Show adventurers club rat trap by FLOYD GIBBONS famous headline hunter 49 C 1 AUGHT like a rat in a trap a pretty moving expression when you say that of a man you mean tha he s in pretty dire straits facing a fate inhuman and fit only for beasts but what about being caught WITH rats hundreds of rats in a trap youve set for them yourself what charley mack was up against and its an experience ha want to go through again either J charleys home is in brooklyn N Y in 1928 he was working tor for an exterminating concern and on a day in june of that year he was ordered to the erie basin section of brooklyn to tackle the job ot of clearing out a tramp steamer that was overrun over run with rats two other men were working with charley on that job they arrived at the ship at ten on a sunday morning the job had to be done on sunday when the crew was off duty so as not to interfere with the loading of freight the only man aboard the ship was the watchman on reaching the ship the exterminators first job was to get every human or animal on board out of the he way the watchman was notified to stay in the open and the mates dog was given to him to take care of working with poison gas the next job was to shut all the portholes port holes and seal up all cracks for the work was to be done with poison gas and none of it must escape after that a small batch of gas was set off to test the gas masks the men wore the masks were all right and they took their final precaution they agreed to meet at a certain place on deck in half an hour and in case one of them appear well that meant something was wrong and the others would go searching for him the three men proceeded to their appointed parts of the ship my scene of operations says charlie was the galley where the food was kept the worst infested part of the ship after a final inspection I 1 put on my mask and set off the cyanide fumes I 1 started it in the huge icebox and waited until the fumes were thick then I 1 went to the door to leave my first shock came when I 1 found that when the icebox ice box door had slammed shut the latch had dropped into the socket on the outside making me a PRISONER charley pounded on the door but his two workers coworkers co were in in distant parts ot of the ship and hear bear him and then in a few minutes the parade began rats hundreds of them some of them as big as cats began streaming out of hidden corners where the gas had reached trying to get out into clean air crazed rats aal all over him 1 I began pounding on the door more frantically says charley by this time the room was full of gas and the rats began to feel the eff effects acts ot of it it seemed to make them go crazy they began screeching and running this way vay and that looking for air biting one another and jump then they began to climb on charley ing up and down it was a bedlam of rats and still they kept coming then suddenly one of them more keen than the others sensed a slight trickle of air coming through a small crack in the door at which I 1 was standing he ran over to my feet in a split second the rest had followed a fighting snarling biting horde of brutes jumping on one another until they were piled ten high trying to get their snoots in that little crack which let in a bit of precious air and then THEY BEGAN TO CLIMB ON CHARLEY dozens of them began crawling up his lep legs b and swarming all over him 4 till he was covered with them like a lump of sugar in a room full of flies luckily he be says my clothes were of heavy material especially a leather jerkin I 1 was wearing believe me I 1 began to perspire my legs began to feel the bites of the maddened creatures and I 1 had to put my hands in my jacket pockets to keep them from being bitten off there I 1 stood for what seemed hours with hands in my pockets my elbows tucked in and my head down on my chest to protect as great a part of me as possible I 1 waited waited for the gas to take its toll but the seconds seemed like hours my mind began to play tricks on me making me think the gas was weak wondering what would happen if all three of us were caught in the same jam and had to stay there all night what thoughts you have when youre in a predicament of that sort charley was badly bitten charleys coat and trousers were in shreds his legs were paining with wih half a hundred bites id rather fight a mad police dog than one of those rats he says and the memory of those animals lingers to this day but at last there came a knock on the icebox ice box door and charley heard the voice of one of his workers coworkers co asking if he was in there charley yelled back that he was trapped and the other fellow opened the door then it was the other fellows turn to ta get a scare rats almost a hundred of them burst out of that door in a snarling fighting mass and began dashing about the galley tny they were plenty weak by that time and the fresh air took their attention that was lucky for the other fellow too for they forgot to bite him some of the critters scrambled along the deck and others seemed to go crazy and throw themselves into the water others ran a short distance and dropped it was a great sight and just about the most shivery one I 1 ever saw in my life charley went to a doctor and had the rat bites treated none of them got infected and he was all right in a short while As a matter of fact he was back on the job again the next sunday exterminating rats on the same ship the job been done right and the whole routine had to be repeated but this time charley stayed away from the icebox ice box 0 service |