The hole was out of his reach, and the sty was strongly planked up to the barn floor on all sides.
At last he had got hold of a dirty piece of broken board; backing into one corner of the pen, he had tried, as the hogs came "barking" up to him, to defend himself by striking them on their noses.

They had bitten his arms and almost torn his clothes off him.
The little fellow had been in the pen for almost two hours, and plainly could not hold out much longer.

Prompt action was necessary.
At first I was at a loss to know how to reach him.

I was afraid of those hogs myself, and did not dare to climb down into the pen.

I could see their ugly little eyes gleaming in the dark, as they roared up at me.