They returned the way they had come, crawled through the wooden box. Into the basement, and went to the head of the cellar stairs.
"I'll see if Aunt Esmerelda is asleep," said Hortense. "If she is, we'll tiptoe across the kitchen, get some cookies, and eat them in the barn."
She opened the door cautiously and peeped in. Sure enough, Aunt Esmerelda was asleep in her chair with her apron thrown over her head. Hortense motioned to Andy and they crept quietly across the kitchen to the door, Hortense pausing a moment 'on the way to fill her pockets with cookies.
They ran unseen to the barn and climbed to the haymow where they ate the cookies. Hortense was deep in thought all the time.
"To-night," she announced at last, "we'll hide in the little room we found. You can come in by the basement window and climb up the ladder. I'll go up by way of the attic. Whom shall I bring?"
"Alligator would be too big," said Andy. "Besides, he's likely to swallow things, he has such a terrible appetite."
"And Lowboy is so fat he might get stuck going down the chimney."
"Coal and Ember are always likely to growl and give us away."
"That leaves only Owl, Highboy, and Malay Kris," said Andy.
"Owl's eyes shine so—we'd better not have him," Hortense added.