Wash, here, was the last man to join, 'fore we was busted, and he was the youngest member, too; bein' only a boy, but big for his age.

You remember how he was taken in on account of his daddy's bein' killed by the gov'ment.
"Didn't ary one of us fellers that started it ever think the Bald Knobber's would get to be what they did.

We began it as a kind of protection, times bein' wild then.

But first we knowed some was a usin' the order to protect themselves in all kinds of devilment, and things went on that way, 'cause nobody didn't dare say anything; for if they did they was tried as traitors, and sentenced to the death.
"I ain't a sayin', boys, that I was any better than lots of others, for I reckon I done my share.

But when my girl's mother died, away down there in Texas, I promised her that I'd be a good daddy to my little one, and since then I done the best I know.
"After things quieted down, and I come back with my girl, Wash here got the old crowd, what was left of us, together, and wanted to reorganize again.