of the work before me, and the troubles in store, my
enthusiasm would not have been quite so great.

[Illustration: WATERING A HERD.]

CHAPTER V

RANCHING IN NEW MEXICO

The Scottish Company--My Difficulties and Dangers--Mustang
Hunting--Round-up described--Shipping Cattle--Railroad
Accidents--Close out Scotch Company's Interests.

Bidding good-bye to Arizona I travelled to Las Vegas, New Mexico, now
quite an important place. Calling on Mr L----, the manager of the
Mortgage Company, and the Company's lawyers, the position of affairs was
thus stated to me. The Company had loaned a large sum of money to a
cattleman named M----, who owned a large ranch with valuable
water-claims and a very fine though small herd of cattle. M---- had paid
no interest for several years and attempted to repudiate the loan, so
the Company decided to foreclose and take possession. Well, that seemed
all right; so after getting power of attorney papers, etc., from the
Company, I started down to the ranch, some eighty miles and near Fort
Sumner, and introduced myself to M----, who at once refused to turn over
the property to me or to anyone else, and sent me back to Las Vegas in a
somewhat puzzled state of mind. Recounting my experience to Mr L----
and the lawyers, after a long confab they decided that I should go down
again and _take_ possession. They refused me the services of a sheriff
or a deputy to serve the papers and represent the law. No, I was to take
possession in any way my wits might suggest; they merely proposing that
everything I did I should put on paper and make affidavit to and send up
to them. By this time I had learned that M---- was very much stirred up
about it, was quite determined to give nothing up, and that really he
was a dangerous man who, if pushed to extremities, might do something
desperate. The lawyers told me there was another, a right, usual and
legal way of taking possession, but for private reasons they did not
wish to proceed in that way; and so I finally agreed to go down again
and do what I could.

Buying some horses and hiring a Mexican vaquero to show me the country,
and especially to be a witness to whatever took place, we pulled out for
Fort Sumner. The spring round-up was about to begin, and near by I found
M----'s "outfit" wagon, "cavayad" of horses, his full force of "hands"
and the foreman H----. After dining with them I pulled out my papers to
show H---- who I was and tol