“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. “A bigger man than the boss?” Oh, yes; for he sent the boss money to pay them and owned the trees, while the boss wasn’t as big a man as Louis Blanchet, the notary, whom he, the lad, had often seen and talked with, and once had thrown mud at when he was drunk. No, he didn’t know the big man’s name; he had said that before, but anybody could tell them; anybody who knew, for he owned the trees; and the “boss” could tell them; his name was Kennett, Georges Kennett; not the boss here, for his name was Jean Busque, he was Canadian; but the other boss, the one who told Pierre and Victor to go to the Forks of the River. But he must go back, because the boss, the one here, would be angry and make him lose some of his money. He had heard them say something about Victor being killed, and he wanted to ask them and tell them it couldn’t be Victor, because he had gone to the big lake, as Pierre had said. What would Victor’s wife do if he was dead? The good God--_le bon Dieu_--and the good Saint Anne--_la bonne sainte Anne_--wouldn’t let him be dead, when there was Victor’s wife and three little ones and another coming in the summer, as Victor had told him. They must know that Victor couldn’t be dead, and if they saw him, they were to tell him that he--Étienne Vignon--had said this and would meet him at the big Falls to go back to la Beauce before the feast of Saint John, as Victor had promised Étienne’s mother when he took him away to go on the drive. And with these words, the lad dashed into the woods for his mile run back to camp. Trafford caught himself perilously near a sigh, as the lad disappeared among the trees.