These encounters were matters of a minute or so; but to Jack and Dinny, standing knee deep in the water holding the boat ready for the escape, and the oars where they could be seized in an instant, the minute seemed an hour. They would have gone to the help of their comrades, but it seemed to them that they would be cutting off the means of escape; and in addition, the various phases of the fight succeeded each other so rapidly that there was hardly time to think. "Give me that shtick," cried Dinny at last; and he snatched one from where it lay upon the thwarts of the boat, just as Abel sent his adversary down half-stunned and turned to help Bart. "Quick, lad! Hold still a moment!" cried Abel, as the overseer came running down from the head of the bay, in company with the officer and half a dozen men. The words were wasted, for Bart and the first sailor were writhing and twining on the sands like two wild beasts. Bart strove hard to shake himself free; but the effort was vain, for the sailor had fastened on him like a bull-dog, and held on with a tenacity that could not be mastered. "It's of no use," panted Bart, as Dinny ran up. For the enemy were not two hundred yards away, and running fast. "Escape, my lads! Never mind me!" "Let me get one hit at him," cried Dinny. "Ah, would you, Paddy!" roared the sailor, wresting Bart round as a shield. "I know you." "Now, you!" cried Dinny to Abel. But it was like striving to hit a twining serpent upon the head, and strive how they would, Bart's friends could do nothing till the pair had struggled together to the very edge of the water, and then went splashing in. "Get his head down, Bart, and he'll soon let go." Easier said than done. The sailor had his arms well about his adversary, and Bart's effort was vain. "Surrender, there!" shouted the overseer. "Give up, or we'll fire!" "Let go, or I'll smash you," growled Bart, as he caught sight of the enemy coming on. For answer the sailor clung the more tightly; and as Bart rose to his knee after a fall, the water was now well up to their middles. "Here, boat, Jack, lad!" cried Dinny. "Now, captain, lay howlt!" Abel grasped his meaning, and seized one side of the human knot, composed of two bodies and the customary complement of arms and legs, while Dinny caught the other, and together they trailed it through the shallow water to meet the boat. "Now, Master Jack," cried Dinny, "take a howlt!" Jack seized Bart by the waist as the boat's gunwale touched him. Abel and Dinny lifted together, and the result was that a certain amount of water went in over the side; but with it, heaving and struggling still, the knotted together bodies of Bart and his adversary, to lie in the bottom of the little craft, the sailor, fortunately for the escaping party, undermost.