42 THE ITINERANT HORSE PHYSICIAN 



up with the intention of building a fire some- 

 where outside to get warm by, only to find that I 

 had no matches. So I began to walk up and 

 down the track, keeping it up until sunrise, 

 somewhere around four o'clock. 



About six o'clock the agent got up and was 

 kind enough to invite me upstairs to breakfast, a 

 breakfast that I enjoyed too, thankfully. 



I had just finished the breakfast when a rider 

 appeared with an extra horse to take me out to 

 the herd; twelve miles below Columbus they 

 were, he said. You can imagine how I felt 

 about riding twelve miles on a horse after walk- 

 ing the track the greater part of the night. 



And then, when we got to their camp, the boss 

 informed me that the herd had stampeded during 

 the night ; the boys had been successful in holding 

 about half of them, around seven hundred head, 

 and it would take a day or two to gather the run- 

 aways again. He thought, though, that I might 

 look at those they held and issue a certificate on 

 the entire shipment if I found these were alright ; 

 they were all "clean," he was positive, and he 

 couldn't see why that could not be done. 



I told him I could not do this ; I would have to 

 see every animal I certified. However, I told 

 him that I would inspect the seven hundred head 

 they had now and give him a certificate on that 

 number if I found them alright. 



This he did not want, and I rode back to 

 Columbus. 



It took nearly two weeks before the office 

 received another request to inspect the herd, 

 when another inspector was detailed to the work. 



