Stickney nodded impatiently. “Yes! Of course,” he reiterated. “The old Count Telfair is dead and his estates all belong to the daughter of M. Delaroche. The title descends to the English branch, to Mr. Brito Telfair——”
“M. Brito!” Fantine and Pierre looked at each other. “Ah! that is what bring him to Canada,” they cried, together.
“You knew that he was in Canada?” It was Jack who asked the question.
Fantine answered. “But, yes, monsieur,” she said. “We have friends at Malden that send us word. I know not then why he come, but now it is very clear. He want to marry the Lady Estelle and get her property to pay his debts. Ah! Le scelerat!”
“You seem to know him?” Jack was curious.
“Non, monsieur. I know him not. But I know of him. And I know his house. M. Delaroche has hated it always.”
“He warned Tecumseh against him before he died, and when Brito turned up and asked for Miss Estelle, as he did two or three months ago, Tecumseh put him off and sent a messenger to me asking me to come and take charge of her. I am a member of the Panther clan of the Shawnees, you know; Tecumseh’s mother raised me up a member when I was a boy, ten years ago. Perhaps it was because of Delaroche that she did so. I came on at once but when I got to Girty’s Town I found that the girl had disappeared.”
“And you can not find her?” Fantine’s bright eyes were darting from Jack’s face to Alagwa’s and back again. “You have search—and you can not find her?”
“Well! I haven’t searched very much!” Jack laughed ruefully. “I haven’t been able.” He went on and told of his adventures with Williams.
Fantine listened in seeming amazement, with many exclamations and shrugs of her mighty shoulders. When Jack tried to slur over his picking up of the boy, as being, to his mind, not pertinent to the subject, she broke in and insisted on hearing the tale in full.