E-text prepared by Al Haines Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 18309-h.htm or 18309-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/3/0/18309/18309-h/18309-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/3/0/18309/18309-h.zip) EMERSON'S WIFE AND OTHER WESTERN STORIES by FLORENCE FINCH KELLY Author of "With Hoops of Steel," "The Delafield Affair," Etc. With Illustrations in Color by Stanley L. Wood [Frontispiece: "Want my guns?" shouted Nick derisively. "Then come and take 'em!"] Chicago A. C. McClurg & Co. 1911 Copyright A. C. McClurg & Co. 1911 Published September, 1911 Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, England CONTENTS EMERSON'S WIFE COLONEL KATE'S _Protegee_ THE KID OF APACHE TEJU A BLAZE ON PARD HUFF HOW COLONEL KATE WON HER SPURS HOLLYHOCKS THE RISE, FALL, AND REDEMPTION OF JOHNSON SIDES A PIECE OF WRECKAGE THE STORY OF A CHINEE KID OUT OF SYMPATHY AN OLD ROMAN OF MARIPOSA OUT OF THE MOUTH OF BABES POSEY A CASE OF THE INNER IMPERATIVE ILLUSTRATIONS "Want my guns?" shouted Nick derisively. "Then come and take 'em!" . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ Wemple dug his spurs into its sweating side and the beast sprang forward at a faster gallop Out on the plain we saw the Kid yelling like a wild man, with Dynamite at his highest speed, chasing a jackrabbit "I'd hate to have to spile your hide, but I'll do it if you don't get out o' this trail" EMERSON'S WIFE AND OTHER WESTERN STORIES EMERSON'S WIFE Nick Ellhorn awoke and looked around the room with curiosity and interest, but without surprise. He had no recollection of having entered it the night before, and he was lying across the bed fully clothed. But he had long ago ceased to feel surprise over a matter of that sort. His next movement was to reach for his revolver, and he gave a grunt of satisfaction on finding that it hung, as usual, from his cartridge belt. He was aware of a deep, insistent thirst, and as he sat up on the edge of the bed he announced aloud, in a tone of conviction, "I sure need a cocktail!" Glancing out of the window, he saw a little plaza, fresh in the morning sunlight with its greening grass and budding trees, and beyond it the pink walls and portalled front of a long adobe building. He nodded approvingly. "I reckon I pulled my freight from Albuquerque all right. And I had a good load too," he reflected with a chuckle. "And I reckon I sure bunched myself all right into Santa Fe; for if this ain't the Plaza Hotel, I 'm drunker 'n a feller has any right to be who 's been total abstainin' ever since last night. But I 've sure got to have a cocktail now, if it busts a gallus!"