"I see now that Russell says you are Buffalo Billy," and Slade glanced again at the letter.
"Yes, sir, that's what my pards call me."
"I have heard of you, and you can become a pony rider; if you break down you can give it up."
The very next day Billy was set to work on the trail from Red Buttes on the North Platte, to Three Crossings on the Sweet Water, a distance of seventy-six miles.
It was a very long piece of road, but Billy did not weaken, and ere long became known as the Boss Pony Rider.
One day he arrived at the end of his road to find that the rider who should have gone out on the trip with his mail, had been killed in a fight, so he at once volunteered for the run to Rocky Ridge, a distance of eighty-five miles, and arrived at the station even ahead of time.
Without rest he turned back and reached Red Buttes on time, making the extraordinary run of three hundred and twenty-two miles without rest, and at an average speed of fifteen miles an hour.
This remarkable feat won for him a presentation of a purse of gold from the company, and a fame for pluck and endurance that placed him as the chief of the Pony Riders.