[Illustration: "'LOOK! LOOK! THERE BY THOSE LITTLE BUSHES!'"] Santa Fé's Partner Being Some Memorials of Events in a New-Mexican Track-end Town By Thomas A. Janvier Author of "The Passing of Thomas" "The Uncle of an Angel" "The Aztec Treasure-House" "In the Sargasso Sea" Etc. Etc. New York and London Harper & Brothers Publishers 1907 Copyright, 1907, by HARPER & BROTHERS. All rights reserved. Published September, 1907. TO C. A. J. CONTENTS I. PALOMITAS 1 II. THE SAGE-BRUSH HEN 15 III. HART'S NEPHEW'S HOLD-UP 44 IV. SANTA FÉ CHARLEY'S KINDERGARTEN 77 V. BOSTON'S LION-HUNT 127 VI. SHORTY SMITH'S HANGING 163 VII. THE PURIFICATION OF PALOMITAS 208 Illustrations "'LOOK! LOOK! THERE BY THOSE LITTLE BUSHES!'" _Frontispiece_ "HER LEFT HAND WAS LAYING IN HER LAP, AND THE OLD GENT GOT A-HOLD OF IT" 22 "WROTE OUT A NOTICE THAT WAS TACKED UP ON THE DEEPO DOOR" 84 "'ONE OF THE NEW GERMAN KINDERGARTEN APPLIANCES'" 120 "STARING 'ROUND THE PLACE SAME AS IF HE'D STRUCK A MENAGERIE" 132 "'IT'S HOTTER THAN SAHARA!' SAID THE ENGLISHMAN" 166 "AND DOWN HART WENT IN A HEAP ON THE FLOOR" 196 "'DON'T HANG HIM, SIR!' SHE GROANED OUT" 224 SANTA FÉ'S PARTNER SANTA FÉ'S PARTNER I PALOMITAS I've been around considerable in the Western Country--mostly some years back--and I've seen quite a little, one way and another, of the folks living there: but I can't really and truly say I've often come up with them nature's noblemen--all the time at it doing stunts in natural nobility--the story-books make out is the chief population of them parts. Like enough the young fellers from the East who write such sorts of books--having plenty of spare time for writing, while they're giving their feet a rest to get the ache out--do come across 'em, same as they say they do; but I reckon the herd's a small one--and, for a fact, if you could cross the book brand with the kind you mostly meet on the ranges the breed would be improved.