Billy nodded in triumph. "Then you do make mistakes. I always knew you did. Funny how you and Jonesy saw things so different and all. Ben didn't see any cow either, and Tim Mullen and Lake did."
"Maybe I made a mistake too," said Lake sullenly, taking his cue from his employer.
"How about you, Tim?" persisted the questioner.
Tim looked furtively from his employer to his foreman and back again before answering.
"Speak up, Tim," directed Billy, "speak up. You did or you didn't. Yes or no?"
"Maybe I made a mistake," was Tim Mullen's final decision.
"They seem to have come over to your point of view, Jonesy," Billy observed dryly. "How about you? Did you make a mistake too?"
But Jonesy was not to be caught. "The cow wasn't along. I oughta know."
"You don't need to be so fierce about it. I was just askin' questions. If this feller had a fire and was heating a running-iron, I suppose he had a calf handy."
"I said we caught him with a calf," insisted Rafe Tuckleton.