Richard treated both proposals with great disdain.

“Why, and wherefore. Cousin ‘Duke?” he exclaimed, a little angrily;
“the horses are gentle as lambs. You know that I broke the leaders
myself, and the pole-horses are too near my whip to be restive. Here
is Mr. Le Quoi, now, who must know something about driving, because he
has rode out so often with me; I will leave it to Mr. Le Quoi whether
there is any danger.”

It was not in the nature of the Frenchman to disappoint expectations
so confidently formed; although he cat looking down the precipice
which fronted him, as Richard turned his leaders into the quarry, with
a pair of eyes that stood out like those of lobsters. The German’s
muscles were unmoved, but his quick sight scanned each movement. Mr.
Grant placed his hands on the side of the sleigh, in preparation for a
spring, but moral timidity deterred him from taking the leap that
bodily apprehension strongly urged him to attempt.

Richard, by a sudden application of the whip, succeeded in forcing the
leaders into the snow-bank that covered the quarry; but the instant
that the impatient animals suffered by the crust, through which they
broke at each step, they positively refused to move an inch farther in
that direction. On the contrary, finding that the cries and blows of
their driver were redoubled at this juncture, the leaders backed upon
the pole-horses, who in their turn backed the sleigh. Only a single
log lay above the pile which upheld the road on the side toward the
valley, and this was now buried in the snow. The sleigh was easily
breed across so slight an impediment, and before Richard became
conscious of his danger one-half of the vehicle Was projected over a
precipice, which fell perpendicularly more than a hundred feet. The