, for fear lest he further excite the occupant.

Then they all stared down, expecting to see a shrinking monkey looking
helplessly up at them, cowed by his capture. The squealing had suddenly
ceased as the lantern light began to fall into the hole; they could
already distinguish a form in the pit; and just then a plain,
unmistakable _grunt_ smote their ears.

"Oh! my s-s-stars!" gasped Toby, plainly astounded and disgusted.

Steve gave a shout, and then laughed with all his might.

"Why, what's this?" exclaimed Bandy-legs, looking again, "only a plain
old _hog_ instead of a chattering monk? Say, this is a good one on us,
fellers. Has it been this rooter and grunter that's been bothering us
right along? Somebody kick me, won't you, please?"

Thereupon Steve accommodated him without the slightest hesitation.

"Oh! this is only one of those accidents that will happen sometimes,"
Max went on to explain. "We know it wasn't a pig that did all the other
mischief, for we saw the tracks as plain as day. To-night it just came
about that this porker, escaped from some farmer's pen, wandered into
camp, and found those nice nuts and other stuff that we piled up on the
cover of the pit. So he started to have a midnight lunch all by himself,
but the ice was too thin, and down he went."

Even Toby had to laugh by that time, having partly recovered from his
grievous disappointment.

"Ain't this the greatest little puzzle we ever tackled?" Bandy-legs was
heard to say; "and now that we've got something in our trap, why don't
you use that chain and padlock, Toby? Here's a prize pet for you. Think
of fastenin' the same up in your back yard, and tellin' folks you had a
wild boar in captivity. Regular sideshow freak business you might go
into."

The imprisoned hog had started in to squeal once more. Perhaps it
imagined the critical time in its life had arrived, when hams and loins
were in demand, and that it must maintain the reputation of its species
for making a row.

"But great Caesar's ghost! what ought we do about it?" exclaimed Steve,
clapping both hands over his ears; "we can't stand for this all night
long."

"We must manage to get him out of that, some way or other," Max
declared, positively.

"Toby, you're so fond of everything that walks on four legs, s'pose you
climb down into the pit and lift Mr. Hog out?" suggested Bandy-legs.

"What, me, and with only my p-p-pajamas on?" cried Toby; "I'd like to
s-s-see myself a