rs were
lost in impenetrable blackness. He got upon his feet only to find that
he sunk ankle deep in the loose packed mass underfoot.

"Hell," he muttered, "here's a fix."

Directly underneath the chute, the wheat, as it poured in, raised itself
in a conical mound, but from the sides of this mound it shunted
away incessantly in thick layers, flowing in all directions with the
nimbleness of water. Even as S. Behrman spoke, a wave of grain poured
around his legs and rose rapidly to the level of his knees. He stepped
quickly back. To stay near the chute would soon bury him to the waist.

No doubt, there was some other exit from the hold, some companion ladder
that led up to the deck. He scuffled and waded across the wheat, groping
in the dark with outstretched hands. With every inhalation he choked,
filling his mouth and nostrils more with dust than with air. At times he
could not breathe at all, but gagged and gasped, his lips distended. But
search as he would he could find no outlet to the hold, no stairway,
no companion ladder. Again and again, staggering along in the black
darkness, he bruised his knuckles and forehead against the iron sides
of the ship. He gave up the attempt to find any interior means of escape
and returned laboriously to the space under the open hatchway. Already
he could see that the level of the wheat was raised.

"God," he said, "this isn't going to do at all." He uttered a great
shout. "Hello, on deck there, somebody. For God's sake."

The steady, metallic roar of the pouring wheat drowned out his voice. He
could scarcely hear it himself above the rush of the cataract. Besides
this, he found it impossible to stay under the hatch. The flying grains
of wheat, spattering as they fell, stung his face like wind-driven
particles of ice. It was a veritable torture; his hands smarted with it.
Once he was all but blinded. Furthermore, the succeeding waves of wheat,
rolling from the mound under the chute, beat him back, swirling and
dashing against his legs and knees, mounting swiftly higher, carrying
him off his feet.

Once more he retreated, drawing back from beneath the hatch. He stood
still for a moment and shouted again. It was in vain. His voice returned
upon him, unable to penetrate the thunder of the chute, and horrified,
he discovered that so soon as he stood motionless upon the wheat, he
sank into it. Before he knew it, he was knee-deep again, and a long
swirl of grain sweeping outward fro