r: how did you fall in?"

As my uncle rapidly asked these questions he got hold of the man, and
dragged him on to the stone edge of the dam, when there was a horrible
clanking noise, the rattle of a chain, the man uttered a hideous yell,
and as Piter set up a tremendous barking again I turned off the light.

"Here, don't do that," cried my uncle.

I hardly know what induced me to turn off the light, unless it was a
shamefaced feeling on being, as I thought, found out. And yet it did
not seem that I was the guilty party. Uncle Bob had said he had taken
up the trap, and it was all right. He must have altered his mind and
set it again.

"That's better," said my uncle as I turned on the light once more; and
then Piter made such a struggle that I could not hold him. There was a
bit of a scuffle, and he was free to rush at the man, upon whom he fixed
himself as he lay there howling and dripping with water.

The man yelled again horribly, sprang up with Piter holding on to him;
there was the same horrible clanking noise on the stones, and down he
fell once more groaning.

"Help! Murder! Take away the dorg. Oh, help!" he cried.

"Good gracious! What is the matter?" cried Uncle Jack, telling me what
I knew. "The man's leg's in a trap."

He sprang up again, for by main force Uncle Jack had dragged Piter away
with his mouth full of trouser leg; but there were only two clanks and a
sprawl, for the poor wretch fell headlong again on the stones, praying
for mercy.

"Why, his leg's in a great trap, and it's held by a chain," cried Uncle
Jack. "Here, how came you in this condition?"

"Eh mester, aw doan know. Deed aw doan know," the fellow groaned.
"Hey, but it's biting my leg off, and I'll be a lame man to the end o'
my days."

"Why, it's Gentles!" cried Uncle Jack, taking the lantern from me, for I
had enough to do to hold the dog.

"Tek off the thing; tek off the thing," groaned the man. "It's
a-cootin' my leg i' two, I tell'ee."

"Hold your noise, and don't howl like that," cried Uncle Jack angrily,
for he seemed to understand now that the man must have climbed over into
the yard and been caught, though he was all the more surprised, for
quiet smooth-faced Gentles was the last man anyone would have suspected.

"But I tell'ee its tekkin off my leg," groaned the man, and he made
another trial to escape, but was checked by the peg driven tightly into
the ground between the stones, and he fell again, hurtin