"As you say," said Hugh, "the gold may have belonged to any one; gold dust is much alike and a buckskin sack in the course of years, rots and disappears. Yet, after all, it seems likely that this may have been yours, since it was found near other things that were yours, and since you lost your gold at that place."
"Truly," said Lajeunesse, "it may have been mine, but it was lost long ago and could not be found, and now if you men have found it, it is yours."
"That is what we must now determine;" said Hugh. "We are here together, four persons, the only four, so far as we can tell, that know anything of this gold, or have a claim to it. Suppose, now, that we four were to decide that the gold belonged to you, what would you do with it?"
"Truly," said Baptiste, "if it belonged to me, I should not know what to do with it. I think I should give it to some one to take care of for me, for since my head has been bad, I might lose it or forget where I had put it, and then it would do me no good. If it belonged to you, Casse-tête, what would you do with it?"
"Well, Bat, I'm good deal like you, I don't know what I would do with it. I never had much money, not more than enough to buy supplies and have a good time, and this is more than one would need for that." Hugh stopped speaking, and thought for a little while and then said: "I'll tell you what I think would be fair: Suppose we divide this gold in two parts, and you take one part and the two boys will take the other; then we'll put yours in the bank and they will hire it of you and pay you rent for it as long as they keep it. I think they ought to pay you, maybe forty or fifty dollars a month. If they'd pay you as much as that and gave it to you every month, you'd get along all right, wouldn't you?"
"Indeed, Casse-tête, I should think that I were rich if I had so much money as that every month, but you see this gold is not mine, even if it is the same gold that I lost; it has stopped being mine when I lost it. If I had lost gold pieces on the prairie and you had found them, they would be yours, and so it is with this dust. Why, then, should you make me a present of one half of it?"
"Partly because I feel sure you lost it," said Hugh, "and partly on account of old times; and partly because you now have nothing, though twenty-five years ago, there was no man on the prairie that was richer than Baptiste Lajeunesse."
"Truly," said Baptiste, "it is pleasant to think of the old times, and to meet one who remembers them. I have thought of you many times, Casse-tête, since I saw you last, and I am glad that we meet again. But what about these young men?" he said. "They partly own this gold, what do they say about giving it away?"
"Why," said Jack, "I say you ought to have it all, and not half of it, as Hugh says." Joe said nothing, but smiled as if he agreed with Jack.