of youth, and a
corrupter of the innocence of women, and a corrupter of honest
government. If New France lie under the scourge to-day, it is for
the sins of such men as he." The old man's voice shook with sudden
anger, but he calmed himself. "In brief, there was a gambling debt--
a huge sum owing; and the Seigneur was forced to travel to Quebec and
fetch the lad home. How he paid the amount I cannot tell you; belike
he raised the money on Boisveyrac; but pay he did. Dominique Guyon
went with him to Quebec, having just succeeded his father, old
Bonhomme Guyon, as Boisveyrac's man of business; and doubtless
Dominique made some arrangements with the merchants there. He has a
head on his shoulders, that lad. M. de Vaudreuil, too, taking pity
on a distressed gentleman of New France, gave the Seigneur the
command of this fort, to grow fat on it, and hither we have all
migrated. But our good Seigneur will never grow fat, monsieur; he is
of the poor to whom shall belong the Kingdom of God."

John did not clearly understand this, being unacquainted with the
official system of peculation by false vouchers--a system under which
the command of a backwoods fort was reckoned to be worth a small
fortune. His mind recurred to Dominique and to the Commandant's
uneasiness at Dominique's mention of business.

"A queer fellow, that Dominique!" he muttered, half to himself; "and
a queer fate that made him the brother of Bateese."

The priest heard, as deaf men sometimes will hear a word or two
spoken below ordinary pitch.

"Ah!" said he, shaking his head. "You have heard of Bateese?
A sad case--a very sad case!"

"There was an accident, I have heard."

Father Joly glanced at John's face and, reading the question, bent
his own dim eyes on the river. John divined at once that the old man
knew more than he felt inclined to tell.

"It was at Bord-a-Loup, a little above Boisveyrac, four years ago
last St. Peter's tide. The two brothers were driving some timber
which the Seigneur had cleared there; the logs had jammed around a
rock not far from shore and almost at the foot of the fall.
The two had managed to get across and were working the mass loose
with handspikes when, just as it began to break up, Bateese slipped
and fell between two logs."

"Through some careless push of Dominique's, was it not?"

But Father Joly did not hear, or did not seem to.

"He was hideously broken, poor Bateese. For weeks it did not seem
po