f seaweed--could scarce fail to be seen from the strand,--though
the latter was itself constantly receding as the tide flowed inward.

The submerged middies were now in a dilemma they had not dreamed of. By
holding their ground, they could not fail to "go under." By advancing
further, they would run the risk of being discovered to the enemy.

Their first movement was to get up from their knees, and raise their
heads above water by standing in a crouched attitude on their feet. This
they had done before,--more than once,--returning to the posture of
supplication only when too tired to sustain themselves.

This they attempted again, and determined to continue it to the last
moment,--in view of the danger of approaching nearer to the enemy.

To their consternation they now found it would no longer avail them.
Scarce had they risen erect before discovering that even in this
position they were immersed to the chin, and after plunging a pace or
two forward, they were still sinking deeper. They could feel that their
feet were not resting on firm bottom, but constantly going down.

"A quicksand!" was the apprehension that rushed simultaneously into the
minds of all three!

Fortunately for them, the Arabs at that moment, yielding to their
fatalist fears, had faced away from the shore; else the plunging and
splashing made by them in their violent endeavors to escape from the
quicksand, could not have failed to dissipate these superstitions, and
cause their pursuers to complete the capture they had so childlessly
relinquished.

As it chanced, the Saaeran wreckers saw nothing of all this; and as the
splashing sounds, which otherwise might have reached them, were drowned
by the louder _sough_ of the sea, they returned toward their encampment
in a state of perplexity bordering upon bewilderment!

CHAPTER XXXII.

ONCE MORE THE MOCKING LAUGH.

After a good deal of scrambling and struggling, our adventurers
succeeded in getting clear of the quicksand, and planting their feet
upon firmer bottom,--a little nearer to the water's edge. Though at this
point more exposed than they wished to be, they concealed themselves as
well as they could, holding their faces under the water up to the eyes.

Though believing that their enemies were gone for good, they dared not
as yet wade out upon the beach. The retiring pursuers would naturally be
looking back; and as the moon was still shining clearly as ever, they
might be seen from