New Gods of North America.

Chapter 233 Woodland Camping
Some things may be the same wherever you go.
For example, some local specialties may be considered extremely good by outsiders, but may be considered just average by locals.

Sometimes it's the other way around,
It is just like for Wayne, they are both gangs, but the Gary Adventure seems to be bigger and theoretically should be more brutal, but the locals seem to hate the Skinny Gang more.

After Wayne and his friends returned to the hotel, they asked the boss about it.
Even the hotel owner said that the "Skinny Gang" deserved to die. Not only had they committed many crimes locally, but it was also said that they would kidnap children and so on.

There is free labor coming to our doorstep, and the total number of people is almost the same as the number of people in the current detective agency.
Although Wayne and the other two felt that this matter was a bit unusual, they had no reason to refuse it.

After all, there are more than ten people, even more than ten puppets, sometimes they can be of great use.
Moreover, their identities have been roughly confirmed from the side, and they are not completely "self-proclaimed".
So everyone agreed to this in principle, and at the same time reminded the agents to pay attention to safety when working together, just in case.

Doug did find some new material, and he immediately used it to attack those peripheral members.

The general idea is something like "If you don't do it, there are plenty of people who want to do it" and "others don't even want money."

Lina did the same thing. She made up a local horror story and went to scare Emma.
After all, the little girl can take her own head off, and she can beat her peers in math.

So Emma is more carefree in this regard. It seems that if she were put in a horror movie, if she is not the first to die, she would almost certainly be the type who survives to the end.

Many agents with experience as bounty hunters seem to be accustomed to the so-called "collaborators who may have ulterior motives".

In Lina's words, "Only companions have the opportunity to stab you in the back."

……

The next day, everyone officially reunited.
Wayne confirmed the number of people. Including him, there were eight people on Mr. Daggett's side. Chris's team had obviously expanded compared to the beginning. Now there were a total of ten people including him.

Plus the members of the detective agency, three partners, nine agents, four peripheral members, a chef and a little kid.

The legendary "Thin Gang" is said to be smaller than the "Gary Adventure", with an estimated number of about 20 to 30 people.
But with this rough calculation, the number of people on Wayne's side seems to be larger in comparison.

This is really the first time I’ve fought such a rich battle.

According to the bartender, the Thin Man Gang's base is on the border between Ohio and Virginia.
To reach the current location of the group, one must at least get out of this county and then cross another county.

Since there was free labor, Wayne chose to walk along the steam train route and planned to turn around near the state border.

If we find traces of other gangs along the way, we will take care of them as well.

Unfortunately, after shopping all the way, this bargain is not that easy to get.
Some teams deliberately skipped the so-called "big gangs", did not rob the "good meat" or gnaw on the "bones", and advanced quickly along the steam train line, and even dealt with some wanted criminals who did not fall into the category of "steam train robbers" along the way.

In terms of speed, Wayne and his team may be considered relatively slow now.
Often when you go to a small town and ask, you’ll hear that a team has been there, which gives you the feeling that you’ve “missed out on the limited edition release.”

Gangs are a bit like weeds in the lawn. If you don't take care of them for a while, you'll always find something unexpected when you clean them up.
If you miss this batch, you can only wait for the next one.

However, although those teams were fast in doing this, they only caught three or five kittens and puppies at most.

Among other people's "catch", the one with a slightly higher bounty is a theft team. They don't use violence and are not very active, but they are quite famous. The overall package price is 500 US dollars.

Their method of committing crimes was somewhat technical. They usually climbed onto the train, used tools to loosen the "latches" between the carriages, and took away the entire carriage. Usually, by the time the steam train company sent people to find the carriage, the goods inside had basically been moved out.

The steam train company had also thought of countermeasures, such as placing a fixed guard in the last carriage of the freight train and having some staff patrolling between the carriages.

As a result, this became the reason why the theft team became famous.
With the help of the ups and downs of the mountainous terrain and some railway branches, they not only successfully moved a target carriage in the "middle", but also reconnected the carriages at the back. During this period, the staff responsible for patrolling back and forth in the carriage claimed that they felt something was wrong, but it was not until they arrived at the terminal that people really discovered the problem.

It is said that during that period, there were always analytical articles in newspapers studying how they did it, and newspapers even published some letters from readers. Among some people who like to think about it, it was quite popular.

Insurance companies took the opportunity to promote their business a lot.

The process of their capture was even more dramatic. It is said that a bounty hunter team was camping in the mountains. One of the members climbed a tree when the sun set but it was not completely dark. He sat there to enjoy the breeze while waiting for the food to be cooked. Then, "Hey? What are those two people doing between the carriages of a moving freight train?"

Then they just sat back and waited for the opportunity to catch the criminal red-handed.

Wayne and his friends were camping on the county border today and happened to run into a few mounted policemen. So while they were waiting for the chef to cook, they chatted and heard what they talked about.

The configuration here is relatively higher. The mounted police are in groups of four, with two carriages and four horses.
That is to say, the town's sheriff, Mr. Daggett, was also in the team. Otherwise, for safety reasons, the mounted police would definitely not dare to mix with the strange bounty hunter team of more than 30 people here.

Wayne was a little surprised to see a mounted policeman giving his commercial cigarettes to Mr. Daggett, and felt that they should be quite familiar with each other.

The detective agency doesn't usually stock alcohol during work trips, so agents have to bring their own if they want to drink.

Chris and Mr. Daggett's team all have some barrels of beer, which is not enough for a full drink, but if everyone has a small drink, it can last for a while.

Today, we hunted two white-tailed deer. Chef Parker skillfully skinned and cut them into pieces, and used the pots of several teams, all of which were steaming hot.
Everyone sat in a circle around the campfire, and those who wanted to drink filled their own drinking utensils with wine, which was almost like a simple outdoor tavern.

Many people have different impressions. For professionals with long-term outdoor camping experience, barbecue is actually a relatively troublesome and wasteful thing.
Not only will the fat of the meat be consumed during the cooking process, but it will also require more attention, energy and fuel, and the portion will be reduced.

Even if they really have to grill because there are no other tools, for larger animals, professionals usually cut off the cooked meat on the outside while grilling, and rarely grill all of it and eat it all at once.

Cooking is very convenient. Just put the pot on the stove, throw in the meat, and add some seasoning if necessary. As long as you make sure the fire doesn't go out, you basically don't have to waste manpower to keep an eye on it.

Whether the fire is big or small, everything can be cooked, and the cooking process can be fast or slow without getting burnt, and there is also soup for soaking the hard bread.

So for dinner for so many people, the chef is mainly responsible for the stewing part.
As for those who want to eat barbecue, they have to do what Wayne did, cut the meat themselves, and then cut a forked branch to grill it themselves.

The sliced meat cooked faster. Wayne took a plate and sprinkled the seasoning on it. He then cut it into small pieces with a dagger. He picked one piece for himself and let everyone pass the rest around.
The agents had gained experience by now, and basically kept their distance from Wayne's barbecue with added ingredients. Before eating it, they would often ask whether it had been sprinkled with holy water, but in most cases there was no need to ask.
Therefore, the plates were turned very quickly at the beginning. Almost all the agents took them and passed them to the side. No one who was eating had any strange reaction. One mounted policeman even politely praised Wayne's cooking skills.

Then the meat was cooked and everyone passed their plates around. Those who were already hungry could help themselves.
The amount of meat was sufficient, and as everyone ate, they slowed down and started chatting.

A mounted policeman took a sip of wine to slow down:

"Are you planning on going through the next county to the state line? Although you're probably going after the gang, you might want to be a little careful when you get there. Some of the towns in that area don't have a very good reputation. If you catch a gangster, it's best to bring him back and exchange him for the reward. Otherwise, you might say he was hanged, but then someone sees him again after a while."

"How could this happen?" Wayne asked.

"More than once," another mounted policeman took over. "Charlie the Thin Man, of the Thin Man Gang, was hanged twice. One time, he even took revenge on a small landowner in their town by kidnapping his little son."

Well……

Wayne thought of the information the bartender had given him before, which mentioned that sheriffs in some counties near the state border had dealings with the "Skinny Gang."

But isn't this too outrageous? Can the townspeople tolerate this?

The mounted policeman in front seemed to think for a moment, "Mr. Daggett, I remember your town seemed to have dealt with 'Thin' Charlie before? It is said that many townspeople were killed or injured?"

Mr. Daggett nodded slightly. "I followed him this time just to help him deal with him."

“No wonder you guys gathered so many people.”

The mounted police officer looked as if he understood everything. "I heard that 'Thin' Charlie is a sly fellow who will surrender immediately if he can't be defeated. We law enforcement officers shouldn't execute prisoners privately. If we catch him again, it's best to bring him back to our county and deal with him. We can't let him get away again."

(End of this chapter)