The middle-aged woman was the head of the female servants here and had been among the first to follow Sean.
She surveyed the scene - it was truly horrific!
Only a dozen or so women remained, with so many corpses. If they didn't handle this quickly and a few wild beasts wandered in this afternoon or evening...
That morning Henry locked himself in his office, spread two thick carpets on the floor, sat on the sofa, and released those guards one by one to search their bodies. Besides pistols, rifles, and daggers, he only gained $462.8.
Fortunately, Sean's safe still contained $8,639.
Calculating it, this was about right. Their manor had so many people, many of whom were cavalry.
Even at an average monthly salary of $25 each, monthly wages alone would exceed $2,500, plus other miscellaneous expenses.
In these deep mountains with no banks, it was normal for Sean to prepare three months of operating funds.
The biggest gain was those 12 bars of 100-ounce gold.
Current gold prices were $20.67 per ounce, totaling $24,804.
Only because this was a mining area could Sean possibly keep so much gold in his hidden compartment.
Given such a rich harvest, Henry wouldn't dwell on Sean's silent suicide anymore.
Such ruthless opponents were better off dying early and being reborn early.
After finishing the inventory, Henry continued installing delayed electric detonators on explosive packages.
This time besides 5-pound and 10-pound ones, he also made 10 twenty-pound packages and 10 fifty-pound ones.
The 20-pound ones had 5-second delays - Henry had to ensure he could escape.
The 50-pound ones had 15-second delays for five packages and 20-second delays for five packages.
Fifty pounds was enough to collapse a 3-story apartment building.
But he mainly focused on making 5-pound TNT packages, which he could easily throw about 30 meters. As long as they exploded within 5 meters of the target, the killing power was sufficient.
With his LV4 throwing knife skills providing powerful control over space and throwing, this was effortless.
Never mind five or six meters - he was confident within five or six centimeters.
Henry had originally planned to dump several gang corpses from his storage space at Devonshire Manor after eliminating Sean and his guards, disguising it as a gang raid.
After all, corpses in his space were indistinguishable from recently deceased ones.
But thinking it over, with the only federal marshal Duncan away, wouldn't that be like winking at a blind man?
So he simply collected everyone into his storage space. Each person's volume was only about 0.05 cubic meters, so 27 people totaled about 1.35 cubic meters - no big deal!
This way, even if someone investigated later, with no bodies found dead or alive, even Sherlock Holmes would be helpless.
At least it wouldn't affect Henry's early development.
Working until noon, Henry grabbed some food from his space to tide himself over, then went home to catch up on sleep.
Around 2 PM, smelting plant commander Tom was awakened by Fabio's men because Jimmy had been gone to Devonshire Manor for over five hours without returning - something had definitely happened.
Tom pondered for a long while and decided to remain unchanged in response to changes.
They were scheduled to transport silver ingots to Georgetown tomorrow morning. Having already lost 9 men yesterday, if today's Jimmy was also lost, that would make 10.
Facing an unknown enemy, he decided stability was paramount. After tomorrow's silver transport, half the men would check on Devonshire Manor on the return trip.
From what he understood, Devonshire should currently have dozens of battle-hardened warriors plus several Gatling guns. There shouldn't be any major problems - at most Jimmy had been individually ambushed.
——
At Mayor William's house, Rafael reported: "I've notified all mining sites to strengthen exploration, and the family's prospecting teams have also adjusted their exploration directions."
William nodded: "Based on the McKinley family's actions, we can deduce there must be some major new discovery on land where we already hold usage rights. You need to stay on top of intelligence gathering and security work in this area."
The 1872 American Mining Act crucially established the relationship between the federal government and miners. Anyone discovering mineral resources could freely stake claims on public land, mark boundaries on the surface, then obtain exploration or development rights.
The federal government's only condition was acquiring land usage rights at $2.5 per acre, with annual development expenses of no less than $100 for that plot. After mineral extraction began, no further rent or royalties were required.
One acre equaled 4,046.86 square meters - this pricing encouraged capital to develop the West.
Currently many mining magnates had used the Mining Act through various means to consolidate vast areas of western mining land, but actual development covered an extremely small percentage.
So William's speculation was that the McKinley family had discovered something within their designated territory, specifically in areas where they had already gained exploration and development rights by discovering certain minerals and staking claims.
"How has Henry been these past two days?" William asked.
"Henry killed Billy the Kid who came seeking a duel yesterday at noon. In the afternoon he apparently went out in a carriage driven by Thor. Around 9 PM last night sentries saw him return alone on horseback - we don't know specifically what he did."
"Today he left town again after 4 AM and returned 3 hours later. Sentries reported possibly hearing three explosion sounds from Devonshire Manor's direction during that time."
"However, old White says Henry never went to the police station to collect dynamite and detonators."
"Today no one from Devonshire Manor has come to town to send or receive telegrams, and they haven't collected supplies from merchants they have standing orders with."
William said: "If they still don't come for supplies tomorrow, have one or two merchants dealing in perishables send someone to Devonshire Manor to follow up."
Rafael said: "Yes, although Devonshire Manor never allows outsiders inside, they've also never delayed picking up supplies for two days. Those merchants should be quite worried themselves."
"Why has Duncan been gone so long this time? It's been almost 10 days," William asked with concern.
"Black Caesar Ed Masterson is indeed very dangerous, and he may have fled into Arizona's desert," Rafael said.
William sighed inwardly and waved his right hand slightly.
Rafael bowed and left with large strides, just brushing past butler Pierce at the door.
Pierce quickly walked to William's side and handed him a telegram.
Opening it, William found it was from a junior family member, Richard Mellon.
Richard was a rising star in the Mellon family, responsible for the family's mining company and managing it quite successfully.
The telegram said he wanted to visit in the next couple of days.
"Telegraph Richard back that I welcome him anytime," William instructed.
"Yes, sir," Pierce said, turning to leave.
(End of Chapter)
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