The bow of the Maggie was toward Chap, and the little cabin prevented him from seeing anybody who might be in the stern; but very soon it was evident that there were persons on board of her, and that they were awake. There was a slight noise of people moving about, and directly the heads of the two men were seen above the cabin. Chap instinctively dodged behind the cabin of his own boat, but he kept his eyes fixed on the two fellows, one of whom presently put a water-keg upon his shoulders, and then, with rolled-up trousers and bare feet, both of them waded ashore. They had anchored their boat in about a foot of water, thinking that if they ran her on the sand, they might not be able to get off in a hurry if occasion required them to do so. It was now plain enough why they had come in here. They were out of fresh water, and this was the only place for miles where any could be obtained. As he looked upon the two men who had treated him so badly and who had been the cause of so much trouble and imminent danger to the whole party, Chap began to feel angry. He had believed and steadily asserted that the rascals had been let off entirely too easily, and now his whole soul became filled with a desire to punish them for their misdeeds. If he could meet them, one at a time, he would undertake to give them in turn a good thrashing; but the cowards always kept together, and he did not care to wake up his companions to assist in the desired acts of retributive justice. For some reason or other Adam and the boys never seemed to enter into his plans in that whole-souled way which he would have liked. They dampened his enthusiasm, and, as he frequently thought, he never felt so much like a captain as when he was captain of himself. When the two young men with the keg disappeared among the bushes in the path which led to the spring--for this was one of the regular camping-places on the river--one of those bright ideas to which Chap was subject popped into his mind. Gently taking down a double-barrelled gun, loaded with buckshot, from the hooks in the cabin on which it hung, and moving very cautiously so as not to awaken his companions, he stepped out on the sand. He wore nothing but shirt and trousers, and, rolling up the latter, he ran along the beach to the Maggie, waded out to her, and got on board. Then, with his gun still in his hand, he slipped into the little cabin, where he crouched on his hands and knees. There was a curtain at the open end of the cabin, and Chap drew this in front of him, so as to better conceal himself, leaving open a little crack through which he might peep. He had conceived the plan of remaining here until the two young men had reappeared, and were about to come on board. Then he would suddenly bounce out, and with loaded and cocked gun in hand, he would stop them just where they stood, and then he would give them a piece of his mind, and they should not move backward nor forward until he had said all he had to say.