Good, Honest, Snake Oil

The sheriff's office

Uncle pointed out the office during their walk through Valentine: "Sheriff's office on the right. Sure you can pick up some bounties there, Arthur." When Arthur walks in, the sheriff is sitting with a deputy: "Well... looky here. Maybe this is our man." The deputy asks: "You a bounty hunter, mister?" Arthur: "Maybe... it depends."

The sheriff guesses Arthur has not come to pass the day or to turn himself in, and says he does not need to know more until he has a reason to. Valentine is a livestock town that "attracts delinquents and reprobates like flies." He goes on: "Now I'm not a feller to pass a quick judgment... but I've been around long enough to know... you don't hire a saint to catch a sinner." He promises to pay well and ask no questions, and points to a poster on the wall.

The deputy describes the man on the poster, Benedict Allbright, as "a low down huckster" who has been poisoning people with his miracle cure from Valentine to Annesburg: he has "killed more than Landon Ricketts without even pulling a trigger." A man at the saloon thought he saw him by the gorge, straight north of town. The sheriff needs him alive, so that the women he widowed are compensated "before he swings." As Arthur leaves, he insists: "And we need him alive... that's an important point."

Allbright's camp

Above the Dakota River, Arthur finds a man sitting by a campfire on the edge of a cliff. He asks whether he is Benedict Allbright; the man says no. Arthur changes tack: he wants to buy medicine for his mother, who is "real sick", and will pay in gold if the man helps him find Allbright. The man relaxes: "I'm a healer you know... a medical man. Finest medicine in the state." He hands Arthur a bottle.

Arthur throws the bottle away and draws his revolver: "Game's over, mister. Put your hands up... I'm taking you in." He tells Allbright that what he sells is killing people and that there is a price on his head. Allbright protests: "Come on, partner, that's crap. I'm a healer." He claims an aura, a gift for speaking to spirits and the title of scientist. Arthur tells him they only want him for questioning.

The cliff

Backing away from the gun, Allbright slips over the edge of the cliff. Arthur shouts "Hold on" and grabs him. Pulled back up, Allbright realizes that Arthur saved his life but still means to take him in, and says he would be better off jumping. Arthur tells him: "They expressly told me not to kill you." Allbright answers that Arthur cannot shoot him and that he will take his chances. With "Bye, friend...", he jumps into the river.

The river

Arthur: "I really do not like you." The current carries Allbright away; he shouts: "I shouldn't have done that. Help me!" Arthur rides along the bank, calling to him to swim to the edge or grab onto something: "Don't you dare drown!" He warns him about the rapids, then drags him out of the water with his lasso.

On the bank, Allbright asks: "Who made you God, friend? Who made you judge?" Arthur says he is only doing it for the money. Allbright: "That's even worse." Arthur hogties him and puts him on his horse. On the ride back, Allbright says he must be suffering from exposure; Arthur: "Suffer a little longer."

Back in Valentine

At the sheriff's office, Malloy is talking with a woman. Surprised, he says: "Oh, my Lord... I wasn't expecting you back so soon. Uh, Mrs. Calthorpe was, uh... was just leaving."

The sheriff tells Arthur to put Allbright in the cell at the back. Allbright insists: "There's been some terrible mistake." Arthur locks him in. From the cell, Allbright tells him: "You ain't much of man. If you ask folks for forgiveness you remember this, partner." Arthur: "I've already forgotten it. Now, Sheriff... how much was you offering?" Malloy pays him fifty dollars, and Arthur leaves with a "Madam" to Mrs. Calthorpe.

Afterwards

Allbright stays in the cell of the Valentine sheriff's office for the rest of the game, including the 1907 epilogue. Bounty hunting is now open: further wanted posters can be picked up at sheriff's offices.

Mission failure

The mission fails if the player:

• assaults or kills Sheriff Malloy or his deputy;
• alerts the law, gets arrested, or lets the sheriff see him while wanted;
• assaults, kills or abandons Allbright, lets him escape or lets him die;
• kills or abandons his horse;
• dies.

The cliff

If Arthur does not pull Allbright back up in time, a different scene plays: Allbright falls into the river without the exchange on the cliff top, and the chase starts there.

The horse

If Arthur's horse is not nearby, Arthur mounts Allbright's Hungarian Half-bred, which can become his temporary horse.

• Folks get real angry for no good reason... this... this is a mistake.

  Allbright, at gunpoint

• I have to insist that this is a mistake.

  Allbright, at the cliff edge

• Ain't we had enough drama?

  Arthur, after pulling Allbright back up

• But nothing. Shut up... and err... good luck. It's been real fun.

  Arthur, at the cell

• The official guide's Chapter 2 flowchart marks the mission as time-sensitive, with a last chance to play it in Chapter 6.
• It counts toward the Lending a Hand trophy/achievement, for completing all optional Honor story missions.
• It is the only bounty mission that cannot be done by John Marston.
• Looting Allbright after his capture gives Arthur a bottle of miracle cure, which is safe to drink.
• A second wanted poster for Allbright hangs in the back room of the Valentine doctor's office; it places him at the Valentine oil fields. In the chapter 5 mission "Dear Uncle Tacitus", his poster is on the wall of the Valentine saloon.
• Right after the opening scene, if the back room of the Valentine doctor's office has not been robbed, its metal door can be pushed open, and a Schofield Revolver can be taken there for free.
• With Allbright stowed on Arthur's horse, the Great Plains and the rest of West Elizabeth, except Blackwater, can be explored as Arthur without Pinkertons appearing, and journal entries and items normally reserved for the epilogue can be obtained. New Austin stays off limits.