"Where's `here'?" said he, puzzled. "I can't see anything of you!" "I've tumbled into a pit," cried Nellie piteously, in muffled tones that sounded as if coming from underground. "Do take me out, please! There's a lot of wild animals here, and they're biting my legs--oh!" A series of piercing shrieks followed, showing that the poor child was terribly alarmed, if not seriously hurt; and the Captain saw that no time was to be lost. "Can you reach her, Bob?" he sang out; "or see her, eh?" "No, I can't get through these prickly bushes, they're just like a wall!" replied Bob, fighting manfully through to get down to his sister's relief. "I can't see her a bit, either!" "Humph!" The Captain thought a moment, rather shirking going amongst the thorns. "Ha, the very thing!" he exclaimed. "Hi, Rover!" The dog, who had been barking and running here and there aimlessly, at once cocked his ears and came up to the Captain, scanning his face with eager attention. "Fetch her out, good dog!" he cried, pointing to the spot where the broken branch of the oak-tree had given way, adding in a louder voice, "Call him, Nellie--call the dog to you, missy." A cry, "Here, Rover!" came from underneath the tangled mass of brushwood, borne down and partly torn away by Nellie in her fall to the depths below. "Come here, sir!" No sooner did he hear this summons, faint though it was, from his young mistress, than any uncertainty which may have obscured his mind as to what the Captain meant by telling him to "fetch her out," at once disappeared; and Rover, uttering a short, sharp, expressive bark, to show that he now understood what was expected of him, boldly plunged into the thicket with a bound. "Chuck, chuck, chuck! Whir-r-r-ur," and a blackbird flew out, dashing in the Captain's face; while, at the same time, another piercing screech came from Nellie-- "Ah-h-ah! Help!" The old sailor was so startled that he jumped back, his hat tumbling off into a bramble-bush. "Zounds!" he exclaimed. "What the dickens is that?" In a moment, however, he recovered himself. "Pooh, what a fool I am!" he said, ashamed of the slight weakness he had displayed, and hoping neither of the boys had noticed it; and then, to show how cool and collected he was, he whistled up the retriever. "Whee-ee-up, Rover, fetch her out, good dog!" Rover did not need this adjuration, not he. Even as the Captain spoke, there was a rustling and tramping in the thicket, accompanied by the snapping of twigs; and, almost at the same instant, the dog dashed out from amidst the brushwood with Nellie holding on to his tail. "Oh my!" ejaculated Dick, rushing to her side; and, with the assistance of Bob, who also emerged from the prickly cavern at the same time, she was got on her feet-- "Poor Nell!" She presented a sorry spectacle. Never was such a piteous plight seen!