“Turn out a fresh gang,” Austin ordered. “Load up rock and run the trolleys across the bridge. Then rig a derrick and dump the stuff.”
“A great notion!” said the foreman. “I’ll get busy.”
He vanished in the snow, and Austin leaned against the lattice.
“I’m rattled, Kit, but I think you’ve got it. If the pile sinks, the lot will go.... But what about dumping some bags of cement?”
“Wheeler’s construction boss, and we don’t know what he’d do,” Kit replied. “To move the cement might bother him, but, if he wanted, he could dredge up the broken rock. You, however, ought to be in bed.”
“If I’d gone to bed, I’d acknowledge I ought not to hold my post. I’ve got to stay with it.”
“Oh, well, your cap will blow off,” said Kit, and pulling down the oilskin cap, he firmly tied the strings.
At the end of the bridge they stopped. The beam from the lamps did not travel far, and in front was a dark gap. Twenty feet below, the river brawled among the piers and its turmoil faintly pierced the scream of the gale. A ladder went down into the tossing snow, and one heard chains rattle and hoarse shouts. Then a slanted flame leaped upright, and platforms and workmen’s figures got distinct. Kit thought Austin ought not to go down, but Bob was obstinate and he could not force him back.
He went in front, and where it was possible, steadied the other. By and by he pulled Austin on to a platform, and bracing himself against the gale, he looked about. The snow blew obliquely across the bridge and the light was puzzling. Sometimes shining columns and skeleton trusses cut the hazy background; sometimes the flames sank and the netted steel melted in the gloom.
Men, balanced awkwardly on narrow bars, steadied a big steel frame suspended by wire tackles. Another group hauled on a chain and when they reached for a fresh hold the platform rocked. Two or three more, on the beams overhead, turned a screw. The suspended frame did not altogether span the gap and reach the fastenings on the pillar. To pull the mass into line looked impossible, but one must try, and the screws and multiplying tackle were powerful. Kit touched Austin.