March 19:

It had been two weeks since Mrs. McLivier had been saved, and in those two weeks she had quickly integrated into the gang.

Mr. Fowler said that my decision to rescue Mrs. McLivier was the right one, that we had been hunted by Pinkerton and the bounty hunters, and that our scout, Mr. Thomas, had been lurking in Blackwater when he saw the distraught of Detective Pinkerton when he heard the news and found nothing, proved to be a double victory.

One morning, before the sun had risen, John instinctively awoke from his sleep, and happened to see Mr. Fowler coming in worriedly, presumably looking for him.

"What's wrong? Mr. Fowler, I can't stand the toss these days. ”

Mr. Fowler frowned: "I don't think the danger is completely over. ”

"Detective Pinkerton is gone, and they won't find out where we are for a while."

John stretched, and the quiet weeks of his life had regained his energy and the gang could use it to recuperate.

"Detective Pinkerton has been taken away for the time being, but a new enemy has his eye on us. The bounty hunters who operate in West Elizabeth may have followed our indelible trail here, and those guys, though not as cunning as Detective Pinkerton, are willing to do anything for a good pay. ”

"Bounty hunters? They don't have the patience to investigate clues, and if there are a few careful and bold ones, we can easily deal with them. ”

It's not that John didn't think about the possibility of being attacked by bounty hunters, he knew what they were all about, and those big guys weren't obsessed with details like Detective Pinkerton, but followed the ass of the cops and walked around the crime scene in droves.

"We've avoided the area of the firefight, and who would have thought that there was a nest of criminals hiding in the mountains."

"John, we can't take it lightly, I saw our bounty posted on a nearby telephone pole while I was on patrol the other day, although the whole state is plastered with this kind of thing, but it means that the bounty hunters will see it too, in case they think we are nearby, according to their wandering personality, if they accidentally find one of us, then our location will be revealed."

John nodded in agreement, although the bounty hunters are careless, but there are quite a lot of them, and he still has to find a way to be completely prepared, "Do you have any ideas?" Mr. Fowler. ”

"I tore up the wanted warrants as much as I could, but it wasn't enough, and in a few days the civil servants would re-post them, and we had to stop the bounty order from being issued in the first place, and I had an idea about that." Mr. Fowler leaned into John's ear, "I'm going to burn those wanted notices that have been printed but haven't been issued yet, but we'll have to do it quietly, and I'm not going to be able to hide that old bone." ”

John knew that this matter was naturally going to fall on him, of course, this was also the responsibility of a gang leader, and he couldn't shirk it, "This should be a classified government document, it's not easy to sneak in, and I don't know where they are." ”

"This is where I used to get a wanted warrant when I was Deputy Sergeant Valentine, and I was in a heavily guarded place called the Cornish Coal Tar Factory, where all the key documents from the neighboring states were kept, according to Danbury, the foreman of the tar factory."

"So you think our bounty order is there?"

"I'm not sure, I'll have to give it a try."

More than ten hours passed, and at eight or nine o'clock in the evening, the tar factory rang the bell for the end of work, and the workers left their respective posts one after another and boarded the train home, at this time there were only a few workers and guards on duty in the tar factory.

John and Mr. Fowler appeared on a hill not far away, and it did take them quite a while to get here from the Great Valley, and in order to test Fowler's guess, John felt compelled to take this step, even if the result might be unsuccessful. Because John was fed up with getting by, he had to be proactive and not always chased away by law enforcement.

"John, my legs and feet are really getting worse and worse, and when I volunteered to save Margaret, I still believed that I was iron-clad, but I didn't expect that I would inevitably age."

John realizes that if Mr. Fowler's health declines, the gang is losing a main force, and it will be even more difficult for him to assassinate Ovor Smith.

John took out his binoculars and angular knife, and he put the rifle and shotgun back in his saddle pocket, leaving only a revolver for self-defense. Since it is required to infiltrate, then no matter what, you can't go on a killing spree.

"I'll take care of the wind for you, John, and remember to check the contents of the documents when you go in, we can't afford to burn the wrong thing."

John took a telescope and took a general look, and he saw that the factory was guarded all around, and there were many tankers coming in and out, "Do you know how I should sneak into this place?" ”

"You can climb under the fence or hide in a horse-drawn cart, except for the tanker truck, where you can occasionally pass by empty wagons transporting debris."

"I'll take a look."

As he spoke, John hid in the bushes by the roadside, and Mr. Fowler patted the black pearl and the boy on the buttocks, drove them far away, and then prostrate himself in the grass and looked out into the distance.

"There's a carriage coming, John." It wasn't long before Mr. Fowler whispered in the grass.

A flickering oil lamp staggered in the direction of the tar factory, a carriage with a single coachman and an arched white canopy hanging from the back, which was standard in the wagons of the Cornish coal tar factory.

When the carriage approached the railroad and a train laden with kerosene cut its way, the coachman consciously tightened the reins, and John took the opportunity to climb behind the carriage.

After the train passed, the white-canoped carriage continued forward, only with one more guest on board.

I don't know how long later, the carriage slowly stopped, and two bright white lights shone in, and the white canopy suddenly brightened.

"Is that you? Al. One of the guards said.

The coachman's boots moved: "Hey...... Tom. ”

"Pick up?"

"Right...... To catch the morning train to St. Denis. ”

"Okay, then you'll have to hurry."

After a short question-and-answer session, John's surroundings darkened, and he noticed that the carriage had driven into the factory, and the two bright lights in front of him stood out in the dark night, but fortunately the two guards turned their backs to the carriage and did not find John hidden in the darkness.

"I'll go home when I'm done with this shipment, and the spicy blonde bitch of St. Denis said she couldn't wait to see me in the morning."

The coachman stopped the carriage while talking to himself, and walked towards the unloading area of the platform.

"It's the place." John thought to himself that he jumped out of the carriage and saw the guards patrolling back and forth with spears and lanterns, and in addition to the two towers in the factory, the searchlights on which shone on the outside at a fixed frequency.

When the light of the searchlight swept past John, he crouched down and walked briskly to the building labeled "Refinery."

Stealth was easier for John, as the space was cramped and guarded, but there was also a huge refinery to provide concealment, and the roar of the machine could drown out his movements.

Sticking to the edge of almost being discovered, John passed through a pile of sleepy guards and made his way to the last refinery without danger. Here, however, the situation is a little different: there is still a guard in front of the refinery's roulette wheel, and next to him is a man in a suit.

"There are still a few days left before the vacation, so let's keep going." The man in the suit said, patting the guard on the back.

"I'm just worried about you, Danbury. We're a tar factory, so why do we store all that waste paper with us, and we are asked to guard it? The guard's words sounded impatient.

"Mr. Cornwall is an industrial tycoon, and he has won the trust of the government by taking over the tar factory from his father, Levitix Cornwall, and keeping it in good order, so that the governor will entrust us with these important documents." Danbury said.

"Okay, the job offered by Cornwall is quite easy, as long as you don't owe your brothers wages." The guard's tone softened.

"Okay, the papers won't be lost in my office, I'll go lock it in the safe, and then you can get the brothers off work."

Danbury said as he walked up the stairs to a door at the end of the second floor. When the last guard walked away, John followed closely. By this time Danbury had entered his office, and John was leaning against the door to listen to the movement in the room, and in a short time there was the sound of the safe being opened.

John put on his mask and stormed the door, startling Danbury, who was kneeling on the ground and stuffing paper into the safe.

"Which one are you, sir?"

"Stop what you're doing, Danbury, and tell me what is written on these papers."

"I'm never going to do that...... That would cost me my job. ”

John drew his pistol and pointed it at Danbury, closing the door behind him.

"If you don't tell me, I'll cost you your life, weigh it up, Mr. Foreman."

Hearing this, Danbury raised his hands tremblingly, "These...... It seems to be a bounty order...... It's a gang of ...... Van der Linde Gang. ”

"Alright, burn them." John said indifferently.

“…… What did you say? ”

John didn't answer, but shoved a bottle of inferior whiskey and a box of matches into Danbury's hand, "I don't want to waste my good wine, burn it with these." ”

Danbury, knowing that the consequences of continuing to resist would be death, reluctantly uncorked the bottle, poured a little into the safe, and then lit a match.

"That's ...... Okay, right? Danbury said, staring blankly at the flames in the safe.

John nodded in satisfaction and turned his pistol around to retract the holster, just as he heard dense footsteps coming from downstairs.

"You're doing a great job! It's time for me to go, Mr. Danbury. ”

John said as he found the window in his office, and jumped from it, the escape route he had already agreed with Mr. Fowler.

The guards were all attracted by the fire on the second floor, so John could walk out of the tar factory unharmed, leaving Danbury's curses behind.

On a hill not far away, Mr. Fowler waved at him with a smile on his face, and behind John, a little fire at the New Hanoverian Tar Factory, was the Van der Linde Gang's struggle for survival.