“Anything missing around here?” questioned the doctor. “It might have been done by a horse-thief.”
“There ain’t no horses gone,” declared the boy.
He was about to mention the missing saddle, but Brick’s eyes signaled him a warning and he turned away.
“Better take the body down to my place,” suggested the doctor.
They rolled the body onto a blanket and four men carried it away. Brick and Silent left the stable ahead of the crowd, and were half-way to the Short Horn when the doctor joined them.
“Murder, wasn’t it?” he asked.
“The dirtiest kind,” said Brick slowly. “They probably put him in there until they got a chance to dispose of him.”
The doctor shook his head wearily.
“I can’t understand men doing a thing like that, sheriff. Murder is so unnecessary.”
“From yore angle,” said Brick softly.