suit. He had been here so many times
before, so long ago.

"Let's get busy," Shearing said.

They pulled on the rayproofs they had brought with them from the raft.
Without power the lift was useless, but the skeleton cage, stripped of
all its tools, was not too heavy for two strong men to swing clear of
the shaft top. They made sure it would stay clear, and then sent down a
light collapsible ladder. Hyrst slid down first into the smooth, round,
totally unlighted hole, that had one segment of it open paralleling the
machinery of the hoist.

"Take it carefully," Shearing said, and slid after him.

Clumsy in vac-suit and rayproof, Hyrst descended the ladder with
agonizing slowness. Every impulse cried out for haste, but he knew if he
hurried he would wind up at the bottom of the shaft as dead as
MacDonald. The banging and knocking of their passage against the metal
wall made a somber, hollow booming in that enclosed space, and it seemed
to Hyrst that the silent belts and cables of the hoist hummed a little
in sympathy. It was probably only the blood humming in his own ears.

"See anything yet?"

"No."

The vast strange glowing of the bin grew brighter as they approached it.
The hoist was still "hot," and it glowed too, but nothing like the
concentration in the bin.

"Even with rayproofs, we can't stay close to that too long."

"I don't think we'll have to. MacDonald was only human, and the bin was
full then. He couldn't have stayed long either."

"See anything yet?"

"Nothing but fog. When you hit bottom, better use your light."

At long last Hyrst felt the bottom of the shaft under his boots. He
stood aside from the ladder and switched on his belt lamp. In this case
the physical eyes were better than the mental, being insensitive to
radiation. Instantly the gears and cams of the feeder assembly sprang
into sharp relief on the open side of the shaft. Shearing stumbled down
off the ladder and switched on his own light.

"Where was it we thought we saw something?"

"Down under and behind." Hyrst turned slowly around, questing. The shaft
was unbroken except by the repair opening. He climbed through it, with
some difficulty, because nobody was supposed to climb through it and the
machinery was placed for easy access with extension tools from the lift.
The bin itself was now directly opposite them, a big hopper cut deep in
the solid rock and serving the feeder by simple gravity. The feeder
pretty well filled