Tesno stood up and sauntered toward the door. Anger, guilt, a sense of injustice, rose in him and laid harsh words on his tongue, but he did not speak them. He needed time to calm down, to think things out.
"You'll get it," he said through clenched teeth, "or you'll get my resignation."
He put his back to Ben and trudged out of the cabin and through the camp toward the town road. Dave Coons stepped out of one of the bunkhouses and fell in beside him.
"Johnny Favery just died," Coons said.
Tesno closed his eyes briefly. "That's four," he said.
"He was just a kid," Coons said. "Just here a few months from the old country. He had nineteen cents in his pocket."
"Hell of a thing," Tesno said.
"Can you tell me where the blame lies?" Coons said. "The men have a right to know. So it won't happen again."
"Ask Ben."
"Thought I might get a straight story from you. O'Hara wasn't at the west portal as he claimed, I know that. He was at the cookhouse trying to sober up on coffee."