They found the passage below so blocked with farmers who had crowded in out of the storm that movement was impossible.
The place was darkened by the overhanging clouds, the atmosphere thick and close with the smoke and the crush.

Flashes of brilliant lightning seemed to sweep down the narrow street, which ran like a brook with the storm-water; the thunder seemed to descend and shake the solid walls.
'It's rather hard on the professor,' said one farmer to another.

'What would science do in a thunderstorm ?' He had hardly spoken when the hail suddenly came down, and the round white globules, rebounding from the pavement, rolled in at the open door.

Each paused as he lifted his glass and thought of the harvest.

As for Hodge, who was reaping, he had to take shelter how he might in the open fields.