"Engineers know everything," retorted the carpenter.
"If this one knew anything, he would not have stood there looking at the stones. I do not suppose the municipality is going to put up a monument to my grandfather, whom may the Lord preserve in glory!"
At this Gigi laughed, for he knew that Toto's grandfather had been drowned in the "lost water" somewhere deep down under that spot, and had never been found. The two men drank in silence. After a long time Toto spoke again.
"A woman," he said, with a shrug of the shoulders.
"A woman drowned him?" asked Gigi. "How could a woman do it?"
"A man did it. But it was for jealousy of a woman."
"The man was a mason, I suppose," suggested Gigi.
"Of course. He was working with the others in the morning, and he knew where they would be after dinner. He did not come back with them, and half an hour after they had gone down the water came. How many times have I told you that?"
"It is always a new tale," answered Gigi. "It gives me pleasure to hear it. Your father was a young man then, was he not?"
"Eighteen." Toto lighted his pipe.