“Maybe that’s our stuff over there,” shouted Walt.
Joe shook his head. “They’d have driven them further into their own range.”
They swung westward along the range line to the place where Doug and Slim had picked off the tracks of the missing cattle.
Joe swung out of the saddle and scanned the hoofprints of the horses which had driven the cattle into the Double O territory.
“Only three riders made the raid,” he grunted. “They had plenty of nerve.”
Slim, looking down at the hoof prints could hardly suppress an exclamation of surprise. There was a distinct V-shaped nick in the left rear shoe of one of the horses! There had been a similar nick on the same shoe of the horse which had carried the bushwhacker safely away from the vengeance of the Box B.
Slim leaned down and spoke to Joe, and they moved out of earshot of the others.
“Listen Joe, there was a V-shaped nick in the left rear shoe of the horse I chased all over your west range. There’s the same kind of a nick in one of the hoofprints here.”
“You mean the fellow who took a shot at the boss was one of the fellows who rustled the cattle last night?”
“It looks that way.”