EYE-BEAMS 115 



the heavy mattock. I followed the hole down 

 about two feet, when it turned to the north. 

 I kept the clue by thrusting into the passage 

 slender twigs; these it was easy to follow. 

 Two or three feet more and the hole branched, 

 one part going west, the other northeast. I 

 followed the west one a few feet till it 

 branched. Then I turned to the easterly tun- 

 nel, and pursued it till it branched. I fol- 

 lowed one of these ways till it divided. I 

 began to be embarrassed and hindered by the 

 accumulations of loose soil. Evidently' this 

 weasel had foreseen just such an assault upon 

 his castle as I was making, and had planned it 

 accordingly. He was not to be caught nap- 

 ping. I found several enlargements in the 

 various tunnels, breathing spaces, or spaces to 

 turn around in, or to meet and chat with a 

 companion, but nothing that looked like a ter- 

 minus, a permanent living-room. I tried re- 

 moving the soil a couple of paces away with 

 the mattock, but found it slow work. I was 

 getting warm and tired, and my task was 

 apparently only just begun. The farther I 

 dug the more numerous and intricate became 

 the passages. I concluded to stop, and come 

 again the next day, armed with a shovel in 

 addition to the mattock. 



Accordingly, I came back on the morrow, 

 and fell to work vigorously. I soon had quite 

 a large excavation; I found the bank a laby- 

 rinth of passages, with here and there a large 

 chamber. One of the latter I struck only six 



