"What have you found out?"
"Some one is liftin' our cattle. That's what I mean."
"Great Scott! What makes you think so?"
"Ted, ther herd has shrunk."
"You judge by the eye, I suppose."
"Yes. That is the only way I have o' judgin'. We hev never had a count o' them since we drove them onto this range."
"How many do you think we are shy?"
"My eye tells me erbout five hundred."
"Great guns! How could five hundred head get away from us? And right under our noses, too."
"Easy enough. You must remember that since Stella has been gone we've paid no more attention to the herd than if we didn't own them."