One of the things you notice when working with hunters is that folks in the law enforcement profession almost always wear some sort of emblem from back home to announce their profession out here. They'll have a cap, or jacket, or shirt with their agency's logo on it.

Perhaps they're just proud of what they do. Perhaps they have no other grungy hunting clothes. Perhaps this is what they're really comfortable in.

But you always wonder if they aren't also trying to curry favor. Hoping to get a little better tip on where to hunt, or a little extra courtesy when going through the paperwork by appearing to a "brother in blue". Like the Alabama sheriff last weekend (who had four of his people working Katrina, and this elk hunt was his break from the same).

So, I thought I had more of the same when the vehicle with three men stopped at my check station early this morning, and here's one guy wearing a U.S. Marshals t-shirt. No great surprise, since we produced our own U.S. Marshal from this community, and he's been bringing law enforcement friends back to hunt ever since.

The second guy obviously was a marshal, too, but he was blatant enough to wear one of those small star-in-a-ring U.S. Marshall lapel pins on his shirt. Cool, but maybe a little obvious.

The third guy, the one with an antelope to check, had no labels on him, and looked the office/business type. When I asked for his paperwork, I was surprised to find he had a hand-written license and tag, rather than the standard computer issued one.

A duplicate. Issued to someone who lost their original license. So, as I check his antelope's teeth, I ask, how'd you lose your license?

He doesn't know. His secretary just couldn't find it.

Okay, I was right. The office type. But at least he got a nice antelope, and he was certainly a friendly enough fellow, more so than his law enforcement hunting companions.

We make jokes about where his secretary might have misfiled "Antelope Hunting License", and then I send them on their way, hurrying back to check the next vehicle (which had the nicest antelope yet this year).

Late in the evening, one of the local Docs comes out, with a hunter and his antelope. As we go through the paperwork once again, he asks if I got to check Sca-lee-ya's antelope.

That's the second time I've had that question today.

I ask the Doc, why is that name familiar, and why should I care?

"Antonin Scalia? The Supreme Court Justice?"

And I think back to the smiling office man, and his two U.S. Marshal escorts.

Yeah. Yeah, I guess I did.

(It seems he's hunting with Cheney again, who flew up from Katrina for this antelope hunt. The three men were a little careless in their conversation. I know where this undisclosed location is.)