ers up as high as I could reach, as I stood on the heap o' sand,
and she got her legs on my head, and my! how she did scratch, and then
the sand began to come down, and I knowed she could reach the top. Next
moment she'd got one of her hind paws on my hand as I reached up high,
and then there was a rush and scramble, and I heard another shouting of
`Hooray!' while the sand come down so that I had to get right as far
away as I could.

"`What shall we do now?' says the ganger, shouting to me:--

"`Send the dog down again with the two ropes round her.'

"`Right!' he says; and then in a minute there was a scuffling and more
rushing, and Juno come down with a run, to begin barking loudly as she
fell on the soft sand.

"`There you are, old gal,' I says, patting her, as I took off one rope,
and felt that the other was fast round her. `Up you go again.' I
lifted her up and shouted to 'em to haul, and in half a minute she was
gone, and I was alone in the dark, but with the rope made fast round my
chest.

"`Are you ready?' shouts the ganger.

"`Ay!' I says. `Pull steady, for I'm heavier than the dog.'

"They began to haul as I took tight hold of the rope above my head, and
up I went slowly with the sand being cut away by the tight line, and
coming thundering down on me at an awful rate, just as if some one was
shooting cart loads atop of me.

"`Steady!' I yelled; and they pulled away slowly, while I wondered
whether the rope would give way. But it held, and I felt my head bang
against the sand, and some more fell. Then, as I kicked my legs about,
I felt myself dragged more into the hole, and I tried to help myself;
but all I did was to send about a ton of sand down from under me. Then
very slowly I was hauled past an elbow in the hole, and I was got round
towards the other when a lot more sand fell from beneath me, and then,
just as I was seeing daylight, there was a sort of heave above me, and
the top came down and nipped me fast just about the hips.

"`Haul! my lads, haul!' the ganger shouted, and they hauled till I felt
most cut in two, and I had to holler to 'em to stop.

"`I shall want my legs,' I says. `They ain't much o' ones, but useful!'

"There was nothing for it but to begin digging, for they could see my
face now, and they began watching very carefully that the sand didn't
get over my head, when, all at once, as they dug, there was a slip, and
the sand, and the roots, and stones all dropped down