down and cartridge-belts being swung when Kellyan called a halt.

"Say, boys, we've got him safe enough. He won't try to leave the
chaparral till night. If we shoot him we get the cattlemen's bounty;
if we take him alive--an' it's easy in the open--we get the newspaper
bounty, ten times as big. Let's leave all guns behind; lariats are
enough."

"Why not have the guns along to be handy?"

"'Cause I know the crowd too well; they couldn't resist the chance to
let him have it; so no guns at all. It's ten to one on the riata."

Nevertheless three of them brought their heavy revolvers. Seven
gallant riders on seven fine horses, they rode out that day to meet
the Monarch of the Range. He was still in the thicket, for it was yet
morning. They threw stones in and shouted to drive him out, without
effect, till the noon breeze of the plains arose--the down-current of
air from the hills. Then they fired the grass in several places, and
it sent a rolling sheet of flame and smoke into the thicket. There was
a crackling louder than the fire, a smashing of brush, and from the
farther side out hurled the Monarch Bear, the Gringo, Grizzly Jack.
Horsemen were all about him now, armed not with guns but with the
rawhide snakes whose loops in air spell bonds or death. The men were
calm, but the horses were snorting and plunging in fear. This way and
that the Grizzly looked up at the horsemen--a little bit; scarcely up
at the horses; then turning without haste, he strode toward the
friendly hills.

"Look out, now, Bill! Manuel! It's up to you."