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"Nobody ever comes down here, unknown to us. I had it sized up that the fellow who worked those brands would never dream we'd bring the stock right into the Cove. Why, Miss Louise, even I would know better than to put our brand on top of Seabeck's and expect it to pass inspection. If I wanted to steal cattle, I wouldn't go at it that way!"
"I'll attend to the chores, Miss MacDonald." Seabeck's lips quirked under the fingers that pulled at his whiskers. "You say over his picture?" "Yes, over his picture!" Billy Louise spoke with a suppressed fury. "With that honest look in his eyes oh, I could kill him!" "Hmm-mm it does seem a pity that one can't. But if she can cry " "I see.
And unless you pay Seabeck for them, you're stealing them if you keep them. It doesn't matter who put the brand on; you're keeping the cattle. What do you call that, I'd like to know? They're down here in the big corral now. If you mean to do what's square, you'll take them up to Seabeck's and explain " "Explain who it was ran our brand on?" Charlie's voice was silk over iron.
And just the other day one of Seabeck's men stopped at the ranch, and he told me they're shy some cows and calves. They can't imagine what went with them, and they're lying low and not saying anything much about it. You haven't heard or seen anything, have you, Ward?" "I've stuck so close to the hills I haven't heard or seen anything," Ward affirmed.
Last night, when she lay curled up by the stove under Ward's wolf-skin coat, this seemed the only possible way out: To tell Seabeck and trust to his kindness and generosity to refrain from pushing the case. To have Charlie Fox give back what he had stolen or pay for it anything that would satisfy Seabeck's sense of justice and let him start honestly.
You knew damned well I wasn't the kind of man that would jump the country. You knew you'd find me right here, attending to my business like I've always done. "But you've overplayed your hand. This time I'm going to get you and Foxy and the breed along with you. It was a damned, rotten trick, running Y6es over Seabeck's brand.
That's what you call it when the former owner puts his brand in a different place to show that his ownership has ceased, isn't it? Seabeck puts his brand upside down " "I know Seabeck's vent," Billy Louise cut in. There was no need of letting such a fine fellow display more ignorance on the subject. "And I should have noticed it if I had seen four calves vented fresh and not rebranded.
Since the grass had started in the spring, she had kept her little herd up here among the lower hills; and by riding along the higher ridges every day or so and turning back a wandering animal now and then, she had held them in a comparatively small area, where they would be easily gathered in the fall. A few head of Seabeck's stock had wandered in amongst hers, and some of Marthy's.
I came home the next forenoon I was over to Seabeck's and the bars were in place then. Aunt Martha had not been up the gorge, nor had anyone come to the ranch while I was gone. So you see, Miss Louise, here's a very pretty mystery!" He laughed, but Billy Louise saw by his eyes that he did not laugh very deeply, and that he was really worried.
Billy Louise frowned, hesitated, and, accepting the rebuff, went on to the next question: "What went with Seabeck's cattle, and Marthy and Charlie's, and all the others that have disappeared? You don't seem to care at all that there seems to be rustling going on around here." Ward gave her a quick look. His tone changed a bit: "I don't know that there is any.
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