Redskin and Cow-Boy: A Tale of the Western Plains

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Redskin and Cow-Boy, by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty, Illustrated by Alfred Pearse

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 of Conquest; 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.
My dear Lads,
There are but few words of preface needed to a story that is not historical. The principal part of the tale is laid among the cow-boys of the Western States of America, a body of men unrivalled in point of hardihood and devotion to work, as well as in reckless courage and wild daring. Texas, which twenty-five years ago was the great ranching state, is no longer the home of the typical cow-boy, but he still exists and flourishes in New Mexico and the northern States and Territories. The picture I have given of their life can be relied upon, and its adventures and dangers are in no degree coloured, as I have taken them from the lips of a near relative of my own who was for some years working as a cow-boy in New Mexico. He was an actor in many of the scenes described, and so far from my having heightened or embellished them, I may say that I have given but a small proportion of the perilous adventures through which he went, for had I given them in full it would, I am sure, have seemed to you that the story was too improbable to be true. In treating of cow-boy life, indeed, it may well be said that truth is stranger than fiction.
Yours sincerely,