orms were dimly seen to be advancing.

"Now's your time, gineral! Give it 'em hot," whispered Flinders.

"Ready! Present! Fire!" said Gashford, in a deep, solemn tone, which
the profound silence rendered distinctly audible.

The marauders halted, as if petrified. Next moment a sheet of flame
burst from the ranks of the miners, and horrible yells rent the air,
high above which, like the roar of a lion, rose Gashford's voice in the
single word:--

"Charge!"

But the panic-stricken robbers did not await the onset. They turned and
fled, hotly pursued by the men of Pine Tree Diggings.

"That'll do!" cried Flinders to Brixton; "they'll not need us any more
this night. Come wid me now."

Fred Westly, who had rushed to the attack with the rest, soon pulled up.
Remembering the appointment, he returned to the stable, where he found
Tom gazing in silence at Flinders, who was busily employed saddling
their three horses. He at once understood the situation.

"Of course you've made up your mind to go, Tom?" he said.

"N-no," answered Tom. "I have not."

"Faix, thin, you'll have to make it up pritty quick now, for whin the
boys come back the prisoners an wounded men'll be sure to tell that
their chief came for the express purpose of rescuin' that `thief
Brixton'--an' it's hangin' that'll be too good for you then. Roastin'
alive is more likely. It's my opinion that if they catch us just now,
Muster Fred an' I will swing for it too! Come, sor, git up!"

Tom hesitated no longer. He vaulted into the saddle. His comrades also
mounted, and in a few minutes more the three were riding away from Pine
Tree Diggings as fast as the nature of the ground and the darkness of
the hour would permit.

It was not quite midnight when they left the place where they had toiled
so long, and had met with so many disasters, and the morning was not far
advanced when they reached the spring of the Red Man's Teacup. As this
was a natural and convenient halting-place to parties leaving those
diggings, they resolved to rest and refresh themselves and their steeds
for a brief space, although they knew that the robber-chief had
appointed that spot as a rendezvous after the attack on the camp.

"You see, it's not likely they'll be here for an hour or two," said Tom
Brixton, as he dismounted and hobbled his horse, "for it will take some
time to collect their scattered forces, and they won't have their old
leader to spur them on, as Paddy's