Jack laughed. “Yeah, you had everything figured out except for the fact that you two could barely get along, never mind falling in love.”

“It was a moment of madness,” Duke said. “I don’t know what the hell I was thinking, other than it was kind of like buying more cattle to add to the herd.”

Jack burst out laughing. “Oh, my God, Duke. No wonder you’re still a bachelor. You’ve got to do something about that mindset. You’re still plenty young enough to get married and raise a family.”

“I’ll leave the babies up to you and Hope,” Duke said. “And enough about orchestrating my future. Butting in is my forte, not yours.”

Jack pointed to a section of fence up ahead. “That’s where the fence is down.”

“Yes… I see it. Start watching for truck and trailer tracks. We should be coming up on the herd soon and then we’ll get a head count here. I might have jumped the gun on thinking theft was involved, but better safe than sorry,” Duke said, and slowed down even more so they could watch for fresh tracks.

A couple of minutes later, Duke noticed something up ahead and hit the brakes.

“What do you see?” Jack asked.

“Looks like someone put feed out here, but we don’t dump feed all in one spot like that. I want a closer look,” Duke said.

He took the rifle with him as they got out, and even as he was walking up on the spot, he knew his fears were likely true. What remained to be seen was how many head of cattle they took.

“Look! They even left two empty feed sacks behind,” Jack said.

“Wait. I’m taking pictures,” Duke said, and snapped pictures of the trampled grass and the feed sacks before moving forward.

“Duke! Look here. Footprints!”

Duke ran over to where Jack was standing. “Boot prints, and there’s a weird line running through the heel on the left foot. I think it’s a big cut in the leather.” He squatted down and took a couple of pictures, and then suddenly stopped, took off one of his boots, and put it beside the footprint for size reference.

“You are a size 13, so I’m saying that’s about a size 11 boot,” Jack said.

“With a serious slash in the heel,” Duke added. “Wait here. I’m going back to get the truck and then we’ll go find the herd. We need to know how many are gone before we call Sheriff Ryman.”

“Damn it,” Jack said. “This makes me sick. Who would do such a thing?”

“The Baileys own the land that butts up to our back fence, but nobody’s been living there since Mr. Bailey went into the nursing home, and that’s more than a year ago,” Duke said, and then ran back to get the truck.

He drove way out around the site to pick Jack up.

“I would have thought we’d already be seeing cattle,” Jack said, as he got back in. “They usually hear us coming.”