A branch of some railroad terminated there.

The main street was wide, bordered by trees and commodious houses, and many of the stores were of brick.
A large plaza shaded by giant cottonwood trees occupied a central location.
Duane pulled his running horse and halted him, plunging and snorting, before a group of idle men who lounged on benches in the shade of a spreading cottonwood.

How many times had Duane seen just that kind of lazy shirt-sleeved Texas group! Not often, however, had he seen such placid, lolling, good-natured men change their expression, their attitude so swiftly.

His advent apparently was momentous.

They evidently took him for an unusual visitor.