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more money than most hunters ought to, and there’s absolutely no way that any hunter I know would wander about switching their snowshoes and changing direction as many times as you boys have—unless you were figuring that you were fooling the poor dumb deer?” Neither of the Boutiliers could dispute that last observation.
    â€œNo sir,” Sheriff Clarke finished up. “I don’t rightly think I’d be doing much of a job if I let you go on your own say-so. I figure you both need to come with me.”
    The Boutilier brothers spent that night in a Halifax jail, awaiting their trial. “I told you that snowshoe trick was dumber than ten kinds of stupid,” George said. John said nothing in return.

The Boutilier Trial
    The trial began at the Lunenburg Courthouse on Tuesday, May 3 , 1791 , at two o’clock, and continued for the next two days. The Boutilier brothers continued to plead their innocence as they stood before a dour Scottish-born judge by the name of Chief Justice Thomas Strange. Justice Strange had been given the position of Nova Scotia’s sixth chief justice not more than two years earlier. The trial of the Boutilier brothers would be his first major case since then, and he was determined to do his job most properly.
    Things did not begin well for the brothers. Peter, the third Boutilier brother, testified that his brothers John and George had indeed mentioned their intention to stay over at old Eminaud’s Lunenburg home. Following Peter’s testimony, brother David drove another nail into his brothers’ gallows when he testified that John and George had arrived at his home a few short hours before the sun rose.
    â€œMy brothers repeatedly mentioned their intention to visit old George Eminaud after they finished sailing to the Lunenburg area. When the weather prevented me from setting sail, they found themselves a tuna flatboat and rowed the distance. I found it strange to believe that they could be in that much of a hurry to see the old man. I had no idea at all that they meant him harm.”
    One wonders what the two murderous brothers were thinking as they listened to their blood kin testifying against them. Of course, whether or not they took any of the testimony personally did not matter.
    The final and most fatal blow fell when young Frederick Eminaud pulled a piece of dark red carpenter’s chalk from his left pocket. “This is one half of the piece of chalk that broke in my father’s hand as he and I worked on completing the construction of a structure we were working upon. He gave me the one piece of chalk and pocketed the other, and told me that the chalk would bring us good luck.”
    When the piece of chalk from young Frederick Eminaud’s pocket was paired up with the piece of red chalk that had been retrieved from George Frederick Boutilier’s pocket, it was clear to see that the two pieces were a perfect match, fitting neatly together at the spot where a single piece had been broken.
    The defence seemed clearly at a loss. They offered very little rebuttal and absolutely no evidence.
    Chief Justice Strange stood and spoke to the jury. “As in the case of most unwitnessed murders, the evidence against these two brothers who stand accused of the murder of George Frederick Eminaud and his family is primarily circumstantial. Therefore, jury, if you have the smallest doubt in this matter, it is my duty to instruct you to acquit them. It is better that any number of guilty persons escape punishment rather than one innocent man needlessly suffer.”
    He paused to let those words sink in. “However, if you have no doubt in this matter—if you believe that the guilt of these prisoners is as plain and clear as if someone you know had come to you and told you that they had witnessed the prisoners committing the murder—in that case, and in that case only, you must find them guilty.”
    Ninety minutes later, the jury