eving the defenders of the
estate to be not only absolutely and irretrievably beaten, but also in
panic-stricken flight, had not deemed it necessary to post any sentries
at all, and were all sleeping in fancied perfect security. And this in
fact he found to be actually the case, when at length, with the
observance of every possible precaution, he actually stood within the
precincts of the camp and looked about him. There was not a light in
any one of the many tents round him; the watch fires had burnt low, and
in some cases had died out altogether; not a soul was moving from one
end of the camp to the other, and all round him were sleeping men! He
waited only long enough to assure himself that this was actually the
case, and then, withdrawing as carefully as he had come, he hurried back
to where he had left his fifty men resting in one of the least damaged
of the warehouses, and roused them with the intimation that they were
required for instant action. Then, briefly acquainting them with what
he had done and what he proposed to do, and ordering them to load their
weapons, he marched them out across the bamboo bridge on to the plain,
where he bade them take open order and, crouching low on the grass,
advance upon the camp, exposing themselves as little as possible, since
should but one person in the camp awake and detect them, all this labour
would be lost.

It took the little band of adventurers a full hour to accomplish the
passage across the plain; and when at length they arrived within about
fifty yards of the camp, Jack caused the signal to be passed along the
line for all hands to lie prone in the grass, while he went forward
alone to satisfy himself that everything was still as he had left it.
Then, as he had done some two hours previously, Jack crawled right into
the heart of the camp and gazed carefully about him. Everything was
still perfectly quiet, save that from certain of the tents there issued
sounds advertising the fact that there were noisy sleepers within. Then
Singleton rose cautiously to his feet and lifted his right hand above
his head. The next minute fifty armed negroes, under his whispered
directions, were moving about the camp, silent-footed as cats,
collecting the piled arms and every other weapon which they could find,
and concealing them among the long grass at a safe distance from the
camp. Then, this done, Jack raised his revolver above his head and
fired a single shot into the air;