He was now wide awake and struggling violently.  Then, I regret to say, he broke out into such language as I have never heard before.  At Tish’s request I suppress his oaths, and substitute for them harmless expressions in common use.

“Good gracious!” he said.  “What in the world are you doing anyhow?  Jimminy crickets, take that thing away from my neck!  Great Scott and land alive, I haven’t done anything!  My word, that gun will go off if you aren’t careful!”

I am aware that much of the strength of what he said is lost in this free translation.  But it is impossible to repeat his real language.

“Don’t move,” Tish said, “and don’t call out.  A sound, and a bullet goes crashing through your brain.”

“A woman!” he said in most unflattering amazement.  “Great Jehoshaphat, a woman!”

This again is only a translation of what he said.

“Exactly,” Tish observed calmly.  She had cut the end off the lasso with her scissors, and was now tying his feet together with it.  “My friend, we know the whole story, and I am ashamed, ashamed,” she said oratorically, “of your sex!  To frighten a harmless and well-meaning preacher and his wife for the purpose of publicity is not a joke.  Such hoaxes are criminal.  If you must have publicity, why not seek it in some other way?”

“Crazy!” he groaned to himself.  “In the hands of lunatics!  Oh, my goodness!” Again these were not exactly his words.

Having bound him tightly, hand and foot, and taken a revolver from his pocket, Tish straightened herself.

“Now we’ll gag him, Lizzie,” she said.  “We have other things to do to-night than to stand here and converse.”  Then she turned to the man and told him a deliberate lie.  I am sorry to record this.  But a tendency to avoid the straight and narrow issues of truth when facing a crisis is one of Tish’s weaknesses, the only flaw in an otherwise strong and perfect character.

“We are going to leave you here,” she said.  “But one of our number, fully armed, will be near by.  A sound from you, or any endeavor to call for succor, will end sadly for you.  A word to the wise.  Now, Lizzie, take that bandanna off his neck and tie it over his mouth.”

Tish stood, looking down at him, and her very silhouette was scornful.

“Think, my friend,” she said, “of the ignominy of your position!  Is any moving picture worth it?  Is the pleasure of seeing yourself on the screen any reward for such a shameful position as yours now is?  No.  A thousand times no.”

He made a choking sound in his throat and writhed helplessly.  And so we left him, a hopeless and miserable figure, to ponder on his sins.

“That’s one,” said Tish briskly.  “There are only three left.  Come, Aggie,” she said cheerfully—­“to work!  We have made a good beginning.”

It is with modesty that I approach that night’s events, remembering always that Tish’s was the brain which conceived and carried out the affair.  We were but her loyal and eager assistants.  It is for this reason that I thought, and still think, that the money should have been divided so as to give Tish the lion’s share.  But she, dear, magnanimous soul, refused even to hear of such a course, and insisted that we share it equally.