Henry had also been keeping an eye out for Dutch, Arthur, and the Van der Linde gang from the game, or their similar counterparts in this timeline, but hadn't found any trace of them.
Either they hadn't made their debut yet - after all, Red Dead Redemption 2 was set in 1899, still 19 years away - or Fresco Town's information channels were too isolated, or they simply didn't exist.
Henry wasn't too concerned about this for now. As long as he kept moving forward, he would naturally encounter what he was meant to encounter.
If there were any outlaws worth saving, he could step in to help, like the early Hosea, Arthur, Charles, Lenny, Sadie, Javier, Mary-Beth, and others. Even the con man Trelawny could be considered.
After all, the famous Mengchang Jun, one of the four lords of the Warring States period, was rescued by chicken thieves and dog burglars.
Looking at it this way, the Van der Linde gang members would all be talents in later generations.
In fact, this era's West had countless people similar to these game characters.
Many future great thieves and bandits had probably already been sent to reincarnation by Henry these past few days, just in time for the 1899 timeline.
Henry reined in his wandering thoughts and refocused on today's action plan.
The original Henry had never been to Devonshire Manor or the McKinley family's silver and copper mines, though he had been to Mayor William's gold mine.
So he still needed to conduct preliminary reconnaissance of the terrain.
The ancestors had a saying - know yourself and your enemy, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles.
After lunch, Henry returned to the police station to work.
Walking into the station, he immediately noticed most officers looking at him with admiration and worship. Thor and Hank had probably done plenty of bragging, and Billy the Kid's $5,000 bounty was indeed top-tier.
These past few days, Fresco Town's police station had indeed gained great renown because of Henry.
Henry spent the afternoon in his office checking the guns he planned to use and maintaining them with gun oil.
Around 4 PM, Henry rode in a carriage driven by Thor out of town. Following the main road toward Devonshire Manor for about 4 miles, they reached the fork leading to the manor.
Henry had Thor stop the carriage.
"Go back, and don't tell anyone about my business," Henry instructed after getting off.
Thor wanted to say something but obviously Henry didn't want to talk further, so he turned the carriage around and returned to the town police station.
From this fork that could accommodate two riders side by side, going up the mountain about a mile would reach Devonshire Manor.
This mountain wasn't very high, only six or seven hundred meters. The manor was located halfway up the mountainside.
Henry examined himself from head to toe - leather chaps, long-sleeved canvas shirt, black vest, wide-brimmed hat, and high boots - basically protected against small insects.
Moreover, he had release pearls that could remove negative body conditions.
So he entered the fir and spruce forest, maintaining a parallel distance of twenty-some meters from the mountain road as he walked up, occasionally using the assassin Louis's walking stick to push aside debris and branches.
After walking for a while, Henry's keen hearing detected voices from ahead and to the side, along with dogs suddenly barking loudly.
He quickly moved deeper into the forest away from the road.
The three manor guards in their twenties talking on the road immediately became alert, stopping their conversation and gripping their rifles tightly.
Sometimes there would be fierce beasts like black bears, gray wolves, or mountain lions in the forest.
"Who's there?" one guard called out loudly.
After a while, the German Shepherd finally stopped barking at the fir forest.
The three guards breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed the beast or beasts had left.
They were the manor's first line of defense. If any outsiders rode up the mountain, they would definitely be stopped here.
Henry ignored them and continued silently advancing through the forest, gradually approaching the road again to avoid getting lost.
During this time he occasionally startled a few grouse and a badger, but the disturbances weren't major.
After another ten-plus minutes of walking, Henry saw Devonshire Manor's gate in the distance - double iron gates over ten meters wide featuring silhouettes of cowboys on horseback.
This type of gate, at sunset, would cast these metal cutout patterns as shadows on the ground, appearing particularly realistic and making people truly mistake them for a group of cowboys riding in from the distance.
There was also a ring of Irish dry stone walls about 3 meters high.
Dry stone walling was an ancient Irish stone construction technique. Walls built using this method were constructed through precise stacking without requiring cement or other adhesives.
The longer they were used, the more the stone walls would blend with nature, becoming more solid and appearing natural.
This manor used Colorado granite, gneiss, and quartz sandstone.
The road ended abruptly at the manor gate - there was no further mountain drive.
Henry estimated his straight-line distance from the manor was still four to five hundred meters.
He put on gloves, found a fir tree about 1.5 meters in diameter and over forty meters tall, and began climbing.
Climbing to over thirty meters high, Henry could basically see the entire manor.
Intelligence reports said this manor covered 60 acres, and Henry's observation confirmed this estimate.
The manor was basically an irregular rectangle over 200 meters long and over 100 meters deep, containing gardens, lawns, vegetable gardens, orchards, stables, barns, and everything else needed. In the center toward the back sat a gray-brown Gothic Irish-style manor house.
The manor should have a mountain spring inside.
In Irish mystical culture, there was a special numerology called Anglo-Saxon numerology.
Anglo-Saxon numerology stipulated that building height, length, and width must satisfy the following proportion: length:height = height:width = 1.618:1.
Repeatedly following this proportion in construction would result in buildings with better visual effects and balance, while helping people achieve better energy flow inside the house. This numerology was extensively used in Ireland, making buildings more aesthetically pleasing and harmonious.
It sounded somewhat like Chinese feng shui.
Lucas Warren, who had studied architecture in his previous timeline, was quite familiar with these architectural styles and cultures.
Anyway, Henry now thought this manor was quite nice and could be considered as one of his future villas.
Henry's space contained a 4×40 Galilean binoculars - obtained from the ambushed McKinley cavalry commander Oliver.
However, he found he didn't need binoculars to see very clearly.
The manor had stone watchtowers about ten meters high with four stories at each front corner, with 5 guards on each tower and two Gatling guns mounted on top.
There were 4 guards at the main gate.
Over forty guards were scattered across the manor's lawn.
Some were practicing shooting, others smoking and chatting.
Most crucially, there were also five German Shepherds - judging by their size, they must weigh dozens of pounds each.
Fortunately Henry was positioned downwind, otherwise he might have been detected by them.
Henry quietly observed while thinking about how to proceed with his operation.
(End of Chapter)
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