CHAPTER VIII.
Fabian Laveque elaborated the details of the catastrophe with volubility.
"Hee's not fonny dat she bre'ks t'rough," he said.

"I 'ave see dem bre'k t'rough two, t'ree tam in de day, but nevaire dat she get drown! W'en dose dam-fool can't t'ink wit' hees haid--sacre Dieu! eet is so easy, to chok' dat cheval--she make me cry wit' de eye!" "I suppose it was a good deal my fault," commented Radway, doubtfully shaking his head, after Laveque had left the office.

"I ought to have been surer about the ice." "Eight inches is a little light, with so much snow atop," remarked the scaler carelessly.
By virtue of that same careless remark, however, Radway was so confirmed in his belief as to his own culpability that he quite overlooked Fabian's just contention--that the mere thinness of the ice was in reality no excuse for the losing of the horses.

So Pat and Henrys were not discharged--were not instructed to "get their time." Fabian Laveque promptly demanded his.
"Sacre bleu!" said he to old Jackson.

"I no work wid dat dam-fool dat no t'ink wit' hees haid." This deprived the camp at once of a teamster and a team.