But I've left one for you, instead. It's in the room to
your right."
"Oh, thank you, kind Santa Claus," said Rosita, brightly.
Rosita went into the room, while Santa Claus stepped into the cooler
air of the yard.
She found no one in the room but Madison.
"Where is my present that Santa said he left for me in here?" she
asked.
"Haven't seen anything in the way of a present," said her husband,
laughing, "unless he could have meant me."
The next day Gabriel Radd, the foreman of the X O Ranch, dropped into
the post-office at Loma Alta.
"Well, the Frio Kid's got his dose of lead at last," he remarked to
the postmaster.
"That so? How'd it happen?"
"One of old Sanchez's Mexican sheep herders did it!--think of it!
the Frio Kid killed by a sheep herder! The Greaser saw him riding
along past his camp about twelve o'clock last night, and was so
skeered that he up with a Winchester and let him have it. Funniest
part of it was that the Kid was dressed all up with white Angora-skin
whiskers and a regular Santy Claus rig-out from head to foot. Think
of the Frio Kid playing Santy!"
XXI
A LITTLE LOCAL COLOUR
I mentioned to Rivington that I was in search of characteristic New
York scenes and incidents--something typical, I told him, without
necessarily having to spell the first syllable with an "i.
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