s way
through the brushwood brake, and Rover barking madly. Nellie was
nowhere to be seen, although her voice could be heard proceeding from
somewhere near at hand, calling for help still, but in a weaker voice.

"Where are you?" shouted the Captain. "Sing out, can't you!"

"Here," came the reply in the girl's faint treble; "I'm here!"

"Where's `here'?" said he, puzzled. "I can't see anything of you!"

"I've tumbled into a pit," cried Nellie piteously, in muffled tones that
sounded as if coming from underground. "Do take me out, please!
There's a lot of wild animals here, and they're biting my legs--oh!"

A series of piercing shrieks followed, showing that the poor child was
terribly alarmed, if not seriously hurt; and the Captain saw that no
time was to be lost.

"Can you reach her, Bob?" he sang out; "or see her, eh?"

"No, I can't get through these prickly bushes, they're just like a
wall!" replied Bob, fighting manfully through to get down to his
sister's relief. "I can't see her a bit, either!"

"Humph!"

The Captain thought a moment, rather shirking going amongst the thorns.

"Ha, the very thing!" he exclaimed. "Hi, Rover!"

The dog, who had been barking and running here and there aimlessly, at
once cocked his ears and came up to the Captain, scanning his face with
eager attention.

"Fetch her out, good dog!" he cried, pointing to the spot where the
broken branch of the oak-tree had given way, adding in a louder voice,
"Call him, Nellie--call the dog to you, missy."

A cry, "Here, Rover!" came from underneath the tangled mass of
brushwood, borne down and partly torn away by Nellie in her fall to the
depths below. "Come here, sir!"

No sooner did he hear this summons, faint though it was, from his young
mistress, than any uncertainty which may have obscured his mind as to
what the Captain meant by telling him to "fetch her out," at once
disappeared; and Rover, uttering a short, sharp, expressive bark, to
show that he now understood what was expected of him, boldly plunged
into the thicket with a bound.

"Chuck, chuck, chuck! Whir-r-r-ur," and a blackbird flew out, dashing
in the Captain's face; while, at the same time, another piercing screech
came from Nellie-- "Ah-h-ah! Help!"

The old sailor was so startled that he jumped back, his hat tumbling off
into a bramble-bush.

"Zounds!" he exclaimed. "What the dickens is that?"

In a moment, however, he recovered himself.

"Pooh, what