obeyed. "Say, 'AN ESCAPE AT THE MINES! WATCH ONE-TREE
POINT! SEND ON TO EAGLEHAWK!' Quick now!"

Jones--comprehending at once the force of this manoeuvre, which would
have the effect of distracting attention from the Neck--executed the
order with a grin. "You're a knowing one, Dandy Jack," said he.

John Rex acknowledged the compliment by uncocking the carbine. "Hold
out your hands!--Jemmy Vetch!" "Ay, ay," replied the Crow, from beneath.
"Come up and tie our friend Jones. Gabbett, have you got the axes?"
"There's only one," said Gabbett, with an oath. "Then bring that, and
any tucker you can lay your hands on. Have you tied him? On we go then."
And in the space of five minutes from the time when unsuspecting Harry
had been silently clutched by two forms, who rushed upon him out of the
shadows of the huts, the Signal Hill Station was deserted.

At the settlement Burgess was foaming. Nine men to seize the Long
Bay boat, and get half an hour's start of the alarm signal, was an
unprecedented achievement! What could Warder Troke have been about!
Warder Troke, however, found eight hours afterwards, disarmed, gagged,
and bound in the scrub, had been guilty of no negligence. How could
he tell that, at a certain signal from Dandy Jack, the nine men he had
taken to Stewart's Bay would "rush" him; and, before he could draw a
pistol, truss him like a chicken? The worst of the gang, Rufus Dawes,
had volunteered for the hated duties of pile-driving, and Troke had felt
himself secure. How could he possibly guess that there was a plot, in
which Rufus Dawes, of all men, had refused to join?

Constables, mounted and on foot, were despatched to scour the bush round
the settlement. Burgess, confident from the reply of the Signal Hill
semaphore, that the alarm had been given at Eaglehawk Isthmus, promised
himself the re-capture of the gang before many hours; and, giving
orders to keep the communications going, retired to dinner. His convict
servants had barely removed the soup when the result of John Rex's
ingenuity became manifest.

The semaphore at Signal Hill had stopped working.

"Perhaps the fools can't see," said Burgess. "Fire the beacon--and
saddle my horse." The beacon was fired. All right at Mount Arthur, Mount
Communication, and the Coal Mines. To the westward the line was clear.
But at Signal Hill was no answering light. Burgess stamped with rage.
"Get me my boat's crew ready; and tell the Mines to signal to Woody
Island