Fifteen-year-old Evan Kendrick has traveled from New Mexico Territory to Galveston, Texas, with his father, Edward, who will be competing in a horse race that's offering a $3,000 prize to the winner. But a terrible accident seriously injures Evan's drunken father, forcing Evan to saddle up instead. And this is no ordinary race. Its course is eighteen hundred miles -- and maybe even longer -- between Texas and New England, and Evan will be riding an...