We went into a cave and found that we had been captured by Curry's
gang of train robbers, who made their headquarters in the hole in
the wall. The leader searched Pa and took all his money, and told
us to make ourselves at home. Pa protested, and said he was an old
showman who had come to the valley looking for the supposed-to-be-
extinct dinosaurus, to capture one for the show, and the leader of
the gang said he was the only dinosaurus there was, but he hadn't
been captured. Then the leader slapped our cowboys on the
shoulders and told them they had done a good job to bring into
camp such a rich old codger as Pa was, and then we found that the
cowboys belonged to Curry's gang, and had roped Pa in in order to
get a ransom.

The leader asked Pa about how much he thought his friends at the
east could raise to get him out, and when Pa found he was in the
hands of bandits, and that the dinosaurus mine was salted, and he
had been made a fool of, he said to me: "Hennery, now, honest,
between man and man, wouldn't this skin you?"

I began to cry and said: "Pa, both of us are skun. How are we
going to get out of this?" and Pa said: "Watch me."




CHAPTER V.


Pa and the Bad Boy Among the Train Robbers--Pa Tries to Persuade
the Head Bandit to Become a Financier--The Bandit Prefers Train