A Question
Of Moment Here Presents Itself, Namely Whether He Actually Murdered These
Men, Or Either Of Them, Or Whether
He found the bodies in the snow.
Captain Franklin, who is the best able to judge of this matter from
Knowing their situation when he parted from them, suggested the former
idea, and that both Belanger and Perrault had been sacrificed. When
Perrault turned back Captain Franklin watched him until he reached a
small group of willows which was immediately adjoining to the fire and
concealed it from view, and at this time the smoke of fresh fuel was
distinctly visible. Captain Franklin conjectures that Michel, having
already destroyed Belanger, completed his crime by Perrault's death in
order to screen himself from detection. Although this opinion is founded
only on circumstances and is unsupported by direct evidence it has been
judged proper to mention it, especially as the subsequent conduct of the
man showed that he was capable of committing such a deed. The
circumstances are very strong. It is not easy to assign any other
adequate motive for his concealing from us that Perrault had turned back,
while his request overnight that we should leave him the hatchet and his
cumbering himself with it when he went out in the morning, unlike a
hunter who makes use only of his knife when he kills a deer, seem to
indicate that he took it for the purpose of cutting up something that he
knew to be frozen. These opinions however are the result of subsequent
consideration.
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