Alden the Pony Express rider

Every man, woman and child seemed to feel the pulsing in the air. Most of the people were on the street, though hundreds of mothers and daughters were at the upper windows, on t...

I have tried to give you an idea of the scene in the town of St. Joseph, Missouri, on that afternoon in April, 1860, when Alexander Carlyle, the first Pony Express rider, dashed...

The “Southern Overland Mail” was the first transcontinental stage line in this country, and probably the longest continuous run ever operated in the world. It lacked 241 miles o...

The emigrant train to which our young friends belonged ran into bad weather, while crossing northeastern Kansas, and again before reaching Fort Kearny, in Nebraska. A cold, driz...

Shagbark kept continually scanning the horizon in all directions. It lacked an hour of sunset when the flickering forms to the northwest passed over the rim of vision. But the g...

Suddenly through the tomblike stillness brooding over camp and plain, came the dull sounds of rifle firing. Two shots were in quick succession, a third followed, then two more,...

At the instant of turning, Alden saw a form rise from the grass, less than two rods from the wagon, and glide with incredible swiftness toward it. The Indian was crouching, a ri...

It looked to Alden Payne as if Jethro was eight feet long, when the guide was dragging him out of the front of the wagon by the nape of the neck. Like many persons, he was slow...

The next look we take of the train under the guidance of Shagbark, the veteran of the plains, is several weeks after the incidents just described. The route which they in common...

Since there was no call for haste, the progress of the emigrant train sometimes ceased altogether. This was the case on the morning following the incident just related. The caus...

No argument could be held with such intelligence as this. Shagbark, with a queer expression on his bearded countenance, looked at the grinning Jethro, but did not speak. Possibl...

It would be interesting to trace the progress of the emigrant train westward for the following weeks, but, there would be a certain monotony in the narration. The routine went o...

The appeal roused his master. He glanced from the pony and the prostrate rider to the opposite bluffs, and at every hiding place of an enemy in his field of vision. Since the tr...

In a twinkling, as may be said, he was transformed from an emigrant plodding his way across the continent to a Pony Express Rider, whose sole effort was to skim over the dangero...

Moreover, Dick Lightfoot’s revolver was with his body. Still the youth had his own small weapon which he carried at his hip, where he could draw it the instant needed. Besides t...

Alden was convinced from a study of the signal smoke that it was gradually fading, as if the fire which caused it was not replenished. What this signified, as well as the meanin...

Dick the pony held his swift gallop for a half mile farther, when he debouched into an open country, similar in many respects to that which he had left behind him. While it coul...

Although the meal lasted but a few minutes, much was said. Harper and Altman developed a talkative streak and had much to tell their guest. The three had been located at the sta...

Alden Payne was in the quandary of his life. Deserted by the unprincipled Bucephalus, he was left with saddle and mail pouches six miles or more from his destination, and still...

Several facts saved Alden Payne from drowning. In the first place, the deep hole into which he stepped was only three or four feet across. The space was so slight indeed that hi...

The arrival of Alden Payne at the station and the story which he carried caused a profound sensation. When the door was opened in response to his knock, he dropped the pouches o...

The day was crisp, clear and sunshiny, Alden strove to shake off the feelings that oppressed him. He knew he was not treating his hospitable friends right, for they had shown hi...