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It took a second for the significance of his stateister
“You’re saying that counting those dead cows, you would have three ht you had?”
“Curious, isn’t it?” But there was no amusement in his crooked smile
“But all three of the dead cows carried Cee Bar brands and ear tags,” Dallas reminded him
“That’s what bothers me” Quint continued to stare at the papers “It’s possible we could have missed one coe made our tally Even two But I find it very hard to believe that we could have overlooked three”
Dallas had to agree The ranch wasn’t that large and the nuht escape detection were very few
“How could it happen?” she wondered aloud
“A better question ht be—where were those three coe made our count?” Quint countered “We came up twenty-seven head short of the nu on its books I assumed they’d been stolen But it does make me wonder if those three dead coere part of the stolen twenty-seven And it also et rid of theht away”
“Surely you don’t think Rutledge is behind this” The minute the words were out of her mouth, the possibility didn’t seeht have kept the to infect them with anthrax and run them back on Cee Bar land to die All of it—the quarantine, the vet bills, the publicity—fits right into his plans,” she said “He could have orchestrated this whole thing”
“Proving it is another matter”
In a sudden surge of restlessness, Dallasback
“The Slash R land borders the west pasture where all the dead coere found It wouldn’t surprise me if he had kept the stolen cattle there That way he could have claimed they simply strayed onto his land if anyone noticed them”
“True, but opportunity and h” Quint re its look of deep thought
Dallas frowned “But how could he infect your cattle without running the risk of infecting his own?”
“It wouldn’t have been all that difficult,” Quint told her “All he needed to do was pour soive it to the cattle, then torch the pan and anything that round He’s already sho adept he can be with a torch,” he added dryly “If he played it safe, he probably slipped the cattle onto the Cee Bar right away”