or more
wombats, and presently of the head and arms of a person rising above the
ground.

"That must be Hector! Hector, Hector, is it you?" shouted Oliver.

"Yes, yes! make haste or I shall tumble back again," was the answer.

We sprang forward and caught him by the arms; when, all three hauling
away, we quickly dragged him out of a large hole into which he had
fallen.

"Take care," he said. "I cannot stand--I sprained my ankle when falling
into the hole, and the pain was so great that I believe I must have
fainted. When I came to myself, I found that it was perfectly dark, and
no sooner had I managed to reach the top of the hole than a whole herd
of those wombats came sniffing round me, wondering what strange creature
had got among them. I shouldn't have minded them, had they not tried to
bite my hands and compelled me to let go again."

The wombats, on our appearance, had waddled off, so that they did not
interfere with us while we were attending to Hector.

On his trying to use his foot he found that his ankle was not so much
injured as he had supposed, and that by supporting himself on our
shoulders he could manage to hobble along. He therefore very willingly
agreed to try and get back to the camp.

"But what has become of your gun?" I asked; "can you remember where you
left it?"

"I'm sure I don't know," answered Hector; "I had it in my hand when I
fell, but when I felt about for it I could nowhere find it."

We searched for the rifle round the hole and at last came to the
conclusion that it must have fallen in.

Ralph offered to descend.

He got down without difficulty and soon cried out that he had found the
rifle at the bottom. "Stay, I have found something else," he added as
he handed up the rifle. "While I was groping about, my hand came in
contact with two hairy creatures. Here they are!" and stooping down
again he hauled out two young wombats. We speedily knocked them on the
head, agreeing that they would make a very good roast for supper.

We should have been puzzled to know how the big wombat got out of the
hole, had not Ralph told us that he had found a passage sloping upwards
to a smaller entrance some distance off.

As the two small wombats might not prove sufficient for all hands I shot
a big fellow which measured nearly three feet in length, and was covered
with a thick hairy coat.

Ralph undertook to carry it on his shoulders, while Oliver and I
supported Hector.

We no