sighed for rescue.

One day the robbers came back from a raid with piles of greenbacks
as big as a bale of hay, and it was evident they had robbed a
train and been resisted, because one man had a bullet in his
thigh, and Pa had to use his knowledge of surgery to dig out the
shot, and he made a big bluff at being a surgeon, and succeeded in
getting the balls out and healing up the sores, so the bandits
thought Pa was great. When he insisted that the leader let him
know how much it would be to ransom us, so we could send to the
circus for money, the leader told Pa he had been such a decent
prisoner, and had been such good company, and had been such a help
in digging the bullets out of the wounded, that the gang was going
to let us go free, without taking a cent from us, but was going to
consider us honorary members of the gang and divide the money they
had secured in the last hold-up with us.

[Illustration: One Day the Robbers Came Back from a Raid with
Piles of Greenbacks.]

Pa said he wanted his liberty, thanked the leader for his kind
words, but he said there was a strong feeling in the east against
truly good people like himself taking tainted money, and while he
would not want to make a comparison between the methods men adopt
to secure tainted money, in business or highway robbery, he hoped
the gang to which he had been elected an honorary member would not
insist on his carrying away any of the tainted money.

"You are all right in theory, old man," said the leader of the
gang, "but this money which might have been tainted when it was