ntact with the butt of the pistol, and his hold suddenly
relaxed, and he lay stunned and at our mercy.

When Lossing, not much the worse for his tussle but somewhat short of
breath, had risen and shaken himself together, I said: 'He's only
stunned and will soon come to. Shoot him if he stirs before I come
back.' And I ran to the room in the rear.

What had happened there can be soon told.

When Jeffrys opened the door of the rear room, which did not boast a
lock, he saw a lamp burning dimly upon a shelf in a corner; upon the
bed opposite a woman and a man, both sleeping, and under the one
window a coil of rope ladder, as if ready for use.

The face of the woman was ghastly pale, and her sleep must have been
very light, for suddenly she opened her eyes, and seeing the officers,
uttered the cry, which at first only caused her lord and master to
growl out an oath and turn over; whereupon she clutched at him wildly
and cried to the men to leave them; they would give themselves up if
only the officers would withdraw and permit them to rise and dress.

The man, meantime, seemed to awaken slowly, and to be dazed and
stupid, and he paid little heed to his wife's cries as he dragged
himself to a sitting posture.

'You'd better get up,' said Jeffrys sternly, 'and give up. You're all
in for it.'

Possibly the shrieks that came from below at that moment convinced
him, for he answered with a scowling face: 'I guess I know when I'm
beat. If you'll shet the door, or turn yer backs so my wife can get
up, I'll be quiet enough. Shet up, Sue!'

'All right,' said Jeffrys; and the two officers drew back from the
door, and Jeffrys, drawing it half-shut, said, with his eye upon the
man, 'Now, the lady first,' and pistol in hand he waited.

The one window was opposite the door and the bed close beside it, so
that the half-closed door concealed from Jeffrys both window and
woman. He heard her spring up, and at the instant, almost, a slight
scraping sound, then suddenly, at the very moment when I stepped from
the farther room, the light went out--there was a bound, an oath, a
shrill whistle, and, as I reached the door, the flash of a bull's eye,
and two pistol-shots came close together.

As I sprang into the room the light revealed an open window, with the
rope ladder half out, half in, and upon the floor beneath it Greenback
Bob, with Jeffrys kneeling upon his breast, and the attendant officer,
with pistol aimed and bull's-eye in ha