The Bay State Company bought the Circle Arrow in the Spring of 1883, and Creighton sold to the Company in the autumn of the same year his entire ranch possessions, including Pumpkin creek, Horse creek, and Laramie Plains ranches.

In 1883, the Bay State Company branded all their cattle with the "Circle Block," which correctly speaking is only a "quarter circleblock," and that remained their standard brand until they drove their herds into the northwest, four or five years later.

John A. McShane became quite active on the range then, but he was something of a tenderfoot.

When a big herd was brought in from Texas and turned loose in this country, it was necessary for tin- boys to herd them for a while, until tiny became familiar with the country. So two

by two they would set forth in the mornings and would go about the wild herds that were inclined to run their foolish legs off, to hold them in check, and move them about until they became familiar with the springs and watering places.

One day, as the earliest of the men were dropping back to the ranch at the head of Pumpkin creek, after the cattle had been properly rounded in, they found McShane cooking dinner for several lazy, fat buck Indians. These Indians were perfectly harmless, but McShane did not know it. They had been visiting somewhere down south and were returning to the Red Cloud Agency on White river.

They could not resist the temptation to throw a little scare into people as they went along. At the Circle Arrow they shot off their rifles and left some stones lying in peculiar positions, which old Bill Gaw, the trapper, told the people at the ranch, were "war signs."