t now the boys were more interested in the guns and the swords, of
which a goodly number were hanging on rafters and beams back of the
chimney.

"Oh, what a lot of guns!" cried Bunny.

"And they shoot, too," added Charlie. "I mean you can pull the trigger
and the hammer will snap down. Course we only use make-believe powder."

"Course," agreed Bunny. "But we can holler 'Bang!' whenever we shoot a
gun."

"And we can each have a sword."

So the boys began to play soldier, sometimes both being on the same
side, hunting Indians through the secret mazes of the attic, and again
one being a white-settler soldier, and the other a red man.

Meanwhile Sue and Rose were playing a different game. They had found
some old-fashioned and big silk dresses in some of the trunks, and they
at once dressed themselves up in these and made believe pay visits one
to the other. The two little girls talked as they imagined grown-up
ladies would talk when "dressed up," and they had great fun, while on
the other side of the attic Charlie and Bunny were bang-banging away at
one another in the soldier game.

The children had been playing in the attic about an hour, the boys at
their soldiering game and the girls at visiting, when Rose came to Bunny
and Charlie with a queer look on her face.

"What's the matter?" asked Charlie. "Have you had a fuss and stopped
playing?"

"No, but I can't find Sue anywhere."

"Can't find Sue!" exclaimed Bunny. "Where is she?"

"That's just what I don't know. I was playing I was Mrs. Johnson, and
she was to be Mrs. Wilson and call on me. When she didn't come I went to
look for her, but I couldn't find her in her house."

"Which was her house," asked Bunny.

"This big trunk," and Rose pointed to a large one in a distant corner of
the attic.

"Sue! Sue! Are you in there? Are you in the trunk?" cried Bunny.

The children, listening, seemed to hear a faint call from inside the
trunk. They looked at one another with startled eyes. What could they
do?

CHAPTER XXII

THE HERMIT COMES FOR TOM

"Are you sure she came over here?" asked Bunny Brown.

"Sure," answered Rose. "You see this was her pretend house, and mine was
over there under the string of sleigh bells." She pointed to where
several small trunks had been drawn together to form a square. Some old
bed quilts had been laid over to make a roof, and under this Rose
received visits from her friend Sue, who went by the name of Mrs.
Wilson.