That was usual, too, but Buck, who was with me, had somethin' on his mind.

Finally he turned back and roped her, and threw her.
"Look here, Jed," says he, "what do you make of this ?" I could see where the hind legs below the hocks had been burned.
"Looks like somebody had roped her by the hind feet," says I.
"Might be," says he, "but her heels lame that way makes it look more like hobbles." So we didn't say nothin' more about that neither, until just by luck we came on another lame cow.

We threw her, too.
"Well, what do you think of this one ?" Buck Johnson asks me.
"The feet is pretty well tore up," says I, "and down to the quick, but I've seen them tore up just as bad on the rocks when they come down out of the mountains." You sabe what that meant, don't you?
You see, a rustler will take a cow and hobble her, or lame her so she can't follow, and then he'll take her calf a long ways off and brand it with his iron.

Of course, if we was to see a calf of one brand followin' of a cow with another, it would be just too easy to guess what had happened.
We rode on mighty thoughtful.

There couldn't be much doubt that cattle rustlers was at work.