had seen the first one's swoop, was in view through the ether; then
another; then another. In an hour the brotherhood of ravens, thus
telegraphically notified, was at feast.



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