'Feasible?' Bennett swallowed chicken. 'It would have been a crime. Legally.'
'Of course. But-please give this consideration as a serious question-might it have worked?'
He considered, chewing bread and butter. 'No. Monte McMillan was there.'
'If Mr. McMillan hadn't been there, or had been a party to the scheme, might it have worked?'
'It might have.'
'It would have been possible to replace Caesar with an- other bull sufficiently resembling him so that the substitution would be undetected by anyone not thoroughly familiar with his appearance, without a close inspection?'
'It might have.'
'Yet Caesar was a national grand champion.' Wolfe shifted, grimacing, on the folding chair. 'Didn't he approach the unique?'
'Hell no. There's plenty of good bulls, and quite a few great ones. The grand champion stuff is all right, and it's valid, but sometimes the margin is mighty slim. Last year at Indianapolis, Caesar scored 96 and Portchester Compton 95. Another thing of course is their get. The records of their daughters and sons. Caesar had 51 A R daughters-'
'And 9 A R sons. I know. And that of course would not be visible to the eye. But still I am not satisfied. If another bull was to be substituted for Caesar by… well, let us say Clyde Osgood… it couldn't be a near- champion, for the bull was destined to be butchered, and near-champions are valuable too. Would it be possible for an average bull, of comparatively low value, to have a fairly strong resemblance to a champion?'
'Might. At a distance of say a hundred yards. It would depend on who was looking.'
'How does a bull score points?'
Bennett swallowed dumplings. 'The scale of points we judge on has 22 headings, with a total of 100 points for perfection, which of course no bull ever got. Style and symmetry is 10 points. Head 6, horns 1, neck 3, withers 3, shoulders 2, chest 4, back 8, loin 3, hips 2, rump 6, thurls 2, barrel 10, and so on. The biggest number of points for any heading is 20 points for Secretions Indicating Color of Product. That's judged by the pigment secretions of the skin, which should be a deep yellow inclining toward orange in color, especially discernible in the ear, at the end of the tad- bone, around the eyes and nose, on the scrotum, and at the base of horns. Hoofs and horns should be yellow. There is a very close relationship between the color of the skin, the color of the internal fat, and the milk and butter. Now that heading alone is 20 points out of the 100, and you can only judge it by a close-up inspection. As far as value is concerned, a bull's A R record is much more important than his show record. In the 1935 auctions, for instance, the price brought by A R bulls averaged over $2000. Bulls not yet A R but with A R dams averaged $533. Bulls not A R and without A R dams averaged $157. That same year Lang- water Reveller sold for $10,000.'
Wolfe nodded. 'I see. The subtleties rule, as usual. That seems to cover the questions of value and superficial ap- pearance. The next point… I was astonished by what you told me on the telephone yesterday when I called you from Mr. Osgood's house. I would have supposed that every pure- bred calf would receive an indelible mark at birth. But you said that the only ones that are marked-with a tattoo on the ear-are those of solid color, with no white.'
'That's right.'
'So that if Caesar had been replaced by another bull it couldn't have been detected by the absence of any identifying mark.'
'No. Only by comparing his color pattern with your knowl- edge of Caesar's color pattern or with the sketch on his Certificate of Registration.'
'Just so. You spoke of sketches or photographs. How are they procured?'
'They are made by the breeder, at birth, or at least before the calf is six months old. On the reverse of the Application for Registration are printed outlines of a cow, both sides and face. On them the breeder sketches in ink the color pattern of the calf, showing white, light fawn, dark fawn, red fawn, brown and brindle. The sketches, filed in our office at Fembor- ough, are the permanent record for identification throughout life. Copies of them appear on the certificate of registration. If you buy a bull and want to be sure you are getting the right one, you compare his color and markings with the sketches.'
Then I did understand you on the telephone. It sounded a little haphazard.'
'It's the universal method,' declared Bennett stiffly. 'There has never been any difficulty.'
'No offense. If it works it works.' Wolfe sighed. 'One more thing while you have your pie and coffee. This may require some reflection. Putting it as a hypothesis that Clyde Osgood actually undertook to replace Caesar with a sub- stitute, how many bulls are there within, say, 50 miles of here, which might have been likely candidates? With a fair re- semblance to Caesar, the closer the better, in general appear- ance and color pattern? Remember it mustn't be another champion, worth thousands.'
Bennett objected, 'But I've told you, it couldn't have worked. No matter how close the resemblance was, Monte McMillan would have known. He would have known Hickory Caesar Grindon from any bull on earth.'
T said as a hypothesis. Humor me and we'll soon be through. How many such bulls within 50 miles?'
'That's quite an order.' Bennett slowly munched a bite of pie, stirring his coffee, and considered. 'Of course there's one right here, up at the shed. A Willowdale bull, 3-year- old. He'll never be in Caesar's class, but superficially he's a lot like him, color pattern and carriage and so on.'
'Are you sure the one in the shed is the Willowdale bull?'
Bennett looked startled for an instant, then relieved. 'Yes, it's Willowdale Zodiac all right. He was judged a while ago, and he's way down in pigment.' He sipped some coffee. 'There's a bull over at Hawley's, Orinoco, that might fill the bill, except his loin's narrow, but you might or might not notice that from any distance,
