He passed through many a gauntlet of death in his flight from station to station, bearing express matter that was of the greatest value.

Colonel Cody, in telling the story of his own experiences with the Pony Express, says:—­

The enterprise was just being started.  The line was stocked with horses and put into good running order.  At Julesburg I met Mr. George Chrisman, the leading wagon-master of Russell, Majors, & Waddell, who had always been a good friend to me.  He had bought out “Old Jules,” and was then the owner of Julesburg Ranch, and the agent of the Pony Express line.  He hired me at once as a Pony Express rider, but as I was so young he thought I was not able to stand the fierce riding which was required of the messengers.  He knew, however, that I had been raised in the saddle—­that I felt more at home there than in any other place—­and as he saw that I was confident that I could stand the racket, and could ride as far and endure it as well as some of the old riders, he gave me a short route of forty-five miles, with the stations fifteen miles apart, and three changes of horses.  I was fortunate in getting well-broken animals, and being so light I easily made my forty-five miles on my first trip out, and ever afterward.

As the warm days of summer approached I longed for the cool air of the mountains; and to the mountains I determined to go.  When I returned to Leavenworth I met my old wagon-master and friend, Lewis Simpson, who was fitting out a train at Atchison and loading it with supplies for the Overland Stage Company, of which Mr. Russell, my old employer, was one of the proprietors.  Simpson was going with this train to Fort Laramie and points farther west.

        “Come along with me, Billy,” said he, “I’ll give you a good
        lay-out.  I want you with me.”

        “I don’t know that I would like to go as far west as that
        again,” I replied, “but I do want to ride the Pony Express
        once more; there’s some life in that.”

“Yes, that’s so; but it will soon shake the life out of you,” said he.  “However, if that’s what you’ve got your mind set on, you had better come to Atchison with me and see Mr. Russell, who, I’m pretty certain, will give you a situation.”

I met Mr. Russell there and asked him for employment as a Pony Express rider; he gave me a letter to Mr. Slade, who was then the stage-agent for the division extending from Julesburg to Rocky Ridge.  Slade had his headquarters at Horseshoe Station, thirty-six miles west of Fort Laramie, and I made the trip thither in company with Simpson and his train.

Almost the first person I saw after dismounting from my horse was Slade.  I walked up to him and presented Mr. Russell’s letter, which he hastily opened and read.  With a sweeping glance of his eye he took my measure from head to foot, and then said:—­

        “My boy, you are too young for a Pony Express rider.  It takes
        men for that business.”