r seen. The
route was from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, a
distance of two thousand miles, across the Plains, over a dreary
stretch of sagebrush and alkali desert, and through two great mountain
ranges.

The system was really a relay race against time. Stations were built at
intervals averaging fifteen miles apart. A rider's route covered three
stations, with an exchange of horses at each, so that he was expected
at the beginning to cover close to forty-five miles--a good ride when
one must average fifteen miles an hour.

The firm undertaking the enterprise had been busy for some time picking
the best ponies to be had for money, and the lightest, most wiry and
most experienced riders. This was a life that appealed to me, and I
struck for a job. I was pretty young in years, but I had already earned
a reputation for coming safe out of perilous adventures, and I was
hired.

Naturally our equipment was the very lightest. The messages which we
carried were written on the thinnest paper to be found. These we
carried in a waterproof pouch, slung under our arms. We wore only such
clothing as was absolutely necessary.

The first trip of the Pony Express was made in ten days--an average of
two hundred miles a day. But we soon began stretching our riders and
making better time. Soon we shortened the time to eight days. President
Buchanan's last Presidential message in December, 1860, was carried in
eight days. President Lincoln's inaugural, the following March, took
only seven days and seventeen hours for the journey between St. Joseph
and Sacramento.

We soon got used to the work. When it became apparent to the men in
charge that the boys could do better than forty-five miles a day the
stretches were lengthened. The pay of the rider was from $100 to $125 a
month. It was announced that the further a man rode the better would be
his pay. That put speed and endurance into all of us.

Stern necessity often compelled us to lengthen our day's work even
beyond our desires. In the hostile Indian country, riders were
frequently shot. In such an event the man whose relief had been killed
had to ride on to the next station, doing two men's ride. Road-agents
were another menace, and often they proved as deadly as the Indians.

In stretching my own route I found myself getting further and further
west. Finally I was riding well into the foothills of the Rockies.
Still further west my route was pushed. Soon I rode f