Ormon the Gulfer by John Arthur Barry

I suppose that at last I must have fallen faint and insensible from exhaustion, and remained so for hours, as when I came to myself again the moon was shining almost directly down the shaft. Lying on my back, feeling stiff and sore, I was staring hopelessly up at the great white orb, when all of a sudden she was blotted out by something that nearly filled the mouth of the shaft, whilst upon me fell showers of clay and gravel. Jumping to my feet in alarm, I snugged into a corner and stared wonderingly aloft to where, as well as I could make out, the hindlegs of some large and powerful animal were playing a tattoo on the sides of the shaft as they hung down it, accompanied by the most hideous bellowings and screamings. That a horse or a bullock had slipped into the hole was my first notion. But neither of those animals could by any possibility, I fancied, make such extraordinary and barbarous noises as the brute above me was doing.

As, scared and wondering, I was about to retreat into a drive, thinking that presently the thing would come down by the run, there fell on my ears a chatter of human voices sounding sharp and shrill above the din of roarings and gurglings. Then, all at once, came a great noise of pulling and shouting, and little by little I saw the animal, still complaining bitterly, pulled to the surface amidst much vociferous talk and laughter.