Chapter 30: Devil Ridge
Because John didn't build a tent, he just rested on the carriage seat for a night and refused Frank's invitation. Although no one was interested in these guys, John felt that it was better to stay by the carriage.
In the early morning, everyone in the convoy got up very early to pack their things. John was also woken up by their noise. After washing himself by the river, he ate a can of food and gave the four criminals some water and A few apples followed behind the convoy in a carriage.
Frank rode and chatted with John as he did yesterday.
"Joe and that little girl seem to be making good progress." John flicked the tether lightly and drove the two horses forward, while Grape followed on the left side of the carriage.
With very good eyesight, John found that Joe had been chatting with Miss Lanslett by her carriage. It seemed that Miss Lanslett had a high probability of agreeing to him.
Lucky boy.
"It does look good." Frank took a serious look over there.
"Have you ever been married? Frank." John said, looking at the well-developed couple.
"Me? No, maybe there was a woman who wanted to marry, how about you?" Frank asked.
"Me? Of course not, I think I, I don't know."
"I mean I've been alone, I don't know if I'll be in the future, I don't know." John looked at Frank and said.
"For someone like you, there are sure to be many girls who like it." Frank took a serious look at John's face.
"Maybe, at least I haven't met it yet." John shook his head in denial.
The two chatted, the time came to ten o'clock, the team had passed the Dakota River, then crossed Devil Ridge, went to Rest Peak the next day, then arrived at Strawberry Town at noon to buy supplies, and then entered Meslia State. .
Devil's Ridge is a huge canyon that stretches for more than 30 miles. The reason why it is called Devil's Ridge is because it is the most vulnerable road section. The faintly visible bones on the side of the road show how dangerous this canyon is.
Therefore, before entering here, two or three riders need to be dispatched to investigate the road ahead. The two riders had already entered the Demon Ridge to investigate an hour ago. I believe that information on the road ahead will be available soon.
Half an hour later, John and Frank also crossed the Dakota River, and at this time the two riders who went to explore the road also returned, and they went straight to the back of Frank.
John and Frank glanced at each other, and things may have taken some unexpected changes.
"What's going on ahead?" Frank looked at the two riders approaching.
"A large number of horse tracks were found in the front, we are not sure what it is?" The older of the two riders told Frank about their discovery.
"You two take me to see, I need to confirm who these guys are." Frank frowned and said to the two of them.
"Do you need my help?" John asked aloud.
"Not sure yet, but it'd be best if you could follow me. I'll arrange for someone to watch the carriage for you, reliable man." Frank glanced at John and then at the four frail guys in John's carriage, nodding in agreement. arrive,
Afterwards, Frank found a rider in his forties.
"Marshall, he has been with me for 20 years. The person I trust most is not very good at tracking or talking." Frank introduced the old-fashioned and mean-looking rider. Then he turned his head and said to Marshall again.
"John wants to check with me about the situation ahead. His carriage needs a guard to keep an eye on his criminals."
"Yes." Marshall was tall and his features were as sharp as a knife and an axe. He nodded, cherishing words like gold.
John nodded as well, then got off the carriage and untied the grapes, took the carbine repeating rifle in the saddle, loaded it, and carried it on his back.
After checking their weapons, the four of them crossed the convoy and headed towards Demon Hill.
Everyone looked at the four people who were rushing forward and whispered a little. Joe, who was chatting with Miss Lanslit to increase his feelings, also saw the four people advancing.
"Sheriff John, where are they going?" Miss Lanslett asked Joe suspiciously.
"I don't know, maybe they are going to deal with something, I have to go up and ask. Drive~!" After saying that, Joe drove his horse and chased after the advancing four.
"Frank, where are you going?" Joe asked after catching up.
"Joe? Go back, we're going to check the situation ahead. You go back and tell others to be vigilant." Frank commanded while looking at Joe, who was chasing after him.
"Did something happen? I'm going too." Joe shook his head and refused to go back.
"Joe! Go back! We're just looking for some evidence, you go back and protect Miss Lanslett. Quick!" John said aside.
Sure enough, when she heard Miss Lanslett, Joe immediately hesitated.
"If there is anything you need to do, we will send someone back to inform you." John continued to persuade.
After that, Joe slowly stopped his horse, then glanced at the four and returned to the middle of the line.
The four of them rode their horses all the way, and it took more than half an hour.
The four came to the place where the two found a lot of horse tracks before.
Frank and John dismounted to check. There were indeed a large number of horses passing by before, and the dense hoof prints on the soil were not covered by dust in a short time.
This is located at the front end of Devil Ridge.
Frank stretched out his hand to feel the wind here and squeezed the already stiff horseshoe mark mud with his hands, while John looked around to see if there were any other traces.
"This group of people passed through here about ten hours ago, no less than eight hours." Frank said solemnly.
"We couldn't find any traces of the carriage passing around, and I found this." John picked up a smashed wine bottle and some cigarette heads from the weeds and rocks by the roadside. The bottle is an easy-to-carry bottled wine that is inexpensive and is carried by many long-distance people to relieve the dullness of the journey, if you often deal with outlaws. You'll know that this wine is standard for outlaws.
"Damn, we may be in trouble, big trouble." Frank picked up the bottle and checked it, and said after confirming it.
"What shall we do?" the older rider asked.
Frank didn't answer immediately, but looked at the road ahead in the canyon, where the yellow sand fluttered and looked extremely empty. Like a giant beast with a huge mouth waiting for its prey to enter.
"We can try to track them, preferably to confirm their location." John suggested.
"This is very dangerous." The younger riders listened to John's advice and were a little worried.
"If we can't detect their movements, it will be more dangerous to enter the canyon." Frank responded to the young rider.
"Victor, you go back and tell the team not to enter the canyon so quickly, and slow down the pace of some teams. Lawrence, you follow us and try to track the location of this group of people." Frank then told the younger rider and then asked again. said the older Lawrence.
"Okay." The young Victor nodded, then mounted his horse and started running back.
The remaining three followed the traces and began to pursue them. John's eagle eyes could only chase traces that lasted no more than four hours. Such a trace that exceeded eight hours would not have much effect at all.
Fortunately, Frank is a very experienced player, and after another half an hour, the three followed the trail to a fork in the track.
"What do you think?" Lawrence asked.
John and Frank dismounted to check the traces underground. They were surrounded by neighbors and cliffs. These two forks would meet again not far ahead, about seven or eight miles away. And these two avenues also link many trails.
"I have a lot of traces on my side, how about you?" Frank said, looking at John on the other side.
John came over and clapped the dust on his hands, "I have quite a few over there too."
"I think we can act separately. Lawrence will follow you. I will check the right passage myself. We will meet here in more than an hour."
"Are you sure?" Frank.
"I've always done it alone, and I'll deal with these things. It's agreed that we'll meet at the exit." John rolled over, gestured to the two of them, and walked towards the road on the right.
Frank and Lawrence also looked at each other and said nothing, but mounted their horses and headed towards the left side of the canyon.
Along the way, John slowly moved forward and opened his eagle eyes to search for possible traces, but he did not find any useful traces.
Hawkeye also consumes the eye of death (bullet time), so John didn't keep it open, but went to a place to search for a while, plus the naked eye glanced and searched, and continued to move forward if he couldn't find it.
In this way, after half an hour, John used his eagle eye to search for a pale yellow trace at a fork. John hurriedly dismounted to check. The trace was very faint, but it really existed.
"I found you." John stared at the invisible trace and said in the direction the path leads.
John followed the trace, and twenty minutes later, John saw the trace climb a hill not far away.
John dismounted and put it in a shady and hidden place, then John grabbed his repeater and walked towards the hill.
John walked forward cautiously, and John heard a noise not far from the mountainside.
"Shere, are you sure the team is about to enter the canyon? You have to know what the consequences will be if you see it wrong."
"Don't worry, it's not the first time I've done this kind of thing. The convoy should arrive here at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. At that time, they should choose a place to camp in the Twin Peaks Canyon. We can get at least 10,000 yuan for more than 20 vehicles of supplies. A lot of dollars. And there must be a lot of beautiful girls in this team." Sher said excitedly.
"It's better. They also have a dozen gunmen, and we may also lose some people."
"After you finish eating, go to inform the boss and let them rush to the two places in the canyon in batches to assemble. Don't disturb the convoy."
"I know, there's no problem." Sher patted his chest.
John heard the conversation of the reconnaissance team at the stone behind the hill, and John decided to hide for a while.
More than ten minutes later, John heard the sound of horses' hooves. John immediately got into the crevice of the stone and hid.
Then a figure riding a horse galloped past, heading towards the exit of the Twin Peaks Canyon.
Seeing the disappearing figure, John drilled out again, and then John took out his dagger and headed towards the small camp on the hill.
Taking advantage of the concealment of the rock pile, John observed that this was a suitable place to hide. They built a shed here to shelter from the harsh sunlight, and the remaining two rested under the shed.
John thought for a moment, then hid again.
The two people on the mountain were drinking wine to avoid the scorching sun.
"After this vote, how much do you think we can get?" one asked like another guy.
"I don't know, maybe two hundred or three hundred. I heard that half of it will be given to another group of guys, so it won't be a lot." Another person replied.
"Why can't we eat this team by ourselves? We have to find ten other guys over here. And they seem to take half of the supplies if they don't do anything." The guy who spoke was not very satisfied with the other group.
"The dozen or so gunners in the convoy are no joke, we need enough fire support. I heard from the boss that they are the main force of the attack, they may lose half of their manpower in tonight's action, UU read www.uukanshu.com That's fair." Another disagreed.
"It does look like that. I think, huh?" Just as the guy was about to say something, he noticed some noises behind the hill.
The two looked at each other.
"Shere? Is that you?" The two took out their pistols and looked behind them.
There was no answer in the back, and the two cautiously looked back and forth.
The distance between the two sides was about five meters. Just when the guy at the front came to the turn, John appeared behind the guy behind. He then separated the man's throat with a dagger in his hand, and then grabbed his revolver with his left hand to avoid fire.
The man in front seemed to notice something, he immediately raised his gun and turned back to check. Then he saw his partner lying on the ground and twitching around the corner.
But there was no one in front of him.
He was in a cold sweat, frantically alert to the movements around him, and the empty environment around him made him feel that there was a fatal danger everywhere.
Then he suddenly realized something, and then he raised his head suddenly, and a black shadow fell from the sky.
'Z~'
"Ah~" the robber screamed.
The dagger pierced into his right hand holding the gun, and then the shadow slammed an elbow against the man's chin, and the man fainted instantly.
After finishing the man, John picked up his gun and unloaded the bullet, then took out the rope and tied him up. As for the other corpse, John dragged him into the crack of the stone.
After doing all this, John picked up this guy and put it on his horse, then found his own, and then headed towards the exit of Twin Peaks Valley. He wanted to discuss the countermeasures with Frank.
Through the overheard conversation just now, John learned that there were at least thirty gunmen in this group of robbers.