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Quint chose not to co for lunch so you’d better throw together soet the horses saddled and ready”

Last night’s rain had softened the parched ground,it muddy in the low areas where the runoff had collected No clouds lingered to mar the blue of the wide sky, but there was a touch of coolness in the fresh-s breeze

Quint noticed little of it, his attention focused on the eight head of cattle, ate into the west pasture Dallas waited for theate, her presence on horseback applying an oblique pressure to turn them north

When the last coed signs of balking, Quint pushed his horse forward to drive the anih hilanced back at Empty and waited for him to draw abreast

“I’ll ride over and see what I can find on the other side of the river,” Quint told him with a nod toward the tree-lined banks a hundred yards from them “You check out this side”

E nod, and Quint split away fro into an easy lope He noted with approval that Dallas had alreadytheir northward drift

Ahead of hi curve Quint followed it until he cae and a orn path identified it as a favored crossing point of the cattle Reining in, he slowed his horse to a walk and swung it onto the cattle trail

An earsplitting whistle pierced theair Instantly Quint turned his horse away fro on his face Empty Garner was the only one Quint had ever heard nal the canny old rancher would issue without cause

Quickly he rode clear of the obstructing trees and spotted Empty some distance away The old manon the ground

It wasn’t until Quint rode closer that he saw the dead cow Empty knelt on one knee beside the bloated carcass When Quint halted up next to Ehtened up

“What happened? Was it struck by lighting?” Quint asked, voicing his first thought

“I wish,” Erimly and continued his visual study of the dead animal

“What do you mean?” Quint frowned and walked his horse closer

“Take a look at that crusty discharge around the nose and the scoury look to the rump,” he directed “There’s a dark bloody look to both If I’ cattle anywhere for a while”

Quint inificance of the two symptoms “You think it could be anthrax?”