cuss your soul?" I told him that I was, and he said, "I'm right glad to
see you again, Billy." I asked him if he wasn't John Powers, and he told
me he was. Then I asked him his business in Topeka, and he told me he
had just brought his two daughters to Bethany College at Topeka, Kansas.

Mr. Powers was at that time badly afflicted with cancer of the tongue,
and he told me that he hadn't long to live. He also told me that he had
bought the Old Arcadia Indian Camp on the Picketwaire River (Picketwaire
means River of Lost Souls or Purgatory to the Indians). The camp is
between Fort Lyons and Bent's Old Fort on the opposite of the river.
Some of the land at that time was rated at $50 per acre and is now, most
of it, worth $100 per acre. His rating at the time of death in Dun &
Bradstreet's Commercial Report was four million dollars. That was the
last time I ever saw him.



CHAPTER V.

Barnum, Veil and Vickeroy Go a Journeying With Barlow and
Sanderson.--Vickeroy Is Branded "U.S.M."

In the fall of 1863 I quit the Long Route and went up on what is known
as the Denver Branch, driving from Bent's Old Fort, Colorado, to
Boonville, Colorado. On my last drive across the Long Route I had a
party of "dead heads." They were the "bosses"--owners of the Stage Coach
Company Line. That is, Barnum, Veil and Vickeroy were, and Barlow and
Sanderson were going over the trip with these fellows with a view of
buying out the interest of Vickeroy. There were three more passengers,
all on fun intent.