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.