y. The other half--denuded
of its flooring and all its woodwork, and standing out against the sky a
mere skeleton of iron girders--still connected the left bank of the
river with the massive tower of masonry in the middle. From this tower
to the other bank was a gulf impassable to horse or cart. The great
river itself flows in a deep channel. It was still somewhat flooded.
From its high banks we saw it roaring more than forty feet beneath the
level of the bridge. It was clear to the most ignorant eye that fording
the stream was impossible. I looked inquiringly at the driver.

"You'll have to go over on the rope," he said, with a sardonic smile.

"The rope?" said I, with an earnest gaze at the impassable gulf.

"Yes, the rope. There's a man crossing _now_."

I looked again, and observed something like a cobweb on the sky between
the central pier and the opposite bank. There was a black spot that
resembled a spider moving slowly along the cobweb. It was a fellow-man!

"And the mails and the luggage?" I asked.

"Go over same way."

"The cart and horses?"

"Don't go over at all. Get fresh ones on other side. There was once a
box on the river for hauling them over, but it's been damaged."

The process of crossing was begun at once.

The driver and some workmen shouldered the bags and baggage, while the
passengers--of whom there were three--followed to the central pier.

To men with heads liable to giddiness the passage from the bank to the
pier would have been trying, for, the floor having been carried away, we
had to walk on the open girders, looking down past our feet to the
torrent as to a miniature Niagara. The distance of forty feet seemed
changed to four hundred from that position. Fortunately none of us were
afflicted with giddy heads.

The flat space on the tower-top gained, we found two workmen engaged in
tying our baggage to a little platform about four feet square, which was
suspended by ropes to a couple of little wheels. These wheels travelled
on a thick cable,--the spider web before referred to. The contrivance
was hauled to and fro by a smaller line after the manner of our rocket
apparatus for rescuing life at sea, and, when we passengers afterwards
sat down on it with nothing but the tight grip of our hands on an iron
bar to save us from falling into the flood below, we flattered ourselves
that we had attained to something resembling the experience of those who
have been saved fro