nanuet with suspition and says "Hold on a minute, you said something about having a message from Geronimo. I think you're lying to me." Nanuet asks, "And how many men do you have in the lower caverns now?" Knowles states, "I ain't answering any more questions. I've always trusted Indians to speak the truth with me, but you ain't. So I'm done talkin' " Nanuet laughs "OK Knowles, as you please. Geronimo will have plenty to say to you I think. And you have a lot to think about between now and when you have the chance to speak with him." Nanuet suggests that Knowles be tied up while they discuss their plans. Kate pulled herself away from the books and moved over to help secure Knowles. They tied him securely and included a gag, since he was no longer as cooperative. [/QUOTE]
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