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REDSKIN AND COW-BOY

THE MEETING IN THE INN GARDEN AT EL PASO.

REDSKIN AND COW-BOY

A TALE OF
THE WESTERN PLAINS

BY
G. A. HENTY
Author of "Held Fast for England;" "The Dash for Khartoum;" "By Right ofConquest;" "True to the Old Flag;" "In Freedom's Cause;" &c.

WITH TWELVE PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS BY
ALFRED PEARSE

NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1896

COPYRIGHT, 1891,
BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.

PREFACE.

My dear Lads,

There are but few words of preface needed to a storythat is not historical. The principal part of the tale is laidamong the cow-boys of the Western States of America, a bodyof men unrivalled in point of hardihood and devotion to work,as well as in reckless courage and wild daring. Texas, whichtwenty-five years ago was the great ranching state, is no longerthe home of the typical cow-boy, but he still exists and flourishesin New Mexico and the northern States and Territories.The picture I have given of their life can be relied upon, andits adventures and dangers are in no degree coloured, as I havetaken them from the lips of a near relative of my own whowas for some years working as a cow-boy in New Mexico. Hewas an actor in many of the scenes described, and so far frommy having heightened or embellished them, I may say that Ihave given but a small proportion of the perilous adventuresthrough which he went, for had I given them in full it would, Iam sure, have seemed to you that the story was too improbableto be true. In treating of cow-boy life, indeed, it may well besaid that truth is stranger than fiction.

Yours sincerely,

G. A. HENTY.

CONTENTS.