Frank's parting shot, sent in a mellow, kind voice, was the best point in the whole trick.

"Now, I'd be nervous if I had a sleepin' bag like yours, because it's just the place for a rattler to ooze into." In the confusion and dim light of bedtime I contrived to throw the end of my lasso over the horn of a saddle hanging on the wall, with the intention of augmenting the noise I soon expected to create; and I placed my automatic rifle and .38 S.and W.Special within easy reach of my hand.

Then I crawled into my bag and composed myself to listen.
Frank soon began to snore, so brazenly, so fictitiously, that I wondered at the man's absorbed intensity in his joke; and I was at great pains to smother in my breast a violent burst of riotous merriment.

Jones's snores, however, were real enough, and this made me enjoy the situation all the more; because if he did not show a mild surprise when the catastrophe fell, I would greatly miss my guess.

I knew the three wily conspirators were wide-awake.