“Well, you’ve seen an act there called ‘leaping the gap’ or some such name?”
“Yes, where a woman in an auto comes down a steep incline and jumps a big gap at the bottom?”
“That’s it.”
“But, in the circus the auto is given an upward impetus by the fact that the incline down which it runs down is curved upward at the end,” objected Billy.
“So it is in this case,” was the calm reply. “I’ve been looking it over, and it seems to me that conditions are about the same.”
“As how?”
“Well, here we have a steep incline—the hill yonder,” Billy Barnes nodded, “and there yonder is the gap where Luther Barr and his gang took out the boards.”
“But you haven’t got the upward curve at the end of your incline to throw the auto into the air and carry it safely across the gap,” objected Billy.
“Oh, yes, that’s there, too,” was the calm reply; “do you notice that the bridge sags in the centre?”
“Yes, it does, that’s true,” pronounced Billy, after a prolonged scrutiny.