Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1904-08-23

Z lNA OiothhCoo mt hio SN0Ns AAO "
il happened he cannot tell to this
day, but as he rose again his foot
slid along the slippery floor, and
he shot downward into the pit.
AS he passed through the open
ing he made an Intellectual grasp
at its edge, but instead struck the
stick that held the cover up.
Down it came, and while he still
hung suspended in mid-air all
light from above was blotted out,
and he was left in total darkness.
The terrible sensation of falling
/ that unknown distance he will
never forget. How far beneath
him was the grain? 1t might be
ten, twenty, thirty, forty feet.
Perhaps the bin contained no
grain at all, in which event he
would fall sixty feet before his
bones were shattered on the hard
timbers. These ideas passed like
lightning through his brain.
Then with a shock the motion
ceased. He had fallen head first,
but turned half-somersault on
his way down, alighting up to his
knees in a yielding substance
that broke the shock of his fall.
He found afterward that the dis.
tanec could not have been more
than twenty feet, but the total
strangeness of the place, and the
total uncertainty as to when and
where he would bring up made
it seem three times as great.
Braithwait's first feeling was
one of thankfulness that none of
his bones were broken. With his
thumb and foreiinger he tried the
substance into which he had fall
en-. The kernels were small and
elliptical, and he knew that he was
in a bin of wheat. 1t was absO-
lutely dark; not the faintest glim-
mer from any source relieved the
Egyptian darkness. The air was
dry and free from dust, and the
OdOr of the grain was not unpleas-
ant. The young man did not re
alize at first that he was in a po-
sitiOn of any peril He felt an
nOyed and angry with himself for
being so careless. But it was use
less to stand idle, blaming himself
for something that had passed.
The thing was to get back to the
floor, but how?
Might there not be a ladder on
the side of the bin? Braithwait
felt his way round the walls, but
discovered none. The investiga-
tiOn showed him that his prison
was square, with side of about
fifteen feet. He could feel the tim
bers culver with the vibration
from the machinery. Deadened
sounds came to him from without.
He heard he mufiied whistle of a
locomotive in the adjoining
freight-yard. Could he make noise
enough to attract the attention of
the workers on the floor above?
For two or three minutes he
shouted at the top of his lungs, fill
ing the bin with clamOrOus eches,
but the closed trap kept the men
from hearing him. Then with
sickcning force came sense Of his
peril that left him weak and faint.
What if they should begin to draw
off the wheat before he could get
out? He would surely be smoth-
cred in the sinking mass.
The thought reused him like a
knife-stab. Round and round the
bin he hurried, slumping deep in
the grain with every step, feeling
in vain along the smooth walls for
something to which he might
cling. With clenched fists he ham
mered on the wood, hoping that
some one would hear the sound
and understand his danger. But
his blows, drowned bv the reyeP-
beratiOn of the machinery, were
no more audible outside than the
steps of fly on a Window-pane.
Terror seized him. He felt him
self in the grasp of an automatic
monster. To'that heartless mech
aniSm ne was no more than one of
the innumerable grains which it
was its function to store and de-
liver at the bidding of its masters.