Scar grows hair different. Every man on that fence knew it. That is why the whole yard came down off the rails and pressed in until the boards creaked. And Hollis never did put his hand on Catherine's arm because he was up on his toes like everybody else. Newell took the county brand book out of the bag and opened it on his knee.
Then he stood up. Well, he said, "That's a diamond." Sure enough, he waited. He had been reading brands out loud to crowds for 30 years, and he knew exactly what he was doing. And there is a bro sitting in the middle of it. He turned the book around and held it up.
Nobody puts an O inside a diamond, Thomas. Somebody put a diamond around an O. The sound that went through that crowd was not one it had made all day. Newell put his finger on the page. Bar O, left shoulder, recorded in this book to Ross Osborne of the Sylvies, and it has been on that page since before either of us had gray in us.
And it has been run over twice. There's the first pass and there's the second one on top of it and you can see daylight between them. A man does not brand a horse twice by accident. Hammond said his name. New went straight over the top of it and his voice went up for the first time that afternoon and it went a long way in the open.
And here is the part I want every man on this fence to hear because half of you buy horses off this outfit. A man who buys a horse vents the brand. That is the law. And it is also just what a decent man does. You run the seller's mark again on the shoulder and you cancel it and it stands there for the rest of that animal's life saying this was a sale.
A man who steals a horse burns the mark out. He held up the folded bill of sale which Hammond was still holding by taking it out of his hand. You say you bought this colt for $60? Then where is the vent, Thomas? There is no vent on this horse.
There is a diamond run around a barro twice with a hot iron. This piece of paper says it was a sail. That shoulder says it was not. And I have got both of them right here in my two hands. Then he turned around and looked at the crew standing along the chute.
Who held him? It was such a small question. Wesley Boyd had been standing at that gate post for 20 minutes with his hand on it. He had shoved that woman off a rail at 11 in the morning. He had watched her ride the horse he ruined.