“Is it good meat?”
“Fine.”
“Does he bring the hides with it?” asked Brick.
“The hides? Why, I don’t think so. We don’t buy hides.”
“Sure yuh don’t,” grinned Brick, “but it’s a law, Fields. When yuh sell meat that-a-way you’ve got to show the hide.”
“Oh-h-h, I get the idea.” Fields looked very wise. “I never thought of that, sheriff. Why, sure, it would be easy to kill somebody’s cattle and sell ’em to us. I don’t know whether Mostano knows about this or not, but I’ll see that he does. Next time he shows up, he better have the hide.”
“Has somebody been killing cattle?” asked Barney softly.
“I don’t think so,” smiled Brick. “I got to thinkin’ about you havin’ to buy so much meat, and I thought yuh ought to know what the law was. It might save yuh trouble.”
“That’s right,” agreed Barney. “We want to stay inside the law, you bet.”
“I guess that Mostano is all right,” said Fields. “He seems to be a pretty good ’breed, and he is sure prompt on delivery. He will bring in a load tomorrow some time.”