Peters had been up to the tie camps at Medicine Bow, and his muscles wrere hard from hewing ties, but "Big Nose George" was totally unused to work. He was a gambler of some repute, but had had a streak of bad luck, which his skill could not overcome. Being on his uppers, he had to do something, and fell in with Peters on this job. His lily white hands were a mass of cruel blisters, but he possessed the ability of sticking to the job.

In the evenings he entertained Johnny with his card skill, and found Peters quite an adept pupil. In witness whereof ask most any of the old boys of the range that knew him during the next three or four years.

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

Creighton's Horse Creek ranch was just below the point where the Pine Bluffs branch connects with the creek. This branch has some springs in it, and is partly dry most of the time. He had here the Circle Bar brand which was later converted into the half circle block.

The J. H. D.. which was owned by Mead, Evans & Company, was twenty-five miles west of Creighton's. Billy Likens was once the foreman. Likens, after serving a term as sheriff of Laramie county, became the cattle detective of the Wyoming Livestock Association. He had many nervy and dare-devil experiences.

G. W. Simpson came out from Boston, and organized the Bay State Land & Cattle Company in 1882, and he was its president. He managed to get Evans interested, and Evans held the startegic real estate of the J. H. D. Simpson bought it and then he undertook to make terms with O. W. Mead, the senior and remaining principal stockholder of the old concern. Mead refused to capitulate. He moved the cattle farther up Horse creek, and put the Four K brand upon the range.