New Gods of North America

Coming to a relatively secluded "warehouse" in the manor,

Wayne asked the white old man unhappily, "Weren't you still in Kansas City before? Why did you go to Illinois?"

Old Jack was also a little helpless:

"I was chased by the mounted police all the way out of Missouri. With the help of my companions, I boarded a steam train to Chicago for temporary refuge. Who knew that the steam train would stop running halfway? It was said that some criminals had attacked the steam train and damaged the railway, and it had not been repaired yet.

"I can't pass the identity check midway, so I can only hide in the nearest 'safe house'."

"You said this is a 'safe house'?" Wayne asked.

"Mr. Blake is a 'shareholder' of the Illinois Underground Railroad organization. This is a 'safe house' he provided for us." Old Jack explained to Wayne and Lina.

I see.

Wayne could probably guess which side Miss Harrison and her father were on.

The personnel structure of the "Underground Railroad" is no secret, and can be found by flipping through newspapers.

The so-called "shareholders" refer to those who provide them with financial assistance.

In addition, their meeting points were called "stations", the people in charge of the meeting were called "stationmasters", their residences were called "warehouses", and the slaves they assisted in escaping from slave states were called "passengers" - basically, all of them used railway-related facilities as code words.

According to the Fugitive Slave Act, all the people above, except the "passengers", were charged $500.

The more active ones will be imprisoned after being reported and exposed.

Moreover, the federal government seems to be preparing to introduce a new version of the Fugitive Slave Act recently. According to the new bill, everyone will be obliged to assist federal commissioners in arresting escaped slaves.

It is said that the "Underground Railroad" organization had become increasingly rampant in the northern states in recent years, and the federal government came up with this special plan in order to appease the slave states in the south.

According to Wayne's idea,

The "Underground Railroad" was a public welfare organization, and slavery itself was not "correct." These people could be understood morally, and Wayne would not report them.

But stealing other people's slaves and giving them freedom was more or less a bit like being too generous... Anyway, according to the American Constitution at the time, slavery was not illegal, so this way of thinking in the struggle was not quite right.

One group of immigrants forced the slaves here, and another group of immigrants secretly sent them away. It seems like you guys are the ones playing tricks.

If Wayne were forced to choose between "immigrants" and "slaves\

,"Then Wayne would rather choose to stand on the side of the Aboriginals...

However, the skin color of his skin in this life was not right, and the hundreds of tribes could not be integrated into one, they were too scattered.

So after Wayne understood, he said goodbye to Old Jack:

"I understand. Anyway, during this period of time, we are only responsible for protecting Miss Harrison's personal safety. As for other matters, I will pretend that I don't know."

"Huh? Shouldn't you be our supporter? Otherwise you wouldn't have helped us escape before." asked Old Jack.

Wayne continued walking, without looking back.

“Support, but not participate.”

Anyway, according to the history of another world that Wayne knew,

Before the slaves were liberated, many organizations like the Underground Railroad were still active, and there seemed to be no shortage of sympathizers and supporters.

But after the slaves were truly liberated, more than 10,000 "sunset towns" quickly spread across the country in another "Commonwealth of America" ​​- people with the wrong skin color would be in danger of their lives if they stayed in the town after sunset.

The people are still the same, but at that time, there was no such charity organization.

Lina left with Wayne, "I didn't expect you actually knew him."

"I met him in Kanks before," Wayne said, "He gave me a mushroom, I think it's called 'Green Elf'. He said it's delicious when stewed in soup."

"Green elf?"

Lina's eyes lit up, "How many?"

"Just one." Wayne thought for a moment, "From the look of you, this is a good thing?"

"Not really. It's about $1 each... People in the Truth Church like it. It's said to be a boost. But you need to control the amount. If you eat too much, you'll sit there and laugh like an idiot for a long time."

…

Return to the master bedroom to continue duty,

The butler later brought snacks and tea to Wayne and the others.

"I heard that Mr. Wayne and Miss Lina just went to the warehouse?" asked the housekeeper.

Wayne smiled, "We didn't meet anyone, especially someone called Old Jack."

The butler understood and handed over the teacup. "Thank you. The person Mr. Underwood introduced is indeed professional. I will convey this to Miss."

Nothing happened overnight.

The next day at noon, when Wayne was ready to take over after a good night's sleep,

I found Miss Harrison had arranged for her carriage, and was about to go out.

Wayne did not suggest that she leave the manor at this time, "Miss Harrison, are you going out to see someone off? I can do it for you."

"Thank you."

Miss Harrison looked at the seemingly empty carriage and did not hide the fact, "But besides sending people off, I have other things to do for my father, so I may not be able to ask you to do it for me."

I feel like this is making things a bit more difficult for myself.

But the customer is God, so Wayne and his friends borrowed a carriage and went out together.

According to Wayne and his team's arrangement, at least two of the original three-person team in the detective agency must follow Miss Harrison at the same time.

Inessa stayed with the master in the bedroom last night until noon today. Now she is catching up on her sleep, so it was Lina who got into the same carriage with Miss Harrison.

Wayne and Doug followed behind in a carriage, and a parrot flew from time to time.

The carriage arrived at a place that looked like a steel company's office.

The butler said that he had taken Miss Harrison's carriage for maintenance, and Wayne and the others would stay here to provide security.

Miss Harrison seemed to have met with a number of people and held a conference during the afternoon.

It is said that Miss Harrison's father's steel company is actually headquartered in Chicago, and has even more employees there, but there are also a dozen people here, so it seems that their business should be quite good.

By the way, it's no wonder they are associated with the "Underground Railroad".

Nowadays, American steel companies are almost a semi-logistics import and export industry, so they should have good connections in the transportation industry.

Then, when Miss Harrison was done, everyone returned to the manor by the same route.

This time, because they knew the road, Wayne and his team deliberately led the way.

Then, as expected, an accident happened again.

A carriage seemed to suddenly lose control at the intersection and accelerated diagonally towards the carriage in which Miss Harrison was sitting. Wayne and his companions were too late to stop it.

Then, the opponent's horse tried to avoid "hitting the wall" at the last moment, and the carriage spun around and hit the carriage on this side.

The carriage was fairly sturdy, and Miss Harrison herself was not seriously injured.

However, the butler who was sitting in the "passenger seat" at the front of the carriage was knocked onto the lamppost.