The effect of these words not a little astonished the traitor.  He had been sure that Archie would be terribly frightened, and that he would either seek safety in flight, or beg hard for mercy; consequently, he was not prepared for what really happened.  Scarcely had Arthur ceased speaking, when the place where Archie was standing became suddenly vacant, and, before the traitor could move a finger, his gun was torn from his grasp and pitched over the cliff into the gorge.  As the weapon fell whirling through the air, both barrels were discharged, and the reports awoke a thousand echoes, which reverberated among the mountains like peals of thunder.

“Now we are on equal terms,” exclaimed Archie, as he clasped the traitor around the body and attempted to throw him to the ground.  “You remember that you struck Johnny last night, when he was bound, hand and foot, and couldn’t defend himself, don’t you?”

“Yes; and now I am going to serve you worse than that,” replied Arthur, who, although surprised and taken at great disadvantage by the suddenness of the attack, struggled furiously, and to such good purpose that he very soon broke Archie’s hold; “I am going to fling you over the cliff after that gun.”

The contest that followed was carried on on the very edge of the precipice, and was long and desperate.  Archie, bruised and battered in a hundred places, and weary with a night’s travel, was scarcely a match for the fresh and vigorous Arthur, who, in his blind rage, seemed determined to fulfill his threat of throwing him over the cliff after the gun.  Fortune favored first one and then the other; but Archie’s indomitable courage and long wind carried the day, and he finally succeeded in bearing his antagonist to the ground and holding him there.

“You are not going to throw me over, are you?” gasped Arthur, who was humble enough, now that he had been worsted.

“Do you take me for a savage?” panted Archie, in reply.  “I simply wanted to save myself from a whipping that I did not deserve, and I’ve done it.  Now you must go to the settlement with me, to”—­

“Here you are!” exclaimed a familiar voice.  “Let us see if you will escape me again.”

Archie looked up, and saw Antoine Mercedes advancing upon him.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Conclusion.

Archie had been so fully occupied with the traitor that he had not thought of his other enemies, and for a moment he lay upon the ground beside his antagonist, gazing at Antoine in speechless amazement.  Resistance, of course, was not to be thought of, and it also seemed useless to make any attempts at escape; for he had been so nearly exhausted by his struggle with Arthur, that he scarcely possessed the power to rise from the ground.  “I am caught easy enough,” thought he, “and I might as well give up first as last.”

“I see before me twenty thousand dollars,” said Antoine, hastily coiling up his lasso as he approached.