son did, too.

It was probably well toward morning when a cry like a loud shriek
brought me to my feet outside the old wardrobe! A single dying ember
flickered in the oven. Addison, too, was on his feet, with his eyes very
wide and round.

"I say!" he whispered. "What was that?"

Before I could speak we heard it again; but this time, now that we were
awake, it sounded less like a human shriek than the shrill yelp of an
animal. The sounds came from directly under us; and for the instant all
I could think of was Cronin's murdered wife!

Addison had turned to stare at the dark cellar doorway, when we heard it
yet again--a wild staccato yelp, prolonged and quavering.

"There must be a wolf or a fox down there!" Addison muttered and picked
up a loose brick from the fireplace.

He started to throw it down the cellar stairs, when three or four yelps
burst forth at once, followed by a rumble and clatter below, as if a
number of animals were running madly round, and then by the ugliest,
most savage growl that ever came to my ears!

Addison stopped short. "Good gracious!" he exclaimed. "That's some big
beast. Sounds like a bear! He'll be up here in a minute! Quick, help me
stand this wardrobe in front of the doorway!"

He seized it on one side, I on the other, and between us we quickly
stood that heavy piece of furniture up against the dark opening. Then,
while I held it in place, Addison propped it fast with the door from the
foot of the chamber stairs, which with one wrench he tore from its
hinges.

It was evidently foxes, or bears, or both; but how they had got into the
cellar was not clear. We started the fire blazing again and, standing in
front of it, listened to the uproar. At times we heard yelps in the
storm outside, at the back of the house, and decided that there must be
some other way than the stairs of getting into the cellar.

After a while it began to grow light. Snow was still falling, but not so
fast. The commotion below had quieted, but we heard a fox barking
outside and from the back window caught sight of the animal moving about
in the snow, holding up first one foot then another. Farther away, among
the bushes of the clearing, stood another fox; and, still farther off in
the woods, a third was barking querulously. Tracks in the snow led to a
large hole under the sill of the house where a part of the cellar wall
had caved in.

"But there's a bear or some other large animal down cellar," Addison
s