Page:Dave Porter in the Gold Fields.djvu/287

Rh up on the rock. Phil did not budge, and the old miner leaped up and shook him.

"I say" commenced the youth, and then stared around him in astonishment. "Why I—I must have dropped asleep!" he faltered.

"You sure did!" cried Abe Blower. He gazed around swiftly. "Was you on guard?"

"Yes, and the prisoners"

"Are gone!"

"Oh!"

Phil's cry awoke all the others in the camp. One after another looked at the youth and then at the spot where Merwell and Haskers had been tied to the rocks. The ropes lay there, but the two former prisoners had vanished!