“So you were going to sneak up behind me and hit me with a club, were you, you cowardly scoundrel?” said Chap. “It would serve you right if I were to push you back and drown you.” “Let me up!” cried the man. “I’m sinking down into this sand. There’s quicksands here, don’t you know? Let me up! We’ll both sink into ’em!” “Let you up? Not I!” said Chap. “There’s a bubbling sulphur spring right under you, and I’ve a great mind to push you down into it. I believe you’d go slam-bang to the centre of the earth. I’m all right. I can feel solid ground on each side of you. I can just put my foot on you, and cram you down.” “Don’t you do it! Don’t you do it!” yelled the man, who was frightened almost out of his senses. At this moment Adam appeared upon the scene. He had sufficiently punished his antagonist, and, having torn the bag into two strips, had tied him hand and foot with masterly sailor-knots. He had then hastened to Chap’s assistance, but when he reached him he found that young man getting on very well without his aid. He laughed when he saw the state of affairs, and then he stepped into the water, and helped Chap to his feet. The other fellow attempted to rise, but he was so embedded in the soft sand that he was unable to do so, and Chap and Adam reached into the water, and, each seizing him by one leg, pulled him out. Adam picked up the club the fellow had dropped in his struggle with Chap, and, seizing the man by the collar, made him rise to his feet. “Now,” said the sailor, “you come along with me, and if you give me any trouble I’ll break your head.” The three then proceeded rapidly to the place where the other rascal was lying, and, his feet being untied, Chap took him in charge, and the party set off at a good pace for the town, Adam relating to Chap by the way what he had heard and what had happened. The stately gentleman was a magistrate, and before him the two fellows were taken, and when their attempted crime was told it created great excitement in the place. The men were committed to stand their trial at the next term of the court, which would be held in about a week. Phil and Phœnix had returned while the examination was going on, and were as much astonished as Adam and Chap were to hear the magistrate say that the sailor and the young man who had been attacked must remain in the town to appear in the court as witnesses; otherwise, no charge could be proved. “This is a bad piece of business,” said Phil, as he stepped out on the porch. “That’s so,” said Phœnix; “but none of us could have got off to-night, for the Von Glode has gone. She started before we got back to town.” “But we could have got off in a day or two,” said Phil, “and now we may have to wait ten days or more. It is not likely this case will be the first one taken up. What do you think of it, Chap?” But Chap was not there. He had vanished somewhere into the darkness. [Illustration] CHAPTER XXX. THE COUNTESS.