with a hole in the top, made by driving a nail through the tin,
and we sucked the soup through the hole. The next course was fish,
each man having a can of sardines, and we ate them with hard
tack. Then we had a game course, consisting of fried elk, and then
a salad of canned baked beans, and coffee with condensed milk, and
a spoonful or two of condensed milk for ice cream. When the
banquet was over the leader of the bandits rapped on the stone
floor of the cave with the butt of his revolver for attention, and
taking a canteen of whisky for a loving cup, he drank to the
health of their distinguished guest, and passed it around, so all
might drink, and then he spoke as follows:

"Fellow Highway Robbers: We have with us to-night one who comes
from the outside world, with all its wickedness, this old man,
simple as a child, and yet foxy as the world goes, this easy mark
who is told that the dinosaurus still exists, and believes it, and
comes to this valley to find it. If some one told him that Adam
and Eve were still alive, and running a stock ranch up in the Big
Horn basin, he would believe it, and if it came to him as a secret
that Solomon in all his glory was placer mining in a distant
valley over the mountains, he would rush off to engage Solomon to
drive a chariot next year in his show. Such an ability to absorb
things that are not so, in a world where all men are suspicious of
each other, should be encouraged. This old man comes to our quiet
valley, where all is peace, and where we are honest, fresh from
the wicked world, where grafting is a science respected by many,
and where the bank robber who gets above a million is seldom
convicted and always respected, while we, who only occasionally
meet a train with a red light and pass the plate, and take up a
slight collection, are looked upon as men who would commit a