"
"Have you a carriage out there?
I must stop to send a wire."
Alexander went up to the telegraph-desk and
penciled the following message to his wife:--
I may have to be here for some time.
Can you come up at once? Urgent.
BARTLEY.
The Moorlock Bridge lay three miles
above the town. When they were seated in
the carriage, Alexander began to question his
assistant further. If it were true that the
compression members showed strain, with the
bridge only two thirds done, then there was
nothing to do but pull the whole structure
down and begin over again. Horton kept
repeating that he was sure there could be
nothing wrong with the estimates.
Alexander grew impatient. "That's all
true, Phil, but we never were justified in
assuming that a scale that was perfectly safe
for an ordinary bridge would work with
anything of such length. It's all very well on
paper, but it remains to be seen whether it
can be done in practice. I should have thrown
up the job when they crowded me. It's all
nonsense to try to do what other engineers
are doing when you know they're not sound."
"But just now, when there is such competition,"
the younger man demurred. "And certainly
that's the new line of development."
Alexander shrugged his shoulders and
made no reply.
When they reached the bridge works,
Alexander began his examination immediately.
An hour later he sent for the superintendent.
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