"I wanted to think," said Robin, "and—well I didn't hear it again. But, of course, Jan did, last night."
"Was she sleeping out, then?" inquired their cousin, wrinkling his brows in thought. "I imagined that you said it was wet."
"No, she never does. It's against orders. And that makes the whole thing queerer. Our noise was heard when we were camping, and didn't sound far off. It seemed to me to come through the ground, but, perhaps, that would be vibration, for a noise carries a long way if one puts one ear to the ground to listen," added Peter wisely. "Jan's noise, you know, was by her bed in the Cottage."
"I never said so," remarked Jan eagerly; "from the wall or the floor, or both, I couldn't tell which—that's what I said!"
"Noises are queer things sometimes," was all the remark that Donald had to contribute apparently, a rather disappointing fact from the point of view of the three cousins, who had hoped for help from this distinguished Scout. "But, what other mysteries are there? They're most frightfully interesting, you know."
"Yes, aren't they? Well, there's Brownie's queer way of going on. First asking Mother if we'd be 'fr——'; the word was stuck in her throat by Mother's look, as I twigged, but she meant 'frightened'—frightened to sleep in the attic! Robin and me, you know, and we're Scouts. Why, for a minute I thought the place was haunted, and I felt inclined to give up the camp even, just to have a go at hunting the spooks, but Scouts don't believe in ghosts; and it wasn't that, it was something else!"
"What?" inquired his cousin with interest.
"Well, that's what we want to find out. The attic-place hadn't been swept out for years, and it's crammed with lumber, old bits of machinery and what not. There's some mystery about the former tenant of the Cottage, I'm almost sure; gamekeeper to Grandfather he was, you know. Dismissed, too, and gone somewhere that Brownie knows well enough, only she won't tell. Also, who's this?" Peter suddenly produced something out of his pocket and handed it across.
"I say, Peter, I didn't think you'd hung on to that," interrupted Robin, "it's not yours. Besides, I don't know if——"
"It's not anybody's except Hooker's! And I'll give it to him smart enough when I find him," answered his younger brother. "Brownie didn't ask for it, and it's not hers anyway, any more than it's mine. And, after all, Donald's a relation; he's not a stranger, is he? although we've never seen him before to-day; and——" he broke off as Donald turned.