“Not expecting to meet Mr. Bear, he didn’t have any gun along.  Mr. Bear was surely on the wah-path that day.  He made a bee line for my friend to get better acquainted.  Nothing like presence of mind.  That cow-puncher got his rope coiled in three shakes of a maverick’s tail, his pinto bucking for fair to make his getaway.  The rope drapped over Mr. Bear’s head just as the puncher and the hawss separated company.

“Things were doing right sudden then.  My friend grabbed the end of that rope and twisted it round and round a young live oak.  Then he remembered an appointment and lit out, Mr. Bear after him on the jump. Muy pronto that grizzly came up awful sudden.  The more he jerked the nearer he was to being choked.  You better believe Mr. Puncher was hitting that trail right willing in the meanwhile.”

“You talk too much with yore mouth,” growled Irwin.

“It’s a difference of opinion that makes horse races.  I was just aiming to show you that if my friend hadn’t happened to have a rope along he would have been in a bad fix.  But, you notice, he used his brains, and a rope did just as well as a gun.”

The eyes just above the window casing disappeared.  Brad attended to the business in hand, which was that of getting away with bacon and biscuits while he kept an eye on the man opposite.  His prisoner also did justice to his supper, to his flow of conversation, and to the window behind the unconscious jailer.

In that open window were presently framed again the head and shoulders of young Sanderson.  Irwin pushed back his chair to get some more coffee, and the picture in the frame shot instantly down.  The guard, his coffee cup, and his revolver went to the stove and returned.  Phil reappeared at the window, his rope coiled for action.  It slid gracefully forward, dropped over the head of Brad, and was instantly jerked tight.

Keller vaulted across the table, and flung himself upon the struggling man.  Brad’s arms were entangled in the rope, but one leg shot out and hurled back the nester.  But before he could free himself from the taut loop his prisoner was upon him again and had borne him to the ground.

Of the two, Irwin was far the more powerful, Keller the more agile and supple.  He knew every trick of the wrestling game, whereas the other was clumsy and muscle-bound.  By main strength the older man got to his feet again.  Over went the table as they surged against it.

A chair, stamped into kindling, was hurled aside by the force of their impact.  The stove rocked, and the bed collapsed as the locked figures crashed down upon it.  The ranger, twisting as they fell, landed on top and his fingers instantly found the throat of his foe.  Simultaneously Phil came to his assistance.

Even then, taken at an advantage, with two much younger men against him, the big jailer fought to the finish like a bear.  Not till he was completely exhausted and they nearly so did he give up and lie quiet.  All three of them panted heavily, the allies lying across his chest and legs.  The nester managed to draw the loop taut about Irwin’s neck and insert his knuckles so that he could use them as a tourniquet if necessary.