"Down cellar!" cried Eunice, darting away. "She must be caught
somewhere!"

But down cellar, the sounds, though still audible, were more vague than
ever.

"It really sounds in the furnace," suggested Eunice, hopefully, going
forward. She threw open the door, rather expecting to see Cricket
crouching in a bunch in the fire-box. But no! it was guiltless of
Cricket, as every other place had been.

"This is getting positively uncanny," exclaimed auntie, when suddenly a
tremendous pounding that seemed to come from their very feet was heard.
Hilda grew pale, Edna clung to her mother, Zaidee began to roar, and
Helen to whimper, while Eunice sprang forward, listening intently.

"Do that again, Cricket," she said, and immediately the pounding was
repeated.

"If I had ever heard of an underground passage here, I should think she
was in that," said auntie, looking puzzled. "If it were Governor
Winthrop's house, all could be explained. Cricket, in the name of all
that is weird, where are you?"

"I don't know," came in sepulchral tones. "I seem to be walled up!"

"Oh!" shrieked Hilda, clutching Mrs. Somers' other hand.

"Are you underground? Shall we dig you out?" called auntie.

Eunice stood turning her head from side to side, like a dog. Then she
made a rush for a large closet at one side of the cellar. It was nearly
empty except for a few stone jars.

"I looked in there once," said auntie, but as Eunice opened the door,
the pounding began again, apparently directly back of it.

"But the back of the closet is against the cellar wall," said Auntie
Jean in new bewilderment, but at the very moment, Cricket's voice,
clearer now and more distinct, announced, "I'm here," with a vigorous
kick, to emphasize her words. "_Can't_ you get me out? I'm nearly dead."

"But _what_ are you in, and how in the name of wonder did you get
there?" said Auntie Jean, more puzzled than ever, surveying the blank
boards before her. "Eunice, run and find Luke, and tell him to come
here. Are you against the cellar wall, Cricket?"

"I don't seem to know where I am," answered Cricket, half-laughing.
"I've fallen into something."

In a few minutes Eunice returned with Luke. The moment he looked in at
the open closet door, he burst into a loud guffaw, slapping his thigh
with his hand.

"She's in the cold-air box, by gosh!"

"The cold-air box!" echoed everybody in varying intonations. It was even
so. The old house had an unusually deep cellar