Then she called to Laddie:
"Push in farther, Laddie! Then maybe you can back out all right."

But Laddie Bunker was so much afraid of the foxes by now (he still saw
their luminous eyes before him) that he dared not squirm any deeper into
the pipe. What would have happened to him finally--whether or not the
old fox might not have attacked him--will never be known, for Russ
Bunker took desperate means to release his brother.

Russ ran to a pile of cobblestones beside the road, seized a big one,
and staggered back with it in both hands. With the stone he pounded the
rim of the pipe so hard that it broke in pieces.

"Ow! Ow!" cried the muffled voice of Laddie Bunker. "You are breaking my
legs. Don't pound me so!"

"Wriggle out! Hurry up! What's holding you?" demanded Russ, half
angrily because he was so excited.

The smaller boy began to move backward now, the rough rim of the pipe no
longer holding his jacket. Slowly he pushed out. When he appeared, his
face very red and tear-streaked, Russ and Phillis pulled him to his
feet.

"Where's the fox?" demanded Vi, still very much excited.

"Is that a fox?" demanded Laddie, panting.

"Yes," said Phillis Armatage.

"That fox has got five pairs of eyes, then," grumbled Laddie.

"She's got four pups," cried Frane, Junior. "I'm going to run and tell
father," and he ran away up the hill.

"Come on!" cried Russ, immediately in action again. "Let's stop up the
hole. Then the foxes can't get out until Mr. Armatage comes."

They did that--at least, Russ and Vi and the colored boys did. Rose
dusted Laddie off and wiped his face. He soon became more cheerful.

"Well," he said, with a long breath, "they didn't bite me after all;
but I thought they would. And their eyes shone dreadfully."

"What made them shine?" demanded Vi, her usual curiosity aroused.

"Because they were mad," said her twin promptly. "That old mother fox
didn't want me in there."

The adventure was happily ended; that is, for Laddie and Vi. Not so for
the foxes. For Mr. Armatage and the gardener came with shovel and club
and they dug down to the foxes' den. But the children had not done their
work of closing the entrance well, and just as Mr. Armatage broke
through into her den, Mrs. Fox and her puppies scurried out and away
into the pine woods. But she had to look for a new home, for her old one
was completely broken up.

After this the little Bunkers and the Armatage children trooped up to
the house