The Dermott news., 1917-07-19

ton were supreme in his mind.
 The material was arriving and every thing was going on with such 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 always would get ready so that at the signal all that was left to do was to stop. The riyeters, who were paid by the piece, kept at 1t always to the very last minute.
 Abbott had been standing near the outer end of the cantilever and he turned and walked toward the bank The pneumatic riveters were rat-tat- tatting on the rivet heads with Il per fectly damnable iteration of insistent sound. A confused babel of voices. the chatter of hammers. ringing sounds of swinging steel grating against steel, clanking of trucks. grinding of wheels. the deep breathing of locomotives. mingled in an unharmonious diHpason of horrid sound.
 Abbott was right above the pier head now. He looked down at 1t through the struts and floor beams and braces, fastening his gaze on the questioned member. There 1t stood satisfactorily. of course. Yet. something impelled him to walk out on the nearest floor beam to the extreme edge of the truss and look down at it once more. leaning far out to see it better. He could get a better view of 1t with nothing between it and him. It still stood bravely. It was all right. of course. He wished that he had never said word about 1t to anyone. He did not see why he could not regard It with the indifference that it merited. As he stared down at It over the edge of the truss the whistle for quitting blew.
 Every sound of work ceased after the briefest of intervals. except here and there few riveters driving home final rivet kept at 1t for few sec ond. but only for a few seconds. Then, for moment silence like death It. self intervened. It seemed as If the ever blowing wind had been momen- tarily stilled. That shrill whistle and the consequent cessation of the work always affected everybody the same way. There was inevitably and in- variably pause. The contrast be- tween the noise and Its sudden stop page was so great that the men in- stinctively waited a few seconds and drew a breath before they began to light their pipes, close their tool boxes. pick up their coats and dinner pails, strolled along the roadway to the shore
 It seemed to Abbott that It had never been so silent on the bridge before. There was almost always breeze. sometimes gale. blowing down or up thC ktt Nt NiiAoh%h NhiNh iilt liNtt flowed, but that afternoon not breath was stirring.
 Abbott found himself waiting In strained and unwonted suspense for the next second or two, his eyes fixed on the member. The long warm rays of the afternoon sun illuminated It clearly. In that second immediately below him. far down toward the pier head he saw sudden flash as of break ing steel. Low. but clear enough in the intense silence. he heard popping sound like the snap of n great finger. Then the bright gleam of freshly broken metal caught his excited glance. The lacing was giving way. Meade was right. The member would go with It. The first pop or two was succeeded by a little rattle as of revolver shots heard from distance. as he lacings gave way in quick succession. Abbott was q man with powerful voice and he raised 1t to its limit.
 The idle workmen. just beginning to laugh and jest. heard great cry:
 'Off the bridge. for Gods sakei"
 Two or three. among them Wilch- ings. who happened to be within few : feet of the landward end without un- why. but impelled by the agony. the appeal. the horror In the great shout of the master builder, leaped for the shore. On the bridge Itself some stepped forward. some stood still staring. others peered down. ward. The great sixty-foot webs of steel wavered like ribbons in the wind The bridge shook as if in an earth quake. There was n heavy, shuddering swaying movement and then the GOO foot cantilever arm plunged down. ward. as a great ship falls into the trough of a mighty sea. Sharp-keyed sounds cracked out overhead as the truss parted at the apex, the outward half inclining to the water, the inward half sinking straight down.
 Shouts. oaths. screams rose. heard above the mighty bell-like re-