ing but a brief stay, the war-ship's crew had arranged to hold
their _battue_ the following day. Frobisher had therefore warned his
men, directly he became aware of what was intended; and it was with
mingled feelings of delight and apprehension that he saw and heard the
laughing Japanese tars making their way into the bush, as twilight fell,
to take up their posts for the moonlight "shoot."

The prison had been built at some distance from the storehouse and the
barracks, close to the edge of the jungle, and not far from the strip of
beach where the _Chih' Yuen's_ boats had landed. The other two
buildings just referred to were more than half a mile away, at the top
of the cliff, where a signal-station had also been established. On the
night selected for the attempt, the crew of the store-ship happened to
be holding a "sing-song", to which the officers on shore and a number of
men from the barracks had been invited; and it seemed as though fortune
herself were on the side of the conspirators.

Frobisher gave the hunters half an hour in which to make a good
"offing", as he phrased it, and then, when the shades of evening had
well set in, passed the word to his men to be ready.

There were two sentinels on guard, night and day, over the prisoners,
and these had been changed half an hour before the time the attempt was
to be made. Frobisher could hear them pacing slowly up and down
outside; and he whispered to one of the sailors, who could speak
Japanese, that the moment had arrived.

The fellow immediately shouted, at the top of his voice:

"Help! help! I have been bitten by a snake!" and, acting on Frobisher's
instructions, the remainder of the men began to raise a tremendous
hubbub, as though trying to find the reptile to kill it, while the
"bitten" man, altering the tones of his voice, called wildly to the
sentries to bring their rifles to shoot the thing.

The plan worked to perfection. The prisoners had always been quiet and
well-behaved, and had never made any attempt to escape, so no suspicions
now suggested themselves to the guards. They hastily unlocked the doors
and dashed in, with rifles held ready to shoot--and the next moment they
were on the floor, with half a dozen men on the top of each of them, and
their rifles in the hands of Frobisher and Drake respectively.

They were bound and gagged in less time than it takes to tell; and five
minutes later the little band were in the situation in which th