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THE BRIDGE-BUILDERS You 'd think that ten years in the British India boats would have knocked most of his religion out of him."

"So it has," said Hitchcock, chuckling. "I overheard him the other day in the middle of a most atheistical talk with that fat old guru of theirs. Peroo denied the efficacy of prayer; and wanted the guru to go to sea and watch a gale out with him, and see if he could stop a monsoon."

"All the same, if you carried off his guru he 'd leave us like a shot. He was yarning away to me about praying to the dome of St. Paul's when he was in London."

"He told me that the first time he went into the engine-room of a steamer, when he was a boy, he prayed to the low-pressure cylinder."

"Not half a bad thing to pray to, either. He 's propitiating his own Gods now, and he wants to know what Mother Gunga will think of a bridge being run across her. Who 's there?" A shadow darkened the doorway, and a telegram was put into Hitchcock's hand.

"She ought to be pretty well used to it by this time. Only a tar. It ought to be Ralli's answer about the new rivets.… Great Heavens!" Hitchcock jumped to his feet.

"What is it?" said the senior, and took the form. "That 's what Mother Gunga thinks, is it," he said, reading. "Keep cool, young 'un. We 've got all our work cut out for us. Let 's see. Muir wired half an hour ago: Floods on the Ramgunga. Look out. Well, that gives us—one, two—nine and a half for the flood to reach Melipur Ghaut and seven 's sixteen and a half to Lataoli—say fifteen hours before it comes down to us." [13]