m at once, and shall then bring him here to confer with
you as to means of safety."

Bucky's eyes opened wide when Gabilonda and Megales came alone and
without a lantern to his cell. In the darkness it was impossible to
recognize them, but once within the closed cell the warden produced a
dark lantern from under his coat.

"Circumstances have arisen that make the utmost vigilance necessary,"
explained the warden. "I may begin my explanations by congratulating you
and your young friend. Let me offer a thousand felicitations. Neither of
you are any longer prisoners."

If he expected either of them to fall on his neck and weep tears of
gratitude at his pompous announcement, the colonel was disappointed.
From the darkness where the ranger's little partner sat on the bed came
a deep sigh of relief, but O'Connor did not wink an eyelash.

"I may conclude, then, that Mike O'Halloran has been getting in his
work?" was his cool reply.

"Exactly, senor. He is the man on horseback and I travel afoot," smiled
Megales.

Bucky looked him over coolly from head to foot. "Still I can't quite
understand why your ex-excellency does me the honor of a personal
visit."

"Because, senor, in the course of human events Providence has seen fit
to reverse our positions. I am now your prisoner and you my jailer,"
explained Megales, and urbanely added a whimsical question. "Shall you
have me hanged at dawn?"

"It would be a pleasure, and, I reckon, a duty too. But I can't promise
till I've seen Mike. Do some more explaining, colonel. I want to know
all about the round-up O'Halloran is boss of. Did he make a right good
gather?"

The subtleties of American humor baffled the little Mexican, but he
appreciated the main drift of the ranger's query, and narrated with much
gesticulation the story of the coup that O'Halloran had pulled off in
capturing the government leaders.

"It was an exceedingly neat piece of strategy," its victim admitted. "I
would give a good deal to have the privilege of hanging your red-headed
friend, but since that is denied me, I must be grateful he does not take
a fancy to hang me."

"In case he doesn't, your excellency," was Bucky's addendum.

"I understand he has decided to deport me," retorted Megales lightly.
"It is perhaps better politics, on the whole, better even than a knife
in the back."

"Unless rumor is a lying jade, you should be a good judge of that,
governor," said the American, eyeing him sternly.