"As if that's any of yore business," retorted Red. "But I'll just tell you, since you asks; it's going to stop when I get good an' ready, savvy?"
"Yo're awful cheerful at times," sarcastically snorted his companion.
Red's eyes had been roving over the plain and now he raised his glasses and looked steadily ahead.
"What's that out there? Dead cow?" he asked, calmly.
Hopalong put his glasses on it instantly. "Cow?" he asked, witheringly. "No; it's an over-grown lizard! Come on," he cried, spurring forward, Red close behind him.
Riding around it they saw that it bore the brand of the H2, and Hopalong, dismounting, glanced it over quickly and swore.
"Shot in th' head—what did I tell you!"
"You didn't have to get off yore cayuse to see that," retorted Red. "But get on again, an' come along. There's more out here. I'll take th' south end of this—don't get out of hearing."
"Wait! Wonder why they shot it, instead of driving it off after they got it this far?" Hopalong mused.
"Got on th' prod, I reckon, leaving its calf an' being run so hard. I've seen many a one I'd like to have shot. Looks to me like they hang out around that water hole—they drove it that way."