Buffalo Bill and the Overland Trail / Being the story of how boy and man worked hard and played hard to blaze the white trail, by wagon train, stage coach and pony express, across the great plains and the mountains beyond, that the American republic might expand and flourish

by Edwin L. Sabin

“Clear from the diggin’s, eh?” pursued Hi. “How are things out thar? Booming?”

The man stroked his black beard and surveyed the party.

“Do I look booming, mister?” he demanded. “I wouldn’t give an acre in old Missouri for the whole of the Pike’s Peak country. You going out yonder after gold?”

“Yes.”

“Wall, you’re on the hardest trail you ever tackled, mister; no wood, no water, no forage, and game mighty scarce. And when you get to the end you won’t find much. That story about gold is the biggest hoax ever invented. From now on you’ll meet about as many people turned back as there are going on.”

“What’s the matter? Isn’t there any gold at all?” asked Billy, dismayed.

“Mighty little and hard to get.”

“I’m going on just the same and see,” said Billy, doggedly.

“We’re with you, Billy,” encouraged the Reverend. And—“What’s happening out there, anyway?” he queried of the returning pilgrim. “We hear that twenty thousand people are on the road.”