loop, and he feared, naturally, that they would
give way at the very moment that he was upon them. This made him climb
the faster. Now, as the vessel heeled over, his feet touched the wall
of the building, and he feared that he might be jammed against it. The
darkness prevented him from seeing clearly what was befalling the hull,
but his impression was that it was going down into the deep canal, and
that the skipper and the remaining portion of his crew would be drowned;
but he had no desire to share their fate, and was utterly unable to help
them. He shouted, however, loud enough to arouse them out of any
ordinary slumber; but the schiedam they had drunk had so completely
lulled their senses that they heard not his shouts, or the bumping of
the vessel against the wall. He therefore continued his ascent till he
reached the top of the mast, when, getting hold of a beam which
projected from the opening in the building, he hauled himself up. Just
as he did so the mast cracked; the vessel with a jerk heeled over to the
opposite side; he was left clinging to the beam while she was borne away
by the tide into the darkness. Again he shouted to try and arouse the
skipper, but no human voice replied to his cries.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

The Count felt about with his feet till they touched the floor of the
loft into which he had scrambled. "Here I am landed at last, at all
events," he said to himself; "but this, though dry enough, is not a
pleasant place in which to pass the night; and besides, my friend
Stilkin will be searching for me, and be very much alarmed at not
finding the vessel, or if he does find her--supposing she has not gone
to the bottom--when he discovers that I have absconded. What can I do?
I must try and get down into the street, and then, perhaps, I shall meet
him and relieve his anxiety. I wish that I had a light, though, as I
shall run the risk of tumbling down some trap-door and breaking my neck.
I must move cautiously. This appears to be a lumber loft of some sort;
it cannot contain valuable merchandise, or the opening through which I
made an entrance would have been closed. Well, I am of opinion that
this is the least pleasant of my adventures." The Count stopped.
Looking back, he observed the outline of an opening through which came a
small amount of light--such light as exists at night. This assisted him
to direct his course across the floor of the loft: he moved cautiously,
for every moment