“We’d better go down and tell her,” suggested Rose.  “She’ll never hear us from up here.”

“Let’s go down then!” cried Bunny.

He and Charlie soon pulled away from the attic stairs the two trunks they had placed there to make a fort.  Down to the kitchen, where Mrs. Preston was making pies, hurried the three children.

“What?  Through playing so soon?” asked Mrs. Preston.  “I thought you’d be much longer than this.  I haven’t your lunch for you ready yet.  But where is Sue?” she asked, not seeing Bunny’s sister.

“She—­she’s locked in a trunk in the attic—­the big trunk,” explained Charlie, “an’ she’s hollerin’ like anything, but we can’t get her out!”

“Locked in that trunk!  Good gracious!” cried Mrs. Preston.  “That trunk shuts with a spring lock.  Now I wonder where the key to it is.”

“Here’s a lot of keys we found!” said Bunny, holding out those he and Charlie had gathered from the other trunks.

“I’ll try those, but I’m afraid they won’t fit,” said Mrs. Preston, hurrying up to the attic, followed by Bunny, Charlie and Rose.

“You’ll be all right now, Sue!” called Mrs. Preston through the sides of the trunk to Sue.  “We’ll soon have you out.”

“Please hurry,” said a muffled and far-off voice.  “I can hardly breathe in here.”

“I should say not!” exclaimed Mrs. Preston.  “We’ll get you out soon, though.”

She tried other keys, none of which would fit, and then she brought up from her bedroom another bunch that locked the trunks she used when she went traveling.

“It’s of no use,” she cried, when she found she could not open the trunk.  “We can’t waste any more time.  Charlie, you run and get Mr. Wright, the carpenter.  He’ll have to saw a hole in the end of the trunk to get Sue out.”

“But he won’t hurt her, will he?” asked Bunny.

“No indeed!  He’ll be very careful.”

Mr. Wright came back with Charlie, carrying several tools in his hand.  He soon set to work.

“Get as far back to the end of the trunk as you can,” he called to Sue, tapping with his fingers on the end he wanted her to keep away from.

“I’m back as far as I can get,” she said in a far-off voice.

“All right.  Now I’m going to bore a little hole in this end, and then I’m going to put in a little saw and saw a door in the end of your trunk house so you can crawl out.  Don’t be afraid.  I’ll soon have you out,” said the carpenter.

Very carefully Mr. Wright bored the hole.  Then, with a small saw, he began cutting a hole in the side of the big trunk.  In a little while the hole was big enough for Sue to crawl through.  They had to help her, for she was weak and faint from having been shut up so long.  But the fresh air and a glass of milk soon made her feel better, and she wanted to go on with the game.

“No, I think you had better be out in the air now on the big enclosed porch,” said Mrs. Preston.  “You have played in the attic long enough.  I never thought of the spring lock on that trunk.  It is the only one in the attic, but now we will leave the hole cut in the end, so, even with the lid closed, whoever goes in can get out.”