“Here you are! Look at it, Huck; it’s the snuggest hole in this country. You just keep mum about it. All along I’ve been wanting to be a robber, but I knew I’d got to have a thing like this, and where to run across it was the bother. We’ve got it now, and we’ll keep it quiet, only we’ll let Joe Harper and Ben Rogers in⁠—because of course there’s got to be a Gang, or else there wouldn’t be any style about it. Tom Sawyer’s Gang⁠—it sounds splendid, don’t it, Huck?”

“Well, it just does, Tom. And who’ll we rob?”

“Oh, most anybody. Waylay people⁠—that’s mostly the way.”

“And kill them?”

“No, not always. Hive them in the cave till they raise a ransom.”

“What’s a ransom?”