land and more cattle than he could count, they called him O'Donnell "the Cattle King."

The puma of the title is a fierce Mexican lion that figures prominently in the story.

Josefa is a crack shot and knows her way around the plains. While described as a skilled horsewoman who can handle a gun better than most men, there is also a feminine side to her, and she is beautiful.

A young ranch hand named Ripley Givens wants to marry her. One evening by chance, he sees her at the riverbed drinking water and notices the fierce lion about to attack her. It is too late for him to grab his gun, so he valiantly jumps out to scare the lion away. The next thing that he knows, the dead lion has fallen on him, knocking him over. Josefa shot the lion.

Trying to salvage his image as that of a tough western cowboy and not a buffoon who needs to be saved by a “girl," he tells Josefa a long lie about the lion being the camp pet and how his efforts were to save the beloved lion. The story brings tears to Josefa’s eyes and she begs his forgiveness. He has regained his image of masculine hero. He accompanies the helpless damsel back to her ranch because “of course Miss Josefa could not be allowed to ride on to the ranch house alone.” They hold hands as he “protects” her and she even plays up the damsel in distress role, telling him,

"I never was frightened before, but just think! How terrible it would be to meet a really wild lion! … I'm so glad you came with me!"

We see, however, that she was never afraid. Once home, she tells her father that the aggressive lion that killed Gonzales will not bother anyone else again. The reader recognizes that Ripley’s story never fooled Josefa, but she played along because she returns his affections and a wedding is likely shortly.

The princess Josefa is an avid hunter, and the story takes place when she's out hunting for big game. Clearly, she wants to prove herself, to show the world that young ladies can hunt too. Imagine her annoyance, then, when a brave young knight by the name of Ripley Givens jumps between Josefa and a lion just when it seems that the animal is about to attack. The princess was planning to bag this big cat, which would undoubtedly have burnished her credentials as a crack shot. Although she's hit the animal, she hasn't been able to kill it.

Seeing that the princess is upset by his well-meaning intervention, Givens tries to make her feel better by claiming that the lion is actually his pet, and that he only leapt into the breach to save the big cat from the princess, not the other way round. Far from making Josefa feel better, however, this explanation only serves to make her feel somewhat guilty. So she begs Givens for forgiveness before heading home.

However, once she's back at the ranch, the princess immediately starts bragging to her father, "the king," about the beautiful shot that hit this large, fearsome creature. As it turns out, then, the princess knew full well that the lion wasn't Givens's pet; she only went along with his story.

In "The Princess and the Puma," the theme is based on a man who pretends to be a hero. Rip givens is smitten with the princess Josefa. He vows to marry her. One night, Givens was camping out at White Horse Crossing. He hears a ferocious noise and moments later he sees his Josefa drinking water from a nearby water hole. Then a mountain lion also known as a Mexican Lion is about to pounce on Josefa:

Givens saw the crouching form of the Mexican lion. His amber eyeballs glared hungrily; six feet from them was the tip of the tail stretched straight, like a pointer's. His hind-quarters rocked with the motion of the cat tribe preliminary to leaping.

Givens is too far from his gun; so he jumps between the lion and Josefa. 

While Givens wrestles with the lion, Josefa shoots the lion in the head and kills it. While it appears that she has saved Givens' life, Givens is embarrassed and begins making up a story about the lion being his pet. He is lying to protect his self image. He does not want to appear as one who is rescued by a woman.

To save face, Givens goes on with his tall tale. He insists that the lion was a pet and had run away from camp because he was afraid of a terrier dog. Givens adds that the lion's name is Bill and he was a cowardly lion. Givens states that the lion was only playing and was not really trying to attack Josefa. 

While it seems that Josefa believes Givens, she apologizes for killing Givens' pet lion. She even has tears come to her eyes. 

Josefa and Givens ride to her home while the two of them hold hands. Givens rides away thinking that Josefa believed his story about the lion being his pet lion. After Givens leaves, Josefa calls out to her dad, King Ben. She shares how she killed the ferocious, vicious lion who had killed Gonzales and some calves. Josefa knew it was the lion Gonzales had fought because part of the lion's ear was missing. Gonzales had slashed the lion's ear when they fought, before he was killed by the lion. 

As it turns out, this story is about two people who try to out lie one another. Givens is a good liar, but Josefa is better. She makes Givens believe that she is convinced by his tall tale of having a pet lion. Bottom line: Josefa knew the truth all along. Obviously, she was impressed with Givens because she held his hand while riding back to her home. The theme is that love will make you do strange things and cause one to tell tall tales. The theme is that a man will lie to protect his self image. Also, a good woman will pretend to believe a man's lies to protect his self image.   

The exposition (or background information) of the story is that there is a very wealthy cattle rancher who has a daughter, Josefa, who is very skilled at riding and shooting.

Rising action occurs when Ripley, foreman of one of the cattle outfits owned by Josefa's dad, decides to propose to her.  H e makes the long journey to her house.  On the way, he hears a mountain lion, and the inciting incident is when he sees Josefa at the watering hole about to be pounced on by the lion, and jumps in-between the two. Josefa shoots it mid-air, and the dead lion lands on top of him in an embarrassing scuffle.  Given's pride is wounded; more rising action occurs when he lies and says the lion was "Bill", his pet of 2 years.  She indicates that she believes him, and is impressed that he would have risked his life for a pet.  He offers to ride her home, then leaves.  In the story's climax, when she gets home she tells her father that she had just shot the infamous "Gotch-eared devil", a mean mountain lion known for a patch of ear missing.  So, she had lied to Givens so as to not wound his pride.

With O. Henry, the climax and denouement (or falling action, or resolution) is always tricky, because he usually has a surprise ending that is the most climatic moment of the story.  So, with the climax being at the end, there really is no denouement.  If you want to shift the climax to the mountain lion pounce, then everything after that would be the denouement.