ed a
cheering word of encouragement, accompanied by a pat on the back.

But it was slow work, for every now and then the sand from above
crumbled down, great pats dropped from amongst the roots as soon as that
beneath was taken away, and at the end of half-an-hour a feeling of
despair accompanied the deadly weariness that now attacked his arms and
shoulders, and involuntarily Tom Blount uttered a piteous cry.

It was from the hopelessness of what he was doing that this cry escaped
him, but the dog took it for one of encouragement, and it plunged its
nose into the loose sand again, grew more and more excited as it tore
away, and suddenly, to Tom's astonishment, head and shoulders
disappeared, and it gradually struggled on till even the long thin tail
disappeared.

Reaching down, the boy now found the sand come away more easily, and he
was thrusting his arm in as far as it would go, when he felt the dog's
cold nose against his hand; the dry sand seemed to boil up as he
snatched back his arm, and directly after the dog worked itself out
again, to stand barking with all its might, and then begin scratching
once more.

After working a few minutes longer, Tom reached in again, and found that
his hand moved about freely in one direction, but touched pieces of root
in the other, and then he started back with a cry of horror, for down in
a hollow between two pieces of root he felt a face.

The fear was only momentary. Then he was searching again, and this time
easily touched the face, which was quite clear of sand, the roots above
striding over it, so to speak, and, as he felt upward, proving to be
some inches distant.

But the face was cold and still, and despair crept over the worker
again. He fought it back though, tore away at the sand, and at the end
of a few minutes had cleared an opening like a rabbit burrow, which he
could see led right to the roots and must convey air.

Then with a tremendous burst of barking the dog made a plunge to get in,
half filling the burrow before Tom could hold it back, when the
intelligent beast stood with its tongue out, panting heavily, and
seeming to question him with its eyes.

Tom thought for a moment, then he took off his neckerchief, pulled out
his pocket-book, and tore out a leaf of paper, one side of which was
covered with the names of the moon's craters.

"Come away," he cried to the dog, as he carefully stepped out on to the
firm ground, the dog barking excitedly, but f