104 files changed, 12119 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/22527-8.txt b/22527-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..024f824
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3850 @@
+Project Gutenberg's Beyond the Vanishing Point, by Raymond King Cummings
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Beyond the Vanishing Point
+
+Author: Raymond King Cummings
+
+Release Date: September 6, 2007 [EBook #22527]
+Last updated: January 22, 2009
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEYOND THE VANISHING POINT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                     THEY OPENED THE PANDORA'S BOX
+                            OF ATOMIC TRAVEL
+
+
+When George Randolph first caught sight of Orena, he was astounded by
+its gleaming perfection. Here were hills and valleys, lakes and streams,
+glowing with the light of the most precious of metals. And, more
+astonishing than that, it was a world of _miniature_ perfection--an
+infinitely tiny universe within a golden atom!
+
+But for Randolph it was also a world aglow with danger. Somewhere in its
+tiny vastness were the friends he had to rescue. Captives of a madman,
+they had been reduced to native Orena size; to return to Earth they
+needed the growth capsules Randolph was bringing them. It was up to
+Randolph to find them--and quickly--for the longer they stayed tiny, the
+closer they came to passing BEYOND THE VANISHING POINT!
+
+
+
+
+CAST OF CHARACTERS
+
+
+ FRANZ POLTER
+ He found a gold mine in a land where there was no gold.
+
+ DR. KENT
+ His scientific studies could mean life or death to an entire universe!
+
+ GEORGE RANDOLPH
+ He crossed the border into Canada, and found himself in another world.
+
+ ALAN KENT
+ Twenty feet tall, or two inches high--which should he be?
+
+ GLORA
+ She was only as large as a thumbnail, but she carried a gigantic secret.
+
+ BABS KENT
+ Did she live in a golden cage or a magnificent palace?
+
+
+
+
+           BEYOND THE
+              VANISHING POINT
+
+
+                   by
+              RAY CUMMINGS
+
+
+             ACE BOOKS, INC.
+ 23 West 47th Street, New York 36, N. Y.
+
+
+
+
+ BEYOND THE VANISHING POINT
+ Copyright ©, 1958, by Ace Books, Inc.
+ All Rights Reserved
+
+ Printed in U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+It was shortly after noon of December 31, 1970, when the series of weird
+and startling events began which took me into the tiny world of an atom
+of gold, beyond the vanishing point, beyond the range of even the
+highest-powered electric-microscope. My name is George Randolph. I was,
+that momentous afternoon, assistant chemist for the Ajax International
+Dye Company, with main offices in New York City.
+
+It was twelve-twenty when the local exchange call-sorter announced
+Alan's connection from Quebec.
+
+"Hello, George? Look here, you've got to come up here at once. Chateau
+Frontenac, Quebec. Will you come?"
+
+I could see his face imaged in the little mirror on my desk; the
+anxiety, tenseness in his voice, was duplicated in his expression.
+
+"Well--" I began.
+
+"You must, George. Babs and I need you. See here...."
+
+He tried at first to make it sound like an invitation for a New Year's
+Eve holiday. But I knew it was not that. Alan and Barbara were my best
+friends. They were twins, eighteen years old. I felt that Alan would
+always be my best friend; but for Babs, my hopes, longings, went far
+deeper, though as yet I had never brought myself to the point of telling
+her so.
+
+"I'd like to come, Alan. But--"
+
+"You've got to George! I can't tell you everything over the public air.
+But I've seen _him_: He's diabolical. I know it now!"
+
+_Him_! It could only mean, of all the world, one person!
+
+"He's here!" he went on. "Near here. We saw him today! I didn't want to
+tell you, but that's why we came. It seemed a long chance, but it's he,
+I'm positive!"
+
+I was staring at the image of Alan's eyes; there was horror in them. And
+his voice too. "God, George, it's weird! Weird, I tell you. His
+looks--he--oh I can't tell you now! Only, come!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I was busy at the office in spite of the holiday season, but I dropped
+everything and went. By one o'clock that afternoon I was wheeling my
+little sport Midge from its cage on the roof of the Metropole building,
+and went into the air.
+
+It was a cold gray afternoon with the feel of coming snow. I made a good
+two hundred and fifty miles at first, taking the northbound
+through-traffic lane which today the meteorological conditions had
+placed at an altitude of 6,200 feet.
+
+Flying is largely automatic. There was not enough traffic to bother me.
+The details of leaving the office so hastily had been too engrossing for
+thought of Alan and Babs. But now, in my little pit at the controls, my
+mind flung ahead. They had located him. That meant Franz Polter, for
+whom we had been searching nearly four years. And my memory went back
+into the past with vivid vision....
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Kents, four years ago, were living on Long Island. Alan and Babs
+were fourteen at the time, and I was seventeen. Even then Babs was
+something kind of special to me. I lived in a neighboring house that
+summer and saw them every day.
+
+To my adolescent mind a thrilling mystery hung upon the Kent family. The
+mother was dead. Dr. Kent, father of Alan and Babs, maintained a
+luxurious home, with only a housekeeper and no other servant. Dr. Kent
+was a retired chemist. He had, in his home, a laboratory in which he was
+working upon some mysterious problem. His children did not know what it
+was, nor, of course, did I. And none of us had ever been in the
+laboratory, except that when occasion offered we stole surreptitious
+peeps.
+
+I recall Dr. Kent as a kindly, iron-gray haired gentleman. He was stern
+with the discipline of his children; but he loved them, and was
+indulgent in many ways. They loved him; and I, an orphan, began looking
+upon him almost as a father. I was interested in chemistry. He knew it,
+and did his best to help and encourage me in my studies.
+
+There came an afternoon in the summer of 1966, when arriving at the Kent
+home, I ran upon a startling scene. The only other member of the
+household was a young fellow of twenty-five, named Franz Polter. He was
+a foreigner, born, I understood, in one of the Balkan Protectorates; he
+was here, employed by Dr. Kent as laboratory assistant.
+
+He had been with the Kents, at this time, two years. Alan and Babs
+didn't like him, nor did I. He must have been a clever, skillful
+chemist. No doubt he was. But he was, to us, repulsive. A hunchback,
+with a short, thick body; dangling arms that suggested a gorilla; barrel
+chest; a lump set askew on his left shoulder, and his massive head
+planted down with almost no neck. His face was rugged in feature; a wide
+mouth, a high-bridged heavy nose; and above the face a great shock of
+wavy black hair. It was an intelligent face; in itself, not repulsive.
+
+But I think we all three feared Franz Polter. There was always something
+sinister about him, that had nothing to do with his deformity.
+
+When I came, that afternoon, Babs and Polter were under a tree on the
+Kent lawn. Babs, at fourteen, with long black braids down her back,
+bare-legged and short-skirted in a summer sport costume, was standing
+against the tree with Polter facing her. They were about the same
+height. To my youthful imaginative mind rose the fleeting picture of a
+young girl in a forest menaced by a gorilla.
+
+I came upon them suddenly. I heard Polter say:
+
+"But I lof you. And you are almos' a woman. Some day you lof me."
+
+He put out his thick hand and gripped her shoulder. She tried to twist
+away. She was frightened, but she laughed.
+
+"You--you're crazy!"
+
+He was suddenly holding her in his arms, and she was fighting him. I
+dashed forward. Babs was always a spunky sort of girl. In spite of her
+fear now, she kept on struggling, and she shouted:
+
+"You--let me go, you--you hunchback!"
+
+He did let her go; but in a frenzy of rage he hauled back his hand and
+struck her in the face. I was upon him the next second. I had him down
+on the lawn, punching him; but though at seventeen I was a reasonably
+husky lad, the hunchback with his thick, hairy gorilla arms proved much
+stronger. He heaved me off. The commotion had brought Alan and without
+waiting to find out what the trouble was, he jumped on Polter. Between
+us, I think we would have beaten him pretty badly. But the housekeeper
+summoned Dr. Kent and the fight was over.
+
+Polter left for good within an hour. He did not speak to any of us. But
+I saw him as he put his luggage into the taxi which Dr. Kent had
+summoned. I was standing silently nearby with Babs and Alan. The look he
+flung us as he drove away carried an unmistakable menace--the promise of
+vengeance. And I think now that in his warped and twisted mind he was
+telling himself that he would some day make Babs regret that she had
+repulsed his love.
+
+What happened that night none of us ever knew. Dr. Kent worked late in
+his laboratory; he was there when Alan and Babs and the housekeeper went
+to bed. He had written a note to Alan; it was found on his desk in a
+corner of the laboratory next morning, addressed in care of the family
+lawyer to be given Alan in the event of his death. It said very little.
+Described a tiny fragment of gold quartz rock the size of a walnut which
+would be found under the giant microscope in the laboratory; and told
+Alan to give it to the American Scientific Society to be guarded and
+watched very carefully.
+
+This note was found, but Dr. Kent had vanished! There had been a
+midnight marauder. The laboratory was on the lower floor of the house.
+Through one of its open windows, so the police said, an intruder had
+entered. There was evidence of a struggle, but it must have been short,
+because neither Babs, Alan, the housekeeper, nor any of the neighbors
+had heard anything. And the fragment of golden quartz was gone!
+
+The police investigation came to nothing. Polter was found in New York.
+He withstood the police questions. There was nothing except suspicion
+upon which he could be held, and he was finally released. Immediately
+thereafter, he disappeared.
+
+Neither Alan, Babs nor I saw Polter again. Dr. Kent had never been heard
+from to this day, four years later when I flew to join the twins in
+Quebec. And now Alan told me that Polter was up there! We had never
+ceased to believe that Dr. Kent was alive, and that Polter was the
+midnight marauder. As we grew older, we began to search for Polter. It
+seemed to us, that if we could once get our hands on him, we could drag
+from him the truth which the police had failed to get.
+
+The call of a traffic director in mid-Vermont brought me back from these
+memories. My buzzer was clanging; a peremptory halting signal day-beam
+came darting up at me from below. It caught me and clung. I shouted down
+at it.
+
+"What's the matter?" I gave my name and number and all the details in
+one breath. Above everything I had no wish to be halted now. "What's the
+matter? I haven't done anything wrong."
+
+"The hell you haven't," the director roared. "Come down to three
+thousand. That lane's barred."
+
+I dove obediently and his beam followed me. "Once more, like that, young
+fellow--" But he went busy with somebody else and I didn't hear the end
+of his threat.
+
+I crossed into Maine in mid-afternoon. It was already twilight. The sky
+was solid lead and the landscape all up through here was gray-white with
+snow in the gathering darkness. I passed the City of Jackman, crossing
+full over it to take no chances of annoying the border officials; and a
+few miles further, I dropped to the glaring lights of International
+Inspection Field. The formalities were soon finished. I was ready to
+take-off when Alan rushed at me.
+
+"George! I thought I could connect here." He gripped me. He was
+wild-eyed, incoherent. He waved his taxiplane away. "I'm going with you,
+George. I'm almost out of my mind. I can't--I don't know what's happened
+to her. She's gone, now--"
+
+"Who's gone? Babs?"
+
+"Yes." He pushed me into my plane and climbed in after me. "Don't talk.
+Get us up! I'll tell you then. I shouldn't have left."
+
+When we were up in the air, I swung on him. "What are you talking about?
+Babs gone?"
+
+I could feel myself shuddering with a nameless horror.
+
+"I don't know what I'm talking about, George. I'm about crazy. The
+Quebec police think I am, anyway. I've been raising hell with them for
+an hour. Babs is gone! I can't find her. I don't know where she is."
+
+He finally calmed down enough to tell me what happened. Shortly after
+his radiophone to me in New York, he had missed Babs. They had had lunch
+in the huge hotel and then walked on the Dufferin Terrace--the famous
+promenade outside looking down over the Lower City, the great sweep of
+the St. Lawrence River and the gray-white distant Laurentian mountains.
+
+"I was to meet her inside. I went in ahead of her. But she didn't come.
+I went back to the Terrace but she was gone. She wasn't in our rooms.
+Nor the library, the lobby--anywhere."
+
+But it was afternoon, in the public place of a civilized city. In the
+daylight of the Dufferin Terrace, beside the long ice toboggan slide,
+under the gaze of skaters on the ice-rink and several hundred holiday
+merrymakers, a young girl could hardly be murdered, or kidnapped,
+without attracting attention! The Quebec police thought the young
+American unduly excited about his sister, who was missing only an hour.
+They would do what they could, if by dark she had not rejoined him. They
+suggested that doubtless the young lady had gone shopping.
+
+"Maybe she did," I agreed. But in my heart, I felt differently. "She'll
+be waiting for us in the Hotel when we get there, Alan."
+
+"But I'm telling you we saw Polter this morning. He lives here--not
+thirty miles from Quebec. We saw him on the Terrace after breakfast.
+Recognized him immediately of course."
+
+"Did he see you?"
+
+"I don't know. He was lost in the crowd in a minute. But I asked a
+young French fellow if he knew him. He did know him, as Frank Rascor.
+That must be the name he wears now. He's a famous man up here--well
+known, immensely rich. I didn't know if he saw us or not. What a fool I
+was to leave Babs alone, even for a minute."
+
+We were speeding over a white-clad valley with a little frozen river
+winding down its middle. Night had almost come. The leaden sky was low
+above us. It began snowing. The lights of the small villages along the
+river were barely visible.
+
+"Can you land us, Alan?"
+
+"Yes, surely. At the Municipal Field just beyond the Citadel. We can get
+to the Hotel in five minutes."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was a flight of only half an hour. During it, Alan told me about
+Polter. The hunchback, known now as Frank Rascor, owned a mine in the
+Laurentians, some thirty miles from Quebec City--a fabulously productive
+mine of gold. It was an anomaly that gold should be produced in this
+region. No vein of gold-bearing rock had been found, except the one on
+Polter's property. Alan had seen a newspaper account of the strangeness
+of it; and on a hunch had come to Quebec, being intrigued by the
+description of the mine owner. He had seen Frank Rascor on the Dufferin
+Terrace, and recognized him as Polter.
+
+Again my thoughts went back into the past. Had Polter stolen that
+missing fragment of golden quartz the size of a walnut which had been
+beneath Dr. Kent's microscope? We always thought so. Dr. Kent had some
+secret, some great problem upon which he was working. Polter, his
+assistant, had evidently known, or partially known, its details. And
+now, four years later, Polter was immensely rich, with a "gold mine" in
+mountains where there was no other evidence of gold!
+
+I seemed to see some connection. Alan, I knew, was groping with a dim
+idea, so strange he hardly dared voice it.
+
+"I tell you, it's weird, George. The sight of him. Polter--heavens, one
+couldn't mistake that build--and his face, his features, just the same
+as when we knew him."
+
+"Then what's so weird?" I demanded.
+
+"His age." There was a queer solemn hush in Alan's voice. "George, when
+we knew Polter, he was about twenty-five, wasn't he? Well, that was four
+years ago. But he isn't twenty-nine now. I swear it is the same man, but
+he isn't around thirty. Don't ask me what I'm talking about. I don't
+know. But he isn't thirty. He's nearer fifty! Unnatural! Weird! I felt
+it, and so did Babs, just that brief look we had of him."
+
+I didn't answer. My attention was on managing the plane. The lights of
+Levis were under us. Beyond the City cliffs, the St. Lawrence lay in its
+deep valley; the Quebec lights, the light-dotted ramparts with the
+Terrace and the great fortresslike Hotel showed across the river.
+
+"Better take the stick, Alan. I don't know where the field is. And don't
+you worry about Babs. She'll be back by now."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But she was not. We went to the two connecting rooms in the tower of the
+Hotel which Alan and Babs had engaged. We inquired with half a dozen
+phone calls. No one had seen or heard from her. The Quebec police were
+sending a man up to talk with Alan.
+
+"Well, we won't be here," Alan called to me. He was standing by the
+window in Babs' room; he was trembling too much to use the phone. I hung
+up the receiver and went though the connecting door to join him.
+
+Babs' room! It sent a pang through me. A few of her garments were lying
+around. A negligee was laid out on the large bed. A velvet boudoir
+doll--she had always loved them--stood on the dresser. Upon this Hotel
+room, in one day, she had impressed her personality. Her perfume was in
+the air. And now she was gone.
+
+"We won't be here," Alan was repeating. He gripped me at the window.
+"Look." In his hand was an ugly-looking, smokeless, soundless automatic
+of the Essen type. "And I've got another one for you. Brought them with
+me."
+
+His face was white and drawn, but his hands had steadied. The tremble
+was gone out of his voice.
+
+"I'm going after him, George! Now! Understand that? Now? His place is
+only thirty miles from here, out there in the mountains. You can see it
+in the daylight--a wall around his property and a stone castle which he
+built in the middle of it. A gold mine? Hell!"
+
+There was nothing to be seen now out of the window but the snow-filled
+darkness, the blurred lights of Lower Quebec and the line of dock lights
+five hundred feet below us.
+
+"Will you fly me, George?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+I was the one trembling now; the cool feel of the automatic which Alan
+thrust into my hand seemed suddenly to crystallize Babs' peril. I was
+here in her room, with the scent of her perfume around me, and this
+deadly weapon was needed! But the trembling was gone in a moment.
+
+"Yes, of course, Alan. No use talking to the police. I gave them all the
+information--a description of her, what you said she was wearing. No
+sense dragging Polter's name into it, with nothing tangible to go on.
+The police won't ransack the castle of a rich man just because you can't
+find your sister. Come on. You can tell me what this place is like as we
+go."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Bundled in our flying suits we hurried from the Hotel, climbed the
+Citadel slope and in ten minutes were in the air. The wind sucked at us.
+The snow now was falling with thick, huge flakes. Directed by Alan, I
+headed out over this ice-filled St. Lawrence, past the frozen Ile
+d'Orleans, toward Polter's mysterious mountain castle.
+
+Suddenly Alan burst out, "I know what father's secret was! I can piece
+it together now, from little things that were meaningless when I was a
+kid. He invented the electro-microscope. You know that. The infinitely
+small fascinated him. I remember he once said that if we could see far
+enough down into smallness, we would come upon human life!"
+
+Alan's low, tense voice was more vehement than I had ever heard it
+before. "It's clear to me now, George. That little fragment of golden
+quartz which he wanted me to be so careful of contained a world with
+human inhabitants! Father knew it, or suspected it. And I think the
+chemical problem on which he was working aimed for some drug. I know it
+was a drug they were compounding, Polter said so once, a radioactive
+drug; I remember listening at the door. A drug, George, capable of
+making a human being infinitely small!"
+
+I did not answer when momentarily Alan paused. So strange a thing. My
+mind whirled with it; struggled to encompass it. And like the
+meaningless individual pieces of a puzzle, dropping so easily into place
+when the key piece is fitted, I saw Polter stealing that fragment of
+gold; abducting Dr. Kent--perhaps because Polter himself was not fully
+acquainted with the secret. And now, Polter up here with a fabulously
+rich "gold mine." And Babs, abducted by him, to be taken--where?
+
+It set me shuddering.
+
+"That's what it was," Alan reiterated. "And Polter, here now with what
+he calls a 'mine.' It isn't a mine, it's a laboratory! He's got father
+too, hidden God knows where! And now Babs. We've got to get them,
+George! The police can't help us! It's just you and me, to fight this
+thing. And it's diabolical!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+We soared over the divided channel of the St. Lawrence, between Orleans
+and the mainland. Montmorency Falls in a moment showed dimly white
+through the murk to our left, a great hanging veil of ice higher than
+Niagara. Further ahead, the lights of the little village of St. Anne de
+Beaupré were visible with the gray-black towering hills behind them.
+
+"Swing left, George. Over the mainland. That's St. Anne. We pass this
+side of it. Put the mufflers on. This damn thing roars like a tower
+siren."
+
+I cut in the muffler and switched off our wing-lights. It was illegal
+but we were past all thought of that. We were both desperate; the slow
+prudent process of acting within the law had nothing to do with this
+affair. We both knew it.
+
+Our little plane was dark, and amid the sounds of this night blizzard
+our muffled engine couldn't be heard.
+
+Alan touched me. "There are his lights; see them?"
+
+We had passed St. Anne. The hills lay ahead--a wild mountainous country
+stretching northward to the foot of Hudson Bay. The blizzard was roaring
+out of the North and we were heading into it. I saw, on what seemed like
+a dome-shaped hill perhaps a thousand feet above the river level, a
+small cluster of lights which marked Polter's property.
+
+"Fly over it once, George," Alan said. "Low--we can chance it. And find
+a place to land near the walls."
+
+We presently had it under us. I held the plane at five hundred feet, and
+cut our speed to the minimum of twenty miles an hour facing the gale,
+though it was sixty or seventy when we turned. There were a score or two
+of hooded ground lights. But there was little reflection aloft, and in
+the murk of the snowfall I felt we could escape notice.
+
+We crossed, turned and went back in an arc following Polter's curved
+outer wall. We had a good view of it. A weird enough looking place, here
+on its lonely hilltop. No wonder the wealthy "Frank Rascor" had attained
+local prominence!
+
+The whole property was irregularly circular, perhaps a mile in diameter
+covering the almost flat dome of the hilltop. Around it, completely
+enclosing it, Polter had built a stone and brick wall. A miniature of
+the Great Wall in China! We could see that it was fully thirty feet high
+with what evidently were naked high-voltage wires protecting its top.
+There were half a dozen little gates, securely barred, with doubtless a
+guard at each of them.
+
+Within the walls there were several buildings: a few small stone houses
+suggesting workmen's dwellings; an oblong stone structure with smoke
+funnels which looked like a smelter; a huge domelike spread of
+translucent glass over what might have been the top of a mineshaft. It
+looked more like the dome of an observatory--an inverted bowl fully a
+hundred feet wide and equally as high, set upon the ground. What did it
+cover?
+
+And there was Polter's residence--a castlelike brick and stone building
+with a tower not unlike a miniature of the Chateau Frontenac. We saw a
+stone corridor on the ground connecting the lower floor of the castle
+with the dome, which lay about a hundred feet to one side.
+
+Could we chance landing inside the wall? There was a dark, level expanse
+of snow where we could have done it, but our descending plane doubtless
+would have been discovered. But the mile-wide inner area was dark in
+many places. Spots of light were at the little wall-gates. There was a
+glow all along the top of the wall. Lights were on in Polter's house;
+they slanted out in yellow shafts to the nearby white ground. But for
+the rest, the whole place was dark, save a dim glow from under the dome.
+
+I shook my head at Alan's suggestion that we land inside the walls. We
+had circled back and were a mile or so off toward the river. "The
+trees--and you saw guards down there. But that low stretch outside the
+gate on this side...."
+
+A plan was coming to me. Heaven knows it was desperate enough, but we
+had no alternative. We would land and accost one of the gate guards.
+Force our way in. Once inside the wall, on foot in the darkness of this
+blizzard, we could hide; slip up to that dome. Beyond that my
+imagination could not go.
+
+We landed in the snow a quarter of a mile from one of the gates. We left
+the plane and plunged into the darkness.
+
+It was a steady upward slope. A packed snowfield was underfoot, firm
+enough to hold our weight, with a foot or so of loose, soft snow on its
+top. The falling flakes whirled around us. The darkness was solid. Our
+helmeted leather-furred flying suits were soon shapeless with a
+gathering white shroud. We carried our Essens in our gloved hands. The
+night was cold, around zero I imagine, though with that biting wind it
+felt far colder.
+
+From the gloom a tiny spot of light loomed up.
+
+"There it is, Alan. Easy now! Let me go first." The wind tore away my
+words. We could see the narrow rectangle of bars at the gate, with a
+glow of light behind them.
+
+"Hide your gun, Alan." I gripped him. "Do you hear me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Let me go first. I'll do the talking. When he opens the gate, let me
+handle him. You--if there are two of them--you take the other."
+
+We emerged from the darkness, into the glow of light by the gate. I had
+the horrible feeling that a shot would greet us. A challenge came, at
+first in French and then in English.
+
+"Stop! What do you want?"
+
+"To see Mr. Rascor."
+
+We were up to the bars now, shapeless hooded bundles of snow and frost.
+A man stood in the doorway of a lighted little cubby behind the bars. A
+black muzzle in his hand was leveled at us.
+
+"He sees no one. Who are you?"
+
+Alan was pressing at me from behind. I shoved him back, and took a step
+forward. I touched the bars.
+
+"My name is Fred Davis. Newspaperman from Montreal I must see Mr.
+Rascor."
+
+"You cannot. You may send in your call. The mouthpiece is there--out
+there to the left. Bare your face; he talks to no one without the face
+image."
+
+The guard had drawn back into his cubby; there was only his extended
+hand and the muzzle of his weapon left visible.
+
+I took a step forward. "I don't want to talk by phone. Won't you open
+the gate? It's cold out here. We have important business. We'll wait
+with you."
+
+Abruptly the gate lattice slid aside. Beyond the cubby doorway was the
+open darkness within the wall. A scuffed path leading inward from the
+gate showed for a few feet.
+
+I walked over the threshold, with Alan crowding me. The Essen in my coat
+pocket was leveled. But from the cubby doorway, I saw that the guard was
+gone! Then I saw him crouching behind a metal shield. His voice rang
+out.
+
+"Stand!"
+
+A light struck my face--a thin beam from a television sender beside me.
+It all happened in an instant, so quickly Alan and I had barely time to
+make a move. I realized my image was now doubtless being presented to
+Polter. He would recognize me!
+
+I ducked my head, yelling, "Don't do that!"
+
+It was too late! The guard had received a signal. I heard its buzz.
+
+From the shield a tiny jet of fluid leapt at me. It struck my hood.
+There was a heavy sickening-sweet smell. It seemed like chloroform. I
+felt my senses going. The cubby room was turning dark, was roaring.
+
+I think I fired at the shield. And Alan leapt aside. I heard the faint
+hiss of his Essen, and his choked, horrified voice:
+
+"George, run! Don't fall!"
+
+I crumpled; slid into blackness. And it seemed, as I went down, that
+Alan's inert body was falling on top of me....
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I recovered after a nameless interval, a phantasmagoria of wild, drugged
+dreams. My senses came slowly. At first, there were dim muffled voices
+and the tread of footsteps. Then I knew that I was lying on the ground,
+and that I was indoors. It was warm. My overcoat was off. Then I
+realized that I was bound and gagged.
+
+I opened my eyes. Alan was lying inert beside me, roped and with a black
+gag around his face and in his mouth. We were in a huge dim open space.
+Presently, as my vision cleared, I saw that the dome was overhead. This
+was a circular, hundred-foot-wide room. It was dimly lighted. The
+figures of men were moving about, their great misshapen shadows shifting
+with them. Twenty feet from me there was a pile of golden rock--chunks
+of gold the size of a man's fist, or his head, and larger, heaped
+loosely into a mound ten feet high.
+
+Beyond this pile of ore, near the center of the room, twenty feet above
+the concrete floor, there was a large hanging electrolier. It cast a
+circular glow downward. Under it I saw a low platform raised a foot or
+two above the ground. A giant electro-microscope was hung with its
+twenty foot cylinder above the platform. Its intensification tubes were
+glowing in a dim phosphorescent row on a nearby bracket. A man sat in a
+chair on the platform at the microscope's eyepiece.
+
+I saw all this with a brief glance, then my attention went to a white
+stone slab under the giant lense. It rested on the platform floor, a
+two-foot square surface of smooth white marble. A little roped railing a
+few inches high fenced it. And in its center lay a fragment of golden
+quartz the size of a walnut!
+
+There was a movement across my line of vision. Two figures advanced. I
+recognized both of them. And I strained at my bonds; mouthed the gag
+with futile, frenzied effort. I could no more than writhe; and I
+couldn't make a sound. I lay, after a moment exhausted, and stared with
+horror.
+
+The familiar hunched figure of Polter advanced toward the microscope.
+And with him, his huge hand holding her wrists, was Babs. They were
+nearly fifty feet from me, but with the light over them I could see them
+clearly. Babs' slim figure was clad in a long skirted dress--pale blue,
+now, with the light on it. Her long black hair had fallen disheveled to
+her shoulders. I couldn't see her face. She did not cry out. Polter was
+half dragging her as she resisted him; and then abruptly she ceased
+struggling.
+
+I heard his guttural voice. "That iss better."
+
+They mounted the platform. They were very small and seemed to be far
+away. I blinked. Horror surged over me. Their figures were dwindling as
+they stood there. Polter was saying something to the man at the
+microscope. Other men were nearby, watching. All were normal, save
+Polter and Babs. A moment passed. Polter was standing by the chair in
+which the man at the microscope was sitting. And Polter's head barely
+reached its seat! Babs was clinging to him now. Another moment and they
+were both tiny figures down by the chair-leg. Then they began walking
+with swaying steps toward the miniature railing of the white slab. The
+white reflection from the slab plainly illumined them. Polter's arm was
+around Babs. I had not realized how small they were until I saw Polter
+lift the rope of the little four-inch fence, and he and Babs stooped and
+walked under it. The fragment of quartz lay a foot from them in the
+center of the white surface. They walked unsteadily toward it. But soon
+they were running.
+
+My horrified senses whirled. Then abruptly I felt something touch my
+face! Alan and I were lying in shadow. No one had noticed my writhing
+movements, and Alan was still in drugged unconsciousness. Something tiny
+and light and soundless as a butterfly wing brushed my face! I jerked my
+head aside. On the floor, within six inches of my eyes, I saw the tiny
+figure of a girl an inch high! She stood, with a warning gesture to her
+lips--a human girl in a filmy flowing robe. Long, pale golden tresses
+lay on her white shoulders; her face, small as my little fingernail,
+colorful as a miniature painted on ivory, was so close to my eyes that I
+could see her expression--warning me not to move.
+
+There was a faint glow of light on the floor where she stood, but in a
+moment she moved out of it. Then I felt her brush against the back of my
+head. My ear was near the ground. A tiny warm hand touched my ear lobe;
+clung to it. A tiny voice sounded in my ear.
+
+"Please do not move your head. You might kill me!"
+
+There was a pause. I held myself rigid. Then the tiny voice came again.
+
+"I am Glora, a friend. I have the drug! I will help you!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+It seemed that Alan was stirring. I felt the tiny hand leave my ear. I
+thought that I could hear faint little footfalls as the girl scampered
+away, fearful that a sudden movement by Alan would crush her. I turned
+cautiously after a moment and saw Alan's eyes upon me. He too had seen,
+with a blurred returning consciousness, the dwindling figures of Babs
+and Polter. I followed his gaze. The while slab with the golden quartz
+under the microscope seemed empty. The several men in this huge circular
+dome-room were dispersing to their affairs; three of them sat whispering
+by what I now saw was a pile of gold ingots stacked crosswise. But the
+fellow at the microscope held his place, his eyes glued to its aperture
+as he watched the vanishing figures of Polter and Babs on the
+rock-fragment.
+
+Alan was trying to convey something to me. He could only gaze and jerk
+his head. I saw behind his head the figures of the tiny girl on the
+floor behind him. She wanted evidently to approach his head, but didn't
+dare. When for an instant he was quiet, she ran forward, but at once
+scampered back.
+
+From the group by the ingots, one of the men rose and came toward us.
+Alan held still, watching. And the girl, Glora, seized the opportunity
+to come nearer. We both heard her tiny voice:
+
+"Do not move! Close your eyes! Make him think you are still
+unconscious."
+
+Then she was gone, like a mouse hiding in the shadows near us.
+
+Amazement swept Alan's face; he twisted, mouthed at his gag. But he saw
+my eager nod and took his cue from me.
+
+I closed my eyes and lay stiff, breathing slowly. Footsteps approached.
+A man bent over Alan and me.
+
+"Are you no conscious yet?" It was the voice of a foreigner, with a
+queer, indescribable intonation. A foot prodded us. "Wake up!"
+
+Then the footsteps retreated, and when I dared to look, the man was
+rejoining his fellows. It was a strange looking trio. They were
+heavy-set men in leather jackets and short, wide knee-length trousers.
+One wore tight, high boots, and the others a sort of white buckskin,
+with ankle straps. All were bare-headed--round, bullet heads of
+close-clipped black hair.
+
+I suddenly had another startling realization. These men were not of
+normal size as I had assumed! They were eight or ten feet tall at the
+very least! And they and the pile of ingots, instead of being close to
+me, were more distant than I had thought.
+
+Alan was trying to signal me. The tiny girl was again at his ear,
+whispering to him. And then she came to me.
+
+"I have a knife. See?" She backed away. I caught the pinpoint gleam of
+what might have been a knife in her hand. "I will get a little larger. I
+am too small to cut your ropes. You lie still, even after I have cut
+them."
+
+I nodded. The movement frightened her so that she leaped backward; but
+she came again, smiling. The three men were talking earnestly by the
+ingots. No one else was near us.
+
+Glora's tiny voice was louder, so that we both could hear it at once.
+
+"When I free you, do not move or they may see that you are loose. I get
+larger now--a little larger--and return."
+
+She darted away and vanished. Alan and I lay listening to the voices of
+the three men. Two were talking in a strange tongue. One called to the
+man at the microscope, and he responded. The third man said suddenly:
+
+"Say, talk English. You know damn well I can't understand that lingo."
+
+"We say, McGuire, the two prisoners soon wake up."
+
+"What we oughta do is kill 'em. Polter's a fool."
+
+"The doctor say, wait for him return. Not long, what you call three,
+four hours."
+
+"And have the Quebec police up here lookin' for 'em? An' that damn girl
+he stole off the Terrace. What did he call her, Barbara Kent?"
+
+"These two who are drugged, their bodies can be thrown in a gully down
+behind St. Anne. That what the doctor plan to do, I think. Then the
+police find them--days maybe from now--and their smashed airship with
+them."
+
+Gruesome suggestion!
+
+The man at the microscope called, "They are almost gone I can hardly see
+them any more." He left the platform and joined the others. And I saw
+that he was much smaller than they--about my own size possibly.
+
+There seemed six men here altogether. Four now, by the ingots, and two
+others far across the room where I saw the dark entrance of the
+corridor-tunnel which led to Polter's castle.
+
+Again I felt a warning hand touch my face, and saw the figure of Glora
+standing by my head. She was larger now--about a foot tall. She moved
+past my eyes; stood by my mouth; bent down over my gag. I felt the
+cautious slide of a tiny knife-blade inserted under the fabric of the
+gag. She hacked, tugged at it, and in a moment ripped it through.
+
+She stood panting from the effort. My heart was pounding with fear that
+she would be seen; but the man had turned the central light off when he
+left the microscope, and it was far darker here now than before.
+
+I moistened my dry mouth. My tongue was thick, but I could talk.
+
+"Thank you, Glora."
+
+"Quiet!"
+
+I felt her hacking at the ropes around my wrists. And then at my ankles.
+It took her a long time, but at last I was free! I rubbed my arms and
+legs; felt the returning circulation in them.
+
+And presently Alan was free. "George, what--" he began.
+
+"Wait," I whispered. "Easy! Let her tell us what to do."
+
+We were unarmed. Two, against these six, three of whom were giants.
+
+Glora whispered, "Do not move! I have the drugs. But I can not give them
+to you when I am still so small. I have not enough. I will hide--there."
+Her little arm gestured to where, near us, half a dozen boxes were
+piled. "When I am large as you, I come back. Be ready, quickly to act. I
+may be seen. I give you then the drug."
+
+"But wait," Alan whispered. "Tell us--"
+
+"The drug to make you large. Large enough to fight these men. I had
+planned to do that myself, until I saw you held captive. That girl of
+your world the doctor just now steal, she is friend of yours?"
+
+"Yes! But--" A thousand questions were springing in my mind, but this
+was no time to ask them. I amended, "Go on! Hurry! Give us the drug when
+you can."
+
+The little figure moved away from us and disappeared. Alan and I lay as
+we had before. But now we could whisper. We tried to anticipate what
+would happen; tried to plan, but that was futile. The thing was too
+strange, too astoundingly fantastic.
+
+How long Glora was gone I don't know. I think, not over three or four
+minutes. She came from her hiding place, crouching this time, and joined
+us. She was, probably, of normal Earth size--a small, frail-looking girl
+something over five feet tall. We saw now that she was quite young,
+still in her teens. We lay staring at her, amazed at her beauty. Her
+small oval face was pale, with the flush of pink upon her cheeks--a face
+queerly, transcendingly beautiful. It was wholly human, yet somehow
+unearthly, as though unmarked by even the heritage of our Earthly
+strifes.
+
+"Now! I am ready." She was fumbling at her robe. "I will give you each
+the same."
+
+Her gestures were rapid. She flung a quick glance at the distant men.
+Alan and I were tense. We could easily be discovered now, but we had to
+chance it. We were sitting erect. Alan murmured:
+
+"But what do we do? What happens? What--"
+
+On the palm of her hand were two pink-white pellets. "Take these--one
+for each of you. Quickly!"
+
+Involuntarily we drew back. The thing abruptly was gruesome,
+frightening. Horribly frightening.
+
+"Quickly," she urged. "The drug is what you call highly radioactive. And
+volatile. Exposed to the air, it is gone very soon. You are afraid? No,
+I assure you it is not harmful."
+
+With a muttered curse at his own reluctance, Alan seized the small
+pellet. I stopped him.
+
+"Wait!"
+
+The men momentarily were engaged in a low-voiced, earnest discussion. I
+dared to hesitate a moment longer.
+
+"Glora, where will you be?"
+
+"Here. Right here. I will hide."
+
+"We want to go after Mr. Polter," I gestured. "Into the little piece of
+golden rock. That's where he went with the Earth girl, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes. My world is there--within an atom there in that rock."
+
+"Will you take us?"
+
+"Yes! But later."
+
+Alan whispered vehemently, "Why not now? We could get smaller, now."
+
+But she shook her head. "That is not possible. We would be seen as we
+climbed the platform and crossed the white slab."
+
+"No," I protested, "not if we get very small, hiding here first."
+
+She was smiling, but urgently fearful of this delay. "Should we get that
+small, then it would be, from here"--she gestured toward the
+microscope--"to there, a journey of very many miles. Don't you
+understand?"
+
+This thing so strange!
+
+Alan was plucking at me. "Ready, George?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+I put the pellet on my tongue. It tasted slightly sweet, but seemed to
+melt quickly and I swallowed it hastily. My heart, was pounding, but
+that was apprehension, not the drug. A thrill of heat ran through my
+veins as though my blood were on fire.
+
+Alan was clinging to me as we sat together. Glora again had vanished. In
+the background of my whirling consciousness the sudden thought hovered
+that she had tricked us; done to us something diabolical. But the
+thought was swept away in the confused flood of impressions upon me.
+
+I turned dizzily. "You all right, Alan?"
+
+"Yes, I--I guess so."
+
+My ears were roaring, the room seemed whirling, but in a moment that
+passed. I felt a sudden growing sense of lightness. A humming was within
+me--a soundless tingle. The drug had gone to every tiny microscopic cell
+in my body. The myriad pores of my skin seemed thrilling with activity.
+I know now that it was the exuding volatile gas of this disintegrating
+drug. Like an aura it enveloped me, acted upon my garments.
+
+I learned later much of the principles of this and its companion drug
+but I had no thought for such things now. The huge dimly illumined room
+under the dome was swaying. Then abruptly it steadied. The strange
+sensations within me were lessening, or I forgot them, and I became
+aware of externals.
+
+The room was shrinking! As I stared, not with horror now, but with
+amazement and a coming triumph, I saw everywhere a slow, steady,
+crawling movement. The whole place was dwindling. The platform, the
+microscope, were nearer than before, and smaller. The pile of ingots,
+and men near there, were shifting toward me.
+
+"George! My God--this is weird!"
+
+I saw Alan's white face as I turned toward him. He was growing at the
+same rate as myself evidently, for in all the scene he only was
+unchanged.
+
+We could feel the movement. The floor under us was shifting, crawling
+slowly. From all directions it contracted as though it was being
+squeezed beneath us. In reality our expanding bodies were pushing
+outward.
+
+The pile of boxes which had been a few feet away, were thrusting
+themselves at me. I moved incautiously and knocked them over. They
+seemed small now, perhaps half their former size. Glora was standing
+behind them. I was sitting and she was standing, but across the litter
+our faces were level.
+
+"Stand up!" she murmured. "You all right now. I hide!"
+
+I struggled to my feet, drawing Alan up with me. Now! The time for
+action was upon us! We had already been discovered. The men were
+shouting, clambering to their feet. Alan and I stood swaying. The
+dome-room had contracted to half its former size. Near us was a little
+platform, chair and microscope. Small figures of men were rushing at us.
+
+I shouted, "Alan! Watch yourself!"
+
+We were unarmed. These men might have automatic weapons. But evidently
+they did not. Only knives were in their hands. The whole place was
+ringing with shouts. And then a shrill siren alarm from outside started
+clanging.
+
+The first of the men--a few moments before he had seemed a giant--flung
+himself upon me. His head was lower than my shoulders. I met him with a
+blow of my fist in his face. He toppled backward; but from one side
+another figure came at me. A knife-blade bit into the flesh of my thigh.
+
+The pain seemed to fire my brain. A madness descended upon me. It was
+the madness of abnormality. I saw Alan with two dwarfed figures clinging
+to him. But he threw them off, and they turned and ran.
+
+The man at my thigh stabbed again, but I caught his wrist and, as though
+he were a child, whirled him around me and flung him away. He landed
+with a crash against the shrunken pile of gold nuggets and lay still.
+
+The place was in a turmoil. Other men were appearing from outside. But
+they now stood well away from us. Alan backed against me. His laugh rang
+out, half hysterical with the madness upon him as it was upon me.
+
+"God! George, look at them! So small!"
+
+They were now hardly the height of our knees. This was now a small
+circular room, under a lowering concave dome. A shot came from the group
+of Pygmy figures. I saw the small stab of flame, heard the zing of the
+bullet.
+
+We rushed, with the full frenzy of madness upon us--enraged giants. What
+actually happened I cannot recount. I recall scattering the little
+figures; seizing them; flinging them headlong. A bullet, tiny now, stung
+the calf of my leg. Little chairs and tables under my feet were
+crashing. Alan was lunging back and forth; stamping; flinging his tiny
+adversaries away.
+
+There were twenty or thirty of the figures here now. I feared that they
+might produce more up-to-date weapons. But my fears were unfounded: soon
+I saw these figures making their escape.
+
+The room was littered with wreckage. I saw that by some miracle of
+chance the microscope was still standing, and I had a moment of sanity.
+
+"Alan! Watch out! The microscope--the platform! Don't smash them! And
+Glora be careful not to hurt her!"
+
+I suddenly became aware that my head and my shoulders had struck the
+dome roof. Why, this was a tiny room! Alan and I found ourselves backed
+together, panting in the small confines of a circular cubby with an
+arching dome close over us. At our feet the platform with the microscope
+over it hardly reached our boot tops. There was a sudden silence, broken
+only by our heavy breathing. The tiny forms of humans strewn around us
+were all motionless. The others had fled.
+
+Then we heard a small voice. "Here! Take this! Quickly! You are too
+large. Quickly!"
+
+Alan took a step. And sudden panic was on us both. Glora was here at our
+feet. We did not dare turn; hardly dared to move. To change position
+might have crushed her now that she had left her hiding place. My leg
+hit the top of the microscope cylinder. It rocked but did not fall.
+
+Where was Glora? In the gloom we could not see her. We were in a panic.
+
+Alan began, "George, I--"
+
+The contracting inner curve of the dome bumped gently against my head.
+Our panic and confusion turned into cold fear. The room was closing in
+to crush us.
+
+I muttered, "Alan! I'm going out!" I braced myself and heaved against
+the side and top curve of the dome. Its metal ribs and heavy
+translucent, reinforced glass plates resisted me. There was an instant
+when Alan and I were desperately frightened. We were trapped, to be
+crushed in here by our own horrible growth. Then the dome yielded under
+our smashing blows. The ribs bent; the plates cracked.
+
+We straightened, pushed upward and emerged through the broken dome, with
+head and shoulders towering into the outside darkness and the wind and
+snow of the blizzard howling around us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+"Glora--that was horrible!"
+
+We stood, again in normal size, with the wrecked dome-laboratory around
+us. The dome had a great jagged hole halfway up one of its sides,
+through which the snow was falling. The broken bodies strewn around were
+gruesome.
+
+Alan repeated, "Horrible, Glora. The power of this drug is diabolical."
+
+Glora had grown large after us and had given us the companion drug. I
+need not detail the strange sensations of our dwindling. We were so soon
+to experience them again!
+
+We had searched, when still large, all of Polter's grounds. Some of his
+men undoubtedly escaped, made off into the blizzard. How many, we never
+knew. None of them ever made themselves known again.
+
+We were ready to start into the atom. The fragment of golden quartz
+still lay under the microscope on the white square of stone slab. We had
+hurried with our last preparations. The room was chilling. We were all
+inadequately dressed for such cold.
+
+I left a note scribbled on a square of paper by the microscope. With
+daylight Polter's wrecked place would be discovered and the police would
+surely come.
+
+_Guard this piece of golden quartz. Take it at once, very carefully, to
+the Royal Canadian Scientific Society. Have it watched day and night. We
+will return._
+
+I signed it George Randolph. And as I did so, the extra ordinary aspect
+of these events swept me anew. Here in Polter's weird place I had been
+living in some strange fantastic realm. But this was the Province of
+Quebec, in civilized Canada. These were the Quebec authorities I was
+addressing.
+
+I flung the thoughts away. "Ready, Glora?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Then doubts assailed me. None of Polter's men had gotten large enough to
+fight us. Evidently he did not trust them with the drug. We could well
+believe that, for the thing misused, was diabolical beyond human
+conception. A single giant, a criminal, a madman, by the power of giant
+size alone, could menace and destroy beyond belief. The drug lost, or
+carelessly handled, could get loose. Animals, insects eating it, could
+roam the Earth, gigantic monsters. Vegetation nourished with the drug,
+might in a day overrun a big city, burying it with jungle growth!
+
+How terrible a thing, if the realm of smallness were suddenly to emerge,
+consume this awe inspiring drug! Monsters of the sea, marine organisms,
+could expand until even the ocean was too small for them. Microbes of
+disease, feeding upon it--
+
+Alan was prodding me. "We're ready, George."
+
+"Okay, let's go."
+
+This was not the largeness we were facing now, but smallness. I thought
+of Babs, down there with Polter, beyond the vanishing point in the realm
+of infinitely small. They had been gone an hour at least. Every moment
+lost now was adding to Babs' danger.
+
+Glora sat with us on the platform. Strange little creature! She was
+wholly calm now; methodical with her last directions. There had been no
+time for her to tell us anything about herself. Alan had asked her why
+she had come here and how she had gotten the drugs. She waved him away.
+
+"On the way down. Plenty of time then."
+
+"How long will it take us?" Alan demanded.
+
+"Not too long if we are careful with managing the trip. About ten
+hours."
+
+And now we were ready to start. She told us calmly:
+
+"I will give you each your share of the drugs, but then you take only as
+I tell you."
+
+She produced from her robe several small vials a few inches long. They
+were tightly stoppered. The feel of them was cool and sleek; they seemed
+to be made of some strange, polished metal. Some of them were tinted
+black while the others glowed opalescent. She gave each of us one vial
+of each kind.
+
+"The light ones are for diminishing," she said. "We take them very
+carefully, one small pellet only at first."
+
+Alan was opening one of his, but she checked him.
+
+"Wait! The drug evaporates very quickly. I have more to say. First we
+sit here together. Then you follow me to the white slab. We climb upon
+the little rock."
+
+She laid her hands on my arms. Her blue eyes regarded us earnestly. Her
+manner was naive; childlike. But I could not mistake her intelligence or
+the force of character stamped on her face for all its dainty, ethereal
+beauty.
+
+"Alan--" She smiled at him, and tossed back a straying lock of her hair
+which was annoying her. "You pay attention, Alan. You are very young,
+reckless. You listen. We must not be separated. You understand that,
+both of you? We will be always in that little piece of rock. But there
+will be miles of distance. And to be lost in size--"
+
+What a strange journey upon which we were now starting! Lost in size?
+
+"You understand me? Lost in size. If that happens, we might never find
+each other. And if we come upon the Doctor Polter and the girl he holds
+captive--if we can overtake them--"
+
+"We must!" I exclaimed. "And we must get started."
+
+She showed us which pellet to select. They were of several sizes, I
+found. And as she afterward told us, the larger ones were not only
+larger but of an intensified strength. We took the smallest. It was
+barely a thousandth part of the strength of the largest. In unison we
+placed the pellets on our tongues, and hastily swallowed.
+
+The first sensations were as before. And, familiar now, they caused no
+more than a fleeting discomfort. But I think I could never get used to
+the outward strangeness!
+
+The room in a moment was expanding. I could feel the platform floor
+crawling outward beneath me, so that I had to hitch and change my
+position as it pulled. We were seated together, Alan and I on each side
+of Glora. My fingers were on her arm. It did not change size, but it
+slowly drew away with a space opening between us. Overhead, the dome
+roof, the great jagged hole there, was receding, lifting, moving upward
+and away.
+
+Glora pulled us to our feet. "We had better start now. The distance
+grows very far, so quickly."
+
+We had been sitting within five feet of the stone slab with its four
+inch high railing around it. A chair was by the microscope eyepiece. As
+we stood swaying I saw that the chair was huge, and its seat level with
+my head. The great barrel-cylinder of the microscope slanted sixty feet
+upward. The dome roof was a distant spread three hundred feet up in the
+dimness. The dome-room was a vast arena now.
+
+Alan and I must have hesitated, confused by the expanding scene--a slow,
+steady movement everywhere. Everything was drawing away from us. Even as
+we stood together, the creeping platform floor was separating us.
+
+A moment passed. Glora was urging us on vehemently:
+
+"Come! You must not stand there!"
+
+We started walking. The railing around the slab was knee-high. The slab
+itself was a broad, square surface. The fragment of golden quartz lay in
+its center. It was now a jagged lump nearly a foot in diameter.
+
+The platform seemed to shift as we walked; the railing hardly came
+closer as we advanced toward it. Then suddenly I realized that it was
+receding. Thirty feet away? No, now it was more than that--a great,
+thick rope, waist-high, with a huge spread of white surface behind it.
+
+"Faster!" urged Glora. We ran, and reached the railing. It was higher
+than our heads. We ran under it, and cut out upon the white slab--a
+level surface, larger now than the whole dome-room had been.
+
+Glora, like a fawn, ran in advance of us, her robe flying in the wind.
+She turned to look back.
+
+"Faster! Faster, or it will be too hard a climb!"
+
+Ahead lay a golden mound of rock. It was widening; raising its top
+steadily higher. Beyond it and over it was a vast dim distance. We
+reached the rock, breathless, winded. It was a jagged mound like a great
+fifty-foot butte. We plunged upon it and began climbing.
+
+The ascent was steep; precipitous in places. There were little gullies,
+which expanded as we climbed up them. It seemed as if we would never
+reach the top, but at last we were there. I was aware that the drug had
+ceased its action. The yellow, rocky ground was no longer expanding.
+
+We came to the summit and stood to get back our breath. Alan and I gazed
+with awe upon the top of a rocky hill. Little buttes and strewn boulders
+lay everywhere. It was all naked rock, ridged and pitted, and everywhere
+yellow-tinged.
+
+Overhead was distance. I could not call it a sky. A blur was
+there--something almost but not quite distinguishable. Then I thought
+that I could make out a more solid blur which might be the lower lens of
+the microscope above us. And there were blurred, very distant spots of
+light, like huge suns masked by a haze, and I knew that they were the
+hooded lights of the laboratory room.
+
+Before us, over the brink of a five hundred-foot drop, a great
+glistening plain stretched into the distance. I seemed to see where it
+ended in a murky blur. And far higher than our hilltop level a
+horizontal streak marked the rope railing of the slab.
+
+"Well," said Alan. "We're here." He gazed behind us, back across the
+rocky summit which seemed several hundred feet across to its opposite
+brink. He was smiling, but the smile faded. "Now what, Glora? Another
+pellet?"
+
+"No. Not yet. There is a place where we go down. It is marked in my
+mind."
+
+I had a sudden ominous sense that we three were not alone up here.
+Glora led us back from the cliff. As we picked our way among the naked
+crags, it seemed behind each of them an enemy might be lurking.
+
+"Glora, do you know if any of Dr. Polter's men might have the drug? I
+mean, do they come in and out of here?"
+
+She shook her head. "I think not. He lets no one have the drug. He
+trusts not anyone. I stole it. I will tell you later. Much I have to
+tell you before we arrive."
+
+Alan made a sudden, sidewise leap, and dashed around a rock. He came
+back to us, smiling ruefully.
+
+"Gets on your nerves, all of this. I had the same idea you had, George.
+Might be someone around here. But I guess not." He took Glora's hand and
+they walked in advance of me. "We haven't thanked you yet, Glora," he
+added.
+
+"Not needed. I came for help from your world. I followed the Dr. Polter
+when he came outward. He has made my world and my people, his slaves. I
+came for help. And because I have helped you, needs no thanks."
+
+"But we do thank you, Glora." Alan turned his flushed, earnest face back
+to me. I thought I had never seen him so handsome, with his boyish,
+rugged features and shock of tousled brown hair. The grimness of
+adventure was upon him, but in his eyes there was something else. It was
+not for me to see it. That was for Glora; and I think that even then its
+presence and its meaning did not escape her.
+
+We reached a little gully near the center of the hilltop. It was some
+twenty feet deep.
+
+Glora paused. "We descend here."
+
+The gully was an unmistakable landmark--open at one end, forty feet
+long, with the other end terminating in a blind wall which now loomed
+above us.
+
+"A pit is here--a hole. I cannot tell just how large it will look when
+we are in this size."
+
+We found it and stood over it--a foot-wide circular hole extending
+downward. Alan knelt and shoved his hand and arm into it, but Glora
+sprang at him.
+
+"Don't do that!"
+
+"Why not? How deep is it?"
+
+She retorted sharply, "The Doctor Polter is ahead of us. How far away in
+size, who knows? Do you want to crush him, and crush that young girl
+with him?"
+
+Alan's jaw dropped. "Good Lord!"
+
+We stood with the little pit before us, and another of the pellets
+ready.
+
+"Now!" said Glora.
+
+Again we took the drug, a somewhat larger pellet this time. The familiar
+sensations began. Everywhere the rocks were creeping with a slow
+inexorable movement, the landscape expanding around us. The gully walls
+drew back and upward. In a moment they were cliff walls and we were in a
+broad valley.
+
+We had been standing close together. We had not moved, except to shift
+our feet as the expanding ground drew them apart. I became aware that
+Alan and Glora were a distance from me. Glora called:
+
+"Come, George! We're going down--quickly now."
+
+We ran to the pit. It had expanded to a great round hole some six feet
+wide and equally as deep. Glora let herself down, peered anxiously
+beneath her, and dropped. Alan and I followed. We jammed the pit; but as
+we stood there, the walls were receding and lifting.
+
+I had remarked Glora's downward glance, and shuddered. Suppose, in some
+slightly smaller size, Babs had been among these rocks!
+
+The pit widened steadily. The movement was far swifter now. We stood
+presently in a great circular valley. It seemed fully a mile in
+diameter, with huge encircling walls like a crater rim towering
+thousands of feet into the air. We ran along the base of one expanding
+wall, following Glora.
+
+I noticed now that overhead the turgid murk had turned into the blue of
+distance. A sky. It was faintly sky-blue, and seemed hazy, almost as
+though clouds were forming. It had been cold when we started. The
+exertion had kept us fairly comfortable; But now I realized that it was
+far warmer. This was different air, more humid, and I thought the smell
+of moist earth was in it. Rocks and boulders were strewn here on the
+floor of this giant valley, and I saw occasional pools of water. There
+had been rain recently!
+
+The realization came with a shock of surprise. This was a new world! A
+faint, luminous twilight was around us. And then I noticed that the
+light was not altogether coming from overhead. It seemed inherent to the
+rocks themselves. They glowed, very faintly luminous, as though
+phosphorescent.
+
+We were now well embarked upon this strange journey. We seldom spoke.
+Glora was intent upon guiding us. She was trying to make the best
+possible speed. I realized that it was a case of judgment, as well as
+physical haste. We had dropped into that six-foot pit. Had we waited a
+few moments longer, the depth would have been a hundred feet, two
+hundred, a thousand! It would have involved hours of arduous descent--if
+we had lingered until we were a trifle smaller!
+
+We took other pellets. We traveled perhaps an hour more. There were many
+instances of Glora's skill. We squeezed into a gully and waited until it
+widened; we leapt over expanding caverns; we slid down a smooth
+yellowish slide of rocks, and saw it behind and over us, rising to
+become a great spreading ramp extending upward into the blue of the sky.
+Now, up there, little sailing white clouds were visible. And down where
+we stood it was deep twilight, queerly silvery with the dim light from
+the luminous rocks, as though some hidden moon were shining.
+
+Strange, new world! I suddenly envisaged the full strangeness of it.
+Around me were spreading miles of barren, naked landscape. I gazed off
+to where, across the rugged plateau we were traversing, there was a
+range of hills. Behind and above them were mountains; serrated tiers;
+higher and more distant. An infinite spread of landscape! And, as we
+dwindled, still other vast reaches opened before us. I gazed overhead.
+Was it--compared to my stature now--a thousand miles, perhaps even a
+million miles up to where we had been two or three hours ago? I thought
+so.
+
+Then suddenly I caught the other viewpoint. This was all only an inch of
+golden quartz--if one were large enough to see it that way!
+
+Alan had been trying to memorize the main topographical features of our
+route. It was not as difficult as it seemed at first. We were always far
+larger than normal in comparison to our environment, and the main
+distinguishing characteristics of the landscape were obvious--the blind
+gully, with the round pit, for instance, or the ramp slide.
+
+We had been traveling some three or four hours when Glora suggested a
+rest. We were at the edge of a broad canyon. The wall towered several
+hundred feet above us; but a few moments before, we had jumped down it
+with a single leap!
+
+The last pellet we had taken had ceased its action. We sat down to rest.
+It was a wild, mountainous scene around us, deep with luminous gloom. We
+could barely see across the canyon to its distant cliff wall. The wall
+beside us had been smooth, but now it was broken and ridged. There were
+ravines in it, and dark holes resembling cave-mouths. One was near us.
+Alan gazed at it apprehensively.
+
+"I say, Glora, I don't like sitting here."
+
+I had been telling her all we knew of Polter. She listened quietly,
+seldom interrupting me. Then she said:
+
+"I understand. I tell you now about Polter as I have seen him."
+
+She talked for five or ten minutes. I listened, amazed, awed by what she
+said.
+
+But Alan's insistence interrupted her. "Come on, let's get out of here.
+That tunnel-mouth, or cave, or whatever it is--"
+
+"But we go in there," she protested. "A little tunnel. That is our way
+to travel. We are not far from my city now."
+
+Perhaps Alan felt what once was called a hunch, a premonition, the
+presage of evil which I think comes strangely to us more often than we
+realize. Whatever it was, we had no time to act upon it. The
+tunnel-mouth which had caused Alan's apprehension was about a hundred
+feet away. It was a ten-foot, yawning hole in the cliff. Perhaps Alan
+sensed a movement in there. As I turned to look at it a great, hairy
+human arm came out of the opening! Then a shoulder! A head!
+
+The giant figure of a man came squeezing through the hole on his hands
+and knees! He gathered himself, and as he stood erect, I saw that he was
+growing in size! Already he was twenty feet tall compared to us--a
+thick-set fellow, dressed in leather garments, his legs and arms heavily
+matted with black hair. He stood swaying, gazing around him. I stared up
+at his round bullet head, his villainous face.
+
+He saw us! Stupid amazement struck him, then comprehension.
+
+He let out a roar and came at us!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+Glora shouted, "Into the tunnel! This way!" She held her wits and darted
+to one side, with Alan and me after her. We ran through a narrow passage
+between two fifty-foot boulders which lay close together. Momentarily
+the giant was out of sight, but we could hear his heavy tread and
+panting breath. We emerged having passed him. He was taller now. He
+seemed confused at our sudden scampering activity. He checked his
+forward rush, and ran around the twin boulders. But we had squeezed into
+a narrow ravine. He could not follow. He threw a rock. To us it was a
+boulder. It crashed behind us. To him, we were like scampering insects;
+he could not tell which way we were about to dart.
+
+Alan panted, "Glora, does this lead out?"
+
+The little ravine seemed to open fifty feet ahead of us. Alan stopped,
+seized a chunk of rock, flung it up. I saw the giant's face above us. He
+was kneeling to reach in. The rock hit him on the forehead--a pebble,
+but it stung him. His face rose away.
+
+Again we emerged. The tunnel-mouth was near us. We reached it and flung
+ourselves into its ten-foot width just as the giant came lunging up. He
+was far larger than before. Looking back, I could see only the lower
+part of his legs blocked against the outer light.
+
+"Glora! Alan, where are you?"
+
+For a moment I did not see them. It was darker in this tunnel of broken
+rocky walls, and jagged arching roof than outside.
+
+Then I heard Alan's voice: "George! Over here!"
+
+They came running to me. For a moment we stood, undecided. My eyes were
+becoming accustomed to the gloom. The tunnel was illumined by a dim
+phosphorescence from the rocks. I saw Alan fumbling for his vials, but
+Glora stopped him.
+
+"No. We are the right size."
+
+We were about a hundred feet back from the opening. The giant's legs
+disappeared. But in a moment the round, light hole of the exit was
+obscured again. His head and shoulders! He was lying prone. His great
+arms came in. He hitched forward. The width of his expanding shoulders
+wedged.
+
+I think that he expected to reach us with a single snatch of his
+tremendous arms. Or perhaps he was confused, or forgot his growth. He
+did not reach us. His shoulders stuck. Then suddenly he was trying to
+back out, but could not!
+
+It was only a moment. We stood in the radiant gloom of the tunnel,
+confused and frightened. The giant's voice roared, reverberating around
+us. Anger. A note of fear. Finally stark terror. He heaved, but the
+rocks of the opening held solid. Then there was a crack, a gruesome
+rattling, splintering--his shoulder bones breaking. His whole gigantic
+body gave a last convulsive lunge, and he emitted a deafening shrill
+scream of agony.
+
+I was aware of the tunnel-mouth breaking upward. Falling rocks--an
+avalanche, a cataclysm around us. Then light overhead.
+
+The giant's crushed body lay motionless. A pile of boulders, rocks and
+loose metallic earth was strewn upon his head and torso, illumined by
+the outer light through a jagged rent where the cliff-face had fallen
+down.
+
+We were unhurt, crouching back from the avalanche. The giant's mangled
+body was still expanding; shoving at the litter of loose rocks. In a
+moment it would again be too small for the broken cliff opening.
+
+I found my wits. "Alan, we've got to get out of here. God--don't you see
+what's happening?"
+
+But Glora restrained us. She realized that the effect of the drug the
+giant had taken was about at its end. The growth presently stopped. That
+huge noisome mass of pulp which once had been human shoulders no longer
+expanded.
+
+I shoved Glora away. "Don't look!" I was shaking; my head was reeling.
+Alan's face, painted by the phosphorescence, was ghastly.
+
+Glora pulled at us. "This way! The tunnel is not too long. We go."
+
+But the giant had drugs, and perhaps weapons. "Wait!" I urged. "You two
+wait here. I'll climb over him."
+
+I told them why, and ran. I can only leave to the imagination that brief
+exploratory climb. The broken body seemed at least a hundred feet long;
+the mangled shoulders and chest filled the great torn hole in the cliff.
+I climbed over the litter. Indescribable, horrible scene! A river of
+warm blood was flowing down the declivity outward....
+
+I came back to Glora and Alan. Under my arm was a huge cylinder vial. It
+was black, the enlarging drug. I set it down. They stared at me in my
+bloodstained garments.
+
+"George! You're--"
+
+"His blood, not mine." I tried to smile. "Here's the drug he carried.
+Evidently Polter was only sending him out because I found just the one
+drug."
+
+"What'll we do with it?" Alan demanded. "Look at the size of it!"
+
+"Destroy it," said Glora. "See, that is not difficult." She tugged at
+the huge stopper, and exposed a few of the pellets--to us as large as
+apples. "The air will soon spoil it."
+
+We left it in the tunnel. I also had with me a great roll of paper which
+had been folded in the giant's belt, with the drug cylinder. We unrolled
+it, and hauled its folds to a spread some ten feet long. It was covered
+with a scrawled handwriting in pencil, but its giant characters seemed
+thick blurred strokes of charcoal. We could not read it; we were too
+close. Alan and Glora held it up against the tunnel wall. From a
+distance I could make it out. It was a note written in English, signed
+"Polter," evidently to one of his men.
+
+It read:
+
+_The two prisoners, kill them at once. That is better. It will be too
+dangerous to wait for my return. Put their bodies with their airplane.
+Crash it a mile from my gate._
+
+Full directions for our death followed. And Polter said he would return
+by dawn or soon after.
+
+That gave me a start. By dawn! We had been traveling four or five hours.
+It was already dawn up there now!
+
+"No," Glora explained, "the time in here is different. A different
+time-rate. I do not know how much difference. My world speeds faster;
+yours is very slow. It is not the dawn up there quite yet."
+
+Again my mind strove to encompass these things--so strange. A faster
+time-rate prevailed in here? Then our lives were passing more quickly.
+We were living, experiencing things, compressed into a shorter interval.
+It was not apparent: there was nothing to which comparison could be
+made. I recalled Alan's description of Polter--not thirty years old as
+he should have been, but nearer fifty. I could understand that, now. A
+day in here was equal to only a few hours on our gigantic world outside.
+
+We walked the length of the tunnel. I suppose it was a quarter of a
+mile, to us in this size. It wound through the cliff with a steady
+downward slope. And suddenly I realized that we had turned downward
+nearly half the diameter of a circle! We had turned over--or at least it
+seemed so. But the gravity was the same. I had noticed from the
+beginning very little change.
+
+The realization of this tunnel brought a mental confusion. I lost all
+sense of direction. The outer world of Earth was under my feet, instead
+of overhead. Then we went level. I forgot the confusion: this was
+normality here. We turned upward a little. Cross tunnels intersected
+ours at intervals. I saw caverns, open, widened tunnels, as though this
+mountain were honeycombed.
+
+"Look!" said Glora. "There is the way out. All these passages lead the
+same way."
+
+There was a glow of light ahead. I recall that I was at that moment
+fumbling at my belt in two small compartments in which I was carrying
+the two vials of the drugs which Glora had given me. Alan wore the same
+sort of belt. We had found them in the wrecked dome-room. I heard a
+click on the ground at my feet. I was about to stoop to see what I had
+kicked--only a loose stone, perhaps--but Glora's words distracted me. I
+did not stoop. If only I had, how different events might have been!
+
+The glow of light ahead of us widened as we approached, and presently we
+stood at the end of the tunnel. A spread of open distance was outside.
+We were on a ledge of a steep rocky wall some fifty feet above a wide
+level landscape. Vegetation! I saw trees--a forest off to the left. A
+range of naked hills lay behind it. A mile away, in front and to the
+right, a little town nestled on the shore of shining water. There was
+starlight on the water! And over it a vast blue-purple sky was studded
+with stars.
+
+I gazed, with that first sudden shock of emotion, into the infinite
+depths of interplanetary space! Light years of distance. Gigantic
+worlds, blazing suns off there shrunken by distance now to little points
+of light. A universe was here!
+
+But this was an inch of golden quartz!
+
+Above my head were stars which, compared to my bodily size now, were
+vast worlds ten thousand light-years away! Yet, from the other
+viewpoint, I had only descended perhaps an eighth, or a quarter of an
+inch, beneath the broken pitted surface of a little fragment of golden
+quartz the size of a walnut--into just one of its myriads of golden
+atoms!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+"My world," Glora was saying. "You like it? See the starlight on the
+lake? I have heard that your world looks like this at night, in summer.
+Ours is always like this. No day, no night. Just like this--starlight."
+Her hand went to Alan's shoulder. "You like it? My world?"
+
+"Yes, Glora. It's very beautiful."
+
+There was a sheen on everything, a soft, glowing sheen of
+phosphorescence from the rocks rising to meet the pale wan starlight.
+The night air was soft, with a gentle breeze that rippled the distant
+lake into a great spread of gold and silver light.
+
+The city was called Orena. I saw at once that we were about normal size
+in relation to its houses and people. There were fields beneath our
+ledge, with farm implements lying in them; no workers, for this was the
+time for sleep. Ribbons of roads wound over the country, pale streamers
+in the starlight.
+
+Glora gestured, "The giants are on their island. Everyone sleeps now.
+You see the island off there?"
+
+Beyond the city, over the low stone roofs of its flat-topped dwellings,
+the silver spread of lake showed a green-clad island some three miles
+off shore. The distance made its white stone houses seem small. But as
+I gazed, I realized that they were large compared to their environment,
+all far larger than those of the little town. The island was perhaps a
+mile in length. Between it and the mainland a boat was coming toward us.
+It was a dark blob of hull on the shining water, and above it a queerly
+shaped circular sail was puffed out, like a balloon parachute, by the
+wind.
+
+"The giants live there?" said Alan. "You mean Polter's men?"
+
+"And women. Yes."
+
+"Are there many giants?"
+
+"No."
+
+"How many?" I put in. "How large are they? In relation to us now, I
+mean. And to your normal size?"
+
+"You ask so many questions so fast, George. There are two hundred or
+more of the giants. And there are more than that many thousands of our
+people, here. Slaves, because the giants are four times as large. This
+little city, these fields, these hills of stone and metal, all this was
+ours to have in peace and happiness until your Polter came."
+
+She gestured. "Everywhere is a great reach of desert and forest. There
+are insects, but no wild beasts--nothing to harm us. Nature is kind
+here. The weather is always like this. We were happy, until Polter
+came."
+
+"And only a few thousand people," Alan said. "No other cities?"
+
+"What lies off in the great distance, we do not know. Our nation is ten
+times what is here. We have a few other cities, and some of our people
+live in the forests."
+
+She broke off. "That boat is coming for Polter. He is in the city no
+doubt of that. The boat will take him and that girl you call Babs, to
+the giant's island. His castle is there."
+
+I turned to Alan. "They must have arrived only recently. Before we go
+any further we have to decide what size to be. We can't be gigantic
+because I'm sure he'd kill Babs if he sees us. We've got to plan!"
+
+If we could get on that boat and go with him to the island--But in what
+size? Very small? But then, if we were very small it would take us hours
+to get from here to the boat. Glora pointed out where it would
+land--just beyond the village where the houses were set in a sparse
+fringe. It would be there, apparently, in ten or fifteen minutes. Polter
+probably was there now with Babs, waiting for it.
+
+In our present size we could not get there in time. It was two or three
+miles at least. But a trifle larger--the size of one of Polter's
+giants--we would be able to make it. We would be seen, but in the pale
+starlight, keeping away from the city as much as possible, we might only
+be mistaken for Polter's people. And when we got closer we would
+diminish our size, creep into the boat, get near Babs and Polter and
+then plan what to do.
+
+We climbed down from the ledge and stood at the base of the towering
+cliff which reared its jagged wall against the stars. A field and a road
+were near us. The road seemed of normal size. A man was in the field. He
+was apparently about my height. He presently discarded his work, walked
+away from us and vanished.
+
+"Hurry, Glora." Alan and I stood beside her while she took pellets from
+her vials. We wanted our stature now to be four times what it was. Glora
+gave us pellets of both drugs, one of which was slightly more intense
+than the other.
+
+"Polter made them this way," she said. "The two taken at once give just
+the growth to take us from this normal size to the stature of the
+giants."
+
+Alan and I did not touch our own vials. We had used none of our
+enlarging drug upon the journey, and the supply she had given us of the
+other was almost gone.
+
+As I took these pellets which Glora now gave us, standing there by the
+side of that road, I recall that I was struck with the realization that
+never once upon this journey had I conceived myself to be other than
+normal stature. I am normally about six feet tall. I still felt--there
+in that golden atom--the same height. This landscape seemed of normal
+size. There were trees nearby--spreading, fantastic-looking growths with
+great strings of pods hanging from them. But still--as I looked up to
+see one arching over me with its blue-brown leaves and an air-vine
+carrying vivid yellow blossoms--whatever the size of the tree, I could
+only conceive of myself as a normal man of six-foot stature standing
+beneath it. The human ego always supreme! Around each man's
+consciousness of himself the entire universe revolves.
+
+We crouched on the ground when this growth now began; it would not do to
+be observed changing size. Polter's giants never did that. Years before,
+he had made them large--his few hundred men and women. They were, Glora
+said, people both of this realm and from our great world
+above--dissolute criminal characters who had now set themselves up here
+as the nucleus of a ruling race.
+
+In a moment now, we were the size of these giants. Twenty to twenty-five
+feet tall, in relation to the environment. But I did not feel so. As I
+stood up--still feeling myself in normal stature--I saw around me a
+shrunken little landscape. The trees, as though in a Japanese garden,
+were about my own height; the road was a smooth, level path; the little
+field near us had a toy fence around it. On another road nearby a man
+was walking. In height he would barely have reached my knees. He saw us
+rise beside the trees. He darted off in alarm, and disappeared.
+
+I have taken longer to tell all this than the actual time which passed.
+We could see the boat coming from the island, and it was still a fair
+distance off shore. We ran along the road, skirting the edge of the
+little town. None of its houses were taller than ourselves. The windows
+and doorways were ovals into which we could only have inserted a head or
+an arm. Most of them were dark. Little people occasionally stared out,
+saw us run past, and ducked back, thankful that we did not stop to
+harass them.
+
+"This way," said Glora. She ran like a faun, hardly winded, with Alan
+and me heavily panting behind her. "There are trees--thick trees--quite
+near where the boat lands. We can get in them and hide and change our
+size to smallness. But hurry, for we shall need a great deal of time
+when we are small!"
+
+The little spread of town and the shining lake remained always to our
+right. In five minutes we were past most of the houses. A patch of
+woods, with thick, interlacing treetops about our own height, lay ahead.
+It extended a few hundred feet over to the lake shore. The sailboat was
+heading in close. There was a broad starlit roadway at the edge of the
+lake, and a dock at which the boat was preparing to land.
+
+Would we be in time? I suddenly feared not. To get small now, with
+distance lengthening between us and the boat, would be disastrous. And
+where was Polter?
+
+Abruptly we saw him. There had been only little people visible to us:
+none of our own height. The lake roadway by the dock was brightly
+starlit. As we approached the intervening patch of woods it seemed that
+a crowd of little people were near the dock. Polter must have been
+sitting. But now he rose up. We could not mistake his thick hunched
+figure, the lump on his shoulders clear in the starlight with the
+gleaming lake as a background. The crowd of little figures were milling
+around his knees. In the silence of the night the murmur of their voices
+floated over to us.
+
+"There he is!" Alan gasped. We all three checked our running; we were at
+the edge of the patch of woods. "By God, there he is! Let's get larger
+and rush him! He's only a few hundred feet away!"
+
+But Babs? Where was Babs?
+
+"Alan, get down!" I crouched, pulling Alan and Glora with me. "Don't let
+him see us! We can't rush him Alan, 'til we find Babs. He'd see us
+coming and kill her."
+
+Of all the strange events that had been flung at us, I think this sudden
+crisis now most confused Alan and me.... To get larger, or smaller?
+Which? Yet something had to be done at once.
+
+Glora said, "We can get through the woods best in this size. We won't be
+seen and will be closer to the landing."
+
+We crouched so that the treetops were always well over us. The patch of
+woods was dark. A soil of black loam was under us, a thick soft
+underbrush reached our knees, and lacy, flexible leaves and branches
+were about shoulder height. We pushed them aside, forcing our way softly
+forward. It was not far. The little murmuring voices of the crowd grew
+louder.
+
+Presently we were crouching at the other edge of the woods. I softly
+shoved the tree branches aside until we could all three get a clear view
+of the strange scene now directly before us.
+
+And I saw a toy dock, at which a twenty-foot, bargelike open sailboat
+was landing; a narrow starlit roadway, crowded with a milling throng of
+people all no more than a foot and a half in height. The crowd milled
+almost to where we were crouching, unseen in the shrubbery.
+
+Across the road by the dock, Polter stood with the crowd down around his
+knees. In height he seemed the old familiar Polter. Bareheaded, with his
+shaggy black hair shot with white. He was dressed in Earth fashion:
+narrow black evening trousers and a white shirt and collar with flowing
+black tie. I saw at once what Alan had noticed--the change in him. An
+abnormality of age. I would have called him now forty, or older. Beyond
+even that there was an abnormality. A man old before his time; or
+younger than he should have been for the years he had lived. An
+indescribable mingling of something of the two worlds, perhaps. It
+marked him with a look at once unnatural and sinister.
+
+These were instant impressions. Glora was plucking at me. "On the white
+chest of his shirt, something is there."
+
+Polter was coatless, with snowy white shirt and cuffs to his thick
+wrists. He was no more than fifty feet from us. On his shirt bosom
+something golden in color was hanging like a large bauble, an ornament,
+an insignia. It was strapped tightly there with a band about his chest,
+a cord, like a necklace chain, up to his thick hunched neck, and other
+chains down to his belt.
+
+I stared at it. An ornament, like a cube held flat against his shirt
+front--a little golden cube, ornate with tiny bars.
+
+I heard Alan murmuring, "A cage! Why George, it's--"
+
+And then, simultaneously, realization struck me. It was a golden cage
+strapped there. And I seemed to see that there was something in it. A
+tiny figure? Babs!
+
+"I think he has her there," Glora murmured. "You see the little box with
+bars? The girl, Babs, is a prisoner in there." She spoke swiftly,
+vehemently. "He will take the boat to the island."
+
+She gripped us. "You think it really best to go? I do what you say. I
+had the wish to get to my father with these drugs."
+
+"No!" exclaimed Alan. "We must keep close to Polter!"
+
+We were ready with our pellets. But a sudden activity in the road made
+us pause. The crowd of little people were hostile to Polter. A sullen
+hostility. They milled about him as he stood there, gazing down at them
+sardonically.
+
+And abruptly he shouted at them in English. "You speak my language, some
+of you. Then listen!"
+
+The crowd fell silent.
+
+"Listen. This iss your future Queen. Can you see her? She iss small now.
+But she has the magic power. Soon she will be large, like me."
+
+The crowd was shouting again. It surged forward, but it lacked a leader,
+and those in advance shoved backward in fear.
+
+Polter spoke again. "This girl from my world, you will like her. She iss
+kind and very beautiful. When she iss large, you will see how
+beautiful."
+
+A small stone suddenly came up from the throng of little people and
+struck Polter on the shoulder. Then another. The crowd, emboldened, made
+a rush: surged against his legs.
+
+He shouted, "You do that? Why, how dare you? I show you what giants do
+when you make dem angry!"
+
+From down by his knees he plucked the small figure of a man. The crowd
+scattered with shouts of terror. Polter had the struggling eighteen-inch
+figure by the wrist. He whirled it around his head like a ninepin and
+flung it over the canopy of the dock far out into the shimmering lake!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+The trees around us expanded to towering forest giants. The underbrush
+rose up over our heads. We had taken a taste of the diminishing drug.
+Glora showed us how to touch it to our tongue several times, to adjust
+our size as we became smaller. It took us no more than a minute to
+diminish. We could hear the roar of the crowd, and Polter's voice
+shouting. We ran forward through the great forest. It was a fair
+distance out to the starlit road. We saw it as a wide shining esplanade.
+The people now were giants twice our height! Polter, himself towering
+with a seeming fifty-foot stature, was standing by the gigantic canopy
+of the dock. He had dispersed the crowd. There was an open space on the
+esplanade--a run for us of about a hundred feet.
+
+"We've got to chance it," I murmured. "Make a run for it--now."
+
+We darted across. In the confusion, with all eyes centered on Polter, we
+escaped discovery. It was dim under the dock canopy. Polter had backed
+from the road and was walking to the barge. It lay like the length of an
+ocean liner, its sail looming an enormous spread above it. The gunwale
+was level with the dock. A dozen or more fifty-foot men were greeting
+Polter. They were amidships.
+
+I realize now that in those moments as we scurried aboard like wharf
+rats, we took wild chances. We made for the stern which momentarily was
+unoccupied. To Polter and his men we were eight or nine inches tall. We
+dropped over the gunwale, slid down the thirty or forty-foot incline of
+the interior and landed on the bottom of the boat.
+
+There were many places where we could safely hide. A litter of gigantic
+rope-strands was around us. We could see the bottom of a crossbench
+looming over head, and the great curving sides of the vessel with the
+gunwales outlined against the starlight.
+
+The boat left the dock in a moment; the sail bellied out, enormous over
+us. Ten feet forward from us the towering figure of a man sat on a bench
+with the steering mechanism before him. Further on, the other men were
+dispersed, with one or two in the distant bow. Polter reclined on a
+cushioned couch amidships. Looking along the dark widely level bottom
+of the boat there were only the feet and legs of men visible.
+
+Alan whispered, "Let's get closer."
+
+We were insects soundlessly scuttling unnoticed in the dimness. It was
+noisy down here--the clank of the steering mechanism; the swish and
+surge of the water against the hull; the voices of the men.
+
+We passed the boots of the seated helmsmen, and found another hiding
+place nearer Polter. We could see his giant length plainly. None of the
+other men were near him. He was reclining on an elbow, stretched at ease
+on a cushion. And at the moment, he was fumbling with the chains that
+fastened the little golden cage to his chest. The cage was double its
+former size to us now. A shaft of pale light came down, reflected from
+the great sail surface overhead. It struck the bars of the cage. We
+could see a small figure in there.
+
+Then we heard Polter's voice. "I will let you out, Babs. You come out,
+sit on my hand and talk with me. That will be nice? We haf a little
+time."
+
+He unfastened the cage and put it on the cushion beside him. He was
+still propped up on one elbow.
+
+"I let you out, now. Be careful, Babs."
+
+My heart was almost smothering me. "Alan! We've got to get still closer!
+Try something! Get large, shall we?"
+
+Alan whispered tensely, "I don't know! I don't know what to do."
+
+"We can get closer," Glora whispered. "But never larger--not here. They
+would discover us too soon."
+
+We crept forward. We reached the edge of the cushion. Its top surface
+was a trifle lower than our heads--a billowing, wrinkled mass of fabric.
+But I saw that the folds of it were rough enough to afford a footing. I
+thought that I could climb it. We stood erect. There was a deep shadow
+along here, but it was brighter on the cushion top. We could see over
+its edge; an undulating spread of surface with the giant length of
+Polter stretched over it. The cage was near us. Polter's great fingers
+fumbled with it; a door in the lattice bars flipped open.
+
+"Careful, my Babs!" His voice was a throaty, rumbling roar above us.
+"Careful! I do not want you to be hurt."
+
+From the little doorway came the figure of Babs! The starlight glowed on
+her blue dress; her black hair was tumbling over her shoulders; her face
+was pale but she was unharmed.
+
+I think that I had never loved her so much as at that moment. Nor ever
+seen her so beautiful as in miniature, standing at the door of her
+golden cage, bravely facing the monstrous misshapen figure of her
+captor.
+
+We heard her small voice.
+
+"What do you want me to do?"
+
+"Stand quiet. Now I put my hand for you."
+
+His monstrous hand bristled with a thatch of heavy black hair. He slid
+it carefully along the cushion. Babs was barely the length of one of its
+finger joints. She climbed upon its palm.
+
+"That iss right, Babs. Now I bring you--hold tight to my finger. Here, I
+crook the little one. Fling your arms around it."
+
+With a swoop his hand took her aloft and away. Then we saw her, twenty
+feet or so in the air, still on his hand as he held it near his face.
+
+"Now we haf a little talk, Babs. When we get to the island, I put you
+back in your cage."
+
+I had a sudden flash of realization. There was something I could do. I
+know now my judgment was bad. I recall it struck me that Alan would want
+to do it also. And, perhaps, even Glora. But that wouldn't work. My
+chances, however desperate, were better alone. Glora and Alan--in our
+present size--could doubtless disembark safely. Glora knew the layout
+of the island. And she could follow Polter.
+
+Alan and Glora were standing beside me peering over that billowing
+cushion spread toward the distant giant palm with Babs standing upon it.
+I gripped Alan's shoulder.
+
+"See here, Alan," I whispered vehemently: "What ever happens, we must
+follow Polter. Glora knows the way. Some opportunity will come to get
+large without being discovered. Then we'll rush Polter!"
+
+Alan's white face turned to me. "Yes, that's what we're planning. But
+George, here on this boat--"
+
+"Of course not. Can't do it here. Tell Glora, to be sure to follow
+Polter. Whatever happens, you'll think of nothing else: you won't will
+you?"
+
+"George, what--"
+
+"We've got to make some opportunity." I was trembling inside, fearful
+that Alan would be suspicious of me. Yet I had to make sure that he and
+Glora would stay as close to Polter as possible.
+
+"All right," Alan agreed. "Listen to them."
+
+Polter was talking to Babs. But I didn't hear the words I moved a trifle
+away. Rash decision! I hardly decided anything. There was only the
+vision of Babs before me and my love for her. My desperate need of doing
+something; getting to her, seeing her, being with her. I wanted her near
+my own size again as though the blessed normality of that would
+rationalize and lessen her danger. If only I had been less rash! If only
+back there in that tunnel I had stopped to see what it was my foot
+kicked against!
+
+I slid away. Alan and Glora did not notice it; they were whispering
+together and gazing over the cushion at Babs. In the shadow of the
+cushion I moved some ten feet. On the undulating top of the cushion the
+little golden cage stood with its lattice door open. It was a few feet
+from my face.
+
+I fumbled at my belt for the diminishing vial. I found one pellet left.
+Well, that would be enough. I was hurried. Alan might discover me.
+Polter might put Babs back in the cage and close its door. We might be
+near the island already, and the confusion, the activity of disembarking
+would defeat me. A thousand things might happen.
+
+I touched the pellet to my tongue. In a few seconds the drug action had
+come and passed. The cushion top loomed well over my head. The side was
+a ridged, indescribably unnatural vista of cliff wall. The fabric was
+coarse with hairy strands, dented into little ravines and crevices. I
+climbed and I came panting to the pillow surface. The golden cage was
+six or eight feet away and was now two feet high.
+
+Again I touched the drug to my tongue; held it an instant. The cage drew
+away; grew to a normal six-foot height; then larger, until in a moment
+it stopped. I stood peering at it, trying to gauge its size in relation
+to me. I wanted so intensely now to appear normal in Babs' eyes. The
+cage seemed about ten feet high. A little less, possibly. I barely
+tasted the pellet, and replaced it carefully in the vial. I could only
+hope its efficacy would be preserved.
+
+I had to chance that I wouldn't be seen while crossing this billowy
+expanse. I ran. The rope strands of the fabric now had spaces between
+their curving surfaces. The cage was a shining golden house, set on this
+wide rolling area. Far in the distance there was a blur--Polter's
+reclining body.
+
+I reached the cage. It was a room about ten feet square and equally as
+high. Walled solid, top and bottom, and on three sides. The front was a
+lattice of bars, with a narrow six-foot doorway, standing open now.
+
+I dashed in. The interior was not wholly bare. There was a metal-wrought
+couch fastened to the wall, with a railing around it and handles. It
+suggested a ship's bunk. There was a railing at convenient height all
+around the wall.
+
+I sought a hiding place. I saw just one--under the couch. It was
+secluded enough. There was a grillelike lattice extending down from the
+seat to the floor. I squeezed under one end, and lay wedged behind the
+grille.
+
+How much time passed I don't know. My thoughts were racing. Babs would
+be coming.
+
+I heard the distant approaching rumble of Polter's voice. Through the
+grille I could see across the floor of the ten foot cage to the front
+lattice bars. Outside, there appeared a huge, pink-white, mottled
+blob--Polter's hand, a ridged and pitted surface with great, bristling
+black stalks of hair.
+
+The figure of Babs came through the cage doorway. Blessed normality! The
+same slim little Babs who always stood, since we were both matured, with
+her head about level with my shoulders.
+
+The latticed door swung shut with a reverberating metallic clank. Babs
+stood tense, clinging to the wall railing. I heard the blurred rumble of
+Polter's voice.
+
+"Hold tightly, my little Babs!"
+
+The room lurched; went upward and sidewise with a wild dizzying swoop.
+Babs clung to the rail and I was wedged prone under the couch. Then the
+movement stopped; there was a jolting, rocking, and outside I heard the
+clank of metal. Polter was fastening the chains of the cage to his
+chest.
+
+A white glow now came through the bars. It was starlight reflecting from
+Polter's shirt bosom. An abyss of distance was outside. I could see
+nothing but the white glow.
+
+Momentarily there was very little movement in the room. Only the
+rhythmic sway of Polter's breathing and an occasional jolt as he shifted
+his position. The floor was tilted at a sharp angle. Babs came toward
+the couch, pulling herself along the wall railing.
+
+I called softly, "Babs!"
+
+She stopped. I called again, "Babs! Don't cry out! It's George!
+Here--stand still!"
+
+She gave a little cry. "George--where are you? I don't--"
+
+I slid out from my concealment and stood up, holding to the railing.
+
+Blessed normality of size! She cried again, "George! You! How did you
+get here?"
+
+She edged along the railing, a step or two down the tilting floor, then
+released her hold and flung herself into my waiting arms.
+
+"I think we are landing. Hold on to the railing, George. When the room
+moves it goes with a rush."
+
+Babs laughed softly. It must have seemed to her, after being alone in
+here, that now our plight was far less desperate. She had told me how
+she was captured. A man accosted her on the Terrace, saying he wanted to
+speak to her about Alan. Then a weapon threatened her. Amid all those
+people she was held up in old-fashioned style, hurried to a taxicar and
+whirled away.
+
+She was saying now, "When Polter moves, it is dizzying. You'll see."
+
+"I have already, Babs. Heavens, what a swoop!"
+
+The room was more level now. We carefully drew ourselves to the front
+lattice. Polter was standing, and we had the white sheen from his shirt
+front. A sheer drop was outside the bars, but looking down I could see
+the outlines of his body with the huge spread of the boat's cockpit
+underneath us.
+
+A confusion of rumbling voices sounded. Blurred giant shapes were
+outside. The room jolted and swayed as the boat landed and Polter
+disembarked.
+
+Babs stood clinging to me. We, at least, were normal in this metal
+barred room, Babs and I. But outside was the abnormality of largeness. I
+think that in relation to us, the men were of over two hundred-foot
+stature, and the hunched Polter a trifle less. It seemed as he walked
+that we were lurching at least a hundred and fifty feet above ground.
+
+"You had better hide," Babs urged. "He might stop and speak to someone.
+If anyone looked in here you would be seen; no chance then, even to get
+across the room."
+
+It was true. But for a few moments I lingered. I could distinguish
+vegetation on their flat roof-tops, as though flower gardens were laid
+there.
+
+We passed a house with its hundred-foot oval windows all aglow with
+light. Music floated out--a distant blare of sounds, and the ribald
+laughter of giant voices. I had seen no women among these giants of the
+island. But now a huge face was at one of the ovals. A dissolute,
+painted woman of Earth, staring out at Polter as he passed. It was like
+the enormous close-up image on a large motion picture screen. She
+shouted ribald jest as he went by.
+
+"George, please go back. Suppose she had seen you?"
+
+We were ascending a hill. A distance ahead a great oblong building
+loomed like a giant's palace, which indeed it was. We headed for it,
+passed through a vast arching doorway into the greater dimness of an
+echoing interior. I scurried back across the lurching room and again
+wedged myself under the couch. Babs stood at the lattice ten feet away.
+We dared to talk in low tones; the rumbling voices and footsteps outside
+would make our tiny voices inaudible to Polter.
+
+I was tense with my plans. I had told them to Babs. With the one
+remaining partially used pellet of the diminishing drug we could make
+ourselves small enough to walk out through the bars. Then my black vial
+of the enlarging drug, as yet unused, would take us up, out to our own
+world. We could not use the drugs now. But the chance might come when
+Polter would set the cage on the ground, or somewhere so that we might
+climb down from it, with a chance to hide and get large before we were
+discovered. I would fight our way upward; all I needed was a fair start
+in size.
+
+But I lay now with doubts assailing me. This was the first moment I had
+had for calm thoughts, though in truth they were far from calm! Were
+Alan and Glora following us now? I could only hope so. Once out of this,
+Babs and I would have to rejoin them. But how? Panic swept me. I
+shouldn't have left them. Or at least I should have told them what I was
+trying to do, and given Alan a chance to plan.
+
+The panic grew, the premonition of disaster. From my belt I took the
+opalescent vial with its one partially used pellet. I dumped the pellet
+out. It was spoiling! The exposure to the air and the moisture of my
+tongue, had ruined it! I realized the catastrophe, as I held its
+crumbling, deliquescing fragments on my palm it melted into vapor and
+was gone!
+
+We couldn't make ourselves smaller! Now we'd have to wait until Polter
+opened the cage. But once outside, the enlarging drug would give us our
+chance to fight our way upward. My trembling fingers sought the black
+vial in my belt. It wasn't there! My mind flung back: in that tunnel,
+something had dropped and I had kicked it! Accursed chance! My accursed,
+heedless stupidity!
+
+I had lost the black vial! We were helpless! Caged! Marooned here in a
+size microscopic!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+I lay concealed and Babs stood at the lattice of our cage room. I was
+aware that Polter had entered some vast apartment of this giant palace.
+The light outside was brighter; I heard voices--Polter's and another
+man's. I could see the distant monster shape of one. He was at first so
+far away that all his outline was visible. A seated man in a huge white
+room. I thought there were great shelves with enormous bottles. The
+spread of table tops passed under our cage as Polter walked by them.
+They held a litter of apparatus, and there was the smell of chemicals in
+the air. This seemed to be a laboratory.
+
+The man stood up to greet Polter. I had a glimpse of his head and
+shoulders. He wore a white linen coat, open, soft collar and black tie.
+He seemed an old man, queerly old, with snow-white hair.
+
+I had an instant of whirling impressions. Something was familiar about
+his face. It was wrinkled and seamed with lines of age and care. There
+were gentle blue eyes.
+
+Then all I could see was the vast spread of his white shirt and coat, a
+black splotch of his tie outside our bars as Polter faced him.
+
+Babs gave a low cry. "Why--why--dear God--"
+
+And then I knew! And Polter's words were not needed, though I heard
+their rumble.
+
+"I am back again, Kent. Are you still rebellious? You haf still
+determined to compound no more of our drugs? You would rather I killed
+you? Then see what I haf here. This little cage, someone--"
+
+It was Dr. Kent whom he addressed. He must have been here all these
+years!
+
+Babs turned her white face toward me. "George, it's father! He's alive!"
+
+"Quiet, Babs! Don't let him know I'm here. Remember!"
+
+The old man recognized her. "Babs!" It was an agonized cry. The blur of
+him was gone as he sank down into his chair.
+
+Polter continued standing, I could envisage his sardonic grin.
+
+From over us came Polter's rumble. "She iss glad to see you, Kent. I haf
+her here, safe. You always knew I would nefer be satisfied until I had
+my little Babs? Well, now I haf her. Can you hear me?"
+
+A sudden desperate calmness fell on Babs. She called evenly. "Yes, I
+hear you. Father, don't anger him. Do what he says. Dr. Polter, will you
+let me be with my father? After all these years, let me be with him,
+just for a little while. In his size--normal."
+
+"Hah! My Babs iss scheming."
+
+"No, I want to talk to him, after all these years when I thought he was
+dead."
+
+"Scheming? You think, my little Babs, that he has the drugs? I am not so
+much a fool. He makes them. He can do that. And that last secret
+reaction, only he can perform. He iss stubborn. Never would he tell me
+that one reaction. But he makes no drugs complete, only when I am here."
+
+"No, Dr. Polter! I want only to be with him."
+
+The old man's broken voice floated up to us. "You won't harm her,
+Polter?"
+
+"No. Fear nothing. But you no longer rebel?"
+
+"I'll do what you tell me." The tones carried hopeless resignation,
+years of being beaten down, rebelling--but now this last blow vanquished
+him. Then he spoke again, with a sudden strange fire.
+
+"Even for the life of my daughter, I will not make your drugs, Polter,
+if you mean to harm our Earth."
+
+The golden cage room swooped as Polter sat down. "Hah! Now we bargain.
+What do you care what I do to your world? You never will see it again. I
+can lie to you. My plans--"
+
+"I _do_ care."
+
+"Well, I will tell you, Kent. I am good-natured now. Why should I not
+be with my dear little Babs? I tell you, I am done with the Earth world.
+It iss much nicer here. My friends, they haf a good time always. We like
+this little atom realm. I am going out once more. I must hide the little
+piece of golden quartz so no harm will come to it."
+
+Polter was evidently in a high good humor. His voice fell to an intimate
+tone of comradeship; but still I could not mistake the irony in it.
+
+"You listen to me, Kent. There was a time, years ago, when we were good
+friends. You liked your young assistant, the hunchback Polter. Iss it
+not so? Then why should we quarrel now? I am gifing up the Earth world.
+I wanted of it only the little Babs.... You look at me so strange! You
+do not speak."
+
+"There is nothing to say," retorted Dr. Kent wearily.
+
+"Then you listen. I haf much gold above in Quebec. You know that. So
+very simple to take it out of our atom, grow large with it to what we
+call up there the size of a hundred feet. I haf a place, a room,
+secluded from prying eyes under a dome roof. I become very tall, holding
+a piece of gold. It is large when I am a hundred feet tall. So I haf
+collected much gold. They think I own a mine. I haf a smelter and my
+gold quartz I make into ingots, refined to the standard purity. So
+simple, and I am a rich man.
+
+"But gold does not bring happiness, my friend Kent." He chuckled
+ironically at his use of the platitude. "There iss more in life than the
+ownership of gold. You ask my plans. I haf Babs, now. I am gifing up the
+Earth world. The mysterious man they know as Frank Rascor will vanish. I
+will hide our little fragment of quartz. No one up there will even try
+to find it. Then I come down here, with Babs, and we will haf so nice a
+little government and rule this world. No more of the drugs then will be
+needed, Kent. When you die, let the secret die with you."
+
+Again Polter's voice became ingratiating, even more so than before. "We
+will be friends, Kent. Our little Babs will lof me; why should she not?
+You will tell her--advise her--and we will all three be very happy."
+
+Dr. Kent said abruptly, "Then leave her with me now. That was her
+request, a moment ago. If you expect to treat her kindly, then why
+not--"
+
+"I do! I do! But not now. I cannot spare her now. I am very busy, but I
+must take her with me."
+
+Babs had been silent, clinging to the bars of our cage. She called;
+"Why? I ask you to put this cage down."
+
+"Not now, little bird."
+
+"Let me be with my father."
+
+It struck a pang through me. Babs was scheming but not the way Polter
+thought. She wanted the cage put on the floor, herself out, and a chance
+for me to escape. I had not yet told her of my miserable stupidity in
+losing the vial.
+
+Polter was repeating, "No, little bird. Presently; not now. I will take
+you with me on my last trip out. I want to talk with you in normal size
+when I haf time."
+
+Our room swooped as he stood up. "You think over what I haf said, Kent.
+You get ready now to make the fresh drugs I will need to bring down all
+my men from the outer world. They will all be glad to come, or, if
+not--well, we can easily kill those who refuse. You make the drugs. I
+need plenty. Will you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"That iss good. I come back soon and gif you the catalyst for that last
+reaction. Will you be ready?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+The blur outside our bars swung with a dizzying whirl as Polter turned
+and left the room, locking its door after him with a reverberating
+clank.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Left alone in his laboratory, Dr. Kent began his preparations for
+making a fresh supply of the drugs. This room, with two smaller ones
+adjoining, was at once his workshop and his prison. He stood at his
+shelves, selecting the basic chemicals. He could not complete the final
+compounds. The catalyst which was necessary for the final reaction would
+be brought to him by Polter.
+
+How long he worked there with his thoughts in a whirl at seeing Babs, he
+did not know. His movements were automatic; he had done all this so many
+times before. His mind was confused, and he was trembling from head to
+foot--an old, queerly, unnaturally old man now--unnerved. His fingers
+could hardly hold the test tubes.
+
+His thoughts were flying. Babs was here, come down from the world above.
+It was disaster--the thing he had feared all these years.
+
+He suddenly heard a voice.
+
+"Father!"
+
+And again: "Father!" A tiny voice, down by his shoe tops. Two small
+figures were there on the floor beside him. They were both panting,
+winded by running. They were enlarging.
+
+It was Alan and Glora, who had followed Polter from the boat, then
+diminished again and had come running through the tiny crack under the
+metal door of the laboratory.
+
+They grew to a foot in size, down by Dr. Kent's legs. He was too
+unnerved to stand; he sat in a chair while Alan swiftly told him what
+had happened. Babs was in the golden cage. Dr. Kent knew that; but none
+of them knew what had happened to me.
+
+"We must make you small, Father. We have the drugs, here with us."
+
+"Yes! How much have you? Show me. Oh, my boy, that you are here--and
+Babs--"
+
+"Don't you worry. We'll get away from him."
+
+Glora and Alan had almost reached Dr. Kent's size before their excited
+fingers could get out the vials. They took some of the diminishing drug
+to check their growth. Alan handed his father a black vial.
+
+"Yes, lad--"
+
+"No! Wait, that's the wrong drug. This other--"
+
+Dr. Kent had opened the vial. His trembling hand spilled some of the
+pellets, but none of them noticed it.
+
+"Father, this one." Alan held an opalescent vial. "Take this one."
+
+Glora said abruptly, "Listen! Is that someone coming?"
+
+They thought they heard approaching footsteps. A moment passed but no
+one came into the room.
+
+"Hurry," urged Glora. "That was nothing. We're waiting too long."
+
+"My boy--Alan, after all these years--"
+
+As they were about to take the diminishing drug a very queer sound came
+from across the room. A scuttling, scratching, and the drone of wings.
+
+"God, Father--look!"
+
+Over by the wall, a giant fly was running across the floor. The fly had
+eaten some of the sweetish powder.
+
+The enlarging drug was loose!
+
+A few drops of water lay mingled with the drug on the floor. And from
+the water nameless hideous things were rising!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+To Alan the first moments that followed the escape of the drug were the
+most horrible of his life. The discovery struck old Dr. Kent, Glora and
+Alan into a numb, blank confusion. They stood transfixed, staring with
+cold terror at the fly which was scurrying along the floor close to the
+wall. It was already as large as Alan's hand. It ran into the corner,
+hit the wall in its confused alarm, and turned back. Its wings were
+droning with an audible hum. It reared itself on its hairy legs, lifted
+and sailed across the room.
+
+As though drawn by a magnet, Alan turned to watch it. It landed on the
+wall. Alan was aware of Dr. Kent rushing with trembling steps to a shelf
+where bottles stood. Glora was stricken into immobility, the blood
+draining from her face.
+
+The fly flew again. It passed directly over Alan. Its body, with a
+membrane sac of eggs, was now as large as his head; its widespread
+transparent wings were beating with a reverberating drone.
+
+Alan flung a bottle which was on the table beside him. It missed the
+fly, crashed against the ceiling, came down with splintering glass and
+spilling liquid. Fumes spread chokingly over the room.
+
+The fly landed again on the floor. Larger now! Expanding with a horribly
+rapid growth. Glora flung something--a little wooden rack with a few
+empty test tubes in it. The rack struck the monstrous fly, but did not
+hurt it. The fly stood with hairy legs braced under its bulging body.
+Its multiple eyes were staring at the humans. And with its size must
+have come a sense of power, for it seemed to Alan that the monstrous
+insect was abnormally alert as it stood measuring its adversaries,
+gathering itself to attack them.
+
+Only a few seconds had passed. Confused thoughts swept Alan. This fly
+with its growth would soon fill this room. Burst it; burst upward
+through a wrecked palace; soar out, and by the power of its size alone
+devastate this world.
+
+He heard himself shouting, "Father, get back! It's too large! I've _got_
+to kill it!"
+
+Could he wrestle with it and hope to win? Alan edged around the center
+table. He was bathed in cold sweat. This thing was horrifying! The fly
+was already half the length of his own body. In a moment it might be
+twice that! He was aware of Glora pulling at him, and his father rushing
+past him with a bottle of liquid, shouting:
+
+"Alan! Run! You and the girl, get out of here! Into the other room--"
+
+Then Alan saw the things on the floor! His foot crushed one with a
+slippery squash! Nameless, hideous, noisome things grown monstrous,
+risen from their lurking invisibility in the drops of water! Sodden,
+gray-black and green-slimed monsters of the deep; palpitating masses of
+pulp! One lay rocking, already as large as a football with streamers of
+ooze hanging from it, and squirting a black inky fluid. Others were rods
+of red jelly-pulp, already as large as lead pencils, quivering,
+twitching. Disease germs, these ghastly things, enlarging from the
+invisibility of a drop of water!
+
+The fly landed with a thud on the center table. The fumes of the
+shattered bottle of chemicals were choking Alan. He flung himself toward
+the monster fly, but Glora held him.
+
+"No! Escape to the other room!"
+
+Dr. Kent was stamping the things upon the floor; pouring acids upon
+them. Some eluded him. The air in the room was unbreathable....
+
+Alan and Glora reached the bedroom. The laboratory was a hideous chaos.
+They were aware of its outer door opening, disclosing the figure of
+Polter who, undoubtedly, had been attracted by the noise. He shouted a
+startled oath. Alan heard it above the beating wings of the monstrous
+fly. Things lurched at the opened door; Polter banged it upon them and
+rushed away, shouting the alarm through the palace.
+
+Dr. Kent was stammering, "Not the enlarging drug, Glora, child, the
+other! Hurry!"
+
+Alan helped Glora with the opalescent vial. Things were lurching toward
+this room, from the laboratory. Alan, with averted face, choked by the
+incoming fumes, slammed the door upon the gruesome turmoil.
+
+They took the diminishing drug. The bedroom expanded. The hideous sounds
+from the laboratory, and the whole palace now ringing with a wild alarm,
+soon faded into blessed remoteness of distance....
+
+"I think this is the way, Alan. Off there--a doorway from my bedroom.
+Polter always kept it locked, but it leads into a corridor. We must get
+out of here. A crack under the door--is that it, off there?" Dr. Kent
+pointed into the gloomy blur of distance. "We're horribly small--it's so
+far to run--and I've lost my sense of direction."
+
+The drug had ceased its action. The wooden floor of the room had
+expanded to a spread of cellular surface, ridged with broken, tubelike
+tunnels; pits and jagged cave-mouths. A knothole yawned like a crater a
+hundred feet away.
+
+"We are too small," Glora protested hurriedly. "The door is where you
+say, Dr. Kent, but miles away."
+
+With the other drug, the room contracted. The floor surface shrank and
+smoothed a little. The door was distinguishable--a square panel several
+hundred feet in width and towering into the upper haze. The black line
+of the crack was visible along its bottom.
+
+They ran to it. The top of the crack was ten feet above their heads.
+They ran under, across the wide intervening darkness toward a glow of
+light. Then they came from under the door into a corridor--and shrank
+against a cliff wall as with a rush of wind and pounding tread the
+blurred shapes of a man's huge feet and legs rushed past. The upper air
+was filled with rumbling shouts.
+
+"We must chance it!" exclaimed Dr. Kent. "It's too far in this size. We
+must get larger--and if they see us, we'll fight our way out!"
+
+In the turmoil of the doomed palace no one noticed them. They cast aside
+all restraint. It was too dangerous to wait. The excessive dose they
+took of the drug made the corridor shrink with dizzying speed. They
+rushed along its length. Alan hurled a little man aside who was in their
+path. They were already larger than Polter's people.
+
+They squeezed out of a shrinking doorway. The dwindling island was a
+turmoil. Little figures were pouring from the palace. At the edge of the
+water. Alan, Glora and Dr. Kent stood for an instant looking behind
+them. The palace was rocking. Its roof heaved upward and then smashed
+and fell aside with the clatter of tumbling masonry. The monstrous fly,
+its hideous face mashed and oozing, reared itself up and, with broken
+torn wings, tried to soar away. But it could not. It slipped back. The
+drone and buzz of its fright sounded over the chaos of noise. Other
+things came lurching and twisting upward, slithering out....
+
+The expanding body of the fly was pushing the palace walls outward. In a
+moment it collapsed and the fly emerged.
+
+To Alan and his companions the scene was all shrinking into a miniature
+chaos of horror at their shoe tops. A diminuendo of screams mingled down
+there. Overhead were the stars, shining peacefully remote. Nearby lay a
+rapidly narrowing channel of shining water. A tiny city was across it.
+Lights were moving. The panic had spread from the island to Orena.
+Beyond the tiny city, was a range of mountains, a cliff, gleaming in the
+starlight, and tunnel-mouths.
+
+Suddenly against the stars off there, Alan saw the enlarging figure of
+Polter, his hunched shape unmistakable. He was facing the other way. He
+lunged and scrambled into a yawning black hole in the mountains. Polter
+was escaping! None of these people except himself had the drugs. He was
+escaping with the golden cage, out of this doomed atomic world to the
+Earth above.
+
+Glora murmured, "There is our way out. Your way. And that is Polter
+going. I do not think he saw us. So much is growing gigantic here."
+
+Dr. Kent muttered, "We will wait a moment--wade across--or leap over,
+and follow him out. Babs is with him--dear God I hope so! This is a
+doomed realm!"
+
+Alan held Glora close. And suddenly he was laughing--a madness, half
+hysterical. "Why, this, all this--why look, Glora, it's funny! This
+little world all excited, an ant-hill, outraged! Look! There's our giant
+sailboat!"
+
+Down near their feet the inch-long sailboat stood at its dock. Tiny
+human figures were rushing for it; others, floundering in the water,
+were trying to climb upon it. Dr. Kent had stepped a foot or two from
+the shore, and tiny, lashing white rollers rocked the boat, almost
+engulfing it.
+
+Alan's laugh rang out. "God! It's funny, isn't it? All those little
+creatures so excited!"
+
+"Steady, lad!" Dr. Kent touched him. "Don't let yourself laugh! A moment
+now, then we'll wade across. Polter won't have much start on us. We
+mustn't get too close to him in size, but try and attack him unawares.
+We've got to get Babs away from him."
+
+The narrowing passage rose hardly to their knees. They stepped ashore,
+well to one side of the toy city. Their growth had almost stopped. But
+suddenly Alan realized that Glora was diminishing! She had taken the
+other drug.
+
+"Glora! What are you doing?"
+
+"I must go back, Alan. This is my world, doomed perhaps, but I cannot
+forsake it now. I must give the enlarging drug to my father. And others
+who can rise and fight these monsters."
+
+"Glora!"
+
+Dr. Kent said hurriedly, "She's right, Alan. There is a chance they can
+save their city. For her to leave them would be dastardly."
+
+She cried, "You go on up, Alan. You have enough of the drugs. I am going
+back!"
+
+"No," he protested. "You can't! If you do, I'm coming with you!"
+
+She clung to him. He felt her body diminishing within his encircling
+arms. His love for her swept him--this girl who had cajoled Polter, or
+tricked him and stolen several of the vials from him, heavens knows how,
+and followed him up to the other world. This girl whom Alan had come to
+love, was leaving him, perhaps forever.
+
+As he stood there, with the miniature landscape at his feet in the wan
+starlight--the panic-stricken tiny city, the island with its monsters
+rising to overwhelm this tiny world--it seemed to Alan that if he let
+her go it was the end for him of all life's promised happiness.
+
+"Alan, lad, come." His father was pulling him along. So horrible a
+choice! Alan thought that I was back on that island. But Babs, a
+prisoner in the golden cage, was with Polter, plunging upward in size.
+And his father was beside him, pleading.
+
+"Alan--come--I can't get out alone, or save Babs. And Polter, with the
+power of this drug, can conquer and enslave our Earth as he has enslaved
+Orena--just one little city of one tiny golden atom! Believe me, lad,
+your duty lies above."
+
+Glora's head was now down at Alan's waist. He stooped and kissed her
+white forehead; his fingers, just for an instant, smoothed her glossy
+hair.
+
+"Good-bye, Glora."
+
+She plunged away, and her tread as she dwindled mashed the forest behind
+the city. Alan and his father ran for the cliff. They were too large to
+squeeze into the little hole. But in a moment they made themselves
+smaller. They climbed as they dwindled; checked the drug action and
+rushed into the tunnel-mouth.
+
+Alan stopped just for an instant to gaze out over the starlit scene. It
+was almost the same viewpoint from which he had his first sight of
+Glora's world only an hour or two before. The distant island beyond the
+city showed plainly with the shining water around it. The vegetation
+there was growing! And there were dark, horribly formless blobs lurching
+outward and rising with monstrous bulk against the background of the
+stars!
+
+"Alan! Come, lad!"
+
+With a prayer for Glora trembling on his lips, Alan plunged into the dim
+phosphorescent gloom of the tunnel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+To Babs and me the ride in the golden cage strapped to Polter's chest as
+he made his escape outward into largeness was an experience awesome and
+frightening almost beyond description. We heard the alarm in the palace
+on the island. Polter rushed to Dr. Kent's laboratory door, looked in,
+and in a moment banged it shut. Babs and I saw very little. We knew only
+that something terrible had happened; we could see only a blur with
+formless things in the void beneath our bars; and there were the
+choking fumes of chemicals surging at us.
+
+Polter rushed through the castle corridor. We heard rumbling distant
+shouts.
+
+"The drug is loose! The drug is loose! Monsters! Death for everyone!"
+
+The room swayed with horrible dizzying lurches as Polter ran. We clung
+to the lattice bars, our legs and arms entwined. There were moments when
+Polter leaped, or suddenly stooped, and our reeling senses all but
+faded.
+
+"Babs! Don't let go! Don't lose consciousness!"
+
+If she should be limp, here in this lurching room, her body to be flung
+back and forth across its confines--that would be death in a moment. I
+didn't think I could hold her, but I managed to get an arm about her
+waist.
+
+"Babs, are you all right?"
+
+"I'm--all right, George. I can stand it. We're--he is enlarging."
+
+"Yes."
+
+I saw water far beneath us, lashed into a turmoil of foam with Polter's
+wading steps. There was a brief swaying vista of a toy city; starlight
+overhead; a lurching swaying miniature of landscape as Polter ran for
+the towering cliffs. Then he climbed and scrambled into the
+tunnel-mouth. Had he turned at that instant doubtless he would have seen
+the rising distant figures of Glora, Alan and Dr. Kent. But evidently he
+didn't see them. Nor did we.
+
+Polter spoke only very occasionally to Babs. "Hold tightly!" It was a
+rumbling voice from above us. He made no move to touch the cage, except
+that a few times the great blur of his hand came up to adjust its angle.
+
+The lurching and jolting was less violent in the tunnel. Polter's frenzy
+to escape was subsiding into calmness. He traversed the tunnel with a
+methodical stride. We were aware of him climbing over the noisome
+litter of the dead giant's body which blocked the tunnel's further end.
+We heard his astonished exclamations. But evidently he did not suspect
+what had happened, thinking only that the stupid messenger had
+miscalculated his growth and had been crushed.
+
+We emerged into a less dim area. Polter did not stop at the fallen
+giant. Nothing mattered now to him, quite evidently, save his own exit
+with Babs from this atomic realm. His movements seemed calm, yet
+hurried.
+
+We realized now how different an outward journey was from the trip
+coming in. This was all only an inch of golden quartz! The stages upward
+were frequently only a matter of growth in size; the distances in this
+vast desert realm of golden rock always were shrinking. Polter many
+times stood almost motionless until the closing, dwindling walls made
+him scramble upward into the greater space above.
+
+It may have been an hour, or less. Babs and I, from our smaller
+viewpoint, with the landscape so frequently blurred by distance and
+Polter's movements, seldom recognized where we were. But I realized
+going out was far easier in every way than coming in. Easier to
+determine the route, since usually the diminishing caverns and gullies
+made the upward step obvious.... We knew when Polter scrambled up the
+incline ramp.
+
+It seemed impossible for us to plan anything. Would Polter make the
+entire trip without a stop? It seemed so. We had no drugs, and our cage
+was barred beyond possibility of our getting out. But even if we had had
+the drugs, or had our door been open, there was no escape. An abyss of
+distance was always yawning beyond our lattice--the sheer precipice of
+Polter's body from his chest to the ground.
+
+"Babs, we must make him stop. It he sits down to rest you might get him
+to take you out. I must reach his drugs."
+
+"Yes. I'll try it, George."
+
+Polter was momentarily standing motionless as though gazing around him,
+judging what to do next. His size seemed stationary. Beyond our bars we
+could see the distant circular walls as though this were some giant
+crater-pit in which Polter was standing. Then I thought I recognized
+it--the round, nearly vertical pit into which Alan had plunged his hand
+and arm. Above us then was a gully, blind at one end. And above that,
+the outer surface, the summit of the fragment of golden quartz.
+
+"Babs, I know where we are! If he takes you out, keep his attention.
+I'll try and get one of his black vials. Make him hold you near the
+ground. If I see you there, in position where you can jump, I'll startle
+him. Babs it's desperately dangerous but I can't think of anything else.
+Jump. Get away from him. I'll keep his attention on me. Then I'll join
+you if I can--with the drug."
+
+Polter was moving. We had no time to say more.
+
+"I'll try it, George." For just an instant she clung to me with her soft
+arms about my neck. Our love was sweeping us in this desperate moment,
+and it seemed that above us was a remote Earth world holding the promise
+of all our dreams. Or were we cross-starred, doomed like the realm of
+the atom? Was this swift embrace now marking the end of everything for
+us?
+
+Babs called, "Dr. Polter?"
+
+We could feel his movements stopping.
+
+"Yes? You are all right, Babs?"
+
+She laughed--a ripple of silvery laughter--but there was tragic fear in
+her eyes as she gazed at me. "Yes, Dr. Polter, but breathless. Almost
+dead, but not quite. What happened? I want to come out and talk to you."
+
+"Not now, little bird."
+
+"But I want to." To me it was a miracle that she could call so lightly
+and hold that note of lugubrious laughter in her voice. "I'm hungry.
+Didn't you think of that? And frightened. Take me out."
+
+He was sitting down! "You remind me that I am tired, Babs. And hungry,
+also. I haf a little food. You shall come out for just a short time."
+
+"Thank you. Take me carefully."
+
+Our tilted cage was near the ground as he seated himself. But it was
+still too far for me to jump.
+
+I murmured, "Babs it's not close enough to the ground."
+
+"Wait, George, I'll fix that. You hide! If he looks in he'll see you."
+
+I scrambled back to my hiding place. Polter's huge fingers were fumbling
+at our bars. The little door sprang open.
+
+"Come, Babs."
+
+He held the cupped bowl of his hand to the doorway. "Come out."
+
+"No!" she called. "It is too far down!"
+
+"Come. That iss foolish."
+
+"No! I'm afraid. Put the cage on the ground."
+
+"Babs!" His finger and thumb came reaching in to seize her, but she
+avoided them.
+
+"Dr. Polter! Don't! You'll crush me!"
+
+"Then come out on my hand."
+
+He seemed annoyed. I had scrambled back to the doorway; I knew he
+couldn't see me so long as the cage remained strapped to his shirt
+front.
+
+I whispered, "I can make it, Babs!"
+
+Polter was apparently on one elbow now, half turned to one side. From
+our cage, the sloping gleaming white surface of his stiff glossy shirt
+bosom went down a steep incline. His belt was down there, and the
+outward bulging curve of his lap--a spreading surface where I could land
+like a scuttling insect, unobserved, if only Babs could hold his
+attention.
+
+I whispered vehemently, "Try it! Go out! Leave me--keep talking to him!"
+
+She called instantly, "All right, then. Bring your hand! Closer!
+Carefully! It seems so high up here!"
+
+She swung herself into his palm, and flung her arms about the great
+pillar of his crooked finger. The bowl of his hand moved slowly away. I
+heard her faint voice, and his overhead rumble.
+
+I chanced it! I didn't know his exact position or which way he was
+looking.
+
+Again I heard Bab's voice. "Careful, Dr. Polter. Don't let me fall!"
+
+"Yes, little bird."
+
+I let myself down from the tilted doorway, hung by my hand and dropped.
+I struck the ramp-like yielding surface of his shirt bosom. I slid,
+tumbling, scrambling, and landed softly in the huge folds of his trouser
+fabric. I was unhurt. The width of his belt, high as my body, was near
+me. I shrank against it. I found I could cling to its upper edge.
+
+My hold came just in time. He shifted and sat up. I was lifted with a
+swoop of movement. When it steadied I saw above me the top of his knee.
+His left leg was crooked, the foot drawn close to him. Babs was perched
+up there on the knee summit. His right leg was outstretched. I was at
+the right side of his belt. I could dart off along that curving expanse
+of his leg and leap to the ground. If he would hold this position! One
+of the pouches of his belt was near me. The vial in it was black. The
+enlarging drug! I moved toward it.
+
+But Babs was too high to jump from that summit of his crooked knee! I
+think she saw me at his belt. I heard her voice.
+
+"I cannot eat up here. It is too high. Oh, please be careful how you
+move! I am so dizzy, so frightened! You move with such great jerks!"
+
+He had what seemed a huge surface of bread and meat. He was breaking off
+crumbs to put before her. I reached the pouch of his belt. The vial was
+as long as my body. I tugged to try and lift it out.
+
+All the giant contours of Polter's body shifted as he cautiously moved.
+I clung. I saw that Babs was being held gently between his thumb and
+forefinger. He lowered her to the ground, and she stood beside the bread
+and the meat he had placed there.
+
+And she had the courage to laugh! "Why this--this is an enormous
+sandwich! You will have to break it."
+
+He was leaning over her, half turned on his side. The vial came free. I
+shoved it; but I could not control its weight. I pushed desperately. It
+slid over the round brink of his right hip, and fell behind him. I heard
+the tinkling thud of it down on the rocks.
+
+There was no alarm. I could not chance leaping from his hip. I scurried
+along the convex top of his outstretched leg, and beyond his knee I
+jumped.
+
+I landed safely. I could see the black vial back across the broken rock
+surface, with the bulge of Polter's hip above it. I ran back and reached
+the vial, tugged at its huge stopper. The cork began to yield under my
+panting, desperate efforts. In a moment I would have a pellet of the
+enlarging drug; make away with it and startle Polter so that Babs might
+dart off and escape.
+
+The huge stopper of the vial was larger than my head. It came suddenly
+out. I flung it away, plunged in my hand, and seized an enormous round
+pellet.
+
+Then abruptly the alarm came, and I had not caused it! Polter ripped out
+a startled, rumbling curse and sat upright. Under the curve of his leg
+I saw Babs had been momentarily neglected. She was running.
+
+Across the boulder-strewn plain, two tiny men had appeared. Polter had
+seen them.
+
+They were the enlarging figures of Dr. Kent and Alan!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+The astounded Polter was taken wholly by surprise. He had no idea that
+anyone was following him. He thought he was alone with tiny Babs in this
+rock-strewn metal desert. What he saw as he scrambled to his feet were
+four insect-size humans, two of them at a distance, and two within reach
+of him, and all of them scampering in different directions. The ground
+was littered with crags and boulders; it was ridged and pitted,
+pock-marked, with tiny crater-holes and caves. The four scuttling
+figures almost instantly had disappeared from his sight.
+
+I did not see where Babs went. I turned from the black vial of Polter's
+enlarging drug, and with the huge pellet under my arm I ran leaping over
+the rough ground and flung myself into a gully. I lay prone, flattened
+against a rock. In the murky distance of a pseudo-sky overhead, the
+monstrous head and shoulders of Polter were visible. I could see down to
+just below his waist. The empty cage with its door flapping open hung
+against his shirt-front. He had stooped to try and recover Babs. And
+instinctively his hands went to his belt to seize his enlarging drug.
+
+They were fumbling there now. He hauled out an opalescent vial of the
+diminishing element. But his black vial was gone. His annoyance turned
+into fear as he searched for it in the other compartments of his belt. I
+had thought that he had more than one black vial, but now it seemed not.
+His huge face was swept with the panic of terror. He glanced wildly
+around him.
+
+Through the open end of my gully I saw in the distance, miles away, the
+enlarging figure of Alan rising up. Then it ducked in back of a distant
+rising peak. Polter undoubtedly saw it. He was fumbling with his
+opalescent vial. In his confused panic he made the mistake of taking the
+diminishing drug and instantly seemed to regret it. His curse rumbled
+above me. His glance went down to the rocks at his feet, and there he
+saw his black vial lying with its stopper out. His body already was
+beginning to dwindle. He stooped, seized the vial, and took the
+enlarging drug. The shock of it mode him stagger; momentarily he
+disappeared from my line of vision but I could hear his panting breath
+and the unsteady pound of his footsteps.
+
+I still held that huge round ball of the drug. I seized a loose stone
+and frantically knocked off a chunk-heaven knows how much. I shoved it
+into my mouth, chewed and hastily swallowed it. And with the lurching,
+swaying, shrinking gully closing in upon me, I ran to get out of its
+distant end.
+
+I was heading toward where Alan and his father were hiding. I came from
+the gully into the open, just as the walls closed behind me. The whole
+scene was a dizzying, blurred sway of contracting movement. I saw that I
+was in a circular valley now some five miles in diameter, with its
+jagged enclosing walls rising sheerly perpendicular out of sight in the
+haze overhead.
+
+Polter had staggered backward. I saw him a mile or so away. His back at
+that instant was turned to me. He was now no more than three or four
+times my own height. He scrambled against the valley cliff wall as
+though trying to find a foothold to climb up it. He went a little way,
+but fell back.
+
+Near me, Alan and old Dr. Kent suddenly appeared. I was larger than
+they. Alan gasped with surprise.
+
+"You, George! You got Babs--"
+
+"Yes--Babs is around somewhere! Stay down here! Don't lose her in size!
+Stay small! Search and--"
+
+"But, George--"
+
+"I'll tackle Polter. I've taken--God, I don't know how much I've taken
+of the drug!"
+
+They were shrinking down by my boot tops. Alan shouted suddenly,
+"There's Babs! Thank God, she's all right."
+
+She was so small that I couldn't see her, or even hear her, though she
+must have been calling to them. Alan again screamed up at me with his
+little voice:
+
+"She's here, George! You--go on and get Polter! I can't overtake
+you--haven't enough of the drug!" His tiny voice was fading away. "Go
+and get him, George! This time--get him--"
+
+I swung with a staggering step around to face the open valley. It had by
+now shrunk to nearly half a mile in width. Its smooth walls rose some
+two or three thousand feet to an upper circular horizon with murky
+distance overhead. Polter stood across from me. He had tried to climb
+out but could not. He saw me and came lurching. We were a quarter of a
+mile from each other. I ran forward through a shifting scene of
+shrinking rock walls and crawling, contracting ground. Quarter of a
+mile? It seemed hardly more than a score of running strides before
+Polter loomed close ahead of me. He was still nearly twice my size. I
+stooped, seized a loose boulder, and flung it. I missed his face, but,
+as his hand went up carrying a bare knife, by fortunate chance, the
+stone struck his wrist. The knife dropped to the rocks. He stooped to
+recover it, but I was upon him. As I felt his huge arms go about me,
+half lifting me, my foot struck the knife. But in an instant it was
+swept down into smallness beneath us as we expanded above it.
+
+Both of us now were unarmed in this combat of size. I was an immature
+youth in Polter's first grip upon me. I heard his panting words, grimly
+triumphant:
+
+"This--George Randolph, I haf been--waiting for so many years! The
+hunchback--takes his revenge--now--"
+
+He lifted me. His great arms were unbelievably powerful, but I could
+feel them dwindling. I was enlarging faster. Just a few moments--if I
+could last a few moments.... My feet were off the ground, my chest
+pressed close against the little cage between us. He had a hand shoving
+back my head; his fingers sought my throat. I wound my legs around him,
+and then he tried to throw me down and fall upon me. But he had twisted
+and my back was against the cliff. The rocks were shoving at us,
+insistently pushing with almost a living movement. Polter staggered with
+me. His grip on my throat tightened, shutting off my breath. My senses
+whirled. His grim sardonic face over me became blurred. I tore futilely
+at my throat to break his choking grip. All the world was a roaring
+chaos to my fading senses. Then in the blur I saw horror sweep his
+expression. His fingers involuntarily loosened. I got a breath of
+blessed air, gasping, and my sight cleared.
+
+Walls were closing around us! We were in a pit barely ten feet wide,
+with the top a few feet above Polter's head. The nearer wall shoved us
+again. Our bodies almost filled the shrinking pit! Polter lurched and
+cast me off. I half fell, striking my shoulder against the opposite
+wall, and I saw Polter leap at the dwindling brink and scramble out.
+
+I was nearly wedged. As I rose, the top of the pit only reached my
+waist. Polter had fallen on the upper ground, and was on hands and
+knees. Instead of standing up, he lurched at me trying to shove me back.
+But I was out; I clutched at him. We were almost of a size now. We
+rolled on the ground, locked together; rolled to the brink of the pit
+and over it, as it shrank to a little round hole unnoticed beneath our
+threshing bodies!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At the side of the circular valley Alan and Dr. Kent crouched with the
+smaller figure of Babs between them. They saw Polter and me as two
+swaying gigantic forms locked in a death struggle, towering against the
+sky. Tremendous expanded bodies! They saw us come to grips; saw the
+great hunched Polter bend me backward, choking me.
+
+Our bodies lurched. Our huge legs with a single step brought us to the
+center of the valley. It was a shrinking valley to Alan, Babs and Dr.
+Kent, for they too, were enlarging. But the fighting giant figures were
+growing faster. In only a moment their shoulders were up there in the
+sky, pressing against the narrowing cliff walls.
+
+Alan gasped, "But George will be crushed! Look at him!"
+
+Horror swept them as they crouched, watching. The enormous pillars of
+Polter's legs towered straight up from near at hand. Alan was aware of
+himself screaming:
+
+"George, get out! You're too large! Too large for in here!"
+
+As though his microscopic voice could reach me--my head a hundred feet
+above him. But he screamed it again. This was all in a few horrible
+moments, though it seemed to the three watchers an eternity. Alan was
+helpless to aid me; they had taken all of the enlarging drug they had.
+
+Then they saw Polter cast me off. I lurched and struck, with my
+shoulders wedged against the cliff directly over where they crouched.
+The overhead sky was darkened as Polter scrambled upward.
+
+Alan was still screaming futilely.
+
+Babs huddled with white horrified face, staring. Then I went out after
+Polter. My disappearing legs were great dark blurs in the sky. Alan saw
+the valley now contracted to a thousand feet of width, with its cliffs
+equally as high. Then everything was smaller.... The sky overhead went
+dark again from cliff to cliff as a segment of rolling bodies
+momentarily spanned the opening.
+
+Presently Alan realized that the valley had narrowed to a pit. He stood
+up. "Hurry! Now we can go after them. Up there!"
+
+The opening above was empty. Polter and I were fighting some distance
+away....
+
+Dr. Kent was soon large enough to scramble out of the pit. Alan handed
+the little Babs up to him and followed. Alan saw that they were now in a
+long gully, blind at one end with a five hundred foot perpendicular
+cliff. Against the wall, the Titanic form of Polter stood at bay. And I
+was confronting him. The summit of the cliff was lower than our waists.
+Triumph swept Alan; he saw that I was the larger! As Polter bored into
+me my backward step crossed the full width of the gully. Alan shouted:
+
+"Down! Babs--Father!"
+
+They had barely time to flatten themselves in a narrow crevice between
+upstanding rocks before my foot crashed down. For an instant the sole of
+my foot formed a flat black ceiling as it spanned the rocks. Then it
+lifted and was gone with a blurred swoop. They saw the white blur of my
+hand come down and snatch a tremendous boulder, raising it with a great
+sweep of movement into the sky. They saw me crash it against Polter; but
+it only struck his shoulder. He roared with anger. The whole sky was
+roaring and rumbling with our shouts and our panting breathing, and the
+ground was clattering, pounding with our giant tread. Huge loose
+boulders were tumbled in an avalanche everywhere.
+
+Again it seemed to Alan that our lurching, heedlessly surging bodies
+must be crushed within these contracting walls. Only our locked,
+intertwined legs were visible; our bodies were lost in the sky. Then it
+seemed to Alan that I had heaved Polter upward. And followed him. We
+disappeared. There was a distant overhead rumble, and the murky sky,
+with vague patches of far-distant illumination in it, became empty of
+movement....
+
+The walls presently were again closing upon Alan and his companions.
+They ran out of the open end of the shrinking little gully and came to a
+new upward vista....
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I found myself a full head and shoulders taller than Polter. And he was
+tiring, panting heavily. His face was cut and bleeding from the blows of
+my fist. The rock I heaved struck his shoulder. He roared, head down,
+and bored into me. He was heavier than I. His weight flung me back. My
+foot slid on the loose stones of the gully floor. I did not know that
+Babs, Alan and their father were huddled under those stones!
+
+My back struck the opposite wall. Polter's upflung knee caught me in the
+stomach, all but knocking the breath out of me. He was desperate,
+oblivious to the closing walls. And as he flung his arms with a grip
+about my neck, hanging, trying to bear down, I saw in his blazing dark
+eyes what seemed the light of suicide. I think that then, with a sudden
+frenzied madness he realized that he was beaten, and tried to pull us to
+the ground and let the walls crush us.
+
+I summoned all my remaining strength and heaved us forward. I broke his
+hold. His body was jammed back against a lowering wall. Its top seemed
+almost at our knees. I shoved frantically. He fell backward and I jumped
+after him.
+
+We were on a great rocky plateau. But it was shrinking, crawling into
+itself. Spots of light were in the murk overhead: there seemed a
+distant circular horizon of emptiness around us.
+
+Polter was lying in a heap. But it was trickery, for as I incautiously
+bent over him his hand crashed a rock against my head. I reeled, with
+all the world turning black, but didn't fall. There was a terrible
+instant when my senses were going, but I fought to hold them. Blood from
+a wound on my forehead was streaming in my eyes. I was staggering. Then
+I realized that I was grimly tossing my head, shaking the blood away;
+and little by little my sight came back.
+
+Polter was on his feet, rushing me. His fist came with an upward swing
+at my chin, but I ducked.
+
+And suddenly, fighting up there in the open, my mind envisioned how
+gigantic we were! This was a great upland plateau, rounded with miles of
+distance and shadowy dimly radiant abyss beyond its circular horizon.
+And I was a thousand feet or more tall! A Titan, looming here in the
+sky!
+
+My fist quite unexpectedly caught Polter's jaw. His simultaneous swing
+went wild, as I leapt backward from it. He staggered, and his arms
+dropped to his sides. I was crouched forward, guarded, watching him
+while I gasped for breath. There was the briefest of instant when an
+expression of vague surprise swept his face. But I had not knocked him
+out.
+
+It was death overtaking him. His heart was yielding, overtaxed from the
+strain; and I think that there, at the last, he realized it. The blood
+drained suddenly from his face and lips, leaving them livid. I saw fear,
+then a wild horror in his eyes. He stood swaying. Then his knees gave
+way and he toppled. He fell from his height in the air where I stood
+gazing at him--fell forward on his face, his Titanic length spread all
+across the top of this rocky landscape!
+
+For a moment I did not move. My head was reeling, my ears roaring.
+Blood streamed into my eyes. I wiped it away with a torn sleeve and
+stood panting, gazing at the glowing distance around me.
+
+I was a Titan, standing there. The body of Polter was shrinking at my
+feet. The circular abyss of emptiness came nearer as this rocky eminence
+contracted.
+
+Suddenly my attention went to the sky overhead. Vague distant lights
+were there. Then a broad flat blur seemed spread over me. Light
+everywhere was growing. Beyond the nearby brink of the abyss was a white
+reflected radiance from beneath. Abruptly I realized there was a level,
+flat white plain running far off there in the distance.
+
+Overhead a radiance contracted into a spot of light. A shape in the sky
+moved! I heard a faraway rumble--a human voice!
+
+The body of Polter lay at my feet. It was hardly the length of my
+forearm. I stood, a Titan.
+
+And then, with a shock of realization, I saw how tiny I was! This was
+the broken top of that fragment of golden quartz the size of a walnut! I
+was standing there, under the lens of the giant microscope in Polter's
+dome-room laboratory, with half a dozen astounded Quebec police
+officials peering down at me!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+I need not detail the aftermath of our emergence from the atom. Dr. Kent
+and Babs followed me out within a few moments. But Alan was not with
+them! He had seen Polter fall. His father and Babs were safe. The
+sacrifice he had made in leaving Glora was no longer needed.
+
+Down there on the rocky plateau, Dr. Kent suddenly realized that Alan
+was dwindling.
+
+"Father, I have to! Don't you understand? Glora's world is menaced. I
+can't leave her like this. My duty to you and Babs is ended. I did my
+best. You two are safe now."
+
+"Alan! You can't go!"
+
+He was already down at Dr. Kent's waist, Babs' size. He held up his
+hand. "Dad, don't try to stop me. Good-bye." His rugged youthful face
+was flushed, his voice choked. "You--you've been a mighty good father to
+me. Always."
+
+Babs flung her arms about him. "Alan. Don't!"
+
+"But I must." He smiled whimsically as he kissed her. "You wouldn't want
+to leave George, would you? Never see him again? I'm not asking you to
+do that, am I?"
+
+"But, Alan--"
+
+"You've been a great little pal, Babs. But I have to go."
+
+"Alan! You talk as though you were never coming back!"
+
+"Do I? But of course I'm coming back!" He cast her off. "Babs, listen.
+Father's upset. That's natural. You tell him not to worry. I'll be
+careful, and do what I can to save that little city. I must find Glora
+and--"
+
+Babs was suddenly trembling with eagerness for him. "Yes! Of course you
+must, Alan!"
+
+"I'll find her and bring her out here! I'll do it! Don't you worry." He
+was dwindling fast. Dr. Kent had collapsed to a rock, staring down with
+horror-stricken eyes. Alan called up to Babs:
+
+"Listen! Have George watch the chunk of gold quartz. Have it guarded and
+watched day and night. Handle it carefully, Babs!"
+
+"Yes! Yes! How long will you be gone, Alan?"
+
+"How do I know? But I'll come back--don't worry. Maybe in only a day or
+two of your time."
+
+"Right! Good-bye, Alan!"
+
+"Good-bye," his tiny voice echoed up.
+
+Babs could see his miniature face smiling up at her. She smiled back and
+waved her arm as he vanished into the pebbles at her feet.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It has broken Dr. Kent. A month now has passed. He seldom mentions Alan
+to Babs and me. But when he does, he tries to smile and say that Alan
+soon will return. He has been very ill this last week, though he is
+better now. He did not tell us that he was working to compound another
+supply of the drugs, but we knew it very well.
+
+And his emotion, the strain of it, made him break. He was in bed a week.
+We are living in New York, quite near the Museum of the American Society
+for Scientific Research. In a room of the biological department there,
+the precious fragment of golden quartz lies guarded. A microscope is
+over it, and there is never a moment of the day or night without an
+alert, keen-eyed watcher peering down.
+
+But nothing has appeared. Neither friend or foe--nothing. I cannot say
+so to Babs, but often I fear that Dr. Kent will suddenly die, and the
+secret of his drugs die with him. I hinted that I would make a trip into
+the atom if he would let me, but it excited him so greatly I had to
+laugh it off with the assurance that of course Alan would soon return
+safely to us. Dr. Kent is an old man now, unnaturally old, with, it
+seems, the full weight of eighty years pressing upon him. He cannot
+stand this emotion. I think he is despairingly summoning strength to
+work upon his drugs, fearful that at any moment, he will not be equal to
+it. Yet more fearful to disclose the secret and unloose such a diabolic
+power.
+
+There are nights when with Dr. Kent asleep, Babs and I slip away and go
+to the Museum. We dismiss the guard for a time, and in that private room
+we sit by the microscope to watch. The fragment of golden quartz lies on
+its clean white slab with a brilliant light upon it.
+
+Mysterious little golden rock! What secrets are there, down beyond the
+vanishing point in the realm of the infinitely small? Our human longings
+go to Alan and Glora.
+
+But sometimes we are swept by the greater viewpoint. Awed by the
+mysteries of nature, we realize how very small and unimportant we are in
+the vast scheme of things. We envisage the infinite reaches of
+astronomical space overhead. Realms of largeness unfathomable. And at
+our feet, everywhere, a myriad entrances into the infinitely small. With
+ourselves in between--with our fatuous human consciousness that we are
+of some importance to it all!
+
+Truly there are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamed of in
+our philosophy!
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+This etext was first published in _Astounding Stories_ March 1931.
+Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright
+on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors
+have been corrected without note.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Beyond the Vanishing Point, by 
+Raymond King Cummings
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEYOND THE VANISHING POINT ***
+
+***** This file should be named 22527-8.txt or 22527-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/5/2/22527/
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/22527-8.zip b/22527-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3208061
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-8.zip
diff --git a/22527-h.zip b/22527-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..42f8453
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-h.zip
diff --git a/22527-h/22527-h.htm b/22527-h/22527-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fc1225f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-h/22527-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,4403 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Beyond the Vanishing Point, by Ray Cummings
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+/*<![CDATA[  XML blockout */
+<!--
+    p {  margin-top: .75em;
+         text-align: justify;
+         margin-bottom: .75em;
+         }
+
+    h1 {
+         text-align: center;
+         text-indent: -6em;
+         padding-left: 2em;
+         margin-bottom: 3em;
+         clear: both;
+         }
+
+    h2 {
+         text-align: center;
+         clear: both;
+         }
+
+    hr { width: 33%;
+         margin-top: 2em;
+         margin-bottom: 2em;
+         margin-left: auto;
+         margin-right: auto;
+         clear: both;
+       }
+
+    body{margin-left: 10%;
+         margin-right: 10%;
+        }
+
+    .pagenum  {
+                position: absolute;
+                left: 92%;
+                font-size: smaller;
+                text-align: right;
+              }
+
+
+    .trans1     {border: solid 1px;
+                 margin: 3em 15%; padding: 1em; text-align: left;}
+
+    a:link    {text-decoration:none;}
+    a:visited {text-decoration:none;}
+
+    ul        {list-style-type: none}
+    li        {font-size: .9em;}
+    .cpoem    {width: 25em; margin: 0 auto;}
+
+    .head1 {text-align: center; font-size: larger; font-weight: bold;margin-top: 1.5em;
+            margin-bottom: 1em;}
+
+    .publ1  {font-size: smaller; text-align: center; margin-top: 7em;}
+    .publ2  {font-size: smaller; text-align: center;}
+    // -->
+    /* XML end  ]]>*/
+    </style>
+  </head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's Beyond the Vanishing Point, by Raymond King Cummings
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Beyond the Vanishing Point
+
+Author: Raymond King Cummings
+
+Release Date: September 6, 2007 [EBook #22527]
+Last updated: January 22, 2009
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEYOND THE VANISHING POINT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+<p class="head1">THEY OPENED THE PANDORA'S BOX<br />
+OF ATOMIC TRAVEL</p>
+
+
+<p>When George Randolph first caught sight of Orena,
+he was astounded by its gleaming perfection. Here were
+hills and valleys, lakes and streams, glowing with the
+light of the most precious of metals. And, more astonishing
+than that, it was a world of <i>miniature</i> perfection&mdash;an
+infinitely tiny universe within a golden atom!</p>
+
+<p>But for Randolph it was also a world aglow with
+danger. Somewhere in its tiny vastness were the friends
+he had to rescue. Captives of a madman, they had been
+reduced to native Orena size; to return to Earth they
+needed the growth capsules Randolph was bringing
+them. It was up to Randolph to find them&mdash;and quickly&mdash;for
+the longer they stayed tiny, the closer they came to
+passing BEYOND THE VANISHING POINT!</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="trans1"><p><b>Transcriber's Note:</b><br />
+
+This etext was first published in <i>Astounding Stories</i> March 1931. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
+Minor spelling and typographical errors
+have been corrected without note.</p>
+
+<p>A table of contents, though not present in the original text, has been provided below:</p>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li><a href="#CAST_OF_CHARACTERS">CAST OF CHARACTERS</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</a></li>
+
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p class="head1"><a name="CAST_OF_CHARACTERS" id="CAST_OF_CHARACTERS"></a>CAST OF CHARACTERS</p>
+
+
+<div class="cpoem"><p class="head1">Franz Polter</p>
+
+<p>He found a gold mine in a land where there was no
+gold.</p>
+
+
+<p class="head1">Dr. Kent</p>
+
+<p>His scientific studies could mean life or death to an
+entire universe!</p>
+
+
+<p class="head1">George Randolph</p>
+
+<p>He crossed the border into Canada, and found himself
+in another world.</p>
+
+
+<p class="head1">Alan Kent</p>
+
+<p>Twenty feet tall, or two inches high&mdash;which should he
+be?</p>
+
+
+<p class="head1">Glora</p>
+
+<p>She was only as large as a thumbnail, but she carried
+a gigantic secret.</p>
+
+
+<p class="head1">Babs Kent</p>
+
+<p>Did she live in a golden cage or a magnificent palace?</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h1>BEYOND THE<br />
+VANISHING POINT</h1>
+
+
+<h2>by<br />
+RAY CUMMINGS</h2>
+
+
+<p class="publ1">ACE BOOKS, INC.<br />
+23 West 47th Street, New York 36, N. Y.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p class="publ2">BEYOND THE VANISHING POINT<br />
+
+Copyright &copy;, 1958, by Ace Books, Inc.<br />
+
+All Rights Reserved</p>
+
+<p class="publ1">Printed in U.S.A.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+
+<p>It was shortly after noon of December 31, 1970, when
+the series of weird and startling events began which took
+me into the tiny world of an atom of gold, beyond the vanishing
+point, beyond the range of even the highest-powered
+electric-microscope. My name is George Randolph. I was,
+that momentous afternoon, assistant chemist for the Ajax
+International Dye Company, with main offices in New York
+City.</p>
+
+<p>It was twelve-twenty when the local exchange call-sorter
+announced Alan's connection from Quebec.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, George? Look here, you've got to come up here
+at once. Chateau Frontenac, Quebec. Will you come?"</p>
+
+<p>I could see his face imaged in the little mirror on my
+desk; the anxiety, tenseness in his voice, was duplicated in
+his expression.</p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;" I began.</p>
+
+<p>"You must, George. Babs and I need you. See here...."</p>
+
+<p>He tried at first to make it sound like an invitation for a
+New Year's Eve holiday. But I knew it was not that. Alan
+and Barbara were my best friends. They were twins,
+eighteen years old. I felt that Alan would always be my best
+friend; but for Babs, my hopes, longings, went far deeper,
+though as yet I had never brought myself to the point of
+telling her so.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to come, Alan. But&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You've got to George! I can't tell you everything over
+the public air. But I've seen <i>him</i>: He's diabolical. I know
+it now!"</p>
+
+<p><i>Him</i>! It could only mean, of all the world, one person!</p>
+
+<p>"He's here!" he went on. "Near here. We saw him today!
+I didn't want to tell you, but that's why we came. It seemed
+a long chance, but it's he, I'm positive!"</p>
+
+<p>I was staring at the image of Alan's eyes; there was horror
+in them. And his voice too. "God, George, it's weird! Weird,
+I tell you. His looks&mdash;he&mdash;oh I can't tell you now! Only, come!"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>I was busy at the office in spite of the holiday season,
+but I dropped everything and went. By one o'clock that
+afternoon I was wheeling my little sport Midge from its cage
+on the roof of the Metropole building, and went into the air.</p>
+
+<p>It was a cold gray afternoon with the feel of coming snow.
+I made a good two hundred and fifty miles at first, taking
+the northbound through-traffic lane which today the meteorological
+conditions had placed at an altitude of 6,200 feet.</p>
+
+<p>Flying is largely automatic. There was not enough traffic
+to bother me. The details of leaving the office so hastily had
+been too engrossing for thought of Alan and Babs. But now,
+in my little pit at the controls, my mind flung ahead. They
+had located him. That meant Franz Polter, for whom we
+had been searching nearly four years. And my memory went
+back into the past with vivid vision....</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The Kents, four years ago, were living on Long Island.
+Alan and Babs were fourteen at the time, and I was seventeen.
+Even then Babs was something kind of special to me.
+I lived in a neighboring house that summer and saw them
+every day.</p>
+
+<p>To my adolescent mind a thrilling mystery hung upon
+the Kent family. The mother was dead. Dr. Kent, father of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>
+Alan and Babs, maintained a luxurious home, with only a
+housekeeper and no other servant. Dr. Kent was a retired
+chemist. He had, in his home, a laboratory in which he was
+working upon some mysterious problem. His children did
+not know what it was, nor, of course, did I. And none of us
+had ever been in the laboratory, except that when occasion
+offered we stole surreptitious peeps.</p>
+
+<p>I recall Dr. Kent as a kindly, iron-gray haired gentleman.
+He was stern with the discipline of his children; but he
+loved them, and was indulgent in many ways. They loved
+him; and I, an orphan, began looking upon him almost as a
+father. I was interested in chemistry. He knew it, and did
+his best to help and encourage me in my studies.</p>
+
+<p>There came an afternoon in the summer of 1966, when
+arriving at the Kent home, I ran upon a startling scene. The
+only other member of the household was a young fellow of
+twenty-five, named Franz Polter. He was a foreigner, born,
+I understood, in one of the Balkan Protectorates; he was
+here, employed by Dr. Kent as laboratory assistant.</p>
+
+<p>He had been with the Kents, at this time, two years. Alan
+and Babs didn't like him, nor did I. He must have been a
+clever, skillful chemist. No doubt he was. But he was, to us,
+repulsive. A hunchback, with a short, thick body; dangling
+arms that suggested a gorilla; barrel chest; a lump set askew
+on his left shoulder, and his massive head planted down with
+almost no neck. His face was rugged in feature; a wide
+mouth, a high-bridged heavy nose; and above the face a
+great shock of wavy black hair. It was an intelligent face;
+in itself, not repulsive.</p>
+
+<p>But I think we all three feared Franz Polter. There was
+always something sinister about him, that had nothing to do
+with his deformity.</p>
+
+<p>When I came, that afternoon, Babs and Polter were under
+a tree on the Kent lawn. Babs, at fourteen, with long black<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>
+braids down her back, bare-legged and short-skirted in a
+summer sport costume, was standing against the tree with
+Polter facing her. They were about the same height. To my
+youthful imaginative mind rose the fleeting picture of a
+young girl in a forest menaced by a gorilla.</p>
+
+<p>I came upon them suddenly. I heard Polter say:</p>
+
+<p>"But I lof you. And you are almos' a woman. Some day
+you lof me."</p>
+
+<p>He put out his thick hand and gripped her shoulder. She
+tried to twist away. She was frightened, but she laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;you're crazy!"</p>
+
+<p>He was suddenly holding her in his arms, and she was
+fighting him. I dashed forward. Babs was always a spunky
+sort of girl. In spite of her fear now, she kept on struggling,
+and she shouted:</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;let me go, you&mdash;you hunchback!"</p>
+
+<p>He did let her go; but in a frenzy of rage he hauled back
+his hand and struck her in the face. I was upon him the
+next second. I had him down on the lawn, punching him;
+but though at seventeen I was a reasonably husky lad, the
+hunchback with his thick, hairy gorilla arms proved much
+stronger. He heaved me off. The commotion had brought
+Alan and without waiting to find out what the trouble was,
+he jumped on Polter. Between us, I think we would have
+beaten him pretty badly. But the housekeeper summoned
+Dr. Kent and the fight was over.</p>
+
+<p>Polter left for good within an hour. He did not speak to
+any of us. But I saw him as he put his luggage into the
+taxi which Dr. Kent had summoned. I was standing silently
+nearby with Babs and Alan. The look he flung us as he
+drove away carried an unmistakable menace&mdash;the promise
+of vengeance. And I think now that in his warped and
+twisted mind he was telling himself that he would some
+day make Babs regret that she had repulsed his love.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>What happened that night none of us ever knew. Dr.
+Kent worked late in his laboratory; he was there when Alan
+and Babs and the housekeeper went to bed. He had written
+a note to Alan; it was found on his desk in a corner of the
+laboratory next morning, addressed in care of the family
+lawyer to be given Alan in the event of his death. It said
+very little. Described a tiny fragment of gold quartz rock
+the size of a walnut which would be found under the giant
+microscope in the laboratory; and told Alan to give it to the
+American Scientific Society to be guarded and watched very
+carefully.</p>
+
+<p>This note was found, but Dr. Kent had vanished! There
+had been a midnight marauder. The laboratory was on the
+lower floor of the house. Through one of its open windows,
+so the police said, an intruder had entered. There was
+evidence of a struggle, but it must have been short, because
+neither Babs, Alan, the housekeeper, nor any of the neighbors
+had heard anything. And the fragment of golden quartz was
+gone!</p>
+
+<p>The police investigation came to nothing. Polter was found
+in New York. He withstood the police questions. There was
+nothing except suspicion upon which he could be held, and
+he was finally released. Immediately thereafter, he disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>Neither Alan, Babs nor I saw Polter again. Dr. Kent had
+never been heard from to this day, four years later when
+I flew to join the twins in Quebec. And now Alan told me
+that Polter was up there! We had never ceased to believe
+that Dr. Kent was alive, and that Polter was the midnight
+marauder. As we grew older, we began to search for Polter.
+It seemed to us, that if we could once get our hands on
+him, we could drag from him the truth which the police
+had failed to get.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The call of a traffic director in mid-Vermont brought
+me back from these memories. My buzzer was clanging;
+a peremptory halting signal day-beam came darting up at
+me from below. It caught me and clung. I shouted down
+at it.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter?" I gave my name and number and
+all the details in one breath. Above everything I had no
+wish to be halted now. "What's the matter? I haven't
+done anything wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"The hell you haven't," the director roared. "Come
+down to three thousand. That lane's barred."</p>
+
+<p>I dove obediently and his beam followed me. "Once
+more, like that, young fellow&mdash;" But he went busy with
+somebody else and I didn't hear the end of his threat.</p>
+
+<p>I crossed into Maine in mid-afternoon. It was already
+twilight. The sky was solid lead and the landscape all up
+through here was gray-white with snow in the gathering
+darkness. I passed the City of Jackman, crossing full over
+it to take no chances of annoying the border officials; and
+a few miles further, I dropped to the glaring lights of
+International Inspection Field. The formalities were soon
+finished. I was ready to take-off when Alan rushed at me.</p>
+
+<p>"George! I thought I could connect here." He gripped
+me. He was wild-eyed, incoherent. He waved his taxiplane
+away. "I'm going with you, George. I'm almost out of my
+mind. I can't&mdash;I don't know what's happened to her. She's
+gone, now&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Who's gone? Babs?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes." He pushed me into my plane and climbed in
+after me. "Don't talk. Get us up! I'll tell you then. I
+shouldn't have left."</p>
+
+<p>When we were up in the air, I swung on him. "What
+are you talking about? Babs gone?"</p>
+
+<p>I could feel myself shuddering with a nameless horror.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what I'm talking about, George. I'm
+about crazy. The Quebec police think I am, anyway. I've
+been raising hell with them for an hour. Babs is gone! I can't
+find her. I don't know where she is."</p>
+
+<p>He finally calmed down enough to tell me what happened.
+Shortly after his radiophone to me in New York,
+he had missed Babs. They had had lunch in the huge
+hotel and then walked on the Dufferin Terrace&mdash;the famous
+promenade outside looking down over the Lower City,
+the great sweep of the St. Lawrence River and the gray-white
+distant Laurentian mountains.</p>
+
+<p>"I was to meet her inside. I went in ahead of her. But
+she didn't come. I went back to the Terrace but she was
+gone. She wasn't in our rooms. Nor the library, the lobby&mdash;anywhere."</p>
+
+<p>But it was afternoon, in the public place of a civilized
+city. In the daylight of the Dufferin Terrace, beside the
+long ice toboggan slide, under the gaze of skaters on the
+ice-rink and several hundred holiday merrymakers, a young
+girl could hardly be murdered, or kidnapped, without
+attracting attention! The Quebec police thought the young
+American unduly excited about his sister, who was missing
+only an hour. They would do what they could, if by dark
+she had not rejoined him. They suggested that doubtless
+the young lady had gone shopping.</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe she did," I agreed. But in my heart, I felt differently.
+"She'll be waiting for us in the Hotel when we get
+there, Alan."</p>
+
+<p>"But I'm telling you we saw Polter this morning. He
+lives here&mdash;not thirty miles from Quebec. We saw him on
+the Terrace after breakfast. Recognized him immediately
+of course."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he see you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. He was lost in the crowd in a minute.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>
+But I asked a young French fellow if he knew him. He
+did know him, as Frank Rascor. That must be the name
+he wears now. He's a famous man up here&mdash;well known,
+immensely rich. I didn't know if he saw us or not. What
+a fool I was to leave Babs alone, even for a minute."</p>
+
+<p>We were speeding over a white-clad valley with a little
+frozen river winding down its middle. Night had almost come.
+The leaden sky was low above us. It began snowing. The
+lights of the small villages along the river were barely visible.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you land us, Alan?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, surely. At the Municipal Field just beyond the
+Citadel. We can get to the Hotel in five minutes."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>It was a flight of only half an hour. During it, Alan told
+me about Polter. The hunchback, known now as Frank
+Rascor, owned a mine in the Laurentians, some thirty
+miles from Quebec City&mdash;a fabulously productive mine
+of gold. It was an anomaly that gold should be produced
+in this region. No vein of gold-bearing rock had been found,
+except the one on Polter's property. Alan had seen a
+newspaper account of the strangeness of it; and on a
+hunch had come to Quebec, being intrigued by the description
+of the mine owner. He had seen Frank Rascor on
+the Dufferin Terrace, and recognized him as Polter.</p>
+
+<p>Again my thoughts went back into the past. Had Polter
+stolen that missing fragment of golden quartz the size of a
+walnut which had been beneath Dr. Kent's microscope? We
+always thought so. Dr. Kent had some secret, some great
+problem upon which he was working. Polter, his assistant,
+had evidently known, or partially known, its details. And
+now, four years later, Polter was immensely rich, with a
+"gold mine" in mountains where there was no other evidence
+of gold!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I seemed to see some connection. Alan, I knew, was groping
+with a dim idea, so strange he hardly dared voice it.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you, it's weird, George. The sight of him. Polter&mdash;heavens,
+one couldn't mistake that build&mdash;and his face, his
+features, just the same as when we knew him."</p>
+
+<p>"Then what's so weird?" I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"His age." There was a queer solemn hush in Alan's voice.
+"George, when we knew Polter, he was about twenty-five,
+wasn't he? Well, that was four years ago. But he isn't twenty-nine
+now. I swear it is the same man, but he isn't around
+thirty. Don't ask me what I'm talking about. I don't know.
+But he isn't thirty. He's nearer fifty! Unnatural! Weird! I
+felt it, and so did Babs, just that brief look we had of him."</p>
+
+<p>I didn't answer. My attention was on managing the plane.
+The lights of Levis were under us. Beyond the City cliffs,
+the St. Lawrence lay in its deep valley; the Quebec lights,
+the light-dotted ramparts with the Terrace and the great
+fortresslike Hotel showed across the river.</p>
+
+<p>"Better take the stick, Alan. I don't know where the field
+is. And don't you worry about Babs. She'll be back by now."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>But she was not. We went to the two connecting rooms
+in the tower of the Hotel which Alan and Babs had engaged.
+We inquired with half a dozen phone calls. No one had seen
+or heard from her. The Quebec police were sending a man
+up to talk with Alan.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we won't be here," Alan called to me. He was
+standing by the window in Babs' room; he was trembling
+too much to use the phone. I hung up the receiver and went
+though the connecting door to join him.</p>
+
+<p>Babs' room! It sent a pang through me. A few of her
+garments were lying around. A negligee was laid out on the
+large bed. A velvet boudoir doll&mdash;she had always loved them&mdash;stood
+on the dresser. Upon this Hotel room, in one day, she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>
+had impressed her personality. Her perfume was in the air.
+And now she was gone.</p>
+
+<p>"We won't be here," Alan was repeating. He gripped me at
+the window. "Look." In his hand was an ugly-looking, smokeless,
+soundless automatic of the Essen type. "And I've got
+another one for you. Brought them with me."</p>
+
+<p>His face was white and drawn, but his hands had steadied.
+The tremble was gone out of his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going after him, George! Now! Understand that? Now?
+His place is only thirty miles from here, out there in the
+mountains. You can see it in the daylight&mdash;a wall around
+his property and a stone castle which he built in the middle
+of it. A gold mine? Hell!"</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing to be seen now out of the window but
+the snow-filled darkness, the blurred lights of Lower Quebec
+and the line of dock lights five hundred feet below us.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you fly me, George?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course."</p>
+
+<p>I was the one trembling now; the cool feel of the automatic
+which Alan thrust into my hand seemed suddenly to
+crystallize Babs' peril. I was here in her room, with the
+scent of her perfume around me, and this deadly weapon
+was needed! But the trembling was gone in a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, of course, Alan. No use talking to the police. I gave
+them all the information&mdash;a description of her, what you said
+she was wearing. No sense dragging Polter's name into it,
+with nothing tangible to go on. The police won't ransack the
+castle of a rich man just because you can't find your sister.
+Come on. You can tell me what this place is like as we go."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Bundled in our flying suits we hurried from the Hotel,
+climbed the Citadel slope and in ten minutes were in the air.
+The wind sucked at us. The snow now was falling with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>
+thick, huge flakes. Directed by Alan, I headed out over this
+ice-filled St. Lawrence, past the frozen Ile d'Orleans, toward
+Polter's mysterious mountain castle.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Alan burst out, "I know what father's secret
+was! I can piece it together now, from little things that
+were meaningless when I was a kid. He invented the electro-microscope.
+You know that. The infinitely small fascinated
+him. I remember he once said that if we could see far
+enough down into smallness, we would come upon human
+life!"</p>
+
+<p>Alan's low, tense voice was more vehement than I had
+ever heard it before. "It's clear to me now, George. That
+little fragment of golden quartz which he wanted me to be
+so careful of contained a world with human inhabitants!
+Father knew it, or suspected it. And I think the chemical
+problem on which he was working aimed for some drug.
+I know it was a drug they were compounding, Polter said
+so once, a radioactive drug; I remember listening at the door.
+A drug, George, capable of making a human being infinitely
+small!"</p>
+
+<p>I did not answer when momentarily Alan paused. So
+strange a thing. My mind whirled with it; struggled to
+encompass it. And like the meaningless individual pieces of
+a puzzle, dropping so easily into place when the key piece
+is fitted, I saw Polter stealing that fragment of gold; abducting
+Dr. Kent&mdash;perhaps because Polter himself was not fully
+acquainted with the secret. And now, Polter up here with
+a fabulously rich "gold mine." And Babs, abducted by him,
+to be taken&mdash;where?</p>
+
+<p>It set me shuddering.</p>
+
+<p>"That's what it was," Alan reiterated. "And Polter, here
+now with what he calls a 'mine.' It isn't a mine, it's a laboratory!
+He's got father too, hidden God knows where! And<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>
+now Babs. We've got to get them, George! The police can't
+help us! It's just you and me, to fight this thing. And it's
+diabolical!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+
+<p>We soared over the divided channel of the St. Lawrence,
+between Orleans and the mainland. Montmorency Falls in a
+moment showed dimly white through the murk to our left,
+a great hanging veil of ice higher than Niagara. Further
+ahead, the lights of the little village of St. Anne de Beaupr&eacute;
+were visible with the gray-black towering hills behind them.</p>
+
+<p>"Swing left, George. Over the mainland. That's St. Anne.
+We pass this side of it. Put the mufflers on. This damn thing
+roars like a tower siren."</p>
+
+<p>I cut in the muffler and switched off our wing-lights. It was
+illegal but we were past all thought of that. We were both
+desperate; the slow prudent process of acting within the
+law had nothing to do with this affair. We both knew it.</p>
+
+<p>Our little plane was dark, and amid the sounds of this
+night blizzard our muffled engine couldn't be heard.</p>
+
+<p>Alan touched me. "There are his lights; see them?"</p>
+
+<p>We had passed St. Anne. The hills lay ahead&mdash;a wild
+mountainous country stretching northward to the foot of
+Hudson Bay. The blizzard was roaring out of the North and
+we were heading into it. I saw, on what seemed like a dome-shaped
+hill perhaps a thousand feet above the river level,
+a small cluster of lights which marked Polter's property.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Fly over it once, George," Alan said. "Low&mdash;we can
+chance it. And find a place to land near the walls."</p>
+
+<p>We presently had it under us. I held the plane at five
+hundred feet, and cut our speed to the minimum of twenty
+miles an hour facing the gale, though it was sixty or seventy
+when we turned. There were a score or two of hooded ground
+lights. But there was little reflection aloft, and in the murk
+of the snowfall I felt we could escape notice.</p>
+
+<p>We crossed, turned and went back in an arc following
+Polter's curved outer wall. We had a good view of it. A
+weird enough looking place, here on its lonely hilltop. No
+wonder the wealthy "Frank Rascor" had attained local
+prominence!</p>
+
+<p>The whole property was irregularly circular, perhaps a mile
+in diameter covering the almost flat dome of the hilltop.
+Around it, completely enclosing it, Polter had built a stone
+and brick wall. A miniature of the Great Wall in China! We
+could see that it was fully thirty feet high with what evidently
+were naked high-voltage wires protecting its top. There were
+half a dozen little gates, securely barred, with doubtless a
+guard at each of them.</p>
+
+<p>Within the walls there were several buildings: a few small
+stone houses suggesting workmen's dwellings; an oblong
+stone structure with smoke funnels which looked like a
+smelter; a huge domelike spread of translucent glass over
+what might have been the top of a mineshaft. It looked more
+like the dome of an observatory&mdash;an inverted bowl fully a
+hundred feet wide and equally as high, set upon the ground.
+What did it cover?</p>
+
+<p>And there was Polter's residence&mdash;a castlelike brick and
+stone building with a tower not unlike a miniature of the
+Chateau Frontenac. We saw a stone corridor on the ground
+connecting the lower floor of the castle with the dome, which
+lay about a hundred feet to one side.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Could we chance landing inside the wall? There was a
+dark, level expanse of snow where we could have done it,
+but our descending plane doubtless would have been discovered.
+But the mile-wide inner area was dark in many
+places. Spots of light were at the little wall-gates. There
+was a glow all along the top of the wall. Lights were on in
+Polter's house; they slanted out in yellow shafts to the
+nearby white ground. But for the rest, the whole place was
+dark, save a dim glow from under the dome.</p>
+
+<p>I shook my head at Alan's suggestion that we land inside
+the walls. We had circled back and were a mile or so off
+toward the river. "The trees&mdash;and you saw guards down there.
+But that low stretch outside the gate on this side...."</p>
+
+<p>A plan was coming to me. Heaven knows it was desperate
+enough, but we had no alternative. We would land and
+accost one of the gate guards. Force our way in. Once
+inside the wall, on foot in the darkness of this blizzard, we
+could hide; slip up to that dome. Beyond that my imagination
+could not go.</p>
+
+<p>We landed in the snow a quarter of a mile from one of
+the gates. We left the plane and plunged into the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>It was a steady upward slope. A packed snowfield was
+underfoot, firm enough to hold our weight, with a foot or so
+of loose, soft snow on its top. The falling flakes whirled
+around us. The darkness was solid. Our helmeted leather-furred
+flying suits were soon shapeless with a gathering white
+shroud. We carried our Essens in our gloved hands. The
+night was cold, around zero I imagine, though with that
+biting wind it felt far colder.</p>
+
+<p>From the gloom a tiny spot of light loomed up.</p>
+
+<p>"There it is, Alan. Easy now! Let me go first." The wind
+tore away my words. We could see the narrow rectangle
+of bars at the gate, with a glow of light behind them.</p>
+
+<p>"Hide your gun, Alan." I gripped him. "Do you hear me?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me go first. I'll do the talking. When he opens the
+gate, let me handle him. You&mdash;if there are two of them&mdash;you
+take the other."</p>
+
+<p>We emerged from the darkness, into the glow of light by
+the gate. I had the horrible feeling that a shot would greet
+us. A challenge came, at first in French and then in English.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop! What do you want?"</p>
+
+<p>"To see Mr. Rascor."</p>
+
+<p>We were up to the bars now, shapeless hooded bundles
+of snow and frost. A man stood in the doorway of a lighted
+little cubby behind the bars. A black muzzle in his hand was
+leveled at us.</p>
+
+<p>"He sees no one. Who are you?"</p>
+
+<p>Alan was pressing at me from behind. I shoved him back,
+and took a step forward. I touched the bars.</p>
+
+<p>"My name is Fred Davis. Newspaperman from Montreal
+I must see Mr. Rascor."</p>
+
+<p>"You cannot. You may send in your call. The mouthpiece
+is there&mdash;out there to the left. Bare your face; he talks to
+no one without the face image."</p>
+
+<p>The guard had drawn back into his cubby; there was only
+his extended hand and the muzzle of his weapon left visible.</p>
+
+<p>I took a step forward. "I don't want to talk by phone. Won't
+you open the gate? It's cold out here. We have important
+business. We'll wait with you."</p>
+
+<p>Abruptly the gate lattice slid aside. Beyond the cubby
+doorway was the open darkness within the wall. A scuffed
+path leading inward from the gate showed for a few feet.</p>
+
+<p>I walked over the threshold, with Alan crowding me. The
+Essen in my coat pocket was leveled. But from the cubby
+doorway, I saw that the guard was gone! Then I saw him
+crouching behind a metal shield. His voice rang out.</p>
+
+<p>"Stand!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A light struck my face&mdash;a thin beam from a television
+sender beside me. It all happened in an instant, so quickly
+Alan and I had barely time to make a move. I realized my
+image was now doubtless being presented to Polter. He
+would recognize me!</p>
+
+<p>I ducked my head, yelling, "Don't do that!"</p>
+
+<p>It was too late! The guard had received a signal. I heard
+its buzz.</p>
+
+<p>From the shield a tiny jet of fluid leapt at me. It struck my
+hood. There was a heavy sickening-sweet smell. It seemed like
+chloroform. I felt my senses going. The cubby room was
+turning dark, was roaring.</p>
+
+<p>I think I fired at the shield. And Alan leapt aside. I heard
+the faint hiss of his Essen, and his choked, horrified voice:</p>
+
+<p>"George, run! Don't fall!"</p>
+
+<p>I crumpled; slid into blackness. And it seemed, as I went
+down, that Alan's inert body was falling on top of me....</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>I recovered after a nameless interval, a phantasmagoria of
+wild, drugged dreams. My senses came slowly. At first,
+there were dim muffled voices and the tread of footsteps.
+Then I knew that I was lying on the ground, and that I
+was indoors. It was warm. My overcoat was off. Then I realized
+that I was bound and gagged.</p>
+
+<p>I opened my eyes. Alan was lying inert beside me, roped
+and with a black gag around his face and in his mouth. We
+were in a huge dim open space. Presently, as my vision
+cleared, I saw that the dome was overhead. This was a circular,
+hundred-foot-wide room. It was dimly lighted. The figures
+of men were moving about, their great misshapen shadows
+shifting with them. Twenty feet from me there was a pile
+of golden rock&mdash;chunks of gold the size of a man's fist, or
+his head, and larger, heaped loosely into a mound ten feet
+high.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Beyond this pile of ore, near the center of the room,
+twenty feet above the concrete floor, there was a large
+hanging electrolier. It cast a circular glow downward. Under
+it I saw a low platform raised a foot or two above the ground.
+A giant electro-microscope was hung with its twenty foot
+cylinder above the platform. Its intensification tubes were
+glowing in a dim phosphorescent row on a nearby bracket. A
+man sat in a chair on the platform at the microscope's eyepiece.</p>
+
+<p>I saw all this with a brief glance, then my attention went
+to a white stone slab under the giant lense. It rested on
+the platform floor, a two-foot square surface of smooth
+white marble. A little roped railing a few inches high fenced
+it. And in its center lay a fragment of golden quartz the
+size of a walnut!</p>
+
+<p>There was a movement across my line of vision. Two
+figures advanced. I recognized both of them. And I strained
+at my bonds; mouthed the gag with futile, frenzied effort.
+I could no more than writhe; and I couldn't make a sound.
+I lay, after a moment exhausted, and stared with horror.</p>
+
+<p>The familiar hunched figure of Polter advanced toward the
+microscope. And with him, his huge hand holding her wrists,
+was Babs. They were nearly fifty feet from me, but with the
+light over them I could see them clearly. Babs' slim figure
+was clad in a long skirted dress&mdash;pale blue, now, with the
+light on it. Her long black hair had fallen disheveled to her
+shoulders. I couldn't see her face. She did not cry out. Polter
+was half dragging her as she resisted him; and then abruptly
+she ceased struggling.</p>
+
+<p>I heard his guttural voice. "That iss better."</p>
+
+<p>They mounted the platform. They were very small and
+seemed to be far away. I blinked. Horror surged over me.
+Their figures were dwindling as they stood there. Polter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>
+was saying something to the man at the microscope. Other
+men were nearby, watching. All were normal, save Polter
+and Babs. A moment passed. Polter was standing by the
+chair in which the man at the microscope was sitting. And
+Polter's head barely reached its seat! Babs was clinging
+to him now. Another moment and they were both tiny
+figures down by the chair-leg. Then they began walking
+with swaying steps toward the miniature railing of the
+white slab. The white reflection from the slab plainly
+illumined them. Polter's arm was around Babs. I had not
+realized how small they were until I saw Polter lift the
+rope of the little four-inch fence, and he and Babs stooped
+and walked under it. The fragment of quartz lay a foot from
+them in the center of the white surface. They walked unsteadily
+toward it. But soon they were running.</p>
+
+<p>My horrified senses whirled. Then abruptly I felt something
+touch my face! Alan and I were lying in shadow. No
+one had noticed my writhing movements, and Alan was
+still in drugged unconsciousness. Something tiny and light and
+soundless as a butterfly wing brushed my face! I jerked
+my head aside. On the floor, within six inches of my eyes,
+I saw the tiny figure of a girl an inch high! She stood, with
+a warning gesture to her lips&mdash;a human girl in a filmy flowing
+robe. Long, pale golden tresses lay on her white shoulders;
+her face, small as my little fingernail, colorful as a miniature
+painted on ivory, was so close to my eyes that I could see
+her expression&mdash;warning me not to move.</p>
+
+<p>There was a faint glow of light on the floor where she
+stood, but in a moment she moved out of it. Then I felt
+her brush against the back of my head. My ear was near the
+ground. A tiny warm hand touched my ear lobe; clung to it.
+A tiny voice sounded in my ear.</p>
+
+<p>"Please do not move your head. You might kill me!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There was a pause. I held myself rigid. Then the tiny
+voice came again.</p>
+
+<p>"I am Glora, a friend. I have the drug! I will help you!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+
+<p>It seemed that Alan was stirring. I felt the tiny hand leave
+my ear. I thought that I could hear faint little footfalls as
+the girl scampered away, fearful that a sudden movement
+by Alan would crush her. I turned cautiously after a moment
+and saw Alan's eyes upon me. He too had seen,
+with a blurred returning consciousness, the dwindling figures
+of Babs and Polter. I followed his gaze. The while
+slab with the golden quartz under the microscope seemed
+empty. The several men in this huge circular dome-room
+were dispersing to their affairs; three of them sat whispering
+by what I now saw was a pile of gold ingots stacked crosswise.
+But the fellow at the microscope held his place, his
+eyes glued to its aperture as he watched the vanishing figures
+of Polter and Babs on the rock-fragment.</p>
+
+<p>Alan was trying to convey something to me. He could
+only gaze and jerk his head. I saw behind his head the
+figures of the tiny girl on the floor behind him. She wanted
+evidently to approach his head, but didn't dare. When for an
+instant he was quiet, she ran forward, but at once scampered
+back.</p>
+
+<p>From the group by the ingots, one of the men rose and
+came toward us. Alan held still, watching. And the girl,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>
+Glora, seized the opportunity to come nearer. We both
+heard her tiny voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Do not move! Close your eyes! Make him think you are
+still unconscious."</p>
+
+<p>Then she was gone, like a mouse hiding in the shadows
+near us.</p>
+
+<p>Amazement swept Alan's face; he twisted, mouthed at his
+gag. But he saw my eager nod and took his cue from me.</p>
+
+<p>I closed my eyes and lay stiff, breathing slowly. Footsteps
+approached. A man bent over Alan and me.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you no conscious yet?" It was the voice of a foreigner,
+with a queer, indescribable intonation. A foot prodded us.
+"Wake up!"</p>
+
+<p>Then the footsteps retreated, and when I dared to look,
+the man was rejoining his fellows. It was a strange looking
+trio. They were heavy-set men in leather jackets and short,
+wide knee-length trousers. One wore tight, high boots, and
+the others a sort of white buckskin, with ankle straps. All
+were bare-headed&mdash;round, bullet heads of close-clipped black
+hair.</p>
+
+<p>I suddenly had another startling realization. These men
+were not of normal size as I had assumed! They were eight
+or ten feet tall at the very least! And they and the pile of
+ingots, instead of being close to me, were more distant than
+I had thought.</p>
+
+<p>Alan was trying to signal me. The tiny girl was again
+at his ear, whispering to him. And then she came to me.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a knife. See?" She backed away. I caught the
+pinpoint gleam of what might have been a knife in her
+hand. "I will get a little larger. I am too small to cut your
+ropes. You lie still, even after I have cut them."</p>
+
+<p>I nodded. The movement frightened her so that she leaped
+backward; but she came again, smiling. The three men
+were talking earnestly by the ingots. No one else was near us.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Glora's tiny voice was louder, so that we both could hear
+it at once.</p>
+
+<p>"When I free you, do not move or they may see that
+you are loose. I get larger now&mdash;a little larger&mdash;and return."</p>
+
+<p>She darted away and vanished. Alan and I lay listening
+to the voices of the three men. Two were talking in a
+strange tongue. One called to the man at the microscope,
+and he responded. The third man said suddenly:</p>
+
+<p>"Say, talk English. You know damn well I can't understand
+that lingo."</p>
+
+<p>"We say, McGuire, the two prisoners soon wake up."</p>
+
+<p>"What we oughta do is kill 'em. Polter's a fool."</p>
+
+<p>"The doctor say, wait for him return. Not long, what
+you call three, four hours."</p>
+
+<p>"And have the Quebec police up here lookin' for 'em?
+An' that damn girl he stole off the Terrace. What did he
+call her, Barbara Kent?"</p>
+
+<p>"These two who are drugged, their bodies can be thrown in
+a gully down behind St. Anne. That what the doctor plan
+to do, I think. Then the police find them&mdash;days maybe from
+now&mdash;and their smashed airship with them."</p>
+
+<p>Gruesome suggestion!</p>
+
+<p>The man at the microscope called, "They are almost gone
+I can hardly see them any more." He left the platform and
+joined the others. And I saw that he was much smaller than
+they&mdash;about my own size possibly.</p>
+
+<p>There seemed six men here altogether. Four now, by
+the ingots, and two others far across the room where I saw
+the dark entrance of the corridor-tunnel which led to
+Polter's castle.</p>
+
+<p>Again I felt a warning hand touch my face, and saw the
+figure of Glora standing by my head. She was larger now&mdash;about
+a foot tall. She moved past my eyes; stood by my
+mouth; bent down over my gag. I felt the cautious slide<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>
+of a tiny knife-blade inserted under the fabric of the gag.
+She hacked, tugged at it, and in a moment ripped it
+through.</p>
+
+<p>She stood panting from the effort. My heart was pounding
+with fear that she would be seen; but the man had turned
+the central light off when he left the microscope, and it
+was far darker here now than before.</p>
+
+<p>I moistened my dry mouth. My tongue was thick, but
+I could talk.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Glora."</p>
+
+<p>"Quiet!"</p>
+
+<p>I felt her hacking at the ropes around my wrists. And
+then at my ankles. It took her a long time, but at last I was
+free! I rubbed my arms and legs; felt the returning circulation
+in them.</p>
+
+<p>And presently Alan was free. "George, what&mdash;" he began.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait," I whispered. "Easy! Let her tell us what to do."</p>
+
+<p>We were unarmed. Two, against these six, three of whom
+were giants.</p>
+
+<p>Glora whispered, "Do not move! I have the drugs. But I
+can not give them to you when I am still so small. I have
+not enough. I will hide&mdash;there." Her little arm gestured to
+where, near us, half a dozen boxes were piled. "When I am
+large as you, I come back. Be ready, quickly to act. I may
+be seen. I give you then the drug."</p>
+
+<p>"But wait," Alan whispered. "Tell us&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"The drug to make you large. Large enough to fight these
+men. I had planned to do that myself, until I saw you
+held captive. That girl of your world the doctor just now
+steal, she is friend of yours?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes! But&mdash;" A thousand questions were springing in my
+mind, but this was no time to ask them. I amended, "Go on!
+Hurry! Give us the drug when you can."</p>
+
+<p>The little figure moved away from us and disappeared.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>
+Alan and I lay as we had before. But now we could whisper.
+We tried to anticipate what would happen; tried to plan, but
+that was futile. The thing was too strange, too astoundingly
+fantastic.</p>
+
+<p>How long Glora was gone I don't know. I think, not over
+three or four minutes. She came from her hiding place,
+crouching this time, and joined us. She was, probably, of
+normal Earth size&mdash;a small, frail-looking girl something
+over five feet tall. We saw now that she was quite young,
+still in her teens. We lay staring at her, amazed at her
+beauty. Her small oval face was pale, with the flush of
+pink upon her cheeks&mdash;a face queerly, transcendingly beautiful.
+It was wholly human, yet somehow unearthly, as
+though unmarked by even the heritage of our Earthly
+strifes.</p>
+
+<p>"Now! I am ready." She was fumbling at her robe. "I
+will give you each the same."</p>
+
+<p>Her gestures were rapid. She flung a quick glance at the
+distant men. Alan and I were tense. We could easily
+be discovered now, but we had to chance it. We were sitting
+erect. Alan murmured:</p>
+
+<p>"But what do we do? What happens? What&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>On the palm of her hand were two pink-white pellets.
+"Take these&mdash;one for each of you. Quickly!"</p>
+
+<p>Involuntarily we drew back. The thing abruptly was
+gruesome, frightening. Horribly frightening.</p>
+
+<p>"Quickly," she urged. "The drug is what you call highly
+radioactive. And volatile. Exposed to the air, it is gone very
+soon. You are afraid? No, I assure you it is not harmful."</p>
+
+<p>With a muttered curse at his own reluctance, Alan seized
+the small pellet. I stopped him.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait!"</p>
+
+<p>The men momentarily were engaged in a low-voiced,
+earnest discussion. I dared to hesitate a moment longer.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Glora, where will you be?"</p>
+
+<p>"Here. Right here. I will hide."</p>
+
+<p>"We want to go after Mr. Polter," I gestured. "Into the
+little piece of golden rock. That's where he went with the
+Earth girl, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. My world is there&mdash;within an atom there in that
+rock."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you take us?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes! But later."</p>
+
+<p>Alan whispered vehemently, "Why not now? We could
+get smaller, now."</p>
+
+<p>But she shook her head. "That is not possible. We would
+be seen as we climbed the platform and crossed the white
+slab."</p>
+
+<p>"No," I protested, "not if we get very small, hiding here
+first."</p>
+
+<p>She was smiling, but urgently fearful of this delay.
+"Should we get that small, then it would be, from here"&mdash;she
+gestured toward the microscope&mdash;"to there, a journey
+of very many miles. Don't you understand?"</p>
+
+<p>This thing so strange!</p>
+
+<p>Alan was plucking at me. "Ready, George?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>I put the pellet on my tongue. It tasted slightly sweet,
+but seemed to melt quickly and I swallowed it hastily. My
+heart, was pounding, but that was apprehension, not the
+drug. A thrill of heat ran through my veins as though my
+blood were on fire.</p>
+
+<p>Alan was clinging to me as we sat together. Glora again
+had vanished. In the background of my whirling consciousness
+the sudden thought hovered that she had tricked
+us; done to us something diabolical. But the thought was
+swept away in the confused flood of impressions upon me.</p>
+
+<p>I turned dizzily. "You all right, Alan?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I&mdash;I guess so."</p>
+
+<p>My ears were roaring, the room seemed whirling, but in
+a moment that passed. I felt a sudden growing sense of
+lightness. A humming was within me&mdash;a soundless tingle.
+The drug had gone to every tiny microscopic cell in my
+body. The myriad pores of my skin seemed thrilling with
+activity. I know now that it was the exuding volatile gas
+of this disintegrating drug. Like an aura it enveloped me,
+acted upon my garments.</p>
+
+<p>I learned later much of the principles of this and its
+companion drug but I had no thought for such things now.
+The huge dimly illumined room under the dome was swaying.
+Then abruptly it steadied. The strange sensations within me
+were lessening, or I forgot them, and I became aware of
+externals.</p>
+
+<p>The room was shrinking! As I stared, not with horror now,
+but with amazement and a coming triumph, I saw everywhere
+a slow, steady, crawling movement. The whole place was
+dwindling. The platform, the microscope, were nearer than
+before, and smaller. The pile of ingots, and men near there,
+were shifting toward me.</p>
+
+<p>"George! My God&mdash;this is weird!"</p>
+
+<p>I saw Alan's white face as I turned toward him. He was
+growing at the same rate as myself evidently, for in all the
+scene he only was unchanged.</p>
+
+<p>We could feel the movement. The floor under us was shifting,
+crawling slowly. From all directions it contracted as
+though it was being squeezed beneath us. In reality our
+expanding bodies were pushing outward.</p>
+
+<p>The pile of boxes which had been a few feet away, were
+thrusting themselves at me. I moved incautiously and knocked
+them over. They seemed small now, perhaps half their
+former size. Glora was standing behind them. I was sitting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>
+and she was standing, but across the litter our faces were
+level.</p>
+
+<p>"Stand up!" she murmured. "You all right now. I hide!"</p>
+
+<p>I struggled to my feet, drawing Alan up with me. Now!
+The time for action was upon us! We had already been
+discovered. The men were shouting, clambering to their
+feet. Alan and I stood swaying. The dome-room had contracted
+to half its former size. Near us was a little platform,
+chair and microscope. Small figures of men were rushing at
+us.</p>
+
+<p>I shouted, "Alan! Watch yourself!"</p>
+
+<p>We were unarmed. These men might have automatic
+weapons. But evidently they did not. Only knives were in
+their hands. The whole place was ringing with shouts. And
+then a shrill siren alarm from outside started clanging.</p>
+
+<p>The first of the men&mdash;a few moments before he had seemed
+a giant&mdash;flung himself upon me. His head was lower than
+my shoulders. I met him with a blow of my fist in his face.
+He toppled backward; but from one side another figure came
+at me. A knife-blade bit into the flesh of my thigh.</p>
+
+<p>The pain seemed to fire my brain. A madness descended
+upon me. It was the madness of abnormality. I saw Alan
+with two dwarfed figures clinging to him. But he threw
+them off, and they turned and ran.</p>
+
+<p>The man at my thigh stabbed again, but I caught his
+wrist and, as though he were a child, whirled him around
+me and flung him away. He landed with a crash against
+the shrunken pile of gold nuggets and lay still.</p>
+
+<p>The place was in a turmoil. Other men were appearing
+from outside. But they now stood well away from us. Alan
+backed against me. His laugh rang out, half hysterical
+with the madness upon him as it was upon me.</p>
+
+<p>"God! George, look at them! So small!"</p>
+
+<p>They were now hardly the height of our knees. This was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>
+now a small circular room, under a lowering concave dome.
+A shot came from the group of Pygmy figures. I saw the
+small stab of flame, heard the zing of the bullet.</p>
+
+<p>We rushed, with the full frenzy of madness upon us&mdash;enraged
+giants. What actually happened I cannot recount.
+I recall scattering the little figures; seizing them; flinging
+them headlong. A bullet, tiny now, stung the calf of my leg.
+Little chairs and tables under my feet were crashing. Alan
+was lunging back and forth; stamping; flinging his tiny adversaries
+away.</p>
+
+<p>There were twenty or thirty of the figures here now. I
+feared that they might produce more up-to-date weapons.
+But my fears were unfounded: soon I saw these figures
+making their escape.</p>
+
+<p>The room was littered with wreckage. I saw that by some
+miracle of chance the microscope was still standing, and
+I had a moment of sanity.</p>
+
+<p>"Alan! Watch out! The microscope&mdash;the platform! Don't
+smash them! And Glora be careful not to hurt her!"</p>
+
+<p>I suddenly became aware that my head and my shoulders
+had struck the dome roof. Why, this was a tiny room! Alan
+and I found ourselves backed together, panting in the small
+confines of a circular cubby with an arching dome close
+over us. At our feet the platform with the microscope over
+it hardly reached our boot tops. There was a sudden silence,
+broken only by our heavy breathing. The tiny forms of
+humans strewn around us were all motionless. The others
+had fled.</p>
+
+<p>Then we heard a small voice. "Here! Take this! Quickly!
+You are too large. Quickly!"</p>
+
+<p>Alan took a step. And sudden panic was on us both.
+Glora was here at our feet. We did not dare turn; hardly
+dared to move. To change position might have crushed her
+now that she had left her hiding place. My leg hit the top<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>
+of the microscope cylinder. It rocked but did not fall.</p>
+
+<p>Where was Glora? In the gloom we could not see her.
+We were in a panic.</p>
+
+<p>Alan began, "George, I&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The contracting inner curve of the dome bumped gently
+against my head. Our panic and confusion turned into cold
+fear. The room was closing in to crush us.</p>
+
+<p>I muttered, "Alan! I'm going out!" I braced myself and
+heaved against the side and top curve of the dome. Its
+metal ribs and heavy translucent, reinforced glass plates
+resisted me. There was an instant when Alan and I were
+desperately frightened. We were trapped, to be crushed
+in here by our own horrible growth. Then the dome yielded
+under our smashing blows. The ribs bent; the plates cracked.</p>
+
+<p>We straightened, pushed upward and emerged through
+the broken dome, with head and shoulders towering into
+the outside darkness and the wind and snow of the blizzard
+howling around us.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+
+<p>"Glora&mdash;that was horrible!"</p>
+
+<p>We stood, again in normal size, with the wrecked dome-laboratory
+around us. The dome had a great jagged hole
+halfway up one of its sides, through which the snow was
+falling. The broken bodies strewn around were gruesome.</p>
+
+<p>Alan repeated, "Horrible, Glora. The power of this drug
+is diabolical."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Glora had grown large after us and had given us the
+companion drug. I need not detail the strange sensations
+of our dwindling. We were so soon to experience them again!</p>
+
+<p>We had searched, when still large, all of Polter's grounds.
+Some of his men undoubtedly escaped, made off into the
+blizzard. How many, we never knew. None of them ever
+made themselves known again.</p>
+
+<p>We were ready to start into the atom. The fragment of
+golden quartz still lay under the microscope on the white
+square of stone slab. We had hurried with our last preparations.
+The room was chilling. We were all inadequately
+dressed for such cold.</p>
+
+<p>I left a note scribbled on a square of paper by the
+microscope. With daylight Polter's wrecked place would
+be discovered and the police would surely come.</p>
+
+<p><i>Guard this piece of golden quartz. Take it at once, very
+carefully, to the Royal Canadian Scientific Society. Have
+it watched day and night. We will return.</i></p>
+
+<p>I signed it George Randolph. And as I did so, the extra
+ordinary aspect of these events swept me anew. Here in
+Polter's weird place I had been living in some strange
+fantastic realm. But this was the Province of Quebec, in
+civilized Canada. These were the Quebec authorities I was
+addressing.</p>
+
+<p>I flung the thoughts away. "Ready, Glora?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>Then doubts assailed me. None of Polter's men had gotten
+large enough to fight us. Evidently he did not trust them
+with the drug. We could well believe that, for the thing
+misused, was diabolical beyond human conception. A single
+giant, a criminal, a madman, by the power of giant size
+alone, could menace and destroy beyond belief. The drug
+lost, or carelessly handled, could get loose. Animals, insects
+eating it, could roam the Earth, gigantic monsters. Vegetation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>
+nourished with the drug, might in a day overrun a big city,
+burying it with jungle growth!</p>
+
+<p>How terrible a thing, if the realm of smallness were
+suddenly to emerge, consume this awe inspiring drug!
+Monsters of the sea, marine organisms, could expand until
+even the ocean was too small for them. Microbes of disease,
+feeding upon it&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Alan was prodding me. "We're ready, George."</p>
+
+<p>"Okay, let's go."</p>
+
+<p>This was not the largeness we were facing now, but
+smallness. I thought of Babs, down there with Polter, beyond
+the vanishing point in the realm of infinitely small. They
+had been gone an hour at least. Every moment lost now was
+adding to Babs' danger.</p>
+
+<p>Glora sat with us on the platform. Strange little creature!
+She was wholly calm now; methodical with her last directions.
+There had been no time for her to tell us anything about
+herself. Alan had asked her why she had come here and how
+she had gotten the drugs. She waved him away.</p>
+
+<p>"On the way down. Plenty of time then."</p>
+
+<p>"How long will it take us?" Alan demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Not too long if we are careful with managing the trip.
+About ten hours."</p>
+
+<p>And now we were ready to start. She told us calmly:</p>
+
+<p>"I will give you each your share of the drugs, but then
+you take only as I tell you."</p>
+
+<p>She produced from her robe several small vials a few
+inches long. They were tightly stoppered. The feel of them
+was cool and sleek; they seemed to be made of some strange,
+polished metal. Some of them were tinted black while the
+others glowed opalescent. She gave each of us one vial of
+each kind.</p>
+
+<p>"The light ones are for diminishing," she said. "We take
+them very carefully, one small pellet only at first."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Alan was opening one of his, but she checked him.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait! The drug evaporates very quickly. I have more
+to say. First we sit here together. Then you follow me to
+the white slab. We climb upon the little rock."</p>
+
+<p>She laid her hands on my arms. Her blue eyes regarded
+us earnestly. Her manner was naive; childlike. But I could
+not mistake her intelligence or the force of character stamped
+on her face for all its dainty, ethereal beauty.</p>
+
+<p>"Alan&mdash;" She smiled at him, and tossed back a straying
+lock of her hair which was annoying her. "You pay attention,
+Alan. You are very young, reckless. You listen. We must
+not be separated. You understand that, both of you? We
+will be always in that little piece of rock. But there will be
+miles of distance. And to be lost in size&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>What a strange journey upon which we were now starting!
+Lost in size?</p>
+
+<p>"You understand me? Lost in size. If that happens, we
+might never find each other. And if we come upon the
+Doctor Polter and the girl he holds captive&mdash;if we can overtake
+them&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"We must!" I exclaimed. "And we must get started."</p>
+
+<p>She showed us which pellet to select. They were of
+several sizes, I found. And as she afterward told us, the
+larger ones were not only larger but of an intensified strength.
+We took the smallest. It was barely a thousandth part of the
+strength of the largest. In unison we placed the pellets on
+our tongues, and hastily swallowed.</p>
+
+<p>The first sensations were as before. And, familiar now, they
+caused no more than a fleeting discomfort. But I think I
+could never get used to the outward strangeness!</p>
+
+<p>The room in a moment was expanding. I could feel the
+platform floor crawling outward beneath me, so that I had
+to hitch and change my position as it pulled. We were seated
+together, Alan and I on each side of Glora. My fingers were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>
+on her arm. It did not change size, but it slowly drew
+away with a space opening between us. Overhead, the dome
+roof, the great jagged hole there, was receding, lifting, moving
+upward and away.</p>
+
+<p>Glora pulled us to our feet. "We had better start now.
+The distance grows very far, so quickly."</p>
+
+<p>We had been sitting within five feet of the stone slab with
+its four inch high railing around it. A chair was by the
+microscope eyepiece. As we stood swaying I saw that the chair
+was huge, and its seat level with my head. The great barrel-cylinder
+of the microscope slanted sixty feet upward. The
+dome roof was a distant spread three hundred feet up in the
+dimness. The dome-room was a vast arena now.</p>
+
+<p>Alan and I must have hesitated, confused by the expanding
+scene&mdash;a slow, steady movement everywhere. Everything
+was drawing away from us. Even as we stood together, the
+creeping platform floor was separating us.</p>
+
+<p>A moment passed. Glora was urging us on vehemently:</p>
+
+<p>"Come! You must not stand there!"</p>
+
+<p>We started walking. The railing around the slab was knee-high.
+The slab itself was a broad, square surface. The
+fragment of golden quartz lay in its center. It was now a
+jagged lump nearly a foot in diameter.</p>
+
+<p>The platform seemed to shift as we walked; the railing
+hardly came closer as we advanced toward it. Then suddenly
+I realized that it was receding. Thirty feet away? No, now
+it was more than that&mdash;a great, thick rope, waist-high, with
+a huge spread of white surface behind it.</p>
+
+<p>"Faster!" urged Glora. We ran, and reached the railing.
+It was higher than our heads. We ran under it, and cut
+out upon the white slab&mdash;a level surface, larger now than the
+whole dome-room had been.</p>
+
+<p>Glora, like a fawn, ran in advance of us, her robe flying
+in the wind. She turned to look back.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Faster! Faster, or it will be too hard a climb!"</p>
+
+<p>Ahead lay a golden mound of rock. It was widening;
+raising its top steadily higher. Beyond it and over it was a
+vast dim distance. We reached the rock, breathless, winded.
+It was a jagged mound like a great fifty-foot butte. We
+plunged upon it and began climbing.</p>
+
+<p>The ascent was steep; precipitous in places. There were
+little gullies, which expanded as we climbed up them. It
+seemed as if we would never reach the top, but at last we
+were there. I was aware that the drug had ceased its action.
+The yellow, rocky ground was no longer expanding.</p>
+
+<p>We came to the summit and stood to get back our breath.
+Alan and I gazed with awe upon the top of a rocky hill.
+Little buttes and strewn boulders lay everywhere. It was all
+naked rock, ridged and pitted, and everywhere yellow-tinged.</p>
+
+<p>Overhead was distance. I could not call it a sky. A blur
+was there&mdash;something almost but not quite distinguishable.
+Then I thought that I could make out a more solid blur
+which might be the lower lens of the microscope above us.
+And there were blurred, very distant spots of light, like
+huge suns masked by a haze, and I knew that they were
+the hooded lights of the laboratory room.</p>
+
+<p>Before us, over the brink of a five hundred-foot drop, a
+great glistening plain stretched into the distance. I seemed
+to see where it ended in a murky blur. And far higher than
+our hilltop level a horizontal streak marked the rope railing of
+the slab.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Alan. "We're here." He gazed behind us,
+back across the rocky summit which seemed several hundred
+feet across to its opposite brink. He was smiling, but the
+smile faded. "Now what, Glora? Another pellet?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. Not yet. There is a place where we go down. It is
+marked in my mind."</p>
+
+<p>I had a sudden ominous sense that we three were not alone<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>
+up here. Glora led us back from the cliff. As we picked our
+way among the naked crags, it seemed behind each of them
+an enemy might be lurking.</p>
+
+<p>"Glora, do you know if any of Dr. Polter's men might have
+the drug? I mean, do they come in and out of here?"</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head. "I think not. He lets no one have the
+drug. He trusts not anyone. I stole it. I will tell you later.
+Much I have to tell you before we arrive."</p>
+
+<p>Alan made a sudden, sidewise leap, and dashed around a
+rock. He came back to us, smiling ruefully.</p>
+
+<p>"Gets on your nerves, all of this. I had the same idea you
+had, George. Might be someone around here. But I guess
+not." He took Glora's hand and they walked in advance of
+me. "We haven't thanked you yet, Glora," he added.</p>
+
+<p>"Not needed. I came for help from your world. I followed
+the Dr. Polter when he came outward. He has made my world
+and my people, his slaves. I came for help. And because
+I have helped you, needs no thanks."</p>
+
+<p>"But we do thank you, Glora." Alan turned his flushed,
+earnest face back to me. I thought I had never seen him
+so handsome, with his boyish, rugged features and shock
+of tousled brown hair. The grimness of adventure was upon
+him, but in his eyes there was something else. It was not for
+me to see it. That was for Glora; and I think that even then
+its presence and its meaning did not escape her.</p>
+
+<p>We reached a little gully near the center of the hilltop.
+It was some twenty feet deep.</p>
+
+<p>Glora paused. "We descend here."</p>
+
+<p>The gully was an unmistakable landmark&mdash;open at one end,
+forty feet long, with the other end terminating in a blind
+wall which now loomed above us.</p>
+
+<p>"A pit is here&mdash;a hole. I cannot tell just how large it will
+look when we are in this size."</p>
+
+<p>We found it and stood over it&mdash;a foot-wide circular hole<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>
+extending downward. Alan knelt and shoved his hand and
+arm into it, but Glora sprang at him.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't do that!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not? How deep is it?"</p>
+
+<p>She retorted sharply, "The Doctor Polter is ahead of us.
+How far away in size, who knows? Do you want to crush
+him, and crush that young girl with him?"</p>
+
+<p>Alan's jaw dropped. "Good Lord!"</p>
+
+<p>We stood with the little pit before us, and another of the
+pellets ready.</p>
+
+<p>"Now!" said Glora.</p>
+
+<p>Again we took the drug, a somewhat larger pellet this time.
+The familiar sensations began. Everywhere the rocks were
+creeping with a slow inexorable movement, the landscape
+expanding around us. The gully walls drew back and upward.
+In a moment they were cliff walls and we were in a broad
+valley.</p>
+
+<p>We had been standing close together. We had not moved,
+except to shift our feet as the expanding ground drew them
+apart. I became aware that Alan and Glora were a distance
+from me. Glora called:</p>
+
+<p>"Come, George! We're going down&mdash;quickly now."</p>
+
+<p>We ran to the pit. It had expanded to a great round hole
+some six feet wide and equally as deep. Glora let herself
+down, peered anxiously beneath her, and dropped. Alan
+and I followed. We jammed the pit; but as we stood there,
+the walls were receding and lifting.</p>
+
+<p>I had remarked Glora's downward glance, and shuddered.
+Suppose, in some slightly smaller size, Babs had been among
+these rocks!</p>
+
+<p>The pit widened steadily. The movement was far swifter
+now. We stood presently in a great circular valley. It seemed
+fully a mile in diameter, with huge encircling walls like a
+crater rim towering thousands of feet into the air. We ran<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>
+along the base of one expanding wall, following Glora.</p>
+
+<p>I noticed now that overhead the turgid murk had turned
+into the blue of distance. A sky. It was faintly sky-blue,
+and seemed hazy, almost as though clouds were forming.
+It had been cold when we started. The exertion had kept
+us fairly comfortable; But now I realized that it was far
+warmer. This was different air, more humid, and I thought
+the smell of moist earth was in it. Rocks and boulders were
+strewn here on the floor of this giant valley, and I saw
+occasional pools of water. There had been rain recently!</p>
+
+<p>The realization came with a shock of surprise. This was
+a new world! A faint, luminous twilight was around us. And
+then I noticed that the light was not altogether coming from
+overhead. It seemed inherent to the rocks themselves. They
+glowed, very faintly luminous, as though phosphorescent.</p>
+
+<p>We were now well embarked upon this strange journey.
+We seldom spoke. Glora was intent upon guiding us. She
+was trying to make the best possible speed. I realized that
+it was a case of judgment, as well as physical haste. We
+had dropped into that six-foot pit. Had we waited a few
+moments longer, the depth would have been a hundred
+feet, two hundred, a thousand! It would have involved hours
+of arduous descent&mdash;if we had lingered until we were a trifle
+smaller!</p>
+
+<p>We took other pellets. We traveled perhaps an hour more.
+There were many instances of Glora's skill. We squeezed
+into a gully and waited until it widened; we leapt over
+expanding caverns; we slid down a smooth yellowish slide
+of rocks, and saw it behind and over us, rising to become
+a great spreading ramp extending upward into the blue of
+the sky. Now, up there, little sailing white clouds were
+visible. And down where we stood it was deep twilight,
+queerly silvery with the dim light from the luminous rocks,
+as though some hidden moon were shining.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Strange, new world! I suddenly envisaged the full strangeness
+of it. Around me were spreading miles of barren, naked
+landscape. I gazed off to where, across the rugged plateau we
+were traversing, there was a range of hills. Behind and above
+them were mountains; serrated tiers; higher and more distant.
+An infinite spread of landscape! And, as we dwindled, still
+other vast reaches opened before us. I gazed overhead.
+Was it&mdash;compared to my stature now&mdash;a thousand miles,
+perhaps even a million miles up to where we had been two
+or three hours ago? I thought so.</p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly I caught the other viewpoint. This was
+all only an inch of golden quartz&mdash;if one were large enough
+to see it that way!</p>
+
+<p>Alan had been trying to memorize the main topographical
+features of our route. It was not as difficult as it seemed at
+first. We were always far larger than normal in comparison
+to our environment, and the main distinguishing characteristics
+of the landscape were obvious&mdash;the blind gully, with the
+round pit, for instance, or the ramp slide.</p>
+
+<p>We had been traveling some three or four hours when
+Glora suggested a rest. We were at the edge of a broad
+canyon. The wall towered several hundred feet above us;
+but a few moments before, we had jumped down it with
+a single leap!</p>
+
+<p>The last pellet we had taken had ceased its action. We sat
+down to rest. It was a wild, mountainous scene around us,
+deep with luminous gloom. We could barely see across the
+canyon to its distant cliff wall. The wall beside us had
+been smooth, but now it was broken and ridged. There were
+ravines in it, and dark holes resembling cave-mouths. One
+was near us. Alan gazed at it apprehensively.</p>
+
+<p>"I say, Glora, I don't like sitting here."</p>
+
+<p>I had been telling her all we knew of Polter. She listened
+quietly, seldom interrupting me. Then she said:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I understand. I tell you now about Polter as I have seen
+him."</p>
+
+<p>She talked for five or ten minutes. I listened, amazed,
+awed by what she said.</p>
+
+<p>But Alan's insistence interrupted her. "Come on, let's get
+out of here. That tunnel-mouth, or cave, or whatever it
+is&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But we go in there," she protested. "A little tunnel.
+That is our way to travel. We are not far from my city now."</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps Alan felt what once was called a hunch, a premonition,
+the presage of evil which I think comes strangely to
+us more often than we realize. Whatever it was, we had no
+time to act upon it. The tunnel-mouth which had caused
+Alan's apprehension was about a hundred feet away. It was
+a ten-foot, yawning hole in the cliff. Perhaps Alan sensed
+a movement in there. As I turned to look at it a great, hairy
+human arm came out of the opening! Then a shoulder! A
+head!</p>
+
+<p>The giant figure of a man came squeezing through the
+hole on his hands and knees! He gathered himself, and as
+he stood erect, I saw that he was growing in size! Already
+he was twenty feet tall compared to us&mdash;a thick-set fellow,
+dressed in leather garments, his legs and arms heavily matted
+with black hair. He stood swaying, gazing around him. I
+stared up at his round bullet head, his villainous face.</p>
+
+<p>He saw us! Stupid amazement struck him, then comprehension.</p>
+
+<p>He let out a roar and came at us!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+
+<p>Glora shouted, "Into the tunnel! This way!" She held her
+wits and darted to one side, with Alan and me after her. We
+ran through a narrow passage between two fifty-foot boulders
+which lay close together. Momentarily the giant was out of
+sight, but we could hear his heavy tread and panting breath.
+We emerged having passed him. He was taller now. He
+seemed confused at our sudden scampering activity. He
+checked his forward rush, and ran around the twin boulders.
+But we had squeezed into a narrow ravine. He could not
+follow. He threw a rock. To us it was a boulder. It crashed
+behind us. To him, we were like scampering insects; he
+could not tell which way we were about to dart.</p>
+
+<p>Alan panted, "Glora, does this lead out?"</p>
+
+<p>The little ravine seemed to open fifty feet ahead of us.
+Alan stopped, seized a chunk of rock, flung it up. I saw
+the giant's face above us. He was kneeling to reach in. The
+rock hit him on the forehead&mdash;a pebble, but it stung him.
+His face rose away.</p>
+
+<p>Again we emerged. The tunnel-mouth was near us. We
+reached it and flung ourselves into its ten-foot width just
+as the giant came lunging up. He was far larger than before.
+Looking back, I could see only the lower part of his legs
+blocked against the outer light.</p>
+
+<p>"Glora! Alan, where are you?"</p>
+
+<p>For a moment I did not see them. It was darker in this
+tunnel of broken rocky walls, and jagged arching roof than
+outside.</p>
+
+<p>Then I heard Alan's voice: "George! Over here!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>They came running to me. For a moment we stood, undecided.
+My eyes were becoming accustomed to the gloom.
+The tunnel was illumined by a dim phosphorescence from
+the rocks. I saw Alan fumbling for his vials, but Glora
+stopped him.</p>
+
+<p>"No. We are the right size."</p>
+
+<p>We were about a hundred feet back from the opening. The
+giant's legs disappeared. But in a moment the round, light
+hole of the exit was obscured again. His head and shoulders!
+He was lying prone. His great arms came in. He hitched
+forward. The width of his expanding shoulders wedged.</p>
+
+<p>I think that he expected to reach us with a single snatch
+of his tremendous arms. Or perhaps he was confused, or
+forgot his growth. He did not reach us. His shoulders
+stuck. Then suddenly he was trying to back out, but could not!</p>
+
+<p>It was only a moment. We stood in the radiant gloom of
+the tunnel, confused and frightened. The giant's voice roared,
+reverberating around us. Anger. A note of fear. Finally stark
+terror. He heaved, but the rocks of the opening held solid.
+Then there was a crack, a gruesome rattling, splintering&mdash;his
+shoulder bones breaking. His whole gigantic body gave
+a last convulsive lunge, and he emitted a deafening shrill
+scream of agony.</p>
+
+<p>I was aware of the tunnel-mouth breaking upward. Falling
+rocks&mdash;an avalanche, a cataclysm around us. Then light
+overhead.</p>
+
+<p>The giant's crushed body lay motionless. A pile of
+boulders, rocks and loose metallic earth was strewn upon
+his head and torso, illumined by the outer light through
+a jagged rent where the cliff-face had fallen down.</p>
+
+<p>We were unhurt, crouching back from the avalanche. The
+giant's mangled body was still expanding; shoving at the
+litter of loose rocks. In a moment it would again be too
+small for the broken cliff opening.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I found my wits. "Alan, we've got to get out of here.
+God&mdash;don't you see what's happening?"</p>
+
+<p>But Glora restrained us. She realized that the effect of the
+drug the giant had taken was about at its end. The growth
+presently stopped. That huge noisome mass of pulp which
+once had been human shoulders no longer expanded.</p>
+
+<p>I shoved Glora away. "Don't look!" I was shaking; my
+head was reeling. Alan's face, painted by the phosphorescence,
+was ghastly.</p>
+
+<p>Glora pulled at us. "This way! The tunnel is not too long.
+We go."</p>
+
+<p>But the giant had drugs, and perhaps weapons. "Wait!" I
+urged. "You two wait here. I'll climb over him."</p>
+
+<p>I told them why, and ran. I can only leave to the imagination
+that brief exploratory climb. The broken body seemed
+at least a hundred feet long; the mangled shoulders and
+chest filled the great torn hole in the cliff. I climbed over
+the litter. Indescribable, horrible scene! A river of warm
+blood was flowing down the declivity outward....</p>
+
+<p>I came back to Glora and Alan. Under my arm was a huge
+cylinder vial. It was black, the enlarging drug. I set it down.
+They stared at me in my bloodstained garments.</p>
+
+<p>"George! You're&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"His blood, not mine." I tried to smile. "Here's the drug
+he carried. Evidently Polter was only sending him out because
+I found just the one drug."</p>
+
+<p>"What'll we do with it?" Alan demanded. "Look at the
+size of it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Destroy it," said Glora. "See, that is not difficult." She
+tugged at the huge stopper, and exposed a few of the pellets&mdash;to
+us as large as apples. "The air will soon spoil it."</p>
+
+<p>We left it in the tunnel. I also had with me a great roll
+of paper which had been folded in the giant's belt, with
+the drug cylinder. We unrolled it, and hauled its folds to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>
+a spread some ten feet long. It was covered with a scrawled
+handwriting in pencil, but its giant characters seemed thick
+blurred strokes of charcoal. We could not read it; we were
+too close. Alan and Glora held it up against the tunnel wall.
+From a distance I could make it out. It was a note written
+in English, signed "Polter," evidently to one of his men.</p>
+
+<p>It read:</p>
+
+<p><i>The two prisoners, kill them at once. That is better. It
+will be too dangerous to wait for my return. Put their bodies
+with their airplane. Crash it a mile from my gate.</i></p>
+
+<p>Full directions for our death followed. And Polter said he
+would return by dawn or soon after.</p>
+
+<p>That gave me a start. By dawn! We had been traveling
+four or five hours. It was already dawn up there now!</p>
+
+<p>"No," Glora explained, "the time in here is different. A
+different time-rate. I do not know how much difference.
+My world speeds faster; yours is very slow. It is not the
+dawn up there quite yet."</p>
+
+<p>Again my mind strove to encompass these things&mdash;so
+strange. A faster time-rate prevailed in here? Then our lives
+were passing more quickly. We were living, experiencing
+things, compressed into a shorter interval. It was not apparent:
+there was nothing to which comparison could be made. I
+recalled Alan's description of Polter&mdash;not thirty years old as
+he should have been, but nearer fifty. I could understand
+that, now. A day in here was equal to only a few hours on
+our gigantic world outside.</p>
+
+<p>We walked the length of the tunnel. I suppose it was a
+quarter of a mile, to us in this size. It wound through the
+cliff with a steady downward slope. And suddenly I realized
+that we had turned downward nearly half the diameter of a
+circle! We had turned over&mdash;or at least it seemed so. But the
+gravity was the same. I had noticed from the beginning very
+little change.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The realization of this tunnel brought a mental confusion.
+I lost all sense of direction. The outer world of Earth was
+under my feet, instead of overhead. Then we went level.
+I forgot the confusion: this was normality here. We turned
+upward a little. Cross tunnels intersected ours at intervals.
+I saw caverns, open, widened tunnels, as though this mountain
+were honeycombed.</p>
+
+<p>"Look!" said Glora. "There is the way out. All these passages
+lead the same way."</p>
+
+<p>There was a glow of light ahead. I recall that I was at
+that moment fumbling at my belt in two small compartments
+in which I was carrying the two vials of the drugs which
+Glora had given me. Alan wore the same sort of belt. We
+had found them in the wrecked dome-room. I heard a click
+on the ground at my feet. I was about to stoop to see what
+I had kicked&mdash;only a loose stone, perhaps&mdash;but Glora's words
+distracted me. I did not stoop. If only I had, how different
+events might have been!</p>
+
+<p>The glow of light ahead of us widened as we approached,
+and presently we stood at the end of the tunnel. A spread
+of open distance was outside. We were on a ledge of a
+steep rocky wall some fifty feet above a wide level landscape.
+Vegetation! I saw trees&mdash;a forest off to the left. A range of
+naked hills lay behind it. A mile away, in front and to the
+right, a little town nestled on the shore of shining water.
+There was starlight on the water! And over it a vast blue-purple
+sky was studded with stars.</p>
+
+<p>I gazed, with that first sudden shock of emotion, into
+the infinite depths of interplanetary space! Light years of
+distance. Gigantic worlds, blazing suns off there shrunken by
+distance now to little points of light. A universe was here!</p>
+
+<p>But this was an inch of golden quartz!</p>
+
+<p>Above my head were stars which, compared to my bodily
+size now, were vast worlds ten thousand light-years away!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>
+Yet, from the other viewpoint, I had only descended perhaps
+an eighth, or a quarter of an inch, beneath the broken pitted
+surface of a little fragment of golden quartz the size of a
+walnut&mdash;into just one of its myriads of golden atoms!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+
+<p>"My world," Glora was saying. "You like it? See the starlight
+on the lake? I have heard that your world looks like
+this at night, in summer. Ours is always like this. No day,
+no night. Just like this&mdash;starlight." Her hand went to Alan's
+shoulder. "You like it? My world?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Glora. It's very beautiful."</p>
+
+<p>There was a sheen on everything, a soft, glowing sheen of
+phosphorescence from the rocks rising to meet the pale wan
+starlight. The night air was soft, with a gentle breeze that
+rippled the distant lake into a great spread of gold and silver
+light.</p>
+
+<p>The city was called Orena. I saw at once that we were about
+normal size in relation to its houses and people. There were
+fields beneath our ledge, with farm implements lying in
+them; no workers, for this was the time for sleep. Ribbons
+of roads wound over the country, pale streamers in the
+starlight.</p>
+
+<p>Glora gestured, "The giants are on their island. Everyone
+sleeps now. You see the island off there?"</p>
+
+<p>Beyond the city, over the low stone roofs of its flat-topped
+dwellings, the silver spread of lake showed a green-clad
+island some three miles off shore. The distance made its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>
+white stone houses seem small. But as I gazed, I realized
+that they were large compared to their environment, all far
+larger than those of the little town. The island was perhaps
+a mile in length. Between it and the mainland a boat was
+coming toward us. It was a dark blob of hull on the shining
+water, and above it a queerly shaped circular sail was puffed
+out, like a balloon parachute, by the wind.</p>
+
+<p>"The giants live there?" said Alan. "You mean Polter's
+men?"</p>
+
+<p>"And women. Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Are there many giants?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"How many?" I put in. "How large are they? In relation
+to us now, I mean. And to your normal size?"</p>
+
+<p>"You ask so many questions so fast, George. There are two
+hundred or more of the giants. And there are more than that
+many thousands of our people, here. Slaves, because the
+giants are four times as large. This little city, these fields,
+these hills of stone and metal, all this was ours to have in
+peace and happiness until your Polter came."</p>
+
+<p>She gestured. "Everywhere is a great reach of desert and
+forest. There are insects, but no wild beasts&mdash;nothing to
+harm us. Nature is kind here. The weather is always like this.
+We were happy, until Polter came."</p>
+
+<p>"And only a few thousand people," Alan said. "No other
+cities?"</p>
+
+<p>"What lies off in the great distance, we do not know. Our
+nation is ten times what is here. We have a few other cities,
+and some of our people live in the forests."</p>
+
+<p>She broke off. "That boat is coming for Polter. He is in the
+city no doubt of that. The boat will take him and that girl
+you call Babs, to the giant's island. His castle is there."</p>
+
+<p>I turned to Alan. "They must have arrived only recently.
+Before we go any further we have to decide what size to be.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>
+We can't be gigantic because I'm sure he'd kill Babs if he
+sees us. We've got to plan!"</p>
+
+<p>If we could get on that boat and go with him to the
+island&mdash;But in what size? Very small? But then, if we were
+very small it would take us hours to get from here to the
+boat. Glora pointed out where it would land&mdash;just beyond
+the village where the houses were set in a sparse fringe. It
+would be there, apparently, in ten or fifteen minutes. Polter
+probably was there now with Babs, waiting for it.</p>
+
+<p>In our present size we could not get there in time. It was
+two or three miles at least. But a trifle larger&mdash;the size of
+one of Polter's giants&mdash;we would be able to make it. We
+would be seen, but in the pale starlight, keeping away from
+the city as much as possible, we might only be mistaken for
+Polter's people. And when we got closer we would diminish
+our size, creep into the boat, get near Babs and Polter and
+then plan what to do.</p>
+
+<p>We climbed down from the ledge and stood at the base
+of the towering cliff which reared its jagged wall against
+the stars. A field and a road were near us. The road seemed
+of normal size. A man was in the field. He was apparently
+about my height. He presently discarded his work, walked
+away from us and vanished.</p>
+
+<p>"Hurry, Glora." Alan and I stood beside her while she
+took pellets from her vials. We wanted our stature now to
+be four times what it was. Glora gave us pellets of both
+drugs, one of which was slightly more intense than the other.</p>
+
+<p>"Polter made them this way," she said. "The two taken
+at once give just the growth to take us from this normal
+size to the stature of the giants."</p>
+
+<p>Alan and I did not touch our own vials. We had used none
+of our enlarging drug upon the journey, and the supply she
+had given us of the other was almost gone.</p>
+
+<p>As I took these pellets which Glora now gave us, standing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>
+there by the side of that road, I recall that I was struck with
+the realization that never once upon this journey had I
+conceived myself to be other than normal stature. I am
+normally about six feet tall. I still felt&mdash;there in that golden
+atom&mdash;the same height. This landscape seemed of normal
+size. There were trees nearby&mdash;spreading, fantastic-looking
+growths with great strings of pods hanging from them. But
+still&mdash;as I looked up to see one arching over me with its
+blue-brown leaves and an air-vine carrying vivid yellow
+blossoms&mdash;whatever the size of the tree, I could only conceive
+of myself as a normal man of six-foot stature standing
+beneath it. The human ego always supreme! Around each
+man's consciousness of himself the entire universe revolves.</p>
+
+<p>We crouched on the ground when this growth now began;
+it would not do to be observed changing size. Polter's giants
+never did that. Years before, he had made them large&mdash;his
+few hundred men and women. They were, Glora said, people
+both of this realm and from our great world above&mdash;dissolute
+criminal characters who had now set themselves up here
+as the nucleus of a ruling race.</p>
+
+<p>In a moment now, we were the size of these giants. Twenty
+to twenty-five feet tall, in relation to the environment. But
+I did not feel so. As I stood up&mdash;still feeling myself in normal
+stature&mdash;I saw around me a shrunken little landscape. The
+trees, as though in a Japanese garden, were about my own
+height; the road was a smooth, level path; the little field
+near us had a toy fence around it. On another road nearby
+a man was walking. In height he would barely have reached
+my knees. He saw us rise beside the trees. He darted off in
+alarm, and disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>I have taken longer to tell all this than the actual time
+which passed. We could see the boat coming from the island,
+and it was still a fair distance off shore. We ran along the
+road, skirting the edge of the little town. None of its houses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>
+were taller than ourselves. The windows and doorways were
+ovals into which we could only have inserted a head or an
+arm. Most of them were dark. Little people occasionally
+stared out, saw us run past, and ducked back, thankful that
+we did not stop to harass them.</p>
+
+<p>"This way," said Glora. She ran like a faun, hardly winded,
+with Alan and me heavily panting behind her. "There
+are trees&mdash;thick trees&mdash;quite near where the boat lands. We
+can get in them and hide and change our size to smallness.
+But hurry, for we shall need a great deal of time when we
+are small!"</p>
+
+<p>The little spread of town and the shining lake remained
+always to our right. In five minutes we were past most of
+the houses. A patch of woods, with thick, interlacing treetops
+about our own height, lay ahead. It extended a few
+hundred feet over to the lake shore. The sailboat was heading
+in close. There was a broad starlit roadway at the edge of
+the lake, and a dock at which the boat was preparing to
+land.</p>
+
+<p>Would we be in time? I suddenly feared not. To get small
+now, with distance lengthening between us and the boat,
+would be disastrous. And where was Polter?</p>
+
+<p>Abruptly we saw him. There had been only little people
+visible to us: none of our own height. The lake roadway by
+the dock was brightly starlit. As we approached the intervening
+patch of woods it seemed that a crowd of little
+people were near the dock. Polter must have been sitting. But
+now he rose up. We could not mistake his thick hunched
+figure, the lump on his shoulders clear in the starlight with
+the gleaming lake as a background. The crowd of little figures
+were milling around his knees. In the silence of the night
+the murmur of their voices floated over to us.</p>
+
+<p>"There he is!" Alan gasped. We all three checked our
+running; we were at the edge of the patch of woods. "By God,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>
+there he is! Let's get larger and rush him! He's only a few
+hundred feet away!"</p>
+
+<p>But Babs? Where was Babs?</p>
+
+<p>"Alan, get down!" I crouched, pulling Alan and Glora
+with me. "Don't let him see us! We can't rush him Alan, 'til
+we find Babs. He'd see us coming and kill her."</p>
+
+<p>Of all the strange events that had been flung at us, I
+think this sudden crisis now most confused Alan and me....
+To get larger, or smaller? Which? Yet something had to be
+done at once.</p>
+
+<p>Glora said, "We can get through the woods best in this
+size. We won't be seen and will be closer to the landing."</p>
+
+<p>We crouched so that the treetops were always well over
+us. The patch of woods was dark. A soil of black loam was
+under us, a thick soft underbrush reached our knees, and
+lacy, flexible leaves and branches were about shoulder height.
+We pushed them aside, forcing our way softly forward. It
+was not far. The little murmuring voices of the crowd grew
+louder.</p>
+
+<p>Presently we were crouching at the other edge of the
+woods. I softly shoved the tree branches aside until we
+could all three get a clear view of the strange scene now
+directly before us.</p>
+
+<p>And I saw a toy dock, at which a twenty-foot, bargelike
+open sailboat was landing; a narrow starlit roadway, crowded
+with a milling throng of people all no more than a foot and a
+half in height. The crowd milled almost to where we were
+crouching, unseen in the shrubbery.</p>
+
+<p>Across the road by the dock, Polter stood with the crowd
+down around his knees. In height he seemed the old familiar
+Polter. Bareheaded, with his shaggy black hair shot with
+white. He was dressed in Earth fashion: narrow black evening
+trousers and a white shirt and collar with flowing black tie.
+I saw at once what Alan had noticed&mdash;the change in him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>
+An abnormality of age. I would have called him now forty,
+or older. Beyond even that there was an abnormality. A man
+old before his time; or younger than he should have been
+for the years he had lived. An indescribable mingling of
+something of the two worlds, perhaps. It marked him with
+a look at once unnatural and sinister.</p>
+
+<p>These were instant impressions. Glora was plucking at me.
+"On the white chest of his shirt, something is there."</p>
+
+<p>Polter was coatless, with snowy white shirt and cuffs to
+his thick wrists. He was no more than fifty feet from us. On
+his shirt bosom something golden in color was hanging like
+a large bauble, an ornament, an insignia. It was strapped
+tightly there with a band about his chest, a cord, like a
+necklace chain, up to his thick hunched neck, and other
+chains down to his belt.</p>
+
+<p>I stared at it. An ornament, like a cube held flat against
+his shirt front&mdash;a little golden cube, ornate with tiny bars.</p>
+
+<p>I heard Alan murmuring, "A cage! Why George, it's&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>And then, simultaneously, realization struck me. It was
+a golden cage strapped there. And I seemed to see that there
+was something in it. A tiny figure? Babs!</p>
+
+<p>"I think he has her there," Glora murmured. "You see the
+little box with bars? The girl, Babs, is a prisoner in there."
+She spoke swiftly, vehemently. "He will take the boat to the
+island."</p>
+
+<p>She gripped us. "You think it really best to go? I do what
+you say. I had the wish to get to my father with these drugs."</p>
+
+<p>"No!" exclaimed Alan. "We must keep close to Polter!"</p>
+
+<p>We were ready with our pellets. But a sudden activity
+in the road made us pause. The crowd of little people were
+hostile to Polter. A sullen hostility. They milled about him as
+he stood there, gazing down at them sardonically.</p>
+
+<p>And abruptly he shouted at them in English. "You speak
+my language, some of you. Then listen!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The crowd fell silent.</p>
+
+<p>"Listen. This iss your future Queen. Can you see her? She
+iss small now. But she has the magic power. Soon she will
+be large, like me."</p>
+
+<p>The crowd was shouting again. It surged forward, but it
+lacked a leader, and those in advance shoved backward in
+fear.</p>
+
+<p>Polter spoke again. "This girl from my world, you will like
+her. She iss kind and very beautiful. When she iss large,
+you will see how beautiful."</p>
+
+<p>A small stone suddenly came up from the throng of little
+people and struck Polter on the shoulder. Then another.
+The crowd, emboldened, made a rush: surged against his
+legs.</p>
+
+<p>He shouted, "You do that? Why, how dare you? I show
+you what giants do when you make dem angry!"</p>
+
+<p>From down by his knees he plucked the small figure of a
+man. The crowd scattered with shouts of terror. Polter had
+the struggling eighteen-inch figure by the wrist. He whirled
+it around his head like a ninepin and flung it over the canopy
+of the dock far out into the shimmering lake!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+
+<p>The trees around us expanded to towering forest giants.
+The underbrush rose up over our heads. We had taken a
+taste of the diminishing drug. Glora showed us how to touch
+it to our tongue several times, to adjust our size as we became
+smaller. It took us no more than a minute to diminish.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>
+We could hear the roar of the crowd, and Polter's voice
+shouting. We ran forward through the great forest. It was
+a fair distance out to the starlit road. We saw it as a wide
+shining esplanade. The people now were giants twice our
+height! Polter, himself towering with a seeming fifty-foot
+stature, was standing by the gigantic canopy of the dock.
+He had dispersed the crowd. There was an open space on
+the esplanade&mdash;a run for us of about a hundred feet.</p>
+
+<p>"We've got to chance it," I murmured. "Make a run for it&mdash;now."</p>
+
+<p>We darted across. In the confusion, with all eyes centered
+on Polter, we escaped discovery. It was dim under the dock
+canopy. Polter had backed from the road and was walking to
+the barge. It lay like the length of an ocean liner, its sail
+looming an enormous spread above it. The gunwale was
+level with the dock. A dozen or more fifty-foot men were
+greeting Polter. They were amidships.</p>
+
+<p>I realize now that in those moments as we scurried aboard
+like wharf rats, we took wild chances. We made for the
+stern which momentarily was unoccupied. To Polter and his
+men we were eight or nine inches tall. We dropped over the
+gunwale, slid down the thirty or forty-foot incline of the
+interior and landed on the bottom of the boat.</p>
+
+<p>There were many places where we could safely hide. A
+litter of gigantic rope-strands was around us. We could see
+the bottom of a crossbench looming over head, and the
+great curving sides of the vessel with the gunwales outlined
+against the starlight.</p>
+
+<p>The boat left the dock in a moment; the sail bellied out,
+enormous over us. Ten feet forward from us the towering
+figure of a man sat on a bench with the steering mechanism
+before him. Further on, the other men were dispersed, with
+one or two in the distant bow. Polter reclined on a cushioned
+couch amidships. Looking along the dark widely level bottom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>
+of the boat there were only the feet and legs of men visible.</p>
+
+<p>Alan whispered, "Let's get closer."</p>
+
+<p>We were insects soundlessly scuttling unnoticed in the
+dimness. It was noisy down here&mdash;the clank of the steering
+mechanism; the swish and surge of the water against the
+hull; the voices of the men.</p>
+
+<p>We passed the boots of the seated helmsmen, and found
+another hiding place nearer Polter. We could see his giant
+length plainly. None of the other men were near him. He
+was reclining on an elbow, stretched at ease on a cushion.
+And at the moment, he was fumbling with the chains that
+fastened the little golden cage to his chest. The cage was
+double its former size to us now. A shaft of pale light came
+down, reflected from the great sail surface overhead. It
+struck the bars of the cage. We could see a small figure in
+there.</p>
+
+<p>Then we heard Polter's voice. "I will let you out, Babs.
+You come out, sit on my hand and talk with me. That will
+be nice? We haf a little time."</p>
+
+<p>He unfastened the cage and put it on the cushion beside
+him. He was still propped up on one elbow.</p>
+
+<p>"I let you out, now. Be careful, Babs."</p>
+
+<p>My heart was almost smothering me. "Alan! We've got
+to get still closer! Try something! Get large, shall we?"</p>
+
+<p>Alan whispered tensely, "I don't know! I don't know what
+to do."</p>
+
+<p>"We can get closer," Glora whispered. "But never larger&mdash;not
+here. They would discover us too soon."</p>
+
+<p>We crept forward. We reached the edge of the cushion.
+Its top surface was a trifle lower than our heads&mdash;a billowing,
+wrinkled mass of fabric. But I saw that the folds of it were
+rough enough to afford a footing. I thought that I could climb
+it. We stood erect. There was a deep shadow along here,
+but it was brighter on the cushion top. We could see over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>
+its edge; an undulating spread of surface with the giant
+length of Polter stretched over it. The cage was near us.
+Polter's great fingers fumbled with it; a door in the lattice
+bars flipped open.</p>
+
+<p>"Careful, my Babs!" His voice was a throaty, rumbling
+roar above us. "Careful! I do not want you to be hurt."</p>
+
+<p>From the little doorway came the figure of Babs! The
+starlight glowed on her blue dress; her black hair was
+tumbling over her shoulders; her face was pale but she was
+unharmed.</p>
+
+<p>I think that I had never loved her so much as at that
+moment. Nor ever seen her so beautiful as in miniature,
+standing at the door of her golden cage, bravely facing the
+monstrous misshapen figure of her captor.</p>
+
+<p>We heard her small voice.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want me to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Stand quiet. Now I put my hand for you."</p>
+
+<p>His monstrous hand bristled with a thatch of heavy black
+hair. He slid it carefully along the cushion. Babs was barely
+the length of one of its finger joints. She climbed upon its
+palm.</p>
+
+<p>"That iss right, Babs. Now I bring you&mdash;hold tight to my
+finger. Here, I crook the little one. Fling your arms around
+it."</p>
+
+<p>With a swoop his hand took her aloft and away. Then we
+saw her, twenty feet or so in the air, still on his hand as he
+held it near his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Now we haf a little talk, Babs. When we get to the island,
+I put you back in your cage."</p>
+
+<p>I had a sudden flash of realization. There was something
+I could do. I know now my judgment was bad. I recall it
+struck me that Alan would want to do it also. And, perhaps,
+even Glora. But that wouldn't work. My chances, however
+desperate, were better alone. Glora and Alan&mdash;in our present<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>
+size&mdash;could doubtless disembark safely. Glora knew the layout
+of the island. And she could follow Polter.</p>
+
+<p>Alan and Glora were standing beside me peering over
+that billowing cushion spread toward the distant giant palm
+with Babs standing upon it. I gripped Alan's shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"See here, Alan," I whispered vehemently: "What ever
+happens, we must follow Polter. Glora knows the way. Some
+opportunity will come to get large without being discovered.
+Then we'll rush Polter!"</p>
+
+<p>Alan's white face turned to me. "Yes, that's what we're
+planning. But George, here on this boat&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not. Can't do it here. Tell Glora, to be sure
+to follow Polter. Whatever happens, you'll think of nothing
+else: you won't will you?"</p>
+
+<p>"George, what&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"We've got to make some opportunity." I was trembling
+inside, fearful that Alan would be suspicious of me. Yet I
+had to make sure that he and Glora would stay as close to
+Polter as possible.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," Alan agreed. "Listen to them."</p>
+
+<p>Polter was talking to Babs. But I didn't hear the words I
+moved a trifle away. Rash decision! I hardly decided anything.
+There was only the vision of Babs before me and my love for
+her. My desperate need of doing something; getting to her,
+seeing her, being with her. I wanted her near my own size
+again as though the blessed normality of that would rationalize
+and lessen her danger. If only I had been less rash! If only
+back there in that tunnel I had stopped to see what it was
+my foot kicked against!</p>
+
+<p>I slid away. Alan and Glora did not notice it; they were
+whispering together and gazing over the cushion at Babs.
+In the shadow of the cushion I moved some ten feet. On the
+undulating top of the cushion the little golden cage stood
+with its lattice door open. It was a few feet from my face.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I fumbled at my belt for the diminishing vial. I found
+one pellet left. Well, that would be enough. I was hurried.
+Alan might discover me. Polter might put Babs back in the
+cage and close its door. We might be near the island already,
+and the confusion, the activity of disembarking would
+defeat me. A thousand things might happen.</p>
+
+<p>I touched the pellet to my tongue. In a few seconds the
+drug action had come and passed. The cushion top loomed
+well over my head. The side was a ridged, indescribably
+unnatural vista of cliff wall. The fabric was coarse with
+hairy strands, dented into little ravines and crevices. I
+climbed and I came panting to the pillow surface. The golden
+cage was six or eight feet away and was now two feet high.</p>
+
+<p>Again I touched the drug to my tongue; held it an instant.
+The cage drew away; grew to a normal six-foot height;
+then larger, until in a moment it stopped. I stood peering at it,
+trying to gauge its size in relation to me. I wanted so
+intensely now to appear normal in Babs' eyes. The cage
+seemed about ten feet high. A little less, possibly. I barely
+tasted the pellet, and replaced it carefully in the vial. I could
+only hope its efficacy would be preserved.</p>
+
+<p>I had to chance that I wouldn't be seen while crossing this
+billowy expanse. I ran. The rope strands of the fabric now
+had spaces between their curving surfaces. The cage was a
+shining golden house, set on this wide rolling area. Far in
+the distance there was a blur&mdash;Polter's reclining body.</p>
+
+<p>I reached the cage. It was a room about ten feet square
+and equally as high. Walled solid, top and bottom, and on
+three sides. The front was a lattice of bars, with a narrow
+six-foot doorway, standing open now.</p>
+
+<p>I dashed in. The interior was not wholly bare. There was
+a metal-wrought couch fastened to the wall, with a railing
+around it and handles. It suggested a ship's bunk. There
+was a railing at convenient height all around the wall.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I sought a hiding place. I saw just one&mdash;under the couch.
+It was secluded enough. There was a grillelike lattice extending
+down from the seat to the floor. I squeezed under
+one end, and lay wedged behind the grille.</p>
+
+<p>How much time passed I don't know. My thoughts were
+racing. Babs would be coming.</p>
+
+<p>I heard the distant approaching rumble of Polter's voice.
+Through the grille I could see across the floor of the ten foot
+cage to the front lattice bars. Outside, there appeared a
+huge, pink-white, mottled blob&mdash;Polter's hand, a ridged and
+pitted surface with great, bristling black stalks of hair.</p>
+
+<p>The figure of Babs came through the cage doorway. Blessed
+normality! The same slim little Babs who always stood,
+since we were both matured, with her head about level with
+my shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>The latticed door swung shut with a reverberating metallic
+clank. Babs stood tense, clinging to the wall railing. I heard
+the blurred rumble of Polter's voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold tightly, my little Babs!"</p>
+
+<p>The room lurched; went upward and sidewise with a wild
+dizzying swoop. Babs clung to the rail and I was wedged
+prone under the couch. Then the movement stopped; there
+was a jolting, rocking, and outside I heard the clank of metal.
+Polter was fastening the chains of the cage to his chest.</p>
+
+<p>A white glow now came through the bars. It was starlight
+reflecting from Polter's shirt bosom. An abyss of distance
+was outside. I could see nothing but the white glow.</p>
+
+<p>Momentarily there was very little movement in the room.
+Only the rhythmic sway of Polter's breathing and an occasional
+jolt as he shifted his position. The floor was tilted at a
+sharp angle. Babs came toward the couch, pulling herself
+along the wall railing.</p>
+
+<p>I called softly, "Babs!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She stopped. I called again, "Babs! Don't cry out! It's
+George! Here&mdash;stand still!"</p>
+
+<p>She gave a little cry. "George&mdash;where are you? I don't&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>I slid out from my concealment and stood up, holding
+to the railing.</p>
+
+<p>Blessed normality of size! She cried again, "George! You!
+How did you get here?"</p>
+
+<p>She edged along the railing, a step or two down the tilting
+floor, then released her hold and flung herself into my waiting
+arms.</p>
+
+<p>"I think we are landing. Hold on to the railing, George.
+When the room moves it goes with a rush."</p>
+
+<p>Babs laughed softly. It must have seemed to her, after
+being alone in here, that now our plight was far less desperate.
+She had told me how she was captured. A man accosted
+her on the Terrace, saying he wanted to speak to her
+about Alan. Then a weapon threatened her. Amid all those
+people she was held up in old-fashioned style, hurried to a
+taxicar and whirled away.</p>
+
+<p>She was saying now, "When Polter moves, it is dizzying.
+You'll see."</p>
+
+<p>"I have already, Babs. Heavens, what a swoop!"</p>
+
+<p>The room was more level now. We carefully drew ourselves
+to the front lattice. Polter was standing, and we had
+the white sheen from his shirt front. A sheer drop was outside
+the bars, but looking down I could see the outlines of
+his body with the huge spread of the boat's cockpit underneath
+us.</p>
+
+<p>A confusion of rumbling voices sounded. Blurred giant
+shapes were outside. The room jolted and swayed as the
+boat landed and Polter disembarked.</p>
+
+<p>Babs stood clinging to me. We, at least, were normal in
+this metal barred room, Babs and I. But outside was the
+abnormality of largeness. I think that in relation to us, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>
+men were of over two hundred-foot stature, and the hunched
+Polter a trifle less. It seemed as he walked that we were
+lurching at least a hundred and fifty feet above ground.</p>
+
+<p>"You had better hide," Babs urged. "He might stop and
+speak to someone. If anyone looked in here you would be
+seen; no chance then, even to get across the room."</p>
+
+<p>It was true. But for a few moments I lingered. I could
+distinguish vegetation on their flat roof-tops, as though
+flower gardens were laid there.</p>
+
+<p>We passed a house with its hundred-foot oval windows
+all aglow with light. Music floated out&mdash;a distant blare of
+sounds, and the ribald laughter of giant voices. I had seen
+no women among these giants of the island. But now a huge
+face was at one of the ovals. A dissolute, painted woman of
+Earth, staring out at Polter as he passed. It was like the
+enormous close-up image on a large motion picture screen.
+She shouted ribald jest as he went by.</p>
+
+<p>"George, please go back. Suppose she had seen you?"</p>
+
+<p>We were ascending a hill. A distance ahead a great oblong
+building loomed like a giant's palace, which indeed it was.
+We headed for it, passed through a vast arching doorway
+into the greater dimness of an echoing interior. I scurried back
+across the lurching room and again wedged myself under
+the couch. Babs stood at the lattice ten feet away. We dared
+to talk in low tones; the rumbling voices and footsteps
+outside would make our tiny voices inaudible to Polter.</p>
+
+<p>I was tense with my plans. I had told them to Babs. With
+the one remaining partially used pellet of the diminishing
+drug we could make ourselves small enough to walk out
+through the bars. Then my black vial of the enlarging drug,
+as yet unused, would take us up, out to our own world. We
+could not use the drugs now. But the chance might come
+when Polter would set the cage on the ground, or somewhere
+so that we might climb down from it, with a chance to hide<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>
+and get large before we were discovered. I would fight our
+way upward; all I needed was a fair start in size.</p>
+
+<p>But I lay now with doubts assailing me. This was the
+first moment I had had for calm thoughts, though in truth
+they were far from calm! Were Alan and Glora following us
+now? I could only hope so. Once out of this, Babs and I
+would have to rejoin them. But how? Panic swept me. I
+shouldn't have left them. Or at least I should have told them
+what I was trying to do, and given Alan a chance to plan.</p>
+
+<p>The panic grew, the premonition of disaster. From my
+belt I took the opalescent vial with its one partially used pellet.
+I dumped the pellet out. It was spoiling! The exposure to
+the air and the moisture of my tongue, had ruined it! I realized
+the catastrophe, as I held its crumbling, deliquescing
+fragments on my palm it melted into vapor and was gone!</p>
+
+<p>We couldn't make ourselves smaller! Now we'd have to wait
+until Polter opened the cage. But once outside, the enlarging
+drug would give us our chance to fight our way upward.
+My trembling fingers sought the black vial in my belt. It
+wasn't there! My mind flung back: in that tunnel, something
+had dropped and I had kicked it! Accursed chance! My accursed,
+heedless stupidity!</p>
+
+<p>I had lost the black vial! We were helpless! Caged! Marooned
+here in a size microscopic!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+
+<p>I lay concealed and Babs stood at the lattice of our cage
+room. I was aware that Polter had entered some vast apartment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>
+of this giant palace. The light outside was brighter;
+I heard voices&mdash;Polter's and another man's. I could see the
+distant monster shape of one. He was at first so far away that
+all his outline was visible. A seated man in a huge white
+room. I thought there were great shelves with enormous
+bottles. The spread of table tops passed under our cage as
+Polter walked by them. They held a litter of apparatus, and
+there was the smell of chemicals in the air. This seemed to
+be a laboratory.</p>
+
+<p>The man stood up to greet Polter. I had a glimpse of his
+head and shoulders. He wore a white linen coat, open, soft
+collar and black tie. He seemed an old man, queerly old, with
+snow-white hair.</p>
+
+<p>I had an instant of whirling impressions. Something was
+familiar about his face. It was wrinkled and seamed with
+lines of age and care. There were gentle blue eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Then all I could see was the vast spread of his white
+shirt and coat, a black splotch of his tie outside our bars
+as Polter faced him.</p>
+
+<p>Babs gave a low cry. "Why&mdash;why&mdash;dear God&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>And then I knew! And Polter's words were not needed,
+though I heard their rumble.</p>
+
+<p>"I am back again, Kent. Are you still rebellious? You haf
+still determined to compound no more of our drugs? You
+would rather I killed you? Then see what I haf here. This
+little cage, someone&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>It was Dr. Kent whom he addressed. He must have been
+here all these years!</p>
+
+<p>Babs turned her white face toward me. "George, it's father!
+He's alive!"</p>
+
+<p>"Quiet, Babs! Don't let him know I'm here. Remember!"</p>
+
+<p>The old man recognized her. "Babs!" It was an agonized
+cry. The blur of him was gone as he sank down into his chair.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Polter continued standing, I could envisage his sardonic
+grin.</p>
+
+<p>From over us came Polter's rumble. "She iss glad to see
+you, Kent. I haf her here, safe. You always knew I would
+nefer be satisfied until I had my little Babs? Well, now I haf
+her. Can you hear me?"</p>
+
+<p>A sudden desperate calmness fell on Babs. She called evenly.
+"Yes, I hear you. Father, don't anger him. Do what he
+says. Dr. Polter, will you let me be with my father? After all
+these years, let me be with him, just for a little while. In
+his size&mdash;normal."</p>
+
+<p>"Hah! My Babs iss scheming."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I want to talk to him, after all these years when I
+thought he was dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Scheming? You think, my little Babs, that he has the
+drugs? I am not so much a fool. He makes them. He can do
+that. And that last secret reaction, only he can perform.
+He iss stubborn. Never would he tell me that one reaction. But
+he makes no drugs complete, only when I am here."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Dr. Polter! I want only to be with him."</p>
+
+<p>The old man's broken voice floated up to us. "You won't
+harm her, Polter?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. Fear nothing. But you no longer rebel?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll do what you tell me." The tones carried hopeless
+resignation, years of being beaten down, rebelling&mdash;but now
+this last blow vanquished him. Then he spoke again, with
+a sudden strange fire.</p>
+
+<p>"Even for the life of my daughter, I will not make your
+drugs, Polter, if you mean to harm our Earth."</p>
+
+<p>The golden cage room swooped as Polter sat down. "Hah!
+Now we bargain. What do you care what I do to your world?
+You never will see it again. I can lie to you. My plans&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I <i>do</i> care."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I will tell you, Kent. I am good-natured now. Why<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>
+should I not be with my dear little Babs? I tell you, I am
+done with the Earth world. It iss much nicer here. My
+friends, they haf a good time always. We like this little atom
+realm. I am going out once more. I must hide the little piece
+of golden quartz so no harm will come to it."</p>
+
+<p>Polter was evidently in a high good humor. His voice fell
+to an intimate tone of comradeship; but still I could not
+mistake the irony in it.</p>
+
+<p>"You listen to me, Kent. There was a time, years ago, when
+we were good friends. You liked your young assistant, the
+hunchback Polter. Iss it not so? Then why should we quarrel
+now? I am gifing up the Earth world. I wanted of it only the
+little Babs.... You look at me so strange! You do not speak."</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing to say," retorted Dr. Kent wearily.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you listen. I haf much gold above in Quebec. You
+know that. So very simple to take it out of our atom, grow
+large with it to what we call up there the size of a hundred
+feet. I haf a place, a room, secluded from prying eyes under
+a dome roof. I become very tall, holding a piece of gold. It
+is large when I am a hundred feet tall. So I haf collected
+much gold. They think I own a mine. I haf a smelter and
+my gold quartz I make into ingots, refined to the standard
+purity. So simple, and I am a rich man.</p>
+
+<p>"But gold does not bring happiness, my friend Kent." He
+chuckled ironically at his use of the platitude. "There iss
+more in life than the ownership of gold. You ask my plans.
+I haf Babs, now. I am gifing up the Earth world. The mysterious
+man they know as Frank Rascor will vanish. I will hide
+our little fragment of quartz. No one up there will even try
+to find it. Then I come down here, with Babs, and we will
+haf so nice a little government and rule this world. No more
+of the drugs then will be needed, Kent. When you die, let
+the secret die with you."</p>
+
+<p>Again Polter's voice became ingratiating, even more so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>
+than before. "We will be friends, Kent. Our little Babs
+will lof me; why should she not? You will tell her&mdash;advise
+her&mdash;and we will all three be very happy."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Kent said abruptly, "Then leave her with me now. That
+was her request, a moment ago. If you expect to treat her
+kindly, then why not&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I do! I do! But not now. I cannot spare her now. I am
+very busy, but I must take her with me."</p>
+
+<p>Babs had been silent, clinging to the bars of our cage.
+She called; "Why? I ask you to put this cage down."</p>
+
+<p>"Not now, little bird."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me be with my father."</p>
+
+<p>It struck a pang through me. Babs was scheming but not
+the way Polter thought. She wanted the cage put on the floor,
+herself out, and a chance for me to escape. I had not yet
+told her of my miserable stupidity in losing the vial.</p>
+
+<p>Polter was repeating, "No, little bird. Presently; not now.
+I will take you with me on my last trip out. I want to talk
+with you in normal size when I haf time."</p>
+
+<p>Our room swooped as he stood up. "You think over what I
+haf said, Kent. You get ready now to make the fresh drugs
+I will need to bring down all my men from the outer world.
+They will all be glad to come, or, if not&mdash;well, we can easily
+kill those who refuse. You make the drugs. I need plenty.
+Will you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"That iss good. I come back soon and gif you the catalyst
+for that last reaction. Will you be ready?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>The blur outside our bars swung with a dizzying whirl
+as Polter turned and left the room, locking its door after him
+with a reverberating clank.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Left alone in his laboratory, Dr. Kent began his preparations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>
+for making a fresh supply of the drugs. This room, with
+two smaller ones adjoining, was at once his workshop and
+his prison. He stood at his shelves, selecting the basic
+chemicals. He could not complete the final compounds.
+The catalyst which was necessary for the final reaction would
+be brought to him by Polter.</p>
+
+<p>How long he worked there with his thoughts in a whirl
+at seeing Babs, he did not know. His movements were automatic;
+he had done all this so many times before. His mind
+was confused, and he was trembling from head to foot&mdash;an
+old, queerly, unnaturally old man now&mdash;unnerved. His
+fingers could hardly hold the test tubes.</p>
+
+<p>His thoughts were flying. Babs was here, come down from
+the world above. It was disaster&mdash;the thing he had feared
+all these years.</p>
+
+<p>He suddenly heard a voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Father!"</p>
+
+<p>And again: "Father!" A tiny voice, down by his shoe tops.
+Two small figures were there on the floor beside him. They
+were both panting, winded by running. They were enlarging.</p>
+
+<p>It was Alan and Glora, who had followed Polter from the
+boat, then diminished again and had come running through
+the tiny crack under the metal door of the laboratory.</p>
+
+<p>They grew to a foot in size, down by Dr. Kent's legs. He
+was too unnerved to stand; he sat in a chair while Alan
+swiftly told him what had happened. Babs was in the golden
+cage. Dr. Kent knew that; but none of them knew what
+had happened to me.</p>
+
+<p>"We must make you small, Father. We have the drugs,
+here with us."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes! How much have you? Show me. Oh, my boy, that
+you are here&mdash;and Babs&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you worry. We'll get away from him."</p>
+
+<p>Glora and Alan had almost reached Dr. Kent's size before<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>
+their excited fingers could get out the vials. They took some
+of the diminishing drug to check their growth. Alan handed
+his father a black vial.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, lad&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No! Wait, that's the wrong drug. This other&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Kent had opened the vial. His trembling hand spilled
+some of the pellets, but none of them noticed it.</p>
+
+<p>"Father, this one." Alan held an opalescent vial. "Take
+this one."</p>
+
+<p>Glora said abruptly, "Listen! Is that someone coming?"</p>
+
+<p>They thought they heard approaching footsteps. A moment
+passed but no one came into the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Hurry," urged Glora. "That was nothing. We're waiting
+too long."</p>
+
+<p>"My boy&mdash;Alan, after all these years&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>As they were about to take the diminishing drug a very
+queer sound came from across the room. A scuttling, scratching,
+and the drone of wings.</p>
+
+<p>"God, Father&mdash;look!"</p>
+
+<p>Over by the wall, a giant fly was running across the floor.
+The fly had eaten some of the sweetish powder.</p>
+
+<p>The enlarging drug was loose!</p>
+
+<p>A few drops of water lay mingled with the drug on the
+floor. And from the water nameless hideous things were
+rising!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+
+<p>To Alan the first moments that followed the escape
+of the drug were the most horrible of his life. The discovery<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>
+struck old Dr. Kent, Glora and Alan into a numb, blank
+confusion. They stood transfixed, staring with cold terror
+at the fly which was scurrying along the floor close to the
+wall. It was already as large as Alan's hand. It ran into the
+corner, hit the wall in its confused alarm, and turned back.
+Its wings were droning with an audible hum. It reared itself
+on its hairy legs, lifted and sailed across the room.</p>
+
+<p>As though drawn by a magnet, Alan turned to watch it.
+It landed on the wall. Alan was aware of Dr. Kent rushing
+with trembling steps to a shelf where bottles stood. Glora
+was stricken into immobility, the blood draining from her
+face.</p>
+
+<p>The fly flew again. It passed directly over Alan. Its body,
+with a membrane sac of eggs, was now as large as his head;
+its widespread transparent wings were beating with a reverberating
+drone.</p>
+
+<p>Alan flung a bottle which was on the table beside him. It
+missed the fly, crashed against the ceiling, came down with
+splintering glass and spilling liquid. Fumes spread chokingly
+over the room.</p>
+
+<p>The fly landed again on the floor. Larger now! Expanding
+with a horribly rapid growth. Glora flung something&mdash;a little
+wooden rack with a few empty test tubes in it. The rack struck
+the monstrous fly, but did not hurt it. The fly stood with hairy
+legs braced under its bulging body. Its multiple eyes were
+staring at the humans. And with its size must have come a
+sense of power, for it seemed to Alan that the monstrous
+insect was abnormally alert as it stood measuring its adversaries,
+gathering itself to attack them.</p>
+
+<p>Only a few seconds had passed. Confused thoughts swept
+Alan. This fly with its growth would soon fill this room.
+Burst it; burst upward through a wrecked palace; soar out,
+and by the power of its size alone devastate this world.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He heard himself shouting, "Father, get back! It's too
+large! I've <i>got</i> to kill it!"</p>
+
+<p>Could he wrestle with it and hope to win? Alan edged
+around the center table. He was bathed in cold sweat. This
+thing was horrifying! The fly was already half the length of
+his own body. In a moment it might be twice that! He was
+aware of Glora pulling at him, and his father rushing past
+him with a bottle of liquid, shouting:</p>
+
+<p>"Alan! Run! You and the girl, get out of here! Into the
+other room&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Then Alan saw the things on the floor! His foot crushed
+one with a slippery squash! Nameless, hideous, noisome
+things grown monstrous, risen from their lurking invisibility
+in the drops of water! Sodden, gray-black and green-slimed
+monsters of the deep; palpitating masses of pulp! One lay
+rocking, already as large as a football with streamers of ooze
+hanging from it, and squirting a black inky fluid. Others
+were rods of red jelly-pulp, already as large as lead pencils,
+quivering, twitching. Disease germs, these ghastly things,
+enlarging from the invisibility of a drop of water!</p>
+
+<p>The fly landed with a thud on the center table. The fumes
+of the shattered bottle of chemicals were choking Alan. He
+flung himself toward the monster fly, but Glora held him.</p>
+
+<p>"No! Escape to the other room!"</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Kent was stamping the things upon the floor; pouring
+acids upon them. Some eluded him. The air in the room was
+unbreathable....</p>
+
+<p>Alan and Glora reached the bedroom. The laboratory
+was a hideous chaos. They were aware of its outer door opening,
+disclosing the figure of Polter who, undoubtedly, had
+been attracted by the noise. He shouted a startled oath.
+Alan heard it above the beating wings of the monstrous fly.
+Things lurched at the opened door; Polter banged it upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>
+them and rushed away, shouting the alarm through the
+palace.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Kent was stammering, "Not the enlarging drug,
+Glora, child, the other! Hurry!"</p>
+
+<p>Alan helped Glora with the opalescent vial. Things were
+lurching toward this room, from the laboratory. Alan, with
+averted face, choked by the incoming fumes, slammed the
+door upon the gruesome turmoil.</p>
+
+<p>They took the diminishing drug. The bedroom expanded.
+The hideous sounds from the laboratory, and the whole
+palace now ringing with a wild alarm, soon faded into blessed
+remoteness of distance....</p>
+
+<p>"I think this is the way, Alan. Off there&mdash;a doorway from
+my bedroom. Polter always kept it locked, but it leads into
+a corridor. We must get out of here. A crack under the door&mdash;is
+that it, off there?" Dr. Kent pointed into the gloomy blur
+of distance. "We're horribly small&mdash;it's so far to run&mdash;and I've
+lost my sense of direction."</p>
+
+<p>The drug had ceased its action. The wooden floor of the
+room had expanded to a spread of cellular surface, ridged
+with broken, tubelike tunnels; pits and jagged cave-mouths.
+A knothole yawned like a crater a hundred feet away.</p>
+
+<p>"We are too small," Glora protested hurriedly. "The door
+is where you say, Dr. Kent, but miles away."</p>
+
+<p>With the other drug, the room contracted. The floor surface
+shrank and smoothed a little. The door was distinguishable&mdash;a
+square panel several hundred feet in width and
+towering into the upper haze. The black line of the crack
+was visible along its bottom.</p>
+
+<p>They ran to it. The top of the crack was ten feet above
+their heads. They ran under, across the wide intervening
+darkness toward a glow of light. Then they came from under
+the door into a corridor&mdash;and shrank against a cliff wall as
+with a rush of wind and pounding tread the blurred shapes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>
+of a man's huge feet and legs rushed past. The upper air
+was filled with rumbling shouts.</p>
+
+<p>"We must chance it!" exclaimed Dr. Kent. "It's too far in
+this size. We must get larger&mdash;and if they see us, we'll fight
+our way out!"</p>
+
+<p>In the turmoil of the doomed palace no one noticed them.
+They cast aside all restraint. It was too dangerous to wait.
+The excessive dose they took of the drug made the corridor
+shrink with dizzying speed. They rushed along its length.
+Alan hurled a little man aside who was in their path. They
+were already larger than Polter's people.</p>
+
+<p>They squeezed out of a shrinking doorway. The dwindling
+island was a turmoil. Little figures were pouring from the
+palace. At the edge of the water. Alan, Glora and Dr. Kent
+stood for an instant looking behind them. The palace was
+rocking. Its roof heaved upward and then smashed and fell
+aside with the clatter of tumbling masonry. The monstrous
+fly, its hideous face mashed and oozing, reared itself up and,
+with broken torn wings, tried to soar away. But it could not.
+It slipped back. The drone and buzz of its fright sounded
+over the chaos of noise. Other things came lurching and
+twisting upward, slithering out....</p>
+
+<p>The expanding body of the fly was pushing the palace
+walls outward. In a moment it collapsed and the fly emerged.</p>
+
+<p>To Alan and his companions the scene was all shrinking
+into a miniature chaos of horror at their shoe tops. A diminuendo
+of screams mingled down there. Overhead were
+the stars, shining peacefully remote. Nearby lay a rapidly
+narrowing channel of shining water. A tiny city was across
+it. Lights were moving. The panic had spread from the
+island to Orena. Beyond the tiny city, was a range of mountains,
+a cliff, gleaming in the starlight, and tunnel-mouths.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly against the stars off there, Alan saw the enlarging
+figure of Polter, his hunched shape unmistakable. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>
+was facing the other way. He lunged and scrambled into
+a yawning black hole in the mountains. Polter was escaping!
+None of these people except himself had the drugs. He was
+escaping with the golden cage, out of this doomed atomic
+world to the Earth above.</p>
+
+<p>Glora murmured, "There is our way out. Your way. And
+that is Polter going. I do not think he saw us. So much is
+growing gigantic here."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Kent muttered, "We will wait a moment&mdash;wade across&mdash;or
+leap over, and follow him out. Babs is with him&mdash;dear
+God I hope so! This is a doomed realm!"</p>
+
+<p>Alan held Glora close. And suddenly he was laughing&mdash;a
+madness, half hysterical. "Why, this, all this&mdash;why look,
+Glora, it's funny! This little world all excited, an ant-hill,
+outraged! Look! There's our giant sailboat!"</p>
+
+<p>Down near their feet the inch-long sailboat stood at its
+dock. Tiny human figures were rushing for it; others, floundering
+in the water, were trying to climb upon it. Dr. Kent
+had stepped a foot or two from the shore, and tiny, lashing
+white rollers rocked the boat, almost engulfing it.</p>
+
+<p>Alan's laugh rang out. "God! It's funny, isn't it? All those
+little creatures so excited!"</p>
+
+<p>"Steady, lad!" Dr. Kent touched him. "Don't let yourself
+laugh! A moment now, then we'll wade across. Polter won't
+have much start on us. We mustn't get too close to him in
+size, but try and attack him unawares. We've got to get
+Babs away from him."</p>
+
+<p>The narrowing passage rose hardly to their knees. They
+stepped ashore, well to one side of the toy city. Their growth
+had almost stopped. But suddenly Alan realized that Glora
+was diminishing! She had taken the other drug.</p>
+
+<p>"Glora! What are you doing?"</p>
+
+<p>"I must go back, Alan. This is my world, doomed perhaps,
+but I cannot forsake it now. I must give the enlarging drug<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>
+to my father. And others who can rise and fight these monsters."</p>
+
+<p>"Glora!"</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Kent said hurriedly, "She's right, Alan. There is a
+chance they can save their city. For her to leave them would
+be dastardly."</p>
+
+<p>She cried, "You go on up, Alan. You have enough of the
+drugs. I am going back!"</p>
+
+<p>"No," he protested. "You can't! If you do, I'm coming
+with you!"</p>
+
+<p>She clung to him. He felt her body diminishing within
+his encircling arms. His love for her swept him&mdash;this girl
+who had cajoled Polter, or tricked him and stolen several
+of the vials from him, heavens knows how, and followed him
+up to the other world. This girl whom Alan had come to love,
+was leaving him, perhaps forever.</p>
+
+<p>As he stood there, with the miniature landscape at his
+feet in the wan starlight&mdash;the panic-stricken tiny city, the
+island with its monsters rising to overwhelm this tiny world&mdash;it
+seemed to Alan that if he let her go it was the end for
+him of all life's promised happiness.</p>
+
+<p>"Alan, lad, come." His father was pulling him along. So
+horrible a choice! Alan thought that I was back on that
+island. But Babs, a prisoner in the golden cage, was with
+Polter, plunging upward in size. And his father was beside
+him, pleading.</p>
+
+<p>"Alan&mdash;come&mdash;I can't get out alone, or save Babs. And
+Polter, with the power of this drug, can conquer and enslave
+our Earth as he has enslaved Orena&mdash;just one little city of
+one tiny golden atom! Believe me, lad, your duty lies above."</p>
+
+<p>Glora's head was now down at Alan's waist. He stooped
+and kissed her white forehead; his fingers, just for an instant,
+smoothed her glossy hair.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye, Glora."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She plunged away, and her tread as she dwindled mashed
+the forest behind the city. Alan and his father ran for the
+cliff. They were too large to squeeze into the little hole. But
+in a moment they made themselves smaller. They climbed
+as they dwindled; checked the drug action and rushed into
+the tunnel-mouth.</p>
+
+<p>Alan stopped just for an instant to gaze out over the starlit
+scene. It was almost the same viewpoint from which he
+had his first sight of Glora's world only an hour or two before.
+The distant island beyond the city showed plainly with the
+shining water around it. The vegetation there was growing!
+And there were dark, horribly formless blobs lurching outward
+and rising with monstrous bulk against the background
+of the stars!</p>
+
+<p>"Alan! Come, lad!"</p>
+
+<p>With a prayer for Glora trembling on his lips, Alan plunged
+into the dim phosphorescent gloom of the tunnel.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+
+<p>To Babs and me the ride in the golden cage strapped to
+Polter's chest as he made his escape outward into largeness
+was an experience awesome and frightening almost beyond
+description. We heard the alarm in the palace on the island.
+Polter rushed to Dr. Kent's laboratory door, looked in, and
+in a moment banged it shut. Babs and I saw very little. We
+knew only that something terrible had happened; we could
+see only a blur with formless things in the void beneath our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>
+bars; and there were the choking fumes of chemicals surging
+at us.</p>
+
+<p>Polter rushed through the castle corridor. We heard rumbling
+distant shouts.</p>
+
+<p>"The drug is loose! The drug is loose! Monsters! Death
+for everyone!"</p>
+
+<p>The room swayed with horrible dizzying lurches as Polter
+ran. We clung to the lattice bars, our legs and arms entwined.
+There were moments when Polter leaped, or suddenly stooped,
+and our reeling senses all but faded.</p>
+
+<p>"Babs! Don't let go! Don't lose consciousness!"</p>
+
+<p>If she should be limp, here in this lurching room, her
+body to be flung back and forth across its confines&mdash;that
+would be death in a moment. I didn't think I could hold her,
+but I managed to get an arm about her waist.</p>
+
+<p>"Babs, are you all right?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm&mdash;all right, George. I can stand it. We're&mdash;he is enlarging."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>I saw water far beneath us, lashed into a turmoil of
+foam with Polter's wading steps. There was a brief swaying
+vista of a toy city; starlight overhead; a lurching swaying
+miniature of landscape as Polter ran for the towering cliffs.
+Then he climbed and scrambled into the tunnel-mouth. Had
+he turned at that instant doubtless he would have seen the
+rising distant figures of Glora, Alan and Dr. Kent. But
+evidently he didn't see them. Nor did we.</p>
+
+<p>Polter spoke only very occasionally to Babs. "Hold tightly!"
+It was a rumbling voice from above us. He made no
+move to touch the cage, except that a few times the great
+blur of his hand came up to adjust its angle.</p>
+
+<p>The lurching and jolting was less violent in the tunnel.
+Polter's frenzy to escape was subsiding into calmness. He
+traversed the tunnel with a methodical stride. We were aware<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>
+of him climbing over the noisome litter of the dead giant's
+body which blocked the tunnel's further end. We heard his
+astonished exclamations. But evidently he did not suspect
+what had happened, thinking only that the stupid messenger
+had miscalculated his growth and had been crushed.</p>
+
+<p>We emerged into a less dim area. Polter did not stop at
+the fallen giant. Nothing mattered now to him, quite evidently,
+save his own exit with Babs from this atomic realm.
+His movements seemed calm, yet hurried.</p>
+
+<p>We realized now how different an outward journey was
+from the trip coming in. This was all only an inch of golden
+quartz! The stages upward were frequently only a matter
+of growth in size; the distances in this vast desert realm of
+golden rock always were shrinking. Polter many times stood
+almost motionless until the closing, dwindling walls made
+him scramble upward into the greater space above.</p>
+
+<p>It may have been an hour, or less. Babs and I, from our
+smaller viewpoint, with the landscape so frequently blurred
+by distance and Polter's movements, seldom recognized where
+we were. But I realized going out was far easier in every
+way than coming in. Easier to determine the route, since
+usually the diminishing caverns and gullies made the upward
+step obvious.... We knew when Polter scrambled
+up the incline ramp.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed impossible for us to plan anything. Would
+Polter make the entire trip without a stop? It seemed so.
+We had no drugs, and our cage was barred beyond possibility
+of our getting out. But even if we had had the drugs,
+or had our door been open, there was no escape. An abyss
+of distance was always yawning beyond our lattice&mdash;the
+sheer precipice of Polter's body from his chest to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"Babs, we must make him stop. It he sits down to rest
+you might get him to take you out. I must reach his drugs."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I'll try it, George."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Polter was momentarily standing motionless as though
+gazing around him, judging what to do next. His size seemed
+stationary. Beyond our bars we could see the distant circular
+walls as though this were some giant crater-pit in
+which Polter was standing. Then I thought I recognized
+it&mdash;the round, nearly vertical pit into which Alan had plunged
+his hand and arm. Above us then was a gully, blind at one
+end. And above that, the outer surface, the summit of the
+fragment of golden quartz.</p>
+
+<p>"Babs, I know where we are! If he takes you out, keep
+his attention. I'll try and get one of his black vials. Make
+him hold you near the ground. If I see you there, in position
+where you can jump, I'll startle him. Babs it's desperately
+dangerous but I can't think of anything else. Jump. Get
+away from him. I'll keep his attention on me. Then I'll
+join you if I can&mdash;with the drug."</p>
+
+<p>Polter was moving. We had no time to say more.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll try it, George." For just an instant she clung to me
+with her soft arms about my neck. Our love was sweeping
+us in this desperate moment, and it seemed that above us
+was a remote Earth world holding the promise of all our
+dreams. Or were we cross-starred, doomed like the realm
+of the atom? Was this swift embrace now marking the end of
+everything for us?</p>
+
+<p>Babs called, "Dr. Polter?"</p>
+
+<p>We could feel his movements stopping.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes? You are all right, Babs?"</p>
+
+<p>She laughed&mdash;a ripple of silvery laughter&mdash;but there was
+tragic fear in her eyes as she gazed at me. "Yes, Dr. Polter,
+but breathless. Almost dead, but not quite. What happened?
+I want to come out and talk to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Not now, little bird."</p>
+
+<p>"But I want to." To me it was a miracle that she could
+call so lightly and hold that note of lugubrious laughter in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>
+her voice. "I'm hungry. Didn't you think of that? And frightened.
+Take me out."</p>
+
+<p>He was sitting down! "You remind me that I am tired,
+Babs. And hungry, also. I haf a little food. You shall come
+out for just a short time."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you. Take me carefully."</p>
+
+<p>Our tilted cage was near the ground as he seated himself.
+But it was still too far for me to jump.</p>
+
+<p>I murmured, "Babs it's not close enough to the ground."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait, George, I'll fix that. You hide! If he looks in he'll
+see you."</p>
+
+<p>I scrambled back to my hiding place. Polter's huge fingers
+were fumbling at our bars. The little door sprang open.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Babs."</p>
+
+<p>He held the cupped bowl of his hand to the doorway.
+"Come out."</p>
+
+<p>"No!" she called. "It is too far down!"</p>
+
+<p>"Come. That iss foolish."</p>
+
+<p>"No! I'm afraid. Put the cage on the ground."</p>
+
+<p>"Babs!" His finger and thumb came reaching in to seize
+her, but she avoided them.</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Polter! Don't! You'll crush me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then come out on my hand."</p>
+
+<p>He seemed annoyed. I had scrambled back to the doorway;
+I knew he couldn't see me so long as the cage remained
+strapped to his shirt front.</p>
+
+<p>I whispered, "I can make it, Babs!"</p>
+
+<p>Polter was apparently on one elbow now, half turned to
+one side. From our cage, the sloping gleaming white surface
+of his stiff glossy shirt bosom went down a steep incline.
+His belt was down there, and the outward bulging
+curve of his lap&mdash;a spreading surface where I could land
+like a scuttling insect, unobserved, if only Babs could hold
+his attention.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I whispered vehemently, "Try it! Go out! Leave me&mdash;keep
+talking to him!"</p>
+
+<p>She called instantly, "All right, then. Bring your hand!
+Closer! Carefully! It seems so high up here!"</p>
+
+<p>She swung herself into his palm, and flung her arms about
+the great pillar of his crooked finger. The bowl of his hand
+moved slowly away. I heard her faint voice, and his overhead
+rumble.</p>
+
+<p>I chanced it! I didn't know his exact position or which
+way he was looking.</p>
+
+<p>Again I heard Bab's voice. "Careful, Dr. Polter. Don't let
+me fall!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, little bird."</p>
+
+<p>I let myself down from the tilted doorway, hung by my
+hand and dropped. I struck the ramp-like yielding surface of
+his shirt bosom. I slid, tumbling, scrambling, and landed
+softly in the huge folds of his trouser fabric. I was unhurt.
+The width of his belt, high as my body, was near me. I
+shrank against it. I found I could cling to its upper edge.</p>
+
+<p>My hold came just in time. He shifted and sat up. I was
+lifted with a swoop of movement. When it steadied I saw
+above me the top of his knee. His left leg was crooked, the
+foot drawn close to him. Babs was perched up there on the
+knee summit. His right leg was outstretched. I was at the
+right side of his belt. I could dart off along that curving
+expanse of his leg and leap to the ground. If he would hold
+this position! One of the pouches of his belt was near me.
+The vial in it was black. The enlarging drug! I moved toward
+it.</p>
+
+<p>But Babs was too high to jump from that summit of his
+crooked knee! I think she saw me at his belt. I heard her
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot eat up here. It is too high. Oh, please be careful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>
+how you move! I am so dizzy, so frightened! You move
+with such great jerks!"</p>
+
+<p>He had what seemed a huge surface of bread and meat.
+He was breaking off crumbs to put before her. I reached
+the pouch of his belt. The vial was as long as my body. I
+tugged to try and lift it out.</p>
+
+<p>All the giant contours of Polter's body shifted as he cautiously
+moved. I clung. I saw that Babs was being held gently
+between his thumb and forefinger. He lowered her to the
+ground, and she stood beside the bread and the meat he
+had placed there.</p>
+
+<p>And she had the courage to laugh! "Why this&mdash;this is an
+enormous sandwich! You will have to break it."</p>
+
+<p>He was leaning over her, half turned on his side. The
+vial came free. I shoved it; but I could not control its weight.
+I pushed desperately. It slid over the round brink of his
+right hip, and fell behind him. I heard the tinkling thud
+of it down on the rocks.</p>
+
+<p>There was no alarm. I could not chance leaping from his
+hip. I scurried along the convex top of his outstretched leg,
+and beyond his knee I jumped.</p>
+
+<p>I landed safely. I could see the black vial back across the
+broken rock surface, with the bulge of Polter's hip above it.
+I ran back and reached the vial, tugged at its huge stopper.
+The cork began to yield under my panting, desperate efforts.
+In a moment I would have a pellet of the enlarging
+drug; make away with it and startle Polter so that Babs
+might dart off and escape.</p>
+
+<p>The huge stopper of the vial was larger than my head.
+It came suddenly out. I flung it away, plunged in my hand,
+and seized an enormous round pellet.</p>
+
+<p>Then abruptly the alarm came, and I had not caused it!
+Polter ripped out a startled, rumbling curse and sat upright.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>
+Under the curve of his leg I saw Babs had been momentarily
+neglected. She was running.</p>
+
+<p>Across the boulder-strewn plain, two tiny men had appeared.
+Polter had seen them.</p>
+
+<p>They were the enlarging figures of Dr. Kent and Alan!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+
+<p>The astounded Polter was taken wholly by surprise. He
+had no idea that anyone was following him. He thought he
+was alone with tiny Babs in this rock-strewn metal desert.
+What he saw as he scrambled to his feet were four insect-size
+humans, two of them at a distance, and two within
+reach of him, and all of them scampering in different directions.
+The ground was littered with crags and boulders; it was
+ridged and pitted, pock-marked, with tiny crater-holes and
+caves. The four scuttling figures almost instantly had disappeared
+from his sight.</p>
+
+<p>I did not see where Babs went. I turned from the black
+vial of Polter's enlarging drug, and with the huge pellet
+under my arm I ran leaping over the rough ground and flung
+myself into a gully. I lay prone, flattened against a rock. In
+the murky distance of a pseudo-sky overhead, the monstrous
+head and shoulders of Polter were visible. I could see down
+to just below his waist. The empty cage with its door flapping
+open hung against his shirt-front. He had stooped to try and
+recover Babs. And instinctively his hands went to his belt to
+seize his enlarging drug.</p>
+
+<p>They were fumbling there now. He hauled out an opalescent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>
+vial of the diminishing element. But his black vial was
+gone. His annoyance turned into fear as he searched for it in
+the other compartments of his belt. I had thought that he
+had more than one black vial, but now it seemed not. His
+huge face was swept with the panic of terror. He glanced
+wildly around him.</p>
+
+<p>Through the open end of my gully I saw in the distance,
+miles away, the enlarging figure of Alan rising up. Then it
+ducked in back of a distant rising peak. Polter undoubtedly
+saw it. He was fumbling with his opalescent vial. In his
+confused panic he made the mistake of taking the diminishing
+drug and instantly seemed to regret it. His curse rumbled
+above me. His glance went down to the rocks at his feet, and
+there he saw his black vial lying with its stopper out. His
+body already was beginning to dwindle. He stooped, seized
+the vial, and took the enlarging drug. The shock of it mode
+him stagger; momentarily he disappeared from my line of
+vision but I could hear his panting breath and the unsteady
+pound of his footsteps.</p>
+
+<p>I still held that huge round ball of the drug. I seized a
+loose stone and frantically knocked off a chunk-heaven
+knows how much. I shoved it into my mouth, chewed and
+hastily swallowed it. And with the lurching, swaying, shrinking
+gully closing in upon me, I ran to get out of its distant
+end.</p>
+
+<p>I was heading toward where Alan and his father were
+hiding. I came from the gully into the open, just as the
+walls closed behind me. The whole scene was a dizzying,
+blurred sway of contracting movement. I saw that I was in
+a circular valley now some five miles in diameter, with its
+jagged enclosing walls rising sheerly perpendicular out of
+sight in the haze overhead.</p>
+
+<p>Polter had staggered backward. I saw him a mile or so
+away. His back at that instant was turned to me. He was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>
+now no more than three or four times my own height. He
+scrambled against the valley cliff wall as though trying to
+find a foothold to climb up it. He went a little way, but
+fell back.</p>
+
+<p>Near me, Alan and old Dr. Kent suddenly appeared. I
+was larger than they. Alan gasped with surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"You, George! You got Babs&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;Babs is around somewhere! Stay down here! Don't
+lose her in size! Stay small! Search and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But, George&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tackle Polter. I've taken&mdash;God, I don't know how much
+I've taken of the drug!"</p>
+
+<p>They were shrinking down by my boot tops. Alan shouted
+suddenly, "There's Babs! Thank God, she's all right."</p>
+
+<p>She was so small that I couldn't see her, or even hear her,
+though she must have been calling to them. Alan again
+screamed up at me with his little voice:</p>
+
+<p>"She's here, George! You&mdash;go on and get Polter! I can't
+overtake you&mdash;haven't enough of the drug!" His tiny voice
+was fading away. "Go and get him, George! This time&mdash;get
+him&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>I swung with a staggering step around to face the open
+valley. It had by now shrunk to nearly half a mile in width.
+Its smooth walls rose some two or three thousand feet to an
+upper circular horizon with murky distance overhead. Polter
+stood across from me. He had tried to climb out but could
+not. He saw me and came lurching. We were a quarter of
+a mile from each other. I ran forward through a shifting
+scene of shrinking rock walls and crawling, contracting
+ground. Quarter of a mile? It seemed hardly more than a
+score of running strides before Polter loomed close ahead of
+me. He was still nearly twice my size. I stooped, seized a
+loose boulder, and flung it. I missed his face, but, as his
+hand went up carrying a bare knife, by fortunate chance,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>
+the stone struck his wrist. The knife dropped to the rocks.
+He stooped to recover it, but I was upon him. As I felt his
+huge arms go about me, half lifting me, my foot struck the
+knife. But in an instant it was swept down into smallness
+beneath us as we expanded above it.</p>
+
+<p>Both of us now were unarmed in this combat of size. I was
+an immature youth in Polter's first grip upon me. I heard
+his panting words, grimly triumphant:</p>
+
+<p>"This&mdash;George Randolph, I haf been&mdash;waiting for so many
+years! The hunchback&mdash;takes his revenge&mdash;now&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He lifted me. His great arms were unbelievably powerful,
+but I could feel them dwindling. I was enlarging faster. Just
+a few moments&mdash;if I could last a few moments.... My
+feet were off the ground, my chest pressed close against the
+little cage between us. He had a hand shoving back my head;
+his fingers sought my throat. I wound my legs around him,
+and then he tried to throw me down and fall upon me. But
+he had twisted and my back was against the cliff. The rocks
+were shoving at us, insistently pushing with almost a living
+movement. Polter staggered with me. His grip on my throat
+tightened, shutting off my breath. My senses whirled. His
+grim sardonic face over me became blurred. I tore futilely
+at my throat to break his choking grip. All the world was a
+roaring chaos to my fading senses. Then in the blur I saw
+horror sweep his expression. His fingers involuntarily loosened.
+I got a breath of blessed air, gasping, and my sight cleared.</p>
+
+<p>Walls were closing around us! We were in a pit barely
+ten feet wide, with the top a few feet above Polter's head.
+The nearer wall shoved us again. Our bodies almost filled
+the shrinking pit! Polter lurched and cast me off. I half
+fell, striking my shoulder against the opposite wall, and I
+saw Polter leap at the dwindling brink and scramble out.</p>
+
+<p>I was nearly wedged. As I rose, the top of the pit only
+reached my waist. Polter had fallen on the upper ground,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>
+and was on hands and knees. Instead of standing up, he
+lurched at me trying to shove me back. But I was out; I
+clutched at him. We were almost of a size now. We rolled on
+the ground, locked together; rolled to the brink of the pit
+and over it, as it shrank to a little round hole unnoticed
+beneath our threshing bodies!</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>At the side of the circular valley Alan and Dr. Kent
+crouched with the smaller figure of Babs between them. They
+saw Polter and me as two swaying gigantic forms locked in
+a death struggle, towering against the sky. Tremendous
+expanded bodies! They saw us come to grips; saw the great
+hunched Polter bend me backward, choking me.</p>
+
+<p>Our bodies lurched. Our huge legs with a single step
+brought us to the center of the valley. It was a shrinking
+valley to Alan, Babs and Dr. Kent, for they too, were enlarging.
+But the fighting giant figures were growing faster.
+In only a moment their shoulders were up there in the sky,
+pressing against the narrowing cliff walls.</p>
+
+<p>Alan gasped, "But George will be crushed! Look at him!"</p>
+
+<p>Horror swept them as they crouched, watching. The
+enormous pillars of Polter's legs towered straight up from
+near at hand. Alan was aware of himself screaming:</p>
+
+<p>"George, get out! You're too large! Too large for in here!"</p>
+
+<p>As though his microscopic voice could reach me&mdash;my head
+a hundred feet above him. But he screamed it again. This
+was all in a few horrible moments, though it seemed to the
+three watchers an eternity. Alan was helpless to aid me;
+they had taken all of the enlarging drug they had.</p>
+
+<p>Then they saw Polter cast me off. I lurched and struck,
+with my shoulders wedged against the cliff directly over
+where they crouched. The overhead sky was darkened as
+Polter scrambled upward.</p>
+
+<p>Alan was still screaming futilely.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Babs huddled with white horrified face, staring. Then I
+went out after Polter. My disappearing legs were great
+dark blurs in the sky. Alan saw the valley now contracted
+to a thousand feet of width, with its cliffs equally as high.
+Then everything was smaller.... The sky overhead went
+dark again from cliff to cliff as a segment of rolling bodies
+momentarily spanned the opening.</p>
+
+<p>Presently Alan realized that the valley had narrowed to
+a pit. He stood up. "Hurry! Now we can go after them. Up
+there!"</p>
+
+<p>The opening above was empty. Polter and I were fighting
+some distance away....</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Kent was soon large enough to scramble out of the
+pit. Alan handed the little Babs up to him and followed.
+Alan saw that they were now in a long gully, blind at one
+end with a five hundred foot perpendicular cliff. Against the
+wall, the Titanic form of Polter stood at bay. And I was
+confronting him. The summit of the cliff was lower than our
+waists. Triumph swept Alan; he saw that I was the larger!
+As Polter bored into me my backward step crossed the full
+width of the gully. Alan shouted:</p>
+
+<p>"Down! Babs&mdash;Father!"</p>
+
+<p>They had barely time to flatten themselves in a narrow
+crevice between upstanding rocks before my foot crashed
+down. For an instant the sole of my foot formed a flat black
+ceiling as it spanned the rocks. Then it lifted and was gone
+with a blurred swoop. They saw the white blur of my hand
+come down and snatch a tremendous boulder, raising it with
+a great sweep of movement into the sky. They saw me crash
+it against Polter; but it only struck his shoulder. He roared
+with anger. The whole sky was roaring and rumbling with
+our shouts and our panting breathing, and the ground was
+clattering, pounding with our giant tread. Huge loose boulders
+were tumbled in an avalanche everywhere.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Again it seemed to Alan that our lurching, heedlessly
+surging bodies must be crushed within these contracting
+walls. Only our locked, intertwined legs were visible; our
+bodies were lost in the sky. Then it seemed to Alan that I
+had heaved Polter upward. And followed him. We disappeared.
+There was a distant overhead rumble, and the murky
+sky, with vague patches of far-distant illumination in it,
+became empty of movement....</p>
+
+<p>The walls presently were again closing upon Alan and his
+companions. They ran out of the open end of the shrinking
+little gully and came to a new upward vista....</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>I found myself a full head and shoulders taller than
+Polter. And he was tiring, panting heavily. His face was cut
+and bleeding from the blows of my fist. The rock I heaved
+struck his shoulder. He roared, head down, and bored into
+me. He was heavier than I. His weight flung me back. My
+foot slid on the loose stones of the gully floor. I did not know
+that Babs, Alan and their father were huddled under those
+stones!</p>
+
+<p>My back struck the opposite wall. Polter's upflung knee
+caught me in the stomach, all but knocking the breath out
+of me. He was desperate, oblivious to the closing walls. And
+as he flung his arms with a grip about my neck, hanging,
+trying to bear down, I saw in his blazing dark eyes what
+seemed the light of suicide. I think that then, with a sudden
+frenzied madness he realized that he was beaten, and tried
+to pull us to the ground and let the walls crush us.</p>
+
+<p>I summoned all my remaining strength and heaved us
+forward. I broke his hold. His body was jammed back against
+a lowering wall. Its top seemed almost at our knees. I shoved
+frantically. He fell backward and I jumped after him.</p>
+
+<p>We were on a great rocky plateau. But it was shrinking,
+crawling into itself. Spots of light were in the murk overhead:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>
+there seemed a distant circular horizon of emptiness around
+us.</p>
+
+<p>Polter was lying in a heap. But it was trickery, for as I
+incautiously bent over him his hand crashed a rock against
+my head. I reeled, with all the world turning black, but
+didn't fall. There was a terrible instant when my senses
+were going, but I fought to hold them. Blood from a
+wound on my forehead was streaming in my eyes. I was
+staggering. Then I realized that I was grimly tossing my head,
+shaking the blood away; and little by little my sight came
+back.</p>
+
+<p>Polter was on his feet, rushing me. His fist came with an
+upward swing at my chin, but I ducked.</p>
+
+<p>And suddenly, fighting up there in the open, my mind
+envisioned how gigantic we were! This was a great upland
+plateau, rounded with miles of distance and shadowy dimly
+radiant abyss beyond its circular horizon. And I was a
+thousand feet or more tall! A Titan, looming here in the sky!</p>
+
+<p>My fist quite unexpectedly caught Polter's jaw. His simultaneous
+swing went wild, as I leapt backward from it. He
+staggered, and his arms dropped to his sides. I was crouched
+forward, guarded, watching him while I gasped for breath.
+There was the briefest of instant when an expression of
+vague surprise swept his face. But I had not knocked him
+out.</p>
+
+<p>It was death overtaking him. His heart was yielding,
+overtaxed from the strain; and I think that there, at the
+last, he realized it. The blood drained suddenly from his
+face and lips, leaving them livid. I saw fear, then a wild
+horror in his eyes. He stood swaying. Then his knees gave
+way and he toppled. He fell from his height in the air where
+I stood gazing at him&mdash;fell forward on his face, his Titanic
+length spread all across the top of this rocky landscape!</p>
+
+<p>For a moment I did not move. My head was reeling, my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>
+ears roaring. Blood streamed into my eyes. I wiped it away
+with a torn sleeve and stood panting, gazing at the glowing
+distance around me.</p>
+
+<p>I was a Titan, standing there. The body of Polter was
+shrinking at my feet. The circular abyss of emptiness came
+nearer as this rocky eminence contracted.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly my attention went to the sky overhead. Vague
+distant lights were there. Then a broad flat blur seemed
+spread over me. Light everywhere was growing. Beyond the
+nearby brink of the abyss was a white reflected radiance
+from beneath. Abruptly I realized there was a level, flat
+white plain running far off there in the distance.</p>
+
+<p>Overhead a radiance contracted into a spot of light. A
+shape in the sky moved! I heard a faraway rumble&mdash;a human
+voice!</p>
+
+<p>The body of Polter lay at my feet. It was hardly the
+length of my forearm. I stood, a Titan.</p>
+
+<p>And then, with a shock of realization, I saw how tiny I
+was! This was the broken top of that fragment of golden
+quartz the size of a walnut! I was standing there, under the
+lens of the giant microscope in Polter's dome-room laboratory,
+with half a dozen astounded Quebec police officials
+peering down at me!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+
+<p>I need not detail the aftermath of our emergence from the
+atom. Dr. Kent and Babs followed me out within a few
+moments. But Alan was not with them! He had seen Polter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>
+fall. His father and Babs were safe. The sacrifice he had
+made in leaving Glora was no longer needed.</p>
+
+<p>Down there on the rocky plateau, Dr. Kent suddenly
+realized that Alan was dwindling.</p>
+
+<p>"Father, I have to! Don't you understand? Glora's world
+is menaced. I can't leave her like this. My duty to you and
+Babs is ended. I did my best. You two are safe now."</p>
+
+<p>"Alan! You can't go!"</p>
+
+<p>He was already down at Dr. Kent's waist, Babs' size. He
+held up his hand. "Dad, don't try to stop me. Good-bye."
+His rugged youthful face was flushed, his voice choked.
+"You&mdash;you've been a mighty good father to me. Always."</p>
+
+<p>Babs flung her arms about him. "Alan. Don't!"</p>
+
+<p>"But I must." He smiled whimsically as he kissed her.
+"You wouldn't want to leave George, would you? Never see
+him again? I'm not asking you to do that, am I?"</p>
+
+<p>"But, Alan&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You've been a great little pal, Babs. But I have to go."</p>
+
+<p>"Alan! You talk as though you were never coming back!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do I? But of course I'm coming back!" He cast her off.
+"Babs, listen. Father's upset. That's natural. You tell him
+not to worry. I'll be careful, and do what I can to save that
+little city. I must find Glora and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Babs was suddenly trembling with eagerness for him.
+"Yes! Of course you must, Alan!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll find her and bring her out here! I'll do it! Don't you
+worry." He was dwindling fast. Dr. Kent had collapsed to
+a rock, staring down with horror-stricken eyes. Alan called
+up to Babs:</p>
+
+<p>"Listen! Have George watch the chunk of gold quartz.
+Have it guarded and watched day and night. Handle it
+carefully, Babs!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes! Yes! How long will you be gone, Alan?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"How do I know? But I'll come back&mdash;don't worry. Maybe
+in only a day or two of your time."</p>
+
+<p>"Right! Good-bye, Alan!"</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye," his tiny voice echoed up.</p>
+
+<p>Babs could see his miniature face smiling up at her. She
+smiled back and waved her arm as he vanished into the
+pebbles at her feet.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>It has broken Dr. Kent. A month now has passed. He
+seldom mentions Alan to Babs and me. But when he does,
+he tries to smile and say that Alan soon will return. He has
+been very ill this last week, though he is better now. He did
+not tell us that he was working to compound another supply
+of the drugs, but we knew it very well.</p>
+
+<p>And his emotion, the strain of it, made him break. He was
+in bed a week. We are living in New York, quite near the
+Museum of the American Society for Scientific Research.
+In a room of the biological department there, the precious
+fragment of golden quartz lies guarded. A microscope is
+over it, and there is never a moment of the day or night
+without an alert, keen-eyed watcher peering down.</p>
+
+<p>But nothing has appeared. Neither friend or foe&mdash;nothing.
+I cannot say so to Babs, but often I fear that Dr. Kent will
+suddenly die, and the secret of his drugs die with him. I
+hinted that I would make a trip into the atom if he would
+let me, but it excited him so greatly I had to laugh it off with
+the assurance that of course Alan would soon return safely
+to us. Dr. Kent is an old man now, unnaturally old, with,
+it seems, the full weight of eighty years pressing upon him.
+He cannot stand this emotion. I think he is despairingly
+summoning strength to work upon his drugs, fearful that
+at any moment, he will not be equal to it. Yet more fearful
+to disclose the secret and unloose such a diabolic power.</p>
+
+<p>There are nights when with Dr. Kent asleep, Babs and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>
+I slip away and go to the Museum. We dismiss the guard
+for a time, and in that private room we sit by the microscope
+to watch. The fragment of golden quartz lies on its clean
+white slab with a brilliant light upon it.</p>
+
+<p>Mysterious little golden rock! What secrets are there, down
+beyond the vanishing point in the realm of the infinitely
+small? Our human longings go to Alan and Glora.</p>
+
+<p>But sometimes we are swept by the greater viewpoint.
+Awed by the mysteries of nature, we realize how very small
+and unimportant we are in the vast scheme of things. We
+envisage the infinite reaches of astronomical space overhead.
+Realms of largeness unfathomable. And at our feet, everywhere,
+a myriad entrances into the infinitely small. With
+ourselves in between&mdash;with our fatuous human consciousness
+that we are of some importance to it all!</p>
+
+<p>Truly there are more things in Heaven and Earth than
+are dreamed of in our philosophy!</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Beyond the Vanishing Point, by 
+Raymond King Cummings
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEYOND THE VANISHING POINT ***
+
+***** This file should be named 22527-h.htm or 22527-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/5/2/22527/
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/22527-page-images/f001.png b/22527-page-images/f001.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4884cd3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/f001.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/f002.png b/22527-page-images/f002.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..26bd538
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/f002.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/f003.png b/22527-page-images/f003.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8382b12
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/f003.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/f004.png b/22527-page-images/f004.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3cfa40e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/f004.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p005.png b/22527-page-images/p005.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..41c35ca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p005.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p006.png b/22527-page-images/p006.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3399a5f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p006.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p007.png b/22527-page-images/p007.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..442f0f0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p007.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p008.png b/22527-page-images/p008.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f2bebe9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p008.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p009.png b/22527-page-images/p009.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6b57baf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p009.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p010.png b/22527-page-images/p010.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f153107
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p010.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p011.png b/22527-page-images/p011.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9cc8324
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p011.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p012.png b/22527-page-images/p012.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..934d8fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p012.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p013.png b/22527-page-images/p013.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..168b771
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p013.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p014.png b/22527-page-images/p014.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..86c27d3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p014.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p015.png b/22527-page-images/p015.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8d91c78
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p015.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p016.png b/22527-page-images/p016.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c351f4f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p016.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p017.png b/22527-page-images/p017.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c30aecc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p017.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p018.png b/22527-page-images/p018.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ee344df
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p018.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p019.png b/22527-page-images/p019.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2ea2b93
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p019.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p020.png b/22527-page-images/p020.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dd6b918
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p020.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p021.png b/22527-page-images/p021.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..94bcce5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p021.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p022.png b/22527-page-images/p022.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..93bc140
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p022.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p023.png b/22527-page-images/p023.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..04ac496
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p023.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p024.png b/22527-page-images/p024.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..aadedef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p024.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p025.png b/22527-page-images/p025.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fb37179
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p025.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p026.png b/22527-page-images/p026.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c9e3396
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p026.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p027.png b/22527-page-images/p027.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..61c9224
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p027.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p028.png b/22527-page-images/p028.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..109c033
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p028.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p029.png b/22527-page-images/p029.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0dc4d49
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p029.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p030.png b/22527-page-images/p030.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7a71203
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p030.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p031.png b/22527-page-images/p031.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ba78783
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p031.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p032.png b/22527-page-images/p032.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..089ba81
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p032.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p033.png b/22527-page-images/p033.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d27a7eb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p033.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p034.png b/22527-page-images/p034.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3b0093e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p034.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p035.png b/22527-page-images/p035.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ebc4cf5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p035.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p036.png b/22527-page-images/p036.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d4a7052
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p036.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p037.png b/22527-page-images/p037.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..aa3f17f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p037.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p038.png b/22527-page-images/p038.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..976a81d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p038.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p039.png b/22527-page-images/p039.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..10fefff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p039.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p040.png b/22527-page-images/p040.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5c54ab2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p040.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p041.png b/22527-page-images/p041.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..72d883b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p041.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p042.png b/22527-page-images/p042.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ee4cbb4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p042.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p043.png b/22527-page-images/p043.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e9106e3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p043.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p044.png b/22527-page-images/p044.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a7005a6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p044.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p045.png b/22527-page-images/p045.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..559ab37
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p045.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p046.png b/22527-page-images/p046.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..90e282c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p046.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p047.png b/22527-page-images/p047.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d8f916b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p047.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p048.png b/22527-page-images/p048.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..01e75a1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p048.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p049.png b/22527-page-images/p049.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fcdd084
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p049.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p050.png b/22527-page-images/p050.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..05ba17f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p050.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p051.png b/22527-page-images/p051.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d2542a0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p051.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p052.png b/22527-page-images/p052.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ffe4e95
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p052.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p053.png b/22527-page-images/p053.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b736ebf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p053.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p054.png b/22527-page-images/p054.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b58272e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p054.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p055.png b/22527-page-images/p055.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..027435b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p055.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p056.png b/22527-page-images/p056.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..da4bc97
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p056.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p057.png b/22527-page-images/p057.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..260e6a9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p057.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p058.png b/22527-page-images/p058.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a80969b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p058.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p059.png b/22527-page-images/p059.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..996d452
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p059.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p060.png b/22527-page-images/p060.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..98260d4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p060.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p061.png b/22527-page-images/p061.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d5044be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p061.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p062.png b/22527-page-images/p062.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..918ac07
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p062.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p063.png b/22527-page-images/p063.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4da92ad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p063.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p064.png b/22527-page-images/p064.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7d0f207
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p064.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p065.png b/22527-page-images/p065.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ecdcef9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p065.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p066.png b/22527-page-images/p066.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7e1ddca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p066.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p067.png b/22527-page-images/p067.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d759222
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p067.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p068.png b/22527-page-images/p068.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..df54259
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p068.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p069.png b/22527-page-images/p069.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..11fe01a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p069.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p070.png b/22527-page-images/p070.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e6a0864
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p070.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p071.png b/22527-page-images/p071.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..308f1c5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p071.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p072.png b/22527-page-images/p072.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3bc67b0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p072.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p073.png b/22527-page-images/p073.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..374b685
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p073.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p074.png b/22527-page-images/p074.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7c24bd7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p074.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p075.png b/22527-page-images/p075.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1fab240
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p075.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p076.png b/22527-page-images/p076.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e5fa2bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p076.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p077.png b/22527-page-images/p077.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e3b7802
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p077.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p078.png b/22527-page-images/p078.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..475648e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p078.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p079.png b/22527-page-images/p079.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8943677
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p079.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p080.png b/22527-page-images/p080.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..79325ac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p080.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p081.png b/22527-page-images/p081.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bcc958a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p081.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p082.png b/22527-page-images/p082.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..70696b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p082.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p083.png b/22527-page-images/p083.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8d19a61
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p083.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p084.png b/22527-page-images/p084.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cf889d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p084.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p085.png b/22527-page-images/p085.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..766c08b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p085.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p086.png b/22527-page-images/p086.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6dc6d8d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p086.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p087.png b/22527-page-images/p087.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f75c87e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p087.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p088.png b/22527-page-images/p088.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3f7d7c6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p088.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p089.png b/22527-page-images/p089.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..25d5a0d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p089.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p090.png b/22527-page-images/p090.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..315b42c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p090.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p091.png b/22527-page-images/p091.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bc0b381
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p091.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p092.png b/22527-page-images/p092.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0335915
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p092.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p093.png b/22527-page-images/p093.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..99f295d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p093.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p094.png b/22527-page-images/p094.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a764cb9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p094.png
diff --git a/22527-page-images/p095.png b/22527-page-images/p095.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2b3c834
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527-page-images/p095.png
diff --git a/22527.txt b/22527.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1c876c8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3850 @@
+Project Gutenberg's Beyond the Vanishing Point, by Raymond King Cummings
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Beyond the Vanishing Point
+
+Author: Raymond King Cummings
+
+Release Date: September 6, 2007 [EBook #22527]
+Last updated: January 22, 2009
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEYOND THE VANISHING POINT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                     THEY OPENED THE PANDORA'S BOX
+                            OF ATOMIC TRAVEL
+
+
+When George Randolph first caught sight of Orena, he was astounded by
+its gleaming perfection. Here were hills and valleys, lakes and streams,
+glowing with the light of the most precious of metals. And, more
+astonishing than that, it was a world of _miniature_ perfection--an
+infinitely tiny universe within a golden atom!
+
+But for Randolph it was also a world aglow with danger. Somewhere in its
+tiny vastness were the friends he had to rescue. Captives of a madman,
+they had been reduced to native Orena size; to return to Earth they
+needed the growth capsules Randolph was bringing them. It was up to
+Randolph to find them--and quickly--for the longer they stayed tiny, the
+closer they came to passing BEYOND THE VANISHING POINT!
+
+
+
+
+CAST OF CHARACTERS
+
+
+ FRANZ POLTER
+ He found a gold mine in a land where there was no gold.
+
+ DR. KENT
+ His scientific studies could mean life or death to an entire universe!
+
+ GEORGE RANDOLPH
+ He crossed the border into Canada, and found himself in another world.
+
+ ALAN KENT
+ Twenty feet tall, or two inches high--which should he be?
+
+ GLORA
+ She was only as large as a thumbnail, but she carried a gigantic secret.
+
+ BABS KENT
+ Did she live in a golden cage or a magnificent palace?
+
+
+
+
+           BEYOND THE
+              VANISHING POINT
+
+
+                   by
+              RAY CUMMINGS
+
+
+             ACE BOOKS, INC.
+ 23 West 47th Street, New York 36, N. Y.
+
+
+
+
+ BEYOND THE VANISHING POINT
+ Copyright (C), 1958, by Ace Books, Inc.
+ All Rights Reserved
+
+ Printed in U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+It was shortly after noon of December 31, 1970, when the series of weird
+and startling events began which took me into the tiny world of an atom
+of gold, beyond the vanishing point, beyond the range of even the
+highest-powered electric-microscope. My name is George Randolph. I was,
+that momentous afternoon, assistant chemist for the Ajax International
+Dye Company, with main offices in New York City.
+
+It was twelve-twenty when the local exchange call-sorter announced
+Alan's connection from Quebec.
+
+"Hello, George? Look here, you've got to come up here at once. Chateau
+Frontenac, Quebec. Will you come?"
+
+I could see his face imaged in the little mirror on my desk; the
+anxiety, tenseness in his voice, was duplicated in his expression.
+
+"Well--" I began.
+
+"You must, George. Babs and I need you. See here...."
+
+He tried at first to make it sound like an invitation for a New Year's
+Eve holiday. But I knew it was not that. Alan and Barbara were my best
+friends. They were twins, eighteen years old. I felt that Alan would
+always be my best friend; but for Babs, my hopes, longings, went far
+deeper, though as yet I had never brought myself to the point of telling
+her so.
+
+"I'd like to come, Alan. But--"
+
+"You've got to George! I can't tell you everything over the public air.
+But I've seen _him_: He's diabolical. I know it now!"
+
+_Him_! It could only mean, of all the world, one person!
+
+"He's here!" he went on. "Near here. We saw him today! I didn't want to
+tell you, but that's why we came. It seemed a long chance, but it's he,
+I'm positive!"
+
+I was staring at the image of Alan's eyes; there was horror in them. And
+his voice too. "God, George, it's weird! Weird, I tell you. His
+looks--he--oh I can't tell you now! Only, come!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I was busy at the office in spite of the holiday season, but I dropped
+everything and went. By one o'clock that afternoon I was wheeling my
+little sport Midge from its cage on the roof of the Metropole building,
+and went into the air.
+
+It was a cold gray afternoon with the feel of coming snow. I made a good
+two hundred and fifty miles at first, taking the northbound
+through-traffic lane which today the meteorological conditions had
+placed at an altitude of 6,200 feet.
+
+Flying is largely automatic. There was not enough traffic to bother me.
+The details of leaving the office so hastily had been too engrossing for
+thought of Alan and Babs. But now, in my little pit at the controls, my
+mind flung ahead. They had located him. That meant Franz Polter, for
+whom we had been searching nearly four years. And my memory went back
+into the past with vivid vision....
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Kents, four years ago, were living on Long Island. Alan and Babs
+were fourteen at the time, and I was seventeen. Even then Babs was
+something kind of special to me. I lived in a neighboring house that
+summer and saw them every day.
+
+To my adolescent mind a thrilling mystery hung upon the Kent family. The
+mother was dead. Dr. Kent, father of Alan and Babs, maintained a
+luxurious home, with only a housekeeper and no other servant. Dr. Kent
+was a retired chemist. He had, in his home, a laboratory in which he was
+working upon some mysterious problem. His children did not know what it
+was, nor, of course, did I. And none of us had ever been in the
+laboratory, except that when occasion offered we stole surreptitious
+peeps.
+
+I recall Dr. Kent as a kindly, iron-gray haired gentleman. He was stern
+with the discipline of his children; but he loved them, and was
+indulgent in many ways. They loved him; and I, an orphan, began looking
+upon him almost as a father. I was interested in chemistry. He knew it,
+and did his best to help and encourage me in my studies.
+
+There came an afternoon in the summer of 1966, when arriving at the Kent
+home, I ran upon a startling scene. The only other member of the
+household was a young fellow of twenty-five, named Franz Polter. He was
+a foreigner, born, I understood, in one of the Balkan Protectorates; he
+was here, employed by Dr. Kent as laboratory assistant.
+
+He had been with the Kents, at this time, two years. Alan and Babs
+didn't like him, nor did I. He must have been a clever, skillful
+chemist. No doubt he was. But he was, to us, repulsive. A hunchback,
+with a short, thick body; dangling arms that suggested a gorilla; barrel
+chest; a lump set askew on his left shoulder, and his massive head
+planted down with almost no neck. His face was rugged in feature; a wide
+mouth, a high-bridged heavy nose; and above the face a great shock of
+wavy black hair. It was an intelligent face; in itself, not repulsive.
+
+But I think we all three feared Franz Polter. There was always something
+sinister about him, that had nothing to do with his deformity.
+
+When I came, that afternoon, Babs and Polter were under a tree on the
+Kent lawn. Babs, at fourteen, with long black braids down her back,
+bare-legged and short-skirted in a summer sport costume, was standing
+against the tree with Polter facing her. They were about the same
+height. To my youthful imaginative mind rose the fleeting picture of a
+young girl in a forest menaced by a gorilla.
+
+I came upon them suddenly. I heard Polter say:
+
+"But I lof you. And you are almos' a woman. Some day you lof me."
+
+He put out his thick hand and gripped her shoulder. She tried to twist
+away. She was frightened, but she laughed.
+
+"You--you're crazy!"
+
+He was suddenly holding her in his arms, and she was fighting him. I
+dashed forward. Babs was always a spunky sort of girl. In spite of her
+fear now, she kept on struggling, and she shouted:
+
+"You--let me go, you--you hunchback!"
+
+He did let her go; but in a frenzy of rage he hauled back his hand and
+struck her in the face. I was upon him the next second. I had him down
+on the lawn, punching him; but though at seventeen I was a reasonably
+husky lad, the hunchback with his thick, hairy gorilla arms proved much
+stronger. He heaved me off. The commotion had brought Alan and without
+waiting to find out what the trouble was, he jumped on Polter. Between
+us, I think we would have beaten him pretty badly. But the housekeeper
+summoned Dr. Kent and the fight was over.
+
+Polter left for good within an hour. He did not speak to any of us. But
+I saw him as he put his luggage into the taxi which Dr. Kent had
+summoned. I was standing silently nearby with Babs and Alan. The look he
+flung us as he drove away carried an unmistakable menace--the promise of
+vengeance. And I think now that in his warped and twisted mind he was
+telling himself that he would some day make Babs regret that she had
+repulsed his love.
+
+What happened that night none of us ever knew. Dr. Kent worked late in
+his laboratory; he was there when Alan and Babs and the housekeeper went
+to bed. He had written a note to Alan; it was found on his desk in a
+corner of the laboratory next morning, addressed in care of the family
+lawyer to be given Alan in the event of his death. It said very little.
+Described a tiny fragment of gold quartz rock the size of a walnut which
+would be found under the giant microscope in the laboratory; and told
+Alan to give it to the American Scientific Society to be guarded and
+watched very carefully.
+
+This note was found, but Dr. Kent had vanished! There had been a
+midnight marauder. The laboratory was on the lower floor of the house.
+Through one of its open windows, so the police said, an intruder had
+entered. There was evidence of a struggle, but it must have been short,
+because neither Babs, Alan, the housekeeper, nor any of the neighbors
+had heard anything. And the fragment of golden quartz was gone!
+
+The police investigation came to nothing. Polter was found in New York.
+He withstood the police questions. There was nothing except suspicion
+upon which he could be held, and he was finally released. Immediately
+thereafter, he disappeared.
+
+Neither Alan, Babs nor I saw Polter again. Dr. Kent had never been heard
+from to this day, four years later when I flew to join the twins in
+Quebec. And now Alan told me that Polter was up there! We had never
+ceased to believe that Dr. Kent was alive, and that Polter was the
+midnight marauder. As we grew older, we began to search for Polter. It
+seemed to us, that if we could once get our hands on him, we could drag
+from him the truth which the police had failed to get.
+
+The call of a traffic director in mid-Vermont brought me back from these
+memories. My buzzer was clanging; a peremptory halting signal day-beam
+came darting up at me from below. It caught me and clung. I shouted down
+at it.
+
+"What's the matter?" I gave my name and number and all the details in
+one breath. Above everything I had no wish to be halted now. "What's the
+matter? I haven't done anything wrong."
+
+"The hell you haven't," the director roared. "Come down to three
+thousand. That lane's barred."
+
+I dove obediently and his beam followed me. "Once more, like that, young
+fellow--" But he went busy with somebody else and I didn't hear the end
+of his threat.
+
+I crossed into Maine in mid-afternoon. It was already twilight. The sky
+was solid lead and the landscape all up through here was gray-white with
+snow in the gathering darkness. I passed the City of Jackman, crossing
+full over it to take no chances of annoying the border officials; and a
+few miles further, I dropped to the glaring lights of International
+Inspection Field. The formalities were soon finished. I was ready to
+take-off when Alan rushed at me.
+
+"George! I thought I could connect here." He gripped me. He was
+wild-eyed, incoherent. He waved his taxiplane away. "I'm going with you,
+George. I'm almost out of my mind. I can't--I don't know what's happened
+to her. She's gone, now--"
+
+"Who's gone? Babs?"
+
+"Yes." He pushed me into my plane and climbed in after me. "Don't talk.
+Get us up! I'll tell you then. I shouldn't have left."
+
+When we were up in the air, I swung on him. "What are you talking about?
+Babs gone?"
+
+I could feel myself shuddering with a nameless horror.
+
+"I don't know what I'm talking about, George. I'm about crazy. The
+Quebec police think I am, anyway. I've been raising hell with them for
+an hour. Babs is gone! I can't find her. I don't know where she is."
+
+He finally calmed down enough to tell me what happened. Shortly after
+his radiophone to me in New York, he had missed Babs. They had had lunch
+in the huge hotel and then walked on the Dufferin Terrace--the famous
+promenade outside looking down over the Lower City, the great sweep of
+the St. Lawrence River and the gray-white distant Laurentian mountains.
+
+"I was to meet her inside. I went in ahead of her. But she didn't come.
+I went back to the Terrace but she was gone. She wasn't in our rooms.
+Nor the library, the lobby--anywhere."
+
+But it was afternoon, in the public place of a civilized city. In the
+daylight of the Dufferin Terrace, beside the long ice toboggan slide,
+under the gaze of skaters on the ice-rink and several hundred holiday
+merrymakers, a young girl could hardly be murdered, or kidnapped,
+without attracting attention! The Quebec police thought the young
+American unduly excited about his sister, who was missing only an hour.
+They would do what they could, if by dark she had not rejoined him. They
+suggested that doubtless the young lady had gone shopping.
+
+"Maybe she did," I agreed. But in my heart, I felt differently. "She'll
+be waiting for us in the Hotel when we get there, Alan."
+
+"But I'm telling you we saw Polter this morning. He lives here--not
+thirty miles from Quebec. We saw him on the Terrace after breakfast.
+Recognized him immediately of course."
+
+"Did he see you?"
+
+"I don't know. He was lost in the crowd in a minute. But I asked a
+young French fellow if he knew him. He did know him, as Frank Rascor.
+That must be the name he wears now. He's a famous man up here--well
+known, immensely rich. I didn't know if he saw us or not. What a fool I
+was to leave Babs alone, even for a minute."
+
+We were speeding over a white-clad valley with a little frozen river
+winding down its middle. Night had almost come. The leaden sky was low
+above us. It began snowing. The lights of the small villages along the
+river were barely visible.
+
+"Can you land us, Alan?"
+
+"Yes, surely. At the Municipal Field just beyond the Citadel. We can get
+to the Hotel in five minutes."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was a flight of only half an hour. During it, Alan told me about
+Polter. The hunchback, known now as Frank Rascor, owned a mine in the
+Laurentians, some thirty miles from Quebec City--a fabulously productive
+mine of gold. It was an anomaly that gold should be produced in this
+region. No vein of gold-bearing rock had been found, except the one on
+Polter's property. Alan had seen a newspaper account of the strangeness
+of it; and on a hunch had come to Quebec, being intrigued by the
+description of the mine owner. He had seen Frank Rascor on the Dufferin
+Terrace, and recognized him as Polter.
+
+Again my thoughts went back into the past. Had Polter stolen that
+missing fragment of golden quartz the size of a walnut which had been
+beneath Dr. Kent's microscope? We always thought so. Dr. Kent had some
+secret, some great problem upon which he was working. Polter, his
+assistant, had evidently known, or partially known, its details. And
+now, four years later, Polter was immensely rich, with a "gold mine" in
+mountains where there was no other evidence of gold!
+
+I seemed to see some connection. Alan, I knew, was groping with a dim
+idea, so strange he hardly dared voice it.
+
+"I tell you, it's weird, George. The sight of him. Polter--heavens, one
+couldn't mistake that build--and his face, his features, just the same
+as when we knew him."
+
+"Then what's so weird?" I demanded.
+
+"His age." There was a queer solemn hush in Alan's voice. "George, when
+we knew Polter, he was about twenty-five, wasn't he? Well, that was four
+years ago. But he isn't twenty-nine now. I swear it is the same man, but
+he isn't around thirty. Don't ask me what I'm talking about. I don't
+know. But he isn't thirty. He's nearer fifty! Unnatural! Weird! I felt
+it, and so did Babs, just that brief look we had of him."
+
+I didn't answer. My attention was on managing the plane. The lights of
+Levis were under us. Beyond the City cliffs, the St. Lawrence lay in its
+deep valley; the Quebec lights, the light-dotted ramparts with the
+Terrace and the great fortresslike Hotel showed across the river.
+
+"Better take the stick, Alan. I don't know where the field is. And don't
+you worry about Babs. She'll be back by now."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But she was not. We went to the two connecting rooms in the tower of the
+Hotel which Alan and Babs had engaged. We inquired with half a dozen
+phone calls. No one had seen or heard from her. The Quebec police were
+sending a man up to talk with Alan.
+
+"Well, we won't be here," Alan called to me. He was standing by the
+window in Babs' room; he was trembling too much to use the phone. I hung
+up the receiver and went though the connecting door to join him.
+
+Babs' room! It sent a pang through me. A few of her garments were lying
+around. A negligee was laid out on the large bed. A velvet boudoir
+doll--she had always loved them--stood on the dresser. Upon this Hotel
+room, in one day, she had impressed her personality. Her perfume was in
+the air. And now she was gone.
+
+"We won't be here," Alan was repeating. He gripped me at the window.
+"Look." In his hand was an ugly-looking, smokeless, soundless automatic
+of the Essen type. "And I've got another one for you. Brought them with
+me."
+
+His face was white and drawn, but his hands had steadied. The tremble
+was gone out of his voice.
+
+"I'm going after him, George! Now! Understand that? Now? His place is
+only thirty miles from here, out there in the mountains. You can see it
+in the daylight--a wall around his property and a stone castle which he
+built in the middle of it. A gold mine? Hell!"
+
+There was nothing to be seen now out of the window but the snow-filled
+darkness, the blurred lights of Lower Quebec and the line of dock lights
+five hundred feet below us.
+
+"Will you fly me, George?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+I was the one trembling now; the cool feel of the automatic which Alan
+thrust into my hand seemed suddenly to crystallize Babs' peril. I was
+here in her room, with the scent of her perfume around me, and this
+deadly weapon was needed! But the trembling was gone in a moment.
+
+"Yes, of course, Alan. No use talking to the police. I gave them all the
+information--a description of her, what you said she was wearing. No
+sense dragging Polter's name into it, with nothing tangible to go on.
+The police won't ransack the castle of a rich man just because you can't
+find your sister. Come on. You can tell me what this place is like as we
+go."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Bundled in our flying suits we hurried from the Hotel, climbed the
+Citadel slope and in ten minutes were in the air. The wind sucked at us.
+The snow now was falling with thick, huge flakes. Directed by Alan, I
+headed out over this ice-filled St. Lawrence, past the frozen Ile
+d'Orleans, toward Polter's mysterious mountain castle.
+
+Suddenly Alan burst out, "I know what father's secret was! I can piece
+it together now, from little things that were meaningless when I was a
+kid. He invented the electro-microscope. You know that. The infinitely
+small fascinated him. I remember he once said that if we could see far
+enough down into smallness, we would come upon human life!"
+
+Alan's low, tense voice was more vehement than I had ever heard it
+before. "It's clear to me now, George. That little fragment of golden
+quartz which he wanted me to be so careful of contained a world with
+human inhabitants! Father knew it, or suspected it. And I think the
+chemical problem on which he was working aimed for some drug. I know it
+was a drug they were compounding, Polter said so once, a radioactive
+drug; I remember listening at the door. A drug, George, capable of
+making a human being infinitely small!"
+
+I did not answer when momentarily Alan paused. So strange a thing. My
+mind whirled with it; struggled to encompass it. And like the
+meaningless individual pieces of a puzzle, dropping so easily into place
+when the key piece is fitted, I saw Polter stealing that fragment of
+gold; abducting Dr. Kent--perhaps because Polter himself was not fully
+acquainted with the secret. And now, Polter up here with a fabulously
+rich "gold mine." And Babs, abducted by him, to be taken--where?
+
+It set me shuddering.
+
+"That's what it was," Alan reiterated. "And Polter, here now with what
+he calls a 'mine.' It isn't a mine, it's a laboratory! He's got father
+too, hidden God knows where! And now Babs. We've got to get them,
+George! The police can't help us! It's just you and me, to fight this
+thing. And it's diabolical!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+We soared over the divided channel of the St. Lawrence, between Orleans
+and the mainland. Montmorency Falls in a moment showed dimly white
+through the murk to our left, a great hanging veil of ice higher than
+Niagara. Further ahead, the lights of the little village of St. Anne de
+Beaupre were visible with the gray-black towering hills behind them.
+
+"Swing left, George. Over the mainland. That's St. Anne. We pass this
+side of it. Put the mufflers on. This damn thing roars like a tower
+siren."
+
+I cut in the muffler and switched off our wing-lights. It was illegal
+but we were past all thought of that. We were both desperate; the slow
+prudent process of acting within the law had nothing to do with this
+affair. We both knew it.
+
+Our little plane was dark, and amid the sounds of this night blizzard
+our muffled engine couldn't be heard.
+
+Alan touched me. "There are his lights; see them?"
+
+We had passed St. Anne. The hills lay ahead--a wild mountainous country
+stretching northward to the foot of Hudson Bay. The blizzard was roaring
+out of the North and we were heading into it. I saw, on what seemed like
+a dome-shaped hill perhaps a thousand feet above the river level, a
+small cluster of lights which marked Polter's property.
+
+"Fly over it once, George," Alan said. "Low--we can chance it. And find
+a place to land near the walls."
+
+We presently had it under us. I held the plane at five hundred feet, and
+cut our speed to the minimum of twenty miles an hour facing the gale,
+though it was sixty or seventy when we turned. There were a score or two
+of hooded ground lights. But there was little reflection aloft, and in
+the murk of the snowfall I felt we could escape notice.
+
+We crossed, turned and went back in an arc following Polter's curved
+outer wall. We had a good view of it. A weird enough looking place, here
+on its lonely hilltop. No wonder the wealthy "Frank Rascor" had attained
+local prominence!
+
+The whole property was irregularly circular, perhaps a mile in diameter
+covering the almost flat dome of the hilltop. Around it, completely
+enclosing it, Polter had built a stone and brick wall. A miniature of
+the Great Wall in China! We could see that it was fully thirty feet high
+with what evidently were naked high-voltage wires protecting its top.
+There were half a dozen little gates, securely barred, with doubtless a
+guard at each of them.
+
+Within the walls there were several buildings: a few small stone houses
+suggesting workmen's dwellings; an oblong stone structure with smoke
+funnels which looked like a smelter; a huge domelike spread of
+translucent glass over what might have been the top of a mineshaft. It
+looked more like the dome of an observatory--an inverted bowl fully a
+hundred feet wide and equally as high, set upon the ground. What did it
+cover?
+
+And there was Polter's residence--a castlelike brick and stone building
+with a tower not unlike a miniature of the Chateau Frontenac. We saw a
+stone corridor on the ground connecting the lower floor of the castle
+with the dome, which lay about a hundred feet to one side.
+
+Could we chance landing inside the wall? There was a dark, level expanse
+of snow where we could have done it, but our descending plane doubtless
+would have been discovered. But the mile-wide inner area was dark in
+many places. Spots of light were at the little wall-gates. There was a
+glow all along the top of the wall. Lights were on in Polter's house;
+they slanted out in yellow shafts to the nearby white ground. But for
+the rest, the whole place was dark, save a dim glow from under the dome.
+
+I shook my head at Alan's suggestion that we land inside the walls. We
+had circled back and were a mile or so off toward the river. "The
+trees--and you saw guards down there. But that low stretch outside the
+gate on this side...."
+
+A plan was coming to me. Heaven knows it was desperate enough, but we
+had no alternative. We would land and accost one of the gate guards.
+Force our way in. Once inside the wall, on foot in the darkness of this
+blizzard, we could hide; slip up to that dome. Beyond that my
+imagination could not go.
+
+We landed in the snow a quarter of a mile from one of the gates. We left
+the plane and plunged into the darkness.
+
+It was a steady upward slope. A packed snowfield was underfoot, firm
+enough to hold our weight, with a foot or so of loose, soft snow on its
+top. The falling flakes whirled around us. The darkness was solid. Our
+helmeted leather-furred flying suits were soon shapeless with a
+gathering white shroud. We carried our Essens in our gloved hands. The
+night was cold, around zero I imagine, though with that biting wind it
+felt far colder.
+
+From the gloom a tiny spot of light loomed up.
+
+"There it is, Alan. Easy now! Let me go first." The wind tore away my
+words. We could see the narrow rectangle of bars at the gate, with a
+glow of light behind them.
+
+"Hide your gun, Alan." I gripped him. "Do you hear me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Let me go first. I'll do the talking. When he opens the gate, let me
+handle him. You--if there are two of them--you take the other."
+
+We emerged from the darkness, into the glow of light by the gate. I had
+the horrible feeling that a shot would greet us. A challenge came, at
+first in French and then in English.
+
+"Stop! What do you want?"
+
+"To see Mr. Rascor."
+
+We were up to the bars now, shapeless hooded bundles of snow and frost.
+A man stood in the doorway of a lighted little cubby behind the bars. A
+black muzzle in his hand was leveled at us.
+
+"He sees no one. Who are you?"
+
+Alan was pressing at me from behind. I shoved him back, and took a step
+forward. I touched the bars.
+
+"My name is Fred Davis. Newspaperman from Montreal I must see Mr.
+Rascor."
+
+"You cannot. You may send in your call. The mouthpiece is there--out
+there to the left. Bare your face; he talks to no one without the face
+image."
+
+The guard had drawn back into his cubby; there was only his extended
+hand and the muzzle of his weapon left visible.
+
+I took a step forward. "I don't want to talk by phone. Won't you open
+the gate? It's cold out here. We have important business. We'll wait
+with you."
+
+Abruptly the gate lattice slid aside. Beyond the cubby doorway was the
+open darkness within the wall. A scuffed path leading inward from the
+gate showed for a few feet.
+
+I walked over the threshold, with Alan crowding me. The Essen in my coat
+pocket was leveled. But from the cubby doorway, I saw that the guard was
+gone! Then I saw him crouching behind a metal shield. His voice rang
+out.
+
+"Stand!"
+
+A light struck my face--a thin beam from a television sender beside me.
+It all happened in an instant, so quickly Alan and I had barely time to
+make a move. I realized my image was now doubtless being presented to
+Polter. He would recognize me!
+
+I ducked my head, yelling, "Don't do that!"
+
+It was too late! The guard had received a signal. I heard its buzz.
+
+From the shield a tiny jet of fluid leapt at me. It struck my hood.
+There was a heavy sickening-sweet smell. It seemed like chloroform. I
+felt my senses going. The cubby room was turning dark, was roaring.
+
+I think I fired at the shield. And Alan leapt aside. I heard the faint
+hiss of his Essen, and his choked, horrified voice:
+
+"George, run! Don't fall!"
+
+I crumpled; slid into blackness. And it seemed, as I went down, that
+Alan's inert body was falling on top of me....
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I recovered after a nameless interval, a phantasmagoria of wild, drugged
+dreams. My senses came slowly. At first, there were dim muffled voices
+and the tread of footsteps. Then I knew that I was lying on the ground,
+and that I was indoors. It was warm. My overcoat was off. Then I
+realized that I was bound and gagged.
+
+I opened my eyes. Alan was lying inert beside me, roped and with a black
+gag around his face and in his mouth. We were in a huge dim open space.
+Presently, as my vision cleared, I saw that the dome was overhead. This
+was a circular, hundred-foot-wide room. It was dimly lighted. The
+figures of men were moving about, their great misshapen shadows shifting
+with them. Twenty feet from me there was a pile of golden rock--chunks
+of gold the size of a man's fist, or his head, and larger, heaped
+loosely into a mound ten feet high.
+
+Beyond this pile of ore, near the center of the room, twenty feet above
+the concrete floor, there was a large hanging electrolier. It cast a
+circular glow downward. Under it I saw a low platform raised a foot or
+two above the ground. A giant electro-microscope was hung with its
+twenty foot cylinder above the platform. Its intensification tubes were
+glowing in a dim phosphorescent row on a nearby bracket. A man sat in a
+chair on the platform at the microscope's eyepiece.
+
+I saw all this with a brief glance, then my attention went to a white
+stone slab under the giant lense. It rested on the platform floor, a
+two-foot square surface of smooth white marble. A little roped railing a
+few inches high fenced it. And in its center lay a fragment of golden
+quartz the size of a walnut!
+
+There was a movement across my line of vision. Two figures advanced. I
+recognized both of them. And I strained at my bonds; mouthed the gag
+with futile, frenzied effort. I could no more than writhe; and I
+couldn't make a sound. I lay, after a moment exhausted, and stared with
+horror.
+
+The familiar hunched figure of Polter advanced toward the microscope.
+And with him, his huge hand holding her wrists, was Babs. They were
+nearly fifty feet from me, but with the light over them I could see them
+clearly. Babs' slim figure was clad in a long skirted dress--pale blue,
+now, with the light on it. Her long black hair had fallen disheveled to
+her shoulders. I couldn't see her face. She did not cry out. Polter was
+half dragging her as she resisted him; and then abruptly she ceased
+struggling.
+
+I heard his guttural voice. "That iss better."
+
+They mounted the platform. They were very small and seemed to be far
+away. I blinked. Horror surged over me. Their figures were dwindling as
+they stood there. Polter was saying something to the man at the
+microscope. Other men were nearby, watching. All were normal, save
+Polter and Babs. A moment passed. Polter was standing by the chair in
+which the man at the microscope was sitting. And Polter's head barely
+reached its seat! Babs was clinging to him now. Another moment and they
+were both tiny figures down by the chair-leg. Then they began walking
+with swaying steps toward the miniature railing of the white slab. The
+white reflection from the slab plainly illumined them. Polter's arm was
+around Babs. I had not realized how small they were until I saw Polter
+lift the rope of the little four-inch fence, and he and Babs stooped and
+walked under it. The fragment of quartz lay a foot from them in the
+center of the white surface. They walked unsteadily toward it. But soon
+they were running.
+
+My horrified senses whirled. Then abruptly I felt something touch my
+face! Alan and I were lying in shadow. No one had noticed my writhing
+movements, and Alan was still in drugged unconsciousness. Something tiny
+and light and soundless as a butterfly wing brushed my face! I jerked my
+head aside. On the floor, within six inches of my eyes, I saw the tiny
+figure of a girl an inch high! She stood, with a warning gesture to her
+lips--a human girl in a filmy flowing robe. Long, pale golden tresses
+lay on her white shoulders; her face, small as my little fingernail,
+colorful as a miniature painted on ivory, was so close to my eyes that I
+could see her expression--warning me not to move.
+
+There was a faint glow of light on the floor where she stood, but in a
+moment she moved out of it. Then I felt her brush against the back of my
+head. My ear was near the ground. A tiny warm hand touched my ear lobe;
+clung to it. A tiny voice sounded in my ear.
+
+"Please do not move your head. You might kill me!"
+
+There was a pause. I held myself rigid. Then the tiny voice came again.
+
+"I am Glora, a friend. I have the drug! I will help you!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+It seemed that Alan was stirring. I felt the tiny hand leave my ear. I
+thought that I could hear faint little footfalls as the girl scampered
+away, fearful that a sudden movement by Alan would crush her. I turned
+cautiously after a moment and saw Alan's eyes upon me. He too had seen,
+with a blurred returning consciousness, the dwindling figures of Babs
+and Polter. I followed his gaze. The while slab with the golden quartz
+under the microscope seemed empty. The several men in this huge circular
+dome-room were dispersing to their affairs; three of them sat whispering
+by what I now saw was a pile of gold ingots stacked crosswise. But the
+fellow at the microscope held his place, his eyes glued to its aperture
+as he watched the vanishing figures of Polter and Babs on the
+rock-fragment.
+
+Alan was trying to convey something to me. He could only gaze and jerk
+his head. I saw behind his head the figures of the tiny girl on the
+floor behind him. She wanted evidently to approach his head, but didn't
+dare. When for an instant he was quiet, she ran forward, but at once
+scampered back.
+
+From the group by the ingots, one of the men rose and came toward us.
+Alan held still, watching. And the girl, Glora, seized the opportunity
+to come nearer. We both heard her tiny voice:
+
+"Do not move! Close your eyes! Make him think you are still
+unconscious."
+
+Then she was gone, like a mouse hiding in the shadows near us.
+
+Amazement swept Alan's face; he twisted, mouthed at his gag. But he saw
+my eager nod and took his cue from me.
+
+I closed my eyes and lay stiff, breathing slowly. Footsteps approached.
+A man bent over Alan and me.
+
+"Are you no conscious yet?" It was the voice of a foreigner, with a
+queer, indescribable intonation. A foot prodded us. "Wake up!"
+
+Then the footsteps retreated, and when I dared to look, the man was
+rejoining his fellows. It was a strange looking trio. They were
+heavy-set men in leather jackets and short, wide knee-length trousers.
+One wore tight, high boots, and the others a sort of white buckskin,
+with ankle straps. All were bare-headed--round, bullet heads of
+close-clipped black hair.
+
+I suddenly had another startling realization. These men were not of
+normal size as I had assumed! They were eight or ten feet tall at the
+very least! And they and the pile of ingots, instead of being close to
+me, were more distant than I had thought.
+
+Alan was trying to signal me. The tiny girl was again at his ear,
+whispering to him. And then she came to me.
+
+"I have a knife. See?" She backed away. I caught the pinpoint gleam of
+what might have been a knife in her hand. "I will get a little larger. I
+am too small to cut your ropes. You lie still, even after I have cut
+them."
+
+I nodded. The movement frightened her so that she leaped backward; but
+she came again, smiling. The three men were talking earnestly by the
+ingots. No one else was near us.
+
+Glora's tiny voice was louder, so that we both could hear it at once.
+
+"When I free you, do not move or they may see that you are loose. I get
+larger now--a little larger--and return."
+
+She darted away and vanished. Alan and I lay listening to the voices of
+the three men. Two were talking in a strange tongue. One called to the
+man at the microscope, and he responded. The third man said suddenly:
+
+"Say, talk English. You know damn well I can't understand that lingo."
+
+"We say, McGuire, the two prisoners soon wake up."
+
+"What we oughta do is kill 'em. Polter's a fool."
+
+"The doctor say, wait for him return. Not long, what you call three,
+four hours."
+
+"And have the Quebec police up here lookin' for 'em? An' that damn girl
+he stole off the Terrace. What did he call her, Barbara Kent?"
+
+"These two who are drugged, their bodies can be thrown in a gully down
+behind St. Anne. That what the doctor plan to do, I think. Then the
+police find them--days maybe from now--and their smashed airship with
+them."
+
+Gruesome suggestion!
+
+The man at the microscope called, "They are almost gone I can hardly see
+them any more." He left the platform and joined the others. And I saw
+that he was much smaller than they--about my own size possibly.
+
+There seemed six men here altogether. Four now, by the ingots, and two
+others far across the room where I saw the dark entrance of the
+corridor-tunnel which led to Polter's castle.
+
+Again I felt a warning hand touch my face, and saw the figure of Glora
+standing by my head. She was larger now--about a foot tall. She moved
+past my eyes; stood by my mouth; bent down over my gag. I felt the
+cautious slide of a tiny knife-blade inserted under the fabric of the
+gag. She hacked, tugged at it, and in a moment ripped it through.
+
+She stood panting from the effort. My heart was pounding with fear that
+she would be seen; but the man had turned the central light off when he
+left the microscope, and it was far darker here now than before.
+
+I moistened my dry mouth. My tongue was thick, but I could talk.
+
+"Thank you, Glora."
+
+"Quiet!"
+
+I felt her hacking at the ropes around my wrists. And then at my ankles.
+It took her a long time, but at last I was free! I rubbed my arms and
+legs; felt the returning circulation in them.
+
+And presently Alan was free. "George, what--" he began.
+
+"Wait," I whispered. "Easy! Let her tell us what to do."
+
+We were unarmed. Two, against these six, three of whom were giants.
+
+Glora whispered, "Do not move! I have the drugs. But I can not give them
+to you when I am still so small. I have not enough. I will hide--there."
+Her little arm gestured to where, near us, half a dozen boxes were
+piled. "When I am large as you, I come back. Be ready, quickly to act. I
+may be seen. I give you then the drug."
+
+"But wait," Alan whispered. "Tell us--"
+
+"The drug to make you large. Large enough to fight these men. I had
+planned to do that myself, until I saw you held captive. That girl of
+your world the doctor just now steal, she is friend of yours?"
+
+"Yes! But--" A thousand questions were springing in my mind, but this
+was no time to ask them. I amended, "Go on! Hurry! Give us the drug when
+you can."
+
+The little figure moved away from us and disappeared. Alan and I lay as
+we had before. But now we could whisper. We tried to anticipate what
+would happen; tried to plan, but that was futile. The thing was too
+strange, too astoundingly fantastic.
+
+How long Glora was gone I don't know. I think, not over three or four
+minutes. She came from her hiding place, crouching this time, and joined
+us. She was, probably, of normal Earth size--a small, frail-looking girl
+something over five feet tall. We saw now that she was quite young,
+still in her teens. We lay staring at her, amazed at her beauty. Her
+small oval face was pale, with the flush of pink upon her cheeks--a face
+queerly, transcendingly beautiful. It was wholly human, yet somehow
+unearthly, as though unmarked by even the heritage of our Earthly
+strifes.
+
+"Now! I am ready." She was fumbling at her robe. "I will give you each
+the same."
+
+Her gestures were rapid. She flung a quick glance at the distant men.
+Alan and I were tense. We could easily be discovered now, but we had to
+chance it. We were sitting erect. Alan murmured:
+
+"But what do we do? What happens? What--"
+
+On the palm of her hand were two pink-white pellets. "Take these--one
+for each of you. Quickly!"
+
+Involuntarily we drew back. The thing abruptly was gruesome,
+frightening. Horribly frightening.
+
+"Quickly," she urged. "The drug is what you call highly radioactive. And
+volatile. Exposed to the air, it is gone very soon. You are afraid? No,
+I assure you it is not harmful."
+
+With a muttered curse at his own reluctance, Alan seized the small
+pellet. I stopped him.
+
+"Wait!"
+
+The men momentarily were engaged in a low-voiced, earnest discussion. I
+dared to hesitate a moment longer.
+
+"Glora, where will you be?"
+
+"Here. Right here. I will hide."
+
+"We want to go after Mr. Polter," I gestured. "Into the little piece of
+golden rock. That's where he went with the Earth girl, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes. My world is there--within an atom there in that rock."
+
+"Will you take us?"
+
+"Yes! But later."
+
+Alan whispered vehemently, "Why not now? We could get smaller, now."
+
+But she shook her head. "That is not possible. We would be seen as we
+climbed the platform and crossed the white slab."
+
+"No," I protested, "not if we get very small, hiding here first."
+
+She was smiling, but urgently fearful of this delay. "Should we get that
+small, then it would be, from here"--she gestured toward the
+microscope--"to there, a journey of very many miles. Don't you
+understand?"
+
+This thing so strange!
+
+Alan was plucking at me. "Ready, George?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+I put the pellet on my tongue. It tasted slightly sweet, but seemed to
+melt quickly and I swallowed it hastily. My heart, was pounding, but
+that was apprehension, not the drug. A thrill of heat ran through my
+veins as though my blood were on fire.
+
+Alan was clinging to me as we sat together. Glora again had vanished. In
+the background of my whirling consciousness the sudden thought hovered
+that she had tricked us; done to us something diabolical. But the
+thought was swept away in the confused flood of impressions upon me.
+
+I turned dizzily. "You all right, Alan?"
+
+"Yes, I--I guess so."
+
+My ears were roaring, the room seemed whirling, but in a moment that
+passed. I felt a sudden growing sense of lightness. A humming was within
+me--a soundless tingle. The drug had gone to every tiny microscopic cell
+in my body. The myriad pores of my skin seemed thrilling with activity.
+I know now that it was the exuding volatile gas of this disintegrating
+drug. Like an aura it enveloped me, acted upon my garments.
+
+I learned later much of the principles of this and its companion drug
+but I had no thought for such things now. The huge dimly illumined room
+under the dome was swaying. Then abruptly it steadied. The strange
+sensations within me were lessening, or I forgot them, and I became
+aware of externals.
+
+The room was shrinking! As I stared, not with horror now, but with
+amazement and a coming triumph, I saw everywhere a slow, steady,
+crawling movement. The whole place was dwindling. The platform, the
+microscope, were nearer than before, and smaller. The pile of ingots,
+and men near there, were shifting toward me.
+
+"George! My God--this is weird!"
+
+I saw Alan's white face as I turned toward him. He was growing at the
+same rate as myself evidently, for in all the scene he only was
+unchanged.
+
+We could feel the movement. The floor under us was shifting, crawling
+slowly. From all directions it contracted as though it was being
+squeezed beneath us. In reality our expanding bodies were pushing
+outward.
+
+The pile of boxes which had been a few feet away, were thrusting
+themselves at me. I moved incautiously and knocked them over. They
+seemed small now, perhaps half their former size. Glora was standing
+behind them. I was sitting and she was standing, but across the litter
+our faces were level.
+
+"Stand up!" she murmured. "You all right now. I hide!"
+
+I struggled to my feet, drawing Alan up with me. Now! The time for
+action was upon us! We had already been discovered. The men were
+shouting, clambering to their feet. Alan and I stood swaying. The
+dome-room had contracted to half its former size. Near us was a little
+platform, chair and microscope. Small figures of men were rushing at us.
+
+I shouted, "Alan! Watch yourself!"
+
+We were unarmed. These men might have automatic weapons. But evidently
+they did not. Only knives were in their hands. The whole place was
+ringing with shouts. And then a shrill siren alarm from outside started
+clanging.
+
+The first of the men--a few moments before he had seemed a giant--flung
+himself upon me. His head was lower than my shoulders. I met him with a
+blow of my fist in his face. He toppled backward; but from one side
+another figure came at me. A knife-blade bit into the flesh of my thigh.
+
+The pain seemed to fire my brain. A madness descended upon me. It was
+the madness of abnormality. I saw Alan with two dwarfed figures clinging
+to him. But he threw them off, and they turned and ran.
+
+The man at my thigh stabbed again, but I caught his wrist and, as though
+he were a child, whirled him around me and flung him away. He landed
+with a crash against the shrunken pile of gold nuggets and lay still.
+
+The place was in a turmoil. Other men were appearing from outside. But
+they now stood well away from us. Alan backed against me. His laugh rang
+out, half hysterical with the madness upon him as it was upon me.
+
+"God! George, look at them! So small!"
+
+They were now hardly the height of our knees. This was now a small
+circular room, under a lowering concave dome. A shot came from the group
+of Pygmy figures. I saw the small stab of flame, heard the zing of the
+bullet.
+
+We rushed, with the full frenzy of madness upon us--enraged giants. What
+actually happened I cannot recount. I recall scattering the little
+figures; seizing them; flinging them headlong. A bullet, tiny now, stung
+the calf of my leg. Little chairs and tables under my feet were
+crashing. Alan was lunging back and forth; stamping; flinging his tiny
+adversaries away.
+
+There were twenty or thirty of the figures here now. I feared that they
+might produce more up-to-date weapons. But my fears were unfounded: soon
+I saw these figures making their escape.
+
+The room was littered with wreckage. I saw that by some miracle of
+chance the microscope was still standing, and I had a moment of sanity.
+
+"Alan! Watch out! The microscope--the platform! Don't smash them! And
+Glora be careful not to hurt her!"
+
+I suddenly became aware that my head and my shoulders had struck the
+dome roof. Why, this was a tiny room! Alan and I found ourselves backed
+together, panting in the small confines of a circular cubby with an
+arching dome close over us. At our feet the platform with the microscope
+over it hardly reached our boot tops. There was a sudden silence, broken
+only by our heavy breathing. The tiny forms of humans strewn around us
+were all motionless. The others had fled.
+
+Then we heard a small voice. "Here! Take this! Quickly! You are too
+large. Quickly!"
+
+Alan took a step. And sudden panic was on us both. Glora was here at our
+feet. We did not dare turn; hardly dared to move. To change position
+might have crushed her now that she had left her hiding place. My leg
+hit the top of the microscope cylinder. It rocked but did not fall.
+
+Where was Glora? In the gloom we could not see her. We were in a panic.
+
+Alan began, "George, I--"
+
+The contracting inner curve of the dome bumped gently against my head.
+Our panic and confusion turned into cold fear. The room was closing in
+to crush us.
+
+I muttered, "Alan! I'm going out!" I braced myself and heaved against
+the side and top curve of the dome. Its metal ribs and heavy
+translucent, reinforced glass plates resisted me. There was an instant
+when Alan and I were desperately frightened. We were trapped, to be
+crushed in here by our own horrible growth. Then the dome yielded under
+our smashing blows. The ribs bent; the plates cracked.
+
+We straightened, pushed upward and emerged through the broken dome, with
+head and shoulders towering into the outside darkness and the wind and
+snow of the blizzard howling around us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+"Glora--that was horrible!"
+
+We stood, again in normal size, with the wrecked dome-laboratory around
+us. The dome had a great jagged hole halfway up one of its sides,
+through which the snow was falling. The broken bodies strewn around were
+gruesome.
+
+Alan repeated, "Horrible, Glora. The power of this drug is diabolical."
+
+Glora had grown large after us and had given us the companion drug. I
+need not detail the strange sensations of our dwindling. We were so soon
+to experience them again!
+
+We had searched, when still large, all of Polter's grounds. Some of his
+men undoubtedly escaped, made off into the blizzard. How many, we never
+knew. None of them ever made themselves known again.
+
+We were ready to start into the atom. The fragment of golden quartz
+still lay under the microscope on the white square of stone slab. We had
+hurried with our last preparations. The room was chilling. We were all
+inadequately dressed for such cold.
+
+I left a note scribbled on a square of paper by the microscope. With
+daylight Polter's wrecked place would be discovered and the police would
+surely come.
+
+_Guard this piece of golden quartz. Take it at once, very carefully, to
+the Royal Canadian Scientific Society. Have it watched day and night. We
+will return._
+
+I signed it George Randolph. And as I did so, the extra ordinary aspect
+of these events swept me anew. Here in Polter's weird place I had been
+living in some strange fantastic realm. But this was the Province of
+Quebec, in civilized Canada. These were the Quebec authorities I was
+addressing.
+
+I flung the thoughts away. "Ready, Glora?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Then doubts assailed me. None of Polter's men had gotten large enough to
+fight us. Evidently he did not trust them with the drug. We could well
+believe that, for the thing misused, was diabolical beyond human
+conception. A single giant, a criminal, a madman, by the power of giant
+size alone, could menace and destroy beyond belief. The drug lost, or
+carelessly handled, could get loose. Animals, insects eating it, could
+roam the Earth, gigantic monsters. Vegetation nourished with the drug,
+might in a day overrun a big city, burying it with jungle growth!
+
+How terrible a thing, if the realm of smallness were suddenly to emerge,
+consume this awe inspiring drug! Monsters of the sea, marine organisms,
+could expand until even the ocean was too small for them. Microbes of
+disease, feeding upon it--
+
+Alan was prodding me. "We're ready, George."
+
+"Okay, let's go."
+
+This was not the largeness we were facing now, but smallness. I thought
+of Babs, down there with Polter, beyond the vanishing point in the realm
+of infinitely small. They had been gone an hour at least. Every moment
+lost now was adding to Babs' danger.
+
+Glora sat with us on the platform. Strange little creature! She was
+wholly calm now; methodical with her last directions. There had been no
+time for her to tell us anything about herself. Alan had asked her why
+she had come here and how she had gotten the drugs. She waved him away.
+
+"On the way down. Plenty of time then."
+
+"How long will it take us?" Alan demanded.
+
+"Not too long if we are careful with managing the trip. About ten
+hours."
+
+And now we were ready to start. She told us calmly:
+
+"I will give you each your share of the drugs, but then you take only as
+I tell you."
+
+She produced from her robe several small vials a few inches long. They
+were tightly stoppered. The feel of them was cool and sleek; they seemed
+to be made of some strange, polished metal. Some of them were tinted
+black while the others glowed opalescent. She gave each of us one vial
+of each kind.
+
+"The light ones are for diminishing," she said. "We take them very
+carefully, one small pellet only at first."
+
+Alan was opening one of his, but she checked him.
+
+"Wait! The drug evaporates very quickly. I have more to say. First we
+sit here together. Then you follow me to the white slab. We climb upon
+the little rock."
+
+She laid her hands on my arms. Her blue eyes regarded us earnestly. Her
+manner was naive; childlike. But I could not mistake her intelligence or
+the force of character stamped on her face for all its dainty, ethereal
+beauty.
+
+"Alan--" She smiled at him, and tossed back a straying lock of her hair
+which was annoying her. "You pay attention, Alan. You are very young,
+reckless. You listen. We must not be separated. You understand that,
+both of you? We will be always in that little piece of rock. But there
+will be miles of distance. And to be lost in size--"
+
+What a strange journey upon which we were now starting! Lost in size?
+
+"You understand me? Lost in size. If that happens, we might never find
+each other. And if we come upon the Doctor Polter and the girl he holds
+captive--if we can overtake them--"
+
+"We must!" I exclaimed. "And we must get started."
+
+She showed us which pellet to select. They were of several sizes, I
+found. And as she afterward told us, the larger ones were not only
+larger but of an intensified strength. We took the smallest. It was
+barely a thousandth part of the strength of the largest. In unison we
+placed the pellets on our tongues, and hastily swallowed.
+
+The first sensations were as before. And, familiar now, they caused no
+more than a fleeting discomfort. But I think I could never get used to
+the outward strangeness!
+
+The room in a moment was expanding. I could feel the platform floor
+crawling outward beneath me, so that I had to hitch and change my
+position as it pulled. We were seated together, Alan and I on each side
+of Glora. My fingers were on her arm. It did not change size, but it
+slowly drew away with a space opening between us. Overhead, the dome
+roof, the great jagged hole there, was receding, lifting, moving upward
+and away.
+
+Glora pulled us to our feet. "We had better start now. The distance
+grows very far, so quickly."
+
+We had been sitting within five feet of the stone slab with its four
+inch high railing around it. A chair was by the microscope eyepiece. As
+we stood swaying I saw that the chair was huge, and its seat level with
+my head. The great barrel-cylinder of the microscope slanted sixty feet
+upward. The dome roof was a distant spread three hundred feet up in the
+dimness. The dome-room was a vast arena now.
+
+Alan and I must have hesitated, confused by the expanding scene--a slow,
+steady movement everywhere. Everything was drawing away from us. Even as
+we stood together, the creeping platform floor was separating us.
+
+A moment passed. Glora was urging us on vehemently:
+
+"Come! You must not stand there!"
+
+We started walking. The railing around the slab was knee-high. The slab
+itself was a broad, square surface. The fragment of golden quartz lay in
+its center. It was now a jagged lump nearly a foot in diameter.
+
+The platform seemed to shift as we walked; the railing hardly came
+closer as we advanced toward it. Then suddenly I realized that it was
+receding. Thirty feet away? No, now it was more than that--a great,
+thick rope, waist-high, with a huge spread of white surface behind it.
+
+"Faster!" urged Glora. We ran, and reached the railing. It was higher
+than our heads. We ran under it, and cut out upon the white slab--a
+level surface, larger now than the whole dome-room had been.
+
+Glora, like a fawn, ran in advance of us, her robe flying in the wind.
+She turned to look back.
+
+"Faster! Faster, or it will be too hard a climb!"
+
+Ahead lay a golden mound of rock. It was widening; raising its top
+steadily higher. Beyond it and over it was a vast dim distance. We
+reached the rock, breathless, winded. It was a jagged mound like a great
+fifty-foot butte. We plunged upon it and began climbing.
+
+The ascent was steep; precipitous in places. There were little gullies,
+which expanded as we climbed up them. It seemed as if we would never
+reach the top, but at last we were there. I was aware that the drug had
+ceased its action. The yellow, rocky ground was no longer expanding.
+
+We came to the summit and stood to get back our breath. Alan and I gazed
+with awe upon the top of a rocky hill. Little buttes and strewn boulders
+lay everywhere. It was all naked rock, ridged and pitted, and everywhere
+yellow-tinged.
+
+Overhead was distance. I could not call it a sky. A blur was
+there--something almost but not quite distinguishable. Then I thought
+that I could make out a more solid blur which might be the lower lens of
+the microscope above us. And there were blurred, very distant spots of
+light, like huge suns masked by a haze, and I knew that they were the
+hooded lights of the laboratory room.
+
+Before us, over the brink of a five hundred-foot drop, a great
+glistening plain stretched into the distance. I seemed to see where it
+ended in a murky blur. And far higher than our hilltop level a
+horizontal streak marked the rope railing of the slab.
+
+"Well," said Alan. "We're here." He gazed behind us, back across the
+rocky summit which seemed several hundred feet across to its opposite
+brink. He was smiling, but the smile faded. "Now what, Glora? Another
+pellet?"
+
+"No. Not yet. There is a place where we go down. It is marked in my
+mind."
+
+I had a sudden ominous sense that we three were not alone up here.
+Glora led us back from the cliff. As we picked our way among the naked
+crags, it seemed behind each of them an enemy might be lurking.
+
+"Glora, do you know if any of Dr. Polter's men might have the drug? I
+mean, do they come in and out of here?"
+
+She shook her head. "I think not. He lets no one have the drug. He
+trusts not anyone. I stole it. I will tell you later. Much I have to
+tell you before we arrive."
+
+Alan made a sudden, sidewise leap, and dashed around a rock. He came
+back to us, smiling ruefully.
+
+"Gets on your nerves, all of this. I had the same idea you had, George.
+Might be someone around here. But I guess not." He took Glora's hand and
+they walked in advance of me. "We haven't thanked you yet, Glora," he
+added.
+
+"Not needed. I came for help from your world. I followed the Dr. Polter
+when he came outward. He has made my world and my people, his slaves. I
+came for help. And because I have helped you, needs no thanks."
+
+"But we do thank you, Glora." Alan turned his flushed, earnest face back
+to me. I thought I had never seen him so handsome, with his boyish,
+rugged features and shock of tousled brown hair. The grimness of
+adventure was upon him, but in his eyes there was something else. It was
+not for me to see it. That was for Glora; and I think that even then its
+presence and its meaning did not escape her.
+
+We reached a little gully near the center of the hilltop. It was some
+twenty feet deep.
+
+Glora paused. "We descend here."
+
+The gully was an unmistakable landmark--open at one end, forty feet
+long, with the other end terminating in a blind wall which now loomed
+above us.
+
+"A pit is here--a hole. I cannot tell just how large it will look when
+we are in this size."
+
+We found it and stood over it--a foot-wide circular hole extending
+downward. Alan knelt and shoved his hand and arm into it, but Glora
+sprang at him.
+
+"Don't do that!"
+
+"Why not? How deep is it?"
+
+She retorted sharply, "The Doctor Polter is ahead of us. How far away in
+size, who knows? Do you want to crush him, and crush that young girl
+with him?"
+
+Alan's jaw dropped. "Good Lord!"
+
+We stood with the little pit before us, and another of the pellets
+ready.
+
+"Now!" said Glora.
+
+Again we took the drug, a somewhat larger pellet this time. The familiar
+sensations began. Everywhere the rocks were creeping with a slow
+inexorable movement, the landscape expanding around us. The gully walls
+drew back and upward. In a moment they were cliff walls and we were in a
+broad valley.
+
+We had been standing close together. We had not moved, except to shift
+our feet as the expanding ground drew them apart. I became aware that
+Alan and Glora were a distance from me. Glora called:
+
+"Come, George! We're going down--quickly now."
+
+We ran to the pit. It had expanded to a great round hole some six feet
+wide and equally as deep. Glora let herself down, peered anxiously
+beneath her, and dropped. Alan and I followed. We jammed the pit; but as
+we stood there, the walls were receding and lifting.
+
+I had remarked Glora's downward glance, and shuddered. Suppose, in some
+slightly smaller size, Babs had been among these rocks!
+
+The pit widened steadily. The movement was far swifter now. We stood
+presently in a great circular valley. It seemed fully a mile in
+diameter, with huge encircling walls like a crater rim towering
+thousands of feet into the air. We ran along the base of one expanding
+wall, following Glora.
+
+I noticed now that overhead the turgid murk had turned into the blue of
+distance. A sky. It was faintly sky-blue, and seemed hazy, almost as
+though clouds were forming. It had been cold when we started. The
+exertion had kept us fairly comfortable; But now I realized that it was
+far warmer. This was different air, more humid, and I thought the smell
+of moist earth was in it. Rocks and boulders were strewn here on the
+floor of this giant valley, and I saw occasional pools of water. There
+had been rain recently!
+
+The realization came with a shock of surprise. This was a new world! A
+faint, luminous twilight was around us. And then I noticed that the
+light was not altogether coming from overhead. It seemed inherent to the
+rocks themselves. They glowed, very faintly luminous, as though
+phosphorescent.
+
+We were now well embarked upon this strange journey. We seldom spoke.
+Glora was intent upon guiding us. She was trying to make the best
+possible speed. I realized that it was a case of judgment, as well as
+physical haste. We had dropped into that six-foot pit. Had we waited a
+few moments longer, the depth would have been a hundred feet, two
+hundred, a thousand! It would have involved hours of arduous descent--if
+we had lingered until we were a trifle smaller!
+
+We took other pellets. We traveled perhaps an hour more. There were many
+instances of Glora's skill. We squeezed into a gully and waited until it
+widened; we leapt over expanding caverns; we slid down a smooth
+yellowish slide of rocks, and saw it behind and over us, rising to
+become a great spreading ramp extending upward into the blue of the sky.
+Now, up there, little sailing white clouds were visible. And down where
+we stood it was deep twilight, queerly silvery with the dim light from
+the luminous rocks, as though some hidden moon were shining.
+
+Strange, new world! I suddenly envisaged the full strangeness of it.
+Around me were spreading miles of barren, naked landscape. I gazed off
+to where, across the rugged plateau we were traversing, there was a
+range of hills. Behind and above them were mountains; serrated tiers;
+higher and more distant. An infinite spread of landscape! And, as we
+dwindled, still other vast reaches opened before us. I gazed overhead.
+Was it--compared to my stature now--a thousand miles, perhaps even a
+million miles up to where we had been two or three hours ago? I thought
+so.
+
+Then suddenly I caught the other viewpoint. This was all only an inch of
+golden quartz--if one were large enough to see it that way!
+
+Alan had been trying to memorize the main topographical features of our
+route. It was not as difficult as it seemed at first. We were always far
+larger than normal in comparison to our environment, and the main
+distinguishing characteristics of the landscape were obvious--the blind
+gully, with the round pit, for instance, or the ramp slide.
+
+We had been traveling some three or four hours when Glora suggested a
+rest. We were at the edge of a broad canyon. The wall towered several
+hundred feet above us; but a few moments before, we had jumped down it
+with a single leap!
+
+The last pellet we had taken had ceased its action. We sat down to rest.
+It was a wild, mountainous scene around us, deep with luminous gloom. We
+could barely see across the canyon to its distant cliff wall. The wall
+beside us had been smooth, but now it was broken and ridged. There were
+ravines in it, and dark holes resembling cave-mouths. One was near us.
+Alan gazed at it apprehensively.
+
+"I say, Glora, I don't like sitting here."
+
+I had been telling her all we knew of Polter. She listened quietly,
+seldom interrupting me. Then she said:
+
+"I understand. I tell you now about Polter as I have seen him."
+
+She talked for five or ten minutes. I listened, amazed, awed by what she
+said.
+
+But Alan's insistence interrupted her. "Come on, let's get out of here.
+That tunnel-mouth, or cave, or whatever it is--"
+
+"But we go in there," she protested. "A little tunnel. That is our way
+to travel. We are not far from my city now."
+
+Perhaps Alan felt what once was called a hunch, a premonition, the
+presage of evil which I think comes strangely to us more often than we
+realize. Whatever it was, we had no time to act upon it. The
+tunnel-mouth which had caused Alan's apprehension was about a hundred
+feet away. It was a ten-foot, yawning hole in the cliff. Perhaps Alan
+sensed a movement in there. As I turned to look at it a great, hairy
+human arm came out of the opening! Then a shoulder! A head!
+
+The giant figure of a man came squeezing through the hole on his hands
+and knees! He gathered himself, and as he stood erect, I saw that he was
+growing in size! Already he was twenty feet tall compared to us--a
+thick-set fellow, dressed in leather garments, his legs and arms heavily
+matted with black hair. He stood swaying, gazing around him. I stared up
+at his round bullet head, his villainous face.
+
+He saw us! Stupid amazement struck him, then comprehension.
+
+He let out a roar and came at us!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+Glora shouted, "Into the tunnel! This way!" She held her wits and darted
+to one side, with Alan and me after her. We ran through a narrow passage
+between two fifty-foot boulders which lay close together. Momentarily
+the giant was out of sight, but we could hear his heavy tread and
+panting breath. We emerged having passed him. He was taller now. He
+seemed confused at our sudden scampering activity. He checked his
+forward rush, and ran around the twin boulders. But we had squeezed into
+a narrow ravine. He could not follow. He threw a rock. To us it was a
+boulder. It crashed behind us. To him, we were like scampering insects;
+he could not tell which way we were about to dart.
+
+Alan panted, "Glora, does this lead out?"
+
+The little ravine seemed to open fifty feet ahead of us. Alan stopped,
+seized a chunk of rock, flung it up. I saw the giant's face above us. He
+was kneeling to reach in. The rock hit him on the forehead--a pebble,
+but it stung him. His face rose away.
+
+Again we emerged. The tunnel-mouth was near us. We reached it and flung
+ourselves into its ten-foot width just as the giant came lunging up. He
+was far larger than before. Looking back, I could see only the lower
+part of his legs blocked against the outer light.
+
+"Glora! Alan, where are you?"
+
+For a moment I did not see them. It was darker in this tunnel of broken
+rocky walls, and jagged arching roof than outside.
+
+Then I heard Alan's voice: "George! Over here!"
+
+They came running to me. For a moment we stood, undecided. My eyes were
+becoming accustomed to the gloom. The tunnel was illumined by a dim
+phosphorescence from the rocks. I saw Alan fumbling for his vials, but
+Glora stopped him.
+
+"No. We are the right size."
+
+We were about a hundred feet back from the opening. The giant's legs
+disappeared. But in a moment the round, light hole of the exit was
+obscured again. His head and shoulders! He was lying prone. His great
+arms came in. He hitched forward. The width of his expanding shoulders
+wedged.
+
+I think that he expected to reach us with a single snatch of his
+tremendous arms. Or perhaps he was confused, or forgot his growth. He
+did not reach us. His shoulders stuck. Then suddenly he was trying to
+back out, but could not!
+
+It was only a moment. We stood in the radiant gloom of the tunnel,
+confused and frightened. The giant's voice roared, reverberating around
+us. Anger. A note of fear. Finally stark terror. He heaved, but the
+rocks of the opening held solid. Then there was a crack, a gruesome
+rattling, splintering--his shoulder bones breaking. His whole gigantic
+body gave a last convulsive lunge, and he emitted a deafening shrill
+scream of agony.
+
+I was aware of the tunnel-mouth breaking upward. Falling rocks--an
+avalanche, a cataclysm around us. Then light overhead.
+
+The giant's crushed body lay motionless. A pile of boulders, rocks and
+loose metallic earth was strewn upon his head and torso, illumined by
+the outer light through a jagged rent where the cliff-face had fallen
+down.
+
+We were unhurt, crouching back from the avalanche. The giant's mangled
+body was still expanding; shoving at the litter of loose rocks. In a
+moment it would again be too small for the broken cliff opening.
+
+I found my wits. "Alan, we've got to get out of here. God--don't you see
+what's happening?"
+
+But Glora restrained us. She realized that the effect of the drug the
+giant had taken was about at its end. The growth presently stopped. That
+huge noisome mass of pulp which once had been human shoulders no longer
+expanded.
+
+I shoved Glora away. "Don't look!" I was shaking; my head was reeling.
+Alan's face, painted by the phosphorescence, was ghastly.
+
+Glora pulled at us. "This way! The tunnel is not too long. We go."
+
+But the giant had drugs, and perhaps weapons. "Wait!" I urged. "You two
+wait here. I'll climb over him."
+
+I told them why, and ran. I can only leave to the imagination that brief
+exploratory climb. The broken body seemed at least a hundred feet long;
+the mangled shoulders and chest filled the great torn hole in the cliff.
+I climbed over the litter. Indescribable, horrible scene! A river of
+warm blood was flowing down the declivity outward....
+
+I came back to Glora and Alan. Under my arm was a huge cylinder vial. It
+was black, the enlarging drug. I set it down. They stared at me in my
+bloodstained garments.
+
+"George! You're--"
+
+"His blood, not mine." I tried to smile. "Here's the drug he carried.
+Evidently Polter was only sending him out because I found just the one
+drug."
+
+"What'll we do with it?" Alan demanded. "Look at the size of it!"
+
+"Destroy it," said Glora. "See, that is not difficult." She tugged at
+the huge stopper, and exposed a few of the pellets--to us as large as
+apples. "The air will soon spoil it."
+
+We left it in the tunnel. I also had with me a great roll of paper which
+had been folded in the giant's belt, with the drug cylinder. We unrolled
+it, and hauled its folds to a spread some ten feet long. It was covered
+with a scrawled handwriting in pencil, but its giant characters seemed
+thick blurred strokes of charcoal. We could not read it; we were too
+close. Alan and Glora held it up against the tunnel wall. From a
+distance I could make it out. It was a note written in English, signed
+"Polter," evidently to one of his men.
+
+It read:
+
+_The two prisoners, kill them at once. That is better. It will be too
+dangerous to wait for my return. Put their bodies with their airplane.
+Crash it a mile from my gate._
+
+Full directions for our death followed. And Polter said he would return
+by dawn or soon after.
+
+That gave me a start. By dawn! We had been traveling four or five hours.
+It was already dawn up there now!
+
+"No," Glora explained, "the time in here is different. A different
+time-rate. I do not know how much difference. My world speeds faster;
+yours is very slow. It is not the dawn up there quite yet."
+
+Again my mind strove to encompass these things--so strange. A faster
+time-rate prevailed in here? Then our lives were passing more quickly.
+We were living, experiencing things, compressed into a shorter interval.
+It was not apparent: there was nothing to which comparison could be
+made. I recalled Alan's description of Polter--not thirty years old as
+he should have been, but nearer fifty. I could understand that, now. A
+day in here was equal to only a few hours on our gigantic world outside.
+
+We walked the length of the tunnel. I suppose it was a quarter of a
+mile, to us in this size. It wound through the cliff with a steady
+downward slope. And suddenly I realized that we had turned downward
+nearly half the diameter of a circle! We had turned over--or at least it
+seemed so. But the gravity was the same. I had noticed from the
+beginning very little change.
+
+The realization of this tunnel brought a mental confusion. I lost all
+sense of direction. The outer world of Earth was under my feet, instead
+of overhead. Then we went level. I forgot the confusion: this was
+normality here. We turned upward a little. Cross tunnels intersected
+ours at intervals. I saw caverns, open, widened tunnels, as though this
+mountain were honeycombed.
+
+"Look!" said Glora. "There is the way out. All these passages lead the
+same way."
+
+There was a glow of light ahead. I recall that I was at that moment
+fumbling at my belt in two small compartments in which I was carrying
+the two vials of the drugs which Glora had given me. Alan wore the same
+sort of belt. We had found them in the wrecked dome-room. I heard a
+click on the ground at my feet. I was about to stoop to see what I had
+kicked--only a loose stone, perhaps--but Glora's words distracted me. I
+did not stoop. If only I had, how different events might have been!
+
+The glow of light ahead of us widened as we approached, and presently we
+stood at the end of the tunnel. A spread of open distance was outside.
+We were on a ledge of a steep rocky wall some fifty feet above a wide
+level landscape. Vegetation! I saw trees--a forest off to the left. A
+range of naked hills lay behind it. A mile away, in front and to the
+right, a little town nestled on the shore of shining water. There was
+starlight on the water! And over it a vast blue-purple sky was studded
+with stars.
+
+I gazed, with that first sudden shock of emotion, into the infinite
+depths of interplanetary space! Light years of distance. Gigantic
+worlds, blazing suns off there shrunken by distance now to little points
+of light. A universe was here!
+
+But this was an inch of golden quartz!
+
+Above my head were stars which, compared to my bodily size now, were
+vast worlds ten thousand light-years away! Yet, from the other
+viewpoint, I had only descended perhaps an eighth, or a quarter of an
+inch, beneath the broken pitted surface of a little fragment of golden
+quartz the size of a walnut--into just one of its myriads of golden
+atoms!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+"My world," Glora was saying. "You like it? See the starlight on the
+lake? I have heard that your world looks like this at night, in summer.
+Ours is always like this. No day, no night. Just like this--starlight."
+Her hand went to Alan's shoulder. "You like it? My world?"
+
+"Yes, Glora. It's very beautiful."
+
+There was a sheen on everything, a soft, glowing sheen of
+phosphorescence from the rocks rising to meet the pale wan starlight.
+The night air was soft, with a gentle breeze that rippled the distant
+lake into a great spread of gold and silver light.
+
+The city was called Orena. I saw at once that we were about normal size
+in relation to its houses and people. There were fields beneath our
+ledge, with farm implements lying in them; no workers, for this was the
+time for sleep. Ribbons of roads wound over the country, pale streamers
+in the starlight.
+
+Glora gestured, "The giants are on their island. Everyone sleeps now.
+You see the island off there?"
+
+Beyond the city, over the low stone roofs of its flat-topped dwellings,
+the silver spread of lake showed a green-clad island some three miles
+off shore. The distance made its white stone houses seem small. But as
+I gazed, I realized that they were large compared to their environment,
+all far larger than those of the little town. The island was perhaps a
+mile in length. Between it and the mainland a boat was coming toward us.
+It was a dark blob of hull on the shining water, and above it a queerly
+shaped circular sail was puffed out, like a balloon parachute, by the
+wind.
+
+"The giants live there?" said Alan. "You mean Polter's men?"
+
+"And women. Yes."
+
+"Are there many giants?"
+
+"No."
+
+"How many?" I put in. "How large are they? In relation to us now, I
+mean. And to your normal size?"
+
+"You ask so many questions so fast, George. There are two hundred or
+more of the giants. And there are more than that many thousands of our
+people, here. Slaves, because the giants are four times as large. This
+little city, these fields, these hills of stone and metal, all this was
+ours to have in peace and happiness until your Polter came."
+
+She gestured. "Everywhere is a great reach of desert and forest. There
+are insects, but no wild beasts--nothing to harm us. Nature is kind
+here. The weather is always like this. We were happy, until Polter
+came."
+
+"And only a few thousand people," Alan said. "No other cities?"
+
+"What lies off in the great distance, we do not know. Our nation is ten
+times what is here. We have a few other cities, and some of our people
+live in the forests."
+
+She broke off. "That boat is coming for Polter. He is in the city no
+doubt of that. The boat will take him and that girl you call Babs, to
+the giant's island. His castle is there."
+
+I turned to Alan. "They must have arrived only recently. Before we go
+any further we have to decide what size to be. We can't be gigantic
+because I'm sure he'd kill Babs if he sees us. We've got to plan!"
+
+If we could get on that boat and go with him to the island--But in what
+size? Very small? But then, if we were very small it would take us hours
+to get from here to the boat. Glora pointed out where it would
+land--just beyond the village where the houses were set in a sparse
+fringe. It would be there, apparently, in ten or fifteen minutes. Polter
+probably was there now with Babs, waiting for it.
+
+In our present size we could not get there in time. It was two or three
+miles at least. But a trifle larger--the size of one of Polter's
+giants--we would be able to make it. We would be seen, but in the pale
+starlight, keeping away from the city as much as possible, we might only
+be mistaken for Polter's people. And when we got closer we would
+diminish our size, creep into the boat, get near Babs and Polter and
+then plan what to do.
+
+We climbed down from the ledge and stood at the base of the towering
+cliff which reared its jagged wall against the stars. A field and a road
+were near us. The road seemed of normal size. A man was in the field. He
+was apparently about my height. He presently discarded his work, walked
+away from us and vanished.
+
+"Hurry, Glora." Alan and I stood beside her while she took pellets from
+her vials. We wanted our stature now to be four times what it was. Glora
+gave us pellets of both drugs, one of which was slightly more intense
+than the other.
+
+"Polter made them this way," she said. "The two taken at once give just
+the growth to take us from this normal size to the stature of the
+giants."
+
+Alan and I did not touch our own vials. We had used none of our
+enlarging drug upon the journey, and the supply she had given us of the
+other was almost gone.
+
+As I took these pellets which Glora now gave us, standing there by the
+side of that road, I recall that I was struck with the realization that
+never once upon this journey had I conceived myself to be other than
+normal stature. I am normally about six feet tall. I still felt--there
+in that golden atom--the same height. This landscape seemed of normal
+size. There were trees nearby--spreading, fantastic-looking growths with
+great strings of pods hanging from them. But still--as I looked up to
+see one arching over me with its blue-brown leaves and an air-vine
+carrying vivid yellow blossoms--whatever the size of the tree, I could
+only conceive of myself as a normal man of six-foot stature standing
+beneath it. The human ego always supreme! Around each man's
+consciousness of himself the entire universe revolves.
+
+We crouched on the ground when this growth now began; it would not do to
+be observed changing size. Polter's giants never did that. Years before,
+he had made them large--his few hundred men and women. They were, Glora
+said, people both of this realm and from our great world
+above--dissolute criminal characters who had now set themselves up here
+as the nucleus of a ruling race.
+
+In a moment now, we were the size of these giants. Twenty to twenty-five
+feet tall, in relation to the environment. But I did not feel so. As I
+stood up--still feeling myself in normal stature--I saw around me a
+shrunken little landscape. The trees, as though in a Japanese garden,
+were about my own height; the road was a smooth, level path; the little
+field near us had a toy fence around it. On another road nearby a man
+was walking. In height he would barely have reached my knees. He saw us
+rise beside the trees. He darted off in alarm, and disappeared.
+
+I have taken longer to tell all this than the actual time which passed.
+We could see the boat coming from the island, and it was still a fair
+distance off shore. We ran along the road, skirting the edge of the
+little town. None of its houses were taller than ourselves. The windows
+and doorways were ovals into which we could only have inserted a head or
+an arm. Most of them were dark. Little people occasionally stared out,
+saw us run past, and ducked back, thankful that we did not stop to
+harass them.
+
+"This way," said Glora. She ran like a faun, hardly winded, with Alan
+and me heavily panting behind her. "There are trees--thick trees--quite
+near where the boat lands. We can get in them and hide and change our
+size to smallness. But hurry, for we shall need a great deal of time
+when we are small!"
+
+The little spread of town and the shining lake remained always to our
+right. In five minutes we were past most of the houses. A patch of
+woods, with thick, interlacing treetops about our own height, lay ahead.
+It extended a few hundred feet over to the lake shore. The sailboat was
+heading in close. There was a broad starlit roadway at the edge of the
+lake, and a dock at which the boat was preparing to land.
+
+Would we be in time? I suddenly feared not. To get small now, with
+distance lengthening between us and the boat, would be disastrous. And
+where was Polter?
+
+Abruptly we saw him. There had been only little people visible to us:
+none of our own height. The lake roadway by the dock was brightly
+starlit. As we approached the intervening patch of woods it seemed that
+a crowd of little people were near the dock. Polter must have been
+sitting. But now he rose up. We could not mistake his thick hunched
+figure, the lump on his shoulders clear in the starlight with the
+gleaming lake as a background. The crowd of little figures were milling
+around his knees. In the silence of the night the murmur of their voices
+floated over to us.
+
+"There he is!" Alan gasped. We all three checked our running; we were at
+the edge of the patch of woods. "By God, there he is! Let's get larger
+and rush him! He's only a few hundred feet away!"
+
+But Babs? Where was Babs?
+
+"Alan, get down!" I crouched, pulling Alan and Glora with me. "Don't let
+him see us! We can't rush him Alan, 'til we find Babs. He'd see us
+coming and kill her."
+
+Of all the strange events that had been flung at us, I think this sudden
+crisis now most confused Alan and me.... To get larger, or smaller?
+Which? Yet something had to be done at once.
+
+Glora said, "We can get through the woods best in this size. We won't be
+seen and will be closer to the landing."
+
+We crouched so that the treetops were always well over us. The patch of
+woods was dark. A soil of black loam was under us, a thick soft
+underbrush reached our knees, and lacy, flexible leaves and branches
+were about shoulder height. We pushed them aside, forcing our way softly
+forward. It was not far. The little murmuring voices of the crowd grew
+louder.
+
+Presently we were crouching at the other edge of the woods. I softly
+shoved the tree branches aside until we could all three get a clear view
+of the strange scene now directly before us.
+
+And I saw a toy dock, at which a twenty-foot, bargelike open sailboat
+was landing; a narrow starlit roadway, crowded with a milling throng of
+people all no more than a foot and a half in height. The crowd milled
+almost to where we were crouching, unseen in the shrubbery.
+
+Across the road by the dock, Polter stood with the crowd down around his
+knees. In height he seemed the old familiar Polter. Bareheaded, with his
+shaggy black hair shot with white. He was dressed in Earth fashion:
+narrow black evening trousers and a white shirt and collar with flowing
+black tie. I saw at once what Alan had noticed--the change in him. An
+abnormality of age. I would have called him now forty, or older. Beyond
+even that there was an abnormality. A man old before his time; or
+younger than he should have been for the years he had lived. An
+indescribable mingling of something of the two worlds, perhaps. It
+marked him with a look at once unnatural and sinister.
+
+These were instant impressions. Glora was plucking at me. "On the white
+chest of his shirt, something is there."
+
+Polter was coatless, with snowy white shirt and cuffs to his thick
+wrists. He was no more than fifty feet from us. On his shirt bosom
+something golden in color was hanging like a large bauble, an ornament,
+an insignia. It was strapped tightly there with a band about his chest,
+a cord, like a necklace chain, up to his thick hunched neck, and other
+chains down to his belt.
+
+I stared at it. An ornament, like a cube held flat against his shirt
+front--a little golden cube, ornate with tiny bars.
+
+I heard Alan murmuring, "A cage! Why George, it's--"
+
+And then, simultaneously, realization struck me. It was a golden cage
+strapped there. And I seemed to see that there was something in it. A
+tiny figure? Babs!
+
+"I think he has her there," Glora murmured. "You see the little box with
+bars? The girl, Babs, is a prisoner in there." She spoke swiftly,
+vehemently. "He will take the boat to the island."
+
+She gripped us. "You think it really best to go? I do what you say. I
+had the wish to get to my father with these drugs."
+
+"No!" exclaimed Alan. "We must keep close to Polter!"
+
+We were ready with our pellets. But a sudden activity in the road made
+us pause. The crowd of little people were hostile to Polter. A sullen
+hostility. They milled about him as he stood there, gazing down at them
+sardonically.
+
+And abruptly he shouted at them in English. "You speak my language, some
+of you. Then listen!"
+
+The crowd fell silent.
+
+"Listen. This iss your future Queen. Can you see her? She iss small now.
+But she has the magic power. Soon she will be large, like me."
+
+The crowd was shouting again. It surged forward, but it lacked a leader,
+and those in advance shoved backward in fear.
+
+Polter spoke again. "This girl from my world, you will like her. She iss
+kind and very beautiful. When she iss large, you will see how
+beautiful."
+
+A small stone suddenly came up from the throng of little people and
+struck Polter on the shoulder. Then another. The crowd, emboldened, made
+a rush: surged against his legs.
+
+He shouted, "You do that? Why, how dare you? I show you what giants do
+when you make dem angry!"
+
+From down by his knees he plucked the small figure of a man. The crowd
+scattered with shouts of terror. Polter had the struggling eighteen-inch
+figure by the wrist. He whirled it around his head like a ninepin and
+flung it over the canopy of the dock far out into the shimmering lake!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+The trees around us expanded to towering forest giants. The underbrush
+rose up over our heads. We had taken a taste of the diminishing drug.
+Glora showed us how to touch it to our tongue several times, to adjust
+our size as we became smaller. It took us no more than a minute to
+diminish. We could hear the roar of the crowd, and Polter's voice
+shouting. We ran forward through the great forest. It was a fair
+distance out to the starlit road. We saw it as a wide shining esplanade.
+The people now were giants twice our height! Polter, himself towering
+with a seeming fifty-foot stature, was standing by the gigantic canopy
+of the dock. He had dispersed the crowd. There was an open space on the
+esplanade--a run for us of about a hundred feet.
+
+"We've got to chance it," I murmured. "Make a run for it--now."
+
+We darted across. In the confusion, with all eyes centered on Polter, we
+escaped discovery. It was dim under the dock canopy. Polter had backed
+from the road and was walking to the barge. It lay like the length of an
+ocean liner, its sail looming an enormous spread above it. The gunwale
+was level with the dock. A dozen or more fifty-foot men were greeting
+Polter. They were amidships.
+
+I realize now that in those moments as we scurried aboard like wharf
+rats, we took wild chances. We made for the stern which momentarily was
+unoccupied. To Polter and his men we were eight or nine inches tall. We
+dropped over the gunwale, slid down the thirty or forty-foot incline of
+the interior and landed on the bottom of the boat.
+
+There were many places where we could safely hide. A litter of gigantic
+rope-strands was around us. We could see the bottom of a crossbench
+looming over head, and the great curving sides of the vessel with the
+gunwales outlined against the starlight.
+
+The boat left the dock in a moment; the sail bellied out, enormous over
+us. Ten feet forward from us the towering figure of a man sat on a bench
+with the steering mechanism before him. Further on, the other men were
+dispersed, with one or two in the distant bow. Polter reclined on a
+cushioned couch amidships. Looking along the dark widely level bottom
+of the boat there were only the feet and legs of men visible.
+
+Alan whispered, "Let's get closer."
+
+We were insects soundlessly scuttling unnoticed in the dimness. It was
+noisy down here--the clank of the steering mechanism; the swish and
+surge of the water against the hull; the voices of the men.
+
+We passed the boots of the seated helmsmen, and found another hiding
+place nearer Polter. We could see his giant length plainly. None of the
+other men were near him. He was reclining on an elbow, stretched at ease
+on a cushion. And at the moment, he was fumbling with the chains that
+fastened the little golden cage to his chest. The cage was double its
+former size to us now. A shaft of pale light came down, reflected from
+the great sail surface overhead. It struck the bars of the cage. We
+could see a small figure in there.
+
+Then we heard Polter's voice. "I will let you out, Babs. You come out,
+sit on my hand and talk with me. That will be nice? We haf a little
+time."
+
+He unfastened the cage and put it on the cushion beside him. He was
+still propped up on one elbow.
+
+"I let you out, now. Be careful, Babs."
+
+My heart was almost smothering me. "Alan! We've got to get still closer!
+Try something! Get large, shall we?"
+
+Alan whispered tensely, "I don't know! I don't know what to do."
+
+"We can get closer," Glora whispered. "But never larger--not here. They
+would discover us too soon."
+
+We crept forward. We reached the edge of the cushion. Its top surface
+was a trifle lower than our heads--a billowing, wrinkled mass of fabric.
+But I saw that the folds of it were rough enough to afford a footing. I
+thought that I could climb it. We stood erect. There was a deep shadow
+along here, but it was brighter on the cushion top. We could see over
+its edge; an undulating spread of surface with the giant length of
+Polter stretched over it. The cage was near us. Polter's great fingers
+fumbled with it; a door in the lattice bars flipped open.
+
+"Careful, my Babs!" His voice was a throaty, rumbling roar above us.
+"Careful! I do not want you to be hurt."
+
+From the little doorway came the figure of Babs! The starlight glowed on
+her blue dress; her black hair was tumbling over her shoulders; her face
+was pale but she was unharmed.
+
+I think that I had never loved her so much as at that moment. Nor ever
+seen her so beautiful as in miniature, standing at the door of her
+golden cage, bravely facing the monstrous misshapen figure of her
+captor.
+
+We heard her small voice.
+
+"What do you want me to do?"
+
+"Stand quiet. Now I put my hand for you."
+
+His monstrous hand bristled with a thatch of heavy black hair. He slid
+it carefully along the cushion. Babs was barely the length of one of its
+finger joints. She climbed upon its palm.
+
+"That iss right, Babs. Now I bring you--hold tight to my finger. Here, I
+crook the little one. Fling your arms around it."
+
+With a swoop his hand took her aloft and away. Then we saw her, twenty
+feet or so in the air, still on his hand as he held it near his face.
+
+"Now we haf a little talk, Babs. When we get to the island, I put you
+back in your cage."
+
+I had a sudden flash of realization. There was something I could do. I
+know now my judgment was bad. I recall it struck me that Alan would want
+to do it also. And, perhaps, even Glora. But that wouldn't work. My
+chances, however desperate, were better alone. Glora and Alan--in our
+present size--could doubtless disembark safely. Glora knew the layout
+of the island. And she could follow Polter.
+
+Alan and Glora were standing beside me peering over that billowing
+cushion spread toward the distant giant palm with Babs standing upon it.
+I gripped Alan's shoulder.
+
+"See here, Alan," I whispered vehemently: "What ever happens, we must
+follow Polter. Glora knows the way. Some opportunity will come to get
+large without being discovered. Then we'll rush Polter!"
+
+Alan's white face turned to me. "Yes, that's what we're planning. But
+George, here on this boat--"
+
+"Of course not. Can't do it here. Tell Glora, to be sure to follow
+Polter. Whatever happens, you'll think of nothing else: you won't will
+you?"
+
+"George, what--"
+
+"We've got to make some opportunity." I was trembling inside, fearful
+that Alan would be suspicious of me. Yet I had to make sure that he and
+Glora would stay as close to Polter as possible.
+
+"All right," Alan agreed. "Listen to them."
+
+Polter was talking to Babs. But I didn't hear the words I moved a trifle
+away. Rash decision! I hardly decided anything. There was only the
+vision of Babs before me and my love for her. My desperate need of doing
+something; getting to her, seeing her, being with her. I wanted her near
+my own size again as though the blessed normality of that would
+rationalize and lessen her danger. If only I had been less rash! If only
+back there in that tunnel I had stopped to see what it was my foot
+kicked against!
+
+I slid away. Alan and Glora did not notice it; they were whispering
+together and gazing over the cushion at Babs. In the shadow of the
+cushion I moved some ten feet. On the undulating top of the cushion the
+little golden cage stood with its lattice door open. It was a few feet
+from my face.
+
+I fumbled at my belt for the diminishing vial. I found one pellet left.
+Well, that would be enough. I was hurried. Alan might discover me.
+Polter might put Babs back in the cage and close its door. We might be
+near the island already, and the confusion, the activity of disembarking
+would defeat me. A thousand things might happen.
+
+I touched the pellet to my tongue. In a few seconds the drug action had
+come and passed. The cushion top loomed well over my head. The side was
+a ridged, indescribably unnatural vista of cliff wall. The fabric was
+coarse with hairy strands, dented into little ravines and crevices. I
+climbed and I came panting to the pillow surface. The golden cage was
+six or eight feet away and was now two feet high.
+
+Again I touched the drug to my tongue; held it an instant. The cage drew
+away; grew to a normal six-foot height; then larger, until in a moment
+it stopped. I stood peering at it, trying to gauge its size in relation
+to me. I wanted so intensely now to appear normal in Babs' eyes. The
+cage seemed about ten feet high. A little less, possibly. I barely
+tasted the pellet, and replaced it carefully in the vial. I could only
+hope its efficacy would be preserved.
+
+I had to chance that I wouldn't be seen while crossing this billowy
+expanse. I ran. The rope strands of the fabric now had spaces between
+their curving surfaces. The cage was a shining golden house, set on this
+wide rolling area. Far in the distance there was a blur--Polter's
+reclining body.
+
+I reached the cage. It was a room about ten feet square and equally as
+high. Walled solid, top and bottom, and on three sides. The front was a
+lattice of bars, with a narrow six-foot doorway, standing open now.
+
+I dashed in. The interior was not wholly bare. There was a metal-wrought
+couch fastened to the wall, with a railing around it and handles. It
+suggested a ship's bunk. There was a railing at convenient height all
+around the wall.
+
+I sought a hiding place. I saw just one--under the couch. It was
+secluded enough. There was a grillelike lattice extending down from the
+seat to the floor. I squeezed under one end, and lay wedged behind the
+grille.
+
+How much time passed I don't know. My thoughts were racing. Babs would
+be coming.
+
+I heard the distant approaching rumble of Polter's voice. Through the
+grille I could see across the floor of the ten foot cage to the front
+lattice bars. Outside, there appeared a huge, pink-white, mottled
+blob--Polter's hand, a ridged and pitted surface with great, bristling
+black stalks of hair.
+
+The figure of Babs came through the cage doorway. Blessed normality! The
+same slim little Babs who always stood, since we were both matured, with
+her head about level with my shoulders.
+
+The latticed door swung shut with a reverberating metallic clank. Babs
+stood tense, clinging to the wall railing. I heard the blurred rumble of
+Polter's voice.
+
+"Hold tightly, my little Babs!"
+
+The room lurched; went upward and sidewise with a wild dizzying swoop.
+Babs clung to the rail and I was wedged prone under the couch. Then the
+movement stopped; there was a jolting, rocking, and outside I heard the
+clank of metal. Polter was fastening the chains of the cage to his
+chest.
+
+A white glow now came through the bars. It was starlight reflecting from
+Polter's shirt bosom. An abyss of distance was outside. I could see
+nothing but the white glow.
+
+Momentarily there was very little movement in the room. Only the
+rhythmic sway of Polter's breathing and an occasional jolt as he shifted
+his position. The floor was tilted at a sharp angle. Babs came toward
+the couch, pulling herself along the wall railing.
+
+I called softly, "Babs!"
+
+She stopped. I called again, "Babs! Don't cry out! It's George!
+Here--stand still!"
+
+She gave a little cry. "George--where are you? I don't--"
+
+I slid out from my concealment and stood up, holding to the railing.
+
+Blessed normality of size! She cried again, "George! You! How did you
+get here?"
+
+She edged along the railing, a step or two down the tilting floor, then
+released her hold and flung herself into my waiting arms.
+
+"I think we are landing. Hold on to the railing, George. When the room
+moves it goes with a rush."
+
+Babs laughed softly. It must have seemed to her, after being alone in
+here, that now our plight was far less desperate. She had told me how
+she was captured. A man accosted her on the Terrace, saying he wanted to
+speak to her about Alan. Then a weapon threatened her. Amid all those
+people she was held up in old-fashioned style, hurried to a taxicar and
+whirled away.
+
+She was saying now, "When Polter moves, it is dizzying. You'll see."
+
+"I have already, Babs. Heavens, what a swoop!"
+
+The room was more level now. We carefully drew ourselves to the front
+lattice. Polter was standing, and we had the white sheen from his shirt
+front. A sheer drop was outside the bars, but looking down I could see
+the outlines of his body with the huge spread of the boat's cockpit
+underneath us.
+
+A confusion of rumbling voices sounded. Blurred giant shapes were
+outside. The room jolted and swayed as the boat landed and Polter
+disembarked.
+
+Babs stood clinging to me. We, at least, were normal in this metal
+barred room, Babs and I. But outside was the abnormality of largeness. I
+think that in relation to us, the men were of over two hundred-foot
+stature, and the hunched Polter a trifle less. It seemed as he walked
+that we were lurching at least a hundred and fifty feet above ground.
+
+"You had better hide," Babs urged. "He might stop and speak to someone.
+If anyone looked in here you would be seen; no chance then, even to get
+across the room."
+
+It was true. But for a few moments I lingered. I could distinguish
+vegetation on their flat roof-tops, as though flower gardens were laid
+there.
+
+We passed a house with its hundred-foot oval windows all aglow with
+light. Music floated out--a distant blare of sounds, and the ribald
+laughter of giant voices. I had seen no women among these giants of the
+island. But now a huge face was at one of the ovals. A dissolute,
+painted woman of Earth, staring out at Polter as he passed. It was like
+the enormous close-up image on a large motion picture screen. She
+shouted ribald jest as he went by.
+
+"George, please go back. Suppose she had seen you?"
+
+We were ascending a hill. A distance ahead a great oblong building
+loomed like a giant's palace, which indeed it was. We headed for it,
+passed through a vast arching doorway into the greater dimness of an
+echoing interior. I scurried back across the lurching room and again
+wedged myself under the couch. Babs stood at the lattice ten feet away.
+We dared to talk in low tones; the rumbling voices and footsteps outside
+would make our tiny voices inaudible to Polter.
+
+I was tense with my plans. I had told them to Babs. With the one
+remaining partially used pellet of the diminishing drug we could make
+ourselves small enough to walk out through the bars. Then my black vial
+of the enlarging drug, as yet unused, would take us up, out to our own
+world. We could not use the drugs now. But the chance might come when
+Polter would set the cage on the ground, or somewhere so that we might
+climb down from it, with a chance to hide and get large before we were
+discovered. I would fight our way upward; all I needed was a fair start
+in size.
+
+But I lay now with doubts assailing me. This was the first moment I had
+had for calm thoughts, though in truth they were far from calm! Were
+Alan and Glora following us now? I could only hope so. Once out of this,
+Babs and I would have to rejoin them. But how? Panic swept me. I
+shouldn't have left them. Or at least I should have told them what I was
+trying to do, and given Alan a chance to plan.
+
+The panic grew, the premonition of disaster. From my belt I took the
+opalescent vial with its one partially used pellet. I dumped the pellet
+out. It was spoiling! The exposure to the air and the moisture of my
+tongue, had ruined it! I realized the catastrophe, as I held its
+crumbling, deliquescing fragments on my palm it melted into vapor and
+was gone!
+
+We couldn't make ourselves smaller! Now we'd have to wait until Polter
+opened the cage. But once outside, the enlarging drug would give us our
+chance to fight our way upward. My trembling fingers sought the black
+vial in my belt. It wasn't there! My mind flung back: in that tunnel,
+something had dropped and I had kicked it! Accursed chance! My accursed,
+heedless stupidity!
+
+I had lost the black vial! We were helpless! Caged! Marooned here in a
+size microscopic!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+I lay concealed and Babs stood at the lattice of our cage room. I was
+aware that Polter had entered some vast apartment of this giant palace.
+The light outside was brighter; I heard voices--Polter's and another
+man's. I could see the distant monster shape of one. He was at first so
+far away that all his outline was visible. A seated man in a huge white
+room. I thought there were great shelves with enormous bottles. The
+spread of table tops passed under our cage as Polter walked by them.
+They held a litter of apparatus, and there was the smell of chemicals in
+the air. This seemed to be a laboratory.
+
+The man stood up to greet Polter. I had a glimpse of his head and
+shoulders. He wore a white linen coat, open, soft collar and black tie.
+He seemed an old man, queerly old, with snow-white hair.
+
+I had an instant of whirling impressions. Something was familiar about
+his face. It was wrinkled and seamed with lines of age and care. There
+were gentle blue eyes.
+
+Then all I could see was the vast spread of his white shirt and coat, a
+black splotch of his tie outside our bars as Polter faced him.
+
+Babs gave a low cry. "Why--why--dear God--"
+
+And then I knew! And Polter's words were not needed, though I heard
+their rumble.
+
+"I am back again, Kent. Are you still rebellious? You haf still
+determined to compound no more of our drugs? You would rather I killed
+you? Then see what I haf here. This little cage, someone--"
+
+It was Dr. Kent whom he addressed. He must have been here all these
+years!
+
+Babs turned her white face toward me. "George, it's father! He's alive!"
+
+"Quiet, Babs! Don't let him know I'm here. Remember!"
+
+The old man recognized her. "Babs!" It was an agonized cry. The blur of
+him was gone as he sank down into his chair.
+
+Polter continued standing, I could envisage his sardonic grin.
+
+From over us came Polter's rumble. "She iss glad to see you, Kent. I haf
+her here, safe. You always knew I would nefer be satisfied until I had
+my little Babs? Well, now I haf her. Can you hear me?"
+
+A sudden desperate calmness fell on Babs. She called evenly. "Yes, I
+hear you. Father, don't anger him. Do what he says. Dr. Polter, will you
+let me be with my father? After all these years, let me be with him,
+just for a little while. In his size--normal."
+
+"Hah! My Babs iss scheming."
+
+"No, I want to talk to him, after all these years when I thought he was
+dead."
+
+"Scheming? You think, my little Babs, that he has the drugs? I am not so
+much a fool. He makes them. He can do that. And that last secret
+reaction, only he can perform. He iss stubborn. Never would he tell me
+that one reaction. But he makes no drugs complete, only when I am here."
+
+"No, Dr. Polter! I want only to be with him."
+
+The old man's broken voice floated up to us. "You won't harm her,
+Polter?"
+
+"No. Fear nothing. But you no longer rebel?"
+
+"I'll do what you tell me." The tones carried hopeless resignation,
+years of being beaten down, rebelling--but now this last blow vanquished
+him. Then he spoke again, with a sudden strange fire.
+
+"Even for the life of my daughter, I will not make your drugs, Polter,
+if you mean to harm our Earth."
+
+The golden cage room swooped as Polter sat down. "Hah! Now we bargain.
+What do you care what I do to your world? You never will see it again. I
+can lie to you. My plans--"
+
+"I _do_ care."
+
+"Well, I will tell you, Kent. I am good-natured now. Why should I not
+be with my dear little Babs? I tell you, I am done with the Earth world.
+It iss much nicer here. My friends, they haf a good time always. We like
+this little atom realm. I am going out once more. I must hide the little
+piece of golden quartz so no harm will come to it."
+
+Polter was evidently in a high good humor. His voice fell to an intimate
+tone of comradeship; but still I could not mistake the irony in it.
+
+"You listen to me, Kent. There was a time, years ago, when we were good
+friends. You liked your young assistant, the hunchback Polter. Iss it
+not so? Then why should we quarrel now? I am gifing up the Earth world.
+I wanted of it only the little Babs.... You look at me so strange! You
+do not speak."
+
+"There is nothing to say," retorted Dr. Kent wearily.
+
+"Then you listen. I haf much gold above in Quebec. You know that. So
+very simple to take it out of our atom, grow large with it to what we
+call up there the size of a hundred feet. I haf a place, a room,
+secluded from prying eyes under a dome roof. I become very tall, holding
+a piece of gold. It is large when I am a hundred feet tall. So I haf
+collected much gold. They think I own a mine. I haf a smelter and my
+gold quartz I make into ingots, refined to the standard purity. So
+simple, and I am a rich man.
+
+"But gold does not bring happiness, my friend Kent." He chuckled
+ironically at his use of the platitude. "There iss more in life than the
+ownership of gold. You ask my plans. I haf Babs, now. I am gifing up the
+Earth world. The mysterious man they know as Frank Rascor will vanish. I
+will hide our little fragment of quartz. No one up there will even try
+to find it. Then I come down here, with Babs, and we will haf so nice a
+little government and rule this world. No more of the drugs then will be
+needed, Kent. When you die, let the secret die with you."
+
+Again Polter's voice became ingratiating, even more so than before. "We
+will be friends, Kent. Our little Babs will lof me; why should she not?
+You will tell her--advise her--and we will all three be very happy."
+
+Dr. Kent said abruptly, "Then leave her with me now. That was her
+request, a moment ago. If you expect to treat her kindly, then why
+not--"
+
+"I do! I do! But not now. I cannot spare her now. I am very busy, but I
+must take her with me."
+
+Babs had been silent, clinging to the bars of our cage. She called;
+"Why? I ask you to put this cage down."
+
+"Not now, little bird."
+
+"Let me be with my father."
+
+It struck a pang through me. Babs was scheming but not the way Polter
+thought. She wanted the cage put on the floor, herself out, and a chance
+for me to escape. I had not yet told her of my miserable stupidity in
+losing the vial.
+
+Polter was repeating, "No, little bird. Presently; not now. I will take
+you with me on my last trip out. I want to talk with you in normal size
+when I haf time."
+
+Our room swooped as he stood up. "You think over what I haf said, Kent.
+You get ready now to make the fresh drugs I will need to bring down all
+my men from the outer world. They will all be glad to come, or, if
+not--well, we can easily kill those who refuse. You make the drugs. I
+need plenty. Will you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"That iss good. I come back soon and gif you the catalyst for that last
+reaction. Will you be ready?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+The blur outside our bars swung with a dizzying whirl as Polter turned
+and left the room, locking its door after him with a reverberating
+clank.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Left alone in his laboratory, Dr. Kent began his preparations for
+making a fresh supply of the drugs. This room, with two smaller ones
+adjoining, was at once his workshop and his prison. He stood at his
+shelves, selecting the basic chemicals. He could not complete the final
+compounds. The catalyst which was necessary for the final reaction would
+be brought to him by Polter.
+
+How long he worked there with his thoughts in a whirl at seeing Babs, he
+did not know. His movements were automatic; he had done all this so many
+times before. His mind was confused, and he was trembling from head to
+foot--an old, queerly, unnaturally old man now--unnerved. His fingers
+could hardly hold the test tubes.
+
+His thoughts were flying. Babs was here, come down from the world above.
+It was disaster--the thing he had feared all these years.
+
+He suddenly heard a voice.
+
+"Father!"
+
+And again: "Father!" A tiny voice, down by his shoe tops. Two small
+figures were there on the floor beside him. They were both panting,
+winded by running. They were enlarging.
+
+It was Alan and Glora, who had followed Polter from the boat, then
+diminished again and had come running through the tiny crack under the
+metal door of the laboratory.
+
+They grew to a foot in size, down by Dr. Kent's legs. He was too
+unnerved to stand; he sat in a chair while Alan swiftly told him what
+had happened. Babs was in the golden cage. Dr. Kent knew that; but none
+of them knew what had happened to me.
+
+"We must make you small, Father. We have the drugs, here with us."
+
+"Yes! How much have you? Show me. Oh, my boy, that you are here--and
+Babs--"
+
+"Don't you worry. We'll get away from him."
+
+Glora and Alan had almost reached Dr. Kent's size before their excited
+fingers could get out the vials. They took some of the diminishing drug
+to check their growth. Alan handed his father a black vial.
+
+"Yes, lad--"
+
+"No! Wait, that's the wrong drug. This other--"
+
+Dr. Kent had opened the vial. His trembling hand spilled some of the
+pellets, but none of them noticed it.
+
+"Father, this one." Alan held an opalescent vial. "Take this one."
+
+Glora said abruptly, "Listen! Is that someone coming?"
+
+They thought they heard approaching footsteps. A moment passed but no
+one came into the room.
+
+"Hurry," urged Glora. "That was nothing. We're waiting too long."
+
+"My boy--Alan, after all these years--"
+
+As they were about to take the diminishing drug a very queer sound came
+from across the room. A scuttling, scratching, and the drone of wings.
+
+"God, Father--look!"
+
+Over by the wall, a giant fly was running across the floor. The fly had
+eaten some of the sweetish powder.
+
+The enlarging drug was loose!
+
+A few drops of water lay mingled with the drug on the floor. And from
+the water nameless hideous things were rising!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+To Alan the first moments that followed the escape of the drug were the
+most horrible of his life. The discovery struck old Dr. Kent, Glora and
+Alan into a numb, blank confusion. They stood transfixed, staring with
+cold terror at the fly which was scurrying along the floor close to the
+wall. It was already as large as Alan's hand. It ran into the corner,
+hit the wall in its confused alarm, and turned back. Its wings were
+droning with an audible hum. It reared itself on its hairy legs, lifted
+and sailed across the room.
+
+As though drawn by a magnet, Alan turned to watch it. It landed on the
+wall. Alan was aware of Dr. Kent rushing with trembling steps to a shelf
+where bottles stood. Glora was stricken into immobility, the blood
+draining from her face.
+
+The fly flew again. It passed directly over Alan. Its body, with a
+membrane sac of eggs, was now as large as his head; its widespread
+transparent wings were beating with a reverberating drone.
+
+Alan flung a bottle which was on the table beside him. It missed the
+fly, crashed against the ceiling, came down with splintering glass and
+spilling liquid. Fumes spread chokingly over the room.
+
+The fly landed again on the floor. Larger now! Expanding with a horribly
+rapid growth. Glora flung something--a little wooden rack with a few
+empty test tubes in it. The rack struck the monstrous fly, but did not
+hurt it. The fly stood with hairy legs braced under its bulging body.
+Its multiple eyes were staring at the humans. And with its size must
+have come a sense of power, for it seemed to Alan that the monstrous
+insect was abnormally alert as it stood measuring its adversaries,
+gathering itself to attack them.
+
+Only a few seconds had passed. Confused thoughts swept Alan. This fly
+with its growth would soon fill this room. Burst it; burst upward
+through a wrecked palace; soar out, and by the power of its size alone
+devastate this world.
+
+He heard himself shouting, "Father, get back! It's too large! I've _got_
+to kill it!"
+
+Could he wrestle with it and hope to win? Alan edged around the center
+table. He was bathed in cold sweat. This thing was horrifying! The fly
+was already half the length of his own body. In a moment it might be
+twice that! He was aware of Glora pulling at him, and his father rushing
+past him with a bottle of liquid, shouting:
+
+"Alan! Run! You and the girl, get out of here! Into the other room--"
+
+Then Alan saw the things on the floor! His foot crushed one with a
+slippery squash! Nameless, hideous, noisome things grown monstrous,
+risen from their lurking invisibility in the drops of water! Sodden,
+gray-black and green-slimed monsters of the deep; palpitating masses of
+pulp! One lay rocking, already as large as a football with streamers of
+ooze hanging from it, and squirting a black inky fluid. Others were rods
+of red jelly-pulp, already as large as lead pencils, quivering,
+twitching. Disease germs, these ghastly things, enlarging from the
+invisibility of a drop of water!
+
+The fly landed with a thud on the center table. The fumes of the
+shattered bottle of chemicals were choking Alan. He flung himself toward
+the monster fly, but Glora held him.
+
+"No! Escape to the other room!"
+
+Dr. Kent was stamping the things upon the floor; pouring acids upon
+them. Some eluded him. The air in the room was unbreathable....
+
+Alan and Glora reached the bedroom. The laboratory was a hideous chaos.
+They were aware of its outer door opening, disclosing the figure of
+Polter who, undoubtedly, had been attracted by the noise. He shouted a
+startled oath. Alan heard it above the beating wings of the monstrous
+fly. Things lurched at the opened door; Polter banged it upon them and
+rushed away, shouting the alarm through the palace.
+
+Dr. Kent was stammering, "Not the enlarging drug, Glora, child, the
+other! Hurry!"
+
+Alan helped Glora with the opalescent vial. Things were lurching toward
+this room, from the laboratory. Alan, with averted face, choked by the
+incoming fumes, slammed the door upon the gruesome turmoil.
+
+They took the diminishing drug. The bedroom expanded. The hideous sounds
+from the laboratory, and the whole palace now ringing with a wild alarm,
+soon faded into blessed remoteness of distance....
+
+"I think this is the way, Alan. Off there--a doorway from my bedroom.
+Polter always kept it locked, but it leads into a corridor. We must get
+out of here. A crack under the door--is that it, off there?" Dr. Kent
+pointed into the gloomy blur of distance. "We're horribly small--it's so
+far to run--and I've lost my sense of direction."
+
+The drug had ceased its action. The wooden floor of the room had
+expanded to a spread of cellular surface, ridged with broken, tubelike
+tunnels; pits and jagged cave-mouths. A knothole yawned like a crater a
+hundred feet away.
+
+"We are too small," Glora protested hurriedly. "The door is where you
+say, Dr. Kent, but miles away."
+
+With the other drug, the room contracted. The floor surface shrank and
+smoothed a little. The door was distinguishable--a square panel several
+hundred feet in width and towering into the upper haze. The black line
+of the crack was visible along its bottom.
+
+They ran to it. The top of the crack was ten feet above their heads.
+They ran under, across the wide intervening darkness toward a glow of
+light. Then they came from under the door into a corridor--and shrank
+against a cliff wall as with a rush of wind and pounding tread the
+blurred shapes of a man's huge feet and legs rushed past. The upper air
+was filled with rumbling shouts.
+
+"We must chance it!" exclaimed Dr. Kent. "It's too far in this size. We
+must get larger--and if they see us, we'll fight our way out!"
+
+In the turmoil of the doomed palace no one noticed them. They cast aside
+all restraint. It was too dangerous to wait. The excessive dose they
+took of the drug made the corridor shrink with dizzying speed. They
+rushed along its length. Alan hurled a little man aside who was in their
+path. They were already larger than Polter's people.
+
+They squeezed out of a shrinking doorway. The dwindling island was a
+turmoil. Little figures were pouring from the palace. At the edge of the
+water. Alan, Glora and Dr. Kent stood for an instant looking behind
+them. The palace was rocking. Its roof heaved upward and then smashed
+and fell aside with the clatter of tumbling masonry. The monstrous fly,
+its hideous face mashed and oozing, reared itself up and, with broken
+torn wings, tried to soar away. But it could not. It slipped back. The
+drone and buzz of its fright sounded over the chaos of noise. Other
+things came lurching and twisting upward, slithering out....
+
+The expanding body of the fly was pushing the palace walls outward. In a
+moment it collapsed and the fly emerged.
+
+To Alan and his companions the scene was all shrinking into a miniature
+chaos of horror at their shoe tops. A diminuendo of screams mingled down
+there. Overhead were the stars, shining peacefully remote. Nearby lay a
+rapidly narrowing channel of shining water. A tiny city was across it.
+Lights were moving. The panic had spread from the island to Orena.
+Beyond the tiny city, was a range of mountains, a cliff, gleaming in the
+starlight, and tunnel-mouths.
+
+Suddenly against the stars off there, Alan saw the enlarging figure of
+Polter, his hunched shape unmistakable. He was facing the other way. He
+lunged and scrambled into a yawning black hole in the mountains. Polter
+was escaping! None of these people except himself had the drugs. He was
+escaping with the golden cage, out of this doomed atomic world to the
+Earth above.
+
+Glora murmured, "There is our way out. Your way. And that is Polter
+going. I do not think he saw us. So much is growing gigantic here."
+
+Dr. Kent muttered, "We will wait a moment--wade across--or leap over,
+and follow him out. Babs is with him--dear God I hope so! This is a
+doomed realm!"
+
+Alan held Glora close. And suddenly he was laughing--a madness, half
+hysterical. "Why, this, all this--why look, Glora, it's funny! This
+little world all excited, an ant-hill, outraged! Look! There's our giant
+sailboat!"
+
+Down near their feet the inch-long sailboat stood at its dock. Tiny
+human figures were rushing for it; others, floundering in the water,
+were trying to climb upon it. Dr. Kent had stepped a foot or two from
+the shore, and tiny, lashing white rollers rocked the boat, almost
+engulfing it.
+
+Alan's laugh rang out. "God! It's funny, isn't it? All those little
+creatures so excited!"
+
+"Steady, lad!" Dr. Kent touched him. "Don't let yourself laugh! A moment
+now, then we'll wade across. Polter won't have much start on us. We
+mustn't get too close to him in size, but try and attack him unawares.
+We've got to get Babs away from him."
+
+The narrowing passage rose hardly to their knees. They stepped ashore,
+well to one side of the toy city. Their growth had almost stopped. But
+suddenly Alan realized that Glora was diminishing! She had taken the
+other drug.
+
+"Glora! What are you doing?"
+
+"I must go back, Alan. This is my world, doomed perhaps, but I cannot
+forsake it now. I must give the enlarging drug to my father. And others
+who can rise and fight these monsters."
+
+"Glora!"
+
+Dr. Kent said hurriedly, "She's right, Alan. There is a chance they can
+save their city. For her to leave them would be dastardly."
+
+She cried, "You go on up, Alan. You have enough of the drugs. I am going
+back!"
+
+"No," he protested. "You can't! If you do, I'm coming with you!"
+
+She clung to him. He felt her body diminishing within his encircling
+arms. His love for her swept him--this girl who had cajoled Polter, or
+tricked him and stolen several of the vials from him, heavens knows how,
+and followed him up to the other world. This girl whom Alan had come to
+love, was leaving him, perhaps forever.
+
+As he stood there, with the miniature landscape at his feet in the wan
+starlight--the panic-stricken tiny city, the island with its monsters
+rising to overwhelm this tiny world--it seemed to Alan that if he let
+her go it was the end for him of all life's promised happiness.
+
+"Alan, lad, come." His father was pulling him along. So horrible a
+choice! Alan thought that I was back on that island. But Babs, a
+prisoner in the golden cage, was with Polter, plunging upward in size.
+And his father was beside him, pleading.
+
+"Alan--come--I can't get out alone, or save Babs. And Polter, with the
+power of this drug, can conquer and enslave our Earth as he has enslaved
+Orena--just one little city of one tiny golden atom! Believe me, lad,
+your duty lies above."
+
+Glora's head was now down at Alan's waist. He stooped and kissed her
+white forehead; his fingers, just for an instant, smoothed her glossy
+hair.
+
+"Good-bye, Glora."
+
+She plunged away, and her tread as she dwindled mashed the forest behind
+the city. Alan and his father ran for the cliff. They were too large to
+squeeze into the little hole. But in a moment they made themselves
+smaller. They climbed as they dwindled; checked the drug action and
+rushed into the tunnel-mouth.
+
+Alan stopped just for an instant to gaze out over the starlit scene. It
+was almost the same viewpoint from which he had his first sight of
+Glora's world only an hour or two before. The distant island beyond the
+city showed plainly with the shining water around it. The vegetation
+there was growing! And there were dark, horribly formless blobs lurching
+outward and rising with monstrous bulk against the background of the
+stars!
+
+"Alan! Come, lad!"
+
+With a prayer for Glora trembling on his lips, Alan plunged into the dim
+phosphorescent gloom of the tunnel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+To Babs and me the ride in the golden cage strapped to Polter's chest as
+he made his escape outward into largeness was an experience awesome and
+frightening almost beyond description. We heard the alarm in the palace
+on the island. Polter rushed to Dr. Kent's laboratory door, looked in,
+and in a moment banged it shut. Babs and I saw very little. We knew only
+that something terrible had happened; we could see only a blur with
+formless things in the void beneath our bars; and there were the
+choking fumes of chemicals surging at us.
+
+Polter rushed through the castle corridor. We heard rumbling distant
+shouts.
+
+"The drug is loose! The drug is loose! Monsters! Death for everyone!"
+
+The room swayed with horrible dizzying lurches as Polter ran. We clung
+to the lattice bars, our legs and arms entwined. There were moments when
+Polter leaped, or suddenly stooped, and our reeling senses all but
+faded.
+
+"Babs! Don't let go! Don't lose consciousness!"
+
+If she should be limp, here in this lurching room, her body to be flung
+back and forth across its confines--that would be death in a moment. I
+didn't think I could hold her, but I managed to get an arm about her
+waist.
+
+"Babs, are you all right?"
+
+"I'm--all right, George. I can stand it. We're--he is enlarging."
+
+"Yes."
+
+I saw water far beneath us, lashed into a turmoil of foam with Polter's
+wading steps. There was a brief swaying vista of a toy city; starlight
+overhead; a lurching swaying miniature of landscape as Polter ran for
+the towering cliffs. Then he climbed and scrambled into the
+tunnel-mouth. Had he turned at that instant doubtless he would have seen
+the rising distant figures of Glora, Alan and Dr. Kent. But evidently he
+didn't see them. Nor did we.
+
+Polter spoke only very occasionally to Babs. "Hold tightly!" It was a
+rumbling voice from above us. He made no move to touch the cage, except
+that a few times the great blur of his hand came up to adjust its angle.
+
+The lurching and jolting was less violent in the tunnel. Polter's frenzy
+to escape was subsiding into calmness. He traversed the tunnel with a
+methodical stride. We were aware of him climbing over the noisome
+litter of the dead giant's body which blocked the tunnel's further end.
+We heard his astonished exclamations. But evidently he did not suspect
+what had happened, thinking only that the stupid messenger had
+miscalculated his growth and had been crushed.
+
+We emerged into a less dim area. Polter did not stop at the fallen
+giant. Nothing mattered now to him, quite evidently, save his own exit
+with Babs from this atomic realm. His movements seemed calm, yet
+hurried.
+
+We realized now how different an outward journey was from the trip
+coming in. This was all only an inch of golden quartz! The stages upward
+were frequently only a matter of growth in size; the distances in this
+vast desert realm of golden rock always were shrinking. Polter many
+times stood almost motionless until the closing, dwindling walls made
+him scramble upward into the greater space above.
+
+It may have been an hour, or less. Babs and I, from our smaller
+viewpoint, with the landscape so frequently blurred by distance and
+Polter's movements, seldom recognized where we were. But I realized
+going out was far easier in every way than coming in. Easier to
+determine the route, since usually the diminishing caverns and gullies
+made the upward step obvious.... We knew when Polter scrambled up the
+incline ramp.
+
+It seemed impossible for us to plan anything. Would Polter make the
+entire trip without a stop? It seemed so. We had no drugs, and our cage
+was barred beyond possibility of our getting out. But even if we had had
+the drugs, or had our door been open, there was no escape. An abyss of
+distance was always yawning beyond our lattice--the sheer precipice of
+Polter's body from his chest to the ground.
+
+"Babs, we must make him stop. It he sits down to rest you might get him
+to take you out. I must reach his drugs."
+
+"Yes. I'll try it, George."
+
+Polter was momentarily standing motionless as though gazing around him,
+judging what to do next. His size seemed stationary. Beyond our bars we
+could see the distant circular walls as though this were some giant
+crater-pit in which Polter was standing. Then I thought I recognized
+it--the round, nearly vertical pit into which Alan had plunged his hand
+and arm. Above us then was a gully, blind at one end. And above that,
+the outer surface, the summit of the fragment of golden quartz.
+
+"Babs, I know where we are! If he takes you out, keep his attention.
+I'll try and get one of his black vials. Make him hold you near the
+ground. If I see you there, in position where you can jump, I'll startle
+him. Babs it's desperately dangerous but I can't think of anything else.
+Jump. Get away from him. I'll keep his attention on me. Then I'll join
+you if I can--with the drug."
+
+Polter was moving. We had no time to say more.
+
+"I'll try it, George." For just an instant she clung to me with her soft
+arms about my neck. Our love was sweeping us in this desperate moment,
+and it seemed that above us was a remote Earth world holding the promise
+of all our dreams. Or were we cross-starred, doomed like the realm of
+the atom? Was this swift embrace now marking the end of everything for
+us?
+
+Babs called, "Dr. Polter?"
+
+We could feel his movements stopping.
+
+"Yes? You are all right, Babs?"
+
+She laughed--a ripple of silvery laughter--but there was tragic fear in
+her eyes as she gazed at me. "Yes, Dr. Polter, but breathless. Almost
+dead, but not quite. What happened? I want to come out and talk to you."
+
+"Not now, little bird."
+
+"But I want to." To me it was a miracle that she could call so lightly
+and hold that note of lugubrious laughter in her voice. "I'm hungry.
+Didn't you think of that? And frightened. Take me out."
+
+He was sitting down! "You remind me that I am tired, Babs. And hungry,
+also. I haf a little food. You shall come out for just a short time."
+
+"Thank you. Take me carefully."
+
+Our tilted cage was near the ground as he seated himself. But it was
+still too far for me to jump.
+
+I murmured, "Babs it's not close enough to the ground."
+
+"Wait, George, I'll fix that. You hide! If he looks in he'll see you."
+
+I scrambled back to my hiding place. Polter's huge fingers were fumbling
+at our bars. The little door sprang open.
+
+"Come, Babs."
+
+He held the cupped bowl of his hand to the doorway. "Come out."
+
+"No!" she called. "It is too far down!"
+
+"Come. That iss foolish."
+
+"No! I'm afraid. Put the cage on the ground."
+
+"Babs!" His finger and thumb came reaching in to seize her, but she
+avoided them.
+
+"Dr. Polter! Don't! You'll crush me!"
+
+"Then come out on my hand."
+
+He seemed annoyed. I had scrambled back to the doorway; I knew he
+couldn't see me so long as the cage remained strapped to his shirt
+front.
+
+I whispered, "I can make it, Babs!"
+
+Polter was apparently on one elbow now, half turned to one side. From
+our cage, the sloping gleaming white surface of his stiff glossy shirt
+bosom went down a steep incline. His belt was down there, and the
+outward bulging curve of his lap--a spreading surface where I could land
+like a scuttling insect, unobserved, if only Babs could hold his
+attention.
+
+I whispered vehemently, "Try it! Go out! Leave me--keep talking to him!"
+
+She called instantly, "All right, then. Bring your hand! Closer!
+Carefully! It seems so high up here!"
+
+She swung herself into his palm, and flung her arms about the great
+pillar of his crooked finger. The bowl of his hand moved slowly away. I
+heard her faint voice, and his overhead rumble.
+
+I chanced it! I didn't know his exact position or which way he was
+looking.
+
+Again I heard Bab's voice. "Careful, Dr. Polter. Don't let me fall!"
+
+"Yes, little bird."
+
+I let myself down from the tilted doorway, hung by my hand and dropped.
+I struck the ramp-like yielding surface of his shirt bosom. I slid,
+tumbling, scrambling, and landed softly in the huge folds of his trouser
+fabric. I was unhurt. The width of his belt, high as my body, was near
+me. I shrank against it. I found I could cling to its upper edge.
+
+My hold came just in time. He shifted and sat up. I was lifted with a
+swoop of movement. When it steadied I saw above me the top of his knee.
+His left leg was crooked, the foot drawn close to him. Babs was perched
+up there on the knee summit. His right leg was outstretched. I was at
+the right side of his belt. I could dart off along that curving expanse
+of his leg and leap to the ground. If he would hold this position! One
+of the pouches of his belt was near me. The vial in it was black. The
+enlarging drug! I moved toward it.
+
+But Babs was too high to jump from that summit of his crooked knee! I
+think she saw me at his belt. I heard her voice.
+
+"I cannot eat up here. It is too high. Oh, please be careful how you
+move! I am so dizzy, so frightened! You move with such great jerks!"
+
+He had what seemed a huge surface of bread and meat. He was breaking off
+crumbs to put before her. I reached the pouch of his belt. The vial was
+as long as my body. I tugged to try and lift it out.
+
+All the giant contours of Polter's body shifted as he cautiously moved.
+I clung. I saw that Babs was being held gently between his thumb and
+forefinger. He lowered her to the ground, and she stood beside the bread
+and the meat he had placed there.
+
+And she had the courage to laugh! "Why this--this is an enormous
+sandwich! You will have to break it."
+
+He was leaning over her, half turned on his side. The vial came free. I
+shoved it; but I could not control its weight. I pushed desperately. It
+slid over the round brink of his right hip, and fell behind him. I heard
+the tinkling thud of it down on the rocks.
+
+There was no alarm. I could not chance leaping from his hip. I scurried
+along the convex top of his outstretched leg, and beyond his knee I
+jumped.
+
+I landed safely. I could see the black vial back across the broken rock
+surface, with the bulge of Polter's hip above it. I ran back and reached
+the vial, tugged at its huge stopper. The cork began to yield under my
+panting, desperate efforts. In a moment I would have a pellet of the
+enlarging drug; make away with it and startle Polter so that Babs might
+dart off and escape.
+
+The huge stopper of the vial was larger than my head. It came suddenly
+out. I flung it away, plunged in my hand, and seized an enormous round
+pellet.
+
+Then abruptly the alarm came, and I had not caused it! Polter ripped out
+a startled, rumbling curse and sat upright. Under the curve of his leg
+I saw Babs had been momentarily neglected. She was running.
+
+Across the boulder-strewn plain, two tiny men had appeared. Polter had
+seen them.
+
+They were the enlarging figures of Dr. Kent and Alan!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+The astounded Polter was taken wholly by surprise. He had no idea that
+anyone was following him. He thought he was alone with tiny Babs in this
+rock-strewn metal desert. What he saw as he scrambled to his feet were
+four insect-size humans, two of them at a distance, and two within reach
+of him, and all of them scampering in different directions. The ground
+was littered with crags and boulders; it was ridged and pitted,
+pock-marked, with tiny crater-holes and caves. The four scuttling
+figures almost instantly had disappeared from his sight.
+
+I did not see where Babs went. I turned from the black vial of Polter's
+enlarging drug, and with the huge pellet under my arm I ran leaping over
+the rough ground and flung myself into a gully. I lay prone, flattened
+against a rock. In the murky distance of a pseudo-sky overhead, the
+monstrous head and shoulders of Polter were visible. I could see down to
+just below his waist. The empty cage with its door flapping open hung
+against his shirt-front. He had stooped to try and recover Babs. And
+instinctively his hands went to his belt to seize his enlarging drug.
+
+They were fumbling there now. He hauled out an opalescent vial of the
+diminishing element. But his black vial was gone. His annoyance turned
+into fear as he searched for it in the other compartments of his belt. I
+had thought that he had more than one black vial, but now it seemed not.
+His huge face was swept with the panic of terror. He glanced wildly
+around him.
+
+Through the open end of my gully I saw in the distance, miles away, the
+enlarging figure of Alan rising up. Then it ducked in back of a distant
+rising peak. Polter undoubtedly saw it. He was fumbling with his
+opalescent vial. In his confused panic he made the mistake of taking the
+diminishing drug and instantly seemed to regret it. His curse rumbled
+above me. His glance went down to the rocks at his feet, and there he
+saw his black vial lying with its stopper out. His body already was
+beginning to dwindle. He stooped, seized the vial, and took the
+enlarging drug. The shock of it mode him stagger; momentarily he
+disappeared from my line of vision but I could hear his panting breath
+and the unsteady pound of his footsteps.
+
+I still held that huge round ball of the drug. I seized a loose stone
+and frantically knocked off a chunk-heaven knows how much. I shoved it
+into my mouth, chewed and hastily swallowed it. And with the lurching,
+swaying, shrinking gully closing in upon me, I ran to get out of its
+distant end.
+
+I was heading toward where Alan and his father were hiding. I came from
+the gully into the open, just as the walls closed behind me. The whole
+scene was a dizzying, blurred sway of contracting movement. I saw that I
+was in a circular valley now some five miles in diameter, with its
+jagged enclosing walls rising sheerly perpendicular out of sight in the
+haze overhead.
+
+Polter had staggered backward. I saw him a mile or so away. His back at
+that instant was turned to me. He was now no more than three or four
+times my own height. He scrambled against the valley cliff wall as
+though trying to find a foothold to climb up it. He went a little way,
+but fell back.
+
+Near me, Alan and old Dr. Kent suddenly appeared. I was larger than
+they. Alan gasped with surprise.
+
+"You, George! You got Babs--"
+
+"Yes--Babs is around somewhere! Stay down here! Don't lose her in size!
+Stay small! Search and--"
+
+"But, George--"
+
+"I'll tackle Polter. I've taken--God, I don't know how much I've taken
+of the drug!"
+
+They were shrinking down by my boot tops. Alan shouted suddenly,
+"There's Babs! Thank God, she's all right."
+
+She was so small that I couldn't see her, or even hear her, though she
+must have been calling to them. Alan again screamed up at me with his
+little voice:
+
+"She's here, George! You--go on and get Polter! I can't overtake
+you--haven't enough of the drug!" His tiny voice was fading away. "Go
+and get him, George! This time--get him--"
+
+I swung with a staggering step around to face the open valley. It had by
+now shrunk to nearly half a mile in width. Its smooth walls rose some
+two or three thousand feet to an upper circular horizon with murky
+distance overhead. Polter stood across from me. He had tried to climb
+out but could not. He saw me and came lurching. We were a quarter of a
+mile from each other. I ran forward through a shifting scene of
+shrinking rock walls and crawling, contracting ground. Quarter of a
+mile? It seemed hardly more than a score of running strides before
+Polter loomed close ahead of me. He was still nearly twice my size. I
+stooped, seized a loose boulder, and flung it. I missed his face, but,
+as his hand went up carrying a bare knife, by fortunate chance, the
+stone struck his wrist. The knife dropped to the rocks. He stooped to
+recover it, but I was upon him. As I felt his huge arms go about me,
+half lifting me, my foot struck the knife. But in an instant it was
+swept down into smallness beneath us as we expanded above it.
+
+Both of us now were unarmed in this combat of size. I was an immature
+youth in Polter's first grip upon me. I heard his panting words, grimly
+triumphant:
+
+"This--George Randolph, I haf been--waiting for so many years! The
+hunchback--takes his revenge--now--"
+
+He lifted me. His great arms were unbelievably powerful, but I could
+feel them dwindling. I was enlarging faster. Just a few moments--if I
+could last a few moments.... My feet were off the ground, my chest
+pressed close against the little cage between us. He had a hand shoving
+back my head; his fingers sought my throat. I wound my legs around him,
+and then he tried to throw me down and fall upon me. But he had twisted
+and my back was against the cliff. The rocks were shoving at us,
+insistently pushing with almost a living movement. Polter staggered with
+me. His grip on my throat tightened, shutting off my breath. My senses
+whirled. His grim sardonic face over me became blurred. I tore futilely
+at my throat to break his choking grip. All the world was a roaring
+chaos to my fading senses. Then in the blur I saw horror sweep his
+expression. His fingers involuntarily loosened. I got a breath of
+blessed air, gasping, and my sight cleared.
+
+Walls were closing around us! We were in a pit barely ten feet wide,
+with the top a few feet above Polter's head. The nearer wall shoved us
+again. Our bodies almost filled the shrinking pit! Polter lurched and
+cast me off. I half fell, striking my shoulder against the opposite
+wall, and I saw Polter leap at the dwindling brink and scramble out.
+
+I was nearly wedged. As I rose, the top of the pit only reached my
+waist. Polter had fallen on the upper ground, and was on hands and
+knees. Instead of standing up, he lurched at me trying to shove me back.
+But I was out; I clutched at him. We were almost of a size now. We
+rolled on the ground, locked together; rolled to the brink of the pit
+and over it, as it shrank to a little round hole unnoticed beneath our
+threshing bodies!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At the side of the circular valley Alan and Dr. Kent crouched with the
+smaller figure of Babs between them. They saw Polter and me as two
+swaying gigantic forms locked in a death struggle, towering against the
+sky. Tremendous expanded bodies! They saw us come to grips; saw the
+great hunched Polter bend me backward, choking me.
+
+Our bodies lurched. Our huge legs with a single step brought us to the
+center of the valley. It was a shrinking valley to Alan, Babs and Dr.
+Kent, for they too, were enlarging. But the fighting giant figures were
+growing faster. In only a moment their shoulders were up there in the
+sky, pressing against the narrowing cliff walls.
+
+Alan gasped, "But George will be crushed! Look at him!"
+
+Horror swept them as they crouched, watching. The enormous pillars of
+Polter's legs towered straight up from near at hand. Alan was aware of
+himself screaming:
+
+"George, get out! You're too large! Too large for in here!"
+
+As though his microscopic voice could reach me--my head a hundred feet
+above him. But he screamed it again. This was all in a few horrible
+moments, though it seemed to the three watchers an eternity. Alan was
+helpless to aid me; they had taken all of the enlarging drug they had.
+
+Then they saw Polter cast me off. I lurched and struck, with my
+shoulders wedged against the cliff directly over where they crouched.
+The overhead sky was darkened as Polter scrambled upward.
+
+Alan was still screaming futilely.
+
+Babs huddled with white horrified face, staring. Then I went out after
+Polter. My disappearing legs were great dark blurs in the sky. Alan saw
+the valley now contracted to a thousand feet of width, with its cliffs
+equally as high. Then everything was smaller.... The sky overhead went
+dark again from cliff to cliff as a segment of rolling bodies
+momentarily spanned the opening.
+
+Presently Alan realized that the valley had narrowed to a pit. He stood
+up. "Hurry! Now we can go after them. Up there!"
+
+The opening above was empty. Polter and I were fighting some distance
+away....
+
+Dr. Kent was soon large enough to scramble out of the pit. Alan handed
+the little Babs up to him and followed. Alan saw that they were now in a
+long gully, blind at one end with a five hundred foot perpendicular
+cliff. Against the wall, the Titanic form of Polter stood at bay. And I
+was confronting him. The summit of the cliff was lower than our waists.
+Triumph swept Alan; he saw that I was the larger! As Polter bored into
+me my backward step crossed the full width of the gully. Alan shouted:
+
+"Down! Babs--Father!"
+
+They had barely time to flatten themselves in a narrow crevice between
+upstanding rocks before my foot crashed down. For an instant the sole of
+my foot formed a flat black ceiling as it spanned the rocks. Then it
+lifted and was gone with a blurred swoop. They saw the white blur of my
+hand come down and snatch a tremendous boulder, raising it with a great
+sweep of movement into the sky. They saw me crash it against Polter; but
+it only struck his shoulder. He roared with anger. The whole sky was
+roaring and rumbling with our shouts and our panting breathing, and the
+ground was clattering, pounding with our giant tread. Huge loose
+boulders were tumbled in an avalanche everywhere.
+
+Again it seemed to Alan that our lurching, heedlessly surging bodies
+must be crushed within these contracting walls. Only our locked,
+intertwined legs were visible; our bodies were lost in the sky. Then it
+seemed to Alan that I had heaved Polter upward. And followed him. We
+disappeared. There was a distant overhead rumble, and the murky sky,
+with vague patches of far-distant illumination in it, became empty of
+movement....
+
+The walls presently were again closing upon Alan and his companions.
+They ran out of the open end of the shrinking little gully and came to a
+new upward vista....
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I found myself a full head and shoulders taller than Polter. And he was
+tiring, panting heavily. His face was cut and bleeding from the blows of
+my fist. The rock I heaved struck his shoulder. He roared, head down,
+and bored into me. He was heavier than I. His weight flung me back. My
+foot slid on the loose stones of the gully floor. I did not know that
+Babs, Alan and their father were huddled under those stones!
+
+My back struck the opposite wall. Polter's upflung knee caught me in the
+stomach, all but knocking the breath out of me. He was desperate,
+oblivious to the closing walls. And as he flung his arms with a grip
+about my neck, hanging, trying to bear down, I saw in his blazing dark
+eyes what seemed the light of suicide. I think that then, with a sudden
+frenzied madness he realized that he was beaten, and tried to pull us to
+the ground and let the walls crush us.
+
+I summoned all my remaining strength and heaved us forward. I broke his
+hold. His body was jammed back against a lowering wall. Its top seemed
+almost at our knees. I shoved frantically. He fell backward and I jumped
+after him.
+
+We were on a great rocky plateau. But it was shrinking, crawling into
+itself. Spots of light were in the murk overhead: there seemed a
+distant circular horizon of emptiness around us.
+
+Polter was lying in a heap. But it was trickery, for as I incautiously
+bent over him his hand crashed a rock against my head. I reeled, with
+all the world turning black, but didn't fall. There was a terrible
+instant when my senses were going, but I fought to hold them. Blood from
+a wound on my forehead was streaming in my eyes. I was staggering. Then
+I realized that I was grimly tossing my head, shaking the blood away;
+and little by little my sight came back.
+
+Polter was on his feet, rushing me. His fist came with an upward swing
+at my chin, but I ducked.
+
+And suddenly, fighting up there in the open, my mind envisioned how
+gigantic we were! This was a great upland plateau, rounded with miles of
+distance and shadowy dimly radiant abyss beyond its circular horizon.
+And I was a thousand feet or more tall! A Titan, looming here in the
+sky!
+
+My fist quite unexpectedly caught Polter's jaw. His simultaneous swing
+went wild, as I leapt backward from it. He staggered, and his arms
+dropped to his sides. I was crouched forward, guarded, watching him
+while I gasped for breath. There was the briefest of instant when an
+expression of vague surprise swept his face. But I had not knocked him
+out.
+
+It was death overtaking him. His heart was yielding, overtaxed from the
+strain; and I think that there, at the last, he realized it. The blood
+drained suddenly from his face and lips, leaving them livid. I saw fear,
+then a wild horror in his eyes. He stood swaying. Then his knees gave
+way and he toppled. He fell from his height in the air where I stood
+gazing at him--fell forward on his face, his Titanic length spread all
+across the top of this rocky landscape!
+
+For a moment I did not move. My head was reeling, my ears roaring.
+Blood streamed into my eyes. I wiped it away with a torn sleeve and
+stood panting, gazing at the glowing distance around me.
+
+I was a Titan, standing there. The body of Polter was shrinking at my
+feet. The circular abyss of emptiness came nearer as this rocky eminence
+contracted.
+
+Suddenly my attention went to the sky overhead. Vague distant lights
+were there. Then a broad flat blur seemed spread over me. Light
+everywhere was growing. Beyond the nearby brink of the abyss was a white
+reflected radiance from beneath. Abruptly I realized there was a level,
+flat white plain running far off there in the distance.
+
+Overhead a radiance contracted into a spot of light. A shape in the sky
+moved! I heard a faraway rumble--a human voice!
+
+The body of Polter lay at my feet. It was hardly the length of my
+forearm. I stood, a Titan.
+
+And then, with a shock of realization, I saw how tiny I was! This was
+the broken top of that fragment of golden quartz the size of a walnut! I
+was standing there, under the lens of the giant microscope in Polter's
+dome-room laboratory, with half a dozen astounded Quebec police
+officials peering down at me!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+I need not detail the aftermath of our emergence from the atom. Dr. Kent
+and Babs followed me out within a few moments. But Alan was not with
+them! He had seen Polter fall. His father and Babs were safe. The
+sacrifice he had made in leaving Glora was no longer needed.
+
+Down there on the rocky plateau, Dr. Kent suddenly realized that Alan
+was dwindling.
+
+"Father, I have to! Don't you understand? Glora's world is menaced. I
+can't leave her like this. My duty to you and Babs is ended. I did my
+best. You two are safe now."
+
+"Alan! You can't go!"
+
+He was already down at Dr. Kent's waist, Babs' size. He held up his
+hand. "Dad, don't try to stop me. Good-bye." His rugged youthful face
+was flushed, his voice choked. "You--you've been a mighty good father to
+me. Always."
+
+Babs flung her arms about him. "Alan. Don't!"
+
+"But I must." He smiled whimsically as he kissed her. "You wouldn't want
+to leave George, would you? Never see him again? I'm not asking you to
+do that, am I?"
+
+"But, Alan--"
+
+"You've been a great little pal, Babs. But I have to go."
+
+"Alan! You talk as though you were never coming back!"
+
+"Do I? But of course I'm coming back!" He cast her off. "Babs, listen.
+Father's upset. That's natural. You tell him not to worry. I'll be
+careful, and do what I can to save that little city. I must find Glora
+and--"
+
+Babs was suddenly trembling with eagerness for him. "Yes! Of course you
+must, Alan!"
+
+"I'll find her and bring her out here! I'll do it! Don't you worry." He
+was dwindling fast. Dr. Kent had collapsed to a rock, staring down with
+horror-stricken eyes. Alan called up to Babs:
+
+"Listen! Have George watch the chunk of gold quartz. Have it guarded and
+watched day and night. Handle it carefully, Babs!"
+
+"Yes! Yes! How long will you be gone, Alan?"
+
+"How do I know? But I'll come back--don't worry. Maybe in only a day or
+two of your time."
+
+"Right! Good-bye, Alan!"
+
+"Good-bye," his tiny voice echoed up.
+
+Babs could see his miniature face smiling up at her. She smiled back and
+waved her arm as he vanished into the pebbles at her feet.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It has broken Dr. Kent. A month now has passed. He seldom mentions Alan
+to Babs and me. But when he does, he tries to smile and say that Alan
+soon will return. He has been very ill this last week, though he is
+better now. He did not tell us that he was working to compound another
+supply of the drugs, but we knew it very well.
+
+And his emotion, the strain of it, made him break. He was in bed a week.
+We are living in New York, quite near the Museum of the American Society
+for Scientific Research. In a room of the biological department there,
+the precious fragment of golden quartz lies guarded. A microscope is
+over it, and there is never a moment of the day or night without an
+alert, keen-eyed watcher peering down.
+
+But nothing has appeared. Neither friend or foe--nothing. I cannot say
+so to Babs, but often I fear that Dr. Kent will suddenly die, and the
+secret of his drugs die with him. I hinted that I would make a trip into
+the atom if he would let me, but it excited him so greatly I had to
+laugh it off with the assurance that of course Alan would soon return
+safely to us. Dr. Kent is an old man now, unnaturally old, with, it
+seems, the full weight of eighty years pressing upon him. He cannot
+stand this emotion. I think he is despairingly summoning strength to
+work upon his drugs, fearful that at any moment, he will not be equal to
+it. Yet more fearful to disclose the secret and unloose such a diabolic
+power.
+
+There are nights when with Dr. Kent asleep, Babs and I slip away and go
+to the Museum. We dismiss the guard for a time, and in that private room
+we sit by the microscope to watch. The fragment of golden quartz lies on
+its clean white slab with a brilliant light upon it.
+
+Mysterious little golden rock! What secrets are there, down beyond the
+vanishing point in the realm of the infinitely small? Our human longings
+go to Alan and Glora.
+
+But sometimes we are swept by the greater viewpoint. Awed by the
+mysteries of nature, we realize how very small and unimportant we are in
+the vast scheme of things. We envisage the infinite reaches of
+astronomical space overhead. Realms of largeness unfathomable. And at
+our feet, everywhere, a myriad entrances into the infinitely small. With
+ourselves in between--with our fatuous human consciousness that we are
+of some importance to it all!
+
+Truly there are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamed of in
+our philosophy!
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+This etext was first published in _Astounding Stories_ March 1931.
+Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright
+on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors
+have been corrected without note.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Beyond the Vanishing Point, by
+Raymond King Cummings
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEYOND THE VANISHING POINT ***
+
+***** This file should be named 22527.txt or 22527.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/5/2/22527/
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/22527.zip b/22527.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9b7530d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22527.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1e6418f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #22527 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22527)