You know they have pipe-lines to carry
petroleum. Very well; Jack has a solution that dissolves stone as
white sugar dissolves in tea, and he believes he can run the fluid
from the quarries to where building is going on. It seems that he then
puts this liquid into molds, and there you have the stone again. I
don't understand the process myself, but Jack tells me it's
marvelously cheap, and marvelously effective. He picked up the idea
from nature one time when he and I were on our vacation at Detroit."
"Detroit, Michigan?"
"The Detroit River."
"Well, that runs between Michigan and Canada."
"No, no, this is in France. I believe the real name of the river is
the Tarn. There's a gorge called Detroit-- the strait, you know.
Wonderful place-- tremendous chasm. You go down in a boat, and all the
tributary rivers pour into the main stream like jets from the nozzle
of a hose. They tell me this is caused by the rain percolating through
the dead leaves on the surface of the ground far above, and thus the
water becomes saturated with carbonic acid gas, and so dissolves the
limestone until the granite is reached, and the granite forms the bed
of these underground rivers. It all seemed to me very wonderful, but
it struck Jack on his scientific side, and he has been experimenting
ever since. He says he'll be able to build a city with a hose next
year."
"Where does he live?"
"On the cruiser just at present.
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