monopolists by the neck, and shaking them like a terrier would
shake a rat; how the insurance companies that had been for years
tying the policy holders hand and foot, and searching their
pockets for illicit gains had been caught in the act, and how the
presidents and directory were liable to have to serve time in the
penitentiary. Pa told the Hole-in-the-Wall gang all the news until
he got hoarse.

"And how is my old friend Teddy, the rough rider?" asked one of
the gang, who claimed he had gone up to San Juan hill with the
president.

"The president is in fine shape," said pa, "and he is making
friends every day, fighting the trusts, and trying to save the
people from ruin."

"Gee, but what a train robber Teddy would have made, if he had
turned his talents in that direction, instead of wasting his
strenuousness in politics," said the leader of the gang. "I would
give a thousand dollars to see him draw a bead on the engineer of
a fast mail, and make him get down and do the dynamite act, and
then load up the saddle bags and pull out for the Hole-in-the-
Wall. That man has wasted his opportunities, and instead of being
at the head of a gang of robbers, with all the world at his feet,
ready to hold up their hands at the slightest hint, living a life
of freedom in the mountains, there he is doing political stunts,
and wearing boiled clothes, and eating with a fork." And the
bandit sighed for Teddy.

"Well, he will make himself just as famous," said pa, "if he