MILLS AND OTHER BUILDINGS 1 71 



buildings, as directed by you, putting about an equal 

 number on each floor, and into each crock we put i >^ 

 pounds sulphuric acid and 2^ pounds water. We 

 then weighed out 151 pounds of cyanide and put this 

 up in manila bags of i pound each ; each bag was 

 tied with a string, upon which was left a loop. We 

 placed screw-hooks into different parts of the wood- 

 work, spouts, elevator legs, etc., passed through the 

 hooks stout twine, so arranged that it would come 

 directly over the center of each crock. Just where the 

 string passed over the crock we tied an S-hook, on 

 which we hung the bags of potassium. 



The stairways leading from the basement to the 

 top of our mill go up at the side and nearly at the end 

 of the building, one stair directly above the other. 

 At the side and the ends of the mill farthest from the 

 stairway we started six different lines of string, tying 

 one end of each line to the opposite wall, and leading 

 each string to the stairway by a different route over 

 the floor and tying each string tightly to the stairway 

 rail. At the proper moment all the strings on the 

 floor could be cut at the same time, and all the little 

 bags of cyanide would fall immediately into the solu- 

 tion of acid and water. 



Each opening at the stairs had been provided 

 with a tight door. The man who cut the strings 

 started at the top floor, worked downward, cutting 

 the strings on each floor as he passed through and 

 closing the door behind him quickly, so that it was 

 impossible for even a whiff of the gas to reach him. 



We cut these strings at 8 o'clock Saturday night 

 and placed a man on guard all night. The odor 



