Three Arched Bridge

26

THREE DAYS AFTER BROCKHARDT LEFT, the bridge was damaged again. This time it was no longer a matter of cracks and scratches; some stones in its central piers had been removed. The strangest thing was that some of these stones were dislodged beneath the surface of the water, and this, apart from adding to people’s terror, caused great trouble to the builders. It was almost impossible to carry out repairs underwater until the river subsided again next summer.

This second intervention of the spirits of the water caused general horror. Despite the rage of the master-in-chief and his assistants (the designer’s head might appear like a bolt of lightning at any part of the bridge), the pace of work slackened at once. Instead of the mud from the building site, terrifying rumors spread out from the sand of the riverbank, which now resembled some blighted plain. But these rumors spread faster and farther than the mud.

Some of the workmen began to abandon their work. Clutching their bags, and with their wages unclaimed^ they stealthily left their work at night, considering it cursed.

Increasingly, people in their interminable conversations began to voice the opinion that the bridge must be destroyed before it was too late.