Must Be Good Riders: Orphans Preferred

Synopsis

Sixteen-year-old David McKae arrives in the little Western town of Hall’s Station with a macabre load of fellow passengers aboard the Concord coach—five dead men. When David tells his grisly tale of ambush, robbery, and murder, a posse rides out to find the killer. David remains behind in Hall’s Station, friendless, penniless, and just about the loneliest and most bewildered young fellow in the territory. Born and bred in Gloucester, Massachusetts, David came West after the death of his father to find his uncle, and seek his own fortune. But as the battered stage rumbled its way across the Nevada desert, fate in the form of trigger-happy Johnny Hadley, a killer and a renegade, stepped in, and before the two coachmen and four passengers reached their scheduled destinations, five of the six were dispatched to a different and more final rendezvous—with Death. Only David McKae, the Easterner in his city clothes, survived. Recovering consciousness after being left for dead by the murderous Hadley, David managed to bring the coach into Hall’s Station. The luck that saved David from the gunman’s attack remains with him in the small Western town. Soon he is befriended by Doherty, a huge, kindly Irishman, and Dianne, Doherty’s half-Indian daughter. Doherty teaches David the ways of the West, and the ways of the Indians. One of the first lessons is on self-defense. He must get a gun, Doherty tells him, and he must learn to shoot it well. David also makes a friend of fourteen-year-old Billy Tate, a Pony Express rider, and is seized with the ambition to ride for the Pony. David has much to learn before he can join the ranks of the wily and courageous Pony riders. And before any of this can come to pass, David, though he does not know it, will be put to the test of his life—by the return of Johnny Hadley. Here is a story full of the lore—and the lure—of the old West, where life was at best a precarious affair, and the fearless boy riders of the Pony Express—not one of them over eighteen—answered the ominous description of its advertisements.

Copyright:

1962

Book Details

Book Quality:

Excellent

Book Size:

220 Pages

Publisher:

Funk & Wagnalls Company, Inc., New York

Date of Addition:

04/05/22

Copyrighted By:

Don Stanford, Vern Baker

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

Children's Books, Teens, Westerns, Animals, Literature and Fiction

Reading Age:

0–0

Submitted By:

Sandra Ryan

Proofread By:

BookMouse

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.