250 To the River Plate and Back 



laborers, were stationed at intervals holding in their 

 hands the guy-ropes, which were intended to steady 

 the mass as it hung in its proper position above the 

 base. Mounted on a tall step-ladder at the front end 

 of the thing stood my assistant, ready to help me in 

 the task of screwing the forward upright into position. 

 I had lifted the heavy steel rod from the floor and was 

 carrying it forward to put it into place, when the door 

 of the room opened and a company of distinguished 

 visitors, members of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, 

 entered the room. I turned at the instant to bow to 

 them, still holding the tall bar of metal in my hand, 

 when something happened, I cannot tell what. My 

 belief is that one or the other of the laborers, who had 

 been cautioned neither to relax his hold, or to give a 

 pull, forgot his instructions on seeing the distinguished 

 gentlemen enter the room, and unconsciously gave a 

 jerk to the guy-rope he was holding, or else let go. The 

 mass turned turtle in the air, the forward end wrenched 

 away from the tackle-hook, and the whole thing came 

 down to the floor with a crash, which shook the building, 

 and made the portraits of the Czars and Czarinas 

 which hung about the walls rattle, as if there had been 

 a small earthquake. The company of visitors dis- 

 appeared instantly, looking, as they fled, as they might 

 have looked had a bomb been exploded in the hall. 

 Their precipitate exit almost provoked a smile, but 

 the temptation to laugh was instantly overcome by the 

 sight of the ruin which confronted me. My assistant 

 came to my side, and I said to him: 'This calamity 

 is irreparable! Here we are six thousand miles from 

 our base of supplies. There are no duplicates of these 

 pieces at home. Even if there were, it would take six 

 weeks to get them. To make a new set, and send them 



