"Mr. Sheriff, I'm Hanif, a bounty hunter, and I'll cut it short, there's a criminal gang operating around here, and their total bounty is in the thousands!" Hanif said eagerly.

"Oh, that's your business, isn't that what bounty hunters do?" Danny turned and walked over to his horse.

"We've caught one of them very important!" Hanif followed, and he pointed to Holmes.

"Just him?" Danny glanced at the geologist who looked like an old man who could be blown down by a gust of wind, "Congratulations, you should now hand him over to the police department that issued the bounty." ”

"But this gang is dangerous, and they will come to save this man." Hanif said it accurately, and he couldn't help but wave his hand, "I think we can set up an ambush and then catch them all." ”

He paused: "The bounty, we can divide it equally." ”

"If they don't commit crimes in my jurisdiction, I have no obligation to provoke them, and again, you should go to the police department that issued the bounty." Sheriff Danny had already stepped onto his horse, "I'm sorry, sir, I'm going home to taste my wife's pie, I'm almost 5 minutes late, is there anything else you guys need help with?" ”

Hanif froze in place, unaware that Donnie was tugging at his sleeve.

He didn't expect Pitckin's sheriff to be so "businesslike", and what was even more strange was that he didn't even see a single other police officer beside him.

Downey was helpless, he leaned over to the sheriff's horse and whispered to the sheriff, "Sheriff, can you lend us a little money?" We don't have a penny left on us. There was no place to eat or stay tonight. We'll give you back the bounty when we get it. ”

Sergeant Danny frowned, took a twenty-five cent coin from his pocket, and threw it to them:

"I didn't bring much with me when I went out, so the rest of the people should figure it out by themselves."

While Hanif was still basking in the failure of his plan and the inaction of the Western Constables, Downey picked the coin from the ground with a quick hand.

Twenty-five cents is obviously not enough for three people to stay in a hotel and have dinner.

However, they stayed at the inn in the county, for Holmes was afraid that the two hungry bounty hunters would flay him alive.

"I still have some money in my pocket, and I don't have much with me when I go out, so I was going to go to the market and buy something or something." Holmes said.

"We'll definitely pay you back when we get your bounty." Donnie nodded affirmatively.

Sergeant Danny rode his horse and leisurely wandered the streets of Pitkin County, greeting the residents he knew well on both sides of the street:

"Hey, Nancy, you look so beautiful today, this dress looks amazing!"

"Pete, hurry up and go home, don't hang around here, or your wife will be angry again!"

"Little John, where's your father? Eh, eh! Stop chasing that dog, watch out for your dad spanking you. ”

……

Residents saluted the sheriff respectfully, even though he had just been promoted to sergeant.

The sheriff is not a local, but he has been here for more than a decade, and he is helpful and approachable.

Danny enjoyed the feeling, and at the age of fifty, he was very attached to this peaceful life.

There is a delicate balance in this county.

On the southern outskirts of the county is the territory of the German Clark Rackfield, whose main business is the black market and the sale of livestock; In the county and further north, the Phelps family was the sphere of influence, dealing in timber and minerals.

The Germans had come to the neighborhood a few years earlier, and the Phelps family, who were natives of the area, fought a battle between the two sides, only to find that no one could help the other, so they chose a truce.

Since then, Pitkin County has been peaceful.

Danny didn't want to be the sheriff, but he was eventually promoted. In fact, he himself knows what kind of role this sheriff is.

Since he took office, he has maintained the habit of leaving work on time, and his police officers have left work earlier than him.

Now his mind is full of the smell of his wife's baked raspberry pie, which is perfect when you add honey sauce.

Danny's home was at the end of the street, outside the town, in a separate house, surrounded by a fence with a handful of poultry, cattle and sheep.

He has lived here since he came to the county, which used to be his main business, and is now his side business.

Danny led the horse into the stable, and then went to the back of the stable to pick up a stack of hay and put it in the horse's trough, and when he had done this, he washed his face in the sink at the door.

"Teresa, I'm back." He wiped his face with a cloth and called his wife's name.

No one answered.

His wife never goes far, and she never ignores herself.

Danny straightened up, and a burnt smell came from the room and into his nose.

"Oops!"

Danny hurriedly pulled his Winchester lever rifle from his horse and rushed to his room.

He kicked the door open.

The smell of burnt paste was even greater, and he took his gun and moved towards the restaurant step by step, and when he was only two steps away from the restaurant, he rushed in with a dodge, raised his gun and quickly searched the spot.

In the bottom left corner, no one! In the bottom right corner, no one! There is no one by the cupboard!

The frying pan on the stove was almost deformed, and there was a black, charcoal-like thing on it, and the smell of burnt paste came from here.

Danny quickly put down the gun and took a spoonful of water from the bucket in the corner and poured it on the pot.

The fire in the fireplace was extinguished, and a thick cloud of water and smoke rose from the kitchen, making Danny cough.

He opened the window of the dining room.

Teresa would never do such a thing, even if she was chased away more than twenty years ago, she would never leave what she was doing halfway.

There is only one possibility, she was kidnapped.

Thinking of this, Danny opened the drawer in his bedroom, took out some ammunition, and brought it with him.

He got on his horse, and knocked on the door of his police officer's house, room by room.

Ten minutes later, he appeared at the gate of the Phelps family's house with four or five police officers armed with guns.

The Phelps family's house was also outside the town, a tall three-story building surrounded by a high wall.

At the back of the building is the family's farm, which is as far as the eye can see.

It is a manor.

At the gate of the house, there were three or four men with guns, and when they saw Sheriff Danny and his men, they didn't mean to let them go at all.

"What do you do?" A man with a gun asked the sheriff outside the door through the door.

"I'm looking for Fred Phelps." Danny said calmly.

The man motioned for him to wait here, and walked himself through the door of the house.

It was a long time before the man came out and waved at the other two men at the door.

"Sheriff Danny, please come in, and the rest of us stay outside."

Danny handed the gun to the officer behind him and walked himself through the high gate of the Phelps house.

A man leaned back on a couch in the hall, a cigar in his mouth, and his eyes rested on a delicate snuffbox on the table.

Didn't even look at him.

He is none other than the head of the Phelps family, the legendary true magistrate of Pitkinshire, Fred Phelps