"You tell him?"
"No. He hear Dave talk an' go to tell M'sieu Peters Dave have stole all his money."
"Diable! Steal?"
"Yes."
Jean knitted his brows in the effort to understand the reason for this; quite naturally he came back in a circle to his first inquiry and repeated it: "For why you go to Twin?"
"I go for men to catch Dave when he steal the money." This, while not strictly true, was the nearest to truth that Jean could understand.
The trend of his thoughts was shown by his next question. "Dave—he know?" he asked, and his anxiety was apparent.
"Yes," was the brief answer.
"Mon Dieu!" exclaimed Jean. He turned from her and stared with unseeing eyes over the land he had struggled hard to make his own. And now he must lose it. Rapidly calculating how long his slender resources would support him until Rose could dispose of his stock and follow, despair came upon him as he realized that the vengeance of Dave was not to be escaped. "For why," he asked, hoarsely, "for why you do this?"
"For why?" repeated Rose and the thrill in her voice caused him to turn and look at her in surprise. "Figure to yourself, then: That devil he come here and he sneer at you, and he insult me—yes. Many times he insult me that I have to hold myself, so! that I do not kill him. I endure. He send me—-Dieu! that I should say it—he make dirt of me to walk on, to arrive at a man who is high, good, ah, a man! mon père, a man like you, one time when you have no fear. He send me. I say nothing. Many times he try, like a dog, to spring at his throat, but always, it is nothing but snap at his heels. Like a dog which he is. Then he come to me and say he is triumph. He get much money. And he tell me go with him. Me! me! he command like he is master and me slave. He steal money from M'sieu Peters and him and me, we go away together, like that, like man and his squaw. And I say nothing. Ah, mon père! it is too much—too much. If it be some other man—not M'sieu Peters—then I go. I save you, mon père, though it kill me. But—it is too much."