Frio Fred; or, The Tonkaway's Trust

Frio Fred; or, The Tonkaway's Trust by "Buckskin Sam" (Major Sam S. Hall) is a frontier tale set in early Texas along the Rio Llano. The story opens at a riverside camp where a settler's family—a father, his sixteen-year-old daughter Lorine, and her fourteen-year-old brother Louis—take shelter among dense timber and enslaved workers. After a dramatic sequence involving a buzzard, fleeing coyote, and attacking panther, the father shoots the beast just as it prepares to spring on his daughter. The youth then stabs the dying animal repeatedly. The family reflects on the harrowing escape, discussing the panther's hide and the father's concern about a missing person—apparently a hired worker or associate who should have arrived by now. The narrative emphasizes frontier dangers, family bonds, and outdoor survival in unsettled Texas territory.