RDR: NO REGRETS - Chapter 264: Dividing the Spoils (Patreon)

The haul was worth a lot of money, but once it was divided among everyone, each person’s share wasn’t actually that impressive.

After all, Arthur was there, and he was the kind of man who strictly followed the rules Dutch had laid down.

No matter how much they earned, half went to the gang.

A tax rate that high would be enough to make even a capitalist cry.

Just like that, more than five thousand dollars’ worth of loot was cut down to twenty-five hundred.

Split that among the four of them, and each person would only get a little over five hundred dollars.

And that was only in theory.

A large portion of the haul wasn’t cash.

There was jewelry, gold and silver, along with several weapons in decent condition. None of those could be spent directly, so they would have to find somewhere to sell them.

Once everything was converted to cash, their actual shares would probably shrink even further. Getting four or five hundred dollars each would already be pretty good.

For an ordinary person in this era, that was still a considerable fortune.

But for Stephen and the others, it wasn’t all that much.

Still, Stephen had no complaints.

If Arthur and the others hadn’t been there, he wouldn’t have gotten any of this money in the first place.

Besides, Stephen wasn’t the kind of person who lost his head over money. There would be plenty of chances to make more in the future, so there was no reason to obsess over this particular haul.

After working through the entire night, Stephen, Charles, and Arthur finally managed to dump all the corpses and assorted debris into the lake.

As the ship slowly moved forward, a crimson trail spread out behind the stern.

Countless carnivorous fish followed in its wake, feasting on a rare banquet.

Stephen stood at the stern and watched the morning sun slowly rise over the distant surface of the lake, turning the water golden.

“I’m thinking of taking this ship back with us.”

Arthur’s voice came from behind him.

Stephen turned around.

Arthur had a cigarette between his lips and was leaning casually against the railing.

“We’ll head to the opposite shore first, load the horses aboard, then sail straight back.”

Arthur exhaled a mouthful of smoke and grinned as he patted the metal railing behind him.

“This is a good ship. Whether we sell it or keep it for ourselves, either way it’s worth having.”

Stephen nodded.

He agreed.

As far as he was concerned, this ship was the biggest prize they had gotten from the whole operation.

Five thousand dollars’ worth of loot couldn’t compare to it.

The ship itself was worth far more.

“But we’ll need to hire some people to give it a proper cleaning.”

Stephen pointed at the dried blood smeared across the ship and the bits of flesh lodged between the planks of the deck.

“If we leave it sitting in the harbor looking like this, people are going to think something terrible happened aboard.”

And they wouldn’t exactly be wrong.

The bodies had all been removed, but bloodstains weren’t something they could clean away in a few minutes.

And Lemoyne was crawling with insects.

If they docked the ship like this, it would probably be covered in bugs within minutes.

If they didn’t clean it quickly, it really would start looking like a ghost ship.

“That won’t be a problem. Rhodes might be short on plenty of things right now, but workers aren’t one of them.”

Arthur smiled.

“Spend a little money and we’ll have more people willing to work than we know what to do with.”

“And all this junk needs to go too.”

Stephen pointed toward the crosses decorating the ship and the various symbols belonging to the Church of the Holy Lord.

“We should strip all of that off. Then maybe we can find some connections and start doing a little smuggling across Flat Iron Lake.”

After all, this was a genuine cargo ship.

It could carry a lot.

Stephen had already inspected the hold. There was plenty of room down there.

If they filled it with tobacco or moonshine and shipped it across the lake to Blackwater, or even sailed south all the way to Mexico, there would be no problem at all.

Rhodes’ biggest commodities were the Gray family’s tobacco and the Braithwaite family’s moonshine.

Both were profitable wherever they were sold.

The only question was how much profit they could make.

That was why Stephen considered the ship the greatest prize of the entire trip.

Arthur had clearly realized the same thing.

The idiot was grinning from ear to ear.

“I wonder how John and the others are doing.”

Stephen took a deep drag from his cigarette, then spoke with some concern.

“Those Lemoyne Raiders aren’t easy to deal with.”

They were genuine outlaws, and many of them were veterans.

They were nothing like these cultists.

Besides, the only reason Stephen and the others had managed to wipe out the cultists so smoothly was because nearly everything had gone their way.

For one thing, Thomas had allowed Stephen to get close to Archbishop Wood without raising suspicion, which let him take out their leader almost immediately and throw the entire church into chaos.

Then there was the gathering.

Nearly every cultist had been assembled in the square, and almost none of them were armed.

Add in the opium and the explosive charges Charles had thrown into the crowd, and the cultists’ fighting ability had been reduced to its absolute lowest.

Without all those advantages, wiping them out would never have been this easy.

Even with everything stacked in their favor, Sadie had still nearly been overwhelmed.

Stephen had to admit that his plan this time had been far too risky.

But it was over now.

There was no point regretting it.

All he could do was be more careful next time.

By daybreak, they had sailed the ship to the opposite shore, where Arthur brought all their horses aboard.

Then Sadie took the helm and carefully steered the ship along the Lemoyne shoreline toward Rhodes.

At last, everyone could get some rest.

Stephen and Arthur found an old mattress in the cabin.

Neither man bothered being picky.

They gave it a quick cleaning, dropped onto it, and within two minutes, their thunderous snoring filled the cabin.

Charles saw them sleeping and quietly headed to the stern to keep watch.

Out on the vast lake, he didn’t really expect anything to threaten them.

But caution was second nature to him, so he still took up guard duty.

Sadie, on the other hand, couldn’t rest.

Someone had to steer the ship.

And among all of them, she was the only one who knew how.

At least she wasn’t alone.

Little Alice was sitting beside her.

After getting some sleep, the girl had clearly recovered quite a bit.

She looked far more energetic now.

Whenever Sadie told one of her terrible jokes, the two of them laughed together until they could barely sit straight.

They looked almost like a real mother and daughter.

Sadie desperately wanted to ask Alice right then and there if she could adopt her as a goddaughter.

No.

Not a goddaughter.

Her daughter.

But Stephen and the others had pointed out that Alice had only just been betrayed by her own family.

Bringing up adoption now might have the opposite effect and scare her away.

So Sadie forced herself to hold back.

Alice was right there with them, after all.

There would be plenty of time.