XX. A CHAPARRAL CHRISTMAS

XXI. A LITTLE LOCAL COLOUR

XXII. GEORGIA'S RULING

XXIII. BLIND MAN'S HOLIDAY

XXIV. MADAME BO-PEEP, OF THE RANCHES




I

THE WORLD AND THE DOOR


A favourite dodge to get your story read by the public is to assert
that it is true, and then add that Truth is stranger than Fiction.
I do not know if the yarn I am anxious for you to read is true; but
the Spanish purser of the fruit steamer _El Carrero_ swore to me by
the shrine of Santa Guadalupe that he had the facts from the U. S.
vice-consul at La Paz--a person who could not possibly have been
cognizant of half of them.

As for the adage quoted above, I take pleasure in puncturing it by
affirming that I read in a purely fictional story the other day the
line: "'Be it so,' said the policeman." Nothing so strange has yet
cropped out in Truth.