There was the whir of drums winding up steel cables, then a snort from the engine as they tightened.
“Look! look!” cried Ted, grabbing his brother’s arm, “a coal car is going up on the elevator.”
Interestedly the boys watched as the big steel car, heaped with coal, slowly ascended; then a rattle on deck called their attention, and they turned just in time to see the hatch covers roll back from the hatches, operated by a series of rods to which electricity supplied the power.
As the covers were removed, the men on top of the coal elevator moved the mouth of the shute by levers until it was over the central hatch.
By this time the car had reached the top of the elevator.
“All ready?” shouted one of the men on top.
“Let her go,” returned the first mate, having gone to the middle hatch and squinted at the mouth of the shute, thirty feet above him.
There sounded the click of more levers, again the whir of the drums, followed by the snort of the engine, and the boys beheld one side of the car tip forward as the rear of the elevator platform rose, then the coal thundered against the shield, rattled into the shute, and, amid a cloud of black dust, shot through the hatch into the hold with a roar.
“Why, the coal car is on its side,” cried Ted, looking at the elevator. “It’s been turned up until it’s empty.”
Even as the boy spoke, there came the click of levers again, the platform dropped back, righting the car, which in due course was lowered to the ground, where it was backed off by another car that was, in turn, raised and dumped.