“Then, if the caulking’s really good, perhaps the tanks ought not to leak.”
Wheeler laughed. “They do leak! They’re trickling right across the alkali belt, and to make them tight will cost the opposition high. You see, they’re not our tanks.”
“The company has got an order for a fresh lot along the new line,” said the manager. “The railroad, however, will not pay us a better price, and the construction must be cheap. The problem is to carry a heavy load on thin material. If the job were yours, how’d you get about it?”
Kit saw they tried him out; in fact, he had before imagined he was studied. He knew Western engineers thought English methods out-of-date, but he was moved by reckless humor and he had known the bold line pay.
“You are experts and I ought to be modest,” he replied. “However, to make a thin joint tight you must have good caulking, and good caulking implies long practice and inherited skill. To begin with, I’d send for an English boiler gang. If you got me men from Lancashire, I’d engage to make the landings tight.”
“Carson’s young, but he certainly has some sand,” Wheeler remarked, and the manager looked at Kit rather hard.
“Your plan won’t go. We use Canadian workmen.”
“Then, I expect you’ll use Canadian material, and perhaps your rolling mills can supply the plates I want. At the shipyard our specialty was light construction for fast small steamers, and we were forced to study problems like yours——”
He drew two or three sketch plans and elevations, and resumed: “There’s my notion. The measurements, of course, are not accurate.”
“We’ll send for you again,” said the manager, and when Kit went off gave Wheeler the drawings.