“Ruined the girls’ appetites.”
“Pshaw, I’m sorry about that.”
They ate silently for several minutes, and then Slim laid down his knife and fork.
“I found somethin’ funny today,” he said. “I was ridin’ down a coulee, kinda southeast of the Lazy B, and I finds a dead horse. Plenty buzzards feedin’. But the funny part of it is this. That horse had been skinned. Yessir, it shore had. I looked it all over and there ain’t a sign of skin on it anywhere. And it kinda looked to me as though somebody had pulled the shoes off it, too. Anyway, it never travelled far after the shoes was taken off.”
“Somebody needed horse-hide,” observed Honey, helping himself to more food.
“Yeah, I s’pose they did,” agreed Slim, resuming his meal. “It ain’t a common thing for to skin a dead horse. It ain’t been dead a heap of a long time. I didn’t smell⸺”
“Hey!” snorted Honey. “What do yuh think this is? We’re eatin’ a meal, Slim.”
“Oh, I beg yore pardon.”
“Could yuh find it again?” asked Hashknife grinning.
“Shore. If the wind’s blowin’ jist⸺”