Duquet’s theft of the Trépagny brothers’ furs

Duquet’s theft of the Trépagny brothers’ furs is the final act in a failed negotiation over payment, partnership, and trust. As Toussaint and Fernand prepare to pursue another expedition, Duquet accepts a bargain for most of their furs but secretly takes the prized tiger skin and the fox and otter pelts they had kept back, leaving the brothers with some ready money and a bitter farewell.

The parting and the bargain

The break begins when the season ends and Duquet is due to return to La Rochelle and China. Toussaint tells him that he and Fernand will keep their share of the furs unless Duquet pays a high price for them immediately. Their demand reflects a growing independence: they have spent months building their evening fire apart from Duquet and speaking only to one another during the day. Toussaint adds that they now know several traders.

Fernand explains why waiting is no longer acceptable. They need ready money rather than a promise of payment years later, which might never arrive if pirates strike again. They intend to rejoin Pierre LeMoyne, who is preparing an expedition to the Caribbean in France. Fernand speaks while staring at the ground, unwilling to meet Duquet’s eyes, while Duquet remains calm. The brothers do not know what their furs would fetch in China; Duquet, having learned to negotiate, uses that imbalance to make what the narration calls a wondrous bargain after two days of discussion with Toussaint, who speaks for both brothers. The tiger skin and the white fox furs are excluded from the sale.

A partnership left unspoken

The bargaining also settles the question of whether the brothers will join Duquet in the timber trade. Duquet sarcastically remarks that the Caribbean may hold many adventures for coureurs de bois. Toussaint answers sharply that the Dutch West Indies offer a lucrative lumber market closer than either France or China. Duquet suspects the brothers are waiting for him to renew his offer of a timber partnership so they can refuse him again, but he says nothing. The silence makes their separation definitive: rather than reopen the dispute, each side turns toward a different commercial future.

The theft and its immediate aftermath

Near midnight, Duquet rises and disappears as silently as fog. The brothers do not discover what he has done until many hours later: the tiger skin, the fox furs, and the otter furs are gone. These are precisely the pelts they had withheld from the bargain, so Duquet’s departure converts a negotiated purchase into theft. The brothers have obtained a little hard money for the furs they sold, but their attempt to secure immediate value has not protected what they chose to keep.

Fernand curses the loss, saying that no verse in Pibrac can ease their situation. The brothers open the jenever and drink to being rid of Duquet, describing him in a toast as a man whose sugar mouth disguises a gall-choked heart. Their parting is therefore both practical and emotional: they have money to pursue their next venture, but the stolen furs confirm the distrust that had already taken shape in their separate fires, divided conversations, and abandoned partnership. The episode marks Duquet’s commercial skill turning into calculated betrayal, while the brothers’ relief at his departure is sharpened by the cost of trusting him.