With a whoop and a holler, the Pony Express rode out of St. Joseph, Missouri, for San Francisco, that spring day in 1860, opening up one of the most exciting chapters of the American frontier.

Men like Billy Richardson and "Sawed-off Jim" Cumbo -- on their fast, wiry mustangs -- raced across two thousand miles in ten days' time to link East with West. One stop along the line was Egan Canyon, Nevada, where young Mark Claggett and his sister Rose helped their father run the Pony Express station. It was a lonely life and a dangerous one for them, as Paiute Indians and bandits roamed the canyon walls. And to make matters worse, the Claggetts were on probation because of a lost letter.

Then Mark's chance to prove the station the best on the trail came with the news of Lincoln's Inaugural Address. The President's words might be the means of holding California in the Union at a time when it was needed most. All records had to be broken in getting the message west. But the rider arrived at Egan Canyon half frozen in the raging March blizzard. And it was young Mark, on Four Boots who set out in the swirling snow to carry the address on to Ruby Valley station and to make a dream come true -- to ride the Pony Express!

From the dust jacket