"You Could Have Played Santa Claus—a Santa Claus in Buckskin"

"Buckskin Santa Claus."
By Johnston McCulley (1883-1958).
Genre: Western.
First appearance: Texas Rangers, January 1948.
Reprinted in Exciting Western (U.K.), April 1955.
Short story (11 pages).
Online at Pulpgen (HERE).

"Christmas Eve at Fort Bent seemed a long-chance bet to Scout Reilly as he read sign ahead of the wagon train!"

Simply getting a wagon train safely from Point A to Point B is an iffy proposition at best; add an incompetent train boss, freezing weather, a renegade white man, and blood-thirsty Kiowa braves, and Tim Reilly has his hands full . . .

The bottom line: