course he doesn't
expect the holdup--not in the papers anyhow. He happens to have the
camera trained on the party, and gets it all. Result--a whacking good
picture, revolvers firing blank cartridges, everything which people will
crowd to see. Oh, it's good business all right. I don't mind admitting
that."

Tish's face expressed the greatest rage. She rose, drawing herself to
her full height.

"And the tourists?" she demanded. "They lend themselves to this
imposition? To this infamy? To this turpitude?"

"Certainly not. They think it's the real thing. The whole business hangs
on that. And as the sheriff, or whoever it is in the fool plot, captures
the bandits, the party gets its money back, and has material for
conversation for the next twenty years."

"To think," said Tish, "of our great National Government lending itself
to such a scheme!"

"Wrong," said the young man. "It's a combination of Western railroads
and a movie concern acting together."

"I trust," Tish observed, setting her lips firmly, "that the tourists
will protest."

"The more noise, the better." The young man, though not more cheerful as
to appearance, was certainly more talkative. "Trust a clergyman for
yelling when his pocket's picked."

With one voice the three of us exclaimed: "Mr. Ostermaier!"

He was not sure of the name, but "Helen" had pointed the clergyman out
to him, and it was Mr. Ostermaier without a doubt.

We talked it over with Bill when we got back, and he was not as
surprised as we'd expected.

"Knew they were cooking up something. They've got some Indians in it
too. Saw them rehearsing old Thunder Mountain the other day in nothing
but a breech-clout."

Tish reproved him for a lack of delicacy of speech, and shortly
afterward we went to bed. Owing to the root under the tent, and puddles
here and there, we could not go to sleep for a time, and we discussed
the "nefarious deed," as Tish aptly termed it, that was about to take
place.

"Although," Tish observed, "Mr. Ostermaier has been receiving for so
many years that it might be a good thing, for his soul's sake, to have
him give up something, even if to bandits." I dozed off after a time,
but awakened to find Tish sitting up, wide awake.

"I've been thinking that thing over, Lizzie," she said in a low tone. "I
believe it's our duty to interfere."

"Of course," I replied sarcastically; "and be shown all over the country
in the movies making fools of ourselves."

"Di