Meanwhile in their dreary prison in the cellar the Teddy bears huddled together, trembling for their lives in the inky darkness. Even Peter Pan had lost all his impudence, for every moment he expected to hear the cellar door open and Rough House come loping down the steps. He shuddered as he remembered the fate of other toys that he had seen carried away in the dog’s powerful jaws, a fate that was perhaps now in store for him and his.
After a wait that seemed interminable, being somewhat encouraged by the fact that nothing untoward had happened, although momentarily expected, he summoned sufficient courage to grope his way to the bottom of the steps, and after a period of breathless listening, to their very top.
All was silence in the kitchen. The dog had evidently departed. But push as he might he could not budge the tightly latched door.
Disheartened by the failure of his repeated efforts, he crept back to the miserable little group in the coal bin.
There was nothing for it but to await whatever developments the morning might bring forth. And huddled together they fell asleep, a sadder if not a wiser family of Teddy bears.
CHAPTER XIII.
Peter Pan Uses the Telephone.
