Read Redskin and Cow-Boy: A Tale of the Western Plains Page 1
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;" "ByRight of Conquest;" "True to the Old Flag;" "In Freedom's Cause;"&c.
With Twelve Page Illustrations by Alfred Pearse
New YorkCharles Scribner's Sons1896
Copyright, 1891,By Charles Scribner's Sons.
PREFACE.
MY DEAR LADS,
There are but few words of preface needed to a story that is nothistorical. The principal part of the tale is laid among the cow-boysof the Western States of America, a body of men unrivalled in pointof hardihood and devotion to work, as well as in reckless courageand wild daring. Texas, which twenty-five years ago was the greatranching state, is no longer the home of the typical cow-boy, buthe still exists and flourishes in New Mexico and the northern Statesand Territories. The picture I have given of their life can be reliedupon, and its adventures and dangers are in no degree coloured, asI have taken them from the lips of a near relative of my own who wasfor some years working as a cow-boy in New Mexico. He was an actor inmany of the scenes described, and so far from my having heightened orembellished them, I may say that I have given but a small proportionof the perilous adventures through which he went, for had I given themin full it would, I am sure, have seemed to you that the story was tooimprobable to be true. In treating of cow-boy life, indeed, it may wellbe said that truth is stranger than fiction.