" Patches indicated
the animal in question.
"And you put our iron on him?" asked Phil, still watching Nick.
"I did," returned Patches, coolly.
"Tell us about it," directed the Dean's foreman.
And Patches obeyed, briefly. "It was that day you sent me to fix the
fence on the southwest corner of the big pasture. I saw a bunch of
cattle a little way outside the fence, and went to look them over. This
calf was following a Cross-Triangle cow."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, sir. I watched them for half an hour."
"What was in the bunch?"
"Four steers, a Pot-Hook-S bull, five cows and this calf. There were
three Five-Bar cows, one Diamond-and-a-Half and one Cross-Triangle. The
calf went to the Cross-Triangle cow every time. And, besides, he is
marked just like his mother. I saw her again this afternoon while we
were working the cattle."
Phil nodded. "I know her."
Jim Reid was watching Patches keenly, with a quiet look now and then at
Nick.
The cowboys were murmuring among themselves.
"Pretty good work for a tenderfoot!"
"Tenderfoot, hell!"
"They've got Nick this trip."
"Got nothin'! Can't you see it's a frame-up?"
Phil spoke to Nick.
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