Told to appeal to higher authority in quarry (4)
I believe the answer is:
prey
'quarry' is the definition.
(I know that quarry can be written as prey)
'told to appeal to higher authority' is the wordplay.
'told' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'to appeal to higher authority' becomes 'pray' (I've seen this before).
'pray' sounds like 'PREY'.
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for prey that I've seen before include "Quarry, fair game" , "Victim, quarry" , "Animal hunted and killed for food" , "Hunter's quarry" , "Animal hunted by another for food" .)