Some of the others followed his
example. "You'll find some hay in the loft there," said
The Sky Pilot to The Oskaloosa Kid. "Bring it down an'
make your bed here by me, there's plenty room."
A half hour later all were stretched out upon the hard
dirt floor upon improvised beds of rotted hay; but not
all slept. The Oskaloosa Kid, though tired, found him-
self wider awake than he ever before had been. Appar-
ently sleep could never again come to those heavy eyes.
There passed before his mental vision a panorama of
the events of the night. He smiled as he inaudibly voiced
the name they had given him, the right to which he had
not seen fit to deny. "The Oskaloosa Kid." The boy
smiled again as he felt the 'swag' hard and lumpy in
his pockets. It had given him prestige here that he could
not have gained by any other means; but he mistook
the nature of the interest which his display of stolen
wealth had aroused. He thought that the men now
looked upon him as a fellow criminal to be accepted into
the fraternity through achievement; whereas they suf-
fered him to remain solely in the hope of transferring
his loot to their own pockets.
It is true that he puzzled them.
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