nswered, and directly after there was a distant hail,
followed by a joyous barking, and the dog came bounding up, to rush down
into the hollow, thrust its sharp nose into the burrow, take it out,
begin barking again, and then dash off once more among the clustering
pine-trunks.

Tom whistled again, then hailed, was answered, hailed again, and sank
down half choked by the emotion he felt, and hard pressed to keep back a
burst of feeling which tried to unman him.

"This way! ahoy!" he yelled, as he leaped up out of the hole, himself
once more. "Quick! help! ahoy!"

Then the dog tore up barking furiously, half wild with excitement, and
directly after Tom caught sight of the Vicar, closely followed by his
uncle; and then came David with a bundle of tools over his shoulder,
followed at a short distance by the village bricklayer, the carpenter,
and two more men.

At this a peculiar giddy feeling came over the watcher, there was a
strange singing in his ears, and he stood there as if stunned.

CHAPTER FIFTY ONE.

"Where is he?" cried Uncle Richard. "Yes, I see!"

The words brought Tom back to himself, and he was as active again as the
rest, his strange seizure having lasted only a few moments.

"Heaven grant that we are not too late!" said the Vicar. "Here, Tom,
you had better keep the dog back."

"But you are sure some one is buried here?" said Uncle Richard.

"Yes; it is Pete Warboys--he has a kind of cave here. It's crushed in,"
Tom hastened to explain.

"If we try to dig him out we shall suffocate him," cried Uncle Richard,
speaking as if he had no doubt of the boy living still. "Look here,
carpenter--David, there is only one way: three of us must be here with a
rope fastened to this great root, and three others must work at a branch
yonder. We shall have great leverage then, and we may be able to turn
the trunk right over."

"Want a screw-jack, sir," said the carpenter.

"We must make screw-jacks of ourselves," cried Uncle Richard. "You,
David, take the axe and lop off a few of the branches that will be in
our way; you, carpenter, saw off three or four of these roots as closely
as you can; Tom, keep the hole open; Mr Maxted, keep the dog out of the
way; I'll make fast the ropes."

Every one went to work at once as Uncle Richard fell back into his old
way when he was a planter with a couple of hundred coolies under him,
and acre after acre of primeval forest to clear before he could begin to
cu