“That’s right. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. I’m very grateful for your help.”

“I phoned police headquarters to tell them you were coming,” said the man, shaking hands with them. “Good luck in your research!”

THEY WERE GREETED by a uniformed woman who hadn’t quite understood the guard’s call.

“You’re trying to find a certain Etienne Brûlé, is that it?” she asked in laboured French.

Jack explained patiently that he was, rather, looking for his brother Théo and that the Etienne Brûlé in question was a coureur de bois.

“That’s good!” said the woman. “There aren’t many coureurs de bois left in Ontario. If there are any, they must be in Quebec.”

They looked to see if she was joking, but no, she was quite serious. She showed them to the archives, in the basement. They were expecting to meet an old policeman close to retirement, but it was a very young man with smooth cheeks and an innocent look who greeted them. Jack gave him his brother’s name, and the young policeman opened a drawer and began to flip through the files.

“Reference number 5289,” he said, sticking a pencil in front of the file he had just discovered.

He muttered the number as he took them into another room, where he consulted a second file.

“We’re in luck,” he said.

“Why?” asked La Grande Sauterelle.

“Because there’s a microfilm. Just a second . . .”

He rummaged around under a counter, took out a cassette, inserted it into a viewer and suggested they sit down.

“Do you know how it works?”

“Yes,” said the girl.

He turned it on himself and then, stepping back, leaned over to take a look at the first image; it was somewhat blurred, and he turned a knob to adjust the focus.

“Is that all right?”

“Just fine,” said Jack.

But the young policeman continued to look at the picture. La Grande Sauterelle turned to him.

“The image is perfect,” she said firmly, and looked at him so insistently that he turned on his heel and went back into the other room.

The first image showed a general information sheet on which appeared Théo’s name, his father’s Christian name, his age (45), his date of birth, occupation (traveller) and the number of his driver’s licence; under the heading “Nature of Complaint” were the words: “unlicensed firearm.”

The next images reproduced an interrogation that dealt with two elements in particular:

A) To the question regarding his occupation, Théo had replied “traveller,” and he was unable to explain to the policeman’s satisfaction what that occupation consisted of and how it enabled him to earn his living.

B) The matter of the firearm did not go beyond mere “possession.”

The final image showed a closeup of Théo’s possessions:
- a revolver
- an old Camargue hat
- a stopwatch
- a wallet containing $32.58
- On the Road by Jack Kerouac
- a Swiss army knife
- a photograph of a girl, inscribed “Claudia, St. Louis”
- a book entitled The Oregon Trail Revisited.