i84 MEMOIR OF 



The fox, indeed, with the activity of a wild 

 beast, had clambered on to a broken beam ; but 

 three of the leading hounds were swimming 

 about in the dark water at the bottom of the 

 mine, some seven fathoms deep ; while the rest 

 of the pack had stopped short of the abyss and 

 scrambled out. 



" Gone to ground with a vengeance," ex- 

 claimed Phillipps, with bitter emphasis, dreading 

 the loss of his hounds. 



In a few minutes some miners appeared on 

 the ground ; but not a man of them would go 

 down, not daring to face the dangers of the 

 decayed framework in the precipitous shaft. 

 Not so, however, " Jack Russell," who, with a 

 knotted rope in one hand and his hunting-wliip in 

 the other, lowered himself, amid a shower of loose 

 stones and earth, to the beam on which the fox 

 was crouching. Then running the thong through 

 the keeper of his whip, and fixing the noose 

 round the animal's neck, he shouted aloud, "Haul 

 away, I've got him ! " and in half a minute he 

 and the fox were landed again on terra firiiia. 



" Save him, Phillipps ; he is a gallant fellow 

 and deserves his life," said Russell, begging 

 hard for a reprieve. 



But Phillipps sternly said, "No," and tossed 

 him to the hounds. 



Then to save the three brave brutes now 

 struggling in the pit from a longer immersion. 



