"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..