New Gods of North America

The journey to the neighboring town was barely considered "on the way,"

The bandit gang called "Gary's Adventure" that the bartender had told Wayne about, their next possible crime location was actually in the opposite direction on the border of this town.

The town's sheriff, who called himself "Mr. Daggett," was in his forties. Although his physique was similar to a corpse, he was not dead. Moreover, he was considered quite "young and strong" and "well-equipped" among sheriffs. He was accompanied by several people and seemed to have a squad under his command.

Perhaps because of the chaotic local security, this Mr. Daggett was the type who was relatively strong and difficult to talk to. When Wayne and the others entered the town to report the case, they were ordered to hand over their weapons first.

So Wayne gave his weapons to Ineisha and had the others stay outside the town.

He then took Lina and Doug and followed the sheriff into the police station.

These days, people with badges are not necessarily the sheriff himself, but may also be "acting agents" temporarily assigned tasks by the sheriff.

Mr. Daggett seemed to attach great importance to such cases. After roughly understanding the situation at the scene, he asked a lot of details and said that he would investigate the case to the end.

By the way, he also asked about the origins of Wayne and the others.

The detective agency's actions did not need to be concealed, so Wayne mostly told the truth, telling the other party that he was a detective who had accepted the commission of the steam train company to arrest bandits.

"Bounty hunters..." Mr. Daggett looked like he understood. "Since you are here to report the case, I will not expel you this time, but you must also remember that our town does not welcome strangers, especially those bounty hunters who do things recklessly."

Um...

The detective agency's current commission is indeed being treated as bounty hunters.

And every town has its own temperament, so Wayne didn't take it seriously. He updated the wanted list here and then said goodbye.

The wanted list here felt like there were a lot missing, as if they didn't deal with outsiders much.

After a conversation with Mr. Daggett, Wayne's impression was that as long as there was a choice, he would not choose to come here to exchange bounties in the future.

Outside the town, by the side of the road, there were still inns to receive travelers and merchants.

The inn's boss seemed much easier to communicate with in comparison.

The boss also secretly told Wayne that many townspeople secretly called Sheriff Daggett "tyrant".

Mr. Daggett was not only more brutal when dealing with criminals, basically only bringing them back after killing them, but he was also quite strong when dealing with the townspeople, and he usually had a kind of "one-say" domineering(说一不二: one-say).

However, this sheriff was not a bad person, at least he did a good job in "guarding the town", even "too good", so the townspeople could only treat him as a domineering parent, not liking him, but not daring to disobey him.

This is easy to understand. Even the sheriffs in the West have many different types.

Some are elected, some are forcibly appointed, some "cannot escape this expectation and responsibility," and some "cannot be replaced once they are appointed."

After all, it was someone else's business, so Wayne just listened, collected more, and evaluated less.

The next day, after dawn, they continued to set off.

Wayne and the others spent almost a day reaching the location the bartender had mentioned before.

This place was a valley between two mountains. The steam train line passed through the relatively flat terrain, and there was a wooden "railway bridge" that was not too high over the stream in the middle.

If you zoom out the view, the surrounding area is mountainous and forested, and the neighboring towns are not too big, leaving a relatively accessible unincorporated area that spans two counties.

On Wayne's own map, this is also a relatively high-incidence area for cases.

However, if you mark along the steam train route, the entire map will have a bunch of "little red dots", making it impossible to tell where the big fish will appear.

The entire book is full of highlights, which is actually the same as not highlighting.

The bartender who sold the message to Wayne in Clarisburg was indeed a "wholesaler" of messages.

When Wayne and the others arrived here, they saw that there was already a group of people squatting here. They were not strangers. It was Chris Mannix, who had just talked about "cooperation" with Wayne a few days ago.

Unlike in towns, bounty hunters are often more vigilant when they encounter colleagues in the wild.

Therefore, Wayne was unable to enter their camp and only exchanged some information with Chris on the periphery.

Chris said that their team was the third group to arrive here in the past few days. There were two other groups before, and they couldn't hold back anymore and went to the surrounding forests, all planning to take down the bandits first.

By the way, Chris mentioned the team cooperation again, because among the teams that had left, there was a larger one, estimated to be about twenty people.

Chris and the others didn't want to encounter any unexpected situations in the mountains, so they waited here for the other party to leave first.

Compared to that, the number of people in the detective agency was only about twice as many as Chris's team. Although they would still appear relatively weak, they would not be without the power to fight back.

So whether it was out of competition or safety considerations, Chris felt that cooperation with Wayne and the others was a win-win situation.

Wayne still doesn't have this plan at the moment.

Since the detective agency has temporarily fallen behind by a day or two, they are not in a hurry. They chose a relatively hidden and convenient location by the stream, and the group cobbled together a temporary camp before sunset, and initially checked the surrounding area.

After confirming that there were no signs nearby for the time being, they could only temporarily stay on guard and wait until dawn to continue the investigation.

If the situation is ideal, it is best to go to the door and catch the other party by surprise.

Otherwise, if they encounter bandits in action, they can only fight head-on.

As for being preempted by others, there is no way. After all, the bandits' faces don't have anyone's name written on them. Whoever hits them gets them.

It turns out that this area has been really lively recently.

When night fell but had not yet reached deep night, Wayne and the others encountered another group of people.

This group of about seven or eight people, but they were not bounty hunters. The leader among them wore a six-pointed star badge, which was Sheriff Daggett from the neighboring town.