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Show f- : Construction Crew Wins 19-Hour Race To Save Contract How a construction crew won a race against time by a "flashlight finish" is being told by A. W. McDonald, Mc-Donald, of St. Paul, the gang's timekeeper. time-keeper. The crew were laying a pipe line and the contract expired at ten o'clock the next morning. Only by ' . working one con-I con-I tinuous 19-hour ! stretch, did the men have any ; chance to save the job. "We got the line to the bank of the river," McDonald said. "There the crew had to take to the water. From ..,,. , , a snanow section A. W. McDonald , , near the bank the boys carried the pipe out until they were working nearly up to their shoulders in the current. "Just before midnight, without a second's warning, the whole river bank caved in. The slide took our big carbon lamps along with it, leav-the leav-the crew helpless out there in the dark. To make it worse, a pile of big 12-inch pipe rolled off into the river. "In my car I had three flashlights that we used for little emergency jobs. 1 always kept them loaded with fresh batteries and we set them up along the bank. You wouldn't believe be-lieve what a bright beam they threw. We soon had the line dug out and were under way again. Those lights stood by us for more than six hours, and we finished the job on time." In addition to the hard labor and the dangers of the cave-in, the men worked under an extra strain the belief that there were river alligators alliga-tors which might attack under cover of darkness. |