"You looked it. You gave me a letter to post. Do you remember that?"
"Yes," answered Paul shortly. He remembered it but too well. It was the letter he had written to Mr. Moncrief, to which that gentleman had not deigned to answer.
"When I came back to you in the writing-room you were tracing names on the blotting-pad. I caught sight of one—Zuker. You noticed that I was surprised at seeing it, and asked me if I knew anybody of that name. I told you that I did. That I once knew a boy of that name when I was at school in Germany. And then you told me something I'm never likely to forget—never likely to forget to my dying hour. You may think it strange, but the words came suddenly to my ears when I fell off the raft into the river."
"Indeed! What was it I told you?"
"You told me that it was through a man of the name of Zuker that your father lost his life."
"Yes, that's true enough. So it was—Israel Zuker. What about it?"
"What about it!" Hibbert made a painful effort to laugh. "Why, Percival——"
He stopped abruptly, as the door suddenly opened, and Mr. Weevil entered.
"What, Percival! You here?" exclaimed the master. "Where is Mrs. Trounce?"
"Hibbert wanted me to sit by him, and I'm taking her place for a short time. She'll be back presently, sir."