that I am an honorary member of this organization of honest,
straightforward, conscientious hold-up men, who would rob only the
rich and divide with the poor, and I hope some day, if our country
goes to the dogs, so a respectable man cannot hold office, or do
business on the square, to come back here and become one of you in
fact, and work the game to the limit. If you find you cannot make
it pay out here, come east and I will give you the three-card
monte and the shell game concession with our show next summer,
where you can make a good living out of the jays that patronize
us, and always have a little money left when we get through with
them, which it is a shame for them to be allowed to carry home
after the evening performance. I thank you, gentlemen."

[Illustration: The Robbers Guided Us In the Dark Through the
Valley.]

Then the loving cup was passed, we saddled our horses and the
robbers guided us in the dark through the valley, and out towards
the railroad, pa's saddlebags filled with the tainted money. At
daylight the next morning, when the guides left us, Pa took a big
roll of bills out of his saddlebags and opened it and, by gosh, if
it wasn't a lot of old confederate money that wasn't worth a cent.
Pa used some words that made me sick, and then I cried. So did pa.




CHAPTER VII.