error C2181: illegal else without matching if

[Abelville]

Hello everyone, I am on my second week of a C++ programming class, and I keep getting this error while working on Visual Studio 2008. I know that it is probably something simple, however after a few hours I have run out of ideas.
the piece of code that is giving me the error is:

if (number1 > number2)
{
smaller = number2;
}
cout << " The smaller number of the two is: " << smaller << endl;

if (number2 > number1)

{
smaller = number1;
}
cout << " The smaller number of the two is: " << smaller << endl;

else
cout << " The two numbers are equal." << endl;
cout << endl;
Please guide me in the right direction.

[Bazzy]

the else must go immediately after the if block
In your case you have to move the cout lines after your ifs inside the brace-blocks

[Abelville]

Thank you so much!
Problem fixed.