Now, look at it!"
Before them the top layer of desert sand had sunk away, revealing a well
or sink, one hundred and fifty feet across and the bottom at least forty
feet below the general level.
"I always wondered why a suspension bridge wouldn't solve the problem
more easily and cheaply than any other construction," muttered Mr.
Ellsworth, after he had gotten over his first indignation.
"To avoid every possibility of lurking quicksand the suspension bridge
would have to be more than a mile long," Reade answered. "Beyond, there
are other treacherous little patches of quicksand. It would cost the
road millions to put up a suspension bridge that would hold.
"A short bridge would look all right and doubtless serve all right, for
a while. Then, some fine day, part of the structure would give, and a
trainload of passengers would be sucked down and out of sight by the
shifting sands of the Man-killer."
Mr. Ellsworth turned aside with a shudder.
"I'm glad I'm not an engineer," he said earnestly.
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