The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1917-07-13

| hold up the earth with that strut. You
didn't find out anything, did your"
mot a thing except some hair-line
cracks in the paint around the rivets."
you'll often find those where there's
a heavy load to take up. This bridge
will stand long after you and I and
every man on it has quit work for
good"
Now Wilchings was a man Of expert
ence and ability, and if Abbott had
needed any confirmation Of his opinion
this careless expression would have
served. He did send him across the
river to examine the half-completed
cantilever on the other bank, upon
which work had been suspended, await
ing shipments of steel. Wilchings later
reported that it was all right, which
was what he expected, Of course, and
this also added to Abbott's confidence.
The day was an unusually hard one.
A great quantity Of structural steel
that had been delayed and which had
threatened to hold up the work, arrived
that day and the chief Of construction
was buster than he had ever been. He
was driving the men with furious
energy. Even under the best conditions
it would be well-nigh impossible to
complete the bridge on time. Abbott
had pride in carrying out the contract
and the financial question was a con-
siderable one. Had it not been for
that, perhaps, he would have paid more
attention to Meade's appeal. So he
hurried on the work at top speed.
Late in the afternoon, without say
ing anything to Wilchings, who had re-
sumed his regular work, or to anybody
in fact, Abbott went down to look at
the member again. He climbed down
q hundred feet or more to make an
other examination at the expense Of
much valuable time, for he had not
passed so busy a day as that one since
the bridge began. Everything was ex-
actly as it had been. Those hair-line
cracks had troubled him a little despite
Wilching's remark. He studied them a
second time. They were just as they
had been, so far as he could tell, no
larger, no more numerous. The lacingS
rang exactly the same under his ham,
mer.
He climbed back to the floor of the
bridge and spent the next half hour in
speeding the progress Of the work. The
suspended span had already been
pushed out far beyond the end of the
cantilever. The work on the other
side Of the river had been stopped. As
soon as they got the suspended span
halfway over they would transfer the
workmen and finish the opposite can't
lever. Abbott calculated that perhaps
in another week they could get it out
If he drove the men. He looked at his
watch, grudgingly observing that it
was almost five o'clock. The men were
nothing to Abbott. The bridge was
everything. That rs not to say he was
heartless, but the bridge and its cree
ton were supreme in his mind.
The material was arriving and every
thing was going on with such a swing
and vigor that he would fain have kept
them at work an hour or two longer.
The men themselves did not feel that
way. Some of the employees Of the
higher grades had got the obsession Of
the bridge, but to most Of them it was
the thing they worked at, by which
they got their daily bread-nothing
more.
Those who worked by the day were
already laying aside their tools, and
preparing for their departure. They