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WEEKLY,
‘Vol. (21. No. 37. 4 pusttstrEo
Copyright, 1922, by David O, Cook Publishing Company.
DAVID C. COOK PUBLISHING COMPANY, Etern, [Ltrnors.
The Mysterious [eenlin the Silo
UZZ, buzz, chop, chop!" sputtered the
silo engine tirelessly, as Fred and
Morris Deane fed long green” corn-
- stalks into the cutter, ~
~“T hope we finish off this job before we
have the tryout game tomorrow, Morris,”
panted Fred, tugging with red face at a
Jong bundle of plumy green corn.
““Oh, cheer up, Fred, we got it ’most all
cut now, only what’s left over in the
north lot. Not enough to fill this last
silo,” remarked his brother, 7
“Wonder if our team can lick the War-
ren School crowd?” ventured Fred, anx-
iously. ‘I’m sorry Joe Hill is captain; he
thinks he knows everything und wants ta
boss all the while.”
“Joe's all right, and he understands
football,” defended Morris.
“Wey, Bill, how many more loads left?”
shouted Morris, as the big cart loaded high
with cornstalks came rumbling over the
hill. so
“Tast load,” called the driver, cheerily.
Just back of the silos, on a wide flat
space, the team met the following after-
noon for their final tryout, and efery boy
on the high-school team was there.”
“ey, put her over. Put her over!”
screamed Morris excitedly, as his brother
kicked off.
The pigskin sphere arose nobly after
Fred’s kick to sour and soar ever higher,
almost out of sight of the huddling bunch |
of -boys who pursued it like tigers.. Sud-
denly, a gust of wind took the ball; it
spun, darted off, and the next instant com-
pletely disappeared as if swallowed up by
the earth. Over the hill darted the eager
boys, grubbing in the tall grass. In the
_dim light,-over the fence thes piled into the
orchard, searching, hunting.
“ oe it?” impattently shouted the cap-
tai
«Can't find the ball, ”” yelled another
bos, his voice sounding far from the field.
“That's funny; kind of a bad omen I
guess, when a ball as big as that loses it-
self, F{unt over in the corn stubs. Here,
Vl find it myself,” spoke Joe Hill, wither-
ingly.
“Where, where?” questioned all the
boys eagerly.
“Why, it’s just dropped right out of
sight down into the silo over the bill.” re-
plied their captain, confidently,
“Hey, come on Fred, Morris, all you
fellows; come on and Jet’s get the ball out
Jean / Thompson
of the silo,” yelled their halfback, already
half-way across, the lot. But the ladder
~ had been taken away from the silo, and
had to be fetched.
Finally, the ladder being hauled into
position against the smooth side of the
great towering silo, Fred, who had already
climbed to the top shouted down:
“One of you go to the barn, fetch the
coil of big rope, and bring along the lan-
tern, I can’t ‘see a thing down inside;
it’s*dark as a stack of black cats.
Meantime, the boys below were agreeing
to continue their practice the next day.
“Ilurry up, Fred, “get that ball, I've got to
go home,” urged Joe Lill, to whom the
ball belonged.
“All right, here I go,” called Fred,
swinging his lantern and disappearing.
“Can’t see the ball yet,” he called up to
Morris.
Somehow his brother’s voice sounded
faint and unnatural to Morris, And, as he
stared down in the black pit, suddenly he
saw the lantern had gone out. ‘ Look out
for rats down there, Fred,” he called down
warningly. ‘Say, better come on up and
light your lantern again. You come on
up, Fred, and let me go down. Fred!
Fred !” called Morris, “ why’; did you let
the lantern go out?”
Surely it was taking a long time just to
“Hey, put her over. Put her
Morris excitedly, as his brother kicked 0
find the missing ball. Already some of the
boys had gone home, - Just then Morris
felt the rope go slack in his hands. Fred
had let go. Probably he was away down,
groping among the silage for the ball. Too
bad the lantern had to go out. Suddenly
Morris began to feel afraid.
“Tred! Fred! I say, can’t you find the
ball?” he shouted again.
“ Say, boys,” he called down to the wait-
ing group, “ I’red’s down in that hole, and
he don’t answer me, I think: maybe he's
hurt himself. Perhaps he’s unconscious
or something. Come on up, one of you,
and steady the rope, 1'm going down after
-him. First bring the other lantern, quick.”
Joe Hill came sprinting up the: ladder
with the lighted lantern, and soon Morris
was over the side. Joe watched his
strangely white face disappear in the dark-
ness, the faint yellow rays of the lantern
over!" screamed
" gleaming upon it ghostlike. The next mo-
ment the lantern had gone out, and the
rope hung slack in Joe’s hands.
“Boys, Morris has fallen, too, I can't see
or hear him,’’ shouted. down Joe to the
Say, what’s the trouble, Joe, anything
?” they called up. But Joe did
not reply, he was leaning far over the silo
pit calling down frantically to bis com-
panions.
“Morris! Fred! Where are you; can’t
you hear me ealling to you?” Then the
waiting boys down below called and called,
“Fred! Morris!”- What could have hap-
pened? What mystery was there down, in
that black silo pit? Could it be possible
that an army of great swarming silo rats
had set upon the boys down there! What
was it if not rats?. What indeed!*
“Tm going down in after them, quick
as I can go,” shouted down plucky Joe,
swinging himself down over the edge of the
top, as two of the boys below steadied the
rope, watching it with bated breath. Next
moment they heard a strange mufiled voice,
which didn’t seem like Joe’s, calling up.
“Quick, pwl me up, I’m going blind, I
can't see—I'm—” The boys pulled with a
will, and as soon as Joe could speak or get
his breath he began to order the boys
about, explaining.
“It’s worse than rats! It's gas, poison
gas; the silo down there is filled with it, -
Oh, go quick, get me Tom Deane’s gas
mask, the one he brought back from the
war, You'll see it, in his room. Hurry,
huéry,” called Joe, frantically. ‘Not a
second to lose, they can’t possibly live long
down there; maybe it’s too late now
With trembling fingers Joe adjusted the
gas mask,’ The next moment he was again
spinning down into the black danger pit.
Eyen wearing the mask, it seemed to him
as if he must have’to give up, for he
¢ouldn’t stay conscious down there long.
uickly he groped almost blindly, stum-
blipg finally upon one huddled shape. It
was Fred. Joe was strong, but it needed
all his strength and grit to kick the rope,
telling the boys to pull him up. and then
to hapg on to the limp helpless form of
his friend. But gritting his teeth bravely
he hung on to his burden, and willing
hands pulled them up out of the silo pit.
It was a wonder that Joe had been able
to withstand the deadly gas even wearing
the mask, for it was really carbon dioxide,
It had accumulated in the bottom of the
pit, thrown off by the fermenting corn, and
‘being heavier than air could not rise from
ithe bottom, This was why the lanterns
‘had gone out; nothing could live down
Two of the boys below steadied the ope: wateb-
ing it with bated breath
Joe ‘watcbed his aetrangely white face disappear
the darkness.
from the silo, the folks came home froin
the fair, Instantly some one thought about
the corn blower, which had been used to
blow the corn down into the pit. Whea
this was worked it blew fresh air below,
and well it- did. for poor Morris was still
down there, But not for long, for his biz
brother Tom soon brought him out. It
took a long, long time to revive the boys.
Fred, had been brought out first, which
was fortunate, for he had been down in
the silo pit longest, Both boys lived, but
they were sick for days,
They heard, with joy, however, that
their captain, Joe Hill, who was also badly
overcome and unconscious after bringing
up Fred, had now so fully recovered that *
he hoped to play in the big game. Both
boys, shut upstairs in their room, talked ~
things over,
“Well,” remarked. Fred, smiling, in a
sickly fashion, trying in vain to appear
cheerful, although it was: the very day of
the big game, and he and Morris were not
in it. “well, I for one will never go back
on Joe Ifill, our captain, Always thought
he was bossy, Why, come to think of it,
if he hadn't been bossy that awful time,
getting ahead of all the others, going right
down twice into that pit, thinking about
the gas mask. too; why, I guess you and
I wouldn't be here, would we, brother?”
“Guess I know it,’ replied Morris;
“Why he's the pluckiest, gamest boy in
this town, I wonder if he really felt well
enough to play the game today. He'd not
give in he was so very sick, I expect, even
if he was. Say, wouldn't. I like to know
how the score stands, though
Just then they both heard an Tyler's
shrill voice shouting at them.
“ley, Fred, Morris! Listen, ten to two
in favor of the High-schools! We won!”
“Hutrah! Me for Captain Joe every
time!" called down Morris, delightedly, as
he peered down from thé window, above.
“JIe’s sure some game captain, that
boy! * agreed Fred. grinning. -
“Oh, I knew that all the time; I told
you 80, always,” replied Morris,
Don't have a head like a bell—nothing
but a tongue in it.
Avoid disputes. Argument is like a
watermelon—good only- when served cold,
—e—
Don't measure your enjoyment by the
amount of money spent in procuring it.
eebenn
pone ate
