Chapter 3: The Bones

At this point in time Fidelis is more or less resigned to Argus, where he found he must stop indefinitely due to his lack of funds, and has begun to set up his life as Master Butcher. He brings his wife and her son Franz over the ocean and into his new life, which to Eva seems startling bland. Yet as an ongoing altercation between Fidelis and the other butcher in town, Pete Kozka would prove, things were anything but boring. The whole thing starts when Pete's dog Hottentot starts fishing for scraps of meat behind Fidelis' shop and bringing them home. Thinking that Fidelis has corrupted the "loyalty" of the dog, Kozka vows to be revenged upon him. When both men end up nursing some wounded pride, it becomes clear to me that this story is a bit of a fable in disguise. Pete's misplaced trust in Hottentot is in some ways a commentary on his relationship with Fidelis. To me, it suggests that the foolish pride of one man is no match for the determination of another who simply wants to survive in the world. Hottentot carries a bit of both of them within him: a foolish pride but also a determination to succeed in getting what he wants. In the end, Pete ends up paying dearly for his misplaced trust in an animal, and finds a common ground with the person he had previously regarded, quite ironically, as being less worthy of his respect than a dog.