There was a muffled grating of iron under the gin's hand, as the padlock unclosed and the hasp dropped, then a creak of the door on its hinges, while it opened and shut behind the undulating shape in the aperture.

Then a low throaty ejaculation--the black's call of warning.

And now with a quickness incredible, the wriggling movement of two blanket-shrouded serpentine shapes round the hide-house--in and out among the grass tussocks and the low herbage, now hidden for a moment by friendly gum shadows in the dimness, now dark moving blurrs upon the lesser darkness, and now altogether invisible....
Lady Bridget knew that in five minutes, once they could be upright again, the fugitives would have reached the gully, and after that the gidia scrub.

Then security from the terrors of a white man's gaol would be almost assured to them.
Lady Bridget waited--waited, it seemed to her an eternity, in reality it was barely over the five minutes she had mentally given the two blacks for their escape.

That five minutes had been full of alarms, and she could feel her heart thumping, so tense was the strain.