New Gods of North America.

Chapter 217 Clarisburg

The next day, the crowd, along with their horses and cars, formed a longer team and crossed the state line again, returning to Virginia to clear out their inventory.

As for this stronghold, Wayne and his team recorded its location and tried their best to keep it as it was.

If you have time in the future, come and take a look occasionally, you might get some unexpected gains.

At this time, going further towards Winchester would be a bit of a backtrack, so the group followed the direction of the steam train line and continued to the next town.

Many friends who have watched modern horror movies probably have an impression of the concept that the American continent is vast and sparsely populated.

For example, the protagonist drives for half a day before encountering a gas station or a motel.

The situation in the United States is even worse now. There are no so-called "gas stations" on the roads.

Occasionally there are some hotels that provide food and accommodation, but they are usually not too close to the town.

The western part of Virginia is very mountainous, and it is said that there is no village in front and no shop behind. It is not uncommon for travelers or merchants to act as robbers.

When Wayne and his companions passed by an inn, the boss saw that there were many people from the detective agency, with prisoners and weapons. At first, he hid in the room with his shotgun and dared not come out. He had a frank attitude of "take whatever you want".

After being found by Peter, it was only after Wayne and his friends explained their identities and expressed their friendliness that the boss heaved a sigh of relief and began to provide food and beverages for everyone.

Chef Parker wanted to help, and the proprietress was a little disgusted but didn't dare to refuse.

After a leisurely meal of hot soup and hard bread, everyone continued on their journey and arrived in town before dark.

Compared to small towns like Black Rock that are interested in developing commerce, small towns in the mountains are relatively more closed. The police station doesn't even have enough cash.
Fortunately, the sheriff can write a check, which can be cashed at a local bank in the state. After confirming the identity of the wanted criminal, he also provided corresponding proof.

The wanted criminal who was frightened last night confessed very quickly. He was eager to get away from Wayne and his gang as soon as possible. He confessed to crimes that were not on the wanted list.

With him taking the lead, other gangsters followed suit and exchanged the bounty smoothly. In total, they exchanged 460 US dollars, and the most valuable head was only 100 US dollars.

Including the salary subsidy that Mr. Russell and others may give, the total amount is 552 US dollars.

However, there is a problem with the redemption of spoils.

This town is mainly populated by freemen and self-employed farmers, there are also small landlords and businessmen, but it is different from those towns with rich people and big landowners, and it is not possible to sell things in large quantities.

So Wayne and his men sold the drinks that took up the most space, a few guns, and some less-valued horses, daggers and other things first.
Two were kept as spares, roughly maintaining the ratio of "one horse per person", and these were exchanged for a total of US$847.

The bulk of the money was still the dozen or so riding horses, whose market price here was slightly higher than that in the west. Unfortunately, not many townspeople could afford so much cash, so some of them were given slight discounts and sold in batches to several merchants, otherwise there would be trouble.

There were some jewelry left, and a dozen lever-action rifles and revolvers.

The price of guns in the East is cheaper than in the West. If calculated based on the second-hand price, you can probably buy it for around $300, or keep it for later use.

For jewelry, the price of gemstones is the main factor. Otherwise, the price is only slightly higher than gold coins of the same weight. The total profit should be around 1700 US dollars, which is good for a commission.
However, it took nearly two weeks for more than a dozen people to run around in the mountains, and they had to fight hard in the gang's stronghold. The degree of fatigue and food could not be compared with being a bodyguard of a rich man. It was equivalent to each person earning a little labor cost and life money.

After all, these days, no one will give bounty hunters a pension if they die on the road.

You also have to pay for your horse, weapons and other belongings.

There is not even a shabby hotel in the small town in the mountains. If you want to stay, you can either go back to the main road to find a hotel, or stay at the homes of the townspeople.

The people in the detective agency were easy to deal with. They bought some food from the townspeople, found a vacant lot outside the town, made a fire, cooked, and solved their own accommodation problem.

Like sleeping in a wagon, or wrapped in a blanket next to a campfire.

When it gets light, we'll be ready to go again.

Gangs these days actually have their own development paths:
Usually, at the beginning, there are only two or three people, holding a knife or a pistol, and starting a criminal journey in the town.
If you don't spend all your money, and have some spare money to continue to expand your equipment, you might just be a small gang or a few vagrants.

If they were ambitious, they would probably have weapons in their hands by now, and would either continue to commit crimes and recruit new soldiers, or join other "teams" and slowly expand their power. During this period, there might be a reduction in personnel or "internal digestion".

A gang like this that can gather more than a dozen people and have a base,

In the west, it usually takes one or two years to take shape, but in the east, it is hard to say, it may take even longer.

Afterwards, Wayne and his companions followed the steam train line all the way west.
We spent more than a week traveling through several counties, but found nothing.

Often, when I go to a police station in a small town and ask, I find out that several groups of bounty hunters have been there and have captured some wanted criminals.
Because several groups of people came at once, they even took away some of the wanted warrants in the police station's stock, so Wayne and his team had to wait for a while if they wanted to replenish them.

I don’t know if this can be considered a “high-end business war”…

But because some colleagues had been here before, Wayne happened to ask about the situation of other teams.

It is said that some teams have only a few people, and for some teams only the leaders are seen, and the exact number of people is unclear. Overall, it sounds like Wayne's side is not the team with the largest number of people, and in terms of the number of people, it can only be considered "average".

However, if we roughly calculate the bounty, Wayne and his team's previous "detour" would have brought in more benefits.

If there were a ranking list, Wayne felt that the detective agency would definitely be at the top right now.

Due to land prices, steam trains these days do not have stops along the way. It is not uncommon to find a stop every few counties.
The group arrived at a stop town called "Clarisburg".

Wayne took a quick look at the map. If they continued west, the next stop would be in Ohio, so everyone found a hotel to rest for two days.

If we go further west, to the point where the steam train line crosses the state line, it would probably be quite lively there.

Anyway, according to the markings on the map, the section of road at the border between the two states is even more "accident-prone" than the section that Wayne and his team had specially cleared before.

(End of this chapter)