"Sometimes I ask myself that question, friend," Baptiste replied, "and I do not always know how to answer it. In the summer, when the boats are loading, sometimes I help to pack the robes. Sometimes, when the furs are brought in, they get me to come and help them look at them and say what they are worth; in that way I earn a little money, and my friend here, who owns this house, is kind to me. I sleep here always and sometimes when he goes away, I stay and answer questions for him."
"Friend," said Hugh, "when these Indians were chasing you, and when at last you turned to the river, did you have your charger with you?"
"I don't know," said Baptiste, "I did not know it was lost until I got well in the camp at the mouth of the Judith; then I saw it was gone."
"And do you know when you lost your gold?"
"I don't know," said Baptiste. "When my mule fell, and I turned to run straight for the river, the gold was still on my saddle; before I got to the edge of the breaks, a bullet struck the horse, or the saddle, and when I stopped near the river the gold was gone. I can tell you no more than that."
"But, Bat," said Hugh, "did you never go back there to look for it?"
"I went back," said Lajeunesse, "but I could never find the place. When I got near it, things were always confused in my mind and I could see nothing that I knew again, although I had travelled over the country many times, and knew it well."
"Listen to me, friend," said Hugh, "Not long ago, these two young men and I were down in that same country. We found, close together, a mule that had been killed long ago with an arrow, this charger," touching the gold on Jack's breast, "and an old buckskin sack full of gold. It may be that these things were yours."
"That is curious," said Lajeunesse. "The charger was mine for I know it well, perhaps the mule also was mine, but about the gold, who can tell. Perhaps it was mine, perhaps another's."
"Oh! Hugh," burst out Jack, unable longer to contain himself. But Hugh raised his hand for silence, and Jack stopped, though he was eager to try to prove to Lajeunesse that the gold was his, and that none of them had, or wished to have, any claim on it.