They needed just as many
rivets as could be driven into them, for the flood would assuredly
wash out their supports, and the ironwork would settle down on the
caps of stone if they were not blocked at the ends. A hundred
crowbars strained at the sleepers of the temporary line that fed
the unfinished piers. It was heaved up in lengths, loaded into
trucks, and backed up the bank beyond flood-level by the groaning
locomotives. The tool-sheds on the sands melted away before the
attack of shouting armies, and with them went the stacked ranks of
Government stores, iron-bound boxes of rivets, pliers, cutters,
duplicate parts of the riveting-machines, spare pumps and chains.
The big crane would be the last to be shifted, for she was hoisting
all the heavy stuff up to the main structure of the bridge. The
concrete blocks on the fleet of stone-boats were dropped overside,
where there was any depth of water, to guard the piers, and the
empty boats themselves were poled under the bridge down-stream. It
was here that Peroo's pipe shrilled loudest, for the first stroke
of the big gong had brought the dinghy back at racing speed, and
Peroo and his people were stripped to the waist, working for the
honour and credit which are better than life.
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