"Sure, my dear, don't I remember that. 'Twas—well, 'twas young Hooker, gamekeeper he was, in your grandfather's days, but youngish for the job. I can see him now, a fine upstanding chap he was." The old dame heaved a sigh.
"Young, was he? Why did he leave then? Where is he now?" inquired Peter standing still for a minute with an armful of boxes.
"Sure, I can't tell you. 'Twas dismissed that he was. Into disgrace he fell, at the time of all the trouble," said Brownie. "Same age as Master——" she bustled away, muttering to herself.
"Same age as who, Brownie?" inquired quick-eared Jan, who, armed with a duster and a mop, looked quite as busy as she really was.
But the old woman did not appear to hear the question; she made for the door. "You'll be wanting your teas after all the help that you're giving, my dears, and the kettle's not on," she announced, and disappeared down the creaking stair.
"There's certainly a mystery. A—choo!" Peter's voice began on an impressive note and finished up with a sneeze. "Begorra, what dust, Robin! What d'you think it means?"
"I—don't—know." Robin's voice sounded abstracted; he was gazing at a photograph that he held in his hand—an old, old faded snapshot of a young man fishing. "I—picked this up when a lot of rubbish fell down," he said; "but—who is it? It's taken on the Island by the river, and—it's like Dad. But—it's not the same smile. Much younger too, of course, but—whoever can it be?"
"A relation, anyway," said Jan, peering over his shoulder.
"I'll ask Brownie," said Peter, and, suiting the action, to the word, he seized the little portrait and made his way downstairs. "I say, who's this?" he inquired; "this man—is it an old picture of Dad, Brownie, d'you know? Because, well, it can't be, and yet——" He stopped and stared. "It's only a snapshot, Brownie; it's not a ghost," he continued, "nor a bomb, you know. Who is it?—that's all I was asking."
"Aye, my dear, I hear right well what you're asking," said the old woman; "I see right well too that it's but a photograph, as you say. He and Hooker was always together; 'twas one of Hooker's taking, I make no doubt, seeing as it's upstairs still. Like David and Jonathan, so I've heard folks say, and——"