_Roberts_, returning with _Dr. Lawton_, and _Mr. Bemis_, who join him in stooping around the grated door of the shaft: “They’re just under here in the well of the elevator, midway between the two stories.” _Lawton_: “Ha! ha! ha! You don’t say so.” _Bemis_: “Bless my heart! What are they doing there?” _Miller_: “We’re not doing anything.” _Mrs. Curwen_: “We’re waiting for you to do something.” _Miss Lawton_: “Oh, papa!” _Lawton_: “Don’t be troubled, Lou, we’ll soon have you out.” _Young Mr. Bemis_: “Don’t be alarmed, sir, Miss Lawton is all right.” _Miss Lawton_: “Yes, I’m not frightened, papa.” _Lawton_: “Well, that’s a great thing in cases of this kind. How did you happen to get there?” _Miller_, indignantly: “How do you suppose? We came up in the elevator.” _Lawton_: “Well, why didn’t you come the rest of the way?” _Miller_: “The elevator wouldn’t.” _Lawton_: “What seems to be the matter?” _Miller_: “We don’t know.” _Lawton_: “Have you tried to start it?” _Miller_: “Well, I’ll leave that to your imagination.” _Lawton_: “Well, be careful what you do. You might”— _Miller_, interrupting: “Roberts, who’s that talking?” _Roberts_, coming forward politely: “Oh, excuse me! I forgot that you didn’t know each other. Dr. Lawton, Mr. Miller.” Introducing them. _Lawton_: “Glad to know you.” _Miller_: “Very happy to make your acquaintance, and hope some day to see you. And now, if you have completed your diagnosis”— _Mrs. Curwen_: “None of us have ever had it before, doctor; nor any of our families, so far as we know.” _Lawton_: “Ha! ha! ha! Very good! Well, just keep quiet. We’ll have you all out of there presently.” _Bemis_: “Yes, remain perfectly still.” _Roberts_: “Yes, we’ll have you out. Just wait.” _Miller_: “You seem to think we’re going to run away. Why shouldn’t we keep quiet? Do you suppose we’re going to be very boisterous, shut up here like rats in a trap?” _Mrs. Curwen_: “Or birds in a cage, if you want a more pleasing image.” _Mrs. Crashaw_: “How are you going to get us out, Edward?” _Roberts_: “We don’t know yet. But keep quiet”— _Miller_: “Keep quiet! Great heavens! we’re afraid to stir a finger. Now don’t say ‘keep quiet’ any more, for we can’t stand it.” _Lawton_: “He’s in open rebellion. What are you going to do, Roberts?” _Roberts_, rising and scratching his head: “Well, I don’t know yet. We might break a hole in the roof.” _Lawton_: “Ah, I don’t think that would do. Besides you’d have to get a carpenter.” _Roberts_: “That’s true. And it would make a racket, and alarm the house”—staring desperately at the grated doorway of the shaft. “If I could only find an elevator man—an elevator builder! But of course they all live in the suburbs, and they’re keeping Christmas, and it would take too long, anyway.” _Bemis_: “Hadn’t you better send for the police? It seems to me it’s a case for the authorities.”