The reports of these successes, Frobisher felt sure, would be communicated to the crews of the ships which were to bring the next consignment of stores; and it was upon the possibility of the major portion of the destroyer’s men coming ashore together, leaving the ship very indifferently manned, that the Englishmen had built their plan. If the Japanese did not follow their predecessors’ example, then another plan would have to be thought out after the ship’s arrival, when it could be seen what arrangements were actually in force.
But, fortunately for the success of Frobisher’s scheme, everything had fallen out as he had hoped. The storeship’s crew came on shore first, and met with splendid success; and, as the destroyer and her consort were making 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 they were discovered at the beginning of this chapter, crawling cautiously along the jungle path toward the beach.
Once there, in the shadow of the cliffs, they hastened to the spot where the arms and stores from the Chih’ Yuen had been concealed when they first landed, some of which had been left there when they went to build the fort. If the Japanese had not discovered them, they should be there still; and there they were soon found.