142 THE ITINERANT HORSE PHYSICIAN 



know, but if I would go over to the town restau- 

 rant I would find one of the bosses, who was eat- 

 ing there and who could give me the information 

 I wanted. This looked like genuine good luck 

 for us after all, and I immediately went in search 

 of the boss, finding him in the restaurant, just as 

 the driver of the wagon had described him. He 

 was a good-natured looking chap, and I did not 

 hesitate to approach. I told him who and what 

 I was and suggested that possibly some of the 

 horses at the dam might require veterinary atten- 

 tion. "Well, I'll tell you," he said, "I don't 

 think we can use you ; we had all their teeth fixed 

 about a month ago, and I don't know of a single 

 horse out there requiring anything in your line." 



All my hopes smashed to smithereens! 



Here we had steered for this one-man town 

 solely because we figured on getting a bunch of 

 work out of those three hundred horses at the 

 dam-site; and now we find that every one of 

 them is sound as a dollar! 



I walked back to where my brother was wait- 

 ing for me and broke the sad news to him gently. 



While we stood there bemoaning our hard luck, 

 a team of mules was driven up to the little drug- 

 store across the street from where we stood. One 

 of the mules looked very thin and in extremely 

 poor condition; the man driving them tied them 

 to a post and went into the drug store. 



My brother, who is good at "getting 

 acquainted" followed him into the drug store. 

 He told the druggist he was a veterinarian, that 

 he intended to remain in town a few days and 



