Captain Holiday—whose name ought to have been Curiosity—put his hands behind his back, and tilted his head to one side, taking almost the pose of a small boy who is still at the deadly age of questions. Evidently this tall young man had never outgrown it! How simply, but in what a not-to-be-put-off voice he persisted:
"What was this 'somebody' like?"
"I've just said he was something like you, Captain Holiday. That is," I added, "I couldn't really tell you if he were or not."
"What d'you mean by that?" Captain Holiday asked.
I laughed again. One simply could not feel impatient or annoyed with this extraordinarily inquisitive young man. He took one past that! So, as I walked on with my pail to the next coop, followed by the young man and the dog, I said:
"What I mean—if you must know all about it——"
"Yes, I must. I mean I'd love to."
Well! "knowing all about it" must be a sort of mild obsession of his. Perhaps he'd been Intelligence Officer or something. The only thing to be done appeared to be to humour him!
So I said:
"What I mean about that young man called Richard Wynn, your double, is that I can't honestly say I know what he was like!"