The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1904-05-06
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 shock the motion ceased. He
had fallen head first, but turned a
half-somersault on his way down,
alighting up to his knees in yielding
substance that broke the shock of his
fall He found afterward that the
distance could not have been more
than twenty feet, but the total
rible uncertainty as to when and
where he would bring up, made it
seem three times as great.
Braithwaits first feeling was one
of thankfulness that none of his bones
were broken. With his thumb and
forefinger he tried the substance into
which he had fallen. The kernels
were small and elliptical, and he knew
that he was in a bin of wheat. 1t
was absolutely dark; not the faintest
glimmer from any source relieved the
Egyptian blackness. The air was dry
and free from dust and the odor of
the grain was not unpleasant The
young man did not realize at first
he was in a position of any peril. He
felt annoyed, 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- ladder on the
side of the bin? Braitnwait felt his
way round the walls, but discovered
none. The investigation showed him
that his prison was square. with a
side of about fifteen feet. He could
feel the timbers CULVER with the vi
bration from the machinery. Dead
ened sounds came to him from with
out He heard the muff1ed whistle of
a locomotive in the adjoining freight
yard. Could he make noise enough
to attract the notice of the workers
on the floor above?
For two or three minutes he shout
ed at the top of his lungs, filing the
bin with clamorous echoes. but the
closed trap kept the men from hear
ing him. Then with sickening force
came a 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 smothered 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 clench-
ed fists he hammered on the wood.
hoping that some one would hear the
sound and understand his danger. But
his blows, drowned by the reverbera-
ton of the machinery, were no
more audible outside than the steps
of fly on a window-pane
Terror seized him. He felt himself
in the grasp of great automatic
monster. To that heartless mechan-
ism he was no more than one of the
innumerable grains which it was its
function to store and deliver at the
bidding of it's masters.
He gas standing near the middle of
the bin when the thing he dreaded
happened. Beneath his feet came a
shifting, sliding motion, and the sur
face sank little, just the slightest
bit; but he could not have been more
appalled, had the solid ground been
suddenly torn from under him. They
were drawing off the wheat through
the opening at the bottom! Before
he knew it, he had sunk above his
ankles. He leaped away from the
treacherous center. and crowded him
self back into one of the corners.
Whenever compartment filled
with particles is emptied through an
orifice below. the substance falls from
the top; down through the entire
mass and directly above the aperture
sink core. which is constantly fed
'at the summit by particles from the
sides sliding into the cavity.
If one has ever watched in an hour
glass some grain larger than the 9TH
ers hang for a time on the edge of
the vortex until the supporting grains
fall away from under 1t and it rolls
down the slope to disappear in the
central quicksand, one will understand
the peril that threatened Braithwait.
Once let him be dragged within the
influence of the suction. and nothing
could save him from being buried
alive in the smothering grain.
The student never thought harder
or faster than he did during the next
few seconds. All was quiet in the bin
save for the soft sliding of the myri-
ad kernels toward the invisible de-
preston in the center. He realized
clearly the only course which held
out the least hope Of safety.
Throwing off his overcoat, he toss
ed it aside in the blackness. Then
with hands and feet he began to scoop
the grain away from his corner and