I’ve been trying to find the title to this book. I don’t remember much about it but its essence stuck with me. There are orphaned (i believe) siblings (i believe) who have a hide-out and get mixed up with Jesse James (i believe) or some other bank robbers on the frontier.
Could the book be the “Boxcar Children” which is the first book in the series by the same name written by Gertrude Warner. There are 4 orphan children: Henry, Jessica “Jessie”, Violet and Benny Alden.
It’s a long shot, but might you be looking for The Apple Dumpling Gang by Jack M. Bickham? The story is about a group of orphaned children in California during the Gold Rush and the gambler who is coerced into taking care of them. When the children discover gold in a mine that had belonged to their late father, robbers come after them in hope of stealing it. The book was made into a movie by Disney in 1975, starring Bill Bixby as the gambler, Tim Conway and Don Knotts as the bumbling but “nice” robbers, and a gang of “bad” bandits headed by Slim Pickens.
You may be right. If, indeed, that’s it I’m a little embarrassed that I couldn’t think of it on my own! I’m going to locate a copy. Thanks for the suggestion.
Jude