oke. "Do you know, monsieur, who are the poachers? No? Eh?
No? Well, it is that Radisson."

Iberville turned sharply upon Perrot. "Are you sure of that?" he said.
"Are you sure, Nick?"

"As sure as I've a head. And I will tell you more: Radisson was with
Bucklaw at the kidnapping. I had the pleasure to kill a fellow of
Bucklaw, and he told me that before he died. He also told how Bucklaw
went with Radisson to the Spaniards' country treasure-hunting. Ah!
there are many fools in the world. They did not get the treasure. They
quarreled, and Radisson went to the far north, Bucklaw to the far south.
The treasure is where it was. Eh bien, such is the way of asses."

Iberville was about to speak.

"But wait," said Perrot, with a slow, tantalising smile; "it is not
wise to hurry. I have a mind to know; so while I am at New York I go
to Boston. It makes a man's mind great to travel. I have been east to
Boston; I have been west beyond the Ottawa and the Michilimackinac, out
to the Mississippi. Yes. Well, what did I find in Boston? Peste! I found
that they were all like men in purgatory--sober and grave. Truly. And so
dull! Never a saint-day, never a feast, never a grand council when the
wine, the rum, flow so free, and you shall eat till you choke. Nothing.
Everything is stupid; they do not smile. And so the Indians make war!
Well, I have found this. There is a great man from the Kennebec called
William Phips. He has traded in the Indies. Once while he was there he
heard of that treasure. Ha! ha! There have been so many fools on that
trail. The governor of New York was a fool when Bucklaw played his game;
he would have been a greater if he had gone with Bucklaw."

Here Iberville would have spoken, but Perrot waved his hand. "De grace,
a minute only. Monsieur Gering, the brave English lieutenant, is
at Hudson's Bay, and next summer he will go with the great William
Phips--Tonnerre, what a name--William Phips! Like a pot of herring! He
will go with him after the same old treasure. Boston is a big place, but
I hear these things."

Usually a man of few words, Perrot had bursts of eloquence, and this was
one of them. But having made his speech, he settled back to his tobacco
and into the orator's earned repose.

Iberville looked up from the fire and said: "Perrot, you saw her in New
York. What speech was there between you?"

Perrot's eyes twinkled. "There was not much said.

"I put myself in her way. When she saw me her chee