“Non. He go big lake. Go by Aten’s stage.”
“Who told you so?” demanded Trafford.
“Pierre—Pierre Duchesney. When he come, he say: Victor, he go big lake: he go by Aten’s stage.”
“Well, he killed him. Drowned him in the river at Millbank, where the big Falls are.”
“What for he kill him?” demanded the boy.
“Who sent for your cousin at the big lake when he and Pierre went away?” Trafford demanded, and then, it being evident that the lad had not sufficient command of English to master this question, his companion repeated it in French.
The lad’s face brightened as he heard his native tongue, and from that time he carried his part of the conversation mostly in that tongue.
“The boss.”
On questioning, it developed that the “boss” had said the “big man” had sent for Pierre and Victor; had said that they were to go to the Forks of the River and meet a gang, but when they got there the gang was gone and they had word to go somewhere else, and it was when Pierre came back and Victor had gone to the big lake, that the lad was told this by Pierre. The lad did not know where it was that Victor had gone, but he was to see him again when the drive was over and they were ready to go back to Canada before the feast of St. John.
Oh, yes; the “big man” was somebody who lived down where the water went over the big Falls, and owned all the trees, and sent the boss money to pay them. He didn’t know his name, but he was a great big man—as big as the Seigneur at Rigaud-Vandreuil, the biggest man the lad had ever seen.