chipped by express from Wall street to the far west, has been
purified by passing through our hands, where it has been carried
over mountain ranges on pack horses, in blizzards, till every
tainted germ has been blown away. Now, we propose to give you a
banquet to-morrow night, at which we shall all make speeches,
and then you will be provided with horses, supplies and money, and
guided away from here blindfolded, and within 48 hours you will be
free as the birds, and all we ask is that you will never give us
and our hiding place away to Billy Pinkerton. Is it a go?"

Pa said it was a go all right except taking the tainted money, but
he would think it over, and dream over it, and maybe take his
share of the swag, but he wanted to be allowed to return it if,
after calling a meeting of his board of directors, they should
refuse to receive the tainted money. Pa added that the board of
directors of a circus might not be as particular as a church or
college, and he thought he could assure the gang that the money
would not come back to bother them.

The leader of the gang said that would be all right, and for pa
and I and the boys to begin to pack up and get ready to return to
civilization and all its wickedness. We worked all day and played
cinch for hundred dollar bills all the evening, and the next day
arranged for the banquet.

When night came, and the pine knots were lit in the cave, about 15
bandits and Pa and I sat down to a course banquet on the floor of
the cave, and ate and drank for an hour. We had few dishes, except
tin cups and tin plates, but it was a banquet all right. The first
course was soup, served in cans, each man having a can of soup