"Mr. Coster, please leave as soon as possible and be sure to save him!" Thomas said sincerely.
Earlier in the day, John had not seen Beebo for a long time, and when everyone gathered for stew at noon, Thomas expressed to John that he thought Beebo was missing.
"Bibo will not run away on his own. I know him. He is not such a person."
"He's not young anymore. He should know how not to put himself in danger." Bibo is a young man in his twenties. This is a contradictory age. At this age, John often commits impulsive things, but he will soon do it afterwards. Return to stability.
"Although Bibo is usually a bit rebellious, I don't think he left out of anger. Bibo was probably coerced by an external force. If that was the case, he would have been unable to resist."
"You mean he was taken away?"
"It's just a guess. No matter what, I hope you will take some people to find him."
Where did this kid go? If Bibo was indeed abducted, John would look for him. If he was just lost for fun, let him starve in the wilderness for a few days. The annoying thing is that John can't figure out the reason for Bebo's disappearance.
After much thought, John decided to go out to look for him. If Bibo was really captured, he would be delaying the rescue, and he could not afford the loss of any gang member.
Thinking of this, John picked up a cigar and shouted to Miller and Stritch who were not far away: "Mr. Jedson, Mrs. Manstar, get your weapons, let's go find this kid."
Before the snowflakes fell in the afternoon and the bumpy snow in the morning was covered, John had to find Bibo's footprints to identify the direction he left. This was the way to find people in the snow, and also the snow-capped mountains. natural advantages. This method is often used by hunters to track down prey. Although the paw prints and horse hoof prints of various wild animals leave interlaced traces on the snow, once you remember the prey's footprints, it is easy to find their extension direction in the white snow. . Prey generally does not erase its traces on its own, which exposes its whereabouts in front of you - the same is true for people. If it is not deliberately hidden, a person's whereabouts will one day be exposed in front of you.
Sure enough, Bibo's footprints appeared not far from the camp. It seemed that he had indeed walked by himself.
John followed the footprints forward for about a hundred meters, and the boot prints on the snow suddenly stopped, like a person taking a step forward with his right foot, but his left foot was hanging in the air.
"John, you should come and see this." Stritch, who was not far from where the footprints disappeared, made a new discovery.
There were two shallow grooves in the snow where Stritch was standing, which would happen if you couldn't lift your legs on the ground with deep snow, but it was summer and there was only a thin layer of snow.
"Obviously Bibo was knocked unconscious and dragged away. This is the mark left by his feet on the ground." Miller came over and said.
John nodded: "It seems that Bibo was kidnapped here. Before that, he did walk out of the camp and gave the kidnapper a chance."
"Your guess is right." Stritch looked at the horse hoof prints all over the ground thoughtfully, "Bibbo was put on the horse and taken away. It seems that there are quite a few of them."
John led the horse over and looked at the clues all over the ground happily. At least this was not the beginning of a clueless start. "Move, you two. We can still follow this trail, but it won't be possible when we reach a low-lying area." .”
The horseshoe prints were still fresh and stretched from here to Lake Isabella, the largest lake in the west. Although they broke off several times along the way, fortunately Stritch's keen observation allowed them to reconnect with the trail.
Compared with the warm Barrow Lagoon, Lake Isabella is really a cold spring. The mountains to the south block the warm winds that blow in from season to season, leaving a thick layer of ice on the lake surface, so that no matter how hard a shoe is, it cannot leave a mark on it. John saw three or two snow-white Arabian horses chasing each other on the ice from a distance. John realized that they could no longer ride over the ice. If such timid creatures were disturbed, the original hoof prints would probably be disturbed.
"It shouldn't be far, we can walk the rest of the way."
On the other side of the lake, horse hoof prints appeared again. Not long after, John and others came to a hillside. The slope was so steep that John couldn't see the road ahead. Suddenly, John realized something and asked the two people behind to bend down.
It turned out that there was a cliff ahead. From here, the horse's hoof prints turned sharply down to the right. Under the cliff, a village with mostly wooden houses suddenly appeared. John took out his telescope and took a cursory look. The village was quite large, and there were people guarding each tower. About thirty people could be seen.
"According to Mr. Fowler's description, if my guess is correct, this is the doghouse of those scumbags in O'Drisco." John handed the binoculars to Stritch.
"It seems that our new neighbors are really restless. How can we deal with these guys?" Stritch said.
"It's impossible to take down the entire stronghold with this posture. We have to give them a soft dish. I'll go explore the situation first."
John followed the path down the mountain to the high wall outside Mumu Village and squatted down. At this time, a low moan came from the other side of the wall, as if there was a bound person. His mouth was blocked and he could only whimper. sound.
"I didn't want to be caught again when I fled this far away. Isn't this guy from the police?" A voice sounded from behind the wall.
"No, he seems to be from a gang in the nearby Plow Village." Another voice responded.
"New gang? We haven't had another gang since Colm was hanged."
"Charlie squatted there for a few days. He said that these guys should not know our existence."
"In short, it's better to be cautious. They are all declining gangs. No one will want to take the initiative. If they don't cause trouble, let's not cause trouble."
"What should we do with this kid? We are causing trouble."
"Bah! If you don't say it out loud, who would know? Putting him back now is equivalent to exposing our position. Let's lock him up so that not a single mosquito can touch him."
Later, the guard took away the squealing Bibo, and John realized that it was time to return, and he had already thought of a countermeasure in his mind.
John climbed to the top of the mountain and saw Miller lying in the snow with a telescope observing the camp below. He kicked Miller on the butt to tell him that he was back.
"Hey, John, I've seen their defense clearly. Outwit or attack by force - you decide."
"No need, let's walk in boldly and negotiate with their boss." John said.
Such a huge contrast made Miller grin from ear to ear in surprise, "Are you crazy? The three of us will die if we walk in. Aren't we adding hostages to the O'Drisco gang?"
"The O'Drisco gang doesn't know our details, so they naturally don't know how many of us are here. When the three of us showed up, they were also confused, so naturally they didn't dare to be arrogant."
"But... isn't this too risky?"
"I heard their conversation, believe me, Miller, this method will work." John patted Miller on the shoulder, and then looked at Stritch next to him. She nodded approvingly in agreement.
