Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1903-12-18
At BAY ON THE BRIDGE

~ AY, Jack did you ever see such
~ a piece of foolery as building this
- enormous bridge over a miserable
little stream no wider than a gutter?
Old Harrison must be stark mad and
no mistaken
sell the bridge and buy some water
with the money"
i've split some lemonade on the
table" cried Harry. II wonder how
long bridge | Will have to build
across that?
And the two young sub engineers,
pleased with these jokes, at the ex-
pense of their chief, resumed their
work in somewhat better humor.
Behind pile of timber, few yards
off, within easy hearing of every word
they said stood no less a person than
Mr. William Harrison himself-the
chief of whom they We're speaking
For moment his hard old face flushed
angrily; but the flush melted into a
smile of half plying contempt, as he
turned slowly away, muttering:
well. well, my fine fellows, 1t won't
be very long now before we see who's
wrong and who's right"
At the first glance, however, it GER
tainly did seem as II Jack Hopkins
and Harry Burt had some reason to
laugh at the bridge which they were
helping to build.
Eleven arches. each having span
of thirty feet, stood ranged in stately
procession over mere thread Of
water, barely sufficient to wet one of
the central piers. True, the rainy
season was at hand; but, even in the
rainy season, how could this miserable
little rivulet ever swell into a second
Niagara
SO thought Burt and Hopkins, and
SO, too, thought not a few of their En-
glish subordinates. AS for the HindoO
workmen, who swarmed over the bridge
from one end to the other, they
thought nothing about the matter. So
long as they got their days wages and
their days food, the English burra
Sahib great MASTERY was welcome to
build bridge over teacup If he
liked.
Day by day the bridge advanced to-
ward completion, for the railway, of
which it formed part, WAS very
important one, and Mr.. Harrison had
iph 1i,,lyi
as possible. But, although he made
all the haste he could, he took good
care that no part OF the work was
hurriedly or inefficiently done.
"Whatevers worth doing at all, Is
worth doing WE'LL he would say; and
its better to put II little extra work
into this bridge than to have to build
another, IL this breaks down"
Every day, and all day long, the old
fellow was at his post. In the soiled,
white sun hat and threadbare cotton
iacket at which his dandtied young
aeutenants laughed behind his back,
So we'll did he keep the men up to
their work. that all was ready a full
fortnight before the time when the
rainy season usually set In, and the
next day but one was fixed for the
first train across 1t.
The evening before the ceremony,
Mr.. Harrison went out upon the bridge
IN look about him and Burt and Hop
xins having nothing better to do, fol
/ lowed him.
+ If was close upon sunset, but the
stifiing heat which had prevailed all
aav WAS still us oppressive as ever
/ rhe whole air felt damp and heavy
and the tiny streamlet that u1ckled
through the vast. gravelly hollow OF
the river bed seemed to crawl more
longuidly than usual, us II 1t Were
fired like everyone else.
Suddenly there came through th'
still mir. from the great mountains that
stood up against the northern SKY
oyerhung by a thin, ghostly haze,
strange, dull sound suggestive OF tar
off thunder, but harsher and sharper