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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/75690-0.txt b/75690-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bd93b3a --- /dev/null +++ b/75690-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7828 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75690 *** + + + + + + The Princess of the Atom + + By Ray Cummings + + AVON PUBLISHING CORP. + 119 W. 57th St. + New York 19, N. Y. + + _Published by arrangement with the Author_ + + THE PRINCESS OF THE ATOM + COPYRIGHT, 1929, BY THE FRANK A. MUNSEY CO. + + _AVON REPRINT EDITION_ + COPYRIGHT, 1950, BY AVON PUBLISHING CO., INC. + + PRINTED IN U. S. A. + + + To my son, Hal, and to Russ, my son-in-law--both + chemists--this story is appropriately + and affectionately dedicated. + + * * * * * + +Her Love Destroyed One World and Threatened Another! + +Giants appeared off the coast of New England on the day beautiful +Dianne returned from oblivion. That mysterious beauty had disappeared +from the home of her guardian, Dr. Ferrule, and had been sought in +vain. But with her return, she brought terror to two worlds and an +astounding adventure to the two young men who loved her. + +In this breathtaking excursion into atomic mysteries, you will be +enchanted by the unearthly beauty and peril of Dianne, princess of +a world too small to be seen. You will be thrilled by the startling +journey Frank Ferrule makes into infinite smallness to save an +unsuspecting planet. You will be astonished at the terrific fight of +Drake Ferrule against the lustful Togaro, the man who would rule the +universe. + +Here is a masterpiece of science-fiction by a dean of fantasy, Ray +Cummings. Unavailable for many years, this unforgettable story of +atomic warfare and invasion from an alien world is the first of the new +series of AVON FANTASY NOVELS, selected by Donald A. Wollheim, editor +of the famous AVON FANTASY READER, and specially designed for the +growing public that has discovered the new thrill of Science-Fiction. + + * * * * * + + _Table of Contents_ + + + The Coming of the Giants + The Mysterious Visitor + The Signal Fire + The Strange Island + Princess of the Atom + The Chase into Smallness + The Flight in the Cellular Caverns + Death of the Giants + Tiny Fragment of Rock + The White Flag + Giant in Ambush + The Meeting + The Stowaway + The Locked Door + Togaro at Bay + Frank's Plan + The Tiny Prowler + The Escape of Togaro + Night of Turmoil + In the Blood Light of Dawn + Riding the Giant + "Vengeance of Togaro!" + Doomed Little Planet! + The End of a World + In the Campfire Light + The Black and White Flags + The Fight on the Rock Summit + The Return to Earth + The Theft of the Rock + The World at Bay + Togaro Strikes + The Fugitives + The Combat of Titans + Princess of the Cottage + + + + + "_Beautiful with a grace beyond the reach of art._" + + + + + _Prologue_ + + +I was seventeen years old before I had any idea that there was a +mystery in my family. My name is Frank Ferrule. My mother died when I +was still a child. There was my father; my older brother, Drake; and my +younger sister, Dianne. We had always seemed to me an average little +family group, except for Dianne's beauty. That, in truth, was abnormal +enough. And upon that, I was to learn, the mystery hinged--tragedy it +was for Dianne, striking all unheralded like a bolt from a cloudless +sky. + +Our life, up to that August when the sudden, inexplicable tragedy came, +was perfectly prosaic, uneventful, so that I can find little of it to +record here that would be of interest. Father was a consulting chemist. +My brother Drake, six years older than I, grew up to be a stalwart +blond giant of a fellow--a full six feet two--with a lazy, rollicking +good-nature like a huge dog conscious of his own strength. Father often +said that; and called me a terrier. I was always small and slender, +with dark hair, and by nature excitable. + +There was nothing unusual, nothing of particular interest about Drake +and me. But Dianne's beauty would have fascinated the world. I can +remember that she had always been beautiful. In the advertisements of +fashion magazines there are drawings of children--ideally beautiful +little girls. Dianne, as a child, was like that, a blue-eyed +flaxen-haired doll. + +But soon she began to develop character. At sixteen the doll look was +wholly gone. Her face bore the stamp of her individuality; but it +remained as exquisite, as colorful as a cameo, or like a pastel, so +delicately flawless of feature, so perfect of natural coloring that +the effect was startling. I have heard people say, meeting her, that +she seemed unreal. And certainly, everywhere she went, she attracted +unusual attention. + +This tragedy came--the mystery began--one August when Dianne was +sixteen, I seventeen, and Drake twenty-three. We were at our summer +home on the coast of Maine. Father was of a temperament which demanded +a quiet life. I think, too, that with such a girl as Dianne, he found +seclusion an added advantage. + +She could so easily have been spoiled; but she was not. A gentle +little thing, sweet in the old-fashioned storied style, with all the +sophistication of her age passing her by untouched. Mischievous she had +always been since childhood, and she was human enough to be thrilled by +the frequent offers of motion-picture tryouts and the like. + +Such offers inevitably came. We were not hermits. We spent our winters +in New York City. Quietly, but we had many friends and the fame of +Dianne's beauty spread. + +But father kept her unspoiled, and apart from it all. + +We often had friends at our summer home; but it chanced that this +particular August there was no one but our family there. I recall the +fateful morning of the fourteenth. There was nothing to mark it from +any other morning--warm and cloudless, with a fresh breeze that rippled +the water of the cove and set the whitecaps running outside. + +Father announced that he would be all day at a chemical experiment and +not to disturb him. Drake, Dianne and I decided that we would take the +dory and row out to Bird's Nest Island; fish a little; have a swim and +a campfire lunch. We started soon after breakfast. It was not a long +pull, for the island was only some two miles offshore. We found the sea +outside smooth running, but brisk. The wide bow of the dory lifted and +slapped as we headed into the whitecaps. + +Bird's Nest Island had, to my mind, always spelled romance. It was a +tiny, rocky peak alone in the sea, an irregularly round island only +a few hundred acres in extent. The fifty-foot peak was almost in +its center. Gulls often hung around that little naked crag pointing +skyward. A rocky, but gently sloping beach encircled all the island. +There were trees and underbrush; and, queerly enough, a spring of fresh +water. + +It was an uninhabited island, with all the romance of Robinson Crusoe +hanging over it. From the rock peak one could stand and see all the +circular island shore and the sea in every direction. As children we +had come here with the grown-ups. We had placed a cairn upon the summit +and erected a signal flag, then, ignoring the obvious shore of the +Maine coast, had built a signal fire and prayed that its smoke might be +seen by some passing ship which would come and rescue us. + +We were too old for such fancies now, but the romance clung. We put on +our swimming suits, this August morning, and swam from the lee beach. +There is only one incident of significance for me to record. + +Drake was swimming far out with lusty strokes. Dianne and I not so +skillful or daring in the water, were in the shallows of the beach. I +recall that I leaped at her and ducked her. She came up gasping, but +laughing, and made a rush at me. We mingled in a fight, tumbling each +other into the water. + +I had always been Dianne's favorite. We were nearer an age, and Drake, +when in his 'teens, had looked down upon us as mere children. We +wrestled now in the water; and I remember that I found myself clinging +to Dianne's hair, up by her forehead. + +"Frank, stop that! Let me go!" + +The frightened vehemence of her tone made me loose her at once. + +"What's the matter?" + +"You hurt me." + +"Shucks." + +A girl growing up with two older brothers gets used to rough treatment. +It was not like Dianne to call quits. + +"You did hurt me." + +"Did I? Sorry, Dianne. Come on, let's swim then. Look where Drake is." + +The incident left me puzzled. Dianne had done that before. She did not +like her hair touched. It grew down at the center of her forehead in a +queer little peak, and she wore it parted far to one side. + +Children are not curious about such things, but I was old enough now to +wonder why Dianne was annoyed when her hair there was touched. + +Drake came ashore, and he and I wandered off to dress. Then we called +to Dianne. We had left her only a couple of hundred feet away. + +I called, "Oh Dianne, hurry it up. You going to take all day?" + +She did not answer. We called again. Drake said, "She's spoofing us. +Hiding." + +We ran back to where we had left her. The little pile of her clothes +lay there untouched. + +"Dianne!" Our shouts echoed over the island, but there was no answer. + +"Find her in two minutes," said Drake. He shouted, "Watch out, Dianne, +we're coming! I'll run around the beach first, Frank. You climb up to +the rock--see everything from there--" + +I went up to the peak, where I could see all the beach. Our dory was +undisturbed, and I could see no sign of a boat leaving the island, or +anywhere near it. I saw Drake sprinting around the beach, then plunging +off among the trees. I could see his figure occasionally. He called up, + +"See her, Frank?" + +"No!" + +Fear struck us then. We searched, at first laughingly, then with stark +horror overwhelming us. The little island was all too easy to search. +There were no caves, no cliff over which she could have fallen. We had +seen all the beach and the near-by water within a few moments after her +disappearance. Surely there had not been time for her to swim out and +be drowned. She was a fair swimmer, and cautious for all her youth. And +even if she had gone back in the water and got into distress, we were +so close we could have heard at once any call she made. + +But she was gone. Vanished. No boat had landed that could have taken +her. That was impossible without our seeing it over that reach of empty +sea. + +I recall our frantic search. Then at last Drake and I alone frantically +rowed back home to tell father. It was like a dream of horror. Father's +white, solemn face. He never once reproached Drake or me. He telephoned +the village. Then came another trip to the island in a launch with +grave-faced men. + +But Dianne was never found. We brought back her clothes that lay +untouched there by the underbrush at the beach. I could not look at +them, but went into my bedroom and lay on the bed and sobbed. It was +the first tragedy that life had brought me. + +Night had fallen when Drake came to me. He leaned over me +sympathetically. + +"Take it easy, kid." His own face was white and drawn; he loved Dianne +as much as I did, but he was older, more stoical. "Father wants to see +us, Frank. Get hold of yourself." His arm went around my shoulder and I +huddled against him, "Take it easy--wash your face and come on down." + +It was about Dianne--father had something to tell us. We faced him in +the living room. He closed its doors. + +"Sit down, lads." + +It may have been in Drake's thoughts, certainly it was in mine, that +now father was about to blame us. I had felt, those hours sobbing on +the bed, that somehow I was to blame. That incident in the water when +I had annoyed Dianne about her hair--wild thoughts swept me that I had +annoyed her and she had committed suicide. I had already told father +about it; told him in the launch. He had listened and waved it away. + +He sat facing us now, a slender, solemn man of fifty, with iron-gray +hair, and thin, studious face. His eyes behind his big horn-rimmed +spectacles seemed unnaturally bright, but gentle. + +He said, "Don't look at me like that, lads--I've no intention of +reproaching you." + +And then he told us, in a burst, without preface, what we had never +suspected. + +"You were about two years old, Frank--and you, Drake, about eight. It +was the year before your mother died. She and I went to Bird's Nest +Island, leaving you children at home." + +This same island! + +"A summer day," he said, "just about like this. We went for a +picnic--just as you did today. It was fifteen years ago. We were +wandering about the little island--your mother and I. We heard a +wailing cry, an infant's. In a thicket we found a little girl baby. +Unharmed. An infant, about a year old, who evidently had been asleep +and now had awakened and was crying. There was no boat in sight about +this island. We concluded that some one had been there, abandoned the +baby and departed. We took the baby home. No one ever came to claim +her. It was Dianne." + +Dianne not our blood sister? A foundling! It struck us amazed. + +Father went on gently, "We thought it best, your mother and I, not to +tell you children. It would not have been fair to Dianne. There would +come a time when you should know, of course--perhaps I should have told +you before this--and I don't know, perhaps it was wrong of me to let +you go back to that island. But I suppose that's foolish!" + +His voice drifted away with his thoughts. Nothing occurred to Drake +and me to say; we sat dumbly staring at each other. + +Father rose presently and unlocked a drawer of his desk. "I brought +this down to show you. There was nothing about the infant to give a +clew to its identity. Just the baby lying there, clad in a single +garment. This." + +He held out a tiny infant robe. Long-sleeved, and with a tiny hood. +Strange-looking thing! Even as a lad of seventeen I was at once aware +of its strangeness. A gossamer fabric like nothing I had ever seen +before. A fabric golden as though its threads were pale spun gold. +Or as though it might have been woven of fairy threads of golden +hair--like Dianne's. + +"Just that robe," he said sadly. "What sort of material it is, no one +can say." He took it from us gently and replaced it in the drawer. "And +there was one other thing. You, Frank, spoke of Dianne being sensitive +about the hair at her forehead. That little peak where the hair grew +low, you remember? There was a scar on her forehead. Not exactly a +scar--a queer crescent patch of skin. It seemed not white, but almost +like the sheen of silver. It looked--well, something like a crescent +moon. We hated publicity, your mother and I. We kept the finding of the +baby reasonably quiet. We had a medical specialist examine the child. A +normal girl baby, promising extreme beauty of body and feature. But the +crescent-moon scar was an enigma--the doctor had never seen or heard of +anything like it. + +"So we called the baby Dianne. Your mother named her that. The +crescent, there on her forehead, was really very beautiful when one got +used to it. But too unusual. Too--mysterious. And so we trained her +hair to cover it up; and I--I taught her--well, perhaps I taught her to +be ashamed of it. Or at least, never to mention it to any one--and so +she was sensitive about it as though it were a secret blemish to her +beauty." + +I need not detail that evening with father. But there was one thing he +said that I never forgot. He said it half to himself, "Dianne was so +abnormally beautiful, and that strange golden dress and the crescent +silver scar--I have wondered so many times, all these years, wondered +if she were just exactly human like the rest of us." He was sorry at +once that he had said it, and he would never explain. + +This day that we lost Dianne was five years before the coming of the +giants. + + + + + CHAPTER I + + _The Coming of the Giants_ + + +The first of the giants was reported by a small steamship out of +Halifax, bound for Portland. The ship had rounded Cape Sable, Nova +Scotia, during the night of March 20th. The sea was stormy; the night +overcast with almost a gale from the north. The ship's lookout saw what +at first looked like a huge dark rock looming out of the ocean where no +rock should have been. It was well inshore from the ship; and though it +was only a few miles away, it was not seen clearly. + +The ship continued on her course. An hour later, the full moon broke +through a rift in the clouds, painting the sullen sea with silver. +To the north, where the southern headlands of the land were barely +visible, a giant human figure was seen standing in the ocean. Every +one on the ship saw it clearly. Incredible as the vision of a fabled +sea monster, yet there it was, unmistakable, frightening--it threw the +ship's company into a panic of terror. + +The thing seemed human. The giant figure of a man. He stood waist-deep +in the ocean with the waves beating against his naked chest. How deep +the water was, the master of the ship could not say. Ten fathoms +perhaps, in the shallows where the giant stood--sixty feet; and his +torso towered another sixty above the surface. He stood watching the +ship. Then, as it passed, he followed it; wading slowly along to keep +abreast of it as doubtless he had been doing for an hour past. In the +moonlight, details were plain. A bullet-headed giant. Some said that +they could see his features--human of cast, but brutish. + +The figure kept its distance, regarding the ship, but making no effort +to approach. The vessel turned in a moment off its course, and fled +south. The moon was presently obscured. They saw no more of the giant. + +This steamship carried wireless. But the master could see no rational +way of sending such a wild report. But when hours later, the vessel +docked in Portland, the tale was given out. + +In these days of skeptical enlightened civilization one cannot claim +to have seen a sea serpent and expect anything but laughter. And this +was even more incredible. The ship's commander, within a few hours, +even doubted the evidence of his own senses. But from the sailors the +tale leaked out. And a whole ship's company cannot be insane, or all +similarly drunk at once. + +The newspapers caught at it, and spread it jocularly until the +officials of the freight line cursed their captain and all the crew of +the ship for arousing such ridicule. + +But still there was some corroboration. From a village near Cape Sable +came the report that a giant man had been seen wading in the ocean, +seen by a few people during a brief period of moonlight, and then was +gone. + +Where the figure came from, or where it went, none could say. It was +seen just this one night. The tale went around the world and caused a +smile, and in a few days was forgotten. + +That was the first of the giants. + +I was at this time a pilot in the International Mail Service, flying +a local plane from Boston up the coast to St. John, daytimes. Up one +day with several stops along the route; and back the next day; and +then a day off duty. Drake had become father's assistant. They had a +laboratory in New York City, and were living now in our Westchester +home. Our home on the Maine shore was closed for the winter. + +Once a week I went to New York to be with father and Drake. I got there +the day the giant was reported. It was of particular interest to me, +since it was not far from my flying route. + +Father said, "You keep your eyes open, Frank. And look here, if you see +anything--don't report it at once. Telephone me." + +He was so solemn that I laughed. And Drake was solemn, too. + +I demanded, "I say, you two--you don't believe this fool thing, do you?" + +"Perhaps," said Drake. + +I think that even then they had some vague idea of what it might mean. +I thought the yarn was absurd; still less could I have imagined our own +connection with it. Never once did I link it with Dianne. It was nearly +five years now since that day she had vanished. + +I made my next northward flight with no sign of a giant. Nor did I see +anything unusual upon the return. In a few days more, like the rest of +the world, I had lost interest. + +Then one day near the end of March when I was off duty in Boston, +another giant was reported. It had been seen the preceding night. +A giant man--fifty feet tall, or three hundred, according to the +differing, confused versions. The figure had appeared in the ocean, +possibly near the mouth of the Penobscot River in northern Maine. +Several coast villages and several ships reported seeing the figure, +wading north a mile offshore. It was reported almost all the way to the +Bay of Fundy. And then it vanished. + +This was too obvious for disbelief. No damage had been done. The thing +apparently had encountered no ships; it had nowhere come ashore. But +the sea was calm this night; the waves of the wading figure had rolled +in and pounded the coast to give tangible evidence that the thing was +no vision. + +The world was more than interested this time. There were near-panics +in Boston that day--an exodus of people leaving the city by rail and +by airplanes. Several of the local ships from New York to Boston +canceled their sailings. People began leaving Cape Cod. There was +disorganization, almost a flight from all the cities and villages up +the coast. + +This was far different from some understood danger. A hurricane, a +volcano, an earthquake--people will often face them with a stoicism +amounting to foolhardiness, rather than abandon their homes. But +this was the unknown, the supernatural. A gruesome horror. Within a +day military law was declared all up the Maine coast. Troops were +patrolling the area, and the people were being urged to leave. + +My chief sent for me at field headquarters. My mate was there; and the +two alternate pilots of the route. + +"We've discontinued temporarily," he told us. He turned to me as the +senior pilot. "Ferrule, the government wants this area patrolled by +plane at night. Boston to the New Brunswick border, to connect with +Canadian patrol planes. You and Jones want to tackle it?" + +We did, of course. We were dispatched that same night--one of six or +eight planes flying independently of one another. We left Boston about +ten that evening, I and my relief pilot, Bob Jones; and we carried a +newly installed code radio with a fellow named Green to operate it. + +It is a run of about three hundred miles from Boston, up the crescent +curve of coast to the Canadian border. Our orders were to fly at about +a thousand feet of altitude, keeping a mile or so offshore. If we saw +one of these giants we were to follow it, keep it in sight, and try +to determine where it went. We were to report at once by radio. A +battleship had already been ordered north; it was to remain in Cape +Cod waters, waiting further developments. + +The night was calm and starlit. An hour passed. Then two hours. We saw +nothing unusual. We were up around the Penobscot now. + +Jones, at my elbow, murmured, "One was seen here, Frank. That last +one--" + +A plane came by, flying south. Another patrol doubtless. We felt that +no giant could be ahead of us or this other plane would have seen him; +stopped and stayed with him. + +The flattened moon came up out of the sea to the east. It was golden at +first, laying a broad golden path on the water. + +We passed over the many islands. We saw a ship or two--and occasionally +a plane. + +And then we saw the giant! The actual sight of him, even fortified by +what I expected, was a shock of horror. + +Jones murmured, "Good God!" He gripped my arm impulsively, but I shook +him off. + +"Don't do that, you fool!" + +"Look at him, Frank!" Bob cried then. + +He was no more than a mile or so ahead. He stood at the entrance to a +cove. A rocky headland perhaps a hundred feet high was beside him; and +he stood with a hand resting against it as though to steady himself. +The ocean surface lapped at his knees. + +To the right, a mile or so offshore, was the tiny dark blob of an +island. Bird's Nest Island! I realized it suddenly. And this was our +cove. Our summer home was set in the trees only a few hundred yards +back from where the giant was standing. + +Green's radio was sending the news. He hunched down, intent at his +work. Jones was shaking beside me. + +"Lower, Frank! Get down near him!" + +We spiraled down. The moonlight was on him, a hundred-foot figure of a +man, naked from the waist up. He had pale hair, close cut, on a round +head. + +"Frank, look at the people!" + +A group of tiny black figures was on the cliff, standing in fascinated +horror. The giant had not moved; and then with a swift step and a +flip of his arm he reached back over the cliff. The tiny figures were +scattered. In a patch of moonlit rock two of them lay dead. + +We passed only a few hundred feet above the giant. He looked up as +though confused or annoyed at the sound of our motors. + +Green cautioned me: "Not too close, Frank! If he ever reached--" + +That giant hand could have knocked us down into the sea as though we +had been a tiny humming insect. + +We circled, zoomed up a trifle, and came back. The news had spread. +There were two other planes here with us now. A confusion was on shore. +We could see, far back, figures and vehicles moving in the moonlight. +And lights. And far out to sea, there were the lights of a ship. + +We passed again over the giant. Another plane arrived. Four of us, +buzzing like insects over the monstrous figure. It turned suddenly and +began wading out to sea. + +Jones cried: "Look! He's smaller! By George, he is smaller!" + +The figure did seem less gigantic. Or perhaps it was the deeper water +around him. Then suddenly he sank prone and was swimming. The sea was +lashed white with his strokes. Swimming for Bird's Nest Island? It +seemed so. + +"Lower, Frank! Take us down!" + +"Not too close," cautioned Green, for fear he'd stand up again suddenly. + +We swept under another plane. The swimming giant flung up an arm; a +surge of the water mounted like a geyser in the moonlight. His flashing +arms and the black blob of his head were visible. He was halfway to the +island. Was he still smaller now? + +Then suddenly he dived. The ocean closed over him. The waves he had +made rolled away. The surface was calm, unbroken. We waited. Minutes. +He did not come up. + +The other planes with us swept back and forth, dangerously close to +the surface at times. But the giant was gone. We waited half an hour. +We crossed over Bird's Nest Island several times. Its tiny rocky peak +stood naked in the brilliant moonlight; its trees and shrubbery were +deep green; its beach shone clear with the moonlight on it and the calm +sea rolling up. + +No sign of the giant. And then we were ordered to return to Boston. We +turned south. + +We were an hour on our southern flight when Green picked up our call. A +message for me. + +"Your father, Ferrule--he's sent word through headquarters. We're +ordered to land at Bennett Field, New York, so you can go to +your father and your brother Drake at once." He added: "The exact +message--personal, you'll probably understand it--your father says tell +you to come at once. He has heard from Dianne." + + + + + CHAPTER II + + _The Mysterious Visitor_ + + +This same night that I was flying the patrol, father and Drake spent at +our home in a small Westchester town near New York. They knew in what +I was engaged. They were frequently connected by telephone with the +official Boston station to which Green was making our radio reports. + +Our Westchester home was an unpretentious cottage, set on a quiet +street near the edge of the village. We kept only one servant. She was +away this night; Drake and father were alone in the house. + +There came, just before midnight, a thumping on the front porch door. + +They looked up, startled. The thump was repeated. Some one at the front +door, demanding admittance. + +"Well," said Drake, "it's a wonder they wouldn't ring the bell! I'll +go, father." + +We had an electric front doorbell, with the button prominently +displayed. And also, on the door for ornament, an old-fashioned +knocker. This summons was not even a knock; a thump, as though some one +were pounding with the flat of his fist. It began again and continued. + +"What the deuce?" Drake muttered. He lighted the hall light; father +followed him. Drake, with his six feet two inches of brawn, was, at the +age of twenty-eight, afraid of no man. But a vague thrill of fear shot +through him nevertheless as he went to the door and jerked it open. + +A man stood there; a tall, bulky figure, though not so tall as Drake--a +man in a long, dark overcoat, with a black felt hat pulled down over +his eyes. At first glance he was a rough-looking customer. + +"What do you want?" Drake demanded. "We've got a doorbell." + +"Does it--is Dr. Ferrule who lives here?" A soft voice; the queer +accent of a foreigner. But Drake could not place the nationality; the +voice and broken accent were like nothing he had ever heard before. The +light fell on the man's face, heavy-jawed, hairless. A man of perhaps +thirty-five. + +"Yes," said Drake. "Dr. Ferrule is here." Father was behind him. "For +you, father." + +The man stood at the threshold. "Then you are Drake Ferrule? Is that +true?" + +Father advanced. "Come in. What is it? You want to see me? I am Dr. +Ferrule." + +The man came in. Though the door opening was two feet higher than his +head, nevertheless he stooped as he passed it. He stood in the hall. + +"Dr. Ferrule, I would like to speak to you--and to this your son. This +is Drake?" + +Drake said impatiently: "That's my name. Who are you? What do you want?" + +The visitor addressed father. "My name? You never heard it. My +business? You had a daughter--" + +That electrified them. Drake caught father's warning glance and +remained silent. Father was trembling. "My daughter--Dianne?" + +"Yes, Dianne." + +"Come in," said father. He led the man to the library. Drake followed +behind, watchfully. He somehow sensed that this mysterious visitor was +no friend. An antagonist of some sort. In the library the fellow stood +with his hat on. He pushed back its brim as though it annoyed him. He +stood ill at ease; his gaze roved the room. To Drake, watching him +closely, it seemed that he was somehow expectant; and tense, afraid +perhaps of something which might at any moment occur. + +"Sit down," said father. + +He was more than mysterious, this visitor. Weird. He stood carefully +watching father sit down. Then he drew a chair forward and awkwardly +sat upon it. As though he had never seen a chair before. The thought +flashed to Drake. + +"Well?" said father. + +There was a brief silence. Drake remained standing. Father, by +temperament nervous, was visibly trembling. But he was no fool; he was +very cautious, alert. + +"Well, what is it? About my daughter Dianne." + +"Yes. She--you have not seen her for many years?" + +"No." + +"Not even heard from her?" + +"No. Why?" + +It seemed to have been an important question to the visitor. The shadow +of a triumphant smile came to his face. He said: "When you last saw +her--I understand that you lived on the Maine coast, Dr. Ferrule. But I +find you here now in New York--" + +"Who the devil are you?" Drake put in. + +"Wait, Drake! We live in Maine in the summer," said father. "What is it +you have to tell me?" + +"I came," he said, "to warn you." The fellow's voice and words, for +all his awkward manner, were perfectly composed. He had, even, a queer +sort of dominance, as though in his own environment he were accustomed +to command. His hat seemed to continue to annoy him. He took it off. +He had a massive bullet head, with pale-gold hair close-clipped. +Slate-blue eyes; a high-bridged nose. A solidly square chin. Strange, +massive face! Queerly forceful, and, Drake thought, queerly evil. The +thin lips curved into a smile. + +"I came," he repeated, "to warn you. I hear there are giants up near +your summer home." + +Father said, more vehemently than he had spoken before: "What about +them? Do you know where they come from? Look here, hadn't you better +tell us who you are? You act very strange." + +The man abruptly stood up. "I will go now." + +It was too much for Drake. "The hell you will! Not till you've told us +your business! You come here, question us, and go--" + +He seemed not disturbed by Drake's attack. "You excite yourself, young +fellow. Dr. Ferrule, I would suggest it, you stay away from your house +up there in Maine." + +"Thank you," said father, with his quiet irony. "Drake, wait a minute!" + +"Stay away because--there might be danger there for you." + +"From what?" Drake demanded. + +"From the giants." + +"What about them? You know anything about them?" + +He gestured deprecatingly. "No more than you. But I would say it, they +must be dangerous." + +The fellow was trying to withdraw. He moved toward the door. Whatever +the purpose of his visit, he seemed to have accomplished it. + +Father and Drake followed him. At the library doorway instinctively he +stooped again. He had put on his hat. Drake noticed that he had it on +backward. + +In the hall father said: "Is this all you've got to say?" + +"Yes." + +"You--you mentioned my daughter." + +He did not answer. He waited until the front door of the house was +open. He kept away from Drake. Then he said abruptly: "You will never +see Dianne again. Forget her." + +He half ran, half leaped across the porch; leaped its steps, and darted +away. + +Drake started in pursuit, but father called him back. + +The running figure was in a moment lost in the shadows of the dark +street. + + + + + CHAPTER III + + _The Signal Fire_ + + +Some six hours later, in the early morning, I arrived. Father and Drake +had not been to bed. They described the mysterious midnight visitor. I +could make little of it, save that Dianne was alive. Had this fellow +abducted her? Was he holding her? Had he come to sound out whether +father would pay a ransom? + +Father waved away my theories. He was visibly shaken. There was one +thing upon which he and Drake were agreed. The visitor had been wholly +strange. Something about him almost uncanny. + +Father said slowly: "We don't know what it means. That fellow last +night--he came, we think, just to find out if Dianne were with us. +Something he said, or the way he said it, gave us that impression. It +seems possible that he knew Dianne is trying to rejoin us. It may be +that he is an enemy of Dianne's. I think--wherever Dianne is--she may +be trying to get to us. We must help her do that." + +"But how?" I demanded. + +Drake said: "She might try to get back to our place, up there in Maine. +We feel we should be there now, Frank. That fellow last night--damn +fool!--thought he could keep us from going there by warning us away!" + +"But who was he?" I insisted. My mind was groping with vague +ideas--like father's and Drake's perhaps; ideas too fantastic for +discussion. "What has your visitor got to do with us? Or Dianne? Or +these giants? I don't see the connection, but there is one, that's +obvious." + +Father said very slowly: "You, Frank, seemed to think that giant you +saw last night was changing size--dwindling. Perhaps while he was under +the water he grew so small that when he came up you did not see him. +Don't ask us what it means! We don't know. But I really think that +fellow who called upon Drake and me last night was one of the giants!" + +We left New York that same morning in an official plane which dropped +us in the afternoon near our home in Maine. What father told the +authorities I do not know. He said he told them as little as possible. +Whatever our connection with this affair, for Dianne's sake it seemed +best not to make it public. But father got me leave of absence from my +flying duties, and secured us an official plane, and a permit for us +to live in our Maine home, within the threatened area which now was +completely under military rule. + +It was mid-afternoon when by automobile we reached our house. We had +been stopped half a dozen times by State troops patrolling all the +roads leading to the coast. One officer chanced to know father. + +"It's risky, Dr. Ferrule. You know what you're doing, of course. But +down there--your isolated house right on the shore--" + +"We know what we're doing," said father. + +I put in: "Shucks, there's no danger. Might never have another giant +appear." + +The town of Elton, two miles from our home, looked as though it were +in a state of siege. Half its people had fled. Troops patrolled the +streets. Many of the houses were closed and barred--as though that +would help against a hundred-foot giant! The shops were nearly all +closed; but we located several of the owners and loaded our car with +provisions. + +On arriving, father went to bed. He was never in robust health, and the +nervous excitement of all this and his loss of sleep had about done +him up. He was too tired to eat the meal which Drake and I hastily +prepared. But he was a fighter, every inch of him. He lay down, fully +dressed, with an automatic beside his pillow. + +"You lads can stand guard--suit yourselves--only don't both sleep at +once. Call me if anything unusual happens." + +Drake and I sat on guard. We were neither of us sleepy. It seemed as +though there were a thousand things we wanted to talk about, but it was +all so intangible. We were in what undoubtedly was the heart of the +threatened area. The world believed that; and no one knew it better +than ourselves. + +We had had the latest official reports. No other giant was seen. There +had been several people killed by a sweep of the giant's arm last +night, quite near here on the cliff top. Official searching parties had +been over every inch of Bird's Nest Island and all the shore in this +vicinity. Nothing unusual was found. They had even dragged the water +between here and the island, thinking perhaps the giant's body might +have sunk. + +There were other reports which now had come in. Gruesome things! In the +back country near here a farmer had been found dead a few nights ago, +and all his clothes stolen. There were several similar incidents. + +At sunset a destroyer steamed past, headed north on patrol. There were +often airplanes passing overhead. And out at sea there was a smudge +which we thought might be a battleship. + +With darkness came a sense of loneliness--the feeling of our isolation +here in this house set close against the coast. We were in danger here, +but not altogether foolhardy. We had rifles and several automatics. And +the telephone would at any time bring us help from the troops stationed +in the near-by village. + +To fight what? It would all be so useless against a hundred-foot giant! + +The vigil grew irksome. Would Dianne come? How? When? Tonight? +Tomorrow? A week or a month from now--or never? They were such futile +questions. And it seemed, as we sat there on guard, that we might be +menaced not only by giants. There was father's midnight visitor in New +York, just last night. Was he--or others like him--lurking about our +place here? We sat, often straining our ears for every sound outside +the house. + +Father slept soundly. The evening passed. It was a dark night; a few +moving lights out at sea. We saw nothing unusual, heard nothing. + +Midnight came. "You better go to sleep," Drake said, when we had +rustled up another meal. "I'll sit here till dawn, then call you. +We'll have to get some regular schedule." + +Sleep was a long time coming. Then I slept dreamlessly, to be awakened +by Drake pulling at me. + +"It will soon be daylight, Frank." + +I leaped up. "Nothing happened?" + +"No." + +"How's father?" + +"All right. Still pounding it out. He was awake with me for an hour +or two. Then I made him go back. The fire's going in the living room, +Frank. There's a pot of coffee on the hearth if you want it. Here, want +this automatic?" + +"No. I've got mine." + +He lay down with his weapon beside him, and I left him. I went out into +the living room. Its oil lamp was burning. In the big open fireplace +a log fire was going with a pot of coffee on the hearth. I had my +automatic in my pocket; beside the hearth three loaded rifles and a +shotgun were standing. + +Through the windows to the east I could see that the stars were paling. + + * * * * * + +The dawn came. The room brightened with its flat light. I put out the +lamp. The fire burned low. + +It was now broad daylight. A clear, crisp morning. Silent and still; +not a breath of wind. Drake had been asleep perhaps two hours. I went +again to the veranda. There were no planes, no boats in sight, except +out at sea where the warship still hovered. + +Bird's Nest Island stood clear in the morning sunlight. From the island +a wisp of smoke was rising. Some one there--a camp fire. Soldiers, +perhaps. + +I stood gazing. The smoke rose in a thin, dark wisp, straight up into +the still air. Then suddenly the column broke. The smoke was checked. +And in a moment it came again. A dark, round puff of it rising. Then +another puff. And others. As though a blanket were being held over a +smoking fire, to catch the smoke, releasing it in puffs. + +A stream of them now. Two large ones. Three, smaller. Two large ones +again. + +A signal fire? But it was not only that thought which made my heart +pound. I recognized the signal! My mind flung back to childhood days. +Myself, Dianne and Drake. Fanciful children out on this same island; +building a camp fire; making the smoke signals as we thought Robinson +Crusoe might have done. Two large puffs; then three smaller. This was +our childish signal, out there now! + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + _The Strange Island_ + + +"Drake! Wake up!" + +I routed him out hastily. The signal was still showing. Drake +remembered it, just as I did. We watched it; and after a moment it +ceased. The wisp of smoke went up unbroken; and then presently it +dissipated and vanished. + +We stared at each other. + +"You think it's Dianne?" I asked. + +"Yes. It might be." He was confused. "I don't know what to think, +Frank. We must go there--get over there quickly as we can--see what it +means." + +"Yes," I agreed. "I wonder if our dory is down at the boathouse. You +mean, row over? I don't think father will want to say anything at the +village; get a launch? Do you?" + +"No." We both felt, as we knew father did, a reticence against +taking the authorities into our confidence. If Dianne came--to have +an official investigation of her, with all the publicity--it was +unthinkable. + +"Let's see about the dory," Drake suggested. + +"Shall we wake father up?" + +"Let's see about the dory first." + +We found the dory safe in the boathouse. + +We decided to start at once. A row of half an hour. We went to awaken +father. + +"Think he'll want to come with us, Drake?" + +"He might--I hope he'll stay here. This might just be a +coincidence--not Dianne. We should not all leave here at once, Frank." + +"Why not?" + +He stopped and faced me. "Because suppose she--appeared while we were +gone?" + +Appeared? He said it with a queer hitch in his voice. As though Dianne +might materialize from nothing into solidity before us! Yet we both +felt like that. This whole affair seemed supernatural. + +"Yes," I said. "That's true." + +And father felt the same. He decided to stay on guard. He made us take +two automatics, and a rifle in the bottom of the dory. He was refreshed +from his sleep. Alert and vigorous. + +"I'll be all right, lads." He followed us down to the boathouse. He was +white and grim as he said, "I need not tell you to be cautious. Come +back quickly as you can." + +We launched the dory and headed into the cove. He called, "If I don't +see you starting back in two hours I'll bring a launch after you." + +Drake and I hardly spoke during the trip. The rifle lay at Drake's +feet; we had our automatics strapped to our belts. We stripped +off our coats for the work of rowing. In the stern we had other +coats--oilskins, which always were kept in the dory. + +We approached the island. Drake eased up. "Wait a minute--let's see if +anybody shows." + +The smoke had long since vanished. We could not be sure at what part of +the island the fire had been. There was no sign of it now. The little +island stood green in the morning sunlight, with the peak of rock +looming at its center. The beach on this side was empty; there was no +evidence of any living thing there, save a few gulls lazily circling +overhead. + +We were armed, and this was broad daylight. But the thought of that +strange midnight visitor swept me. I know Drake felt the same as we +pulled up in the sunlight of the island beach. We were not afraid of +anything human. + +Drake carried the rifle. I had my automatic out. We started off down +the silent beach. Rounded its end. All empty. We kept near the water, +away from the trees and underbrush. + +No sign of anything. Drake whispered. "Let's cut straight across. Then +up to the rock. Look for the fire embers." + +He led us, with the rifle in the hollow of his arm. We walked slowly, +cautiously through the trees as though stalking some hidden animal. + +But there seemed no one on the island. + +Drake called suddenly, "Dianne! Oh, Dianne!" + +It startled me; it echoed through the silent trees. We stood listening. + +Nothing. + +We went on again. We came to the opposite beach. Drake whispered, "The +fire must have been to the south." + +We went that way. Back from the shore, some fifty feet from the beach +we came upon the embers of a small fire. They were still faintly +smoking. + +No one here. We stood in this little glade, our gazes roving. + +Nothing here. Just a few embers and half-burned sticks. I bent down. + +"Water was thrown on the fire to put it out," I said softly. "These +sticks are wet." + +I was on one knee. My heart leaped into my throat. There was a patch +of grass and ferns near me. Something stirred in them. A bird moving +through the grass? But it was not that. I stared. + +A fern not much higher than my ankle moved and bent aside. + +My breath stopped. I stared, unbelieving. And Drake saw it. He muttered +something and took a backward step. + +The fern leaf moved further. A tiny figure, no taller than the blades +of grass around it, was disclosed. A human figure an inch or so high! + +And there were others, lurking in the grass. One came out. The figure +of a woman the height of my finger. A woman with long golden robe. +Pale-gold hair dangling. The tiny face stared up at me, only a few feet +away as I knelt. A face the size of my finger nail! The sunlight fell +on it. A girl, humanly beautiful. Small and colorful, this living face, +as a miniature painted on ivory. + +And I recognized it. I gasped. "Dianne, it's you!" + + + + + CHAPTER V + + _Princess of the Atom_ + + +Drake and I were transfixed; amazed, doubting the evidence of our +senses. Yet there was Dianne at our feet. She stood with a hand +holding a fern stalk. Her little face was smiling. I heard a voice, of +microscopic smallness, but clear. Dianne's voice; her familiar accents. + +"You came, Frank. I--we've been waiting." + +I became aware that Drake had taken a step or two forward. The little +figures in the grass scattered. Dianne called up sharply, "Careful, +Drake! Don't step on us! Stand quiet! In a moment I'll be larger." + +She turned and ran into the grass. Its blades were no higher than the +length of my hand, but as though they were a jungle of huge green +stalks they sheltered the small human figures. Half a dozen men, and +one other girl, like Dianne, but with a robe of pale silvery white. + +The figures clustered together. We could hear their faint voices. Words +in a language unintelligible. Then the two girls drew apart. The men +moved away. Hiding, watching from the concealing grass. + +Amazing sight! Inconceivable shock to our normal senses! Before our +eyes, Dianne and this other girl were becoming larger. A visible +change. In a moment they were above the grass. They moved away from +it. They bent the ferns aside. Dianne trampled one now. They came out +into the little open patch of rock and pebbles where Drake and I were +standing by the embers of the camp fire. Already they were as tall as +our knees. + +Dianne's voice, now more familiar than ever, said, "Don't look like +that! Move back. Don't stand so close to us!" + +For a moment neither Drake nor I spoke. A new realization of this thing +swept me. The menacing giants along the coast had disappeared because +they had become small. I had already contemplated that. But I had +envisaged them only as small as myself. Like the midnight visitor who +had called upon Drake and father. Yet here were humans still smaller. + +And I realized then that what we had called a giant could be lurking +here upon this island now. Any of these little patches of grass would +shelter him, and a thousand like him. + +Dianne had been furtive with her smoke signal to us. She had made it; +and then had grown small with her companions, to hide in the grass and +await our coming. She was so obviously furtive! As tall as my waist +now, she gazed around anxiously as though, with her greater height than +before, she might now discern some near-by enemy. + +The girl with her seemed equally apprehensive. An air of haste +enveloped them both. + +And I saw now that the tiny figures of the men in the grass were +spreading out and vanishing. Or searching? Or guarding? Their smallness +making it possible for them to seek out any lurking tiny enemies which +to us in our gigantic size could never be found. + +A minute or two only while my thoughts roved and I clung to Drake and +stared at Dianne and this strange girl growing large before us; Dianne, +every minute as she neared what to me was her normal size, becoming +more familiar of aspect. + +The same Dianne--our little sister! Yet how different! The long golden +robe was of that same strange fabric as the infant dress father had +shown us in which she had been found. Her pale-gold hair flowed free to +her waist. But it did not come down into a peak on her forehead now. +It was drawn back; and there on her forehead was the silver crescent +patch. It seemed to glow. Unnatural. Uncanny. Yet it was a thing +beautiful. It blended with her beauty. And it made her seem queerly +regal. + +She said abruptly, "Ahlma--enough!" + +The hand of each of the girls went suddenly to their mouths. They +reeled, clutching at each other; and Drake and I, with recovered wits, +moved to aid them. But they steadied. They smiled. And they had stopped +growing. Dianne, about as tall as I had always remembered her; this +other girl, whom she had called Ahlma, a trifle taller; and it seemed, +perhaps, a year or two older. A girl singularly beautiful in Dianne's +own fashion. Golden hair like Dianne's. And a crescent on her forehead. +But it seemed a paler crescent than Dianne's. + +Drake stammered, "Why, Dianne!" + +I think he had said that and nothing else half a dozen times before. + +The girls were still furtive, apprehensive. Dianne said hurriedly, +"Don't question now, Drake. Frank, dear--stop looking at me like that! +Your boat is here?" + +I said, "Yes, Dianne." + +"This is Ahlma. My servant and my friend. Is father all right, Frank?" + +"Yes." + +"I want to get to him. Take us to the boat. Have you something you can +cover us with?" + +Her hand gripped my arm. It strangely reassured me to feel her human +grip. Drake reached out hesitantly and touched her. And she laughed and +kissed us both. Our same human, beautiful little Dianne. + +"Ahlma, these all my life were my brothers." + +"We have coats in the boat," I said. + +"Is father here? At the house here?" + +"Yes," said Drake. "Come." + +We started with them for the boat. + +"You're afraid," said Drake. "You have enemies here? These giants?" + +"But I can't tell you now! Yes, enemies. They know what I am trying to +do. They want to stop me. One of them, the leader--we call him Togaro--" + +She gazed around us. "He is here, I think. He and a party of his men. +Drake, you can't realize the jungle deeps of this vast island when you +are small! Deserts of rock--vast caverns--it's so different when you +are small! I'm afraid of him--I want to get to father." + +We came to the beach. She added, "I would tell you now what I have come +for. But he might be here at our feet. He knows, I think, that I have +come to join you." + +The midnight visitor. Was he this Togaro? + +"Get in," said Drake. He stared at the girl in the white robe. He said +to her, "This thing is so inconceivably strange to us--we don't know +what to say--we--am I to call you Ahlma?" + +She met his gaze and smiled; and it seemed that a faint wave of color +suffused her neck and face. She said, with a queer accent. "Yes, I am +Ahlma. You are Drake--and you are Frank. I have heard very much from +Dianne about you." + +Her voice gave Drake a startled realization. Her accent was +indescribable. But Drake recognized it! Unmistakably the accent of the +midnight visitor. + +The girls sat in the stern of the dory. We covered them with the +oilskins so that any one observing us would see nothing unusual about +them. + +They had searched and made us search the boat. There was no human thing +aboard it save ourselves. No figure even the size of our finger could +have lurked there and escaped our search. + +But as we rowed from the island, Dianne's fear did not lessen. She +said, "We've done the best we could. If they are here--" + +She did not finish. She added, "You haven't told any one--no one--I +mean the authorities--knows about me?" + +"No, Dianne." + +"Because, what I want you to do--you and father--it must be secret. And +Togaro, he will prevent your doing it if he can." + +Strange words! She would not add to them. She sat silent and tense as +we rowed across the sunlit channel, and brought her home, where father +was waiting for us. + + * * * * * + +"I'll tell them," said father. "Come in lads. We must be brief, Dianne. + +"You're right that haste is necessary." + +Father had been with Dianne and her strange girl companion for +perhaps half an hour. He called us in at last. He sat with his arm +about Dianne. I could see at once that he was tense and grim; and the +apprehension characteristic of Dianne lay now upon him also. + +His quick glances about the room--as though he were trying to see the +unseeable. This thing uncanny--I saw too, that the room's windows were +carefully closed; and the heavy shades drawn, so that for all the +daylight outside, a lighted lamp was needed. Father told us sharply to +close the door after us. + +He said, as we sat down: + +"I was right to insist upon talking to Dianne alone. There are things I +could understand better than you--we have no time for discussion." + +I burst out: "Are you going to keep on treating us like children?" + +"No. Frank. You have a right to know these strange things Dianne has +told me. But we have no time for argument." His voice was low. He spoke +swiftly, with what seemed a surreptitious haste. + +The girl Ahlma sat apart. Her gaze roved the room, especially the floor. + +She said abruptly, "Dianne, can we not close up the bottom of that +door?" + +There was perhaps a quarter of an inch space between the bottom of the +door and the sill. Father got up and kicked a rug against the door. He +turned up the wick of the lamp so that the room was brighter. + +"Will that do?" + +"Yes," said Dianne. "That's better." + +Drake and I stared at each other. Drake wet his lips, but did not +speak. This thing was ghastly. + +Father said abruptly, "Dianne was born, not in this world of ours, but +in a world infinitely small. A world within an atom of rock, there on +Bird's Nest Island--a world of humans like ourselves. + +"Like us? Why, you can see for yourselves! Dianne was born a princess +of the civilization on one of the globes whirling in the limitless +space within that atom. + +"I confuse you, lads? I am talking of infinite smallness. There is no +limit to smallness. We know that. But I can't go into such a subject +now." + +"Afterward, you can tell them," said Dianne with her gentle smile. "All +I have told you--time then, father." + +"You still call me father?" he said. "So strange, these things." + +Drake said, "Dianne was brought here when she was a baby. Why?" + +"A princess," father repeated. "And soon after she was born an evil +leader came into power in her world. Human life is the same everywhere, +lads. She has told me it all--you shall hear every detail. But now--I +need tell you only that Dianne's parents, with their throne threatened, +had their scientists spirit Dianne away. They have a drug--you can +call it that--and a space-flying vehicle, capable of changing size. +They brought their little princess out into what to them is infinite +largeness. Left her here. To save her life from this conqueror who +threatened their throne." + +My thoughts reached to grasp what father was saying. I could envisage +an atom of rock there on Bird's Nest Island. One atom out of the +uncounted billions. It chanced to contain human life. I tried to +imagine becoming infinitely small. Space would, by comparison, open +up around me. The whirling electrons within the atom would be blazing +suns in a firmament of illimitable space. With a space-flying vehicle +infinitely small, I could then traverse that starry universe. Land upon +a dark star--a planet--an earth. And find there a human civilization. + +I knew something of modern physics. I knew that the similarity of +atomic structure to our astronomical universe was already recognized. A +difference of size only. And all comparative. I could hold a fragment +of rock on the palm of my hand. Billions of atoms, clinging together to +make what I saw as a tiny rock fragment. Yet each of those atoms held +within itself a starry universe of limitless distance--if I were to +become small enough to see it from the other viewpoint. + +I stared at Dianne. My sister? There suddenly seemed a vast gulf +between us. This gentle creature, so strangely beautiful, with the +crescent glowing on her forehead. Not my sister. A princess of a +different world. + +She caught my gaze and smiled. And said, as she had said several times +before, "Don't look at me like that, Frank! I'll tell them, father. +That day Frank, when you and I and Drake went to the island. You call +it five years ago? When you left me, this Togaro suddenly appeared. He +took me--into the atom--into smallness--into what soon I learned was my +own native world. + +"He wanted the throne which some day would have been mine. He--he +wanted--he wants me. But the people turned against him. I was +rescued--taken from him. I am ruler of that world now. I've told all +the details--your father will explain to you." + +She was speaking fast, almost breathlessly. And I realized now the +regal dominance of her manner, mixed so queerly with the little Dianne +we used to know. + +She went on: "I've come back here--and Togaro knows it. He learned, +some long time ago, our scientists' secret of traveling into +largeness--into this world of yours so gigantic. He learned English +from me. He learned many things of your Earth and its people. + +"He has been here and seen for himself. He is here now--with a few +of his men. You have seen some of them. They happened to be a trifle +larger than your normal size and so you call them giants." + +Drake put in, "Dianne, wait! Can't you answer some questions?" + +"I would keep her here with us always," father said. "She knows that. +But she is going back at once. Her duty lies in there with her people. +But more than that--the menace of Togaro here--she must go back!" + +"You don't talk so we can understand you, father," I objected. + +The girl Ahlma spoke again. She addressed Dianne, but her gaze was on +Drake. + +"I think, Dianne, you should tell them at once why we came. What it is +they must do for us." + +Father said, "Lads, this Togaro and hordes of his followers are +planning to come from the atom. Some are already here. That's what +Dianne and her people want to stop. For our sake. She wants us to get +this atom of rock from Bird's Nest Island. Bring it here. She will go +back within it to her world. We are to keep it here. Guard it. You see? +Watch it, or have it watched day and night. Then the coming of Togaro's +hordes can be checked. We can see them appear--kill them as they come, +when still they are tiny." + +Dianne interrupted him. "Togaro's plan is to come here--and with his +men in a size gigantic even compared to you, he will overrun your +Earth! Conquer it! Force your great nations to yield to his giants--" + +Giants overrunning our world! I could with shuddering fancy imagine +one a thousand feet tall toppling the buildings of New York City +with sweeps of his arm! Of what use our battleships, our long-range +guns--any of our weapons against a horde of such gigantic antagonists? + +Father said, "Our Earth could be devastated so easily! But if we can +get the atom here, now before it is too late--" + +A cry from Ahlma checked him. There was an instant when all of us sat +mute with horror. In a distant corner of the room where a glow of our +table light fell upon the floor the small figure of a man was lurking. +A man, tall perhaps as the top of my shoe. + +An instant while we were mute, frozen into immobility. Then I heard +Dianne murmur, "Togaro!" + +And Drake cried, "Father--that is the fellow who called on us last +night!" + +Drake's chair crashed over backward as he leaped to his feet. He +stooped. He seized the chair and flung it at the little lurking figure. + +I shouted, "You missed him, Drake!" I dashed across the room. I had +seen the figure dart into a shadow. + +Dianne lifted off the lampshade and tossed it away. The room floor +showed more clearly. We hastily moved the furniture. Then I saw the +figure again. Far smaller now--an inch high, no more. It had climbed +to the baseboard of the wall. Running upon the narrow ledge. It +leaped--the shadow of a chair enveloped it. + +We ran about the room, searching. Like searching for an insect which +every instant was dwindling toward invisibility. + +Dianne cried, "Too late! He's too small. But I saw him--right near +here." + +She gripped me as I passed her. And cried, "Drake, wait! You and Frank, +will you come with me? If we get small--follow him into smallness here +in this room--we may catch him! Will you come?" + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + _The Chase into Smallness_ + + +Drake and I took the small pellets which Dianne offered. She had them +in a phial at her waist. She said hurriedly: "Ahlma, you stay here. +Keep her with you, father. Stay here in the room. Watch us--then, when +you can't see us any longer, sit down! Don't move about--you might +trample on us!" + +It seemed that we had last seen the figure along the inner wall, away +from the door or the windows. This was a small room. Two windows on +one side, and the single door. It had once been a bedroom; but it was +furnished meagerly now, with a small table and a few chairs. + +"Here," said Dianne, "I think this is the best place. He may be--right +here now. He could not go far--not far from this particular spot--when +he is so small. Stand beside me, Drake. Here, Frank." + +Father stammered: "You--you won't be gone long?" + +"No," said Dianne. "Togaro would not dare go far into smallness here. +It would lead him into the unknown--he would get lost. We will be +back--in an hour perhaps. You ready, Frank? Ready, Drake?" + +The pellet tasted a trifle sweetish. It dissolved on my tongue. I +gulped and swallowed. Cold beads of sweat stood on my forehead. But +it was fear only. My head reeled. The room seemed to take a dizzying, +sweeping lurch. Dianne's steadying arm was around me and Drake; and +in a moment my senses cleared. I later learned the details of this +drug's effect. A contraction of the cells of my body, preserving their +form, contracting each of them in normal relation to the others. An +aura of its effect, like a magnetic field, was around me. My garments +contracting; even the air, as I breathed it, was diminished in all its +inherent molecules and atoms. + +Dianne's voice said: "You feel all right?" + +I heard Drake mutter: "Yes. But--Dianne--strange." + +I was standing still, yet everywhere the room was in movement--a +crawling, flowing movement. I could see the near-by wall at which I +stared, moving upward, expanding, growing steadily larger. The ceiling +over me, lifting. The wall receding. A moment ago I could have touched +it. Not now. It was drawing back from me. A visual enlargement of all +my surroundings. An illusion, because I was dwindling. + +I was still dizzy; I did not dare turn my head or shift my gaze. Beside +me was a chair. I could see it out of the tail of my eye. The chair was +shifting away, and growing huge. Already its seat loomed higher than my +head. I saw Dianne and Drake beside me; in all this movement they alone +were unchanged. + +And I could feel the movement. The floor under my feet was shifting +with a steady crawl. It was spreading out, expanding. The pull of it +drew my feet apart so that every moment I had to take a step to keep +from falling. All this in what perhaps was a minute. + +Dianne cast me off. "You're all right now. Come on--I think we should +stand nearer the wall." + +The wall seemed ten feet or more from us now. We walked toward it. The +effect was dizzying, but we overcame that presently. Dianne turned and +waved her hand upward. Drake and I swung around to follow her gesture. + +This room gigantic! The ceiling seemed thirty or forty feet above us. +The opposite wall was farther than that. High up were huge rectangles +of windows. The chairs and the table were enormous. + +We moved again toward the wall. We ran this time. A foot or two away we +stopped. + +Another minute passed. The room wall was white plastered, and it had +a lower baseboard of wood. The plaster surface rose sheer a hundred +feet now. It was like a great cliff-face. The lamplight up there was a +yellow glow. The baseboard was twice the height of our heads, with a +ledge on top upon which we could have walked. The wood looked rough and +jagged. + +The visual growth went on. The wall was again far away, and receding so +fast that if we ran we might fail to reach it. The board floor under us +was turning rough--uneven, with ridges and undulations everywhere. + +Another minute. + +In the distance behind us one of the table legs rose like a huge +monolith into the heights of the lamplight. Shadows and blurred, dark +outlines were up there. Farther away on the rolling, jagged surface +which was now the floor I could see a formless dark blur which might +have been one of father's feet. Half a mile away, perhaps, and +receding in the distance. + +Then even the nearer wall was gone! Vaguely, as though it were some +ten miles off, it loomed like the white sheen of an ice cliff. Then +vanished. + +We stood alone in the midst of a tumbled region. A great tumbled +plain--crudely level. Vacant distance everywhere. Overhead, in what to +us was now the sky, a faint yellow sheen of radiance mingled with the +haze of space. + +There were pits all about us now; depressions, in depth twice the +height of our bodies, with steep but jagged sides. We were still +diminishing; the landscape crawled with expanding movement. It kept us +active now. At our feet, often a small hole would open up so that we +would have to move to a higher ridge to keep from falling or sliding +into the yawning hole. + +We stood precariously upon a small peak. With unnatural microscopic +clearness it seemed to me that my vision might carry a hundred miles +across this tumbled landscape. Weird vista! Like nothing I had ever +seen on earth. Not even like pictures of the lunar landscapes. Some +unknown planet, perhaps, might look like this. A land convulsed by +an angry nature, flung and tumbled by some great cataclysm into this +broken chaos. + +With an effort I turned my thoughts into the other viewpoint. This was +a few square inches--a foot or two perhaps--of the rough, scuffled +board flooring in the bedroom of our Maine home! It seemed, far away as +I stared, that there was a great vertical slash crossing the distant +horizon. A cañon deep and wide--I knew that probably it was the space +between the boards of the floor. A mile or so away in another direction +was a huge caldron; a circular pit a mile wide, with a broken and +jagged rim. The crater of some volcano? It was in reality a broken +knothole, a blemish in the rough board of the floor. + +We had been talking at intervals. I said once, thoughtlessly: + +"But, Dianne--going into your atom, would it be so very much farther +than this?" + +She smiled. Drake exclaimed, "Don't be an ass, Frank!" + +Dianne said gently, "This would be just the start. I have the drug in a +more powerful form." + +"How long a trip, Dianne? To get into your world, from ours, I mean?" + +"With greater intensities of the drug, Frank, we diminish much faster. +The whole trip--you would call it three or four days, perhaps." + +Three or four days! And we had been now some five minutes! + +We had, all this time, been watching closely for any sign of Togaro. +Dianne was sure that he had vanished somewhere near here. + +"But, Dianne, when he was larger than we are now," Drake objected, "Why +if he ran off there"--he gestured with a sweep of his arm toward our +dim horizon--"he'd be a hundred miles from here by now." + +She nodded. "Yes. But he would not dare move far. We would see him. But +if he were hiding--" + +There were certainly places to hide here now. Caverns--yawning +tunnel-entrances opening up everywhere. + +Dianne cautioned, "Watch out, Frank!" + +We had moved down from the ridge; to stay there would have left us +stranded upon a precipitous height. Drake and Dianne seized me--I had +nearly fallen as the shifting ground altered under me. We clung to a +slope; slid down it. We landed, unharmed, some twenty feet down, in a +bowl-like depression. + +It seemed now that all this area was a honeycomb. Underground passages +opened here into the bowl. Tunnels. Caves, small and elongated. All +this underground area a honeycomb of cells. Cellular caves of the wood +structure! + +Drake started thoughtlessly into a dim passageway. But Dianne stopped +him. + +"We must not separate. If you get lost--" + +We stood in a cave. The light was fading. The opening tunnels and +expanding pits near us were dark. And it was all very silent. Our +voices seemed dead and muffled. + +I presently became aware that the expanding movement around us had +ceased. The dose of the drug we had taken had reached its limit. We +were no longer diminishing. + +We stood, instinctively whispering. Was Togaro near here? How in all +these miles of cellular caverns could we ever hope to locate him? We +walked, keeping close together, through a tubelike passage; came into +another cave. We had gone downward; it was even more dim in here. + +It occurred to me suddenly that we had brought no weapons. In the awed +fear of our taking the drug for the first time, confronting this +unknown experience, we had completely forgotten them. + +"Could we have brought them?" Drake asked. + +"A small revolver perhaps," said Dianne. "Held under your arm. I never +thought of it--we have no such weapons in our world. Togaro, I think, +will not have them--and you are two against him." + +"We'll never find him," I declared. "Not in such a place as this. How +small would he get, do you think?" + +"He would not dare get very small. It would lead him--you can see--into +the unknown." + +I could indeed. These caves here under us--another of those pellets; +it would carry us down, with illimitable space opening up around us. +Even this small area upon which my foot now rested would open up into a +universe if I were to get small enough! + +Drake said, "No use exploring here. Not in this size. Dianne, how about +us getting larger? A trifle larger--and on the upper surface we can +move about--cover a greater area. We might locate him--" + +Togaro had the drug in the same size pellets as did Dianne. It seemed +likely that he would have taken one--come to this size we now had +reached. But to go back he would have to get larger again. We might +have our best chance of encountering him going back. Or wait, up there +in the room--with a bright light and careful watch. + +We stood at the entrance of a huge elongated cavern. A dozen of these +tunnel mouths, about as high as our heads, opened into it. The cavern +was some two hundred feet in length; half as wide and a hundred feet +or so high. A flattened elongated cell. It was dim and shadowed. Our +lowered voices reverberated across it with muffled echoes. + +Drake said, "No chance this way, Dianne." + +But we had miscalculated this fellow Togaro. He had not been attempting +to escape us; he was luring us on. Progressively smaller always than +ourselves--since he had taken the drug before we did--he had kept +within sight of us. + +We saw him now, standing along the side of this cavern not fifty feet +from us! A stalwart, heavy-set figure; trousers, a white shirt open at +the throat exposing a massive hairy chest. He was now somewhat shorter +than Drake, though taller than I. He had been lurking in some recess of +the cavewall. He came out and the movement attracted us. + +I cried, "There he is!" + +Drake and I would have rushed at him, but Dianne seized us. + +"Wait!" + +A glow of light from some overhead opening fell upon the standing +figure. Bare-headed; massive, bullet head. A face--the face of the +midnight visitor--regarding us sardonically. + +And in that instant Drake and I realized why Dianne was holding us. She +was fumbling frantically at her belt. + +The leering figure of Togaro off there was visibly growing larger! An +instant and he was as tall as Drake. Then taller. + +He came leaping at us! + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + _The Flight in the Cellular Caverns_ + + +Dianne's hand came from her belt. "Here--take this! Just touch it to +your tongue. Only that! Then give it back to me!" + +Her hand went to her own mouth. I moistened my tongue with the pellet. + +Togaro had almost reached us. Drake leaped forward. Dianne cried in +agonized terror, "Oh, Drake--Drake, you took too much!" + +Drake had gulped all of his pellet. He leaped at the oncoming figure +of Togaro. They locked together, fighting. I broke from Dianne. As +I jumped forward a corrugation of the floor caught my foot. I fell +headlong; stunned for a moment, but I got up. + +In the center of the cavern the swaying forms of Drake and Togaro were +fighting. They were both already far larger than Dianne and me! Giant +fighting forms. Growing swiftly. In a moment they looked fifteen or +twenty feet tall. A weaponless, hand-to-hand fight. Togaro was bending +Drake backward. Drake's hands gripped the fellow's throat. Then they +went down. Rolling together, each struggling to land on top. Still +larger now--their lurching bodies filled one end of the cavern. + +Dianne clung to me. I became aware that I was struggling to escape her. +And aware also that the cave seemed dwindling. A slow contraction, but +the dim space here was already noticeably smaller. + +"Dianne, let me go!" + +"No! They're too large! You'd be killed!" + +Large! They were gigantic! A sweep of one of their massive arms or legs +would have flung me headlong as though I had been a child. I crouched +with Dianne, watching them. Powerless to help Drake. + +Then I realized: "Dianne, give me more of the drug." + +"No!" She called, "Drake! Drake, you--" + +Her words were lost in the turmoil of the fighting giants. The roof of +the cavern had a long irregular opening into the space above it. Light +filtered down. The light illumined the huge threshing bodies. Togaro +was on top. His arm, longer than my body now, went up as he tried to +strike at Drake. Then Drake heaved him off. + +They had rolled away from where Dianne and I were crouching. They were +soon so large that half the cavern scarce contained them. Togaro tried +to stand up with Drake lunging at his waist. His shoulders brushed the +roof. He could not stand erect. + +Dianne was screaming now. "Drake! Drake! Climb out of here! You'll be +crushed!" An agony of fear was in her voice. + +It swept me with a realization of horror. Growing so fast, these +fighting giants, that in a moment more the cavern would not be large +enough for them! Crushed in here by their own growth. + +I added my shouts to Dianne's. "Drake! Climb out--through the hole up +there." + +They both realized the danger. They were almost wedged between this +hundred-foot floor and roof. We could see Togaro trying to cast Drake +backward--trying to escape through the gash overhead. He seemed to +succeed. His fist caught Drake full in the face. Drake crumpled, but in +a moment recovered. Togaro had cast loose. Scrambling, half climbing, +his great body lurched up through the roof opening. + +But Drake was after him. He stood, bent double within the narrow +confines of these walls. He scrambled up, against all the efforts of +Togaro to shove him back. + +They fought in the space over us. Already too large to come back. +Their bodies fell as again they locked together. Fell across the roof +opening, so huge now that we could see only a portion of their legs. + +Again the space up there must have been too small. They scrambled +higher. The sounds of the fighting faded into the upper distance. + + * * * * * + +Father sat with Ahlma, watching us as we dwindled before his horrified +eyes. He saw us, an inch high, standing by the wall. Dianne called, +"Good-by." He saw us smaller, running across the tiny space, still +closer to the wall. He did not dare move. He sat by the table with +Ahlma beside him. She put her hand out presently and touched his arm; +his hand gripped hers and held it. + +He said softly, "You love my girl Dianne?" + +"Oh, yes. My friend and our princess." + +"You're older?" + +"A little." + +He paused. "Ahlma, will you bring her back to me when this is over? +Will you? We'll get the fragment of rock which holds your atom. I'll +guard it carefully. Will you bring Dianne back to me?" + +She turned her face to him, a face perhaps as beautiful as Dianne's, +gentle, thoughtful. She brushed away a straying lock of her golden +hair. Her blue eyes regarded father. She said, "Yes. I will urge her. +And would you like me to come?" + +"Yes," he said. And at the pressure of her hand, he added, "Oh, +but don't you understand, Ahlma--Dianne seems to me just my little +daughter--I love her." + +"I understand." Her gaze still held his. In the blue depths of her eyes +he saw a light twinkling like a smile. But her voice was very earnest +as she added: + +"And I will come also." The twinkling light in her eyes spread to a +whimsical smile twitching at her lips. "What a handsome young man your +son Drake is." + +Half an hour must have passed. Or perhaps more. They sat, watching the +small segment of floor into which we had vanished. There was a moment +or two, father recalls, when it chanced that they were talking, and +their glances strayed away. When they looked back, Ahlma gave a cry. + +"I see--" + +Father started to his feet, but she held him. He saw nothing. "What? +What is it, Ahlma?" + +"One of them!" + +A single figure. A speck, there on the board. Ahlma lifted the +lampshade. He saw it then. Something there-- + +"One of them!" she repeated. Her voice caught in her throat as terror +swept her. "Only one! A man!" + +She cautiously drew father forward. They knelt carefully on the floor, +bending down over the board. A tiny figure there, an eighth of an inch +long. But it grew. Half an inch! A man's figure. Clothes torn and +blood-stained. + +Drake! He lay on his side. But he moved. He drew himself up on one +elbow. + +An inch long now. He tried to stand, but swayed and fell back. He had +spoken, but they did not hear it. He waved an arm. + +A warning, but it was too late! Behind them as they knelt there was a +footstep. They turned. Togaro--as large as Ahlma--leaped at them! + + * * * * * + +Drake, down there in the caverns with the small figures of Dianne and +me watching, fought with Togaro. He was aware of the shrinking walls. +He heard and understood our tiny screams of warning. He scrambled up +through the roof opening after Togaro. The space overhead was a caldron +depression. They fought there. Togaro had been the first to take the +drug. He was rapidly becoming larger than Drake. His strength was +overpowering. They rolled together. Drake felt the big hands gripping +his throat. He tried to tear them loose, but could not. It stopped his +breath. He tried to heave his adversary off. But Togaro was too large. +Too strong. + +The lunge jammed them both against a wall which almost wedged them. It +must have brought realization to Togaro. He suddenly cast Drake loose. + +Drake's senses had almost faded; but with returning breath he +strengthened. The walls were closing. Togaro scrambled out. Drake tried +to stand up. His head and shoulders came above the closing caldron. He +jumped; and as he scrambled out Togaro's fist caught him in the face. + +He fell; and though he did not quite lose consciousness he lay +motionless. Togaro struck him again. Beat him, kicked him. Drake had +just the wits left to pretend insensibility. + +This partly open space was again closing. A ravine in the corrugations +of the upper surface. Togaro's attention was again distracted by +the narrowing space. He evidently thought his adversary dead; or +unconscious so that he would lie here and be crushed by his own +growth. He left Drake. He leaped away, scrambled up and ran. + +For a moment Drake lay quiet. He stayed as long as he dared. Then he +tried to sit up. He had barely the strength to pull himself out as the +ravine narrowed to a slit beneath him. + +He fell prone. Togaro had disappeared. Drake lay amid the tumbled +ridges of the upper surface. The ridges crawled and crept under him as +his body grew. He was far enough out so that his body pushed itself +over the surface undulations with its own growth. He fainted. + +When he recovered consciousness--it must have been five minutes or +so--he could distinguish the outlines of the giant room. He heard the +rumble of father and Ahlma talking--their voices booming far up there +in the radiance of the lamplight. + +He was still growing. Togaro had escaped being seen by father and the +girl. He had run to another corner of the room; stood quietly behind +them, growing to their size. + +Drake saw the monstrous forms of Father and Ahlma come forward. He lay +on his side. They loomed over him--tremendous giants peering down with +great faces far overhead. And behind them--almost equally gigantic--he +suddenly saw Togaro! + +Drake tried to call a warning. But they did not hear him. He was still +weak and faint. He got up on one elbow. He gestured frantically. He saw +the tremendous figure of Togaro leap at father. + +Togaro's growth had stopped. He was as tall as father. His fist caught +father and knocked him backward. He would have stamped upon Drake, +but Ahlma saw the intention. She hurled herself at Togaro. Fighting, +tearing at his face with her hands. And father assailed him also. + +Drake saw the three huge figures swaying above him; Togaro, with a foot +twice the length of Drake's body, was trying to get near enough to +stamp upon him. Drake saw that father and the girl were being worsted. +He tried to get to his feet, but he was too weak and dizzy. He sank +back. + +Then Ahlma broke away. She seized the lamp and flung it. The lamp +fortunately was extinguished as it crashed to the floor. The room with +its drawn shades, in spite of the daylight outside, was too dim for the +small figure of Drake to be seen. + +And then Ahlma began screaming. Togaro cursed. Perhaps he thought +there was help near by. Whatever he thought, he flung father from him, +and turning in the dimness, he fumbled for the door. Snatched it open; +ran through the hall and dashed from the house. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + _Death of the Giants_ + + +We returned to our normal size; and found Drake, father and Ahlma +together. Father was shaken by his encounter with Togaro, but unharmed. +Drake was bruised, battered and bleeding; but with his youth and +strength he soon recovered. + +The afternoon wore away. We had decided to start for the island as soon +as it was dark. There was no sign of Togaro. + +I talked that afternoon for more than an hour with Dianne. She told me +many things of her strange world. Drake talked with Ahlma. I heard him +say once, "You saved my life--he would have stamped upon me." + +I recall with what a singular mixture of emotion I touched Dianne's +hand. My adored little sister? A strange foreign princess? The two +ideas, so wholly different, mingled in my heart. I recall, too, the +flush on Drake's face, his low eager voice as he talked with Ahlma. + +The darkness closed in around King's Cove. We were ready to start. +Father, with an automatic in his hand, followed us down to the +boathouse. We had tried to have him summon a car and go to the village +earlier in the afternoon. Or summon help. + +"Nonsense, lads--I can take care of myself. We've got to keep this +secret. Why, suppose the authorities were to order that atom destroyed!" + +The channel was black. The sea was calm, with a sullen, oily calmness. +No giants had been reported. The lights of occasional patrol planes +passed overhead; out at sea the lights of the waiting battleship were +plainly visible. + +Drake and I rowed swiftly, with the two girls huddled in the stern. I +was tense, my mind roving upon a thousand weird unnatural dangers which +at any moment might come upon us. But there seemed nothing. + +The island loomed black and silent ahead of us. What was there? + +I shipped my oar. We grounded on the beach. No sign of anything. + +We prowled through the dark trees, with automatics ready. Drake had a +small flash light. We came upon the embers of Dianne's signal fire of +the morning. + +Tiny figures stirred in the grass under Drake's light. + +"Careful, Drake." + +Dianne bent down cautiously. A microscopic voice called up to her. She +said to us: + +"They have not seen Togaro." + +She led us a few feet to one side of the embers. "Drake, give me your +light." + +There was a patch of soft loam here, with grass and ferns growing in +it. A small rock projected up in the grass. No one would ever have +noticed it. Drake and I knelt down carefully over it. Dianne held the +light. + +It was the top of what seemed a bowlder buried here. Only a few jagged +inches showed. Rock, scarred and pitted; coppery-looking. Metallic. + +Drake murmured, "Why, this is a meteorite buried here." + +It seemed so. We dug with our fingers in the soil around the +projection. The thing bulged out underground. A meteorite that might +have weighed a ton. Metallic rock, scarred and pitted and fused by the +heat of its falling through the atmosphere to earth. Centuries ago it +might have fallen, a visitor from the realms of space. It had buried +itself here; or been buried since by the drifting silt of the passing +years. + +Dianne had known nothing of its being a meteorite. She showed us now +the top projection. Made us understand carefully the exact point within +which her atom was contained. It was easy to remember. A tiny crater--a +pit into which a pin-point might go. + +"We descend into that," she said. + +We studied the configurations of the projection. With my hunting knife +I could break off the top fragment easily. + +She added, "Guard it somewhere--with that little crater held upward as +it is now." + +Ahlma said abruptly, "There is a storm coming." + +Rain was beginning to fall. The clouds overhead were black. Thunder +rumbled in the distance. And then there was a lightning flash nearer at +hand. It brightened all the island for an instant. + +Ahlma cried, "Look there! Did you see him?" + +The darkness was already again like a wall around us. But we had all +seen a giant figure looming into the blackness. A giant, here on the +island beach! + +Another lightning flash. The storm burst over us, with a surge of wind +and rain. Upon the circular island beach, stationed at intervals, giant +figures had grown into the sky. Six of them so huge that by leaning +forward they might have touched hands across the island. + +Dianne whispered, "We must get smaller! They can trample the island." + +We were surrounded by them, trapped here--but even in our normal size +we were so small that they evidently had not yet seen us. + +In the glare of lightning as we crouched, we saw one of the giants +lift our dory in his hand, crush it like a bug, and fling it out to +sea. Another stooped and fumbled with his fingers over the island +underbrush. He plucked up trees, as one would pull up stalks of fern. + +But the section where we crouched, hiding now in a near-by bush, was +undisturbed. Why, we never knew. Perhaps because Togaro was near here. +Or expected here. + +Already the presence of the giants was discovered. A war plane circled +overhead, swooping through the storm. Its bomb dropped with a hiss +into the near-by water. Then a shot screamed past from the advancing +battleship. + +Dianne gave us just a taste of the drug to diminish our stature. The +island expanded. We crouched in a great jungle of forest growth which +had been the thicket. Pebbles strewn here grew to great bowlders. We +found a cavelike recess and squeezed into it. Miles of jungle and +strange, dark land spread around us. Up in the sky, where the lightning +flashed and a great torrent of water was pouring down, the bombardment +of the island began. + +The world knows of that night's events, that soon after nightfall six +giants appeared upon Bird's Nest Island off the coast of Maine. They +were attacked by the patrol planes. + +The giants seemed great stupid brutes. Confused, perhaps. They plucked +at the island's trees. They waded out into the water and back. They +reached into the sea and flung huge dripping bowlders at the attacking +planes. + +The hovering battleship advanced. Its shots screamed at the island. One +of the giants went down. He floundered in the water, with the others +clustering in frightened amazement about him. Then his great body lay +still. It sank, but rose again and drifted out to sea. + +The planes dropped bombs. One of the giants, wounded, bellowed with +cries that were heard all down the coast. He waded frantically out +toward the warship which was some three miles off. But the ocean was +too deep for him. He swam back. A shot struck him. He crumpled. + +An upflung bowlder hit one of the planes and brought it down. The +planes flew higher after that. + +The coast was lashed with the waves of the giants' threshing bodies. +Another fell; his head and shoulders sprawled across half of Bird's +Nest Island. + +The brief unseasonable electrical storm swept past. In half an hour of +the battle but one giant was left. He tried to escape. He reached the +mainland, staggering south. He fell, ten miles down the coast. + +We crouched in the silence and darkness which had again fallen upon the +island. + +Drake murmured: "It's over." + +Dianne took us back to our normal size. Sea planes were landing in +the water of the channel. Clusters of lights showed where boats were +heading swiftly for the floating bodies of the fallen giants. + +Launches were putting out from the battleships. Other boats coming out +from the mainland. A destroyer dashed up and anchored in the channel. +Planes circled overhead. Activity everywhere. A dozen boats were +advancing upon the island. + +We had regained normal size. We stood in a group in the darkness of the +island glade. + +"We must hurry," Dianne whispered. "Frank, you understand--you chip off +the fragment of rock. Wait a few minutes--ten minutes--after we are +gone. Then you can't harm us. Take the rock home, guard it. Oh, Frank, +keep it secret--and we'll come back some time." + +Why all these directions only to me? I might have realized then, but I +did not. + +Dianne kissed me; Ahlma pressed my hand. The girls were already +dwindling. The little figures of their escort lurked at our feet. I +turned to Drake. + +"We'll wait ten minutes and--" + +I gasped. He too was dwindling. He said hurriedly: "I'm going, Frank. +You explain to father." + +I stood stricken. I recall his last words of instructions: "Togaro +may have gone into the atom; or he may be here in our world. Watch out +for him, Frank! These few giants mean nothing. Stupid brutes he has +sacrificed--a test only of what he plans." + +"But Drake--stop!" + +I stood frozen. I was suddenly horribly frightened. Confused. A step, +and I might kill them. I called, but there was only silence. I had the +flash light, but if I lighted it I might blind them. + +I sat down by the dead fire. Five minutes. Ten minutes. I heard boats +landing upon the beach, and the shouts of arriving men. + +But they must not find me until I had done what I had to do! I stood +up hastily. With the flash light I located the projecting top of the +meteorite. My fingers were trembling as I opened my claspknife. I +recall that I was mumbling to myself: + +"Steady, Frank! Don't do it wrong." + +I knelt. I chipped at the rock. My pounding heart nearly smothered me. +The tramp of advancing men sounded near at hand. + +I hacked desperately. The rock fragment came off--a chunk a few inches +in diameter. I laid it carefully in my pocket. I snapped off my flash. +I huddled, shaking, by the wet embers of the dead fire. My brother! + +Men surrounded me. + +"What the hell?" + +"Who is he?" + +I stammered: "Let me go." + +A turmoil of rough questions. "Who are you? What are you doing here?" + +"Ferrule. My name is Frank Ferrule. I live over there--King's Cove." + +Other men from another boat came up. + +"I've heard of the Ferrules. House across there at King's Cove." + +"Yes. That's where I live. My father's there now. I was here--got +trapped here when the fighting started." + +Somebody said: "He's scared stiff." + +"Let go of me," I insisted. "Take me home." + +They shoved me into one of their boats. + +In the babble of excited voices I was soon ignored. I sat with my hand +in my pocket, gently holding the precious chunk of rock. + + + + + CHAPTER IX + + _Tiny Fragment of Rock_ + + +A year passed. Father and I lived permanently now at King's Cove. In +a special room, with three trusted guards, the fragment of rock lay +carefully watched. Nothing--no one, friend or enemy--appeared during +that year; and we began to think that perhaps no one ever would. + +Father's health was not good. The shock of losing Drake was very great. +He said it was not that. He said always--and so wistfully--that Drake +would come back to us. And Dianne. + +The world, for months, talked of those days of the giants. But the +world soon forgets. The giants were an enigma--a menace--but our war +planes and the battleship soon overcame it. No one, after a year, +seemed afraid of giants; in a few years more they would be history, +forgotten completely. + +No drugs were found on the bodies of the giants. They wore, the reports +said, a belt with many empty compartments. To whom could that possibly +be significant, save father and me? + +I sat often alone at night in the barred room, by the light which +shone on the rock fragment as it rested on its smooth slab of stone. A +microscope stood in a bracket which in an instant could be swung into +position. Nothing could appear there without our seeing it at once. If +the menace came, we were ready always to deal with it. + +Tiny fragment of rock lying there, with its billions of atoms--each a +universe. One--the universe that held Dianne. + +I wondered, so often, what she and Drake and Ahlma might be doing down +there in the Infinitely Small. Trying, perhaps, to protect us from the +menace? It seemed so. + +Often I cursed my helplessness. I could put my finger down and touch +the fragment of rock. An eighth of an inch of space--no more than that, +perhaps--separated me from Dianne. Yet it was an infinite, hopeless +void of distance. + +And then one night in May, as I sat alone, staring at the rock +fragment, hope which I had thought dead leaped within me. + +Something had come from the atom! Under the glare of light, +where all these hopeless days and nights nothing living had ever +appeared--something moved. + +A speck, appearing from invisible smallness. + +It grew. + +A tiny human figure, small as a pinhead, was upon the jagged piece of +rock. I swung the microscope over it. + +And I saw a man in tattered, blood-stained garments, clinging to the +rock, waving a white flag frantically at me! + + + + + CHAPTER X + + _The White Flag_ + + +Father and I had of necessity changed our whole mode of life when we +undertook the watching of the rock fragment. We gave up our Westchester +residence, to live the year around at King's Cove. Father moved his +laboratory from Westchester; I relinquished my flying job. + +The house at King's Cove, unheated, was not suitable for winter +conditions. We installed a heating plant. We cleared out one of the +small bedrooms. Barred its windows and its door, so that it had all the +aspect of a cell. + +The windows we sealed, not to be opened. A new door was hung, closely +fitting so that there was not the smallest crack. Into the ceiling we +cut a small ventilator to keep the air of the room fresh. + +There was one small chair. In the center of the room there was a flat, +six-foot-square slab of granite. It was raised above the floor on a +sturdy pedestal. In its center lay the precious chunk of rock, with a +dome-light over it--the white electric glare shining strongly down. + +The microscope hung in a bracket; and there was another bracket--a rack +of bottles and atomizers. Gruesome to contemplate using them! Bottles +of acids and poisons; atomizers to spray poison liquids! These tiny +humans which might appear would be treated like deadly insects, at once +to be exterminated. + +We had three guards employed. Between them, they covered the entire +twenty-four hours. They sat armed with automatics. At ten-minute +intervals they searched the fragment of rock with the microscope. An +electric bell-switch was close at hand, so that in an instant father +and I could be summoned. + +Yet for all this neither father nor I could for a moment relax. +Alternating with our hopeless moods that Drake and Dianne were gone +forever was the feeling that Togaro might at any moment attack us. +Within the atom thousands perhaps of his followers were preparing to +conquer the earth. + +It was nerve-racking business. Father was breaking down under the +heart-rending strain of it. I knew he could not possibly go on for +another year, living under such conditions. + +There was never a moment when he and I both dared leave the house at +once. + +He was asleep this momentous night in mid-May. I had sent the guard out +for a ten-minute relaxation. I saw the figure appear. I stood shaking, +peering down into the small microscope. The magnified chunk of rock +showed jagged and broken. Upon the upper lip of the crater-like hole +the tiny figure was visible. A man, blood-stained and battered, with a +waving white flag in his hand. + +I turned from the microscope. I could just make him out with the naked +eye--a pin-point of white movement. + +I rang the bell for father. I stood trembling. Confused by the shock of +this actuality which for so long we had been contemplating. A whirl of +confused thoughts plunged at me. Was it Drake? + +No! It did not seem to look like Drake. + +A friend? An enemy? Should I kill it? What was I waiting for? + +I became aware that I had seized an atomizer. A puff of it and a +torrent of deadly spray would kill that tiny figure; and kill, +doubtless, any others which might be there, too small yet for me to see. + +I held my hand. A friend? A white flag--of truce? + +The figure was expanding. Without the microscope now I could see it +clearly in the brilliant white light. + +Dare I let it get larger? I shouted: "Wait! You--stop!" + +Father burst into the room. "Frank!" + +And behind him the burly figure of the returning guard. Both were +panting from running and from excitement. + +"Frank?" + +"Something here! Father, look! Man--with a white flag. See? See him +wave it?" + +Father seized the microscope. He was trembling so that at first he +could hardly hold it. I clutched the poison spray; the guard stood +behind us, alert with an automatic, and his gaze roved the room. + +Father murmured: "Not Drake? Is it not Drake?" + +"No." + +"Oh--No, no, you're right--it is not Drake." The disappointment in his +voice! "Not Drake--a man, a stranger." + +I pulled at father. "You can see him now without the microscope." + +The guard--a fellow named Foley, as near without nerves as a man could +be--stammered: + +"You--you going to kill it--him?" + +"Yes! No! No, Frank!" Father clutched at me. "Look, he's climbing down." + +The figure of the man was a quarter of an inch high now. He started +climbing down the two or three inch jagged side of the chunk of rock. +He slipped, slid; and then fell and landed upon the polished surface of +the granite slab. He lay motionless. + +"He killed himself, Frank!" + +"No--look, he's up again!" + +He was standing by the rock which towered like a cliff beside him. He +was in a moment half an inch high. The white flag was a piece of white +fabric. He had thrust it in his belt; he drew it out again and waved it +wildly at us. + +I said: "He's afraid we'll kill him." I put the spray back on the +overhead shelf. "Think he can hear us, father? Understand us?" + +"Yes. Maybe. Try it, Frank. Don't let him get too large. Tell him to +stop. You see anybody else?" + +Foley said: "I'll take a look." He applied his eye to the microscope. + +"Don't shout, Frank. Slow, distinct. He'll hear you better that way." + +I said: "Don't--get--much--larger! We'll kill you." + +"Suppose he doesn't speak our language," father began. + +Foley said: "Nobody else. He--this one--he's all smashed up. Bloody. +You can see his feet; he's got 'em bound with rags." + +The figure seemed to understand me. I could see the tiny face looking +up. He seemed to be shouting at me. I turned to Foley. + +"Wait, Foley. Quiet." + +In the silence, as I bent down, the small words came clear: + +"Don't--kill me! Friend--friend--from Drake." + +From Drake! The word thrilled us. We stood breathless, watching the +figure on the granite slab. An inch high now. A young man. Bruised and +bleeding as though from arduous, desperate traveling. + +His brief suit of knitted fabric was torn, dirty and blood-stained. His +head was bare, showing his close-cut blond hair. His feet were wrapped +into shapeless bundles with cloth seemingly torn from his garments. He +stood wavering. He put the white flag into a belt at his waist--a belt +which we could see now held many compartments. + +Two inches high. He walked away from the chunk of rock. The light +overhead appeared to dazzle him; he flung an arm before his face. But +it seemed also that in the far distance he had seen the void which was +the edge of the granite slab. He shrank back; then he looked up. + +"Don't hurt me!" + +His accent reminded me of Ahlma. Or Togaro! the thought came to me: +was this a trap? This fellow with his white flag, was he from Togaro, +masquerading here as a friend of Drake's? + +Then triumph swept me. Here was the drug! This fellow had it! + +Father was plucking at me as I bent intent over the growing figure. + +"Frank, do we dare let him get large?" + +The man was three or four inches high now. I put my face down close to +him. It startled him so that he jumped backward and fell. But he picked +himself up at once. + +I said: "Can you hear me clearly?" + +"Yes. Are you--is it you that are Frank Ferrule?" + +"Yes," I said. "You stop getting larger. Stop, you understand? Then +we'll talk. Are you alone?" + +"Yes." He fumbled at his belt; then his hand went to his mouth. In +a moment his size was unchanging. "Alone." He added, his tiny voice +sounding clearly: + +"Yes, here all alone. They wait for me in there--a portion of the trip +in there, they are waiting with the flying car." + +Father was whispering to me triumphantly: + +"He's got the drug! With that, Frank, we can do anything. But we've got +to let him grow to our size. Don't you understand--let him grow large +and expand the drug with him!" + +I had not thought of that. If this fellow were an enemy and it ended +by our having to kill him, the drug he carried would be of no use to +us. I stared down at his tiny figure, no longer than my finger. To a +comparative giant like myself, of what use his infinitesimal quantity +of the drug! We would have to let him grow large. + +"What's your name?" I asked him. + +"I am called Alt. I am sent to you from Drake. Trust me--do not kill +me. I have a message for you." + +Father said, "If you are from Drake--did he write to us? Send something +to prove who you are?" + +"No. That I mean--yes, he gave me a paper, but I have lost it. The +journey was hard--" + +Suspicion rose in me. But friend or enemy, we wanted his drug. I +flashed father and Foley a warning glance. It would not be dangerous to +let this fellow reach our own size--provided we were alert to keep him +from getting any larger than us. I said. + +"You're hurt. We'll dress your wounds. + +"You can get larger--but be sure to stop when you are the size of me, +or we will kill you." + +He was docile enough. He said, "Very well, then I will do that." + +He sat down on the rock slab and we watched him with a tense silence. +In a moment he was a foot long; then twice that. His growing body +pushed against the rock fragment. "Move!" I said sharply, "stand +up--I'll lift you to the floor." + +I ran my fingers over him; he seemed unarmed. I lifted him and set him +on the floor at our feet. Foley moved the light to shine upon him; and +stood with weapon ready. + +Father cautioned grimly, "You obey us--no trickery." + +He stood quietly eying us. High as my waist; then my shoulder. I said, +"Enough! That's large enough." + +I whispered to Foley; and when the figure ceased enlarging Foley +pounced upon him. + +"Give me that belt! The drug--give it up, damn you!" + +He made no move to resist us. He stood meek--a slim young man now +about my own height; and about my own age. He was pale and tired, in +miserable plight, covered with cuts and bruises. + +I seized his belt, stripped it from him. An affair of metal and fabric, +with compartments in which were metal vials of the drug. Possession of +it brought me a wild sense of power. Helpless no longer! + +Foley backed the fellow to a corner of the room. "Stand there till they +say what to do with you." + +We were not afraid of him now. "Easy, Foley--don't hurt him!" I added, +"Now you can tell us what you came for." + +He said with a rush, "You do not trust me, but I speak truth. Drake--he +is your brother?--he, with the Princess Dianne and the Lady Ahlma are +in the flying car. Waiting. And they sent me out alone to you. I had a +paper from Drake--I have lost it--" + +"Why didn't Drake come?" I demanded. + +"He stays to protect the princess. The men of Togaro are everywhere--in +every size." + +He almost convinced me, with the swift, apprehensive look he flung +about the room. + +Father said, "What was Drake's message? Don't you know?" + +"Yes, I know. He wants--weapons. Our world in there is +threatened--disaster--destruction of all our little world. Our +people--following Togaro--have gone mad. Too gigantic for our little +world to hold them! And yes, they threaten your earth too--but that +you control safely out here in this room. Drake would have me tell you +the invasion is coming. You must be watchful to kill them as they come +out--and Drake wants weapons, to threaten them so that they may not go +completely mad and wreck our little world." + +Weapons? My suspicions leaped anew. Did this fellow think he could come +here and we would give him weapons? + +Father demanded, "What sort of weapons?" + +"Not many--just two or three, for Drake to use to convince our people +of his power. A knife-blade of steel--to bring death swift and silent. +And he said, what you call automatics--two or three of them." + +"Give you those and let you go in?" I retorted sarcastically. + +His pale blue eyes opened wide. "Drake said you--his brother Frank, he +said--would come with me. He wants you--I am to guide you to where he +waits." + +My heart leaped. Guide me in! Why, of course! From the moment I knew I +had the drug, there had been in the back of my mind the knowledge that +I was going in to Drake. I had not thought of a guide. Necessary, of +course, if I were to locate where Drake was waiting. And here was the +guide. + +Father stammered, "No! I can't--can't let you do that, Frank. This +fellow--a lying impostor perhaps, to lure you in there." + +Would I go? Dare I risk it? I heard myself saying calmly, grimly, + +"All right. I'll go in with you." + + + + + CHAPTER XI + + _Giant in Ambush_ + + +Within an hour I was ready. An hour of hurried, feverish preparation. +Yet after all, there was not much to do. I wore a bathing suit, with +a belt of the drugs strapped about my waist. And the stoutest shoes I +owned. + +Foley's eyes were never for a moment off this fellow Alt. He appeared +inoffensive enough. He was not badly injured. Exhausted--he seemed only +to desire a rest; he lay quiet while we bathed and dressed his wounds. +They were bruises and superficial cuts where he had fallen on the sharp +rocks of his outward journey. His feet were the worst. He had started +with a pair of buskins, made of animal skin. The rocks had torn them to +shreds; his feet were bleeding and swollen. + +"Couldn't Drake get you shoes?" I demanded. "Something to protect your +feet better than that?" + +He smiled. A friendly, ingenuous sort of smile. I was alternating +between liking him and being suspicious of him. + +"No," he said. "We do not have what you call shoes. Drake did not know +the journey would be so bad for me. It should not--I was not clever--I +did it wrong." + +"What do you mean by that? You got lost?" + +"No. Not lost--I will show you what I mean, when we start in." + +He had brought no food or water, and needed both badly. He drank the +water we supplied him, and ate the bread avidly. The meat he discarded; +he did not know what it was. He shuddered when we told him--as though +to eat it would be cannibalistic. + +I rigged a holster around my chest over one shoulder; and another about +my waist, above the drug belt, so that I could carry four automatics +and two or three knives. And with a cartridge belt, I was awkwardly +equipped; I felt like a walking arsenal. + +"I can carry some of them," Alt offered. + +"No, thank you," I retorted. + +He smiled, but made no further comment. + +The trip in to Drake, he said, should only take a few hours. We would +find water partway in; we needed little food. Alt suggested one small +bit of bread. + +A very casual fellow this! Certainly he hardly believed in +preparedness. Suppose we got lost! + +Strange journey! A trip, not of distance, but only of changing size. +There were so many factors to it that I had yet to learn! Alt said +quietly: + +"Coming out, I used up my food at once. But going in that is not +necessary." He saw my puzzled expression, and added. "If we put that +piece of bread on a rock beside us, then in a moment there is a +mountain of bread that could feed a thousand." + +We were ready at last. Alt needed rest. But he seemed anxious to start +at once. + +"Drake bade me hurry." + +We had bound his feet; and I found a large pair of shoes for him to +wear over the bandages. + +"Can you walk?" + +"Yes." + +"Try it." + +He hobbled along the side of the room, with Foley eying him. His feet +must have been painful; but in a moment he was walking with hardly a +limp. + +A likable fellow, this. He said, "I can do it. Besides, I shall be more +clever going in--you will see. Our trip will be easy." + +I said good-by to father. + +"Remember, dad, keep watch here. Closer than ever. And when we come +back--look for our signal." + +A flag of striped black and white which we would wave. + +Alt explained the drugs. I would not let him touch them. The belt had +eight compartments on each side. Two drugs, of opposite action. Eight +intensities of each. Small, metallic vials held the tiny pellets. + +"Have we enough?" I demanded. + +"Oh yes, I think so. Or if we had not, it would be easy to set some +aside, and pick them up again when we were smaller." + +We stood in the center of the room on the floor beside the granite +slab. Father sat in a chair. Foley stood regarding us as though we +were ghosts and expecting us to dissolve into nothingness. + +I handed Alt a pellet. "This right?" + +"Yes." + +It was the diminishing drug of the weakest intensity, like the one +Dianne had given us, when in the bedroom we had pursued Togaro that +brief distance into smallness. + +"Yes," Alt repeated. "We each take one at the same instant." He touched +me. "There is the great danger that we may become separated from each +other. You understand? Lost in size. You will take none that you do not +give me the same?" + +"No," I agreed. Friend or enemy, I could not blame him for being +apprehensive. I had the drugs; he had none. Lost in size--stranded. + +We took the pellets. The familiar lurching sensation came as before. +But this time I was prepared for it. I stood quiet, with the swimming +room around me. I was facing the granite slab. It was waist high, +with the rock fragment in its center. The slab seemed lifting; +expanding--and receding. I was presently below it, looking up at its +bottom resting upon the wooden supports. + +Alt was unchanged beside me. He said in a moment, + +"Your father will lift us up?" + +"Yes." + +My thoughts went winging off. I was not frightened this time. My heart +was beating normally. A sense of eager exhilaration was on me. Soon we +would reach Drake and Dianne. + +I was abruptly aware of Alt plucking at me. + +"Your father, he must lift us up!" + +The slab was far overhead. At a distance, the wooden pedestal legs rose +like great round columns of some strange, crudely-fashioned temple. I +recall that just at that instant, I had the impression of a tug at my +shoelace. A tiny twitch. But it was driven from my mind. I had no time +to look down. Something gigantic came swooping at me from overhead. +Something monstrous, pink-white, wrapped itself around me. + +I was lifted. Squeezed breathless; and snatched up with a dizzy swoop. +Up--a hundred feet it seemed, through the rushing air. Into a glare of +light. And then released. + +I saw the great pink-white hairy thing leaving me. It was father's +hand. I staggered dizzily and fell upon a rough expanse of stone. + +There are things which one sometimes can remember as being vague, +unimportant impressions. Later, in the light of after events, they +assume importance and one may wonder how they were overlooked at the +time. The tug at my shoelace was such a one. And now, as I fell dizzily +upon the stone slab, there came another. The feeling of something +crawling upon me. As though an insect brushed my bare shoulder. I +thought nothing of it at the time, but later I was to recall it clearly. + +I heard a booming voice; father's voice. + +"Oh Frank--have I hurt you?" + +He had not. But I saw his gigantic hand and arm coming up more slowly +with Alt. + +I got to my feet, and looked up. Father's chest and head towered above +me. + +I shouted, "No, you did not hurt me. We're all right." + +Again Alt plucked at me. "He waited too long! hurry--run!" + +We were on a naked expanse of uneven gray rock. It was flooded with +yellow-white light. I saw, a few hundred feet away, a jagged mound of +rock, large as a house. It was expanding, and drawing away from us. + +Alt was running, and I ran after him. The expanding ground swayed +beneath me. Alt called back: + +"We've got to climb it--and it is getting so large--" + +And so far away! I thought that we could not get there over the +shifting, expanding ground. But we made it. The rock was a jagged, +volcanic-looking mound when we reached it. Fifty feet high, at least. I +followed Alt as he climbed up its precipitous slope. I was close under +him; and suddenly I felt that if he were tricking me he had a perfect +opportunity to turn and fling me backward. + +"Wait a moment, Alt--let me get past you." + +He stopped, and I led him to the summit. It was a long climb. We stood +at last upon a rocky peak--in a yellow sunlight glare. Far down--it +seemed five hundred feet now, at least--a great gray plain spread +off into the distance. I could see a void off there--the edge of the +granite slab. And vague towering shadows of form--father and Foley +perhaps. + +The rocks about us were still expanding with their crawling movement. A +summit here, of tumbled naked crags. Fairly near at hand I saw a black +hole--a pit. Alt led me to it. It was, by the time we got there, an +orifice a hundred feet across. A pit of dense blackness, with perfectly +smooth, almost vertical sides. + +"We descend into that," said Alt. + +My mind flung back. Dianne had used those same words, that night on +Bird's Nest Island. This then, was the pin-point hole at the top of the +rock fragment. + +I stood with Alt, waiting. I was winded from the run, and the climb. My +belts--the drugs--and the weapons--were awkward carrying. + +Alt said, "If we had started just a little sooner, that climb would +have been easy. We were too small. You see what I mean, using judgment +in the trip?" + +I did indeed. We were waiting now for this pit to expand further. The +sides were too steep, too smooth now for descent. But the pit was +widening; the walls were every moment becoming rougher. We had been +quite near, but the expanding ground moved us away. I walked over to +the lip again. + +"The idea is to get down as soon as we can," I said. + +"Yes," he agreed. "Shall we try it now?" + +It seemed that there were places rough enough now to climb down. I had +seen the bottom; it had not been very deep, though dark with shadow. +But it was several hundred feet down now. + +We picked our way, sliding perilously at times. We came at last to the +bottom--a level, rocky floor, strewn with bowlders. The place seemed +now a great circular valley, with towering mountainous sides. A haze of +blue distance was overhead for a sky. A pseudo-sunlight was up there; +but here on the valley floor shadows made a queer, unnatural twilight. +I noticed too, a different quality of air. It was dryer, with a vague +metallic sharpness. + +"Which way?" I demanded. + +The drug we had taken had reached the limit of its effect while we were +descending to the valley pit. The landscape was no longer changing. + +A new world already. A barren desolation of rock. I added: + +"Do we take more of the drug now?" + +Alt stood a moment considering. "There is another descent which I think +we can almost make in a leap. This way--it is not far." + +We walked along the valley floor. The heights from which we had come +were beside us. A wildly tumbled volcanic region. There were narrow +rifts, cracks in the bowlder-strewn floor; pits, and tiny craters, +some with upstanding rims, as though lava had welled up and congealed. +Corrugations; ridges; little buttes, and peaks like spires of +needle-point sharpness. + +I got the sudden impression that I was very large, and that this was a +landscape all in miniature. + +I was walking beside Alt. "How do you know where we should go?" + +"Not far from here there is a place like a crescent. It should be--for +our size now--quite small and not very deep. You understand? Easier +for us to jump down into it now, than to make a long climb when we are +smaller." + +We rounded the corner of a fallen mass of bowlders, as though here an +avalanche had come tumbling down the valley wall. + +"Over there," said Alt. I saw, down a short slope, a small, +crescent-shaped pit, with a span of a few feet. We were some two or +three hundred yards from it. + +I was suddenly stricken motionless. I stood gasping, with the shock of +surprise and fear. From the pit, the head and shoulders of a man rose +up. A giant face, malevolently staring. His body filled the pit. His +hands appeared, caught at the rim, and he scrambled out. + +And, with a shout, Alt turned and ran at me! + + + + + CHAPTER XII + + _The Meeting_ + + +For that instant, I was convinced that I was trapped, lured here by Alt +to this giant lying in ambush. But Alt shouted: + +"Run--that is a Togaro man!" + +As Alt went past me, I saw his fear-stricken face. The giant--three or +four times my own height--was climbing to his feet. Alt was heading for +the broken cliff wall. I ran after him. + +Behind us the giant came with a bound. The cliff was fifty feet +away. Alt shouted back a warning--something about hiding in a small +cave-mouth. There were many small openings; we must get into one too +small for the giant to follow. + +There was no time for us to take the drug. No time to do anything but +run. But in a moment I knew we could never make it. I could hear the +thud of the giant's running footsteps, rattling the loose rocks. In a +moment more he would have us. + +I shouted: "I can't get there, Alt!" + +Alt stopped abruptly. He bent and seized a chunk of rock. Futile stand! +A hundred feet away the giant came leaping. He was larger now. + +Then I thought of my automatics. In the shock of this sudden encounter +I had completely forgotten I was armed. I whipped one out, and stood +like a hunter facing a charging elephant. But mine was the trembling +courage of desperation. + +The fast-growing giant was forty or fifty feet tall now. My automatic +felt like a toy as I leveled it. I fired; blindly perhaps at the last. +The giant let out a bellow of rage and pain--and astonishment. He +leaped sidewise; he stood fumbling, clutching at his shoulder where my +little bullet had stung him. + +Alt shoved me. "This way--run!" + +We reached the cliff bottom and found a narrow cleft running back in +the rock wall. It was only a few feet wide, but we wedged into it and +forced our way back a yard or two. + +The giant was silent now. In a moment he was outside the crevice, but +he was far too large to get in. We heard him poking about; mumbling to +himself. Then he seemed to be digging, rattling the rocks. His hand and +arm came into the passage probing for us, and I fired again. The report +was deafening in this confined space. Powder fumes choked us. + +The giant let out another roar, and his arm, wounded no doubt, was +withdrawn. He vanished. In the silence, we heard the scuffle of his +heavy, retreating footsteps. + +We were all but choked; yet we did not dare go out. We crouched, +gasping, and presently the air cleared. There was silence. "Shall we +chance it, Alt? Or get smaller in here?" + +"Try outside," he whispered. "I think he is gone--getting large, on his +way up." + +We crept from the rift. The valley outside seemed empty. The giant had +vanished. Or was he around here somewhere? + +I whispered: "We'd better not move--it might attract his attention." + +"No. Wait for a time." + +We crouched in the deep shadow of a bowlder. No question of Alt's +loyalty now, and my instinctive liking for him sprang anew. + +"That was a close call, Alt." + +"Yes." + +I added, "You want one of these guns?" + +In the gloom I could see his pleased expression. I showed him how to +aim and fire the automatic. He wore a belt to which was strapped a +package of sandwiches and a vacuum of water; I threaded the holster on +it. + +We waited, perhaps five or ten minutes, crouching by the rock with the +silent, shadowy valley around us. There was still no sign of the giant. +There were cañons here, into any one of which he might have plunged. +The silence was heavy, oppressive, eerie. A haunted silence, as though +here were things not to be seen or heard, yet nevertheless making their +presence felt. + +I whispered at last, "Shall we start?" + +"Yes." + +I had been lying on my side, raised on one elbow. There came a movement +at my belt; I sensed a tiny indefinable creeping movement upon me. My +hand went down with a swift, instinctive gesture--as one moves with a +startled hand to knock off an insect. And Alt gave a low, sharp cry. + +We both saw it at once. As I sat erect, a small human figure which had +been clinging to my belt at the side, scuttled down my leg and leaped +off me to the ground. It vanished in the shadows. We made a hurried, +startled search, but it was gone. We had briefly seen it--a man the +length of my thumbnail. + +"Gone, Alt!" + +We searched no further. Impossible task to find such a figure here on +these dark rocks. + +The thing gave us a shock. We crouched again, waiting, silently +listening. This strangely fearsome journey! Nothing alive save +ourselves, here in this brooding place of rocks. Nothing to see, or to +hear. Yet it seemed as though there might be living multitudes around +us. Humans, not moving in space very far, yet journeying. The giant was +gone. He had passed us, moving on into largeness. This tiny figure +which had been clinging to me was rushing ahead of us perhaps into +smallness. + +Alt's voice checked my reverie. + +"I think it is safe to go on." + +We started off again. The crescent pit we found to be some twenty feet +deep. There was no trouble descending its broken sides. + +Alt said: "Coming out, I could have climbed in this size very easily. +But I was smaller. I climbed up here--it seemed a thousand feet." + +The giant had evidently been in here, growing, and had waited until the +last moment to scramble out. He had been as surprised as ourselves, no +doubt, at the sudden encounter. + +"There must be many of Togaro's men traveling," said Alt. "They are in +every size, traveling, exploring." + +This darkling abyss of rocks! I conjured enemies lurking in every +shadow ready to spring upon us. Giants--or tiny humans smaller than +insects. Enemies of every size and of shifting stature. + +We kept steadily upon our way. The crescent pit opened into a valley +with towering mountain ranges for its walls. Then we entered a tunnel +mouth. Timing it with unaltering size between one of the pellets, I saw +it as a miniature tunnel which our bodies almost blocked. We followed +it, from one gloomy cavern to another--a distance seemingly only a few +paces. Yet I could envisage that with another pellet it would be a +black march of hours in a vast dark void and a desolation of rocks. An +army of our enemies might be marching here like that now! + +We encountered no other Togarites, yet I think that many were passing +close to us in size. Going out, I wondered? If they showed themselves, +father and Foley would make an end to them promptly. + +We stopped once and ate our sandwiches, keeping one of them only +against disaster. We finished the water in the vacuum bottle. There was +water now occasionally to be seen in pools on the rocks. + +The landscape had been continually changing. The light from overhead +was long since gone. Occasionally we were in some tunnel or cave of +darkness. Yet there always seemed a little light--as though the rocks +themselves were radiating a glow. + +The air was changing. A brittle crispness. A dryness. And then, +when at the termination of the effect of our fourth pellet we found +ourselves on a vast metallic plain sloping down into darkness, it +incongruously began to rain. A slow, fine drizzle. Overhead I could see +moving dark clouds. + +We came upon a patch of soil, almost barren, but not quite, for there +was sickly vegetation struggling in it. Tiny green things growing. +Clumps of them, with small rock ridges a foot high lying like snakes. + +The drizzle was fine as a mist. After a few moments, it ceased. +Abruptly I realized that the puffs of cloud were very small and +close over our heads. And again my whole viewpoint shifted. I was a +tremendous giant standing here, towering to the clouds. A tiny forest +was here at my feet; the ridges were rocky ranges of hills. + +I strove to encompass thought of the journey as a whole. We had been +only a few hours. It seemed that we had descended thousands of feet +into the bowels of some vast world of naked rock. Perhaps we had. In +our present size, I am sure the entire trip would have been miles of +distance. Yet to father, up there now in that inconceivable titanic +world, we were still near the surface of the porous rock fragment. + +We took another pellet, and the landscape grew. + +Alt gripped me. "See--the light!" + +A steady red spot of light was visible near by. + +Alt said: "Drake's signal." + +We saw Drake first. He stood in the growing forest as our dwindling +bodies came down into it. The red light painted his figure as he leaned +against a stunted tree-trunk. + +"Frank!" + +"Drake--Drake, we see you!" + +We adjusted our size. He came running forward. He called back: "Dianne! +Ahlma, Dianne--they've come!" + +It was so good to feel his handclasp! + +"Father all right, Frank?" + +"Yes." + +"You've got the rock guarded?" + +"Yes, Drake, we--" + +And then I saw Dianne. The glory of her beauty swept me. She ran up and +kissed me. + +"Frank, dear--" + +I do not know what I was to her then. But to me, this was not my +sister. A thousand times more strongly now, I felt it. And no princess +this. Just a girl! + + + + + CHAPTER XIII + + _The Stowaway_ + + +We stood in the shadows of the dark forest, with its gnarled, stunted +trees. The red light flamed near by. A dim figure glided up to Drake. +He gave an order; the figure hastened away. In a moment, the red light +vanished. + +Drake spoke hurriedly. He and Dianne and Ahlma were leading Alt and me +toward where the red light had been. Drake half whispered: + +"We saw you coming--lighted the red signal for Alt. Dangerous to keep +it lighted now; Togaro's flyer has been here. His men--they may be near +this size--would capture our flyer if they could." + +We hardly went a hundred yards. To my questions Drake was impatient. +"Presently, Frank. Here, this way." + +I saw, in an open space, the dim shape of an interplanetary vehicle. An +elongated globe, forty feet long, with its bulging middle half as wide. +It lay dark and silent; but I saw that it had elliptical windows and a +small doorway which stood open to receive us. + +Strange vehicle! As we approached I could see that what I had thought +was a dead-black thing of metal was in reality far different. Drake +hurried us up a small ladder, into its interior. But I saw that the +vehicle's side was not solid. + +It seemed rather a myriad woven wires. The thing was a big cage, woven +of intricate metal threads like a basket. Rigid, yet resilient. + +I learned afterward some of the details of this strange vehicle. +Standing inert, as it was now, the outer air circulated freely through +it. The wire, of which its hull and all its interior ribs and braces +were composed, was drawn from a ductile metal unknown to our world, +a metal which contracted or expanded freely under the impulse of an +alternation of electronic current. With the current charging it, the +hull became a solid electrical surface, with the entire interior an +active magnetic field, so that ourselves and all the contents of the +vehicle were contracted in size as the hull diminished. + +No drugs were needed now. We could use them inside the vehicle merely +to change our size in comparison to the vehicle itself. + +There were chemical air-renewers, and heaters to keep the interior warm +against the cold of interplanetary space. + +An interplanetary voyage! I could not at first grasp it. No vast space +was here. We were in a dark forest, with a limited mountain valley +around us. No stars were overhead; no great astronomical reaches were +here. Where could this vehicle go? Into smallness, I knew that. But +how? Sail off over these stunted trees? Why, in a moment with any speed +at all it could reach the mountain barrier down which Alt and I had +just come. + +But I knew, as I pondered, that if this flyer remained just where it +was, as it diminished in size, sufficient space for any flight would +open up around it. + +The door was barred behind us. We passed along a low, narrow passage, +walking on a metal grid of woven wires. I saw small rooms; ladders +leading up and down to other levels. A small room, crowded with strange +instruments faintly throbbing as though all this wired bundle of +mechanism was impatient to be gone. + +We came to a little room with a window in the concave side of the hull; +a table of woven wire; and a few wire chairs. + +"Sit down," said Drake. "You particularly, Frank--be careful as we +start. Your first voyage! The shock is different from the drug. I see +you brought the weapons?" + +"Yes. Do you want them now, Drake?" + +"Keep them. We'll look them over presently. Sit quiet, Frank." He spoke +hurriedly, abstractedly. "We must get started at once." + +He hastened from the room to give orders for the starting. I had seen +some eight or ten men aboard the vehicle. Four were in the instrument +control room; Drake went in there. + +I sat down, with Dianne beside me. Alt was whispering to Ahlma near by. +Dianne murmured: + +"Don't talk now--just for a moment." + +I sat waiting. This vehicle with its many small rooms; its small +passages, gave me again the impression that I was too large for my +surroundings. Drake had stooped as he went through the arcade into the +adjacent control room. + +The dark trees showed motionless outside the window. + +Dianne murmured: "Now, Frank." + +It was a slow transition. The wire walls of the room turned faintly +luminous. They hummed. A dull red glow suffused everything. The wire +floor, the ceiling, the chair upon which I was sitting, all glowed red, +like wire slowly heating. Red, then yellow, then almost white, with +a cast of violet. But my hand on the chair-arm felt it to be cool as +before. + +I was conscious of a slight shock. A lurch. But it was within my head, +for the room did not move. Everything was glowing white. Yet the room +remained dim, for the light did not radiate. There was a throbbing; a +hissing, whining sound of the surging current. + +Then the air of the room turned electrical. It faintly snapped; +occasionally in mid-air, a burst of small blue sparks exploded like a +bomb. The outlines of the walls and ceiling and the furniture were lit +with tiny blue lightnings. + +Then I felt the real shock. A swoop of all my senses; a second, in +which I thought I was gone, falling, with only the consciousness of +Dianne's firm hand holding me. + +A moment, then the shock was passed. I steadied, and found that save +for a queer lightness and a tingling, I felt no different from before. + +Dianne murmured: "That's all, Frank; you're past it." + +"Yes. Have we started?" + +"Oh, yes." + +Drake came back. He eyed me appraisingly, but made no comment. He sat +beside us. + +"Let's see what weapons you brought. Frank, did you encounter any of +Togaro's people? His flyer brought some out. A few. Not many yet. We +haven't seen Togaro--we don't know where he is. But his expedition is +ready. They don't know that we control the fragment of rock--that they +cannot escape from it. They're coming out." + +"If they do, father will stop them." + +Drake was willing enough to talk now. He said: "Yes, father will stop +them. That doesn't worry us. But in the atom--in Dianne's world--did +Alt tell you? They've got a single vehicle, like this one, Frank. +They keep it hidden. We can't find it--or haven't been able to, yet. +Togaro's leaders are winning our people, firing them with desire to +conquer the earth." + +Dianne said: "When we get there--but, oh, Frank, I'm so glad you've +come!" Her hand lay on mine; her fingers had gone cold. This was no +regal princess--just an apprehensive, frightened little girl. Glad I +had come! The weapons I had brought might be of use in this affair. +But myself--what good could I be, trying to cope with a nation in +revolt? Yet instinctively she turned to me. + +"I'm worried, Frank. These are my people--this is my world at stake. +The Togarites are telling our workers that never will they have to work +again." + +Drake interrupted passionately: "Dianne has told them they can't +conquer the earth, that we control things up above! But they don't +believe it. So now I'm going to threaten them. A bullet--they'll think +that's magic. A knife thrust--and, Frank, we can't use the size-change +as a weapon in Dianne's world. We dare not grow too large. You'll +understand--you can understand now if you think of it. The Togarites' +leaders have the drugs. They lurk everywhere in a size abnormally +small. Sometimes they grow gigantic. But they dare not get too large. + +"You see, we cannot fight them in largeness upon Dianne's little earth. +There is a limit to what is safe. We have avoided such combat, and so +have they. But they are more daring now. + +"Their main expedition into largeness is about ready. It's all being +done secretly--Dianne and her government are powerless to stop it. +We think that a multitude of her people are willing to join Togaro's +expedition. The leaders have been waiting for Togaro, but he has not +come." + +I said, "Because he's out in our earth-world and can't get in." + +"Yes, doubtless. And now they won't wait any longer. The disaster, in +spite of everything Dianne and I have been able to do, is now upon us." + +My mind groped with these strange things he was saying. A group of a +hundred or more Togarite leaders had for years been in possession of +the drugs. They had built themselves an interplanetary size-changing +vehicle, like this one in which we were now traveling. They kept it +hidden--in some small size, doubtless. Dianne's controlling government +would have destroyed it, but they could not find it. + +The drugs were kept from the public, of course. But these bandit +Togarite leaders had them; and they could not be discovered and +confiscated either. + +The Togarites wanted, Drake said, about a half million followers. With +this multitude they would conquer the earth and populate it with their +own race. + +"Why?" I demanded. "Why do that?" + +My question sounded inane. Drake shrugged. "Why has any conqueror +lusted for power? The original Togarite leaders are evil fellows, +renegades. Togaro himself tried to conquer Dianne's world, and failed. +They want power, riches, plunder. Togaro wants all that. And he +wants--Dianne." + +I could feel Dianne stir against me. I said nothing, and in a moment +Drake went on: + +"There are ten million of Dianne's people, upon a little globe which +they populate fully. Just the one nation. Perhaps by now the Togarites +have their half million followers. They plan to transport them out--up +to our world--" + +"How?" I demanded. "A single flyer, like this, to transport five +hundred thousand people! Why, it would take thousands of trips! Ten or +twenty years--" + +But as I said it, I understood why that was not so--and comprehended +the deadly danger to Dianne's world. I began: "If they make their +vehicle large enough to contain half a million people at once--" + +I never finished. + +Once before, in the room at King's Cove, Ahlma had given a cry to warn +us of impending danger. She did that now. She and Alt were sitting near +us, listening to our words. Drake had previously taken the automatics +from me. We had put them on a vacant chair; one lay on the floor close +by my feet. + +I heard Ahlma give a startled cry. The automatic on the floor had been +lying between Drake and me. I remembered clearly where I had placed it, +but it was not there now! I followed Ahlma's glance. The weapon was on +the floor, over by the wall. It was moving--sliding soundlessly toward +the door of the room. I saw that a small human figure was tugging at +it--a man eight or ten inches high As tall as he dared get. The weapon +was larger than himself. He was struggling to drag it to the doorway, +get it beyond our sight. + +Ahlma's cry made us all leap to our feet. And Dianne and Ahlma together +recognized the tiny figure. + +"Togaro!" + +He dropped his burden and scuttled from the room. Dianne gripped me. +"Wait, Frank! You're unsteady yet--you'll hurt yourself." + +I found the floor swaying under me as I stood up; I had to drop back. + +Drake and Alt dashed into the passage. We could hear their cries +giving the alarm. Several members of the crew came running. The +passages and all the cabins were searched. + +Useless! Togaro had taken the diminishing drug. With such a start, he +had escaped into smallness beyond pursuit. + +Drake and Alt came back. "It was too dark. We could not see where he +went at all. No use trying to follow him." + +Togaro, a stowaway on board! + + + + + CHAPTER XIV + + _The Locked Door_ + + +Amazing voyage into smallness! I find an adequate picture of it +difficult to paint. It was, as Drake had said, a voyage shorter in time +than I had been led to expect. Fifteen or twenty hours of elapsed time, +perhaps. We tried to preserve a normality of routine. We ate several +meals, and I tried to sleep. For the remainder of the time we sat in +that small room, by the window; and I gazed at a panorama so singularly +awe-inspiring that I am at a loss now to describe it. + +For some time the ship did not seem to move. We sat talking. There +was obviously no movement. The room was steady, save for a humming +vibration. But outside the window things were changing. The forest +trees were sliding upward. Expanding, and drawing away. We were +dwindling faster than an intensity of the drug. Then I felt the ship +lift slightly. We hung poised in a rocky void. + +I conjured all manner of wild, gruesome thoughts. Nor were they +all picturing danger to myself or to Dianne's world. Nor even the +threatened conquest of earth. There was a danger that seemed to me now +greater than any of these. Togaro desired Dianne! + +I sat close by Dianne. I tried to tell myself that there was nothing to +fear. Togaro would not dare get large, here on our ship. For if he did, +at once we would seize him. + +We discussed it. The thing seemed incredible, that he was here so close +to us and we could not find him. Incredible, but true. + +We stood at the window, Dianne, Drake, and I. But Alt and Ahlma would +not relax their watching of the room. The ship had been dwindling now +for more than an hour. The forest was gone. + +I saw a dark void, in which seemingly we were hanging in mid-air. At +first I thought it was wholly dark. But as I stared, with my eyes--or +perhaps merely my mind--becoming accustomed to this pregnant darkness, +I found that there were things to see. + +We hung motionless in the void. But presently rock walls were visible; +how far away I could not guess. Great mountains of rock, expanding, +sliding upward, and drawing away, though they did not vanish. It seemed +that my vision must be sharpening, or that the light was increasing. It +was a queer sort of light--an iridescence, vaguely diffused throughout +everything. + +For a long while this went on. The visual sensation was that we were +falling like a swiftly dropping elevator car. But it was not so. The +rock walls were sliding upward, but it was largely an optical illusion. + +A meal was served us. The ship was reaching a greater intensity of its +shrinking size, dwindling more rapidly. + +I could hear the current rising to a higher, sharper and louder whine. + +Drake said, "That's a hundred times faster for us now." + +Another few hours. The scene outside was undergoing a progressive +change. The distant rocks constantly had a different aspect. I could +not fathom it--could not define it. A suggestion of roundness. I stared +at the far-away wall. It seemed as though great round things were piled +in loose masses. A wall of bowlders loosely piled. + +Once, I fancied that they were in movement--creeping, crawling, one +upon the other. And that all the wall was unsolid. A thing of slow, +ponderous movement. + +I became suddenly aware that once more my viewpoint had abruptly +changed. I had envisaged us as a tiny ship, hanging in a great dark +void, with dark round things at some inconceivable distance. And then I +saw it was not so. We were a tremendous ship! These round objects were +tiny particles. Close at hand. Dark, yet glowing. Moving, sliding one +upon the other with a suggestion of fluidity. Nor were they just here +in this one direction. With my face against the window I could see them +overhead. And below. And across the near-by corridor of the ship, a +window there showed them the same on that side. + +From everywhere they crowded us. Abruptly it seemed that we were not +in a void, but in a narrow, confined area with these particles jostling +us. They were all of a size--all of a similar aspect. Tiny things, with +space between them. Flowing like a fluid as we pushed our way among +them. + +Drake said, "They are molecules, Frank. The molecules of the rock +fragment. We'll soon enter one--and then enter our atom." + +I did not answer him. My thoughts went winging off. Millions of +molecules here. Millions? Countless myriads. They shifted and crawled; +jostled; swept past, and away. Then there seemed a darkness as of an +empty void. But always I saw them again. + +The scene was always changing. Open space now, with banks like clouds +of the clustering molecules in the distance. I fixed my attention +upon one such cloud. It was coming rapidly nearer--or perhaps we were +speeding toward it. A luminous cloud. It came up and went past. The +molecules were huge and few. I thought perhaps in that group there were +not more than thirty. + +Clouds speeding, with dark voids between. Why, this was space! Gigantic +space here. + +Then I saw just two of the round things jostle past. And then some +which went by all alone. Giant things now, glowing, unsolid! I began +to think I could see that still other, smaller particles were clinging +together to form each of these unsolid molecules. + +I saw one go past, and caught a glimpse of what seemed empty space +within its luminous outline--and then I could almost fancy I saw the +atoms, a whirling swarm of them clustering to make this unsolid outline. + +Drake's words rang in my thoughts. Enter one of these molecules? Find +our atom? + +I said, "Drake, how can this ship be guided? How in Heaven's name can +we--" + +He told me--or tried to tell me. I am no scientist, to put down here +abstruse explanations of a subject so vastly unknown. Nor would I +obtrude them into this narrative. I recall that Drake explained how +by a shifting of gravitational force this vehicle could be guided +for space-flight. That I understood. The bow of the ship made +attractive--to receive the gravitational attraction of whatever masses +of matter lay in that direction. And the stern made repellent, or +neutral, at will. All that I could understand. An interplanetary +flyer, of the sort which often on earth had been contemplated. + +The size-change principle was also comprehensible in fundamental +generalities. But how, upon this inward trip, could we search these +myriad molecules for one particular molecule? And then find one atom? +And within that atom find one electron--or a proton, whichever it might +be--within which was a vast reach of astronomical space? + +Drake called our guiding instrument a spectrometer--an instrument tuned +to the vibrations of Dianne's world. He spoke of being able to search +out the characteristic spectrum; he spoke of electronic resistance +factors; of the aura of this designated world we sought, its atomic +force which, as we approached it--or receding, went astray--was shown +upon our instrument, thus to guide us. + +Let the textbooks explain it. There are many such now being published. +I can record only those things I saw and did. And they, in truth, are +strange enough so that I can only affirm my veracity and let it pass at +that. + +Beyond our windows came a void of emptiness, with only occasional +single molecules drifting past. They were always larger. Then I saw +them as objects enormous. Great dark worlds of that unsolid stuff we +call solidity! + +Drake insisted that I try and get some sleep. The ship was being +patrolled end to end for any sign of Togaro; but there was none. + +Dianne urged, "You must sleep, Frank. We must all keep normal. There +will be so much to do when we arrive." + +"Tomorrow," said Drake. + +Tomorrow! So incongruous a term! All normality of time or space seemed +gone. But I did try to sleep, and for a while must have done so, for I +dreamed a phantasmagoria of shifting things in a void of blackness. + +I wakened to find Drake alone at the window. + +"The girls are sleeping, Frank. No sign of Togaro. Sit here by me." + +He had an automatic in his hand. We both wore belts of the drugs--and a +belt with holsters for the other weapons. + +"Look, Frank." + +We had been in the vehicle now some twelve or fifteen hours. I was +astonished when Drake told me I had slept four hours at least. I saw +outside the window now a scene wholly different from before. We had +reached, and been maintaining now for a considerable time, our fastest +rate of diminishing size-change. Much faster than near the beginning +of the voyage, and conceivably faster than the most rapid rate that the +drugs could give. + +I gazed in awe from the window. This was astronomical space indeed! +I saw a vast reach of blackness, with blazing stars. Great suns, +resplendent with a corona of flame. White, dull red--some of them +yellow. They lay strewn like gems on a black velvet cloth. Some were in +clusters, faint as luminous dust in the distance. Above us there was a +great band of glittering star-mist, like the Milky Way. + +The whole brilliant scene was swift with electronic movement as of +stars. But I realized that our vehicle was not only dwindling, but +sweeping forward in a flight of tremendous speed. The stars went by in +a steady drift. The heavens in advance of us seemed opening up; the +points of light sped past our window and drew together behind us. + +Tremendous celestial panorama! I was lost in awe watching it. There +were spaces of blackness devoid of stars. Sometimes, far off to the +side, a lens-shaped cluster would drift past, to be lost in the +distance behind us. A universe of itself. Or a great spiral nebula--I +saw one which with a visible movement seemed rotating. + +Then ahead of us another universe would come. A faintly luminous patch. +Spreading wide as we sped toward it--until all in a moment, it seemed, +after crossing an empty void we were again among stars. Great suns +blazing alone. Or binaries, rotating with slow dignity about a common +center of gravity. Or suns, with smaller, dark worlds swinging in +orbits around them. Planets! We could see some of them, shining like +moons in every phase; and some held satellites of their own. + +We had for hours been within the atom. And one of these planets, +somewhere here ahead of us, was Dianne's world! + +I gazed, and there grew upon me presently the realization of a very +strange aspect to this glittering scene. These blazing worlds were not +large! It caught at my breath, this realization. I regarded a flaming +point off to the side. It was drifting backward. A monstrous world of +incandescent gas, millions of miles off there? I suddenly realized that +was not so. Why, it was a mere pin-point! An enduring spark! It was not +far away, but close outside our window. A monstrous, giant sun--yes. +But our vehicle was still so infinitely larger! Why, this was no vast +reach of space--not compared to us! + +I saw us plunge into a myriad points of light. A universe of stars. +But they were still so small in comparison with us, that we crowded +our huge bulk in among them. I saw some of them strike against our +hull--pin-points of fire harmlessly tiny. + +We went through an incandescent cloud of them; they bombarded us like +a rain of sparks. We plunged through and came again to a cavern of +emptiness, and then another universe, appearing ahead of us. + +I could see now the effect of our dwindling. These sparks were growing, +expanding steadily. + +Drake had several times left me to consult the men in the control room. +He said once, as he returned: "You see, Frank, what I mean by haste. We +are chancing it." His tone carried an apprehension. "There are millions +of light-years of distance to be covered in here. That is, they would +be light-years when we were small. While we are large they can be +crossed in a brief time. If we were to wait until we were smaller, +and then make the voyage, this space-flight would take weeks, months +perhaps. Yet we dare not cause too much astronomical disturbance. +We must be normally small before we approach Dianne's world--not to +disturb it in its orbit." + +I said, "Are we near there, Drake?" + +"Yes, near in time. They've just told me our forward flight must stop. +From here, a size-change only. And then, when we are safely small, a +short voyage--and then we'll land." + +"How long, Drake?" + +"They said a few hours." + +He sat down beside me. The scene outside the window had another, more +familiar aspect now. The side-drift of the stars was stopped. They +were widening out. Shifting both upward and downward, and receding +from us as we grew small among them. I fixed my gaze on one which was +level with our window. It seemed moving away. Drawing away to a great +distance, yet it always remained visually as bright as before. A tiny +spark, growing to a great blazing world. + +How long a time passed as I sat there, absorbed, I do not know. Two +hours or more, undoubtedly. Drake occasionally talked, and I answered +him vaguely. They were still diligently searching for Togaro, but it +was a fruitless quest. + +I recall that I suggested we might use care in disembarking, so that +Togaro would be kept a prisoner in smallness here on board. + +But that was impractical, as Drake at once pointed out. Togaro could +easily make himself an inch high and still be reasonably safe from +our observation. No use for us to guard the vehicle doorway. When our +size-changing current was cut off, the wire hull of the ship was not +solid. A figure an inch high could squeeze out through the side of the +hull very easily. Of what use to guard the door! + +"We can't get him, Frank. If he's cautious, handles his size right, +he's safe from us." + +Safe from us! But the thought, like an omen, swept me: were we safe +from him? + +I said, "Shouldn't the girls wake up by now?" + +It seemed that they had been sleeping a very long time; Drake and I had +had another meal served us. + +"They went in just before you woke up, Frank. Only three hours--the +rest will do them good--they were worn out." + +He had already told me that they were being carefully guarded. But now, +as though it were a premonition, a fear grew upon me. + +"Can't we go see them, Drake? Make sure they are all right?" + +He gave me a startled glance. "Come on." + +I was steady enough on my feet now. We went into the small, dim +passageway. It was whining and throbbing with the electrical sounds of +our size-change. An uproar of rhythmical throbs--one could shout along +here and scarce be heard above it. + +As I got to the door, my heart pounded. Their guard was in his place, +fifteen feet down the shadowed passage. But there was something +unnatural in his hunched position as he sat with his back against the +wall. His head seemed to have sunk forward upon his chest. Asleep? + +His hand on the floor held the automatic. His head was slumped. I shook +him. His inert body twisted, and fell sidewise. And we saw, sticking in +his chest, a tiny sword like a bodkin plunged skillfully between his +ribs to reach his heart. + +Murdered! + +The door to the girls' staterooms was closed! We jerked at it. Locked +on the inside. We pounded, shouted, kicked at it frantically. + +There was only silence from within. + + + + + CHAPTER XV + + _Togaro at Bay_ + + +The silence was horrible. If the girls were in there, why didn't they +answer? We thumped and pounded. + +"Dianne! Dianne, answer us! Ahlma--Ahlma--" + +Our cries brought members of the crew. The body of the murdered guard +was shoved aside. We jammed the passage, assailing the stout metal door +which was glowing with the current in it. + +"Dianne--Dianne dear!" + +The door resisted our efforts. We stood listening; I put my ear against +the door. + +Only silence. It seemed that even a scream would be less horrible. + +"Break it down," exclaimed Drake. "We must hurry!" He flung his +powerful body against it, but the door held. Alt came running with a +metal bar. We rammed. The passage was too narrow to give us room. But +at last the door yielded a little and we got the bar into the crack and +pried. + +We burst into the room. Ahlma lay upon the bed, unconscious. Her robe +was torn; there were bruises upon her temple, her shoulder and arm. The +room showed evidences of struggle. + +Dianne was gone! + +Ahlma had fainted or been knocked unconscious. We revived her +presently. Meanwhile we were searching the room, examining every inch +of it for tiny human forms who might be lurking in the shadows, still +large enough to be visible. + +But there was nothing. + +"Watch the doorsill!" Drake commanded. "If he's here--he may make a +rush to get out--" + +They carried away the body of the murdered guard; two men knelt, with +faces close to the doorsill, watching it. + +But there was nothing. + +We knew, even before Ahlma revived, what must have happened. Togaro, +with an inch or two of height, armed with a needle-like sword, had +crept upon our guard in the passage. Amazing, reckless villain! + +He must have dared to crawl upon the guard; then leaped, plunging his +little sword like a long needle into the guard's heart. + +Then he had scuttled into the girls' room, to grow large and softly +close its door. He had fifteen minutes, probably, before we discovered +the murder. + +Ahlma revived and told us the rest of it. She had been awakened to +find Togaro--in a size nearly as large as herself--forcing a pellet of +the drug upon Dianne. The girls struggled and fought. Their screams, +barred by the closed door and the humming, throbbing ship, had not been +heard. Togaro had taken the diminishing drug, and forced some of it +upon Dianne. He had struck at Ahlma. Her senses faded. Her last memory +was the sight of Togaro standing in the middle of the floor with Dianne +gripped in his arms. Both he and Dianne were dwindling. + +We searched the room again. But we could find nothing. + +Were Togaro and Dianne still here? If he was still here, we could keep +him here in smallness. If he had got small in the center of the room it +might be hours, or days of marching to reach the doorway and through it +to the passage, even if he could find his way. + +Drake cried, "By heaven, we won't land! I'll keep this ship in space +until we find him! Starve him out--there'll be no food probably, here +in smallness on the floor of this room." + +But starve Dianne also! I was shuddering. Dianne here--down here by my +feet perhaps--here with Togaro, hiding or wandering in some desolate +abyss of smallness. Or perhaps we had already trodden upon them! + +We stood with sudden terror, hardly daring to move. But were they here? +I said, "Let's try getting small, Drake. We've got to try something. +Get small here--in the center of the room where Ahlma says she saw +them. Search for them. Drake, we've got to get her away from him!" + +I was talking wildly and I knew it. Drake gripped me. + +"Wait, let's try and figure it out. Easy, Frank--don't let's lose our +wits." + +It seemed as though every moment was vital. I stood listening to +Drake's theory. Theory, at such a time! A surge of self-condemnation +was upon me. If only I had had the sense to stay close by Dianne! + +Drake was trying to estimate what Togaro had done. This door had been +barred on the inside. But there was a crack under the bottom of the +door an eighth of an inch high, at least. Drake closed the door for a +moment and showed me it. + +"Frank, they could be anywhere. Not here in the room--he wouldn't stay +here in the room--he had fifteen minutes maybe." + +With sinking heart I realized how easily he could have escaped out of +here. He and Dianne, diminishing say to an inch. Then walking to the +locked door. Dwindling again--walking, carrying Dianne--through the +crack under the door. + +He had had fifteen minutes--and another fifteen had now passed. He +could indeed be almost anywhere in the ship. + +There was a sound near by--a scream! Not that exactly. A shout. It +sounded above the throbbing, humming of the ship. + +We stood frozen, listening. + +"Drake, you heard it? Where was it?" + +He murmured, "What was it? A voice--" + +Not in this cabin. We stood listening in the doorway. Diagonally along +the passage on the other side was the door to another small cabin. It +stood open. Had the shout come from there? We had searched all the +cabins ten minutes before. We did not dare move without extreme care. +An incautious step might crush Dianne. + +There was a guard out here in the passage. All the crew were forbidden +to move except with the greatest circumspection. The guard said, "It +sounded in there. Shall I go?" + +A moment of waiting. I murmured, "Drake, over there." + +It came again, unmistakably from that opposite cabin. A single shouted +word, but we heard it. + +"Frank!" + +Dianne's voice! + +We rushed. No need for caution now. Hardly more than a dozen steps to +that open cabin doorway. But as we reached it, the heavy door clanged +violently in our faces! + +We stood baffled. We shouted. "Dianne! Dianne, are you in there?" + +From behind the barred door came Togaro's jeering, sardonic laughter. + +"We are here. Come in and get us--if you dare!" + + + + + CHAPTER XVI + + _Frank's Plan_ + + +This door, like the other, resisted our efforts, to smash it. Alt ran +to get the bar. + +We called, "Dianne!" + +She did not answer. With my ear against the door, it seemed that I +could hear a movement inside. + +"Dianne! If you can speak, answer me!" + +I thought I could hear a low, gruff murmur. I demanded, "Togaro! Open +the door!" + +No answer. + +Drake shouted, "Damn it, we'll break it down! Here, give me that bar!" + +We assaulted the door. In the silence between our blows, Togaro's +mocking laugh sounded again. It chilled me; horrible, sardonic, +confident laughter. + +The door began yielding. I warned, "Drake, your automatic." + +He handed the bar to Alt and the two men of the ship's crew who had +joined us. Ahlma, white and trembling, but eager, stood among us. Drake +swept her behind him. He and I stood with weapons ready. + +"Now, Alt." + +With a last blow the door fell inward. From where we crowded in the +passage the front portion of the little cabin was exposed. The huge +legs of Togaro were bent like a jackknife as he sat wedged in the room! +We could see at first only the lower half of him. + +Drake jumped into the doorway; his weapon went up. Togaro's voice +sounded--a dull gruff roar. + +"Wait, you fool! Do not kill me!" + +It checked, for that instant, the shot that Drake might have fired. I +was beside Drake now. The whole interior of the cabin was filled with +the huge body of Togaro. He sat sidewise to the door. The knees of his +bent legs were nearly as high as our heads. His back was jammed against +the stateroom bunk; his head as he sat hunched forward, crowded the +ceiling. His body was wedged solid into the little room. + +And upon his lap, held against his chest, Dianne was standing upright. +Her head came hardly to his bent shoulders. His arm encircled her. + +The scene froze us for an instant. The giant, evil face of Togaro, +above Dianne's head, leered down at us. + +He said, "Do not kill me! Do not dare! Dianne, tell them to talk to +me--not to shoot." + +I met Dianne's gaze. Her size in relation to me, was about normal. Her +face was pale, but she seemed unhurt. She gasped. + +"Frank--Drake--don't try to kill him--you don't understand--" + +Why not kill him? He was holding Dianne in front of him--but from where +I stood I could have sent a bullet into his brain and not endangered +Dianne. + +Or would his death throes have crushed her? I did not dare fire, yet. +Drake felt the same. He lowered his weapon; he pushed mine down. + +"Wait a minute, Frank. Easy." + +Togaro's smile widened. His broad, heavy face had a look of monstrous +evil. He said, "Why, that is better. Now we will talk." + +"What do you want to say?" Drake demanded. "Let Dianne go. Dianne, +climb down--" + +It brought a gibe. "How can she climb down?" + +I said, "We've got you. I can put a bullet into your head in a second. +Do you know what a bullet is?" + +"I know. Yes, young man, I know very well. But you won't do that. +Quiet, Dianne--stand quiet, I am not hurting you." + +His tone changed wholly as he admonished her. Ironic, to me; gentle, +solicitous, and yet ironic also, to her. + +I threatened, "But I will! We'll give you one minute!" + +Drake pushed me back. "What have you got to say, Togaro? You're caught. +You can't get smaller--we can kill you in an instant with these deadly +weapons. You can't hurt us." + +He was indeed so wedged into the cabin that he could scarcely move. But +Drake was making empty threats. Togaro interrupted him calmly, "Can't +hurt you! But you cannot kill me so fast that I will not also kill +Dianne. Crush her to death; here in my arms. Quiet, sweet one, I am +not crushing you--yet." + +We saw now that Togaro's hand held a pellet of the drug, a pellet +expanded to the size of a marble. He showed it to us. + +"The enlarging drug. I think I can get it into my mouth, Drake, before +you can kill me. It will be effective ten minutes at least after my +death. Did you know that? Ten minutes of my body growing, here in this +small room--" + +He left the sentence to our imagination. Across his huge lap the cabin +window was visible. Outside it I could glimpse the black void of +space--a dull-red crescent hung out there, with white stars blazing +around it. + +Our ship was here in space. A growth of Togaro's body, and he would +burst the roof of this cabin and wreck the ship. + +Drake stammered, "But you--you would not dare--" + +"Nor would you," Togaro returned calmly. "You do not want me to crush +Dianne. Or break this tiny ship and kill us all. I do not want it. Fear +nothing, I am no more anxious to die than you. There is of it nothing +for you to fear. I would not like to hurt my little Dianne." His hand +encompassed the span of her shoulder and back with a gesture like a +caress. + +We knew we were defeated. Drake said, "Yes. What do you want?" + +"Go now and tell them in the control room to land as soon as possible. +That is simple." + +Drake turned away. "You watch here, Frank. Keep him covered." + +I stood, a few moments later, in the passage whispering with Drake. We +had an hour of grace. Togaro, from the window beside him, could see our +progress toward landing. We did not dare do anything else with the ship. + +But there was an hour. And I had a plan. Desperate; to me, with my +inexperience in these strange conditions, it was a plan incredibly +awesome. Yet I could think of nothing else which might be done. A plan +by which I might rescue Dianne and kill Togaro. + +I whispered it to Drake. + +He said at last, "Yes, I guess it's the only thing. You think I should +go with you? Two of us--" + +"No. The chances are better with one." + +"Then I will try it," he said. But I shook my head. + +We stood out of Togaro's sight and hearing. Ahlma was with us. + +Ahlma said, "But, Frank, you are not used to it. If you would trust it +to a girl--" + +But that was not feasible. Drake would have been better than I, no +doubt. + +"If I do not come back," I urged, "you, Drake, are needed here. And +when the ship lands--it is you who are needed, not I." + +It seemed the best thing to do. I had an hour before the landing. And I +was ready now. I needed no preparations. I wore my belt of the drugs; I +carried a knife like a short sword. + +I edged up as close to the doorway of Togaro's cabin as I could get +without his seeing me. + +I took the diminishing drug. + + + + + CHAPTER XVII + + _The Tiny Prowler_ + + +"Good-by, Frank," Drake reached carefully down and touched my dwindling +shoulder with the tip of his finger. "Be cautious--don't take too many +chances." + +"No." + +"Remember--if he once sees you--well, that's the end, Frank." + +I called softly upward. "I'll be careful. You give me the signal, +Drake, when you think I'm small enough to start toward him. And +remember the plan. If I can distract his attention--if Dianne leaps +away--you shoot him." + +I was already not much higher than Drake's shoe top. The passage floor +was in shadow. The wall was drawing away from me. + +I had taken what was perhaps half of one of the pellets of the weakest +intensity. Its effect was gone in a minute or two. I stood quiet, +trying to judge my height compared to Drake; and waiting for his signal +to tell me that I was small enough to dare advance into Togaro's +doorway. + +A scene of singular strangeness, here on the floor of the shadowed +passageway! The floor was a grid, or grill of laced metal. I saw it +now as a spread of level surface; girders three feet wide, with others +crossing to checker it into squares--three-foot squares, each of them +a black abyss. The perpendicular passage wall was fifty feet from me. +The other way, I could see Drake's monstrous figure; it blurred up into +the distance overhead. I gazed, trying to estimate his apparent height. +Four hundred feet tall, or more. Beyond him--it seemed a quarter of a +mile at least--there was the blur of Ahlma's robe. + +I concluded that to Drake I was about an inch high. I saw him move; as +though some great dark mountain were falling upon me, his body stooped +above me. His hand came slowly down; his palm spread like a pink-white +roof close over my head. And then swooped upward; I could feel the +suction-wind as it rose. + +It was our agreed-upon signal. With my heart pounding I turned toward +the cliff which was the passage wall. I walked, half ran upon one of +the broad metal girders. + +I came to the wall; followed one of the girders going lengthwise of the +passage. This huge passage! A vaulted, shadowed place five hundred feet +across, and twice as high. + +Ahead of me the cliff ended in a great opening. Togaro's doorway! I +stopped at the edge of it; stood cautiously peering. I could see into +the gigantic room. Togaro's back seemed half turned to me. I could +distinguish only his foot and leg. The blur of his body showed in the +upper distance; and Dianne up there--a dim golden blur of her robe. + +I took a few more steps. It was several hundred yards into the room to +reach that huge foot. + +But in my present size I could not cross the threshold without the +chance of his seeing me. I had nearly an hour; I decided to get smaller. + +A taste of the drug. The girder beneath my feet widened until it was a +broad, rough metal roadway. + +Space above me and to the sides was so great I seemed almost in the +open. Ahead in the distance there were dim blurs of shape. And there +seemed occasionally the muffled rumble of monstrous voices. + +I ran until I was winded, then walked. How far, I have no idea. It +seemed, altogether, a mile or more. The roadway ended in a great spread +of rough metal surface. I climbed a gentle slope like a mound, passed +over it and descended. + +The threshold! I was in the room. + +I had been advancing toward the mountainous outlines which were +Togaro's body. I came near them now. He wore rough cloth trousers. The +corrugations of them were tremendous fantastic ridges of gray surface +rising into the air. + +I stood again trying to fathom just where I was, and what I might do. I +was still a considerable distance from where those billowing folds of +cloth rested upon this metal ground. I ran again, then walked to get +my wind. I was already tired. The gray mountain was at hand. I think I +was behind Togaro. The folds of his trousers rose in an almost formless +shape to where, several hundred feet up, I thought might be the line of +his belt. + +I stood beside his leg. I even touched him. The cloth was like woven +strands of rope. Each strand was rough with dangling edges. + +I put my hand upon one strand. It was as thick as the rope that ties an +ocean steamship to its dock. There were spaces here into which my whole +arm would go. + +I set my foot into an opening. I could climb this! I gripped one of the +strands. I swung myself up. + +Then realization came to me. Why, this was madness! There was five +hundred feet of height above me, and then I would only reach the ledge +which was Togaro's belt. All this time his least movement would fling +me off, plunge me to my death. + +Madness! I let go, and leaped backward to the ground. I would have to +get larger. + +I took a cautious taste of the enlarging drug, then another. + +The scene around me, with its steady dwindling, began to rationalize. +I found myself standing behind Togaro, in the curve between him and +the stateroom bunk. His waistline came down. I thought that presently +with a leap I might reach up and seize his belt. Or in a moment I would +be able to climb into the bunk. And from there perhaps leap upon his +shoulder. + +I had, for a long time past, been aware of various sounds. I had heard +Drake's voice in the passage, talking, I thought, with Togaro. + +The expanding drug action ceased. I drew my sword. I was now, I think, +compared to Togaro, a foot possibly in height. There were sounds--a +confusion of them--in the air. Voices, blurred by the mingled throb and +hum of the ship. + +But abruptly they all changed. A silence. The new sounds--a clanging, +and a sudden voice! Drake's voice: + +"Dianne! Togaro! Sit still or I'll kill you--" + +I was stricken. Togaro's great body, with Dianne clutched to him, was +heaving, rising. + +He lurched backward, almost to crush me. Drake shouted again, but +his words were lost in the turmoil. It seemed that all the world was +crashing about me--rending, tearing crashes. + +I leaped upward. My sword dropped as I clutched frantically to keep +from falling. I caught at a great leather band, wedged my arm under it +and clung. + +I felt myself heaved monstrously into the air. + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII + + _The Escape of Togaro_ + + +It was an anxious time for Drake, this hour during which he was waiting +for me to make my attack on Togaro. He stood, with Ahlma behind him, +watching me dwindle. Then he stooped, cautiously keeping back where +Togaro could not see him, and gave me the signal. + +I was about an inch high, down by his shoe. His gaze followed me as I +ran toward the doorway. In the shadows there he saw me getting still +smaller, until I was lost to his sight. + +Drake whispered to Ahlma, "We must act naturally." He put his arm +around her in his apprehension for Dianne and me and the knowledge that +there was disaster ahead for us all. "Ahlma." + +She whispered, "Drake!" + +They could find no words, but needed none. For a moment he held her, +kissed her; saw in her misty eyes an answer to the tumult of his heart. + +"We must be alert, Drake. Be ready for what may come." She turned +abruptly and called into the ship, "Frank! Oh, Frank, you go to the +control room and tell them again to hasten our landing. Drake and I +will watch here." Calling so that Togaro would hear her and not be +suspicious that I was not in evidence! + +Drake whispered, "Good idea!" + +Alt came up. He said aloud, "The ship is diminishing very fast. We will +be there soon." He added, in a whisper, "He is gone?" + +"Yes. Stay here with us." + +The minutes dragged by. Togaro sat quiet; he held Dianne close to +him; occasionally he spoke to her. Sometimes he would command Drake, +"Remember, when we land--if you do not try to harm me, Dianne will be +safe." + +Through the windows Dianne's world was constantly visible. It lay +now beneath the ship--a great spread of convex, red-brown surface. +The light of its parent sun gleamed upon the mountain tops. The +configurations of the land and water areas were plainly visible, save +where, in patches, cloud masses obscured them. + +The vehicle presently was dwindling quite slowly; then its size-change +ceased. It dropped swiftly down toward the globe's surface. + + * * * * * + +There are a few brief astronomical details which I think I should +record. When Drake and the ship landed now upon this little globe Drake +was normal in size to its inhabitants. Calling him then his earthly +standard of six feet tall, a comparative set of measurements may be +given of this atomic world. + +You who read this can visualize only by earthly standards. That is +natural, for to the human mind the conception of one's self is the +starting point of every comparison. During all these events I recall +that I almost always felt myself to be my original, normal size. I saw +landscapes which were huge, and landscapes small as children's toys. + +But always I felt myself to be Frank Ferrule, five feet seven inches +tall. Thus quaintly egotistical is the human viewpoint; to each man is +his own mind the pivot of the universe. + +Dianne's earth within the atom, then, you may visualize as a globe with +a diameter of about three hundred miles. A circumference something +over nine hundred miles. Its inhabitants were far larger, therefore, +in comparison to their globe, than we are to our earth. To them it was +indeed a little world--small as an asteroid would be to us. + +It was called, in the native language, "Mita." A blazing sun was near +it--twenty million miles away, perhaps--and Mita was the only planet. +It rotated on its axis with a revolution of about six hours and forty +minutes; so that, as we experienced the passage of time, the equal days +and nights were each about three and a third hours in duration. + +There was a slight inclination of its axis--a progression of seasons +with a cycle of some three months. There was one small but brilliant +moon. + +Again, I can only say that textbooks are now being filled with the +astronomical technicalities of the planet Mita. I record only such few +stray facts as may make my narrative more understandable. + +There was, for instance, the gravity as we felt it on Mita. In spite +of the globe's smallness, its inhabitants felt a gravitational pull +not much different than we feel it on earth. This was caused by the +planet's tremendous density. A solid little globe of heavy, metallic +rock. + + * * * * * + +It was night when the vehicle dropped through Mita's atmosphere, +heading for the largest city of the world's single nation. Drake stood +in the passageway within sight of Togaro and Dianne. There was a window +near him. Through it he could see the landscape as it rose and visibly +expanded until presently it seemed close underneath the ship. The +sunlight had faded from the sky when the ship entered Mita's shadow. It +showed now as a line of red-yellow light on distant mountain tops. A +fading light--the sunset, with the brief night just beginning. The sea +was off there beyond the mountains; and again a line of ocean showed in +the opposite direction. + +Directly beneath the ship was an island-continent. A land-locked lake +with many islands was near its center. A curving reach of lakeshore +showed a patch of checkered, shadowed surface which was the city. +Overhead a half moon was hanging. + +Drake still had Ahlma and Alt beside him. They were watching +Togaro--pretending to watch him, but in reality their anxious gazes +were searching for me. I was, I think, at about this time lurking +behind Togaro. I had reached a size where Drake could have seen me, of +course, had he dared advance into the doorway and look; but he did not. + +Increasing apprehension swept Drake. The time was growing short. He had +ordered the ship to land. It was already filled with the preparatory +sounds: the voices of the navigators in the control room giving orders, +the rattle and clank of moving chains, the opening of a side door for +disembarking. + +Drake's apprehension grew into a panic. He had thought, of course, that +I would make an attack before this. He did not dare now give orders to +have the ship kept in the air. Togaro was watching through the window +at his side--his glance darting out there and then back at Drake. The +giant held Dianne's small form close against his chest. + +He had admonished her not to speak. He kept her face turned now from +the doorway, with his huge arm encircling her. And he forced her to +reach up and with her tiny hands clutch at the collar of his shirt. + +Through the window there was presently the close-at-hand moonlit vista +of the lake, the shore front, and the city buildings. Drake saw the +familiar landing-space. It came swiftly mounting, only a few hundred +feet down now. A crowd of people, dark figures edged with silver +moonlight, stood gazing up at the dropping ship. + +Ahlma murmured, "What can we do?" + +A sudden confusion gripped them. The ship was landing! To Drake it +unreasonably seemed as though this sudden crisis had plunged upon him +all unawares. He had waited too long for me. + +Horror swept him now. Togaro's hand went to his mouth. He took the +enlarging drug! A clanging resounded through the ship. It tilted, +thumped slightly, came to rest upon the ground. For perhaps five +seconds the three in the passageway stood transfixed with horror. Then +Drake shouted: + +"Dianne! Togaro, sit still, or I'll kill you!" + +But it meant nothing, and Drake knew it. He gripped Ahlma and Alt, and +flung them back against the passage wall, staring with futile, helpless +horror. + +The already huge body of Togaro was expanding. But already he filled +the small cabin. He lunged, heaved his shoulders up against the ceiling. + +Drake shouted again, with more rationality this time. "Togaro, don't +hurt Dianne!" + +Togaro panted, "No!" + +He held her in the protecting hollow of his arm. He rose, straining +his shoulders once again against the ceiling in a monstrous lunge. The +ceiling broke. + +Togaro stood a moment in the wreckage, expanding until only his giant +legs remained in the cabin. Then he leaped upward. With a single +jump he cleared the ship and landed upon the ground, scattering the +terror-stricken crowd. + +A growing giant, with huge bounds he fled away down a moonlit road +toward the lake. The crowd on the landing field, staring after him, saw +the small figure of Dianne hanging to his neck. + +At the back of his waistline they saw a far smaller figure. It was +I--clinging desperately to his belt, riding him like a clutching insect +of whose presence he was unaware! + + + + + CHAPTER XIX + + _Night of Turmoil_ + + +Drake hurried with Ahlma and Alt from the ship. It was a scene of wild +confusion as the frightened crowd milled over the moonlit field. In the +distance the figure of the running Togaro loomed, a huge dark shape +towering over the landscape. This little world was visibly convex: the +horizon was very close. Drake could see Togaro bounding along the road +which followed the lakeshore, beyond the city outskirts. His giant +figure sank lower until presently it was gone below the horizon. + +The crowd, which had been watching the giant, redoubled its confusion. +Men and women were here; even a few children were held aloft to keep +from being trampled. The near-by throng surged upon Drake. + +Alt gasped, "They saw a man hanging to Togaro. Very small." + +"Frank!" + +"Move--back--" Alt began in English, then burst into a flood of his +native language. + +The crowd was pressing close upon them. Drake had all he could do to +protect Ahlma from the roughly surging people. They were all about +Alt's size--men bare-headed and barelegged, with jackets long to the +knee, flaring like a skirt; women, some of them dressed like the men, +but with hair bound on their heads, or young girls with longer skirts +and flowing hair. + +Drake, who wore the native costume, with a band about his forehead +to hold his hair from his eyes, stood head and shoulders above the +crowd. He held an arm about Ahlma, and struggled to force his way +across the field. His instinct had been to take the enlarging drug and +follow Togaro. But that was not practical. Togaro, always able to be +the larger, could have turned upon him. And with Dianne in Togaro's +arms--and now myself, so tiny, clinging to him--Drake realized that any +combat would only kill us both. + +"Ahlma, we must get over to the field-house." + +"Yes, Drake." + +"See the officials. There should be some one here to meet us." + +The crowd had seen the ship descending and had gathered. The officials +were here. Drake saw a line of the native police guarding the ship, and +at the little field-house there were others. + +Alt said, "There is Jain." He called to the official, a huge +black-coated fellow. Drake knew him; and he spoke English. + +Drake said to Ahlma, "Everyone's frightened. Give way there!" + +But the crowd was more than frightened. Menacing, Drake abruptly +realized, as two men roughly plucked at him. + +"The drugs!" Ahlma gasped. "They want the drugs." + +Jain came wading forward, bellowing with the voice of authority which +now the crowd began to obey. + +Drake called, "I don't want to hurt them." He was far stronger than any +of these people, and he was armed, both with the drugs and the weapons +I had brought. But this was a crowd of Dianne's people. + +Drake had lived among them for a year; he knew them well, and they knew +him. They were an excitable people; in a panic of terror now at the +sight of the giant Togaro. Drake had no wish to do anything to excite +them further. + +He shouted with what he hoped would be reassuring words. Alt shouted in +his own language. They forced their way forward. + +The mob presently began dispersing. Jain led Drake into the +field-house, a small building of metallic blocks. Other officials were +here. There was a hurried consultation. + +Then a conveyance arrived--a long, low wagon on rollers, with a covered +top and a line of small animals to pull it. They climbed aboard and +rumbled off through the city streets to the palace of Dianne. + +I never saw, except with fleeting glimpses, this Shore City, as its +name might be translated into English; nor Dianne's palace, nor any of +her loyal people, the Mitans, as the nation was called. + +To Drake it was all familiar. He had attained a position of authority. +The ruling class--those who were born with the crescent patch on their +foreheads--had accepted him as one of them. Dianne, headstrong little +ruler, had insisted upon going in the flyer when Alt was sent out into +largeness. Now, in spite of Drake's efforts to guard her, she had been +taken by Togaro. + +Jain was very solemn. "The council will blame you, Drake." + +They could not blame Drake more than he blamed himself. Yet, from that +moment Togaro held Dianne in his arms there was nothing Drake could +have done. + +And nothing now that he could think of to do. He sat immersed in gloomy +thoughts. For all his year among these people it was still a strange +world to him. He said suddenly: "Jain, that was my brother clinging to +Togaro. We've got to find where they went." + +Jain was solemn, but there was an excited triumph upon him. For months +now the Togarites had kept hidden in smallness. Their headquarters--the +place where they kept their interplanetary ship--could not be found. +The Mitans had searched. Thousands of organized searchers were +scattered everywhere throughout the land. For months no Togarite giant +had ever appeared. + +But now Togaro's arrival would disclose where his followers lurked. + +"We will get the news at the palace, Drake. We'll know now--and we will +organize an army, with the drugs and your weapons, and go after them, +Drake. We will get them now!" + +It was a ride of no more than ten minutes. The narrow city streets +were lined with low houses, all built of metallic blocks. There were +few lights, for the night was cloudless and the brilliant moon bathed +everything with silver. + +The city was in a turmoil. Crowds thronged the streets, milling and +shoving and shouting. + +The cart nosed its way along. The identity of its occupants was known. +Drake often heard his name shouted. The crowd opened for the cart, but +closed in behind, and followed it. + +They wound up a hill, and entered the tree-shrouded gardens of the +palace. It was a scene of almost normal earthly beauty, with paths +and flowers, and low-stunted trees, heavy with redolent blossoms, all +shining in the white moonlight, with a gentle warm nightbreeze from the +lake. + +The palace was a long building some forty feet in height, overgrown +with climbing plants like some ancient castle of earth. Two stories, +and a queer dome roof like the crown of a helmet surmounted by a +needle-spire. There was a single broad doorway up a short flight of +stone steps. The lower windows at the ground level were barred. But +overhead was a broad balcony with a metal railing, with open doors and +windows giving access to the second floor rooms. + +The palace faced the garden on this side, and on the other stood sheer +upon the brink of a cliff--a perpendicular rocky wall, a hundred feet +down, at the bottom of which the waters of the lake lapped on a narrow +rocky beach. + +As the cart rumbled across the garden, Drake caught a glimpse of the +lake beyond the corner of the building. A moonlit spread of placid +water, sharply convex. At the near horizon a green island loomed in the +moonlight. The cart stopped, and they hurried into the palace. + +The garden behind them was jammed with the arriving mob. A silent, +gathering throng. Ominously silent. + + + + + CHAPTER XX + + _In the Blood Light of Dawn_ + + +Drake leaped to his feet. "But this must be stopped! Good God, this is +madness!" + +An hour or more had passed. The brief night was more than half over. +Drake had sat in the palace with the harassed council. Night of +turmoil! This brief night, preface to the end. + +It seemed as though all the city sensed it. The crowds were in a wild +chaos, surging everywhere throughout the city. Aimless, leaderless mobs. + +The government, too, was in chaos, striving to do a multiplicity of +abnormal things at once. A welter of official activities was around +Drake. He sat watching and listening, waiting an opportunity to take +his part in the one thing most vital to him--the expedition which soon +was to start upon the rescue of the Princess Dianne, and the capture of +the Togarites. + +The whereabouts of the enemy was known now. The island at the near-by +horizon held them. It was no more than three miles away across the +water. A public garden and park occupied this small island. No one +lived there, but pleasure parties often went to spend a few hours. The +island had been searched many times and nothing found. + +Yet it was Togaro's headquarters, quite evidently. His giant form had +been seen wading out there. He was there now. Drake from the palace +balcony had stood and seen the towering figure in the moonlight. And +then it had dwindled. In smallness there, beyond doubt, the Togarite +ship was hidden. He and his leaders were there. + +Drake listened to the council making its plans. An expedition of +young men who had been trained in the use of the drugs was now being +assembled. They were coming into the palace now, in groups, as the +messengers sought them out in the city and brought them. + +There seemed only one way to get to the island unperceived by Togaro. +The space-ship in which Drake had arrived was being hastily repaired. +In an hour or two it would be ready. A hundred young men, and Drake +with his automatics, would board it. The ship would then dwindle to a +size very small. It would seem a flight of miles to the island--but the +ship could do that in a brief time. And in such a small size could land +unobserved. + +The cause of the turmoil in the city was puzzling and disturbing to the +council. The arrival of Togaro had created an excitement almost verging +upon panic. But the excitement had started before Togaro's arrival. All +during the three-hour daylight preceding, and the night before that, a +strange air of unrest had been apparent among the people. There were +fifty thousand of them here. The near-by rural districts held another +fifty thousand. There was an influx from the country into the city. No +one knew why. Whole families coming in their carts, then abandoning the +carts, and mingling with the city crowds. + +Messengers arriving from other cities reported the same conditions. +The people everywhere were frightened, acting strangely. The small +government flyer came on its four-hundred-mile voyage from the other +side of the globe. It was mostly water in that hemisphere; but there +was one island--one large city. It, too, was in a turmoil. + +A strange restlessness, which the panic here in the Shore City over +Togaro's arrival could not explain, pervaded Mita. To Drake it was as +though by some occult force the knowledge was spreading throughout the +world of impending doom. But he knew it was nothing occult. Might it +not be that Togaro's followers were dispersed widely over this little +globe, mingling with the people, spreading insidious, frightening +propaganda? + +The minutes passed while Drake sat watching the arriving men whom he +was to lead. The council room was in the upper story. The men came up, +were checked and given instructions, and then taken to the lower floor +to be equipped with belts and the drugs. + +Word came that the space-ship was not badly damaged. The repairs were +progressing. It would be ready for the voyage by dawn. + +All this time, in the garden of the palace the mob had stood +unnaturally silent, watching the building as though trying to guess +what activities were going on inside. Messengers were constantly +arriving and departing. Police were bringing in the young men whom +Drake was to take into smallness. The airship from the other hemisphere +came and landed near by; its officials hurried in through the police +cordon at the palace doorway. + +As though nature were conspiring with a premonition of what the future +might hold, a cloud lifted above the horizon across the city and +passed near the moon; a cloud at a considerable altitude, tinged with +red from the coming sunrise. It threw a red cast upon the moon. The +moonlight suddenly seemed drenching all the scene with blood. An omen? +Drake shuddered. He turned from the window. But the murmur down there +grew to a shouting. It brought his gaze back. A rhythmic shouting--the +repetition of a few words over and over. It may have started with a +single voice, and the crowd took it up like a chant. + +"Alt, what is that?" + +Alt was near Drake. He listened. But Ahlma caught it first. + +"They say, '_The world ends tonight! Give us the drugs!_'" + +Like a chant the crowd was all shouting it now. "_The world ends +tonight! We want the drugs!_" + +The council heard it. A silence fell upon the room as they listened. +Then from the palace doorway, the police began shouting. A new turmoil, +then the sound of thuds upon the front palace walls--missiles were +being thrown. A chunk of rock came hurtling through the window. It +narrowly missed Drake and fell with a crash in the midst of the sitting +councilmen. + +It was then Drake leaped to his feet. "But this must be stopped! This +is madness!" + +The mob was attacking the palace doorway. It surged at the foot of the +steps. A rain of rocks came hurtling upward. + +Drake shouted, "Jain, tell the council I'm going to get large! I'll +disperse this mob--Ahlma, you come with me! You can talk to them--try +to calm them! Tell them you are speaking for your princess." + +A turmoil almost equal to the confusion in the garden now broke out in +the council room. The men were all on their feet, jabbering excitedly. + +Jain shouted, "No! They say no, Drake--" + +Drake was spurred by the feeling of helplessness that had made him +stand by and watch Togaro escape with Dianne. + +He handed Ahlma a pellet. Alt pleaded, "Let me come with you." + +Before the council could move to stop them, all three had taken the +drug. The room began dwindling. It struck a sudden calmness to Drake. +He said: + +"Alt, we must get out of here! Tell the council we will not get very +large. Only enough to disperse this mob. That can do no harm. Togaro +knows we are here--if he sees us, what matter? Tell them we'll be small +again soon--I'll be ready to go when the flyer is ready." + +Alt shouted his translation. The balcony doorway was already shrunk to +Drake's waist. He pushed Ahlma through and squeezed through himself +with Alt after them. + +At sight of them the crowd gave a roar of mingled surprise and fear. +The fighting at the palace steps was instantly checked. The crowd stood +and gazed. Surprise; awe; terror. It froze them. + +There was a total silence. Drake gazed down, and then with a moment of +dizziness looked away. The palace was shrinking. He presently reached +up and gripped its spire at the peak of the roof. With his other hand +drew from his belt pellets of the other drug. + +Drake had had much experience with the drugs, each an antidote to the +other; he knew how to check his growth at any point. He checked it now, +and Ahlma and Alt did the same. + +They stood precariously upon a tiny balcony of a toy house whose spire +was not much taller than their heads. A few feet beneath them, hardly +more than a comfortable step down, was the miniature garden. Little +trees, bathed in the blood-light of the moon, and small human figures. + +The balcony strained and swayed beneath the weight. Drake said, "We +must step down. Alt, call down to them, tell them to give us room." + +Alt's voice spurred the crowd to action. The spell which had struck +them motionless was broken. A woman screamed. The crowd took it +up--frenzied screams. In panic, they turned and shoved, fought, +screaming to get away. + +But the adjacent streets were packed with people. The crowd from the +garden pressed at them. + +The balcony was breaking. This toy house; these toy people! + +Drake said, "Step down, Ahlma." + +There was room beneath them now: They stepped from the balcony, and +stood together beside the little palace, with the garden down at their +shoe-tops. The crowd in a frenzy was fighting its way back through +the trees. There were open spaces in the garden now. Patches of open, +blood-red moonlight. But in all of these, motionless tiny figures were +lying where they had been trampled. + +Contrition swept Drake. It seemed that everything he attempted was +doomed to disaster. Ahlma was gripping him. + +"Drake, look--off there!" + +They could see behind them over the palace roof; the shining lake; the +island at the horizon where the Togarites were hiding. + +Alt cried out, stricken with horror. And then Drake saw it. + +They stood, Drake, Ahlma and Alt, three giants, gazing out over the +lake. The dawn was nearer than Drake had realized. The sky above the +island was turning red. A bank of clouds off there was reddening. +The swift-coming dawn was at hand. The moon was fading. The scene +everywhere was brightening. + +Upon the island, where a green hill showed dark against the lightening +sky, something abnormal showed. A dark shape, growing, expanding. +It spread, sidewise and upward; not a human shape, not a giant, but +something far more ominous. It was rounded and oblong; and to be +visible at this distance it must be already a hundred feet long. + +Then in a moment it was twice that. It seemed shoving at the hill with +its growth--shoving itself toward the water. + +The Togaro space-ship! It had come now suddenly from its hiding place. +Realization swept Drake with a surge of horror. Togaro's departure was +at hand! + +The ship was expanding with tremendous rapidity. It soon had shoved +itself off the island with its growth. It lifted slightly and then +settled upon the water, floating on a raft-like hull of pontoons. + +Another minute. It lay off there as though moored to the tiny island. +It was still growing, a monstrous thing now. Most of it was below the +curve of the horizon, but its stern loomed up beside the island. A ship +a mile long now. In another minute it might be twice that. + +Drake's thoughts were whirling. This monstrous thing--why didn't it +rise and be gone? + +As though to answer his thoughts he became aware that Ahlma and Alt had +turned and were gazing again over the city. Then Drake knew why the +Togaro vehicle was lingering. + +From everywhere about the distant landscape, from a hundred points in +the spread of the city, giants were rising! The dawn--this dawn now +beginning--was the signal. Giants, widely scattered at various points, +appearing now out of smallness! + +There was a giant whose head and shoulders rose from one of the city +streets quite near at hand. The sight of him caught Drake's fascinated +attention. He grew with amazing swiftness to a height of perhaps two +hundred feet. Then his growth suddenly stopped. He stood gazing about +him. In the faint light of the dawn Drake could see him plainly--a +Togarite, stocky, wide-shouldered, bullet-headed. He wore, upon his +chest and waist a series of belts. And about his throat a leather +necklace, with pads out over his shoulders. + +His torso, shoulders and neck were black with clinging tiny human +figures! They hung upon his straps like clustering insects. They were +in their normal size, Drake judged. They had climbed upon him when +he was small. He seemed to be carrying a hundred or more. He stood a +moment, then stepped cautiously up to the flat roof of a near-by house. +It cracked with his weight. He leaped over it, into another street. He +may have crushed scores of people who were gathered there. Drake could +hear faint screams. The giant leaped again, found a broader street, ran +down it toward the lake, and waded into the water. + +A hundred such incidents. A hundred such giants simultaneously +appearing at the signal of the dawn. They were carrying ten thousand +people at the least. They appeared from everywhere, laden with the tiny +clinging figures. + +From the distant hills of the open country still more of them came +running, dashing through the city, wrecking its houses, trampling the +crowds in the streets; heading for the lake. + +The water was soon lashed into a turmoil. The giants were all a +prearranged height. The water rose only to their hips. It beat white +against them as they forced their way through it toward the island +where the monstrous vehicle was waiting to receive them. + +Drake understood it now. In smallness the Togarites had been secretly +working; gathering their followers from among the people. It was an +exodus now to the island where the expedition to conquer the earth was +ready to depart. + +There were giants rising from the island now. More of Togaro's +followers, gathered there in smallness, growing now to join this +arriving throng of their fellows. One giant, taller than all the +others, loomed into the sky, black against the blood-red dawn. He was +standing in the lake, far away, so that only his head and shoulders +were above the horizon. It may have been Togaro, directing the +embarkation. He was monstrous; and the vehicle on the water, lying +quiescent now with its stern looming on the curve of the little globe, +was monstrous. + +The giants were clustered out there, climbing with their human freight +into the doorway of the ship. And they were still arriving. The city +was wrecked with their passage. The broken streets were littered with +mangled forms of the trampled crowds. + +The sunrise came. The blurred little sun was red. It bathed the +shattered, screaming city with crimson; it painted the running giants; +it turned the foaming waters of the lake to blood. + +When the turmoil was over and the littered giants had all embarked, +off there against the red morning sky the monstrous vehicle was again +expanding. + + + + + CHAPTER XXI + + _Riding the Giant_ + + +I must revert now to that moment when I clung to the huge strap which +was the back of Togaro's belt and was lifted through the wrecked cabin +of our ship. I could see very little: the bulge of Togaro's shirt above +me; the strap of his belt, wide as the length of my arm, to which I +clung. + +There was a rending crash. A dizzying, monstrous sweep of movement; a +thump as we struck the ground; then the rhythmic swoops upward and down +which marked Togaro's giant leaps as he ran. + +The wind tore past me. I could see the blur of the swaying ground; I +seemed at least fifty feet above it. Soon I was higher than that, for +Togaro's body was constantly growing. + +Then we were in the lake, Togaro wading. The water rose to his hips. It +surged in white-lashed waves close under me; the spray from it drenched +me. Overhead, fifty feet up or more, I could see one of Dianne's white +arms clinging to Togaro's neck. He had evidently given her some of the +expanding drug, so that she grew proportionately to him. + +I remained tiny. His growth and hers were ended by the time we reached +the island. I tried to keep my wits. I was to Togaro the size of an +insect now. But if he got smaller he would very soon become aware of +me. He stood in the water by the island, looking back at the city. +Presently I felt his belt dwindling. I quickly took some of the +diminishing drug myself. + +We all three dwindled, about maintaining our relative size. The island +came up and spread around us. Down into smallness we shrank. I need not +detail it. I found that presently we were in a forest of immense green +stalks, which might have been grass. They grew gigantic up into the +sky. Soon I could only see beside us one monstrous green stalk. + +There seemed a sort of ravine in the tumbled, uneven ground. Togaro +walked into it. There was a valley. An encampment here! + +The encampment of the Togarites on the island! Microscopically small, +but Togaro dwindled into it now; and upon his belt I still was clinging. + +I saw about me a group of huge dwellings. A crowd of giants. A bustle +of activity, making ready for departure. And then I saw the space-ship. +It was lying hidden here. + +I saw that now Dianne was about the same size as Togaro. He placed her +upon the ground; her head towered above my lofty perch. I heard the +rumble of Togaro's voice over all the clatter of the camp. + +"I will take you aboard, Dianne. We start in two hours." + +We went through the ship's doorway. Down a passage, gigantic. Into a +cabin, gigantic. + +"Dianne, you sit here, quietly, and wait for me. Will you do that? Or +are you going to cause me trouble?" + +She said, "I am not foolish enough to disobey you, Togaro." + +"That is right. I will not hurt you." + +There was a cushion on the floor. She sat down. I peered around the +bulge of Togaro's waist and saw her. She was looking up at him. +Smiling, but it was a pale, harassed smile. + +"You speak in English, Togaro? Why is that?" + +He faced her; the movement of his turning was a wild swoop through the +air for me. + +He said, "When I am Master of the Earth it will be our language. We +will forget Mita, you and I. This is the end of Mita." His chuckle had +an ominous implication. "I will be back presently, Dianne." + +I saw that there was a man stationed here at the door of the room +on guard. My heart was pounding wildly. Togaro was going out. Above +everything I must make my presence known to her. But how could I get +down from Togaro's belt? I was fifty feet above the ground. + +He walked toward the door. I stood recklessly upon the narrow ledge +which was the top thickness of his belt. At the door he stopped to +speak to the guard--telling him no doubt to watch Dianne carefully. +Togaro's back was toward the cabin wall. A window was here, with a +portière and a rope thick as my body. I was swung within a few feet of +it. I leaped, caught the rope, wound my legs around it. + +I slid cautiously down the fifty-foot length of rope to the ground. I +found the floor in shadow. The figure of Dianne was a hundred yards +away. + +I ran over toward the wall and circled toward her. + + + + + CHAPTER XXII + + "_Vengeance of Togaro!_" + + +To Dianne, and to the guard in the doorway, I was a figure an inch +or so in height, plainly to be seen if I moved too fast, or left the +shadows of the floor. But I did neither. I reached Dianne safely, +though it took me a long time. + +I circled behind her. I climbed upon the heights of the cushion, I +touched her robe. Did I dare pluck at it? I thought I might perhaps +attract her attention. + +I took another ten minutes, or it may have been half an hour, climbing +along the cushion to its other side. And presently her hand, as she +idly moved it, came to rest quite near me. I looked up and saw that her +face was turned my way. + +I decided to chance it. I darted forward and stood against the curve of +her wrist. She felt me. Her instinctive movement of the hand knocked +me over, but I fell into the soft billows of the cushion. I lay quiet, +praying that she might not cry out. + +She recognized me! She made no sound, did not even move. But near me +one of her fingers was gently swaying. + +I held myself motionless, waiting. In a moment I could feel her turning +cautiously, so that her robe might hide me from the guard's view. + +A fold of the robe presently came over me like a great golden curtain. +Her finger, larger than my body, came carefully feeling for me. I +reached for it. Clung to it. It pulled me as it slowly shifted away. +And then her thumb came near. I was carefully lifted, carried with a +gentle swoop through the air and set down twenty feet away. + +A deep shadow was here; I was near the back wall of the cabin. I knew +Dianne wanted me to stand quiet; knew that she was planning how we +might communicate. Her voice sounded as she spoke to the guard. Their +native language--I could not understand it, but quite evidently she was +telling him that she was tired, for presently she lay prone, with her +head on the cushion. + +Her face was turned toward me, and away from the guard. She had made +our opportunity. I ran forward. The guard could have seen me then, but +he did not, and in a moment Dianne's head was between me and him. I +climbed again upon the cushion. I stood beside Dianne's face. Her ear +was near me. + +"Dianne!" + +Her lips moved, whispering, "Yes, Frank!" + +"Dianne--I came, riding Togaro. I have the drugs." + +"Be very careful, Frank." + +I had no conscious plan. I was unarmed now--I had dropped my weapon in +the cabin of the other ship when I leaped for Togaro's waist. But there +must be some way of getting Dianne out of this room, out of the ship, +back to Drake. + +"Dianne, do you think if I could get larger and surprise this guard +that we could get out?" She had seen more of our surroundings than I. + +"No!" She was plainly agitated, but she held herself quiet, just her +lips moving in the faintest of whispers. "No! Don't get larger--not +now! The passage is full of men--they're loading the ship. We'll be +starting soon, Frank, you can escape! Go! Go now--get back to Drake." + +"No," I murmured. "Dianne, then you must get small." + +"Frank! Run!" + +Togaro had returned! I leaped from the cushion and hid near by. + +An hour passed. I think it must have been that long. Togaro was talking +with Dianne. They spoke in English. He was very gentle with her. He +told her they were almost ready to start; told her with triumph that +his expedition was larger and in better shape than he had expected. + +Dianne knew that father was guarding the rock fragment, and that all +these thousands of Togarites could never escape into our earth-world. +Togaro knew that also. But he ignored it. Had he a plan perhaps to get +his hordes out of the rock? + +Dianne was apparently very docile; but I could hear how cautious she +was in all she said. + +The sounds of the embarkation were constantly audible. Togaro said at +last, "I think we are ready." + +He went to the door and spoke to the guard. Dianne seized the +opportunity to flash me a warning glance. + +Togaro came back. "I've ordered the start." + +The familiar shock came as the size-changing current suffused the ship. +It began enlarging. Togaro took Dianne to the window. + +"Stand here, little sweet one." + +His tone made me shudder. His arm went around her shoulders. I could +see her shrink with repulsion and fear. + +"Togaro--" + +At once he withdrew his arm. Strange scoundrel! He knew how to handle +this girl--or thought he did. He said, + +"My silly little Dianne--you almost love me!" He was quizzically +ironical. "Almost, but not quite! But that--all in good time I will +correct it. Just now we have more important things to worry us." + +"Yes," she murmured. "Togaro, you are hurting me." + +"Hurting you? I am not touching you!" + +"Hurting me--with your threat against my world." + +"How strange a way to say it! Hurting you! Which world do you mean I +threaten? Why, Dianne, I threaten all worlds!" + +He said it boastfully, but with complete irony. "You know that, Dianne. +I am as you once told me, the great heartless fiend. The incarnate +devil--is that the way you say it in English? The heartless, murderous +Togaro. Ah, but not concerning you, little Dianne. My heart is very +full of love for you." + +She surprised me, and him equally, by retorting vehemently, + +"That is a lie! You love yourself--you are in love with your own dream +of conquest. Not in love with me! Filled with desire for me? Not very +much, Togaro! Enough to make you want to hold me here, amuse yourself +with dallying--because you think you are a very great lover. But +your greatest desire is to murder! To kill! To destroy your fellow +creatures--and you ask me to try to love you." + +He put his arm around her again, but she flung him away. He laughed. + +"Masterful little woman--a fit mate for Togaro, master of the earth. +Would you not say it so, Dianne? You have used all your words and have +none left? But if you will not talk, at least you will stand here with +me and look out of the window. See, we have come above the island trees +now." + +They stood silent, gazing. From down by the floor I could see nothing. +Then along the wall I noticed where a translucent pane came to the +floor to join a floor window. It was dark over there. I ran; and found +a jutting edge of casement around which I could peer and see out. It +occurred to me that with Togaro and Dianne absorbed, with their backs +to the cabin, I might now get large. But the guard had not relaxed. + +I stared through the window. We were a gigantic ship now. Our growth +was spreading us over the island. I gazed down from a height at the +small island trees; they were being mashed beneath us as we grew. The +island's hill was near by; we shoved our way at it. + +The island was dwindling beneath us. Then Togaro called an order. I +could hear the echoes of it being relayed to the control room. The ship +lifted; moved away from the tiny island, and settled on the water. I +saw on the island some of Togaro's men growing to giants. + +The red light of dawn was in the sky. It was the scene Drake, Ahlma +and Alt were witnessing as they stood by the palace. Our size-changing +current went off. We lay, a monstrous vehicle, with shallow water all +around us, and a tiny green island near by. + +I heard Togaro say: + +"We are not floating, Dianne. See, the water is so shallow, we are +grounded upon the bottom. The curve of this little earth is already +apparent beneath us--the ends of our ship are in the air." + +"Togaro!" His words, the implication of which escaped me then, brought +a horror to her. "Togaro, we will depart without getting larger?" + +He did not answer, he merely laughed and said, "Wait and see, Dianne. +Look now; my loyal followers are arriving." + +The giants, clustered with their tiny human freight, came wading. They +stood in the lashed blood-red waters; then came aboard. + +The ship resounded with the turmoil of their arrival. They thronged the +corridors; their tiny human burdens were taken from them and herded +like ants into the various cabins. One of the giants, still littered, +came to our door and spoke to Togaro. I saw him as a fellow about +Togaro's own height. The people he was carrying were as small as I now +was myself. He presently turned and went away. + +The embarkation proceeded. For ten minutes or so, Togaro left Dianne +and went outside. He commanded her to stay by the window; and with the +guard doubly watchful, she obeyed. + +Nor did I move. I saw Togaro outside, standing in the water. His figure +grew so monstrous beside the ship that only the lower part of his legs +was visible. He was searching the horizon, no doubt, to make sure that +no more of his men were coming. Then, after a moment, he was dwindling. +He came aboard in his former size. + +"All are aboard, little Dianne. We are ready to make the final start." + +She said, with a frightened hush to her voice: "Start away in space, +Togaro?" + +"No!" he said grimly. "We shall stay here, Dianne, resting upon the +curve of your little world--and grow a little larger. Why not?" + +She could find no words. He added, "We're leaving this world Mita +forever, Dianne." + +She burst out, with more anger than horror this time--but I knew it was +a pretended anger, and that horror was sweeping her. "Why not, indeed! +Bring death here to no purpose--why not?" + +"I'll tell you," he said: "I would have ruled your world, with you +as my queen. Your people would not have me. Rejected me--made me an +outcast. Now they shall pay for it!" + +He said it with a horrible, calm grimness. "Pay for it, Dianne, by +dying! Death at the hand of Togaro. Vengeance of Togaro. Ten million +people die, because Togaro is angry!" + +It struck her silent; she stood white and silent and helpless beside +him. And as though Fate were determined to keep me helpless also, the +guard at the door stood with renewed alertness, his gaze searching the +room. + + + + + CHAPTER XXIII + + _Doomed Little Planet!_ + + +The last scenes upon the planet Mita, as it was given to me to witness +them, were unfolded now beyond this window through which I was gazing. +I suppose it took another hour. It might have been far longer. + +Tremendous fearsome drama! I saw, far below this window, a toy lake--a +scene in miniature of a lake with little green islands. I must have +been near the stern of the ship. Looking down, I could see that our +tremendous hull was jutting into the air, high above the water. Our +growth had pushed us back toward the city at the lakeshore. I saw the +city now come into view beneath me. + +A brief glimpse. It was full daylight. Our hull was jutting a thousand +feet perhaps above the tiny houses. I saw the wrecked and littered +streets where the giants had passed. + +The glimpse of a minute or two, no more. But what I saw down there is +stamped with indelible horror upon my memory. It was a city of wild +confusion, black with surging, tiny people, trampling over the dead +and dying unheeded. Fires broke out in the shattered buildings. The +great black shadow of our looming hull overhead lay for a moment like +a finger of death upon the scene. In the gloom down there, the fires +showed lurid yellow and red, with black smoke rising in tiny wisps. + +A minute, then the scene had dwindled and passed beneath us beyond my +sight. Our hull did not touch the city; upon this shrinking little +globe--this surface becoming every moment more visibly convex--we were +balanced amidships somewhere off in the lake, with the curving world +falling away from under our bow and stern. + +My window soon was high above a toy landscape of miniature forests and +scattered dwellings; and ribbons of roads. There seemed people running +along the roads. + +A line of mountains showed; the sunset was on them; and to one side I +could see a curving ocean. All shrinking--small, but sharp and clear in +every detail as though I were gazing through a diminishing glass. + +The mountains came down under me. The sunlight faded from them; beyond +them I saw the stars. + +I heard Togaro give an order. Our ship lifted a trifle and hung poised. +The sharply curving landscape lowered. Then, with a gasp I realized how +monstrously large we had become. Why this was the top of a little globe +beneath me! It was not far away--only a few miles down; but it was so +small that I could see all the curve of its upper surface--all the +configurations of land and water; and the stars gleaming beyond it. A +little ball, hanging here in space close under me. Its entire diameter +was not much longer now than the hull-length of our ship. + +Another few minutes. The scene from an earthly landscape, was turning +celestial. We were in space. Black space, with blazing, glittering +stars. Mita's sun was visible--a fiery globe with a vivid corona of +mounting flames. Still, close under us, the planet Mita, like a child's +ball, hung attached to us by gravitation. + +The heavens were visibly rotating. We clung to Mita, so that the +rotating planet carried us around. We were a monstrous weight, larger +than the planet now, but still gravitationally attached to it. I could +fancy the planet lurching. Its axial rotation lurching wildly. Its +orbital swing about its little sun suddenly altered. + +We rose presently and swung away from Mita. The sun was over my head--I +could not see it. But beneath me I saw the planet. A ball--like a ball +of steel magnetized, following a monstrous magnet. It followed us. It +clung to our giant bulk, with the force of gravity irresistibly drawing +it after us. + +Now all my vague understanding of Togaro's purpose burst upon me with +full realization. We were swooping toward Mita's little sun! A moment, +and then the ship echoed with Togaro's vehement commands. We swung away +from the sun. With speed and size gigantic, we swooped sidewise and +darted away. + +My window showed celestial space. But I saw how small it was! Distant +tiny stars, all disturbed, chaotic with this giant bulk of our ship +come among them! The sun and Mita were close to us, directly before +my window. A ball of yellow-red blazing gases, and a little lurching +planet! + +We had shaken Mita off, flung it like a pitched ball. Upon that side of +our hull we were repulsive now to gravity. Mita's orbital revolution +about its sun was checked. It staggered--and then began falling. + +A slow movement at first. I stared. Then I could see the movement: a +crazily spinning little ball, lurching, falling-- + +Doomed little planet, falling toward its flaming sun! + + + + + CHAPTER XXIV + + _The End of a World_ + + +I have from Drake his impressions of those last hours on Mita. A wild, +chaotic picture his memory holds. Jumbled impressions--yet as I record +them in that fashion, doubtless I will approximate the truth, for they +were jumbled, frantic scenes of panic--millions of people struggling +upon a doomed world! + +Upon Drake there was a sense of despair; his own futility was so +clearly shown, and the futility of his plans! He had sent Alt to have +me come into the atom with automatics. He stood before Dianne's palace, +gazing at a world gone mad. An automatic was in his hand, as futile as +a cap pistol in the hands of a child. + +By nature Drake was resourceful; cautious, but reckless too, when he +thought reckless daring was necessary. He stood, there as a giant +with Ahlma and Alt, and saw in the blood-red dawn Togaro's monstrous +vehicle expanding into the sky. It did not need Alt's horrified words +to bring realization to Drake; nor the wrecked city--the turmoil of the +panic-stricken throngs--to make Drake realize that this was the end. He +knew it. + +A very human sense of utter failure made Drake stand and tell +himself bitterly that there was no use trying to do anything. But the +feeling passed. It is instinctive to struggle for life against every +most desperate circumstance. Drake became aware that in the wrecked +city spread there in the dawn before him, thousands of people were +struggling for life. Doing nothing with any rational thought--and yet +struggling. + +Behind him, in the palace, he heard the shouts of the councilmen; the +clatter of footsteps. The government, against all these odds, was +striving to do something. Nobody was quitting. + +It stung him into action. + +"Alt, we must get back to normal size! Help them, Alt. This is death if +we stand here." + +They took the drug. The scene dwindled. The Togaro ship off there on +the water seemed rising to new gigantic proportions. Its huge stern was +coming toward the city. Projecting above the water now; Drake could +see the space between the bottom of its hull and the lake surface. It +came, that giant stern, shoving its way forward. The length of its +hull extended like a gray wall off for miles to the horizon where it +lay balanced, with other miles on beyond, the shape of it blurred by +distance against the red sky of dawn. + +Drake attained normal size. Ahlma clung to him. + +Alt, too, was struggling to cope with a terror almost overpowering. +"Drake--what--what can we do?" + +They were down in the garden now, at the doorway of the palace. +Officials were running in and out. Calling orders, with no one to hear +them. Some of the police stood here, inactive, stupefied with terror. + +"Come inside," said Drake. He pulled at the confused Alt. "Don't you +understand? Our ship may be repaired by now. We've got to get it +repaired! Herd the people into it! Make it large enough to take us +all--all these people. Alt, we've got to send messengers--send them in +giant size--to the other cities! The local airships--dispatch them to +bring the people here--get them all into our vehicle and get away! You +understand? This is the end of the world here! Abandon it! This is--the +end!" + +They ran into the turmoil of the palace. + +In the chaos of those final hours Drake must have played a leading +and a masterful part. He does not tell it so, but I think it is true. +Authority--the routine of any official activity--was wholly gone. Of +them all, it was Drake who held most of his wits, who gave orders and +enforced obedience. + +The time was very short. There was an hour--or even less--while the red +dawn faded into full light of day. The monstrous hull of the Togaro +ship projected like a black roof over all the scene. The shadow of it +lay black upon the city, the palace and lake. It grew until up there in +the sky nothing else could be seen. + +Then it lifted. It moved up a few miles. It hovered up there. From +one horizon to the other it loomed, a solid dark shape like a leaden +cloud-bank. Its great pontoons were visible. The rectangles of floor +windows showed in its bulging hull. + +An expanding dark cloud. It soon was spread so wide that all across the +sky was only one small section of its length--one pontoon, one window. + +But during that hour Drake was accomplishing things in all the turmoil +of people almost stricken of reason by terror. The space-ship was ready +at last. The repairs fortunately had been almost finished before the +panic began. + +Messengers were sent into the burning city with orders to herd the +crowd to the landing field. Local ships were sent to other cities. +Some got started, some did not. But a few, at the very last, came +back loaded with refugees. The young men of that army which Drake had +expected to lead into smallness against Togaro, were now most useful +of all. They understood the drugs and could be trusted with them. In +the lower room of the palace Drake stood with the main supply of drugs. +He dealt them out to this little army. A hundred or more. They stood, +white-faced and silent; but alert, eager to obey. + +"Alt, tell them--" Drake cursed his inability to speak with any fluency +this native language. But Alt, always at his elbow, was swift to +interpret. "Alt, tell these ten to get large, very large, and run to +the water city." + +Another ten, somewhere else; and others. In a size gigantic, they could +circle this little globe on foot in an hour or so. They were to pick up +as many of the people as possible and bring them back. + +The lower room of the palace was dark now. The brief day was past. +Night had come. Stars, and the moon. But the moon had only shown for a +moment. The black cloud, the shape of the Togaro vehicle, was up there +among the stars. The moon had swung crazily and was gone. + +Into the palace windows came the mingled sounds of the night of chaos: +screams, the roaring of futile orders in the garden, where a crowd was +surging over the trampled neglected bodies. Darkness out there, painted +by the lurid glare from the burning city. + +Drake dispatched his men. They turned out into the frantic night, +fought their way for space in the milling throngs, and took their drug. +Soon they were rising as giants, moving cautiously to the open country, +then running. + +Drake had been to the landing field several times. The vehicle was +ready. It lay gigantic, spreading all across the field. Thousands of +refugees were in it. Others were momentarily arriving. Ten thousand +now, the officials there told Drake. A thousand, hurt in the throngs or +crushed by the passing of Togaro's giants, had also been carried here. + +Drake sent the other men to search the city--to bring back from the +littered streets any who seemed still alive. From the palace gardens +and the nearest streets, the police were spurred to carry in the maimed. + +A thousand people arrived while Drake stood there on the field. A +local ship came down and landed with another thousand. Two of his men, +gigantic, came dashing up with another thousand clinging to them whom +they had collected in the near-by rural sections. Men and women, and +children huddled in their parents' arms. Some had bundles of clothes, +which for all this clinging to the back of a giant in the last hours +of the end of a world they still were reluctant to abandon. Families, +trudging aimlessly along country roads in the night or driving carts +piled with household treasures, had been seized by these friendly +giants and brought to the vehicle. + +A lump was in Drake's throat. These few thousands of people, arriving +here to what might or might not be ultimate safety--but there were ten +million people here on this doomed little world! + +Drake wondered how long he dared hold the vehicle here. The night +itself was wildly crazy. He saw the moon vanish with a lunge. The stars +were abnormally swaying. A wind was springing up from the lake, a +violent, aimless wind. The water lashed against the shore. + +The arriving giants reported storms in the other hemisphere. The sea +had mounted and submerged many of the islands. + +Then the next dawn came. The sun swung crazily up. Swiftly, abnormally +mounting to the zenith. And there, against all reason of nature, +it seemed to hang motionless; for an hour perhaps. Then it dropped +visually sidewise, and came again, swaying like a pendulum. + +The Togaro vehicle showed only occasionally now as a distant blur among +the stars. Mita was wildly lurching. This was not day and night. A +chaos! + +Drake knew it was near the end. The sun presently hung motionless. It +was growing hotter. Its heat and fiercely intensified light beat down. +Soon they would be intolerable. + +"A few hours more, Alt. That's all we can stay here." + +Drake was horribly worried over Ahlma. She had pleaded: + +"I am experienced with the drug. You must let me go, Drake. Let me get +large--I will bring some of them back to safety--" + +In his harassed activity he had yielded, had stood watching her huge +robed figure running off into the night. She had not yet returned. A +hundred times he had felt that he must drop everything and go after +her. But he could not be spared; nor could he spare Alt. + +Twice Drake had checked the embarking multitude and had ordered the +vehicle to grow larger. It lay now across the field and over half a +dozen near-by city streets. They had been cleared of people, and the +growing vehicle had crushed the houses there into a wreckage of masonry. + +The end was near. The sun was twice its normal size. The glaring heat +was horrible. Jain, with other officials, were demanding the start. + +"No! Not yet!" But Drake knew that not for very long could he force his +way. + +A few giants were still straggling in; Drake and Alt and a hundred +other leaders were standing in a giant size at the vehicle doorway. +The glare of sunlight was blinding. The lake was roaring with a hot, +sulphurous wind plucking at it, lashing it. + +But Ahlma had not come. Then off over the toy landscape, Drake saw the +blur of her robe. Her head and shoulders mounted above the horizon. +She came running with great leaps. As she arrived Drake saw the small +figures upon her. Women and children, almost all of them. + +"Ahlma!" He was her own size. He touched her; words would not come. But +he knew that the safety of all these multitudes had meant less to him +than the life of this one girl. + +"Ahlma, go in. They'll unload them inside--There--the doorway--" + +"Yes, Drake. How many are here?" + +"We think about a hundred and ten thousand." + +"Oh!" + +It was so few, out of ten million! + +Ahlma went into the ship. Drake turned to Jain. "Shall we start?" + +"We must!" + +A toy world lay wrecked at their feet. Clouds had come suddenly down. +They swirled over the land--tumbling black mist, shot with lurid green +and turgid yellow. But the sun beat through them. Rain had came in a +downpour; but the sun beat it away and dried it up. + +"Come in then, Jain." + +No, there was another giant coming. He panted up with his cluster of +refugees. And then another came. + +They could wait no longer. There was a moment when no arriving giants +were in sight. Ten million people on this doomed planet--only a few +over a hundred thousand were here to depart. But the sun was too hot. +The scene was strewn with people who had fallen in the heat. Drake was +suddenly staggering. Jain pulled at him, and the door closed after +them. From a stricken toy world, the vehicle struggled away. + +The interior of the ship was a blur of murmuring sounds. A hundred or +so giants, like Drake, to whom the ship was a thing a few hundred feet +long; and a hundred and ten thousand people, small as ants, swarming it +everywhere. + +Drake stood at a window. He thinks he must have stood there for hours. +The surface of Mita dropped away as the ship sped off into space. The +stars showed, celestial space. + +The Togaro vehicle was gone. Drake saw Mita through his window. A +little ball. The sun lighted it upon one side, so that it showed as a +reddish half moon, with the dark portion dimly visible. + +Drake's ship was expanding. But after an hour or so its size-changing +mechanism was shut off. It hovered--the Mitans in control of it +lingering with fascinated gaze to witness the destruction of their +world. + +It took perhaps a few hours more. Mita was falling. The yellow-red +ball of sun hung off there in the black field of space beneath Drake's +window. Mita seemed above, falling slowly. The movement was hardly +visible at first. But it accelerated. The two bodies visibly drawing +together. + +Then Mita was rushing. Drake thinks he remembers seeing a tail +streaming out behind it. A tail, like a comet, as though by its fall it +were turning incandescent and leaving a stream of glowing star-dust. Or +perhaps with its rapid fall, its atmosphere was leaving it--dust-laden +air streaming off into space where the dust caught the sunlight and +glowed. There is no one to say. + +A fall of millions of miles. It was that far, to Mita. I can fancy, +in those last hours, the blazing heat withering everything upon the +planet's surface. Its ten million inhabitants--save those few Drake had +helped to rescue--I can think that long before the end, they were dead; +shriveled, fallen in the heat. Smothered, choked by the gasses which +must have polluted what little atmosphere was left. + +Drake saw the end. The planet plunged. Fell like a plummet at the +last and struck the blazing surface of its sun. There was a flash; a +leaping, extra spurt of flame for just a moment in the sun's corona. + +Then the sun blazed alone. What had been Mita was fused and gone. +Non-existent! + +From the window Drake turned shudderingly away. He had seen the end of +a world. + + + + + CHAPTER XXV + + _In the Campfire Light_ + + +There were some forty thousand people on the Togarite ship, adventuring +out upon the conquest of the earth. A few hundred men, who were the +Togarite leaders. I think there were perhaps six or eight hundred of +these in all. They were experienced with the drugs, and constituted +Togaro's active army. + +Not very many for the conquest of all the nations of our earth. Yet +enough! I realized it as I contemplated what they could do. Togaro +was planning carefully. There were thousands of other men on this +ship--Mitans who had joined his cause. He could easily have trained +them. But he was wise enough to realize that the diabolical power of +the drugs needed always to be kept under his close control. He could +handle his six or eight hundred trusted men; a larger army might have +been awkward. + +There were several hundred giants aboard the ship now. The rest of the +horde was in a tiny size. They had no drugs. They were men--but there +were women and children also. I could imagine that all the renegades of +Togaro's world were assembled here, eager with the lust of conquest of +an earth they had never seen. + +They swarmed the vehicle now. They were as small as I. Fortunately none +came to this cabin where Dianne was closely watched, and where I was +lurking. If they had come, being so small, they would doubtless have +discovered me. + +I did not dare leave the cabin; nor did I find, during all the voyage +which lasted what seemed twenty-four hours perhaps, an opportunity of +again communicating with Dianne. + +I need not detail this outward voyage. I saw many strange things +through that cabin window. The reverse of the inward trip. Diminishing, +shrinking space. The stars becoming so small that they flared about us +like a rain of sparks. + +Great voids of distance, always shrinking. Then at last, the +gray glowing molecules. Whirling and tumbling. A few at first, +very far away. Then many, very close. Then great clouds of them, +rolling and swirling. Dark. But sometimes shimmering. And always +shrinking--congealing into solidity. + +The transitions from one condition to another--from celestial space +to solid, rocky abyss--were never apparent, and impossible of close +description. I was watching eagerly for solidity. I did not see it +come--I saw only that at last it was there--out there in the void. +A vague, distant rocky wall. It dropped downward, as though we were +mounting. Barren cliffs gigantic, but dwindling. Closing in upon us. + +Activity became apparent throughout the ship as we neared the voyage +end. Dianne, after a few hours, had been given into the charge of +several giant women. She had been taken away to another cabin. A wild +thought came to me that I should cling to her robe. But the thing had +come suddenly, unexpectedly. I was across the cabin. I could not reach +her; the chances of discovery would have been too great. I lay in a +recess niche of the bottom of the wall, and watched her go. + +Later I found upon the floor some crumbs of food which she had dropped +for me. They were, to my size, great chunks of a baked dough, like +bread. I ate part of them. My hunger was appeased, but I suffered from +thirst. + +Togaro used this cabin now for consultation with some of his men. I +lay, carefully hidden. The room was brighter than before, and the guard +was constantly alert. Togaro sat at a table with a few of his men +around him. + +They talked in their native language; I could not understand a word of +it. He seemed to be planning his campaign. He had lived in our world +for a year. He doubtless knew a good deal about it. He spread upon the +table now what seemed to be maps. + +The ship landed in the depths of a stunted forest. Dark, shadowed +verdure, with a dim effulgence of light upon far distant mountain +ranges. The disembarkation took an hour or more. I could hear the +people marching out of the ship, clustering in the forest, setting up +their first encampment with the giants helping them. There seemed no +need for secrecy. Fires began springing up. Portable houses of animal +skins, like tents, were erected. Meals were prepared. A myriad duties +necessary to the welfare of forty thousand people were under way. + +I climbed through the wire-woven side hull of the ship, and reached +the ground safely. I stood beside a tree. The giant ship had mangled a +great spread of the forest. I found that I had got out none too soon. +The ship began shrinking. Its crew was taking it into a smaller size, +to hide it--or abandon it somewhere--and then themselves return to +rejoin the encampment. It dwindled, and presently was gone. The mashed +forest trees lay like broken jackstraws where it had been. + +I stood for perhaps an hour there in the darkness, getting my bearings +upon these new conditions. I was about normal in size to this forest; +this tree was stunted, but its limbs arched out over me for what seemed +twenty or thirty feet. + +I found, too, that these thousands of people encamped here over +several miles of forest territory, were all about my size. And the +giants now began dwindling. Evidently they found it dangerous to move +about--difficult to avoid trampling the tiny multitude. They dwindled +to the smaller stature. + +It was presently almost a normal earthly scene. A forest encampment by +night. Camp fires of burning brush; cone-shaped tents; like wigwams; +families clustered over their outdoor meal; the Togarite leaders +giving orders, directing the activity. + +I did not see Togaro himself. Nor Dianne. I would have to move about +and locate her. I pondered changing size. It did not seem advisable. +With a smaller stature I could not, in days, tramp about this camp and +find Dianne. Or if now I got larger, I would be instantly conspicuous. +I was conspicuous enough already. My garments were different from all +these Mitans--my knitted bathing suit marked me for a stranger. My +whole aspect--my language--differed. + +I made a start. I moved cautiously off through the trees. The lights +from the fires were circles of red and yellow. I kept out of them, in +the recessed shadows. Somewhere, at one of these fires, Dianne must be +sitting. I wondered if I could locate Togaro; he might have Dianne with +him. + +Occasionally figures passed near me. I was seen no doubt, but only +dimly. Once I almost bumped into a man who was gathering brushwood. A +woman and a child came up and took it from him. I mumbled something and +ducked away. + +The incident gave me an idea. The man was garbed in a jacket with +puffed, flaring sleeves and a circular bottom that flared like a skirt +at his knees. And he wore a cone-shaped hat, broad-brimmed. It was a +costume distinctive, and characteristic of most of these men. If I +could get possession of such a jacket and hat, they would disguise me. + +I wandered on, skulking the fringes of the camp like a lurking Indian +in a primitive American forest. + +The camp finally settled to sleep. The fires died. The Togarite men +patrolled back and forth, silent shadows in the gloom. + +I found my opportunity at last. A tent, where by the embers of a fire +outside a man's jacket and hat were lying. I watched my chance when no +guard was near. I darted forward, seized the garments and made away. + +Shrouded by the jacket, hiding my belt of drugs, with the hat brim +pulled low over my eyes, I felt a measure of security. I realized that +I was exhausted--that all during the outward voyage I had hardly dared +relax to sleep. I found now a wooded glen of ferns, dark and secluded, +with a blessed little rill of water at which I slaked my burning thirst. + +Then I lay down, and in a moment was sleeping heavily. + +The sound of voices wakened me. People were passing near me, but they +did not see me. Or if they did, my sleeping form caused no comment. How +long I had slept I did not know. But I was again hungry. And I found +that the camp was fully awake, bustling with its morning duties. + +Morning? The darkness was no different from before. The camp fires were +lighted again. All that day--if day it could be called--I skulked, an +outcast in the encampment, stealing what food I needed. I found that my +aspect, unless under too close a scrutiny, was passing unnoticed. + +But I could not locate Dianne or Togaro. There were forty thousand +people here in the forest. I skulked from one fire to another, but +without success. + +Had Dianne been taken away? Again I cursed myself for an inept fool. +I wondered how long Togaro intended to keep this encampment? Then +presently I realized what was being done. I saw near by, in a clearing, +a giant rising. He grew to what looked like several hundred feet, and +then stopped. A gathered throng was off there, and I made my way in +that direction. + +The tents were struck here. A thousand people were ready to start away. +The giant was giving them the drug. They marched off as they started +growing, with the giant leading them--dim figures towering into the +immensity of distance until presently they had vanished. + +I realized now how this multitude would be taken upward into largeness. +There was not a sufficient supply of the drug for them all to have it +at a small size. The single Togarite captain, getting large, expanded +his drugs and then fed the thousand people in his charge; at every +stage of the journey he would do the same. + +There were parties such as this starting now at regular intervals. I +wandered on; and I found Dianne at last. It was again near the time of +sleep. Ten thousand of the people had departed--but thirty thousand +were still here awaiting their turn. + +Dianne was seated at a camp fire, around which several women were +cooking a meal. A tent stood near by--a peaked canopy of skins. It was +larger than most of the others, with tasseled drapings at its doorway. +Dianne's tent, where she was waited upon by these women, I did not +doubt. + +I stood in the shadows of a tree, just outside the circle of fire +light. The light of the playing logs made Dianne's golden robe glisten; +etched her sharply against the darkness behind her. She sat composed +and quiet, with a regal dignity as the women prepared to serve her. I +thought, as I stood there in the darkness, that I had never seen her so +beautiful. + +Could I get to her? I saw that for all her composed casual manner, she +was very alert. + +I stood planning. A smaller size for me alone was not practical--I +had tried that before. But now, concealed under my jacket was enough +of the diminishing drug for both her and me. If I could get to her +unchallenged, she and I could take the drug and escape into smallness. + +Whatever chance I had was at once gone. Togaro appeared! In a size +normal to Dianne and me, he came sauntering up to her fire and greeted +her. He was broadly smiling, evidently in a high good humor. He wore a +vivid outer jacket; his whole aspect--the colored sash about his hips, +his tasseled leggings--was that of a cavalier in jaunty, debonair mood. + +I saw that he had discarded his belt of drugs. He took off his circular +hat and cast it to the ground. + +The meal was ready. Togaro evidently dismissed the women; they moved +back, out of my line of vision behind the tent. I heard his voice +saying in English: + +"You will serve us, little Dianne. Why not? A supper here together, +before we start the upward trip." + +I could not hear what she said, but he answered: + +"Yes, tonight. When we have eaten, Dianne. I have everything +organized--I am not needed here. You and I and your serving maids will +start. The next camp will be ready ahead of us--it will not be too long +a journey." He laughed. "I would not tire my little Dianne. I am good +to you; can you say it that I am not?" + +I stood tense. To follow them upward would be difficult. It was now or +never. + +Dianne moved about, serving the meal. They sat down facing each other +beside the fire and began to eat. Dianne was as yet wholly unaware of +my presence. I edged a little closer, slipped from one tree to another +until I was behind Togaro, with Dianne facing me. + +I stood now in the darkness beside the bole of a tree, just beyond the +circle of fire light. I was hardly twenty feet from them. I could hear +their voices. My foot touched a loose rock. I stooped and picked it +up--a chunk larger than my fist. I thought that there might be no one +watching the scene. I wanted to creep forward, cross the lighted area, +and strike Togaro before he could make an outcry. + +But Dianne must be made aware of me first, to be on her guard and ready +for my rush. + +I took a step forward. She would see me now, I hoped--see me as a +vague, shadowy form in the gloom. I took off my hat, and got the +diminishing drug quickly available. I stood tense, gripping the chunk +of rock, a finger of my other hand to my lips warning her to silence. +If she would see me, she must have the presence of mind not to start, +or make any sign that would warn Togaro. + +I thought I saw her stiffen. She stared my way. + +"Togaro--" + +It made my heart leap wildly. Was she about to call his attention to my +lurking figure? Did she see me, but not recognize me? + +She stammered, "Togaro--you know I hate you. But hate and love are very +close. I--was wondering why you put on that sash. It's very becoming." + +She had recognized me! I could not miss it--I even fancied she had sent +me a warning glance. But she looked instantly away, smiling now with a +mocking allure upon Togaro. + +She leaned toward him. She repeated, "I hate you, Togaro," exactly as +before, yet with a great difference. + +Though I knew it was deception, it shot a pang through me nevertheless; +and it must have struck at Togaro with a surge of emotion. Whatever +alertness to his surroundings he had had was gone. He put out a hand +and seized her by the shoulder. "Hate me? Why--" + +She swayed toward him and was in his arms. But she struggled a little. + +"Togaro, how dare you! Don't you dare--" + +There is no man who can yield up a woman when she struggles like that. +I thought that over his shoulder she had shot me another glance. + +I darted forward. Dianne was fighting with Togaro. Playfully--but she +saw me coming, and she changed. Gripped him by the face, with one of +her small hands over his mouth. Then she lunged, flung herself upon +him. The attack knocked him sidewise. He fell upon one arm. + +For an instant she held her hand over his mouth against all his +surprised effort to tear it away. In that instant I was upon them. I +did not dare fling the rock. + +Togaro saw me coming. With a lunge he cast off Dianne, and half rose to +meet me. We went down together. He was far stronger than I; and though +I landed on top of him, he rolled me over. + +I was aware of Dianne plucking at us, striving to impede Togaro as we +fought. + +The rock was still in my hand, but Togaro had my arm pinned. He fought +silently, then he let out a bellow. The camp took it up, and the uproar +surged toward us. + +I was underneath him, and his hands went to my throat. But that +released my arm. I struck upward with the chunk of rock. It must have +hit him a glancing blow on the head. He relaxed; slumped, a dead weight +upon me. + +I squirmed out from under him. + +"Frank, this way!" + +Dianne seized me. The alarm was spreading over all this section of the +camp. Men were running toward us. We dashed away into the trees. + +"Wait--here, take this, Dianne." + +We took the drug; ran on through the underbrush, dodging the firelight. +The scene expanded. The shouting in the camp faded into a dim muffled +roar overhead, and then was gone. + + + + + CHAPTER XXVI + + _The Black and White Flags_ + + +"It Seems so strange, Dianne, our being alone together." + +"Strange, Frank?" Her laugh was like the pealing of little fairy bells. +"Strange? Why, when we were children we were together nearly all the +time." + +Six years now since I had been alone with Dianne. She had been my +sister. We were alone now in the abyss--I was very conscious of how +alone we were. We sat by a rock, resting. We had found a pool of water. +This was our first stopping since we had escaped from Togaro. + +We had no food, but we felt that we could get out of the rock fragment +to father before the need of it would be serious. We had encountered no +Togarites. This vast abyss--these endless mountains, cañons and caverns +of rock--seemed able to hold friends and enemies innumerable, and yet +never force them together. + +We had at first got small enough to escape from the Togarite +encampment; had run, cautiously making our size larger so that the +running would take us an appreciable distance from the camp. Once away +from immediate pursuit, we started our upward journey in earnest. + +We had soon found ourselves lost. It was all a strange, desolate, +unknown region to me. But Dianne had traveled it before; as we grew +larger, the main configurations of the dwindling region became familiar +to her. She found a route different from that which the Togarite +expedition had proposed using. + +Discussing it with Dianne, I found myself puzzled at her confidence in +finding her way out and still avoiding the Togarite parties who were +ahead of us. Strange physical conditions, those of this size-change +traveling! Yet a moment's thought made the matter clear. + +Traveling inward--becoming small--the slightest deviation from the +true direction would lead the traveler into vast new realms. Countless +universes spreading at his feet. There was space here, limitless. In +the size we were when upon Mita there was around us in just that single +atom countless light-years of astronomical distance. Coming back, we +left the atom. It shrank to a microscopical point. We grew larger than +the atoms; larger than the molecules. + +Space within this fragment of rock which father was guarding was +constantly shrinking. Yet even in the abyss of the Togarite camp it was +a vast space. I cannot calculate it. But envisaging the distance from +one side of the rock fragment to the other, let us call it a thousand +miles. + +We grew still larger. Soon, to us, there would be only five hundred +miles of distance in here. Then one hundred. Then one mile. Then only a +few feet, until at last we would emerge and see that all the space had +shrunk to the size of our hand. + +Thus, coming out, all roads led in very nearly the same direction. +There was no solidity to the rock when viewed from the smaller +viewpoint; there is, indeed, no solidity to anything. A growing body, +avoiding being crushed, would at last emerge, no matter in what +direction it went. + +Do I make it clear? I hope so. + +At last we stopped, between the drug doses, to rest. We were at the +bottom of a vast circular caldron. Tumbled crags strewn in heaps. The +opposite rim, some ten miles away, was dimly visible in the gloom. +There were shadows in here now; it seemed that overhead a vague sheen +of light was apparent. We were near the top. Soon we would be out. I +touched Dianne's hand. + +"You think we're larger--ahead of all the Togarites now?" + +"Yes, I think so." + +I did, also. It was imperative that we get out of the rock first, get +up there and warn father what was coming. If we did that, the expanding +Togaro hordes wouldn't have a chance. + +"We'll have to rig up a black and white flag as a signal to father. You +remember, Dianne? I told you I'd arranged that with him. But how the +deuce can we?" + +She surprised me by drawing from her robe a square of white fabric with +black stripes upon it. + +"Dianne!" + +"I found a chance to make it, Frank--on the ship when Togaro sent me to +another cabin." + +She displayed it proudly. "Is it all right?" + +It certainly was. A flag about two feet square. I stood up now and +spread it out. + +"We'll wave it--like this, Dianne. Father will see it when we're still +very small." + +I showed her how we'd wave it. + +"Frank! Stop!" + +Her gaze was off across the dim abyss of the caldron. + +"Over there, Frank! Do you see something moving? I do!" + +Miles away, partly up the opposite cliffside of the caldron, it seemed +that something was moving. The light was very dim, yet distant objects +were unnaturally sharp and clear. Something moving off there. We +stared. Then we thought we saw human figures standing on that far-off +cliff, and something waving. + +"A flag, Frank!" + +It seemed a flag. A black and white flag, something like our own, +waving at us! + +The space-voyage which Drake, Ahlma, and Alt made from the doomed +planet, was very similar to this one I had just taken on the Togaro +ship. The Mitans landed in the abyss of rock. A hundred miles, or a +thousand, from the Togarite camp? There is no one to judge. + +It was a full day, perhaps, after Togaro landed. A similar scene of +activity ensued, save that nearly three times as many people were here; +unorganized, badly equipped, refugees struggling upward, not bent upon +conquest, seeking only safety. + +The voyage had been a busy one for Drake. He had tried to organize +things. There was not enough food or enough of the expanding drug for +this multitude. Drake organized it into smaller divisions, each in +charge of one of the Mitan officials. + +When they landed, and the ship was hidden, the refugees began moving +upward in size, the leader of each party going ahead with food and +drugs, expanding them and dealing them out to his people. + +It was the same system that Togaro was using. A slow journey upward, +stopping at each stage to erect a new encampment. + +And immediately upon disembarking, Mitan leaders were sent out as +scouts--alert to locate the Togarites, and to avoid them. + +In the first encampment Drake sat in consultation with Jain. + +"I think, Jain, this is the best we can do. Get part way up--get all +the people up to that size--and then wait." + +There was room down here to avoid the Togarites. But farther up in the +dwindling space a clash would be inevitable. + +"You wish to go ahead of us?" + +"Yes, with Alt and Ahlma. They know the way. We will take this black +and white flag." (Ahlma had made a flag.) "We can travel fast, Jain. +We'll go out and see my father. He controls everything up above. The +Togarites can't get out--and if we keep away from them, we're safe +enough. No use killing any of our Mitan people by fighting down in +here." + +"But what about us?" Jain demanded with a touch of suspicion. + +"I'll come back to you, Jain. Warn my father that this Togarite horde +may try to make a rush out, or get out by trickery. Warn him--and make +arrangements so that he can distinguish you Mitans from the Togarites. +Then, in small parties, we will go out." + +Drake, Ahlma, and Alt started upon their journey. They went swiftly. +Thousands of miles, perhaps, from Dianne and me at the beginning. Like +us, they got safely ahead of the Togarites. At one stage they sighted a +Togaro party, but managed to avoid and pass it without being discovered. + +The dwindling space near the top brought them in our vicinity. They +were standing on the caldron rim, and saw our black and white flag as I +tentatively waved it for Dianne. They waved their own. + +We were cautious approaching one another, each suspecting an enemy +ruse. But we came together at last. + +Reunion! The five of us here, with all the Togarites presumably behind +us; and father and the safety of our blessed earth close overhead. It +seemed, with Drake and Alt here with me--with Ahlma and Dianne babbling +news of what had happened to each other--that all our dangers were at +an end. It was an inexpressible relief. + +We grew out of the caldron into the space above, the huge familiar +valley. I remembered it; but it seemed rather darker now than it had +been before. + +With our flags out, we stood expanding. Above this valley was the upper +surface of the rock fragment. Once we got up there to the summit, +father would see us. I wondered if he would be on guard. Or Foley? Or +the other man--Ransome--whom we employed? It had only been a few days +since Alt and I left here. Days? The events which had crowded them made +them seem months to my memory. + +The valley shrank and closed in upon us. A pit now. + +"Drake, shall we climb out? Or wait a little longer?" + +It seemed best for us to start climbing. It was no more than a hundred +feet up. Easy enough, with us three men to help the girls. + +We scrambled up the rocky slope. We were halfway up when it had +dwindled so that the upper rim was barely ten feet above us. There was +light up there, and vague, blurred shadows of form in the hazy sky. + +"Jump, Dianne. Here, I've got you." + +We scrambled out of the closing pit, and stood a moment expanding upon +the upper surface. Jagged rock spires were around us, a broken area of +crags upon the summit of the rock. A few acres up here, and down over +an abyss was the surface of the granite slab. + +The scene shrank further, and then the last drug we had taken ceased +its action. We stood on a narrow, jagged peak of rock. A slope led down +beside us to a broad, undulating plain. It was only ten feet down. + +Alt stood with the girls. Drake and I were together, waving our flags. +We saw things dimly at first--the brighter light up here confused us. + +"Frank, you think he sees us?" + +"What is that, off there?" + +There was something very strange here! A chill swept over me. Drake was +not familiar with the surroundings father and I had prepared for the +guarding of the rock, but I was. This seemed a very strange scene now! + +Words choked me. I stood clutching Drake. + +"What is it, Frank--what's the matter?" + +This light overhead was not the light father and I had rigged up! There +was no giant microscope up there in the sky. + +Vague blurred shapes of a ceiling and wall were up there, and a +light--but not our light in the guarded room of our house at King's +Cove. + +This vast plain, gleaming dimly rough and undulating in the light--it +should have been our granite slab. But it was not! + +Realization surged over me with a chilling rush of horror. This was a +different room. There were people here; I heard an echoing rumble of +their giant voices. But not father, nor Foley nor Ransome! + +The rock fragment had been moved, stolen from father and taken +somewhere else! These were enemies, guarding the rock upon the top of +which we stood fatuously waving our little black and white flags! + + + + + CHAPTER XXVII + + _The Fight on the Rock Summit_ + + +Alt who was standing with Dianne and Ahlma, must have realized from my +attitude that something was wrong. I stood stammering, clutching at +Drake. Then I got it out. + +"Hide, Drake! This isn't our room--that's not father up there!" + +We swung back, and I shouted, "Alt, back!" + +Alt had already drawn the girls into the shelter of an overhanging +rock. We crouched for a moment, not daring to move. Had we been seen +from above? A blast of poisoned liquid from a spray up there could +kill us here instantly. Or a monstrous finger could come down with a +swoop and mash us. + +Drake murmured, "Shall we take the diminishing drug? Make a run for it, +and back?" + +Failure. It beat at me. All our plans gone down into defeat. This was +defeat--death for us. A retreat into the abyss; but we would meet the +Togarites coming out! And where was father? What had happened up here? + +Alt whispered, "We must get back in." + +Drake gripped me. "Are you sure, Frank? Father may have changed things +around. If we go back in, without knowing--that's the end, Frank! The +end for us all; for the Mitans, depending on us. What will we do?" + +The girls crouched, silent, white-faced. It was only a moment or so. +We never reached a decision--it was forced upon us. From the edge of +the rocky slope near at hand a man's head and shoulders appeared! A man +about our own size! He was climbing up from the plain upon which the +rock lay. A long bar of metal, thin as a sword, was in his teeth. + +He was a hatless, bullet-headed Togarite, a heavy-set fellow, naked +to the waist, with dark hair matting his thick chest. He saw us! He +shouted and others appeared behind him. Four of them altogether. + +Of us all, Alt was the one who had most presence of mind. The Togarite +shouted at us. Alt understood the words. He shoved the girls lower +behind the rock; he snatched my flag, and stood up, waving it. I caught +his words to Drake. + +"They don't know if we're friends or enemies." + +The rock was, as I had feared, out of father's possession. But it was +being guarded now by a method wholly different. The giants in the room +overhead had doubtless not yet seen us. They were, I guessed, not +overly alert, because four of their men in this smaller size were down +here watching for any who might come. + +Instant, swift impressions. I realized that Togaro was expected. The +Togarites were coming. It would be difficult to tell a friend from an +enemy--and so the guards were put into this smaller size. + +Alt waved our flag, and shouted something in his own language. The +Togarites stood in a group, twenty feet away, regarding us; four of +them, with drug belts, and armed with the swordlike bars. They seemed +impressed with our flag. They called again to Alt, and again he +answered. To us, Alt flung over his shoulder: + +"Doubting us, Drake! If I get them over here, leap upon them. They are +only four." + +We were three. But Drake had an automatic. He said softly, "Yes, Alt! +Closer--we must get them all. Then, if we're not seen from above--" + +The Togarites were cautiously advancing. Then they must have seen +Dianne! Recognized her golden robe perhaps. They stopped, and then with +menacing shouts came running at us. + +Alt flung down his flag. "Now!" He made a rush, with Drake and me after +him. Drake's automatic spat. The leading Togarite stumbled, fell and +lay motionless. The others leaped over him. Drake raised his weapon +again; but one of the Togarites flung a bar. It struck Drake's arm. The +automatic clattered away; Drake and the fellow locked together and went +down, rolling on the ground. + +The other two rushed at Alt. He met them full. I was close behind him. +His fists flew; he caught one of his assailants in the face. But the +other struck with the bar. It must have landed upon Alt's head. He +crumpled. + +I was gripped by the fourth Togarite--the one Alt had hit. His bar +missed me. I caught at his arm; held it, tried to wrench away his +weapon. We struggled on the uneven ground. He was a burly fellow. I +wound my legs around him, and suddenly he stumbled and fell. I twisted +and came down on top, but could not hold him. His lunge heaved me up. +I was flung sidewise, but as I scrambled, my hand seized a metal bar +which had been dropped. I clung to it. + +Then the other Togarite leaped upon me. He was finished with Alt. He +jumped upon me as I was trying to rise. I rolled, with the two of them +pounding at me. The bars were thin but heavy things. I warded a blow +from my head. Then my hand with the bar hit one of the men. He fell +away from me. + +I was aware of Drake shouting, "Coming, Frank!" + +My remaining antagonist had me by the throat. He was half on top of me. +Beyond his ugly distorted face I saw Drake rising--and the Togarite +under him lay inert. + +I was pinned. My breath was stopped. In another moment I would have +been unconscious. But Drake came with a leap. He had seized his +automatic where it lay on the rocks. The butt of it crashed against the +skull of the man over me. + +My senses faded, but came instantly back. Drake was pulling the body +off me. He helped me up. Around us lay the four Togarites, motionless. +Alt was lying here also. And Alt, I thought, was dead. + +Dianne and Ahlma came running forward. + +We stood a moment breathless, confused, undecided what to do. The +white-faced, trembling girls bent over Alt. The blow on the head had +perhaps only stunned him. But there was a sharpened bar of metal now, +sticking gruesomely in his side. + +The thing had happened so swiftly! Overhead in some strange, monstrous +room, giants were sitting. As Drake and I stood here in the silence, +victorious in this fight, but with our dead friend here, the rumble of +the talking giants overhead was plainly audible. To them, all this was +a tiny combat, fought upon a quarter of an inch of rock surface. They +had not yet seen or heard us, not realizing that anything unusual was +transpiring on the small chunk of rock at their feet. Ants may fight in +deadly combat and the human, whose shoes is their battle ground may be +all unaware of them. + +I pulled myself together. "Drake, we've got to hide these bodies! +Perhaps we can avoid discovery." + +There were many recesses here. We dragged and tumbled the bodies out of +sight, or at least what we hoped would be out of sight of the people +overhead. + +Drake panted, "We'll have a few minutes, maybe. But they're likely to +discover that their guards are gone." + +"Drake, let's not go back in. We've got to get out, Drake! Out to the +world with these drugs--and with a warning of what is coming." + +"And get to father. Oh, Frank--" + +He did not finish. Had father been killed? + +"We'll get out," I said. "Here, put these vials in your belt, you've +got more room." We were despoiling the dead Togarites of their drug +supply. We hurried from the last one, back to where Alt lay with Dianne +and Ahlma over him. They were in plain sight from above. + +"Carry him somewhere, Drake. We mustn't be seen--above everything, not +be seen. Is he dead, Dianne?" + +She answered, with a surprising hushed calmness, "No, not yet. Our poor +friend!" + +We lifted him up, as quietly as we could. In a small ravine with a +jutting rock above it, we laid him down. + +"The best we can do, Drake." + + + + + CHAPTER XXVIII + + _The Return to Earth_ + + +"Not that way, Frank! Let's get around the back--I think it's a better +chance." + +We had clambered down the ten feet of jagged rock. We didn't change +size--we had to risk it as we were, for to have got smaller would have +made the descent too great. Somehow we were not discovered. We seemed +to be on the floor of a room. A stone floor--we saw it as a ridged, +uneven rocky plain. Off in the distance was what might have been a +table, chairs, and the legs of seated men. + +Ahead of us, a quarter of a mile away, was a cliff-like precipice. I +figured it to be the wall of the room. It seemed darker over there. + +We ran. The rock had a small fence around it--a fence which, compared +to the normal room-size, was probably a foot or two high. We darted +through its bars. In five minutes, perhaps, we were in the shelter of +the bottom of the wall. It was seemingly of rocks and earth, piled and +plastered together. It was dank with moisture, but solid to us in this +size. + +We stood a moment in the shadows here, panting from the run. + +"Where do you suppose this is?" Drake demanded. "Can you make anything +out of it, Frank?" + +We were secure for the moment. It was dark over here. Standing with +quiet survey I could imagine that there were three or four men off +there in the distance. That this was a room with a single light +overhead. No window on this side. The other walls were too far away to +be visible. + +"The door," said Drake. "That's what we've got to find--got to get out +through it." + +But where were we? Certainly this was no room in our home. It looked +as though it might be a place hastily, amateurishly built. But it was +tight. No crevices--no cracks or openings. The bottom of this wall was +plastered solid with wet mud. The air down here was dank and heavy with +moisture. + +Dianne murmured, "Listen! That sounds like water." + +A strange, muffled reverberating roar sounded from some great distance. +A giant sea pounding? It seemed like that. My heart sank. Why this +could be a place very far from King's Cove. The wild thought came to +me--was this an earthly sound, this muffled pounding of the sea. + +I said something like that to Drake. + +"Nonsense! They've stolen the rock, Frank, and built this hiding +place--probably not far from King's Cove. Where could they go?" + +Dianne said abruptly, "I think this is all very small--this place +they've built down here." + +It was a new idea to us. But it seemed probably true. The Togarites +would be in hiding. They had stolen the rock, made it small, and built +this tiny housing place. + +Our escape was still undiscovered. Not far from us was a long, slanting +shadow--as though a table perhaps were cutting off the light. We +walked until the shadow was upon us. And by the wall along here was +a neglected pile of caked mud, large as a house to us. We found an +opening like a cave-mouth, and squeezed in. + +We were momentarily safe. "You stay here with the girls," I suggested +to Drake. "I'll get large enough to see what the place looks like and +how we can get out." + +A discussion in the room interrupted us. The rock was visible a quarter +of a mile away. A figure was growing upon it, expanding swiftly. A +man. He leaped from the rock. We could see him moving in the opposite +direction from us, reaching the little fence, climbing over it. + +He had shouted. The distant giant shapes had sprung into action. They +seemed bending down. There was surprise, but no turmoil. + +"Togaro!" murmured Ahlma. + +It was Togaro. As he expanded, there was a size when, with the light +upon him, we saw him plainly. There had been no guards to challenge +him. He had come swiftly out of the rock, and was large enough when he +first shouted to enable the men in the room to recognize him. He was +standing off there now, growing to their size. We could hear the rumble +of their voices. + +It changed our plans. The fact that the guards were missing would now +be discovered. + +"We can't stay here," said Drake. "If they suspect us, they'll begin +searching." + +Nor could we run the miles along the walls of this room, hoping to find +an open door. We decided we would have to dare a slightly larger size. +We stood in the comparative darkness beside this cake of mud and grew-- + +The room, in a moment, had dwindled. We huddled against its wall. We +knew that at any moment we might be discovered, but we had to take the +risk. It was a small, windowless cell to its other occupants, though +still gigantic to us. + +Four men, and Togaro, stood by a table of stone. There was a closed +door in the opposite wall. Two men stood by it. A light now sprang over +it, so that the room over there was brightly illumined. + +Ahlma heard them, "Togaro is saying his first party is coming out now." + +They were already coming! The rock seemed much closer to us now, and +smaller. Tiny figures showed on its summit. They leaped down, they +stood expanding. + +It was at once a dismaying and welcome diversion. The missing guards +were forgotten in the turmoil of the arriving Togarites. A hundred or +more of them came. The room was in confusion. They tramped about while +we shrank again into our niche. They grew large, and in parties of ten, +were checked through the door, passing under the light to the darkness +outside. + +The turmoil made it easier for us. We got around the wall, near to the +door. It was a long march, for near the end when we were sure of our +direction, we shrank again to a smaller size, and kept close against +the wall so that we might not be trampled. + +The Togarites were pouring now from the rock. This was the arrival of +the first thousand. They seemed so formidable as they grew gigantic and +jammed the room! Giant hordes, arriving here on earth! The conquest had +begun! + +It made us realize anew that with the world harried by these giants, +possession of the drug was of vital importance. The drugs were Togaro's +chief weapons. But we four had them also. If we could get out of +here--get quickly to the authorities and deliver the drugs--it might be +the difference between defeat and victory for the world. + +We may have stood there an hour. The arriving Togarites poured into the +room; they marched through the doorway in a steady stream. + +But we did not dare try to slip through. The light was bright, and +there were two guards with gaze always upon the floor. From where we +lurked we could see outside; a dim vista of blurred, luminous darkness +and crowding giant figures. There was a babble of rumbling voices, both +outside and in here. + +An hour passed. + +Then came the chance we had felt must come at last. The bodies of the +Togarites we had killed on the rock summit were discovered! A group of +the arriving people carried them down. Togaro had been moving about the +room. His voice rang out with commands. + +Ahlma translated: "He says, 'Close the door!' No more people are to +come now from the rock! Oh, Drake, they're going to search for us! They +know now that we are here!" + +The guards sprang to the sliding door. But that act momentarily took +their gaze from the floor. We were, to them, a few inches high. We were +desperate. The door slid closed; but we had made a wild dash and gone +through! + +We found ourselves outside, in what seemed an outdoor darkness. A void, +with a sheen of distant silver light far overhead. Giants trampling +about. We dashed for a great jagged porous column. It was wood. We hid +in one of its cave cells--a broken niche in its side. There was no +search going on out here for us. The giants were tramping about, moving +away. + +Presently we dared to increase our size again, when the space out +here seemed cleared momentarily of the tramping figures. Of all the +size-change we ever experienced, I think that this was now the most +surprising. The giants in the distance seemed also growing. We could +hear them, but soon realized that another wall was between us and them. +We were, for the moment, alone. + +We had taken only a taste of the enlarging drug. + +"Where are we?" exclaimed Drake. "How small are we?" + +The pounding of the distant sea had been louder out here. But now, as +we grew, it shrank until presently it was a murmur. Not a roar, far +away--but a murmur, near at hand. The gentle lapping of water, close +somewhere here. + +And we found a tiny, mound-like house of sand and mud shrinking at our +feet. It was sheltered by an overhanging arch of rock. The room from +which we had escaped! It dwindled and was gone into smallness. + +A rush of madness swept me as I saw that tiny mound. A kick of the toe +of my shoe would crush it. Kill Togaro and all his men in there. But +the madness passed. For all I knew, father might be in there. And the +rock certainly was down in there. If I stamped, that tiny grain of +rock would be forever lost. And a hundred thousand Mitan refugees were +in it, waiting for Drake to return to them with help! + +Other walls closed in around us. The giants were obviously outside of +them. A floor became apparent--a floor of earth and sand, and near +by there was a vast spread of uneven wood. As we grew, it shrank to +planking. A void of darkness was beyond it. No, not darkness! A patch +of silver sheen. Water, off there. Water, with moonlight on it; water, +lapping gently under this planking on which we were now standing. + +Dawning recognition was coming to us. The rough boards; walls; this +ceiling close over us, with timbered beams; this archway, with shining +water beyond it--it was the interior of our own boathouse on the shore +of King's Cove! + +It was night--a calm, placid night of moonlight on the water. The +boathouse was empty, save for ourselves as at last, in a normal size to +earth, we stood in a corner. + +Our dory was gone. The slip of water here was vacant. Outside the +boathouse we heard the throng of Togarites tramping about the cove! + + + + + CHAPTER XXIX + + _The Theft of the Rock_ + + +It was the night of May 14 when Alt had come from the rock with his +white flag of truce, and had taken me back into the atom with him. +Togaro had been lurking outside; he had got into our guarded room. He +had ridden me into smallness. Alt and I had not been aware of him. +Father and Foley, watching us dwindle upon our journey, had not seen +him. + +But he was there; and he had leaped off me--small as an insect--and +escaped. I have recounted the incident. It was in the caldron valley, +not far below the upper surface of the rock fragment. I have described +how we met a Togaro giant, who apparently was on his way out. + +It seems obvious to me now that Togaro, when he was hidden upon me +during that hour or so while Alt and I made the first stage of our +inward journey, had been able to overhear our conversation. I recall +that I told Alt then how I had arranged with father that, coming back, +we would use a black and white flag as a signal. As a matter of fact, +Togaro also was probably within our guarded room when father, Foley and +I had discussed it. + +He knew, then, about the flag. He escaped from Alt and me, in the +caldron. He had seen and recognized his follower--had been clinging to +me when we encountered and fought the giant. That fellow was on his +way out, looking for Togaro, very probably, to see why the master was +delayed all those months. There must have been near by other Togarites +with him upon the journey, and Togaro escaped from us in order to join +them. + +I do not know any of this to be a fact; I construct it only in the +light of what actually transpired afterward; and I think that doubtless +it is what happened. Togaro met his men, told them the rock was in +hostile hands, and told them of our flag signal. Then he ordered them +out to capture the rock from father. + +I can even fancy that Togaro lingered to aid in that capture, for it +was very swiftly done; then, finding it successful, he had hastened +back into smallness. Alt and I were inept at the size-change traveling. +We made many blundering miscalculations; it would not have been +difficult for the skillful Togaro to overtake us and to hide upon our +ship as he did. + +Thus Togaro, with the knowledge that the rock was in his possession, +was enabled to bring his expedition up with utter confidence. Dianne +and I had marveled at his assurance. + +I think this is the true explanation. In any case, the fact remains +that the rock was swiftly captured from father. Alt and I departed +at about midnight of May 14. Father watched us go. He was depressed, +harassed, over my going. He watched until Alt and I were no longer +visible. Then he went to bed, leaving Foley on guard. + +What happened to Foley, no one will ever know. Father lay in his room, +with the alarm bell beside him. He could not go to sleep for a long +time. Then he must have dozed. + +He was awakened by the violent ringing of the bell. Foley calling him +that there was danger! It was near dawn; father noticed the daylight +through his bedroom windows. He had not undressed; he seized his +automatic and rushed down the hall. + +He was too precipitate, confused by being awakened too suddenly. +The bell was clanging through the silent house with the urgency of a +fire-alarm. Father burst incautiously into the room where Foley had +been guarding the rock. He remembers seeing the body of Foley upon +the floor. Three or four strange men were in the room--one large, the +others very much smaller. The one of father's stature had a crudely +fashioned black and white flag in his hand--with which, undoubtedly, he +had deceived Foley. + +Father fired point-blank as he blundered into the room. He evidently +missed. The man with the flag flung it. The flagstaff was a bar of +metal; it struck father's head and knocked him senseless. + +Ransome was due to arrive to relieve Foley at seven in the morning. He +came and found Foley dead, with a sharpened bar like a sword impaled in +him. Father was lying there unconscious. + +The room was in no disorder. Father's automatic was beside him. The +granite slab was in its place. + +But the fragment of rock was gone! + +This was during the week of May 15. The local authorities were +skeptical of father's story. Even with the public facts of the previous +year--the coming of the giants, the battle on Bird's Nest Island--what +father now said was incredible. This atom, within the rock, as the +source of the inexplicable "giants," was to these local officials too +much for belief. Heaven knows, one cannot blame them--especially since +the rock had vanished and no one remained who had ever seen it, or even +heard of it, save father and Ransome. + +Father was taken to Portland for treatment. When he had recovered, the +authorities at Washington sent for him. Officialdom there placed more +credence in what he had to say; but not enough to do anything about it! +As a matter of fact, what could they have done? + +On the night of May 20, with father still ill, and in Washington +with Ransome to give their testimony, our place at King's Cove was +unoccupied. The Togarites poured from the tiny rock, a thousand of them +in this first party. They grew into the boathouse, then left it, and +roamed over King's Cove in the moonlight, still growing. + +It must have been near dawn, when the first of them came out. Togaro +was presently with them, I have no doubt. What they did was far +different from the sporadic appearance of those giants of the year +before. Organized, intelligent action now! + +Shortly after that dawn of May 21, the world rang with the news that +giants had come again. In Washington, the officials with whom father +had been in consultation knew now that everything he said was the truth. + +The menace was at hand! The world was fronted by the strangest, gravest +crisis of its civilized history! + + + + + CHAPTER XXX + + _The World at Bay_ + + +I can give only a broad picture of those events which followed during +May. They are history today. I saw them, as presently I will explain, +from an inside viewpoint; a narrow viewpoint indeed. But as the world +saw them, so were they now unfolded to father. + +The dawn of May 21 showed giants rising from King's Cove. The first +reports were contradictory and confused. But the giants were there! +They were apparently about two hundred feet tall. A score of them at +first. Then more--a hundred or so. + +The few people who lived in the vicinity of King's Cove took instant +flight. There were at first no casualties except a woman who fainted +and an aged man who died of heart failure running with his family along +the road toward Elton. + +The giants did nothing menacing. They seemed busy moving about the +neighborhood. They trampled it. Cleared it. Spreading out over a mile +or so of territory along the water front. A plane passed overhead and +reported that they appeared to be occupying the territory, not in +haphazard fashion, but with a rational, methodical planning. + +By noon the reports were coming in with more coherency. There had been +a few ships in the channel. They had seen the giants, and had hastily +steamed away. The passing planes brought the most detailed news. By +noon, no airplane passed King's Cove at its accustomed level. They all +were bending aside and flying high. But one or two of the passengerless +mail planes flew low enough for close observation, and within a few +hours both the American and Canadian governments were sending out +official flyers to observe and report. + +There was chaos that morning. No official orders were given to attack +the giants--indeed there was no force available which dared attack +them. By noon, it was father's opinion that any organized attack, until +more was known of the conditions, would be a mistake. + +The Togarites quite evidently were proceeding with definite purpose. +By noon, a line of two-hundred-foot giants were stationed at intervals +along the shore front. They stood, or sat calmly upon the cliffs. They +were half a mile apart--ten of them over a five-mile length. + +Then their line turned inward. At half mile intervals they took up +their posts. A curving line, embracing the town of Elton and several +others. There had been an encounter at Elton. All the towns were +within a few hours abandoned. The whole of this five-mile area--and +ten or fifteen miles shoreward--was abandoned. But at Elton some stray +group of people had been trapped. A giant ahead of his fellows, had +come wandering up. He was shot at by rifles and shot-guns. And hit, +evidently, for he raised his leg, and he let out a cry of pain. He +kicked at a house and demolished it. But he made no effort to fight. He +stood nursing his leg where the bullets had stung it, and watched the +people as they fled away. + +There was a giant stationed up every road where it entered the Togarite +territory. For a few hours, automobiles with panic-stricken refugees +occasionally dashed out. The giants let them pass unmolested. + +Such were the reports that first morning. The observation planes told +that the captured area was bustling with activity. The giants seemed +unarmed, and without belts of drugs. There were not many of them. But +around King's Cove were throngs of Togarites in a smaller size--a size, +it was said, about normal to earth. They occupied our house and all the +other houses of the neighborhood. By evening they had marched to the +deserted towns. + +A rational occupation of this captured territory. And it was said +that they seemed moving, and installing equipment, erecting their own +dwellings. What seemed brown, conical tents were appearing. Firewood +was being gathered. An encampment of war; with families of men, women +and children--noncombatants making themselves comfortable for a +permanent stay. + +A thousand people. But soon it was obvious that they were far more +numerous than that. All day they were appearing--growing from a tiny +size. Hordes of them. By nightfall it was said that there were several +thousand. Presently it was identified that the source of them was the +Ferrule boathouse on the shore of King's Cove. + +The night of May 21-22 would have been moonlit, but the moon and stars +were obscured by clouds. But the Togarites' territory was not dark. +Floodlights of some unknown current brightened it with spots of yellow +from wire grids which the giants set up at intervals. The lighting +systems of the captured towns were out of commission, but the Togarites +quite evidently had their own power. + +A weird scene of activity by night. There were camp fires everywhere. +The area was thronged with the arriving enemy. Unearthly, fantastic +scene! It was an encampment of little people, patrolled by watchful +giants. + +By the morning of the twenty-second, the Togarite lines had spread. A +single giant--five hundred feet tall perhaps--made a rush southward. +As though to clear the territory, he ran toward Portland--came to its +outskirts, stopped and strode back. There had been an exodus from +Portland the day before, and few were left in the city. The giant did +not enter. He went back the way he had come--along the coast--leaving a +trail of devastated towns in his wake. + +I think that this giant may have been Togaro himself, for the reports +said that he wore a belt of drugs--and several times was observed +to change his size. His foray was doubtless to make sure that the +territory southward was clear of inhabitants. Then his lines came down. +The giants marched calmly along the coast--with a similar line of them +some ten miles inland. + +The city of Portland was occupied by the Togarites on the 23rd of May. +It was an orderly advance, made during the night. + +The next day, the lines again moved southward. + +I find it difficult in these limited pages, to portray a broad enough +picture. A myriad abnormal events were taking place throughout the +world. I can only sketch them at random. The organized dissemination of +news, for which our age is famous, proved now a grave menace to public +safety. The giants, in those first few days, probably actually killed +not more than a few hundred people. But the broad-casted news that +giants were upon earth--human enemies capable of growing to limitless +size--that fact publicly known was responsible for the death of many +thousands. + +There were panics--street crowds trampling their fellows--thousands of +miles from any giants. A disorganization of all normal activity. But it +was worst, of course, in eastern Canada, and the Atlantic seaboard of +the United States. In New England it was chaos. A flight, with cities +abandoned, roads thronged with refugees, transportation overloaded. + +Trains, vessels, and the air lines struggled to cope with broken +schedules and a mad rush of frenzied passengers. Accidents of every +sort were reported--but in the mass of extraordinary happenings with +which the news-tape was jammed, they passed almost unnoticed. + +Within a few days, when it became evident that the enemy was moving +southward, Boston was depopulated, as was all of Cape Cod, and every +city and village along the coast. + +Father stayed in Washington. He had immediately advised against a +premature attack of Togaro. Even had Washington overruled him, no +attack could have been made in those first days, for every official +thought and effort was absorbed by the need of transportation. Millions +of people were routed from the threatened territory. This was unlike +any war the world had ever known. Advancing enemy armies had always +found the great bulk of the civilians remaining in captured territory. + +But there was no living soul willing to remain within a hundred miles +of these giants. A psychological terror--and the very real danger of +being trampled upon. + +Transportation was of vital importance. Government airplanes, ships, +soldiers and police were all absorbed in helping the people to escape. +There was little thought of attacking this enemy. + +Yet there had been sporadic encounters. A battleship had put into +Boston harbor, with the intention of helping transport the people. A +giant, ahead of his fellows, had come wading down the coast. There +were still some people in the city of Lynn. He stamped upon them, +and wrecked the snug little city, green and beautiful in the spring +sunlight. Within five minutes it was a burning mass of wreckage. Then +the lone giant came on southward. + +The battleship, whose commander perhaps felt that he was trapped, +turned and steamed out of Boston harbor. Then it faced the giant, and +shelled him from a distance of a few miles. + +The giant, whose head and shoulders were some fifty feet above the +ocean as he waded near shore, was struck and killed. His body stained +the water, lashed it to bloody foam with his dying struggles. + +But from the north another giant rose. Again I think it must have been +Togaro. He grew to a size monstrous and came leaping down the coast. +Some reports have it that he was a thousand feet tall; others say still +higher. He bounded from one village to another in a single leap. Then +he dived into the ocean and swam. + +The battleship was trapped by the hook of Cape Cod. It fired a single +broadside--and missed, for the swimming Togaro saw the smoke-puff of +the guns, and dived in a watery cataclysm. + +He came up close to the ship. He flung an arm over it. Like a toy, the +great battleship up-ended, was heaved up into the air, and sank. + +There were a few survivors, for Togaro ignored them as though they were +ants struggling in a pond. He turned, swam north--waded ashore and +dwindled into the northern distance. + +No more attacks were made on the Togarites by sea. This act of +reprisal--so obvious, and so successful--gave the government pause. + +But there was, that same day, an attack by a group of Canadian planes. +Whether it was officially planned or not I cannot say. A group of +planes, six or eight of them, came down from the border and flew over +the enemy territory. + +This was now about five o'clock in the afternoon. The giants stared +up at the invading planes, but did not seem to heed them. The planes +were emboldened. Perhaps the pilots figured that these giants could not +grow upward fast enough to overtake them. A plane could rise in a few +moments to a height of fifteen or twenty thousand feet. No giant could +do that. + +The little squadron of lead-colored war planes flew into the heart of +the Togarite territory. The center of it, at this time, was inland from +Portland. The planes came low--and one of them dropped a bomb from a +height of under a thousand feet. It struck one of the standing giants. +Wounded but probably did not kill him. + +The planes zoomed up and away. They dropped other bombs. One fell into +the city of Portland. + +But none of the planes escaped. These supposedly unarmed giants were +most efficaciously armed--with the sling-shot! I have already had +occasion to mention it. In the hands of a two-hundred-foot giant, it +was a sling thirty or forty feet long. It flung, not a pebble, but a +rock huge as a bowlder, with a speed almost of a bullet. + +Giants leaped into action beneath the soaring planes. To them, the +planes were toys, flying only a few times higher than the length of +their own bodies. With skilled marksmanship they flung their rocks. The +planes were struck. One by one they came crashing down. + + + + + CHAPTER XXXI + + _Togaro Strikes_ + + +Father sat that night in the War Department at Washington. He had +been in constant consultation with the authorities, for he, more than +any one in the world, could explain what manner of people were these +Togarites. Yet even father knew very little. + +"We can't stand up against warfare like this!" exclaimed the war +secretary. + +There were orders given that night that under no circumstances were +the Togarites to be attacked. Reprisal by the enemy was too easy--too +efficacious. + +Additional warnings to the public were issued. The enemy was moving +slowly southward--the territory in advance of them was ordered +abandoned. No need to enforce such orders! A wave of refugees rolled +back, a hundred miles in advance of the slow-moving giant lines. + +Indescribable scenes of confusion and terror marked those days toward +the close of May. The Togarites moved largely at night; every dawn +found them farther south. They crossed Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. +The 1st of June found their outposts well into Connecticut, following +the north shore of Long Island Sound. New Haven was trampled by a +single giant, on June 1--the city wrecked in an hour. + +There were changes now in the enemy tactics. In Maine they had been +careful not to demolish the cities unduly. Their own people were +settling there. But now, farther south, only the active warring giants +advanced. They laid everything waste beneath their monstrous tread. An +area a hundred miles wide had been wholly abandoned days before. The +advancing giants waded into it; stamping, kicking--firing it by night +with great torches. A blackened, wrecked swath of country stretched +down from Maine. + +The giants were larger now. As their territory expanded they took +a larger size. It was systematically done. Each seemed to have his +post--a few miles over which he paced back and forth--with one of his +fellows coming south at intervals to relieve him. And the reliefs were +always larger--with more miles of country to pace. By June 1 it was +estimated that they stood some five hundred feet tall. + +On June 1 they had reached Long Island Sound barely a hundred miles +from New York City, where millions of people, in all the chaos, were +still unable to get away. Giants had already crossed the Hudson. One of +them stood in the river and lunged against Bear Mountain Bridge until +he tore it loose. + +For all that the United States and Canada did not dare attack, there +were frantic preparations for war. The battle planes were made ready. +The Canadians were massed on the border--and a great fleet of American +planes assembled in New Jersey. Artillery units were mobilized. +Infantry would be useless. It was used now to aid the flight of the +civilian population. The evacuated areas in advance of the giants were +always under martial law, patrolled by soldiers who retreated slowly +before the oncoming enemy. + +The forts of the Highlands near the Hook--entrance to the port of New +York--were ready to do what they could; and the forts at Wadsworth, on +Staten Island, were ready. + +The Atlantic battle-fleet was massed in the Chesapeake. The Pacific +fleet was hastening through the Panama Canal. + +Resistance seemed so useless! By virtue of size alone, this enemy was +irresistible. Monstrous, terrible weapon of size! No one, contemplating +it, could even have approximated the terror of the reality. + +Yet it seemed horrible to do nothing. Father describes innumerable +conferences in Washington, where the harassed government strove to +plan what might be done. Nor was our government alone. The world was +at stake. Every foreign government was frightened, offering help and +advice. + +Help was coming. Transport planes, bringing volunteers from Britain, +were daily arriving. They flew the far-south route--landed in the +Carolinas, and were rushed North. + +A united, civilized earth opposed this enemy of giants. But to realize +the desperate futility of it, one had only to envisage it from the +giant viewpoint. A little, miniature world, like an anthill, outraged. +Why, a single giant--Togaro alone--if he made himself large enough, +could destroy this anthill activity! + +Father recalls how our war secretary gripped him. "But what does he +want, Ferrule? This Togaro--conquer us? God, man, we can't yield up +our whole country! Our whole earth! Does he want to exterminate us? +Why doesn't he say something, communicate with us, make demands--an +ultimatum--terms for surrender--something! Anything, but not this +gruesome silence!" + +Father was silent. But to him came the wistful thought of Drake, Dianne +and me. He wondered where we were--if only we would come back to him! +If we had the drugs, and brought them now, the earth might be saved. + +Warfare, with both sides using the drugs, would be terrible indeed. +It might, probably would, destroy the world of its own momentum. Then +there came to father with a flash of divination, the true aspect of +what might happen if our earth forces had the drug. Togaro's giants +never wore the drug-belts. Father could guess why. It was a weapon too +powerful, so that Togaro did not dare entrust it now even to his own +men. One, for instance, might be wounded, and in a frenzy take too much +of the drug and run amuck, destroying all his fellows. + +But there was another reason. A giant had already been killed. His body +was floating in the ocean off Boston. Other giants might be killed. The +Earth forces might get possession of the drugs. + +Father wondered where the main drug supply was kept. Probably, he +concluded, it was all upon Togaro's person. One man, controlling +everything. + +Father divined what might happen if the earth forces had the drugs. A +general attack by our planes, our armies and navies, could be made. It +might take the giants by surprise. A thousand of them--there seemed +only that many--might be overcome. If Togaro could be separated from +them so that they could be kept from growing larger, the earth-giants +might fight with Togaro the combat of size. + +Wild and desperate thoughts these. But father had them; and he prayed +wistfully that Drake and I might come and bring with us the drug that +would offer this last desperate hope. + +This was the night of June 1 and 2. The dawn of the 2nd brought a new +menace. In the ocean, far off at the curving eastern horizon beyond +Sandy Hook, the head and shoulders of a giant loomed into the sky. +No, not a giant, this--a titan. A monstrous, titanic thing in human +form. Togaro! No one had seem him arrive. He swam down from Cape Cod, +doubtless, in the darkness just before dawn, expanding as he swam. + +And now he stood some twenty miles offshore. A mountain in the shape of +a man off there. To observers at the sea-level he was standing beneath +the curve of the horizon. And his torso loomed mountainous into the +sky. A thousand feet? A mile? There are no eye-witnesses who can agree. + +He stood a moment, and then he waded toward the Hook, and spoke. It was +a rumble like distant thunder. It was heard all up and down the coast. +Words blurred--but he said them over slowly. And they were heard, and +then distinguished. + +"I will talk now. I will tell you what to do." + +The news was flashed to Washington. In the fort at Sandy Hook the +commander of some gun-crew lost his wits and fired a shot. It struck +Togaro in the shoulder. He stood with surprise and anger. Then he +stooped and reached fumblingly into the ocean. He plucked up a dripping +mass of rock and heaved it--a rock huge as the fort. It fell upon the +Hook; the fortifications were buried beneath it. + +There is no one who can tell with any coherency what happened in those +next minutes. No one in New York could have seen more than the feet +and towering legs of the infuriated titan as he bounded with splashing +steps up the harbor. He wrecked the forts on Staten Island. He splashed +into the upper bay and leaned over lower Manhattan. The Woolworth +Building--a little toy reaching to his knees. The higher domes newly +built along the Battery--they may have towered to the height of his +thighs. He kicked at them. The falling masonry and steel fell into a +litter at his shoe-tops--crashed and fell with what to him was a tiny +clatter and a cloud of dust and smoke surging to his waist. He waded +into it, for only a minute. Inconceivable wreckage! + +He turned and strode back. A few of his leaps carried him down the +harbor, churning up the Narrows, splashing through the Lower Bay, +wading again into the ocean. The dawn was still behind him as he stood +there. And again his roaring voice sounded: + +"That will teach you not to attack me. Now I will tell you what to do!" + +The incredible, inconceivable power of size! + +An hour passed. Father was routed from his bed. In the War Department +he found a throng of officials. The representatives of a dozen foreign +governments were there. A turmoil with no attempt at any rational +conference. The building rang with shouts: + +"We must yield! This is madness. Hopeless." + +A single enemy, armed only with the weapon of size, yet it was hopeless +for all the world to try to fight him! + +Togaro was still standing under the morning sky. His words were heard +in New York, and flashed by wire to Washington. + +"I command that you leave the United States. Take your people out of +it as quickly as possible. I will not interfere with your retreat. I +command you to sail the warships of your world--anchor them off the +coast of Maine so that I may sink them." + +He gave a score of details. He spoke for what was perhaps ten minutes. +He ended: + +"If you yield, send a plane now as a signal. Let it come near me--so +that I may catch it in my hand. I will not kill its pilot." + +There was a sudden heavy silence in that War Department room when the +message came. Then some one said: + +"Shall we yield?" + +It meant giving over the whole world to this tyrant. Every man in the +room knew it. And would it help? The wreckage at Lower Manhattan--those +ten minutes just now at dawn--would yielding up the world spare other +scenes like that? Or would this monster be insatiable? + +"Shall we yield?" + +The white-faced men whispered it to each other. The fate of their +whole world, now in this breathless moment to hang upon their hasty, +frightened decision. + +They were spared the necessity of answering. A secretary burst in from +the adjacent corridor. + +"Ferrule! Dr. Ferrule!" + +A message for father! A telephone from Mount Vernon in the northern +suburbs of New York City, close now to the enemy lines. + +Drake Ferrule had been found! He and a strange girl named Ahlma! They +were safe. A plane had been sent to them, and they were coming to +Washington. + +And the message for father, from Drake: + +"Don't yield! We're coming with the drugs." + +Under the strain of it, the war secretary broke. He burst into an +hysterical laugh. "Don't yield! Why, of course we won't yield! Attack +them now--we're ready!" + +The orders went out. Father tried to stop it. "Wait! Get the drugs +first!" + +But in the pandemonium around him he was unheeded. The attack had long +been planned. The war planes were ready, massed in all the Jersey +airports. The artillery units were ready. The roads and the railways of +New Jersey were open and ready for swift transportation. + +An attack upon the Togarite lines where they crossed, west of the +Hudson, at the New Jersey border! + +And off in the ocean beyond Sandy Hook, the titanic figure of Togaro +stood waiting for his answer. But now, behind him, farther out and to +the north, other huge figures were swimming! He did not at first see +them. Two figures--expanding as they swam, coming to attack him! Then +one of them stood on the ocean bottom; stood upright, towering into the +sky. A figure almost as huge as Togaro. + +The figure of a girl! A girl in a golden robe! + + + + + CHAPTER XXXII + + _The Fugitives_ + + +It was near the dawn of May 21 when Drake and I, with Dianne and Ahlma, +crouched in our boathouse at King's Cove. Giants seemed everywhere +outside, towering figures in the moonlight, tramping about the cove. + +I think that our best chance to escape from the Togarite territory was +offered us there at the beginning--those first minutes just before +dawn. We had the drugs. We might have plunged into the channel, +swimming out, expanding our size and taking the chance that we would +not be discovered too soon. + +How easy to look back on what one might have done! But instead of that +we crept from the boathouse and turned inland. Ran back from the cove. +Past our house; Togarites in our normal size were thronging it. + +We were confused. Behind us, giants were rising everywhere. People were +pouring from the boathouse. + +"If we can get to Elton--" Drake panted. We found the road and dashed +along it. The moon was momentarily under a cloud. The concealing +darkness was helpful. + +A giant went past us. We ducked off the road. He did not see us--he +strode toward Elton. + +We started again. Then the moon came out. We did not dare use the open +road. We skulked through the fields. Then the moon was paling with the +coming dawn. We had not escaped. Giants were ahead of us, and to the +sides. + +We crouched by a fence and argued. If we got large, we might in a few +moments dash out of this captured territory. But we would be seen at +once--pounced upon. + +If we got smaller, we would be safe from discovery. + +But Drake was vehement against it. "Damn it, Frank, I've had enough of +that! It'd be a journey of a hundred miles just to Elton, when we're +smaller! I tell you we've got to get out of here quickly! Frank, these +drugs are vital to the world." + +It seemed that our best chance was in our normal size. The dawn came. +We found a dilapidated barn on a side road halfway to Elton. We hid in +it. + +We were, with the daylight upon us, hopelessly caught within the +Togarite lines. It was soon obvious that getting to Elton would not +help us. Giants were already there. We thought, if we could head +inland, but then south, toward Portland, we might get past them. + +So many things we might have dared to do are apparent, looking +back upon it now! We struggled--all those days in May--to get to +civilization somewhere, to find transportation south to New York. We +had the vital weapon--the one thing the world could successfully use +against this enemy. Because it was so important, we were afraid to +chance anything. If Togaro caught us, the world was doomed. Terrible +responsibility! An excess of caution was upon us. + +We skulked and hid by day, and traveled at night. But there were always +giants around us. Patrolling watchfully in the daylight, and at night +with their lights and torches. It seemed that we could never escape +those widening lines. Within a day or two we realized that we should +have headed north; but it was too late now to change. + +We tried to get to the coast. It was too dangerous; there were more +giants that way than anywhere else. We had a hundred narrow escapes +from capture. It was a problem to find food and water as we went. But +there were deserted houses into which we slid by night. + +Once we found an abandoned automobile. We ran it southward, all one +night, dashing forward, stopping with lights out and silent motor when +a giant approached. Then on again--until at last we barely were able +to fling ourselves from it and take the diminishing drug, when a giant +came up, stooped and tossed the car into the air. We lay in the bushes +by the roadside and dwindled in size until the danger was past. + +We lost count of the days on this strange flight. And we lost our +way--wandered, following what roads we dared, working southward by +what devious routes I have no idea. It seemed a hopeless journey. The +country was now a torn mass of wreckage. Littered, burning towns. Roads +obstructed. No storm of nature could ever devastate a countryside like +this! + +After more than a week of wandering, it seemed that we were still as +far inside the spreading Togarite lines as ever. We had stolen garments +to disguise the girls. We had several times tried getting larger. One +dark night, when it chanced that the lights of the giants were not +too near us, we traveled in a fifty-foot size for hours. It gained +us so much distance that we tried it again several times. We passed +inland from Boston, crossing into the desolation of what had been Rhode +Island, then into Connecticut. + +There came a night which, though we did not know it, was the evening +of the 1st of June. We lay in the wreckage of a farmhouse which had +been demolished. The girls were too exhausted to travel farther, and we +all needed a rest. It had been the most fearful day of our trip. That +morning we had been driven out of our hiding place where we intended to +spend the daylight hours. It was an abandoned house near the edge of a +town. What town I do not know. + +Marauding giants had come and burned the town. We had escaped into +smallness. It was night when after desperate efforts, we again emerged +to find ourselves barely a hundred feet away from where we had been +before. + +The night came. We could not travel farther. One of us had always +to be awake on guard. The girls were bravely standing the hardships, +but they were both in miserable plight. They lay now, huddled in this +shattered farmhouse. The broken roof was like a tent over us. We +had had a meal, of food picked up along the way. We decided not to +travel until the next night. The girls wrapped themselves in the men's +overcoats we had found for them. They were soon asleep, huddled amid +the litter of plaster and lath strewn around us. + +Drake and I sat whispering. Drake wore now a single automatic. The +girls and I were unarmed. The automatic was a futile weapon--a thousand +times Drake cursed its futility; never once had we found any rational +use for it. + +"Where do you suppose we are, Frank?" + +We had but the vaguest idea. But it was not far from the coast--Long +Island Sound lay a mile or so off there. + +"Not far from New York," I said. "This might be near Norwalk." + +We had often been able to locate ourselves by broken street signs in +the wrecked towns. At night sometimes, when we were in the fifty-foot +size, we would poke about to find a railroad station which would have +its name upon it. + +It seemed now that the outposts of the captured territory must be close +ahead of us. A line of standing giants had been visible down there. +They had not yet entered New York City, we felt sure. + +"We'd better try and get to the coast," Drake said. "If it weren't for +the girls--" He shot a glance toward where they were sleeping. "Frank, +I wish we'd been able to find a plane, take a chance on getting out of +here with one dash--" + +"Well, we haven't found one," I retorted. There had been many, but +they were all wrecked. "Besides, Drake, we decided that would be too +dangerous. You remember those Canadian war planes." + +We had seen that episode. We saw, indeed, so many strange things which +I have no space here to mention! + +I added: "If we had a plane we'd no more than get it into the air +before we'd be struck. You know that." + +He paused, then reached a sudden decision. "Frank, we'll rest here. +But tomorrow night I'm going to make a break for it. You stay with the +girls. They can't travel much farther." + +He shot another glance at them. Was Dianne awake and listening to us +now? I think so. I seem to recall that she stirred. But at the time we +did not notice. + +Drake went on vehemently. "We've got to do something--get the drugs to +Washington. Why, Frank, in a few days New York City will be gone." + +"What do you mean, make a break for it?" + +"You stay with the girls. Keep hidden. No use to try to travel. Get +yourself food and water and dig in somewhere and wait. And I'll get +out--I can do it, Frank, alone." + +"How?" + +"Get large. We'll get over by the coast. I'll make a dash for it, +swimming. They won't see me until I'm large enough to put up a fight. +Frank, it should have been done long ago." + +He was my older brother, I could not talk him out of it. And it did +seem the only thing left for us to do. + +"You go to sleep, Frank. I'll stand guard for awhile." + +"You're not going to try it tonight?" I demanded, with anxious +suspicion. + +"No." + +"You promise?" + +"Yes, of course. I'm tired as hell. Go to sleep. We'll stay here all +tomorrow." + +Sleep came always to us the instant we relaxed. But this time, as +though fate would have it so, I awakened within a few hours. + +"Drake?" + +"Yes." + +He was sitting beside me; the girls were still asleep. + +"Take your turn, Drake. I'm wide awake." He needed no urging. He rolled +up near me without a word. + +I sat motionless. We were half outdoors; the tilting fallen roof only +partially covered us. I could see the stars. + +I presently went outside. A starlit, moonless night, a few hours before +dawn. No giants seemed in sight. A deserted, desolate, shattered +countryside, wan and pitiful in the starlight. The thought flashed to +me: might we not make a break for it now? No giants were near here at +the moment. + +But we had often tried that before, and there always was a giant within +sight of us when we dared get larger. + +I went back under the broken roof. Out of its other side, where the +shattered wall had left a jagged opening, a small dark form was running. + +Dianne! I caught a glimpse of her golden robe beneath the flap of the +dark overcoat. + +I stopped for nothing, but ran. Outside I called softly, "Dianne! Where +are you going? Come back!" + +There was a dim road. She was running along it. + +I called again, but she did not stop, so I dashed after her. + +I was overtaking her at first; then her strides lengthened and she drew +away from me. + +I gasped with horror, and fumbled at my belt. She had taken the drug; +her running figure on the starlit road was growing larger! + + + + + CHAPTER XXXIII + + _The Combat of Titans_ + + +I need not concern these pages with further details of Drake and Ahlma. +I have already made it clear that they escaped that same morning. Drake +awakened, just before dawn, to find that Dianne and I were gone. He +and Ahlma rushed outside. There was a commotion off by the coast. They +stared at it, half understanding. Drake soon realized that his best +move would be not to follow me. + +He and Ahlma ran the other way, and took the fifty-foot size. They +were desperate; and luck or Fate, as you will, was with them. The +patrolling giants were standing in amazement, gazing off toward Long +Island. Under ordinary circumstances of those past days Drake and Ahlma +would have been attacked in a moment. But now the giants did not notice +these fifty-foot figures running along the ground. The boundary of the +Togarite lines chanced to be near here. A fifty-foot human runs with +strides of thirty or forty feet. Drake and Ahlma, taking every chance +now, clung to the open road. + +They got past the Togarite area within half an hour. The giants all +were behind them. The country was still devastated. Then the pair +passed into an abandoned area, still intact, where the giants had not +been, and crossed it. + +They came at last, just after dawn, within sight of soldiers patrolling +the edge of what still was civilization. Drake took the overcoat from +Ahlma so that her robe would show. They dwindled to normal size; +encountered the soldiers. + +Civilization at last! A motor car took them to where a plane was +available. Drake learned that father was in Washington--the whole +world now knew father's name, and where he was, and what he had to say! + +The telephone lines here were down. Drake found a way of sending a +radiogram. But at that moment Togaro was devastating New York--in the +chaos Drake's message was never delivered. The plane landed in Mount +Vernon. Drake telephoned his message: "Don't yield--I have the drugs--" + +Meanwhile, in the starlit darkness before dawn, I ran after the +fugitive Dianne. She had taken the drug--I took mine also. + +"Dianne!" + +She saw that she could not shake me off. She stopped abruptly. She had +cast away the overcoat because it impeded her running. I dashed up to +her golden-robed figure. The trees were dwindling beside us; the open +starlight was overhead. + +"Dianne, are you crazy?" + +"Go back, Frank!" + +I was fumbling for the other drug. I pulled at her, but she resisted me. + +"Frank, go back. Not two of us--Drake said one was best--he said it to +you. He did say it. Frank, I mustn't stay here--I must run--run--" + +But still I held her. She exclaimed: + +"If you try to stop me, I'll call out!" + +"Dianne, you promised me you'd be careful--not try a wild thing like +this." I shook her. "Did you promise?" + +"Yes. But I've changed my mind." + +A madness was on her. She fought to escape me. "Let me go! Oh, Frank, I +can make it! I can run very fast, and I know how to handle the drugs." + +"No!" + +"Then you come with me." + +We were head and shoulders above the trees now. Across the dwindling +fields I could see the open water of the Sound. A giant was to one +side, a mile or so. He had seen us! + +It was too late to retreat. Suddenly Dianne jerked away from me. I ran +beside her, saying: + +"We'll head for the water, straight over the fields." + +"Yes, Frank." + +A dozen giants who yet were larger than ourselves were near at hand, +running at us. + +Then they stopped and stared off toward Long Island. A monstrous figure +rose up in the distant ocean; stood a moment, and then plunged again. +Togaro, swimming down to New York! + +Dianne recognized him. "Togaro!" + +"Yes. Alone! Dianne, I think he's got all their drugs." + +"We must get larger than he is!" + +The water off Long Island Sound spread close ahead. Off to one side, +down by our feet, a wrecked little village lay in the starlight. We +were bounding along--Dianne ran like a fawn. + +Giants--diverted momentarily by watching Togaro--were now closing in +upon us. One fellow in advance of the others barred our way. I ran at +him. His sling whizzed a pebble at me. It struck my shoulder. My fist +caught his jaw. He toppled backward into the Sound. Dianne went past +him, splashing. + +I caught up with her. The other giants had retreated. They had no +drugs, and we were now taller than they. Their slings flung a rain of +pebbles after us. + +We waded the Sound. The giants on Long Island kept away from us. We had +grown well over five hundred feet now, and bounded across the little +width of the island. + +The dawn was coming. We stood gazing out over the placid ocean; it +lapped with a foaming line of ripples on the narrow beach. + +Togaro was down by Sandy Hook. His monstrous figure loomed up against +the fading stars. He had not seen us, evidently. There was no way that +these frightened giants near here could communicate with him. + +We took more of the drug. + +"If we can get as large as he is, Dianne--" + +She pulled me down so that we crouched along the empty length of beach. +A giant behind us flung a bowlder. But to us now it was small as a pea. +It stung my face where it struck. + +"Let's try swimming down," I murmured. "Take it slowly and wait until +we get large enough to attack him." + +My heart was thumping so that it seemed almost to smother me. This +would be the supreme test. These Togarite giants to me now were +dwindling pygmies. They had none of the drug. Helpless, futile little +enemies. The Togarite hordes up in Maine? Why, they would soon be small +as ants. The Earth forces, hovering on the outskirts of this little +patch of devastated country, were only excited little gnats. + +I laughed with a touch of hysteria as the power of my size surged over +me. + +"Dianne, all that back there amounts to nothing. We can control it. +There's only Togaro!" + +Just that single enemy left. We heard the rumble of his voice. We saw +him stride toward New York City--his head and shoulders towering over +the horizon level. + +We swam beside a dwindling shore front. + +"Dianne, you must keep close behind me." + +Fear for her came upon me again. We were both unarmed, but so was +Togaro, very probably. There was only the weapon of size. + +"Don't go so fast, Dianne. Look, he's coming back from the city! Are we +large as he is?" + +She was swimming ahead of me. + +"Try standing up, Dianne. See if you can wade yet. Dianne, wait! Keep +behind me, I tell you!" + +She was a faster swimmer than I. She did not heed me. The curve of the +tiny island was beside us. A cove, with a headland a few feet high, was +to our right--the entrance to New York harbor. A line of buoys, smaller +than fishing bobs, lay on the water to mark the ship channel. + +Togaro was farther out in the open sea. My foot touched the ocean +bottom. + +Dianne suddenly stood up. Then Togaro turned and saw us! + +I called: "Dianne! Come back!" + +Togaro was still somewhat taller than Dianne. He was what seemed a +hundred feet from her. I was swimming frantically, twenty feet or so +behind her. She and I were growing; and I saw Togaro's hand go to his +mouth. He had taken more of the enlarging drug! + +He stood for just an instant, surprised by our presence. Then he +shouted: + +"You! Why--" + +She made a rush forward, and dived into the water. With all my strength +I swam. Togaro moved sidewise, then came at me. But Dianne suddenly +appeared, rose up at his waist, where the water surged, and gripped him. + +He bellowed: "Dianne--let go of me, you fool!" + +She must have tripped him. He went down, splashing, roaring. I saw him +strike her and heave her off. + +I had stood up. The water was below my waist now. The little headlands +of the land seemed only a few hundred feet away. I waded, and as +Togaro shook Dianne loose and heaved himself upright, I closed with him. + +He was a full head taller. His powerful arms went around me, bending me +backward. His evil face leered at me. + +"So, Frank Ferrule? You want to make a test like this? I'll kill you +now--as I should have long ago." + +He was horribly strong. His arms were crushing me. We were both +expanding. We swayed and struggled, lashing the water white around us. +His drug belt, with its water-tight metal vials, pressed against me. +One of his legs went behind me, but I twisted, avoiding being thrown. + +The water level was receding. It was down to our knees now. I +straightened and got a hand under Togaro's chin. He suddenly cast me +loose, and as I staggered and almost fell he leaped upon my back, +forcing me down. + +We had surged away from Dianne. I called frantically: "Dianne--keep +off! You make it harder for me." + +I found myself bent down by Togaro's weight, so that I was half +sprawled upon a tiny shore front. A little line of cliffs the size of +my hand. Fortifications here--a child's toy fort, smashed by a chunk of +rock lying upon it. + +I sprawled. There were humans here, frantic little insects running. + +I managed to get up and twisted again to face Togaro. I got a blow in +the face as we broke apart. But I gave one in return, then I hit him in +the chest and ducked his swing. + +Blood from my forehead where his knuckles had cut was in my eyes. I +dashed it away. + +I was more agile than Togaro with my fists; unskilled, yet I soon saw +that I had more science than he. I gave him two blows for one, at the +least. He staggered over and tripped on the cliffs of the shore. + +But I knew it was a ruse. He had tried to clinch with me, but I was +avoiding him. He knew I had him at a disadvantage if I could keep him +away. He half fell, but instead of following I stepped backward. Dianne +was beside me. + +"Get back," she cried. + +She had found a rock on the ocean bottom. She heaved it, dripping, at +Togaro as he rose. It caught his shoulder, but did not seem to hurt him. + +I gasped: "Dianne--back, for God's sake." + +She obeyed me and retreated. + +Togaro came at me again. + +There was an instant as I stood there, waiting with raised fists to +receive him, that a horrible sense of dizziness swept me. I felt myself +standing a mile or two in the air. I could see down the lower bay, the +Narrows--and see the wrecked buildings of Manhattan. All far below me, +as though I were poised in a plane--this whole familiar scene dwarfed +into miniature by my altitude. + +Then my viewpoint changed. I was of normal size, standing here in a +foot or two of water. This, at my feet, was a little green and brown +model of New York harbor. + +Togaro was rushing me. He hit me in the body. As I went a step backward +from the impact he tried to grip me. But I was too quick; and as he +rushed he launched a swing which, had it caught my chin, would have +finished me. I ducked it. He slewed around with the effort. Then I hit +him in the forehead. He stood swaying, then fell. + +I was afraid to go near him. I stood away. He was up again in a moment. +But there was a difference now. I was taller than he! My dose of the +drug was still effective, but his had stopped! + +He knew it was the end; defeat. I was ready with a blow that would +have finished him, and he knew it. The expression on his face held me +transfixed for an instant. A stupid, bewildered surprise. But that +faded. There came something else. A look of regret as he flung a glance +down at the tiny landscape? Regret, as he saw Dianne crouching behind +me? If it were that, it was instantly gone. His hand went to his mouth! + +A trick? But he leaped backward, flung up his arms with a gesture that +stopped me again. He was staggering. He stood swaying, with one foot +upon the few inches of the cliffs. The blood was draining from his face. + +He had taken poison--his last titanic gesture! + +He stood, and upon his livid, contorted face came a twisted leer of +irony. + +"Dianne, you win." From his belt he plucked a small globe of metal. +"You win--but your--damned Mitans--lose!" + +The fragment of rock was in that little globe! I knew it! As I leaped +he flung the gleaming sphere over my head. It rose in an arc and fell +into the sea. It must have burst with the impact. There was a puff. +Within it, the tiny grain which held the Mitan world was lost forever. + +Togaro kept to his feet a moment longer. He gasped again: + +"You win--damn you both!" + +Then he crumpled limply and fell at our feet, his monstrous body +crashing down across the Highlands, and his head and shoulders sprawled +far into the Lower Bay! + + + + + CHAPTER XXXIV + + _Princess of the Cottage_ + + +It seems that there is not much more I need record. A year has passed. +It is summer again, and but for the fact I have lived those scenes over +in my memory as I set them down here, they would seem remote indeed. + +There was a mild turmoil, that morning of the second of June when +the titanic body of Togaro came crashing down. Wild scenes of a tiny +battle. But it was over almost before it started. Only the war planes, +of all the earth forces, had time to get into action. They soared over +the Togarite lines. But there was no courage left in the giants. They +had no drugs. It was as we thought--Togaro kept upon his person the +entire supply. The giants had seen his monstrous body fall-- + +They fought. Some of them were killed by the planes--and some of the +planes were brought down. Then Drake entered the battle. He had seen +from his rising plane at Mount Vernon what was transpiring. He hastily +landed and took a heavy dose of the enlarging drug. + +The giants fled before him. + +The thing was over almost before Dianne and I could stride across the +intervening tiny landscape to reach Drake. He had trampled some of the +giants. But most of them he spared. + +There was a day of wild confusion; but the Togarites were ready enough +to do what they were told. + +They were herded by Drake and me into Maine, then were reduced to +normal earth size. + +There is an island now where they, and the forty thousand followers +with them, are isolated. Dianne and I have never been there. Dianne +wants to forget the Mitans--those of her loyal people who were lost +within the rock fragment. + +The futile dragging of the Atlantic Ocean off Sandy Hook has proved +unavailing. The rock must have been no larger than a grain of sand in +that fragile globe which Togaro cast away. It is gone forever. + +The drugs, too, are gone. The authorities very wisely decided it was +too dangerous a thing to be allowed to exist on earth. The entire +supply unanalyzed has been chemically destroyed. + +It is June again now. One would hardly know that all these strange +things happened only a year ago. The devastated area up through New +England is looking better every week that passes. The countryside is +green again in the summer warmth; the wrecked cities are repeopled and +being rebuilt. + +There was a gruesome task for Drake and me. In monstrous size we +carried the dead body of Togaro as far out into the ocean as we could +wade, then fastened rocks to it, and a rope. Then, swimming, we towed +it a thousand miles farther and sank it into the ocean depths. + +We want to forget all that now. When this narrative is finished--as it +will be in a moment--I want to forget it forever. That was the past; +the future holds so much of peace and beauty. + +There is for me the glory of Dianne and her love. + +We are living in a cottage by the sea. Drake and Ahlma live near +us. Father is in New York. He says he would not live with a married +couple--even with such beautiful and amiable daughters-in-law as Ahlma +and Dianne. But he visits us often. + +There is nothing of the princess about Dianne now, save that she is +princess of our little cottage. We have no servant. When our family is +larger we will have one, but just now Dianne is playing at housekeeping. + +She was in here half an hour ago, urging me to stop my writing. + +"It's nine o'clock, Frank. Bright moonlight. I'm going to build a fire. +Camp fire--I've got clams. We'll bake them for Ahlma and Drake when +they get back from the pictures." + +"Right, Dianne. Go do that." + +"But, Frank--" + +"Get it started. Remember your signal fire on Bird's Nest? Let's make +the signal again--like we used to when we were kids--" + +"Come on." + +"Can't--but I'll be through soon." + +She went away, but she came back after awhile. + +"The fire's built. Come on, Frank." + +I imagine I ignored her. But she came again, just a minute ago. + +She called in: "Oh, Frank!" + +"Yes, Dianne?" + +"Come on. Please stop." + +"Presently." + +"Frank Ferrule, you can make your own smoke signals for Drake and +Ahlma. I'm going to bed." + +I think I had better stop. + + + THE END + + * * * * * + + A SCIENCE-FICTION MASTERPIECE + +A beautiful girl comes from nowhere to warn a world against a dreadful +peril--Giants rise up out of the sea to threaten unsuspecting cities +and towns--And two young men battle an Atomic Napoleon to save their +girls from his lustful clutches and a world from his greedy ambitions. + +AMAZING--the journey through smallness to a world of the atomic hidden +in the heart of a meteor! + +STARTLING--the destruction of a planet by one man's wrath! + +ASTOUNDING--the invasion of America by an army of giants tall as the +Empire State Building! + +PRINCESS OF THE ATOM is a long-sought masterpiece by a leading +imaginative writer, Ray Cummings. This unusual novel introduces the new +series of AVON FANTASY NOVELS, designed for the millions who enjoy the +new thrill of Science-Fiction. + +RAY CUMMINGS, author of "Princess of the Atom," has been called "the +dean of fantasy writers." As assistant to Thomas A. Edison, he became +well-grounded in science and its potentialities, and has since achieved +a distinguished reputation as an author of outstandingly imaginative +novels and short stories. + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75690 *** diff --git a/75690-h/75690-h.htm b/75690-h/75690-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..825fa15 --- /dev/null +++ b/75690-h/75690-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8017 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + The Princess of the Atom | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} +@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } +hr.full {width: 95%; margin-left: 2.5%; margin-right: 2.5%;} +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +x-ebookmaker-drop {display: none;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.right {text-align: right;} + +.smcap { font-variant:small-caps; } + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + +div.titlepage { + text-align: center; + page-break-before: always; + page-break-after: always; +} + +div.titlepage p { + text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + font-weight: bold; + line-height: 1.5; + margin-top: 3em; +} + +/* Poetry */ +.poetry-container {display: flex; justify-content: center;} +.poetry-container {text-align: center;} +.poetry {text-align: left; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} +.poetry .stanza {margin: 1em auto;} +.poetry .verse {text-indent: -3em; padding-left: 3em;} +.poetry .indent0 {text-indent: -3em;} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +table.autotable { border-collapse: collapse; } +table.autotable td, +table.autotable th { padding: 4px; } + +.tdl {text-align: left;} +.tdr {text-align: right;} +.tdc {text-align: center;} + +.ph1 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; } +.ph1 { font-size: x-large; margin: .83em auto; } + +.ph2 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; } +.ph2 { font-size: medium; margin: .83em auto; } + + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75690 ***</div> + +<div class="figcenter x-ebookmaker-drop"> + <img src="images/illusc.jpg" alt=""> +</div> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<div class="titlepage"> + +<h1>The Princess of the Atom</h1> + +<p class="ph1">By Ray Cummings</p> + +<p>AVON PUBLISHING CORP.<br> +119 W. 57th St.<br> +New York 19, N. Y.</p> + +<p><i>Published by arrangement with the Author</i></p> + +<p>THE PRINCESS OF THE ATOM<br> +COPYRIGHT, 1929, BY THE FRANK A. MUNSEY CO.</p> + +<p><i>AVON REPRINT EDITION</i><br> +COPYRIGHT, 1950, BY AVON PUBLISHING CO., INC.</p> + +<p>PRINTED IN U. S. A.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p><i>To my son, Hal, and to Russ, my son-in-law—both<br> +chemists—this story is appropriately<br> +and affectionately dedicated.</i></p> + +</div> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<p class="ph2">Her Love Destroyed One World and Threatened Another!</p> + +<p>Giants appeared off the coast of New England on the day beautiful +Dianne returned from oblivion. That mysterious beauty had disappeared +from the home of her guardian, Dr. Ferrule, and had been sought in +vain. But with her return, she brought terror to two worlds and an +astounding adventure to the two young men who loved her.</p> + +<p>In this breathtaking excursion into atomic mysteries, you will be +enchanted by the unearthly beauty and peril of Dianne, princess of +a world too small to be seen. You will be thrilled by the startling +journey Frank Ferrule makes into infinite smallness to save an +unsuspecting planet. You will be astonished at the terrific fight of +Drake Ferrule against the lustful Togaro, the man who would rule the +universe.</p> + +<p>Here is a masterpiece of science-fiction by a dean of fantasy, Ray +Cummings. Unavailable for many years, this unforgettable story of +atomic warfare and invasion from an alien world is the first of the new +series of AVON FANTASY NOVELS, selected by Donald A. Wollheim, editor +of the famous AVON FANTASY READER, and specially designed for the +growing public that has discovered the new thrill of Science-Fiction.</p> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<h3><i>Table of Contents</i></h3> + +<table> +<tr><td class="tdr"> </td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#Prologue"><i>Prologue</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">I.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><i>The Coming of the Giants</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">II.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_II"><i>The Mysterious Visitor</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">III.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_III"><i>The Signal Fire</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">IV.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><i>The Strange Island</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">V.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_V"><i>Princess of the Atom</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">VI.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><i>The Chase into Smallness</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">VII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><i>The Flight in the Cellular Caverns</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">VIII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><i>Death of the Giants</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">IX.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><i>Tiny Fragment of Rock</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">X.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_X"><i>The White Flag</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XI.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><i>Giant in Ambush</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><i>The Meeting</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XIII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><i>The Stowaway</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XIV.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><i>The Locked Door</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XV.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><i>Togaro at Bay</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XVI.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><i>Frank's Plan</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XVII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><i>The Tiny Prowler</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XVIII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><i>The Escape of Togaro</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XIX.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><i>Night of Turmoil</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XX.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX"><i>In the Blood Light of Dawn</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXI.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI"><i>Riding the Giant</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">"<i>Vengeance of Togaro!</i>"</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXIII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII"><i>Doomed Little Planet!</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXIV.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV"><i>The End of a World</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXV.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV"><i>In the Campfire Light</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXVI.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI"><i>The Black and White Flags</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXVII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII"><i>The Fight on the Rock Summit</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXVIII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII"><i>The Return to Earth</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXIX.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX"><i>The Theft of the Rock</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXX.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX"><i>The World at Bay</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXXI.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI"><i>Togaro Strikes</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXXII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII"><i>The Fugitives</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXXIII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII"><i>The Combat of Titans</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXXIV.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV"><i>Princess of the Cottage</i></a></td></tr> +</table> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">"<i>Beautiful with a grace beyond the reach of art.</i>"</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Prologue"><i>Prologue</i></h2> +</div> + + +<p>I was seventeen years old before I had any idea that there was a +mystery in my family. My name is Frank Ferrule. My mother died when I +was still a child. There was my father; my older brother, Drake; and my +younger sister, Dianne. We had always seemed to me an average little +family group, except for Dianne's beauty. That, in truth, was abnormal +enough. And upon that, I was to learn, the mystery hinged—tragedy it +was for Dianne, striking all unheralded like a bolt from a cloudless +sky.</p> + +<p>Our life, up to that August when the sudden, inexplicable tragedy came, +was perfectly prosaic, uneventful, so that I can find little of it to +record here that would be of interest. Father was a consulting chemist. +My brother Drake, six years older than I, grew up to be a stalwart +blond giant of a fellow—a full six feet two—with a lazy, rollicking +good-nature like a huge dog conscious of his own strength. Father often +said that; and called me a terrier. I was always small and slender, +with dark hair, and by nature excitable.</p> + +<p>There was nothing unusual, nothing of particular interest about Drake +and me. But Dianne's beauty would have fascinated the world. I can +remember that she had always been beautiful. In the advertisements of +fashion magazines there are drawings of children—ideally beautiful +little girls. Dianne, as a child, was like that, a blue-eyed +flaxen-haired doll.</p> + +<p>But soon she began to develop character. At sixteen the doll look was +wholly gone. Her face bore the stamp of her individuality; but it +remained as exquisite, as colorful as a cameo, or like a pastel, so +delicately flawless of feature, so perfect of natural coloring that +the effect was startling. I have heard people say, meeting her, that +she seemed unreal. And certainly, everywhere she went, she attracted +unusual attention.</p> + +<p>This tragedy came—the mystery began—one August when Dianne was +sixteen, I seventeen, and Drake twenty-three. We were at our summer +home on the coast of Maine. Father was of a temperament which demanded +a quiet life. I think, too, that with such a girl as Dianne, he found +seclusion an added advantage.</p> + +<p>She could so easily have been spoiled; but she was not. A gentle +little thing, sweet in the old-fashioned storied style, with all the +sophistication of her age passing her by untouched. Mischievous she had +always been since childhood, and she was human enough to be thrilled by +the frequent offers of motion-picture tryouts and the like.</p> + +<p>Such offers inevitably came. We were not hermits. We spent our winters +in New York City. Quietly, but we had many friends and the fame of +Dianne's beauty spread.</p> + +<p>But father kept her unspoiled, and apart from it all.</p> + +<p>We often had friends at our summer home; but it chanced that this +particular August there was no one but our family there. I recall the +fateful morning of the fourteenth. There was nothing to mark it from +any other morning—warm and cloudless, with a fresh breeze that rippled +the water of the cove and set the whitecaps running outside.</p> + +<p>Father announced that he would be all day at a chemical experiment and +not to disturb him. Drake, Dianne and I decided that we would take the +dory and row out to Bird's Nest Island; fish a little; have a swim and +a campfire lunch. We started soon after breakfast. It was not a long +pull, for the island was only some two miles offshore. We found the sea +outside smooth running, but brisk. The wide bow of the dory lifted and +slapped as we headed into the whitecaps.</p> + +<p>Bird's Nest Island had, to my mind, always spelled romance. It was a +tiny, rocky peak alone in the sea, an irregularly round island only +a few hundred acres in extent. The fifty-foot peak was almost in +its center. Gulls often hung around that little naked crag pointing +skyward. A rocky, but gently sloping beach encircled all the island. +There were trees and underbrush; and, queerly enough, a spring of fresh +water.</p> + +<p>It was an uninhabited island, with all the romance of Robinson Crusoe +hanging over it. From the rock peak one could stand and see all the +circular island shore and the sea in every direction. As children we +had come here with the grown-ups. We had placed a cairn upon the summit +and erected a signal flag, then, ignoring the obvious shore of the +Maine coast, had built a signal fire and prayed that its smoke might be +seen by some passing ship which would come and rescue us.</p> + +<p>We were too old for such fancies now, but the romance clung. We put on +our swimming suits, this August morning, and swam from the lee beach. +There is only one incident of significance for me to record.</p> + +<p>Drake was swimming far out with lusty strokes. Dianne and I not so +skillful or daring in the water, were in the shallows of the beach. I +recall that I leaped at her and ducked her. She came up gasping, but +laughing, and made a rush at me. We mingled in a fight, tumbling each +other into the water.</p> + +<p>I had always been Dianne's favorite. We were nearer an age, and Drake, +when in his 'teens, had looked down upon us as mere children. We +wrestled now in the water; and I remember that I found myself clinging +to Dianne's hair, up by her forehead.</p> + +<p>"Frank, stop that! Let me go!"</p> + +<p>The frightened vehemence of her tone made me loose her at once.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?"</p> + +<p>"You hurt me."</p> + +<p>"Shucks."</p> + +<p>A girl growing up with two older brothers gets used to rough treatment. +It was not like Dianne to call quits.</p> + +<p>"You did hurt me."</p> + +<p>"Did I? Sorry, Dianne. Come on, let's swim then. Look where Drake is."</p> + +<p>The incident left me puzzled. Dianne had done that before. She did not +like her hair touched. It grew down at the center of her forehead in a +queer little peak, and she wore it parted far to one side.</p> + +<p>Children are not curious about such things, but I was old enough now to +wonder why Dianne was annoyed when her hair there was touched.</p> + +<p>Drake came ashore, and he and I wandered off to dress. Then we called +to Dianne. We had left her only a couple of hundred feet away.</p> + +<p>I called, "Oh Dianne, hurry it up. You going to take all day?"</p> + +<p>She did not answer. We called again. Drake said, "She's spoofing us. +Hiding."</p> + +<p>We ran back to where we had left her. The little pile of her clothes +lay there untouched.</p> + +<p>"Dianne!" Our shouts echoed over the island, but there was no answer.</p> + +<p>"Find her in two minutes," said Drake. He shouted, "Watch out, Dianne, +we're coming! I'll run around the beach first, Frank. You climb up to +the rock—see everything from there—"</p> + +<p>I went up to the peak, where I could see all the beach. Our dory was +undisturbed, and I could see no sign of a boat leaving the island, or +anywhere near it. I saw Drake sprinting around the beach, then plunging +off among the trees. I could see his figure occasionally. He called up,</p> + +<p>"See her, Frank?"</p> + +<p>"No!"</p> + +<p>Fear struck us then. We searched, at first laughingly, then with stark +horror overwhelming us. The little island was all too easy to search. +There were no caves, no cliff over which she could have fallen. We had +seen all the beach and the near-by water within a few moments after her +disappearance. Surely there had not been time for her to swim out and +be drowned. She was a fair swimmer, and cautious for all her youth. And +even if she had gone back in the water and got into distress, we were +so close we could have heard at once any call she made.</p> + +<p>But she was gone. Vanished. No boat had landed that could have taken +her. That was impossible without our seeing it over that reach of empty +sea.</p> + +<p>I recall our frantic search. Then at last Drake and I alone frantically +rowed back home to tell father. It was like a dream of horror. Father's +white, solemn face. He never once reproached Drake or me. He telephoned +the village. Then came another trip to the island in a launch with +grave-faced men.</p> + +<p>But Dianne was never found. We brought back her clothes that lay +untouched there by the underbrush at the beach. I could not look at +them, but went into my bedroom and lay on the bed and sobbed. It was +the first tragedy that life had brought me.</p> + +<p>Night had fallen when Drake came to me. He leaned over me +sympathetically.</p> + +<p>"Take it easy, kid." His own face was white and drawn; he loved Dianne +as much as I did, but he was older, more stoical. "Father wants to see +us, Frank. Get hold of yourself." His arm went around my shoulder and I +huddled against him, "Take it easy—wash your face and come on down."</p> + +<p>It was about Dianne—father had something to tell us. We faced him in +the living room. He closed its doors.</p> + +<p>"Sit down, lads."</p> + +<p>It may have been in Drake's thoughts, certainly it was in mine, that +now father was about to blame us. I had felt, those hours sobbing on +the bed, that somehow I was to blame. That incident in the water when +I had annoyed Dianne about her hair—wild thoughts swept me that I had +annoyed her and she had committed suicide. I had already told father +about it; told him in the launch. He had listened and waved it away.</p> + +<p>He sat facing us now, a slender, solemn man of fifty, with iron-gray +hair, and thin, studious face. His eyes behind his big horn-rimmed +spectacles seemed unnaturally bright, but gentle.</p> + +<p>He said, "Don't look at me like that, lads—I've no intention of +reproaching you."</p> + +<p>And then he told us, in a burst, without preface, what we had never +suspected.</p> + +<p>"You were about two years old, Frank—and you, Drake, about eight. It +was the year before your mother died. She and I went to Bird's Nest +Island, leaving you children at home."</p> + +<p>This same island!</p> + +<p>"A summer day," he said, "just about like this. We went for a +picnic—just as you did today. It was fifteen years ago. We were +wandering about the little island—your mother and I. We heard a +wailing cry, an infant's. In a thicket we found a little girl baby. +Unharmed. An infant, about a year old, who evidently had been asleep +and now had awakened and was crying. There was no boat in sight about +this island. We concluded that some one had been there, abandoned the +baby and departed. We took the baby home. No one ever came to claim +her. It was Dianne."</p> + +<p>Dianne not our blood sister? A foundling! It struck us amazed.</p> + +<p>Father went on gently, "We thought it best, your mother and I, not to +tell you children. It would not have been fair to Dianne. There would +come a time when you should know, of course—perhaps I should have told +you before this—and I don't know, perhaps it was wrong of me to let +you go back to that island. But I suppose that's foolish!"</p> + +<p>His voice drifted away with his thoughts. Nothing occurred to Drake +and me to say; we sat dumbly staring at each other.</p> + +<p>Father rose presently and unlocked a drawer of his desk. "I brought +this down to show you. There was nothing about the infant to give a +clew to its identity. Just the baby lying there, clad in a single +garment. This."</p> + +<p>He held out a tiny infant robe. Long-sleeved, and with a tiny hood. +Strange-looking thing! Even as a lad of seventeen I was at once aware +of its strangeness. A gossamer fabric like nothing I had ever seen +before. A fabric golden as though its threads were pale spun gold. +Or as though it might have been woven of fairy threads of golden +hair—like Dianne's.</p> + +<p>"Just that robe," he said sadly. "What sort of material it is, no one +can say." He took it from us gently and replaced it in the drawer. "And +there was one other thing. You, Frank, spoke of Dianne being sensitive +about the hair at her forehead. That little peak where the hair grew +low, you remember? There was a scar on her forehead. Not exactly a +scar—a queer crescent patch of skin. It seemed not white, but almost +like the sheen of silver. It looked—well, something like a crescent +moon. We hated publicity, your mother and I. We kept the finding of the +baby reasonably quiet. We had a medical specialist examine the child. A +normal girl baby, promising extreme beauty of body and feature. But the +crescent-moon scar was an enigma—the doctor had never seen or heard of +anything like it.</p> + +<p>"So we called the baby Dianne. Your mother named her that. The +crescent, there on her forehead, was really very beautiful when one got +used to it. But too unusual. Too—mysterious. And so we trained her +hair to cover it up; and I—I taught her—well, perhaps I taught her to +be ashamed of it. Or at least, never to mention it to any one—and so +she was sensitive about it as though it were a secret blemish to her +beauty."</p> + +<p>I need not detail that evening with father. But there was one thing he +said that I never forgot. He said it half to himself, "Dianne was so +abnormally beautiful, and that strange golden dress and the crescent +silver scar—I have wondered so many times, all these years, wondered +if she were just exactly human like the rest of us." He was sorry at +once that he had said it, and he would never explain.</p> + +<p>This day that we lost Dianne was five years before the coming of the +giants.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>The Coming of the Giants</i></h3> + + +<p>The first of the giants was reported by a small steamship out of +Halifax, bound for Portland. The ship had rounded Cape Sable, Nova +Scotia, during the night of March 20th. The sea was stormy; the night +overcast with almost a gale from the north. The ship's lookout saw what +at first looked like a huge dark rock looming out of the ocean where no +rock should have been. It was well inshore from the ship; and though it +was only a few miles away, it was not seen clearly.</p> + +<p>The ship continued on her course. An hour later, the full moon broke +through a rift in the clouds, painting the sullen sea with silver. +To the north, where the southern headlands of the land were barely +visible, a giant human figure was seen standing in the ocean. Every +one on the ship saw it clearly. Incredible as the vision of a fabled +sea monster, yet there it was, unmistakable, frightening—it threw the +ship's company into a panic of terror.</p> + +<p>The thing seemed human. The giant figure of a man. He stood waist-deep +in the ocean with the waves beating against his naked chest. How deep +the water was, the master of the ship could not say. Ten fathoms +perhaps, in the shallows where the giant stood—sixty feet; and his +torso towered another sixty above the surface. He stood watching the +ship. Then, as it passed, he followed it; wading slowly along to keep +abreast of it as doubtless he had been doing for an hour past. In the +moonlight, details were plain. A bullet-headed giant. Some said that +they could see his features—human of cast, but brutish.</p> + +<p>The figure kept its distance, regarding the ship, but making no effort +to approach. The vessel turned in a moment off its course, and fled +south. The moon was presently obscured. They saw no more of the giant.</p> + +<p>This steamship carried wireless. But the master could see no rational +way of sending such a wild report. But when hours later, the vessel +docked in Portland, the tale was given out.</p> + +<p>In these days of skeptical enlightened civilization one cannot claim +to have seen a sea serpent and expect anything but laughter. And this +was even more incredible. The ship's commander, within a few hours, +even doubted the evidence of his own senses. But from the sailors the +tale leaked out. And a whole ship's company cannot be insane, or all +similarly drunk at once.</p> + +<p>The newspapers caught at it, and spread it jocularly until the +officials of the freight line cursed their captain and all the crew of +the ship for arousing such ridicule.</p> + +<p>But still there was some corroboration. From a village near Cape Sable +came the report that a giant man had been seen wading in the ocean, +seen by a few people during a brief period of moonlight, and then was +gone.</p> + +<p>Where the figure came from, or where it went, none could say. It was +seen just this one night. The tale went around the world and caused a +smile, and in a few days was forgotten.</p> + +<p>That was the first of the giants.</p> + +<p>I was at this time a pilot in the International Mail Service, flying +a local plane from Boston up the coast to St. John, daytimes. Up one +day with several stops along the route; and back the next day; and +then a day off duty. Drake had become father's assistant. They had a +laboratory in New York City, and were living now in our Westchester +home. Our home on the Maine shore was closed for the winter.</p> + +<p>Once a week I went to New York to be with father and Drake. I got there +the day the giant was reported. It was of particular interest to me, +since it was not far from my flying route.</p> + +<p>Father said, "You keep your eyes open, Frank. And look here, if you see +anything—don't report it at once. Telephone me."</p> + +<p>He was so solemn that I laughed. And Drake was solemn, too.</p> + +<p>I demanded, "I say, you two—you don't believe this fool thing, do you?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," said Drake.</p> + +<p>I think that even then they had some vague idea of what it might mean. +I thought the yarn was absurd; still less could I have imagined our own +connection with it. Never once did I link it with Dianne. It was nearly +five years now since that day she had vanished.</p> + +<p>I made my next northward flight with no sign of a giant. Nor did I see +anything unusual upon the return. In a few days more, like the rest of +the world, I had lost interest.</p> + +<p>Then one day near the end of March when I was off duty in Boston, +another giant was reported. It had been seen the preceding night. +A giant man—fifty feet tall, or three hundred, according to the +differing, confused versions. The figure had appeared in the ocean, +possibly near the mouth of the Penobscot River in northern Maine. +Several coast villages and several ships reported seeing the figure, +wading north a mile offshore. It was reported almost all the way to the +Bay of Fundy. And then it vanished.</p> + +<p>This was too obvious for disbelief. No damage had been done. The thing +apparently had encountered no ships; it had nowhere come ashore. But +the sea was calm this night; the waves of the wading figure had rolled +in and pounded the coast to give tangible evidence that the thing was +no vision.</p> + +<p>The world was more than interested this time. There were near-panics +in Boston that day—an exodus of people leaving the city by rail and +by airplanes. Several of the local ships from New York to Boston +canceled their sailings. People began leaving Cape Cod. There was +disorganization, almost a flight from all the cities and villages up +the coast.</p> + +<p>This was far different from some understood danger. A hurricane, a +volcano, an earthquake—people will often face them with a stoicism +amounting to foolhardiness, rather than abandon their homes. But +this was the unknown, the supernatural. A gruesome horror. Within a +day military law was declared all up the Maine coast. Troops were +patrolling the area, and the people were being urged to leave.</p> + +<p>My chief sent for me at field headquarters. My mate was there; and the +two alternate pilots of the route.</p> + +<p>"We've discontinued temporarily," he told us. He turned to me as the +senior pilot. "Ferrule, the government wants this area patrolled by +plane at night. Boston to the New Brunswick border, to connect with +Canadian patrol planes. You and Jones want to tackle it?"</p> + +<p>We did, of course. We were dispatched that same night—one of six or +eight planes flying independently of one another. We left Boston about +ten that evening, I and my relief pilot, Bob Jones; and we carried a +newly installed code radio with a fellow named Green to operate it.</p> + +<p>It is a run of about three hundred miles from Boston, up the crescent +curve of coast to the Canadian border. Our orders were to fly at about +a thousand feet of altitude, keeping a mile or so offshore. If we saw +one of these giants we were to follow it, keep it in sight, and try +to determine where it went. We were to report at once by radio. A +battleship had already been ordered north; it was to remain in Cape +Cod waters, waiting further developments.</p> + +<p>The night was calm and starlit. An hour passed. Then two hours. We saw +nothing unusual. We were up around the Penobscot now.</p> + +<p>Jones, at my elbow, murmured, "One was seen here, Frank. That last +one—"</p> + +<p>A plane came by, flying south. Another patrol doubtless. We felt that +no giant could be ahead of us or this other plane would have seen him; +stopped and stayed with him.</p> + +<p>The flattened moon came up out of the sea to the east. It was golden at +first, laying a broad golden path on the water.</p> + +<p>We passed over the many islands. We saw a ship or two—and occasionally +a plane.</p> + +<p>And then we saw the giant! The actual sight of him, even fortified by +what I expected, was a shock of horror.</p> + +<p>Jones murmured, "Good God!" He gripped my arm impulsively, but I shook +him off.</p> + +<p>"Don't do that, you fool!"</p> + +<p>"Look at him, Frank!" Bob cried then.</p> + +<p>He was no more than a mile or so ahead. He stood at the entrance to a +cove. A rocky headland perhaps a hundred feet high was beside him; and +he stood with a hand resting against it as though to steady himself. +The ocean surface lapped at his knees.</p> + +<p>To the right, a mile or so offshore, was the tiny dark blob of an +island. Bird's Nest Island! I realized it suddenly. And this was our +cove. Our summer home was set in the trees only a few hundred yards +back from where the giant was standing.</p> + +<p>Green's radio was sending the news. He hunched down, intent at his +work. Jones was shaking beside me.</p> + +<p>"Lower, Frank! Get down near him!"</p> + +<p>We spiraled down. The moonlight was on him, a hundred-foot figure of a +man, naked from the waist up. He had pale hair, close cut, on a round +head.</p> + +<p>"Frank, look at the people!"</p> + +<p>A group of tiny black figures was on the cliff, standing in fascinated +horror. The giant had not moved; and then with a swift step and a +flip of his arm he reached back over the cliff. The tiny figures were +scattered. In a patch of moonlit rock two of them lay dead.</p> + +<p>We passed only a few hundred feet above the giant. He looked up as +though confused or annoyed at the sound of our motors.</p> + +<p>Green cautioned me: "Not too close, Frank! If he ever reached—"</p> + +<p>That giant hand could have knocked us down into the sea as though we +had been a tiny humming insect.</p> + +<p>We circled, zoomed up a trifle, and came back. The news had spread. +There were two other planes here with us now. A confusion was on shore. +We could see, far back, figures and vehicles moving in the moonlight. +And lights. And far out to sea, there were the lights of a ship.</p> + +<p>We passed again over the giant. Another plane arrived. Four of us, +buzzing like insects over the monstrous figure. It turned suddenly and +began wading out to sea.</p> + +<p>Jones cried: "Look! He's smaller! By George, he is smaller!"</p> + +<p>The figure did seem less gigantic. Or perhaps it was the deeper water +around him. Then suddenly he sank prone and was swimming. The sea was +lashed white with his strokes. Swimming for Bird's Nest Island? It +seemed so.</p> + +<p>"Lower, Frank! Take us down!"</p> + +<p>"Not too close," cautioned Green, for fear he'd stand up again suddenly.</p> + +<p>We swept under another plane. The swimming giant flung up an arm; a +surge of the water mounted like a geyser in the moonlight. His flashing +arms and the black blob of his head were visible. He was halfway to the +island. Was he still smaller now?</p> + +<p>Then suddenly he dived. The ocean closed over him. The waves he had +made rolled away. The surface was calm, unbroken. We waited. Minutes. +He did not come up.</p> + +<p>The other planes with us swept back and forth, dangerously close to +the surface at times. But the giant was gone. We waited half an hour. +We crossed over Bird's Nest Island several times. Its tiny rocky peak +stood naked in the brilliant moonlight; its trees and shrubbery were +deep green; its beach shone clear with the moonlight on it and the calm +sea rolling up.</p> + +<p>No sign of the giant. And then we were ordered to return to Boston. We +turned south.</p> + +<p>We were an hour on our southern flight when Green picked up our call. A +message for me.</p> + +<p>"Your father, Ferrule—he's sent word through headquarters. We're +ordered to land at Bennett Field, New York, so you can go to +your father and your brother Drake at once." He added: "The exact +message—personal, you'll probably understand it—your father says tell +you to come at once. He has heard from Dianne."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>The Mysterious Visitor</i></h3> + + +<p>This same night that I was flying the patrol, father and Drake spent at +our home in a small Westchester town near New York. They knew in what +I was engaged. They were frequently connected by telephone with the +official Boston station to which Green was making our radio reports.</p> + +<p>Our Westchester home was an unpretentious cottage, set on a quiet +street near the edge of the village. We kept only one servant. She was +away this night; Drake and father were alone in the house.</p> + +<p>There came, just before midnight, a thumping on the front porch door.</p> + +<p>They looked up, startled. The thump was repeated. Some one at the front +door, demanding admittance.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Drake, "it's a wonder they wouldn't ring the bell! I'll +go, father."</p> + +<p>We had an electric front doorbell, with the button prominently +displayed. And also, on the door for ornament, an old-fashioned +knocker. This summons was not even a knock; a thump, as though some one +were pounding with the flat of his fist. It began again and continued.</p> + +<p>"What the deuce?" Drake muttered. He lighted the hall light; father +followed him. Drake, with his six feet two inches of brawn, was, at the +age of twenty-eight, afraid of no man. But a vague thrill of fear shot +through him nevertheless as he went to the door and jerked it open.</p> + +<p>A man stood there; a tall, bulky figure, though not so tall as Drake—a +man in a long, dark overcoat, with a black felt hat pulled down over +his eyes. At first glance he was a rough-looking customer.</p> + +<p>"What do you want?" Drake demanded. "We've got a doorbell."</p> + +<p>"Does it—is Dr. Ferrule who lives here?" A soft voice; the queer +accent of a foreigner. But Drake could not place the nationality; the +voice and broken accent were like nothing he had ever heard before. The +light fell on the man's face, heavy-jawed, hairless. A man of perhaps +thirty-five.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Drake. "Dr. Ferrule is here." Father was behind him. "For +you, father."</p> + +<p>The man stood at the threshold. "Then you are Drake Ferrule? Is that +true?"</p> + +<p>Father advanced. "Come in. What is it? You want to see me? I am Dr. +Ferrule."</p> + +<p>The man came in. Though the door opening was two feet higher than his +head, nevertheless he stooped as he passed it. He stood in the hall.</p> + +<p>"Dr. Ferrule, I would like to speak to you—and to this your son. This +is Drake?"</p> + +<p>Drake said impatiently: "That's my name. Who are you? What do you want?"</p> + +<p>The visitor addressed father. "My name? You never heard it. My +business? You had a daughter—"</p> + +<p>That electrified them. Drake caught father's warning glance and +remained silent. Father was trembling. "My daughter—Dianne?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Dianne."</p> + +<p>"Come in," said father. He led the man to the library. Drake followed +behind, watchfully. He somehow sensed that this mysterious visitor was +no friend. An antagonist of some sort. In the library the fellow stood +with his hat on. He pushed back its brim as though it annoyed him. He +stood ill at ease; his gaze roved the room. To Drake, watching him +closely, it seemed that he was somehow expectant; and tense, afraid +perhaps of something which might at any moment occur.</p> + +<p>"Sit down," said father.</p> + +<p>He was more than mysterious, this visitor. Weird. He stood carefully +watching father sit down. Then he drew a chair forward and awkwardly +sat upon it. As though he had never seen a chair before. The thought +flashed to Drake.</p> + +<p>"Well?" said father.</p> + +<p>There was a brief silence. Drake remained standing. Father, by +temperament nervous, was visibly trembling. But he was no fool; he was +very cautious, alert.</p> + +<p>"Well, what is it? About my daughter Dianne."</p> + +<p>"Yes. She—you have not seen her for many years?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Not even heard from her?"</p> + +<p>"No. Why?"</p> + +<p>It seemed to have been an important question to the visitor. The shadow +of a triumphant smile came to his face. He said: "When you last saw +her—I understand that you lived on the Maine coast, Dr. Ferrule. But I +find you here now in New York—"</p> + +<p>"Who the devil are you?" Drake put in.</p> + +<p>"Wait, Drake! We live in Maine in the summer," said father. "What is it +you have to tell me?"</p> + +<p>"I came," he said, "to warn you." The fellow's voice and words, for +all his awkward manner, were perfectly composed. He had, even, a queer +sort of dominance, as though in his own environment he were accustomed +to command. His hat seemed to continue to annoy him. He took it off. +He had a massive bullet head, with pale-gold hair close-clipped. +Slate-blue eyes; a high-bridged nose. A solidly square chin. Strange, +massive face! Queerly forceful, and, Drake thought, queerly evil. The +thin lips curved into a smile.</p> + +<p>"I came," he repeated, "to warn you. I hear there are giants up near +your summer home."</p> + +<p>Father said, more vehemently than he had spoken before: "What about +them? Do you know where they come from? Look here, hadn't you better +tell us who you are? You act very strange."</p> + +<p>The man abruptly stood up. "I will go now."</p> + +<p>It was too much for Drake. "The hell you will! Not till you've told us +your business! You come here, question us, and go—"</p> + +<p>He seemed not disturbed by Drake's attack. "You excite yourself, young +fellow. Dr. Ferrule, I would suggest it, you stay away from your house +up there in Maine."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said father, with his quiet irony. "Drake, wait a minute!"</p> + +<p>"Stay away because—there might be danger there for you."</p> + +<p>"From what?" Drake demanded.</p> + +<p>"From the giants."</p> + +<p>"What about them? You know anything about them?"</p> + +<p>He gestured deprecatingly. "No more than you. But I would say it, they +must be dangerous."</p> + +<p>The fellow was trying to withdraw. He moved toward the door. Whatever +the purpose of his visit, he seemed to have accomplished it.</p> + +<p>Father and Drake followed him. At the library doorway instinctively he +stooped again. He had put on his hat. Drake noticed that he had it on +backward.</p> + +<p>In the hall father said: "Is this all you've got to say?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"You—you mentioned my daughter."</p> + +<p>He did not answer. He waited until the front door of the house was +open. He kept away from Drake. Then he said abruptly: "You will never +see Dianne again. Forget her."</p> + +<p>He half ran, half leaped across the porch; leaped its steps, and darted +away.</p> + +<p>Drake started in pursuit, but father called him back.</p> + +<p>The running figure was in a moment lost in the shadows of the dark +street.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>The Signal Fire</i></h3> + + +<p>Some six hours later, in the early morning, I arrived. Father and Drake +had not been to bed. They described the mysterious midnight visitor. I +could make little of it, save that Dianne was alive. Had this fellow +abducted her? Was he holding her? Had he come to sound out whether +father would pay a ransom?</p> + +<p>Father waved away my theories. He was visibly shaken. There was one +thing upon which he and Drake were agreed. The visitor had been wholly +strange. Something about him almost uncanny.</p> + +<p>Father said slowly: "We don't know what it means. That fellow last +night—he came, we think, just to find out if Dianne were with us. +Something he said, or the way he said it, gave us that impression. It +seems possible that he knew Dianne is trying to rejoin us. It may be +that he is an enemy of Dianne's. I think—wherever Dianne is—she may +be trying to get to us. We must help her do that."</p> + +<p>"But how?" I demanded.</p> + +<p>Drake said: "She might try to get back to our place, up there in Maine. +We feel we should be there now, Frank. That fellow last night—damn +fool!—thought he could keep us from going there by warning us away!"</p> + +<p>"But who was he?" I insisted. My mind was groping with vague +ideas—like father's and Drake's perhaps; ideas too fantastic for +discussion. "What has your visitor got to do with us? Or Dianne? Or +these giants? I don't see the connection, but there is one, that's +obvious."</p> + +<p>Father said very slowly: "You, Frank, seemed to think that giant you +saw last night was changing size—dwindling. Perhaps while he was under +the water he grew so small that when he came up you did not see him. +Don't ask us what it means! We don't know. But I really think that +fellow who called upon Drake and me last night was one of the giants!"</p> + +<p>We left New York that same morning in an official plane which dropped +us in the afternoon near our home in Maine. What father told the +authorities I do not know. He said he told them as little as possible. +Whatever our connection with this affair, for Dianne's sake it seemed +best not to make it public. But father got me leave of absence from my +flying duties, and secured us an official plane, and a permit for us +to live in our Maine home, within the threatened area which now was +completely under military rule.</p> + +<p>It was mid-afternoon when by automobile we reached our house. We had +been stopped half a dozen times by State troops patrolling all the +roads leading to the coast. One officer chanced to know father.</p> + +<p>"It's risky, Dr. Ferrule. You know what you're doing, of course. But +down there—your isolated house right on the shore—"</p> + +<p>"We know what we're doing," said father.</p> + +<p>I put in: "Shucks, there's no danger. Might never have another giant +appear."</p> + +<p>The town of Elton, two miles from our home, looked as though it were +in a state of siege. Half its people had fled. Troops patrolled the +streets. Many of the houses were closed and barred—as though that +would help against a hundred-foot giant! The shops were nearly all +closed; but we located several of the owners and loaded our car with +provisions.</p> + +<p>On arriving, father went to bed. He was never in robust health, and the +nervous excitement of all this and his loss of sleep had about done +him up. He was too tired to eat the meal which Drake and I hastily +prepared. But he was a fighter, every inch of him. He lay down, fully +dressed, with an automatic beside his pillow.</p> + +<p>"You lads can stand guard—suit yourselves—only don't both sleep at +once. Call me if anything unusual happens."</p> + +<p>Drake and I sat on guard. We were neither of us sleepy. It seemed as +though there were a thousand things we wanted to talk about, but it was +all so intangible. We were in what undoubtedly was the heart of the +threatened area. The world believed that; and no one knew it better +than ourselves.</p> + +<p>We had had the latest official reports. No other giant was seen. There +had been several people killed by a sweep of the giant's arm last +night, quite near here on the cliff top. Official searching parties had +been over every inch of Bird's Nest Island and all the shore in this +vicinity. Nothing unusual was found. They had even dragged the water +between here and the island, thinking perhaps the giant's body might +have sunk.</p> + +<p>There were other reports which now had come in. Gruesome things! In the +back country near here a farmer had been found dead a few nights ago, +and all his clothes stolen. There were several similar incidents.</p> + +<p>At sunset a destroyer steamed past, headed north on patrol. There were +often airplanes passing overhead. And out at sea there was a smudge +which we thought might be a battleship.</p> + +<p>With darkness came a sense of loneliness—the feeling of our isolation +here in this house set close against the coast. We were in danger here, +but not altogether foolhardy. We had rifles and several automatics. And +the telephone would at any time bring us help from the troops stationed +in the near-by village.</p> + +<p>To fight what? It would all be so useless against a hundred-foot giant!</p> + +<p>The vigil grew irksome. Would Dianne come? How? When? Tonight? +Tomorrow? A week or a month from now—or never? They were such futile +questions. And it seemed, as we sat there on guard, that we might be +menaced not only by giants. There was father's midnight visitor in New +York, just last night. Was he—or others like him—lurking about our +place here? We sat, often straining our ears for every sound outside +the house.</p> + +<p>Father slept soundly. The evening passed. It was a dark night; a few +moving lights out at sea. We saw nothing unusual, heard nothing.</p> + +<p>Midnight came. "You better go to sleep," Drake said, when we had +rustled up another meal. "I'll sit here till dawn, then call you. +We'll have to get some regular schedule."</p> + +<p>Sleep was a long time coming. Then I slept dreamlessly, to be awakened +by Drake pulling at me.</p> + +<p>"It will soon be daylight, Frank."</p> + +<p>I leaped up. "Nothing happened?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"How's father?"</p> + +<p>"All right. Still pounding it out. He was awake with me for an hour +or two. Then I made him go back. The fire's going in the living room, +Frank. There's a pot of coffee on the hearth if you want it. Here, want +this automatic?"</p> + +<p>"No. I've got mine."</p> + +<p>He lay down with his weapon beside him, and I left him. I went out into +the living room. Its oil lamp was burning. In the big open fireplace +a log fire was going with a pot of coffee on the hearth. I had my +automatic in my pocket; beside the hearth three loaded rifles and a +shotgun were standing.</p> + +<p>Through the windows to the east I could see that the stars were paling.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>The dawn came. The room brightened with its flat light. I put out the +lamp. The fire burned low.</p> + +<p>It was now broad daylight. A clear, crisp morning. Silent and still; +not a breath of wind. Drake had been asleep perhaps two hours. I went +again to the veranda. There were no planes, no boats in sight, except +out at sea where the warship still hovered.</p> + +<p>Bird's Nest Island stood clear in the morning sunlight. From the island +a wisp of smoke was rising. Some one there—a camp fire. Soldiers, +perhaps.</p> + +<p>I stood gazing. The smoke rose in a thin, dark wisp, straight up into +the still air. Then suddenly the column broke. The smoke was checked. +And in a moment it came again. A dark, round puff of it rising. Then +another puff. And others. As though a blanket were being held over a +smoking fire, to catch the smoke, releasing it in puffs.</p> + +<p>A stream of them now. Two large ones. Three, smaller. Two large ones +again.</p> + +<p>A signal fire? But it was not only that thought which made my heart +pound. I recognized the signal! My mind flung back to childhood days. +Myself, Dianne and Drake. Fanciful children out on this same island; +building a camp fire; making the smoke signals as we thought Robinson +Crusoe might have done. Two large puffs; then three smaller. This was +our childish signal, out there now!</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>The Strange Island</i></h3> + + +<p>"Drake! Wake up!"</p> + +<p>I routed him out hastily. The signal was still showing. Drake +remembered it, just as I did. We watched it; and after a moment it +ceased. The wisp of smoke went up unbroken; and then presently it +dissipated and vanished.</p> + +<p>We stared at each other.</p> + +<p>"You think it's Dianne?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes. It might be." He was confused. "I don't know what to think, +Frank. We must go there—get over there quickly as we can—see what it +means."</p> + +<p>"Yes," I agreed. "I wonder if our dory is down at the boathouse. You +mean, row over? I don't think father will want to say anything at the +village; get a launch? Do you?"</p> + +<p>"No." We both felt, as we knew father did, a reticence against +taking the authorities into our confidence. If Dianne came—to have +an official investigation of her, with all the publicity—it was +unthinkable.</p> + +<p>"Let's see about the dory," Drake suggested.</p> + +<p>"Shall we wake father up?"</p> + +<p>"Let's see about the dory first."</p> + +<p>We found the dory safe in the boathouse.</p> + +<p>We decided to start at once. A row of half an hour. We went to awaken +father.</p> + +<p>"Think he'll want to come with us, Drake?"</p> + +<p>"He might—I hope he'll stay here. This might just be a +coincidence—not Dianne. We should not all leave here at once, Frank."</p> + +<p>"Why not?"</p> + +<p>He stopped and faced me. "Because suppose she—appeared while we were +gone?"</p> + +<p>Appeared? He said it with a queer hitch in his voice. As though Dianne +might materialize from nothing into solidity before us! Yet we both +felt like that. This whole affair seemed supernatural.</p> + +<p>"Yes," I said. "That's true."</p> + +<p>And father felt the same. He decided to stay on guard. He made us take +two automatics, and a rifle in the bottom of the dory. He was refreshed +from his sleep. Alert and vigorous.</p> + +<p>"I'll be all right, lads." He followed us down to the boathouse. He was +white and grim as he said, "I need not tell you to be cautious. Come +back quickly as you can."</p> + +<p>We launched the dory and headed into the cove. He called, "If I don't +see you starting back in two hours I'll bring a launch after you."</p> + +<p>Drake and I hardly spoke during the trip. The rifle lay at Drake's +feet; we had our automatics strapped to our belts. We stripped +off our coats for the work of rowing. In the stern we had other +coats—oilskins, which always were kept in the dory.</p> + +<p>We approached the island. Drake eased up. "Wait a minute—let's see if +anybody shows."</p> + +<p>The smoke had long since vanished. We could not be sure at what part of +the island the fire had been. There was no sign of it now. The little +island stood green in the morning sunlight, with the peak of rock +looming at its center. The beach on this side was empty; there was no +evidence of any living thing there, save a few gulls lazily circling +overhead.</p> + +<p>We were armed, and this was broad daylight. But the thought of that +strange midnight visitor swept me. I know Drake felt the same as we +pulled up in the sunlight of the island beach. We were not afraid of +anything human.</p> + +<p>Drake carried the rifle. I had my automatic out. We started off down +the silent beach. Rounded its end. All empty. We kept near the water, +away from the trees and underbrush.</p> + +<p>No sign of anything. Drake whispered. "Let's cut straight across. Then +up to the rock. Look for the fire embers."</p> + +<p>He led us, with the rifle in the hollow of his arm. We walked slowly, +cautiously through the trees as though stalking some hidden animal.</p> + +<p>But there seemed no one on the island.</p> + +<p>Drake called suddenly, "Dianne! Oh, Dianne!"</p> + +<p>It startled me; it echoed through the silent trees. We stood listening.</p> + +<p>Nothing.</p> + +<p>We went on again. We came to the opposite beach. Drake whispered, "The +fire must have been to the south."</p> + +<p>We went that way. Back from the shore, some fifty feet from the beach +we came upon the embers of a small fire. They were still faintly +smoking.</p> + +<p>No one here. We stood in this little glade, our gazes roving.</p> + +<p>Nothing here. Just a few embers and half-burned sticks. I bent down.</p> + +<p>"Water was thrown on the fire to put it out," I said softly. "These +sticks are wet."</p> + +<p>I was on one knee. My heart leaped into my throat. There was a patch +of grass and ferns near me. Something stirred in them. A bird moving +through the grass? But it was not that. I stared.</p> + +<p>A fern not much higher than my ankle moved and bent aside.</p> + +<p>My breath stopped. I stared, unbelieving. And Drake saw it. He muttered +something and took a backward step.</p> + +<p>The fern leaf moved further. A tiny figure, no taller than the blades +of grass around it, was disclosed. A human figure an inch or so high!</p> + +<p>And there were others, lurking in the grass. One came out. The figure +of a woman the height of my finger. A woman with long golden robe. +Pale-gold hair dangling. The tiny face stared up at me, only a few feet +away as I knelt. A face the size of my finger nail! The sunlight fell +on it. A girl, humanly beautiful. Small and colorful, this living face, +as a miniature painted on ivory.</p> + +<p>And I recognized it. I gasped. "Dianne, it's you!"</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>Princess of the Atom</i></h3> + + +<p>Drake and I were transfixed; amazed, doubting the evidence of our +senses. Yet there was Dianne at our feet. She stood with a hand +holding a fern stalk. Her little face was smiling. I heard a voice, of +microscopic smallness, but clear. Dianne's voice; her familiar accents.</p> + +<p>"You came, Frank. I—we've been waiting."</p> + +<p>I became aware that Drake had taken a step or two forward. The little +figures in the grass scattered. Dianne called up sharply, "Careful, +Drake! Don't step on us! Stand quiet! In a moment I'll be larger."</p> + +<p>She turned and ran into the grass. Its blades were no higher than the +length of my hand, but as though they were a jungle of huge green +stalks they sheltered the small human figures. Half a dozen men, and +one other girl, like Dianne, but with a robe of pale silvery white.</p> + +<p>The figures clustered together. We could hear their faint voices. Words +in a language unintelligible. Then the two girls drew apart. The men +moved away. Hiding, watching from the concealing grass.</p> + +<p>Amazing sight! Inconceivable shock to our normal senses! Before our +eyes, Dianne and this other girl were becoming larger. A visible +change. In a moment they were above the grass. They moved away from +it. They bent the ferns aside. Dianne trampled one now. They came out +into the little open patch of rock and pebbles where Drake and I were +standing by the embers of the camp fire. Already they were as tall as +our knees.</p> + +<p>Dianne's voice, now more familiar than ever, said, "Don't look like +that! Move back. Don't stand so close to us!"</p> + +<p>For a moment neither Drake nor I spoke. A new realization of this thing +swept me. The menacing giants along the coast had disappeared because +they had become small. I had already contemplated that. But I had +envisaged them only as small as myself. Like the midnight visitor who +had called upon Drake and father. Yet here were humans still smaller.</p> + +<p>And I realized then that what we had called a giant could be lurking +here upon this island now. Any of these little patches of grass would +shelter him, and a thousand like him.</p> + +<p>Dianne had been furtive with her smoke signal to us. She had made it; +and then had grown small with her companions, to hide in the grass and +await our coming. She was so obviously furtive! As tall as my waist +now, she gazed around anxiously as though, with her greater height than +before, she might now discern some near-by enemy.</p> + +<p>The girl with her seemed equally apprehensive. An air of haste +enveloped them both.</p> + +<p>And I saw now that the tiny figures of the men in the grass were +spreading out and vanishing. Or searching? Or guarding? Their smallness +making it possible for them to seek out any lurking tiny enemies which +to us in our gigantic size could never be found.</p> + +<p>A minute or two only while my thoughts roved and I clung to Drake and +stared at Dianne and this strange girl growing large before us; Dianne, +every minute as she neared what to me was her normal size, becoming +more familiar of aspect.</p> + +<p>The same Dianne—our little sister! Yet how different! The long golden +robe was of that same strange fabric as the infant dress father had +shown us in which she had been found. Her pale-gold hair flowed free to +her waist. But it did not come down into a peak on her forehead now. +It was drawn back; and there on her forehead was the silver crescent +patch. It seemed to glow. Unnatural. Uncanny. Yet it was a thing +beautiful. It blended with her beauty. And it made her seem queerly +regal.</p> + +<p>She said abruptly, "Ahlma—enough!"</p> + +<p>The hand of each of the girls went suddenly to their mouths. They +reeled, clutching at each other; and Drake and I, with recovered wits, +moved to aid them. But they steadied. They smiled. And they had stopped +growing. Dianne, about as tall as I had always remembered her; this +other girl, whom she had called Ahlma, a trifle taller; and it seemed, +perhaps, a year or two older. A girl singularly beautiful in Dianne's +own fashion. Golden hair like Dianne's. And a crescent on her forehead. +But it seemed a paler crescent than Dianne's.</p> + +<p>Drake stammered, "Why, Dianne!"</p> + +<p>I think he had said that and nothing else half a dozen times before.</p> + +<p>The girls were still furtive, apprehensive. Dianne said hurriedly, +"Don't question now, Drake. Frank, dear—stop looking at me like that! +Your boat is here?"</p> + +<p>I said, "Yes, Dianne."</p> + +<p>"This is Ahlma. My servant and my friend. Is father all right, Frank?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"I want to get to him. Take us to the boat. Have you something you can +cover us with?"</p> + +<p>Her hand gripped my arm. It strangely reassured me to feel her human +grip. Drake reached out hesitantly and touched her. And she laughed and +kissed us both. Our same human, beautiful little Dianne.</p> + +<p>"Ahlma, these all my life were my brothers."</p> + +<p>"We have coats in the boat," I said.</p> + +<p>"Is father here? At the house here?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Drake. "Come."</p> + +<p>We started with them for the boat.</p> + +<p>"You're afraid," said Drake. "You have enemies here? These giants?"</p> + +<p>"But I can't tell you now! Yes, enemies. They know what I am trying to +do. They want to stop me. One of them, the leader—we call him Togaro—"</p> + +<p>She gazed around us. "He is here, I think. He and a party of his men. +Drake, you can't realize the jungle deeps of this vast island when you +are small! Deserts of rock—vast caverns—it's so different when you +are small! I'm afraid of him—I want to get to father."</p> + +<p>We came to the beach. She added, "I would tell you now what I have come +for. But he might be here at our feet. He knows, I think, that I have +come to join you."</p> + +<p>The midnight visitor. Was he this Togaro?</p> + +<p>"Get in," said Drake. He stared at the girl in the white robe. He said +to her, "This thing is so inconceivably strange to us—we don't know +what to say—we—am I to call you Ahlma?"</p> + +<p>She met his gaze and smiled; and it seemed that a faint wave of color +suffused her neck and face. She said, with a queer accent. "Yes, I am +Ahlma. You are Drake—and you are Frank. I have heard very much from +Dianne about you."</p> + +<p>Her voice gave Drake a startled realization. Her accent was +indescribable. But Drake recognized it! Unmistakably the accent of the +midnight visitor.</p> + +<p>The girls sat in the stern of the dory. We covered them with the +oilskins so that any one observing us would see nothing unusual about +them.</p> + +<p>They had searched and made us search the boat. There was no human thing +aboard it save ourselves. No figure even the size of our finger could +have lurked there and escaped our search.</p> + +<p>But as we rowed from the island, Dianne's fear did not lessen. She +said, "We've done the best we could. If they are here—"</p> + +<p>She did not finish. She added, "You haven't told any one—no one—I +mean the authorities—knows about me?"</p> + +<p>"No, Dianne."</p> + +<p>"Because, what I want you to do—you and father—it must be secret. And +Togaro, he will prevent your doing it if he can."</p> + +<p>Strange words! She would not add to them. She sat silent and tense as +we rowed across the sunlit channel, and brought her home, where father +was waiting for us.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>"I'll tell them," said father. "Come in lads. We must be brief, Dianne.</p> + +<p>"You're right that haste is necessary."</p> + +<p>Father had been with Dianne and her strange girl companion for +perhaps half an hour. He called us in at last. He sat with his arm +about Dianne. I could see at once that he was tense and grim; and the +apprehension characteristic of Dianne lay now upon him also.</p> + +<p>His quick glances about the room—as though he were trying to see the +unseeable. This thing uncanny—I saw too, that the room's windows were +carefully closed; and the heavy shades drawn, so that for all the +daylight outside, a lighted lamp was needed. Father told us sharply to +close the door after us.</p> + +<p>He said, as we sat down:</p> + +<p>"I was right to insist upon talking to Dianne alone. There are things I +could understand better than you—we have no time for discussion."</p> + +<p>I burst out: "Are you going to keep on treating us like children?"</p> + +<p>"No. Frank. You have a right to know these strange things Dianne has +told me. But we have no time for argument." His voice was low. He spoke +swiftly, with what seemed a surreptitious haste.</p> + +<p>The girl Ahlma sat apart. Her gaze roved the room, especially the floor.</p> + +<p>She said abruptly, "Dianne, can we not close up the bottom of that +door?"</p> + +<p>There was perhaps a quarter of an inch space between the bottom of the +door and the sill. Father got up and kicked a rug against the door. He +turned up the wick of the lamp so that the room was brighter.</p> + +<p>"Will that do?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Dianne. "That's better."</p> + +<p>Drake and I stared at each other. Drake wet his lips, but did not +speak. This thing was ghastly.</p> + +<p>Father said abruptly, "Dianne was born, not in this world of ours, but +in a world infinitely small. A world within an atom of rock, there on +Bird's Nest Island—a world of humans like ourselves.</p> + +<p>"Like us? Why, you can see for yourselves! Dianne was born a princess +of the civilization on one of the globes whirling in the limitless +space within that atom.</p> + +<p>"I confuse you, lads? I am talking of infinite smallness. There is no +limit to smallness. We know that. But I can't go into such a subject +now."</p> + +<p>"Afterward, you can tell them," said Dianne with her gentle smile. "All +I have told you—time then, father."</p> + +<p>"You still call me father?" he said. "So strange, these things."</p> + +<p>Drake said, "Dianne was brought here when she was a baby. Why?"</p> + +<p>"A princess," father repeated. "And soon after she was born an evil +leader came into power in her world. Human life is the same everywhere, +lads. She has told me it all—you shall hear every detail. But now—I +need tell you only that Dianne's parents, with their throne threatened, +had their scientists spirit Dianne away. They have a drug—you can +call it that—and a space-flying vehicle, capable of changing size. +They brought their little princess out into what to them is infinite +largeness. Left her here. To save her life from this conqueror who +threatened their throne."</p> + +<p>My thoughts reached to grasp what father was saying. I could envisage +an atom of rock there on Bird's Nest Island. One atom out of the +uncounted billions. It chanced to contain human life. I tried to +imagine becoming infinitely small. Space would, by comparison, open +up around me. The whirling electrons within the atom would be blazing +suns in a firmament of illimitable space. With a space-flying vehicle +infinitely small, I could then traverse that starry universe. Land upon +a dark star—a planet—an earth. And find there a human civilization.</p> + +<p>I knew something of modern physics. I knew that the similarity of +atomic structure to our astronomical universe was already recognized. A +difference of size only. And all comparative. I could hold a fragment +of rock on the palm of my hand. Billions of atoms, clinging together to +make what I saw as a tiny rock fragment. Yet each of those atoms held +within itself a starry universe of limitless distance—if I were to +become small enough to see it from the other viewpoint.</p> + +<p>I stared at Dianne. My sister? There suddenly seemed a vast gulf +between us. This gentle creature, so strangely beautiful, with the +crescent glowing on her forehead. Not my sister. A princess of a +different world.</p> + +<p>She caught my gaze and smiled. And said, as she had said several times +before, "Don't look at me like that, Frank! I'll tell them, father. +That day Frank, when you and I and Drake went to the island. You call +it five years ago? When you left me, this Togaro suddenly appeared. He +took me—into the atom—into smallness—into what soon I learned was my +own native world.</p> + +<p>"He wanted the throne which some day would have been mine. He—he +wanted—he wants me. But the people turned against him. I was +rescued—taken from him. I am ruler of that world now. I've told all +the details—your father will explain to you."</p> + +<p>She was speaking fast, almost breathlessly. And I realized now the +regal dominance of her manner, mixed so queerly with the little Dianne +we used to know.</p> + +<p>She went on: "I've come back here—and Togaro knows it. He learned, +some long time ago, our scientists' secret of traveling into +largeness—into this world of yours so gigantic. He learned English +from me. He learned many things of your Earth and its people.</p> + +<p>"He has been here and seen for himself. He is here now—with a few +of his men. You have seen some of them. They happened to be a trifle +larger than your normal size and so you call them giants."</p> + +<p>Drake put in, "Dianne, wait! Can't you answer some questions?"</p> + +<p>"I would keep her here with us always," father said. "She knows that. +But she is going back at once. Her duty lies in there with her people. +But more than that—the menace of Togaro here—she must go back!"</p> + +<p>"You don't talk so we can understand you, father," I objected.</p> + +<p>The girl Ahlma spoke again. She addressed Dianne, but her gaze was on +Drake.</p> + +<p>"I think, Dianne, you should tell them at once why we came. What it is +they must do for us."</p> + +<p>Father said, "Lads, this Togaro and hordes of his followers are +planning to come from the atom. Some are already here. That's what +Dianne and her people want to stop. For our sake. She wants us to get +this atom of rock from Bird's Nest Island. Bring it here. She will go +back within it to her world. We are to keep it here. Guard it. You see? +Watch it, or have it watched day and night. Then the coming of Togaro's +hordes can be checked. We can see them appear—kill them as they come, +when still they are tiny."</p> + +<p>Dianne interrupted him. "Togaro's plan is to come here—and with his +men in a size gigantic even compared to you, he will overrun your +Earth! Conquer it! Force your great nations to yield to his giants—"</p> + +<p>Giants overrunning our world! I could with shuddering fancy imagine +one a thousand feet tall toppling the buildings of New York City +with sweeps of his arm! Of what use our battleships, our long-range +guns—any of our weapons against a horde of such gigantic antagonists?</p> + +<p>Father said, "Our Earth could be devastated so easily! But if we can +get the atom here, now before it is too late—"</p> + +<p>A cry from Ahlma checked him. There was an instant when all of us sat +mute with horror. In a distant corner of the room where a glow of our +table light fell upon the floor the small figure of a man was lurking. +A man, tall perhaps as the top of my shoe.</p> + +<p>An instant while we were mute, frozen into immobility. Then I heard +Dianne murmur, "Togaro!"</p> + +<p>And Drake cried, "Father—that is the fellow who called on us last +night!"</p> + +<p>Drake's chair crashed over backward as he leaped to his feet. He +stooped. He seized the chair and flung it at the little lurking figure.</p> + +<p>I shouted, "You missed him, Drake!" I dashed across the room. I had +seen the figure dart into a shadow.</p> + +<p>Dianne lifted off the lampshade and tossed it away. The room floor +showed more clearly. We hastily moved the furniture. Then I saw the +figure again. Far smaller now—an inch high, no more. It had climbed +to the baseboard of the wall. Running upon the narrow ledge. It +leaped—the shadow of a chair enveloped it.</p> + +<p>We ran about the room, searching. Like searching for an insect which +every instant was dwindling toward invisibility.</p> + +<p>Dianne cried, "Too late! He's too small. But I saw him—right near +here."</p> + +<p>She gripped me as I passed her. And cried, "Drake, wait! You and Frank, +will you come with me? If we get small—follow him into smallness here +in this room—we may catch him! Will you come?"</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>The Chase into Smallness</i></h3> + + +<p>Drake and I took the small pellets which Dianne offered. She had them +in a phial at her waist. She said hurriedly: "Ahlma, you stay here. +Keep her with you, father. Stay here in the room. Watch us—then, when +you can't see us any longer, sit down! Don't move about—you might +trample on us!"</p> + +<p>It seemed that we had last seen the figure along the inner wall, away +from the door or the windows. This was a small room. Two windows on +one side, and the single door. It had once been a bedroom; but it was +furnished meagerly now, with a small table and a few chairs.</p> + +<p>"Here," said Dianne, "I think this is the best place. He may be—right +here now. He could not go far—not far from this particular spot—when +he is so small. Stand beside me, Drake. Here, Frank."</p> + +<p>Father stammered: "You—you won't be gone long?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Dianne. "Togaro would not dare go far into smallness here. +It would lead him into the unknown—he would get lost. We will be +back—in an hour perhaps. You ready, Frank? Ready, Drake?"</p> + +<p>The pellet tasted a trifle sweetish. It dissolved on my tongue. I +gulped and swallowed. Cold beads of sweat stood on my forehead. But +it was fear only. My head reeled. The room seemed to take a dizzying, +sweeping lurch. Dianne's steadying arm was around me and Drake; and +in a moment my senses cleared. I later learned the details of this +drug's effect. A contraction of the cells of my body, preserving their +form, contracting each of them in normal relation to the others. An +aura of its effect, like a magnetic field, was around me. My garments +contracting; even the air, as I breathed it, was diminished in all its +inherent molecules and atoms.</p> + +<p>Dianne's voice said: "You feel all right?"</p> + +<p>I heard Drake mutter: "Yes. But—Dianne—strange."</p> + +<p>I was standing still, yet everywhere the room was in movement—a +crawling, flowing movement. I could see the near-by wall at which I +stared, moving upward, expanding, growing steadily larger. The ceiling +over me, lifting. The wall receding. A moment ago I could have touched +it. Not now. It was drawing back from me. A visual enlargement of all +my surroundings. An illusion, because I was dwindling.</p> + +<p>I was still dizzy; I did not dare turn my head or shift my gaze. Beside +me was a chair. I could see it out of the tail of my eye. The chair was +shifting away, and growing huge. Already its seat loomed higher than my +head. I saw Dianne and Drake beside me; in all this movement they alone +were unchanged.</p> + +<p>And I could feel the movement. The floor under my feet was shifting +with a steady crawl. It was spreading out, expanding. The pull of it +drew my feet apart so that every moment I had to take a step to keep +from falling. All this in what perhaps was a minute.</p> + +<p>Dianne cast me off. "You're all right now. Come on—I think we should +stand nearer the wall."</p> + +<p>The wall seemed ten feet or more from us now. We walked toward it. The +effect was dizzying, but we overcame that presently. Dianne turned and +waved her hand upward. Drake and I swung around to follow her gesture.</p> + +<p>This room gigantic! The ceiling seemed thirty or forty feet above us. +The opposite wall was farther than that. High up were huge rectangles +of windows. The chairs and the table were enormous.</p> + +<p>We moved again toward the wall. We ran this time. A foot or two away we +stopped.</p> + +<p>Another minute passed. The room wall was white plastered, and it had +a lower baseboard of wood. The plaster surface rose sheer a hundred +feet now. It was like a great cliff-face. The lamplight up there was a +yellow glow. The baseboard was twice the height of our heads, with a +ledge on top upon which we could have walked. The wood looked rough and +jagged.</p> + +<p>The visual growth went on. The wall was again far away, and receding so +fast that if we ran we might fail to reach it. The board floor under us +was turning rough—uneven, with ridges and undulations everywhere.</p> + +<p>Another minute.</p> + +<p>In the distance behind us one of the table legs rose like a huge +monolith into the heights of the lamplight. Shadows and blurred, dark +outlines were up there. Farther away on the rolling, jagged surface +which was now the floor I could see a formless dark blur which might +have been one of father's feet. Half a mile away, perhaps, and +receding in the distance.</p> + +<p>Then even the nearer wall was gone! Vaguely, as though it were some +ten miles off, it loomed like the white sheen of an ice cliff. Then +vanished.</p> + +<p>We stood alone in the midst of a tumbled region. A great tumbled +plain—crudely level. Vacant distance everywhere. Overhead, in what to +us was now the sky, a faint yellow sheen of radiance mingled with the +haze of space.</p> + +<p>There were pits all about us now; depressions, in depth twice the +height of our bodies, with steep but jagged sides. We were still +diminishing; the landscape crawled with expanding movement. It kept us +active now. At our feet, often a small hole would open up so that we +would have to move to a higher ridge to keep from falling or sliding +into the yawning hole.</p> + +<p>We stood precariously upon a small peak. With unnatural microscopic +clearness it seemed to me that my vision might carry a hundred miles +across this tumbled landscape. Weird vista! Like nothing I had ever +seen on earth. Not even like pictures of the lunar landscapes. Some +unknown planet, perhaps, might look like this. A land convulsed by +an angry nature, flung and tumbled by some great cataclysm into this +broken chaos.</p> + +<p>With an effort I turned my thoughts into the other viewpoint. This was +a few square inches—a foot or two perhaps—of the rough, scuffled +board flooring in the bedroom of our Maine home! It seemed, far away as +I stared, that there was a great vertical slash crossing the distant +horizon. A cañon deep and wide—I knew that probably it was the space +between the boards of the floor. A mile or so away in another direction +was a huge caldron; a circular pit a mile wide, with a broken and +jagged rim. The crater of some volcano? It was in reality a broken +knothole, a blemish in the rough board of the floor.</p> + +<p>We had been talking at intervals. I said once, thoughtlessly:</p> + +<p>"But, Dianne—going into your atom, would it be so very much farther +than this?"</p> + +<p>She smiled. Drake exclaimed, "Don't be an ass, Frank!"</p> + +<p>Dianne said gently, "This would be just the start. I have the drug in a +more powerful form."</p> + +<p>"How long a trip, Dianne? To get into your world, from ours, I mean?"</p> + +<p>"With greater intensities of the drug, Frank, we diminish much faster. +The whole trip—you would call it three or four days, perhaps."</p> + +<p>Three or four days! And we had been now some five minutes!</p> + +<p>We had, all this time, been watching closely for any sign of Togaro. +Dianne was sure that he had vanished somewhere near here.</p> + +<p>"But, Dianne, when he was larger than we are now," Drake objected, "Why +if he ran off there"—he gestured with a sweep of his arm toward our +dim horizon—"he'd be a hundred miles from here by now."</p> + +<p>She nodded. "Yes. But he would not dare move far. We would see him. But +if he were hiding—"</p> + +<p>There were certainly places to hide here now. Caverns—yawning +tunnel-entrances opening up everywhere.</p> + +<p>Dianne cautioned, "Watch out, Frank!"</p> + +<p>We had moved down from the ridge; to stay there would have left us +stranded upon a precipitous height. Drake and Dianne seized me—I had +nearly fallen as the shifting ground altered under me. We clung to a +slope; slid down it. We landed, unharmed, some twenty feet down, in a +bowl-like depression.</p> + +<p>It seemed now that all this area was a honeycomb. Underground passages +opened here into the bowl. Tunnels. Caves, small and elongated. All +this underground area a honeycomb of cells. Cellular caves of the wood +structure!</p> + +<p>Drake started thoughtlessly into a dim passageway. But Dianne stopped +him.</p> + +<p>"We must not separate. If you get lost—"</p> + +<p>We stood in a cave. The light was fading. The opening tunnels and +expanding pits near us were dark. And it was all very silent. Our +voices seemed dead and muffled.</p> + +<p>I presently became aware that the expanding movement around us had +ceased. The dose of the drug we had taken had reached its limit. We +were no longer diminishing.</p> + +<p>We stood, instinctively whispering. Was Togaro near here? How in all +these miles of cellular caverns could we ever hope to locate him? We +walked, keeping close together, through a tubelike passage; came into +another cave. We had gone downward; it was even more dim in here.</p> + +<p>It occurred to me suddenly that we had brought no weapons. In the awed +fear of our taking the drug for the first time, confronting this +unknown experience, we had completely forgotten them.</p> + +<p>"Could we have brought them?" Drake asked.</p> + +<p>"A small revolver perhaps," said Dianne. "Held under your arm. I never +thought of it—we have no such weapons in our world. Togaro, I think, +will not have them—and you are two against him."</p> + +<p>"We'll never find him," I declared. "Not in such a place as this. How +small would he get, do you think?"</p> + +<p>"He would not dare get very small. It would lead him—you can see—into +the unknown."</p> + +<p>I could indeed. These caves here under us—another of those pellets; +it would carry us down, with illimitable space opening up around us. +Even this small area upon which my foot now rested would open up into a +universe if I were to get small enough!</p> + +<p>Drake said, "No use exploring here. Not in this size. Dianne, how about +us getting larger? A trifle larger—and on the upper surface we can +move about—cover a greater area. We might locate him—"</p> + +<p>Togaro had the drug in the same size pellets as did Dianne. It seemed +likely that he would have taken one—come to this size we now had +reached. But to go back he would have to get larger again. We might +have our best chance of encountering him going back. Or wait, up there +in the room—with a bright light and careful watch.</p> + +<p>We stood at the entrance of a huge elongated cavern. A dozen of these +tunnel mouths, about as high as our heads, opened into it. The cavern +was some two hundred feet in length; half as wide and a hundred feet +or so high. A flattened elongated cell. It was dim and shadowed. Our +lowered voices reverberated across it with muffled echoes.</p> + +<p>Drake said, "No chance this way, Dianne."</p> + +<p>But we had miscalculated this fellow Togaro. He had not been attempting +to escape us; he was luring us on. Progressively smaller always than +ourselves—since he had taken the drug before we did—he had kept +within sight of us.</p> + +<p>We saw him now, standing along the side of this cavern not fifty feet +from us! A stalwart, heavy-set figure; trousers, a white shirt open at +the throat exposing a massive hairy chest. He was now somewhat shorter +than Drake, though taller than I. He had been lurking in some recess of +the cavewall. He came out and the movement attracted us.</p> + +<p>I cried, "There he is!"</p> + +<p>Drake and I would have rushed at him, but Dianne seized us.</p> + +<p>"Wait!"</p> + +<p>A glow of light from some overhead opening fell upon the standing +figure. Bare-headed; massive, bullet head. A face—the face of the +midnight visitor—regarding us sardonically.</p> + +<p>And in that instant Drake and I realized why Dianne was holding us. She +was fumbling frantically at her belt.</p> + +<p>The leering figure of Togaro off there was visibly growing larger! An +instant and he was as tall as Drake. Then taller.</p> + +<p>He came leaping at us!</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>The Flight in the Cellular Caverns</i></h3> + + +<p>Dianne's hand came from her belt. "Here—take this! Just touch it to +your tongue. Only that! Then give it back to me!"</p> + +<p>Her hand went to her own mouth. I moistened my tongue with the pellet.</p> + +<p>Togaro had almost reached us. Drake leaped forward. Dianne cried in +agonized terror, "Oh, Drake—Drake, you took too much!"</p> + +<p>Drake had gulped all of his pellet. He leaped at the oncoming figure +of Togaro. They locked together, fighting. I broke from Dianne. As +I jumped forward a corrugation of the floor caught my foot. I fell +headlong; stunned for a moment, but I got up.</p> + +<p>In the center of the cavern the swaying forms of Drake and Togaro were +fighting. They were both already far larger than Dianne and me! Giant +fighting forms. Growing swiftly. In a moment they looked fifteen or +twenty feet tall. A weaponless, hand-to-hand fight. Togaro was bending +Drake backward. Drake's hands gripped the fellow's throat. Then they +went down. Rolling together, each struggling to land on top. Still +larger now—their lurching bodies filled one end of the cavern.</p> + +<p>Dianne clung to me. I became aware that I was struggling to escape her. +And aware also that the cave seemed dwindling. A slow contraction, but +the dim space here was already noticeably smaller.</p> + +<p>"Dianne, let me go!"</p> + +<p>"No! They're too large! You'd be killed!"</p> + +<p>Large! They were gigantic! A sweep of one of their massive arms or legs +would have flung me headlong as though I had been a child. I crouched +with Dianne, watching them. Powerless to help Drake.</p> + +<p>Then I realized: "Dianne, give me more of the drug."</p> + +<p>"No!" She called, "Drake! Drake, you—"</p> + +<p>Her words were lost in the turmoil of the fighting giants. The roof of +the cavern had a long irregular opening into the space above it. Light +filtered down. The light illumined the huge threshing bodies. Togaro +was on top. His arm, longer than my body now, went up as he tried to +strike at Drake. Then Drake heaved him off.</p> + +<p>They had rolled away from where Dianne and I were crouching. They were +soon so large that half the cavern scarce contained them. Togaro tried +to stand up with Drake lunging at his waist. His shoulders brushed the +roof. He could not stand erect.</p> + +<p>Dianne was screaming now. "Drake! Drake! Climb out of here! You'll be +crushed!" An agony of fear was in her voice.</p> + +<p>It swept me with a realization of horror. Growing so fast, these +fighting giants, that in a moment more the cavern would not be large +enough for them! Crushed in here by their own growth.</p> + +<p>I added my shouts to Dianne's. "Drake! Climb out—through the hole up +there."</p> + +<p>They both realized the danger. They were almost wedged between this +hundred-foot floor and roof. We could see Togaro trying to cast Drake +backward—trying to escape through the gash overhead. He seemed to +succeed. His fist caught Drake full in the face. Drake crumpled, but in +a moment recovered. Togaro had cast loose. Scrambling, half climbing, +his great body lurched up through the roof opening.</p> + +<p>But Drake was after him. He stood, bent double within the narrow +confines of these walls. He scrambled up, against all the efforts of +Togaro to shove him back.</p> + +<p>They fought in the space over us. Already too large to come back. +Their bodies fell as again they locked together. Fell across the roof +opening, so huge now that we could see only a portion of their legs.</p> + +<p>Again the space up there must have been too small. They scrambled +higher. The sounds of the fighting faded into the upper distance.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Father sat with Ahlma, watching us as we dwindled before his horrified +eyes. He saw us, an inch high, standing by the wall. Dianne called, +"Good-by." He saw us smaller, running across the tiny space, still +closer to the wall. He did not dare move. He sat by the table with +Ahlma beside him. She put her hand out presently and touched his arm; +his hand gripped hers and held it.</p> + +<p>He said softly, "You love my girl Dianne?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes. My friend and our princess."</p> + +<p>"You're older?"</p> + +<p>"A little."</p> + +<p>He paused. "Ahlma, will you bring her back to me when this is over? +Will you? We'll get the fragment of rock which holds your atom. I'll +guard it carefully. Will you bring Dianne back to me?"</p> + +<p>She turned her face to him, a face perhaps as beautiful as Dianne's, +gentle, thoughtful. She brushed away a straying lock of her golden +hair. Her blue eyes regarded father. She said, "Yes. I will urge her. +And would you like me to come?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said. And at the pressure of her hand, he added, "Oh, +but don't you understand, Ahlma—Dianne seems to me just my little +daughter—I love her."</p> + +<p>"I understand." Her gaze still held his. In the blue depths of her eyes +he saw a light twinkling like a smile. But her voice was very earnest +as she added:</p> + +<p>"And I will come also." The twinkling light in her eyes spread to a +whimsical smile twitching at her lips. "What a handsome young man your +son Drake is."</p> + +<p>Half an hour must have passed. Or perhaps more. They sat, watching the +small segment of floor into which we had vanished. There was a moment +or two, father recalls, when it chanced that they were talking, and +their glances strayed away. When they looked back, Ahlma gave a cry.</p> + +<p>"I see—"</p> + +<p>Father started to his feet, but she held him. He saw nothing. "What? +What is it, Ahlma?"</p> + +<p>"One of them!"</p> + +<p>A single figure. A speck, there on the board. Ahlma lifted the +lampshade. He saw it then. Something there—</p> + +<p>"One of them!" she repeated. Her voice caught in her throat as terror +swept her. "Only one! A man!"</p> + +<p>She cautiously drew father forward. They knelt carefully on the floor, +bending down over the board. A tiny figure there, an eighth of an inch +long. But it grew. Half an inch! A man's figure. Clothes torn and +blood-stained.</p> + +<p>Drake! He lay on his side. But he moved. He drew himself up on one +elbow.</p> + +<p>An inch long now. He tried to stand, but swayed and fell back. He had +spoken, but they did not hear it. He waved an arm.</p> + +<p>A warning, but it was too late! Behind them as they knelt there was a +footstep. They turned. Togaro—as large as Ahlma—leaped at them!</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Drake, down there in the caverns with the small figures of Dianne and +me watching, fought with Togaro. He was aware of the shrinking walls. +He heard and understood our tiny screams of warning. He scrambled up +through the roof opening after Togaro. The space overhead was a caldron +depression. They fought there. Togaro had been the first to take the +drug. He was rapidly becoming larger than Drake. His strength was +overpowering. They rolled together. Drake felt the big hands gripping +his throat. He tried to tear them loose, but could not. It stopped his +breath. He tried to heave his adversary off. But Togaro was too large. +Too strong.</p> + +<p>The lunge jammed them both against a wall which almost wedged them. It +must have brought realization to Togaro. He suddenly cast Drake loose.</p> + +<p>Drake's senses had almost faded; but with returning breath he +strengthened. The walls were closing. Togaro scrambled out. Drake tried +to stand up. His head and shoulders came above the closing caldron. He +jumped; and as he scrambled out Togaro's fist caught him in the face.</p> + +<p>He fell; and though he did not quite lose consciousness he lay +motionless. Togaro struck him again. Beat him, kicked him. Drake had +just the wits left to pretend insensibility.</p> + +<p>This partly open space was again closing. A ravine in the corrugations +of the upper surface. Togaro's attention was again distracted by +the narrowing space. He evidently thought his adversary dead; or +unconscious so that he would lie here and be crushed by his own +growth. He left Drake. He leaped away, scrambled up and ran.</p> + +<p>For a moment Drake lay quiet. He stayed as long as he dared. Then he +tried to sit up. He had barely the strength to pull himself out as the +ravine narrowed to a slit beneath him.</p> + +<p>He fell prone. Togaro had disappeared. Drake lay amid the tumbled +ridges of the upper surface. The ridges crawled and crept under him as +his body grew. He was far enough out so that his body pushed itself +over the surface undulations with its own growth. He fainted.</p> + +<p>When he recovered consciousness—it must have been five minutes or +so—he could distinguish the outlines of the giant room. He heard the +rumble of father and Ahlma talking—their voices booming far up there +in the radiance of the lamplight.</p> + +<p>He was still growing. Togaro had escaped being seen by father and the +girl. He had run to another corner of the room; stood quietly behind +them, growing to their size.</p> + +<p>Drake saw the monstrous forms of Father and Ahlma come forward. He lay +on his side. They loomed over him—tremendous giants peering down with +great faces far overhead. And behind them—almost equally gigantic—he +suddenly saw Togaro!</p> + +<p>Drake tried to call a warning. But they did not hear him. He was still +weak and faint. He got up on one elbow. He gestured frantically. He saw +the tremendous figure of Togaro leap at father.</p> + +<p>Togaro's growth had stopped. He was as tall as father. His fist caught +father and knocked him backward. He would have stamped upon Drake, +but Ahlma saw the intention. She hurled herself at Togaro. Fighting, +tearing at his face with her hands. And father assailed him also.</p> + +<p>Drake saw the three huge figures swaying above him; Togaro, with a foot +twice the length of Drake's body, was trying to get near enough to +stamp upon him. Drake saw that father and the girl were being worsted. +He tried to get to his feet, but he was too weak and dizzy. He sank +back.</p> + +<p>Then Ahlma broke away. She seized the lamp and flung it. The lamp +fortunately was extinguished as it crashed to the floor. The room with +its drawn shades, in spite of the daylight outside, was too dim for the +small figure of Drake to be seen.</p> + +<p>And then Ahlma began screaming. Togaro cursed. Perhaps he thought +there was help near by. Whatever he thought, he flung father from him, +and turning in the dimness, he fumbled for the door. Snatched it open; +ran through the hall and dashed from the house.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>Death of the Giants</i></h3> + + +<p>We returned to our normal size; and found Drake, father and Ahlma +together. Father was shaken by his encounter with Togaro, but unharmed. +Drake was bruised, battered and bleeding; but with his youth and +strength he soon recovered.</p> + +<p>The afternoon wore away. We had decided to start for the island as soon +as it was dark. There was no sign of Togaro.</p> + +<p>I talked that afternoon for more than an hour with Dianne. She told me +many things of her strange world. Drake talked with Ahlma. I heard him +say once, "You saved my life—he would have stamped upon me."</p> + +<p>I recall with what a singular mixture of emotion I touched Dianne's +hand. My adored little sister? A strange foreign princess? The two +ideas, so wholly different, mingled in my heart. I recall, too, the +flush on Drake's face, his low eager voice as he talked with Ahlma.</p> + +<p>The darkness closed in around King's Cove. We were ready to start. +Father, with an automatic in his hand, followed us down to the +boathouse. We had tried to have him summon a car and go to the village +earlier in the afternoon. Or summon help.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, lads—I can take care of myself. We've got to keep this +secret. Why, suppose the authorities were to order that atom destroyed!"</p> + +<p>The channel was black. The sea was calm, with a sullen, oily calmness. +No giants had been reported. The lights of occasional patrol planes +passed overhead; out at sea the lights of the waiting battleship were +plainly visible.</p> + +<p>Drake and I rowed swiftly, with the two girls huddled in the stern. I +was tense, my mind roving upon a thousand weird unnatural dangers which +at any moment might come upon us. But there seemed nothing.</p> + +<p>The island loomed black and silent ahead of us. What was there?</p> + +<p>I shipped my oar. We grounded on the beach. No sign of anything.</p> + +<p>We prowled through the dark trees, with automatics ready. Drake had a +small flash light. We came upon the embers of Dianne's signal fire of +the morning.</p> + +<p>Tiny figures stirred in the grass under Drake's light.</p> + +<p>"Careful, Drake."</p> + +<p>Dianne bent down cautiously. A microscopic voice called up to her. She +said to us:</p> + +<p>"They have not seen Togaro."</p> + +<p>She led us a few feet to one side of the embers. "Drake, give me your +light."</p> + +<p>There was a patch of soft loam here, with grass and ferns growing in +it. A small rock projected up in the grass. No one would ever have +noticed it. Drake and I knelt down carefully over it. Dianne held the +light.</p> + +<p>It was the top of what seemed a bowlder buried here. Only a few jagged +inches showed. Rock, scarred and pitted; coppery-looking. Metallic.</p> + +<p>Drake murmured, "Why, this is a meteorite buried here."</p> + +<p>It seemed so. We dug with our fingers in the soil around the +projection. The thing bulged out underground. A meteorite that might +have weighed a ton. Metallic rock, scarred and pitted and fused by the +heat of its falling through the atmosphere to earth. Centuries ago it +might have fallen, a visitor from the realms of space. It had buried +itself here; or been buried since by the drifting silt of the passing +years.</p> + +<p>Dianne had known nothing of its being a meteorite. She showed us now +the top projection. Made us understand carefully the exact point within +which her atom was contained. It was easy to remember. A tiny crater—a +pit into which a pin-point might go.</p> + +<p>"We descend into that," she said.</p> + +<p>We studied the configurations of the projection. With my hunting knife +I could break off the top fragment easily.</p> + +<p>She added, "Guard it somewhere—with that little crater held upward as +it is now."</p> + +<p>Ahlma said abruptly, "There is a storm coming."</p> + +<p>Rain was beginning to fall. The clouds overhead were black. Thunder +rumbled in the distance. And then there was a lightning flash nearer at +hand. It brightened all the island for an instant.</p> + +<p>Ahlma cried, "Look there! Did you see him?"</p> + +<p>The darkness was already again like a wall around us. But we had all +seen a giant figure looming into the blackness. A giant, here on the +island beach!</p> + +<p>Another lightning flash. The storm burst over us, with a surge of wind +and rain. Upon the circular island beach, stationed at intervals, giant +figures had grown into the sky. Six of them so huge that by leaning +forward they might have touched hands across the island.</p> + +<p>Dianne whispered, "We must get smaller! They can trample the island."</p> + +<p>We were surrounded by them, trapped here—but even in our normal size +we were so small that they evidently had not yet seen us.</p> + +<p>In the glare of lightning as we crouched, we saw one of the giants +lift our dory in his hand, crush it like a bug, and fling it out to +sea. Another stooped and fumbled with his fingers over the island +underbrush. He plucked up trees, as one would pull up stalks of fern.</p> + +<p>But the section where we crouched, hiding now in a near-by bush, was +undisturbed. Why, we never knew. Perhaps because Togaro was near here. +Or expected here.</p> + +<p>Already the presence of the giants was discovered. A war plane circled +overhead, swooping through the storm. Its bomb dropped with a hiss +into the near-by water. Then a shot screamed past from the advancing +battleship.</p> + +<p>Dianne gave us just a taste of the drug to diminish our stature. The +island expanded. We crouched in a great jungle of forest growth which +had been the thicket. Pebbles strewn here grew to great bowlders. We +found a cavelike recess and squeezed into it. Miles of jungle and +strange, dark land spread around us. Up in the sky, where the lightning +flashed and a great torrent of water was pouring down, the bombardment +of the island began.</p> + +<p>The world knows of that night's events, that soon after nightfall six +giants appeared upon Bird's Nest Island off the coast of Maine. They +were attacked by the patrol planes.</p> + +<p>The giants seemed great stupid brutes. Confused, perhaps. They plucked +at the island's trees. They waded out into the water and back. They +reached into the sea and flung huge dripping bowlders at the attacking +planes.</p> + +<p>The hovering battleship advanced. Its shots screamed at the island. One +of the giants went down. He floundered in the water, with the others +clustering in frightened amazement about him. Then his great body lay +still. It sank, but rose again and drifted out to sea.</p> + +<p>The planes dropped bombs. One of the giants, wounded, bellowed with +cries that were heard all down the coast. He waded frantically out +toward the warship which was some three miles off. But the ocean was +too deep for him. He swam back. A shot struck him. He crumpled.</p> + +<p>An upflung bowlder hit one of the planes and brought it down. The +planes flew higher after that.</p> + +<p>The coast was lashed with the waves of the giants' threshing bodies. +Another fell; his head and shoulders sprawled across half of Bird's +Nest Island.</p> + +<p>The brief unseasonable electrical storm swept past. In half an hour of +the battle but one giant was left. He tried to escape. He reached the +mainland, staggering south. He fell, ten miles down the coast.</p> + +<p>We crouched in the silence and darkness which had again fallen upon the +island.</p> + +<p>Drake murmured: "It's over."</p> + +<p>Dianne took us back to our normal size. Sea planes were landing in +the water of the channel. Clusters of lights showed where boats were +heading swiftly for the floating bodies of the fallen giants.</p> + +<p>Launches were putting out from the battleships. Other boats coming out +from the mainland. A destroyer dashed up and anchored in the channel. +Planes circled overhead. Activity everywhere. A dozen boats were +advancing upon the island.</p> + +<p>We had regained normal size. We stood in a group in the darkness of the +island glade.</p> + +<p>"We must hurry," Dianne whispered. "Frank, you understand—you chip off +the fragment of rock. Wait a few minutes—ten minutes—after we are +gone. Then you can't harm us. Take the rock home, guard it. Oh, Frank, +keep it secret—and we'll come back some time."</p> + +<p>Why all these directions only to me? I might have realized then, but I +did not.</p> + +<p>Dianne kissed me; Ahlma pressed my hand. The girls were already +dwindling. The little figures of their escort lurked at our feet. I +turned to Drake.</p> + +<p>"We'll wait ten minutes and—"</p> + +<p>I gasped. He too was dwindling. He said hurriedly: "I'm going, Frank. +You explain to father."</p> + +<p>I stood stricken. I recall his last words of instructions: "Togaro +may have gone into the atom; or he may be here in our world. Watch out +for him, Frank! These few giants mean nothing. Stupid brutes he has +sacrificed—a test only of what he plans."</p> + +<p>"But Drake—stop!"</p> + +<p>I stood frozen. I was suddenly horribly frightened. Confused. A step, +and I might kill them. I called, but there was only silence. I had the +flash light, but if I lighted it I might blind them.</p> + +<p>I sat down by the dead fire. Five minutes. Ten minutes. I heard boats +landing upon the beach, and the shouts of arriving men.</p> + +<p>But they must not find me until I had done what I had to do! I stood +up hastily. With the flash light I located the projecting top of the +meteorite. My fingers were trembling as I opened my claspknife. I +recall that I was mumbling to myself:</p> + +<p>"Steady, Frank! Don't do it wrong."</p> + +<p>I knelt. I chipped at the rock. My pounding heart nearly smothered me. +The tramp of advancing men sounded near at hand.</p> + +<p>I hacked desperately. The rock fragment came off—a chunk a few inches +in diameter. I laid it carefully in my pocket. I snapped off my flash. +I huddled, shaking, by the wet embers of the dead fire. My brother!</p> + +<p>Men surrounded me.</p> + +<p>"What the hell?"</p> + +<p>"Who is he?"</p> + +<p>I stammered: "Let me go."</p> + +<p>A turmoil of rough questions. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"</p> + +<p>"Ferrule. My name is Frank Ferrule. I live over there—King's Cove."</p> + +<p>Other men from another boat came up.</p> + +<p>"I've heard of the Ferrules. House across there at King's Cove."</p> + +<p>"Yes. That's where I live. My father's there now. I was here—got +trapped here when the fighting started."</p> + +<p>Somebody said: "He's scared stiff."</p> + +<p>"Let go of me," I insisted. "Take me home."</p> + +<p>They shoved me into one of their boats.</p> + +<p>In the babble of excited voices I was soon ignored. I sat with my hand +in my pocket, gently holding the precious chunk of rock.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>Tiny Fragment of Rock</i></h3> + + +<p>A year passed. Father and I lived permanently now at King's Cove. In +a special room, with three trusted guards, the fragment of rock lay +carefully watched. Nothing—no one, friend or enemy—appeared during +that year; and we began to think that perhaps no one ever would.</p> + +<p>Father's health was not good. The shock of losing Drake was very great. +He said it was not that. He said always—and so wistfully—that Drake +would come back to us. And Dianne.</p> + +<p>The world, for months, talked of those days of the giants. But the +world soon forgets. The giants were an enigma—a menace—but our war +planes and the battleship soon overcame it. No one, after a year, +seemed afraid of giants; in a few years more they would be history, +forgotten completely.</p> + +<p>No drugs were found on the bodies of the giants. They wore, the reports +said, a belt with many empty compartments. To whom could that possibly +be significant, save father and me?</p> + +<p>I sat often alone at night in the barred room, by the light which +shone on the rock fragment as it rested on its smooth slab of stone. A +microscope stood in a bracket which in an instant could be swung into +position. Nothing could appear there without our seeing it at once. If +the menace came, we were ready always to deal with it.</p> + +<p>Tiny fragment of rock lying there, with its billions of atoms—each a +universe. One—the universe that held Dianne.</p> + +<p>I wondered, so often, what she and Drake and Ahlma might be doing down +there in the Infinitely Small. Trying, perhaps, to protect us from the +menace? It seemed so.</p> + +<p>Often I cursed my helplessness. I could put my finger down and touch +the fragment of rock. An eighth of an inch of space—no more than that, +perhaps—separated me from Dianne. Yet it was an infinite, hopeless +void of distance.</p> + +<p>And then one night in May, as I sat alone, staring at the rock +fragment, hope which I had thought dead leaped within me.</p> + +<p>Something had come from the atom! Under the glare of light, +where all these hopeless days and nights nothing living had ever +appeared—something moved.</p> + +<p>A speck, appearing from invisible smallness.</p> + +<p>It grew.</p> + +<p>A tiny human figure, small as a pinhead, was upon the jagged piece of +rock. I swung the microscope over it.</p> + +<p>And I saw a man in tattered, blood-stained garments, clinging to the +rock, waving a white flag frantically at me!</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>The White Flag</i></h3> + + +<p>Father and I had of necessity changed our whole mode of life when we +undertook the watching of the rock fragment. We gave up our Westchester +residence, to live the year around at King's Cove. Father moved his +laboratory from Westchester; I relinquished my flying job.</p> + +<p>The house at King's Cove, unheated, was not suitable for winter +conditions. We installed a heating plant. We cleared out one of the +small bedrooms. Barred its windows and its door, so that it had all the +aspect of a cell.</p> + +<p>The windows we sealed, not to be opened. A new door was hung, closely +fitting so that there was not the smallest crack. Into the ceiling we +cut a small ventilator to keep the air of the room fresh.</p> + +<p>There was one small chair. In the center of the room there was a flat, +six-foot-square slab of granite. It was raised above the floor on a +sturdy pedestal. In its center lay the precious chunk of rock, with a +dome-light over it—the white electric glare shining strongly down.</p> + +<p>The microscope hung in a bracket; and there was another bracket—a rack +of bottles and atomizers. Gruesome to contemplate using them! Bottles +of acids and poisons; atomizers to spray poison liquids! These tiny +humans which might appear would be treated like deadly insects, at once +to be exterminated.</p> + +<p>We had three guards employed. Between them, they covered the entire +twenty-four hours. They sat armed with automatics. At ten-minute +intervals they searched the fragment of rock with the microscope. An +electric bell-switch was close at hand, so that in an instant father +and I could be summoned.</p> + +<p>Yet for all this neither father nor I could for a moment relax. +Alternating with our hopeless moods that Drake and Dianne were gone +forever was the feeling that Togaro might at any moment attack us. +Within the atom thousands perhaps of his followers were preparing to +conquer the earth.</p> + +<p>It was nerve-racking business. Father was breaking down under the +heart-rending strain of it. I knew he could not possibly go on for +another year, living under such conditions.</p> + +<p>There was never a moment when he and I both dared leave the house at +once.</p> + +<p>He was asleep this momentous night in mid-May. I had sent the guard out +for a ten-minute relaxation. I saw the figure appear. I stood shaking, +peering down into the small microscope. The magnified chunk of rock +showed jagged and broken. Upon the upper lip of the crater-like hole +the tiny figure was visible. A man, blood-stained and battered, with a +waving white flag in his hand.</p> + +<p>I turned from the microscope. I could just make him out with the naked +eye—a pin-point of white movement.</p> + +<p>I rang the bell for father. I stood trembling. Confused by the shock of +this actuality which for so long we had been contemplating. A whirl of +confused thoughts plunged at me. Was it Drake?</p> + +<p>No! It did not seem to look like Drake.</p> + +<p>A friend? An enemy? Should I kill it? What was I waiting for?</p> + +<p>I became aware that I had seized an atomizer. A puff of it and a +torrent of deadly spray would kill that tiny figure; and kill, +doubtless, any others which might be there, too small yet for me to see.</p> + +<p>I held my hand. A friend? A white flag—of truce?</p> + +<p>The figure was expanding. Without the microscope now I could see it +clearly in the brilliant white light.</p> + +<p>Dare I let it get larger? I shouted: "Wait! You—stop!"</p> + +<p>Father burst into the room. "Frank!"</p> + +<p>And behind him the burly figure of the returning guard. Both were +panting from running and from excitement.</p> + +<p>"Frank?"</p> + +<p>"Something here! Father, look! Man—with a white flag. See? See him +wave it?"</p> + +<p>Father seized the microscope. He was trembling so that at first he +could hardly hold it. I clutched the poison spray; the guard stood +behind us, alert with an automatic, and his gaze roved the room.</p> + +<p>Father murmured: "Not Drake? Is it not Drake?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Oh—No, no, you're right—it is not Drake." The disappointment in his +voice! "Not Drake—a man, a stranger."</p> + +<p>I pulled at father. "You can see him now without the microscope."</p> + +<p>The guard—a fellow named Foley, as near without nerves as a man could +be—stammered:</p> + +<p>"You—you going to kill it—him?"</p> + +<p>"Yes! No! No, Frank!" Father clutched at me. "Look, he's climbing down."</p> + +<p>The figure of the man was a quarter of an inch high now. He started +climbing down the two or three inch jagged side of the chunk of rock. +He slipped, slid; and then fell and landed upon the polished surface of +the granite slab. He lay motionless.</p> + +<p>"He killed himself, Frank!"</p> + +<p>"No—look, he's up again!"</p> + +<p>He was standing by the rock which towered like a cliff beside him. He +was in a moment half an inch high. The white flag was a piece of white +fabric. He had thrust it in his belt; he drew it out again and waved it +wildly at us.</p> + +<p>I said: "He's afraid we'll kill him." I put the spray back on the +overhead shelf. "Think he can hear us, father? Understand us?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Maybe. Try it, Frank. Don't let him get too large. Tell him to +stop. You see anybody else?"</p> + +<p>Foley said: "I'll take a look." He applied his eye to the microscope.</p> + +<p>"Don't shout, Frank. Slow, distinct. He'll hear you better that way."</p> + +<p>I said: "Don't—get—much—larger! We'll kill you."</p> + +<p>"Suppose he doesn't speak our language," father began.</p> + +<p>Foley said: "Nobody else. He—this one—he's all smashed up. Bloody. +You can see his feet; he's got 'em bound with rags."</p> + +<p>The figure seemed to understand me. I could see the tiny face looking +up. He seemed to be shouting at me. I turned to Foley.</p> + +<p>"Wait, Foley. Quiet."</p> + +<p>In the silence, as I bent down, the small words came clear:</p> + +<p>"Don't—kill me! Friend—friend—from Drake."</p> + +<p>From Drake! The word thrilled us. We stood breathless, watching the +figure on the granite slab. An inch high now. A young man. Bruised and +bleeding as though from arduous, desperate traveling.</p> + +<p>His brief suit of knitted fabric was torn, dirty and blood-stained. His +head was bare, showing his close-cut blond hair. His feet were wrapped +into shapeless bundles with cloth seemingly torn from his garments. He +stood wavering. He put the white flag into a belt at his waist—a belt +which we could see now held many compartments.</p> + +<p>Two inches high. He walked away from the chunk of rock. The light +overhead appeared to dazzle him; he flung an arm before his face. But +it seemed also that in the far distance he had seen the void which was +the edge of the granite slab. He shrank back; then he looked up.</p> + +<p>"Don't hurt me!"</p> + +<p>His accent reminded me of Ahlma. Or Togaro! the thought came to me: +was this a trap? This fellow with his white flag, was he from Togaro, +masquerading here as a friend of Drake's?</p> + +<p>Then triumph swept me. Here was the drug! This fellow had it!</p> + +<p>Father was plucking at me as I bent intent over the growing figure.</p> + +<p>"Frank, do we dare let him get large?"</p> + +<p>The man was three or four inches high now. I put my face down close to +him. It startled him so that he jumped backward and fell. But he picked +himself up at once.</p> + +<p>I said: "Can you hear me clearly?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Are you—is it you that are Frank Ferrule?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," I said. "You stop getting larger. Stop, you understand? Then +we'll talk. Are you alone?"</p> + +<p>"Yes." He fumbled at his belt; then his hand went to his mouth. In +a moment his size was unchanging. "Alone." He added, his tiny voice +sounding clearly:</p> + +<p>"Yes, here all alone. They wait for me in there—a portion of the trip +in there, they are waiting with the flying car."</p> + +<p>Father was whispering to me triumphantly:</p> + +<p>"He's got the drug! With that, Frank, we can do anything. But we've got +to let him grow to our size. Don't you understand—let him grow large +and expand the drug with him!"</p> + +<p>I had not thought of that. If this fellow were an enemy and it ended +by our having to kill him, the drug he carried would be of no use to +us. I stared down at his tiny figure, no longer than my finger. To a +comparative giant like myself, of what use his infinitesimal quantity +of the drug! We would have to let him grow large.</p> + +<p>"What's your name?" I asked him.</p> + +<p>"I am called Alt. I am sent to you from Drake. Trust me—do not kill +me. I have a message for you."</p> + +<p>Father said, "If you are from Drake—did he write to us? Send something +to prove who you are?"</p> + +<p>"No. That I mean—yes, he gave me a paper, but I have lost it. The +journey was hard—"</p> + +<p>Suspicion rose in me. But friend or enemy, we wanted his drug. I +flashed father and Foley a warning glance. It would not be dangerous to +let this fellow reach our own size—provided we were alert to keep him +from getting any larger than us. I said.</p> + +<p>"You're hurt. We'll dress your wounds.</p> + +<p>"You can get larger—but be sure to stop when you are the size of me, +or we will kill you."</p> + +<p>He was docile enough. He said, "Very well, then I will do that."</p> + +<p>He sat down on the rock slab and we watched him with a tense silence. +In a moment he was a foot long; then twice that. His growing body +pushed against the rock fragment. "Move!" I said sharply, "stand +up—I'll lift you to the floor."</p> + +<p>I ran my fingers over him; he seemed unarmed. I lifted him and set him +on the floor at our feet. Foley moved the light to shine upon him; and +stood with weapon ready.</p> + +<p>Father cautioned grimly, "You obey us—no trickery."</p> + +<p>He stood quietly eying us. High as my waist; then my shoulder. I said, +"Enough! That's large enough."</p> + +<p>I whispered to Foley; and when the figure ceased enlarging Foley +pounced upon him.</p> + +<p>"Give me that belt! The drug—give it up, damn you!"</p> + +<p>He made no move to resist us. He stood meek—a slim young man now +about my own height; and about my own age. He was pale and tired, in +miserable plight, covered with cuts and bruises.</p> + +<p>I seized his belt, stripped it from him. An affair of metal and fabric, +with compartments in which were metal vials of the drug. Possession of +it brought me a wild sense of power. Helpless no longer!</p> + +<p>Foley backed the fellow to a corner of the room. "Stand there till they +say what to do with you."</p> + +<p>We were not afraid of him now. "Easy, Foley—don't hurt him!" I added, +"Now you can tell us what you came for."</p> + +<p>He said with a rush, "You do not trust me, but I speak truth. Drake—he +is your brother?—he, with the Princess Dianne and the Lady Ahlma are +in the flying car. Waiting. And they sent me out alone to you. I had a +paper from Drake—I have lost it—"</p> + +<p>"Why didn't Drake come?" I demanded.</p> + +<p>"He stays to protect the princess. The men of Togaro are everywhere—in +every size."</p> + +<p>He almost convinced me, with the swift, apprehensive look he flung +about the room.</p> + +<p>Father said, "What was Drake's message? Don't you know?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know. He wants—weapons. Our world in there is +threatened—disaster—destruction of all our little world. Our +people—following Togaro—have gone mad. Too gigantic for our little +world to hold them! And yes, they threaten your earth too—but that +you control safely out here in this room. Drake would have me tell you +the invasion is coming. You must be watchful to kill them as they come +out—and Drake wants weapons, to threaten them so that they may not go +completely mad and wreck our little world."</p> + +<p>Weapons? My suspicions leaped anew. Did this fellow think he could come +here and we would give him weapons?</p> + +<p>Father demanded, "What sort of weapons?"</p> + +<p>"Not many—just two or three, for Drake to use to convince our people +of his power. A knife-blade of steel—to bring death swift and silent. +And he said, what you call automatics—two or three of them."</p> + +<p>"Give you those and let you go in?" I retorted sarcastically.</p> + +<p>His pale blue eyes opened wide. "Drake said you—his brother Frank, he +said—would come with me. He wants you—I am to guide you to where he +waits."</p> + +<p>My heart leaped. Guide me in! Why, of course! From the moment I knew I +had the drug, there had been in the back of my mind the knowledge that +I was going in to Drake. I had not thought of a guide. Necessary, of +course, if I were to locate where Drake was waiting. And here was the +guide.</p> + +<p>Father stammered, "No! I can't—can't let you do that, Frank. This +fellow—a lying impostor perhaps, to lure you in there."</p> + +<p>Would I go? Dare I risk it? I heard myself saying calmly, grimly,</p> + +<p>"All right. I'll go in with you."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>Giant in Ambush</i></h3> + + +<p>Within an hour I was ready. An hour of hurried, feverish preparation. +Yet after all, there was not much to do. I wore a bathing suit, with +a belt of the drugs strapped about my waist. And the stoutest shoes I +owned.</p> + +<p>Foley's eyes were never for a moment off this fellow Alt. He appeared +inoffensive enough. He was not badly injured. Exhausted—he seemed only +to desire a rest; he lay quiet while we bathed and dressed his wounds. +They were bruises and superficial cuts where he had fallen on the sharp +rocks of his outward journey. His feet were the worst. He had started +with a pair of buskins, made of animal skin. The rocks had torn them to +shreds; his feet were bleeding and swollen.</p> + +<p>"Couldn't Drake get you shoes?" I demanded. "Something to protect your +feet better than that?"</p> + +<p>He smiled. A friendly, ingenuous sort of smile. I was alternating +between liking him and being suspicious of him.</p> + +<p>"No," he said. "We do not have what you call shoes. Drake did not know +the journey would be so bad for me. It should not—I was not clever—I +did it wrong."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by that? You got lost?"</p> + +<p>"No. Not lost—I will show you what I mean, when we start in."</p> + +<p>He had brought no food or water, and needed both badly. He drank the +water we supplied him, and ate the bread avidly. The meat he discarded; +he did not know what it was. He shuddered when we told him—as though +to eat it would be cannibalistic.</p> + +<p>I rigged a holster around my chest over one shoulder; and another about +my waist, above the drug belt, so that I could carry four automatics +and two or three knives. And with a cartridge belt, I was awkwardly +equipped; I felt like a walking arsenal.</p> + +<p>"I can carry some of them," Alt offered.</p> + +<p>"No, thank you," I retorted.</p> + +<p>He smiled, but made no further comment.</p> + +<p>The trip in to Drake, he said, should only take a few hours. We would +find water partway in; we needed little food. Alt suggested one small +bit of bread.</p> + +<p>A very casual fellow this! Certainly he hardly believed in +preparedness. Suppose we got lost!</p> + +<p>Strange journey! A trip, not of distance, but only of changing size. +There were so many factors to it that I had yet to learn! Alt said +quietly:</p> + +<p>"Coming out, I used up my food at once. But going in that is not +necessary." He saw my puzzled expression, and added. "If we put that +piece of bread on a rock beside us, then in a moment there is a +mountain of bread that could feed a thousand."</p> + +<p>We were ready at last. Alt needed rest. But he seemed anxious to start +at once.</p> + +<p>"Drake bade me hurry."</p> + +<p>We had bound his feet; and I found a large pair of shoes for him to +wear over the bandages.</p> + +<p>"Can you walk?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Try it."</p> + +<p>He hobbled along the side of the room, with Foley eying him. His feet +must have been painful; but in a moment he was walking with hardly a +limp.</p> + +<p>A likable fellow, this. He said, "I can do it. Besides, I shall be more +clever going in—you will see. Our trip will be easy."</p> + +<p>I said good-by to father.</p> + +<p>"Remember, dad, keep watch here. Closer than ever. And when we come +back—look for our signal."</p> + +<p>A flag of striped black and white which we would wave.</p> + +<p>Alt explained the drugs. I would not let him touch them. The belt had +eight compartments on each side. Two drugs, of opposite action. Eight +intensities of each. Small, metallic vials held the tiny pellets.</p> + +<p>"Have we enough?" I demanded.</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, I think so. Or if we had not, it would be easy to set some +aside, and pick them up again when we were smaller."</p> + +<p>We stood in the center of the room on the floor beside the granite +slab. Father sat in a chair. Foley stood regarding us as though we +were ghosts and expecting us to dissolve into nothingness.</p> + +<p>I handed Alt a pellet. "This right?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>It was the diminishing drug of the weakest intensity, like the one +Dianne had given us, when in the bedroom we had pursued Togaro that +brief distance into smallness.</p> + +<p>"Yes," Alt repeated. "We each take one at the same instant." He touched +me. "There is the great danger that we may become separated from each +other. You understand? Lost in size. You will take none that you do not +give me the same?"</p> + +<p>"No," I agreed. Friend or enemy, I could not blame him for being +apprehensive. I had the drugs; he had none. Lost in size—stranded.</p> + +<p>We took the pellets. The familiar lurching sensation came as before. +But this time I was prepared for it. I stood quiet, with the swimming +room around me. I was facing the granite slab. It was waist high, +with the rock fragment in its center. The slab seemed lifting; +expanding—and receding. I was presently below it, looking up at its +bottom resting upon the wooden supports.</p> + +<p>Alt was unchanged beside me. He said in a moment,</p> + +<p>"Your father will lift us up?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>My thoughts went winging off. I was not frightened this time. My heart +was beating normally. A sense of eager exhilaration was on me. Soon we +would reach Drake and Dianne.</p> + +<p>I was abruptly aware of Alt plucking at me.</p> + +<p>"Your father, he must lift us up!"</p> + +<p>The slab was far overhead. At a distance, the wooden pedestal legs rose +like great round columns of some strange, crudely-fashioned temple. I +recall that just at that instant, I had the impression of a tug at my +shoelace. A tiny twitch. But it was driven from my mind. I had no time +to look down. Something gigantic came swooping at me from overhead. +Something monstrous, pink-white, wrapped itself around me.</p> + +<p>I was lifted. Squeezed breathless; and snatched up with a dizzy swoop. +Up—a hundred feet it seemed, through the rushing air. Into a glare of +light. And then released.</p> + +<p>I saw the great pink-white hairy thing leaving me. It was father's +hand. I staggered dizzily and fell upon a rough expanse of stone.</p> + +<p>There are things which one sometimes can remember as being vague, +unimportant impressions. Later, in the light of after events, they +assume importance and one may wonder how they were overlooked at the +time. The tug at my shoelace was such a one. And now, as I fell dizzily +upon the stone slab, there came another. The feeling of something +crawling upon me. As though an insect brushed my bare shoulder. I +thought nothing of it at the time, but later I was to recall it clearly.</p> + +<p>I heard a booming voice; father's voice.</p> + +<p>"Oh Frank—have I hurt you?"</p> + +<p>He had not. But I saw his gigantic hand and arm coming up more slowly +with Alt.</p> + +<p>I got to my feet, and looked up. Father's chest and head towered above +me.</p> + +<p>I shouted, "No, you did not hurt me. We're all right."</p> + +<p>Again Alt plucked at me. "He waited too long! hurry—run!"</p> + +<p>We were on a naked expanse of uneven gray rock. It was flooded with +yellow-white light. I saw, a few hundred feet away, a jagged mound of +rock, large as a house. It was expanding, and drawing away from us.</p> + +<p>Alt was running, and I ran after him. The expanding ground swayed +beneath me. Alt called back:</p> + +<p>"We've got to climb it—and it is getting so large—"</p> + +<p>And so far away! I thought that we could not get there over the +shifting, expanding ground. But we made it. The rock was a jagged, +volcanic-looking mound when we reached it. Fifty feet high, at least. I +followed Alt as he climbed up its precipitous slope. I was close under +him; and suddenly I felt that if he were tricking me he had a perfect +opportunity to turn and fling me backward.</p> + +<p>"Wait a moment, Alt—let me get past you."</p> + +<p>He stopped, and I led him to the summit. It was a long climb. We stood +at last upon a rocky peak—in a yellow sunlight glare. Far down—it +seemed five hundred feet now, at least—a great gray plain spread +off into the distance. I could see a void off there—the edge of the +granite slab. And vague towering shadows of form—father and Foley +perhaps.</p> + +<p>The rocks about us were still expanding with their crawling movement. A +summit here, of tumbled naked crags. Fairly near at hand I saw a black +hole—a pit. Alt led me to it. It was, by the time we got there, an +orifice a hundred feet across. A pit of dense blackness, with perfectly +smooth, almost vertical sides.</p> + +<p>"We descend into that," said Alt.</p> + +<p>My mind flung back. Dianne had used those same words, that night on +Bird's Nest Island. This then, was the pin-point hole at the top of the +rock fragment.</p> + +<p>I stood with Alt, waiting. I was winded from the run, and the climb. My +belts—the drugs—and the weapons—were awkward carrying.</p> + +<p>Alt said, "If we had started just a little sooner, that climb would +have been easy. We were too small. You see what I mean, using judgment +in the trip?"</p> + +<p>I did indeed. We were waiting now for this pit to expand further. The +sides were too steep, too smooth now for descent. But the pit was +widening; the walls were every moment becoming rougher. We had been +quite near, but the expanding ground moved us away. I walked over to +the lip again.</p> + +<p>"The idea is to get down as soon as we can," I said.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he agreed. "Shall we try it now?"</p> + +<p>It seemed that there were places rough enough now to climb down. I had +seen the bottom; it had not been very deep, though dark with shadow. +But it was several hundred feet down now.</p> + +<p>We picked our way, sliding perilously at times. We came at last to the +bottom—a level, rocky floor, strewn with bowlders. The place seemed +now a great circular valley, with towering mountainous sides. A haze of +blue distance was overhead for a sky. A pseudo-sunlight was up there; +but here on the valley floor shadows made a queer, unnatural twilight. +I noticed too, a different quality of air. It was dryer, with a vague +metallic sharpness.</p> + +<p>"Which way?" I demanded.</p> + +<p>The drug we had taken had reached the limit of its effect while we were +descending to the valley pit. The landscape was no longer changing.</p> + +<p>A new world already. A barren desolation of rock. I added:</p> + +<p>"Do we take more of the drug now?"</p> + +<p>Alt stood a moment considering. "There is another descent which I think +we can almost make in a leap. This way—it is not far."</p> + +<p>We walked along the valley floor. The heights from which we had come +were beside us. A wildly tumbled volcanic region. There were narrow +rifts, cracks in the bowlder-strewn floor; pits, and tiny craters, +some with upstanding rims, as though lava had welled up and congealed. +Corrugations; ridges; little buttes, and peaks like spires of +needle-point sharpness.</p> + +<p>I got the sudden impression that I was very large, and that this was a +landscape all in miniature.</p> + +<p>I was walking beside Alt. "How do you know where we should go?"</p> + +<p>"Not far from here there is a place like a crescent. It should be—for +our size now—quite small and not very deep. You understand? Easier +for us to jump down into it now, than to make a long climb when we are +smaller."</p> + +<p>We rounded the corner of a fallen mass of bowlders, as though here an +avalanche had come tumbling down the valley wall.</p> + +<p>"Over there," said Alt. I saw, down a short slope, a small, +crescent-shaped pit, with a span of a few feet. We were some two or +three hundred yards from it.</p> + +<p>I was suddenly stricken motionless. I stood gasping, with the shock of +surprise and fear. From the pit, the head and shoulders of a man rose +up. A giant face, malevolently staring. His body filled the pit. His +hands appeared, caught at the rim, and he scrambled out.</p> + +<p>And, with a shout, Alt turned and ran at me!</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>The Meeting</i></h3> + + +<p>For that instant, I was convinced that I was trapped, lured here by Alt +to this giant lying in ambush. But Alt shouted:</p> + +<p>"Run—that is a Togaro man!"</p> + +<p>As Alt went past me, I saw his fear-stricken face. The giant—three or +four times my own height—was climbing to his feet. Alt was heading for +the broken cliff wall. I ran after him.</p> + +<p>Behind us the giant came with a bound. The cliff was fifty feet +away. Alt shouted back a warning—something about hiding in a small +cave-mouth. There were many small openings; we must get into one too +small for the giant to follow.</p> + +<p>There was no time for us to take the drug. No time to do anything but +run. But in a moment I knew we could never make it. I could hear the +thud of the giant's running footsteps, rattling the loose rocks. In a +moment more he would have us.</p> + +<p>I shouted: "I can't get there, Alt!"</p> + +<p>Alt stopped abruptly. He bent and seized a chunk of rock. Futile stand! +A hundred feet away the giant came leaping. He was larger now.</p> + +<p>Then I thought of my automatics. In the shock of this sudden encounter +I had completely forgotten I was armed. I whipped one out, and stood +like a hunter facing a charging elephant. But mine was the trembling +courage of desperation.</p> + +<p>The fast-growing giant was forty or fifty feet tall now. My automatic +felt like a toy as I leveled it. I fired; blindly perhaps at the last. +The giant let out a bellow of rage and pain—and astonishment. He +leaped sidewise; he stood fumbling, clutching at his shoulder where my +little bullet had stung him.</p> + +<p>Alt shoved me. "This way—run!"</p> + +<p>We reached the cliff bottom and found a narrow cleft running back in +the rock wall. It was only a few feet wide, but we wedged into it and +forced our way back a yard or two.</p> + +<p>The giant was silent now. In a moment he was outside the crevice, but +he was far too large to get in. We heard him poking about; mumbling to +himself. Then he seemed to be digging, rattling the rocks. His hand and +arm came into the passage probing for us, and I fired again. The report +was deafening in this confined space. Powder fumes choked us.</p> + +<p>The giant let out another roar, and his arm, wounded no doubt, was +withdrawn. He vanished. In the silence, we heard the scuffle of his +heavy, retreating footsteps.</p> + +<p>We were all but choked; yet we did not dare go out. We crouched, +gasping, and presently the air cleared. There was silence. "Shall we +chance it, Alt? Or get smaller in here?"</p> + +<p>"Try outside," he whispered. "I think he is gone—getting large, on his +way up."</p> + +<p>We crept from the rift. The valley outside seemed empty. The giant had +vanished. Or was he around here somewhere?</p> + +<p>I whispered: "We'd better not move—it might attract his attention."</p> + +<p>"No. Wait for a time."</p> + +<p>We crouched in the deep shadow of a bowlder. No question of Alt's +loyalty now, and my instinctive liking for him sprang anew.</p> + +<p>"That was a close call, Alt."</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>I added, "You want one of these guns?"</p> + +<p>In the gloom I could see his pleased expression. I showed him how to +aim and fire the automatic. He wore a belt to which was strapped a +package of sandwiches and a vacuum of water; I threaded the holster on +it.</p> + +<p>We waited, perhaps five or ten minutes, crouching by the rock with the +silent, shadowy valley around us. There was still no sign of the giant. +There were cañons here, into any one of which he might have plunged. +The silence was heavy, oppressive, eerie. A haunted silence, as though +here were things not to be seen or heard, yet nevertheless making their +presence felt.</p> + +<p>I whispered at last, "Shall we start?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>I had been lying on my side, raised on one elbow. There came a movement +at my belt; I sensed a tiny indefinable creeping movement upon me. My +hand went down with a swift, instinctive gesture—as one moves with a +startled hand to knock off an insect. And Alt gave a low, sharp cry.</p> + +<p>We both saw it at once. As I sat erect, a small human figure which had +been clinging to my belt at the side, scuttled down my leg and leaped +off me to the ground. It vanished in the shadows. We made a hurried, +startled search, but it was gone. We had briefly seen it—a man the +length of my thumbnail.</p> + +<p>"Gone, Alt!"</p> + +<p>We searched no further. Impossible task to find such a figure here on +these dark rocks.</p> + +<p>The thing gave us a shock. We crouched again, waiting, silently +listening. This strangely fearsome journey! Nothing alive save +ourselves, here in this brooding place of rocks. Nothing to see, or to +hear. Yet it seemed as though there might be living multitudes around +us. Humans, not moving in space very far, yet journeying. The giant was +gone. He had passed us, moving on into largeness. This tiny figure +which had been clinging to me was rushing ahead of us perhaps into +smallness.</p> + +<p>Alt's voice checked my reverie.</p> + +<p>"I think it is safe to go on."</p> + +<p>We started off again. The crescent pit we found to be some twenty feet +deep. There was no trouble descending its broken sides.</p> + +<p>Alt said: "Coming out, I could have climbed in this size very easily. +But I was smaller. I climbed up here—it seemed a thousand feet."</p> + +<p>The giant had evidently been in here, growing, and had waited until the +last moment to scramble out. He had been as surprised as ourselves, no +doubt, at the sudden encounter.</p> + +<p>"There must be many of Togaro's men traveling," said Alt. "They are in +every size, traveling, exploring."</p> + +<p>This darkling abyss of rocks! I conjured enemies lurking in every +shadow ready to spring upon us. Giants—or tiny humans smaller than +insects. Enemies of every size and of shifting stature.</p> + +<p>We kept steadily upon our way. The crescent pit opened into a valley +with towering mountain ranges for its walls. Then we entered a tunnel +mouth. Timing it with unaltering size between one of the pellets, I saw +it as a miniature tunnel which our bodies almost blocked. We followed +it, from one gloomy cavern to another—a distance seemingly only a few +paces. Yet I could envisage that with another pellet it would be a +black march of hours in a vast dark void and a desolation of rocks. An +army of our enemies might be marching here like that now!</p> + +<p>We encountered no other Togarites, yet I think that many were passing +close to us in size. Going out, I wondered? If they showed themselves, +father and Foley would make an end to them promptly.</p> + +<p>We stopped once and ate our sandwiches, keeping one of them only +against disaster. We finished the water in the vacuum bottle. There was +water now occasionally to be seen in pools on the rocks.</p> + +<p>The landscape had been continually changing. The light from overhead +was long since gone. Occasionally we were in some tunnel or cave of +darkness. Yet there always seemed a little light—as though the rocks +themselves were radiating a glow.</p> + +<p>The air was changing. A brittle crispness. A dryness. And then, +when at the termination of the effect of our fourth pellet we found +ourselves on a vast metallic plain sloping down into darkness, it +incongruously began to rain. A slow, fine drizzle. Overhead I could see +moving dark clouds.</p> + +<p>We came upon a patch of soil, almost barren, but not quite, for there +was sickly vegetation struggling in it. Tiny green things growing. +Clumps of them, with small rock ridges a foot high lying like snakes.</p> + +<p>The drizzle was fine as a mist. After a few moments, it ceased. +Abruptly I realized that the puffs of cloud were very small and +close over our heads. And again my whole viewpoint shifted. I was a +tremendous giant standing here, towering to the clouds. A tiny forest +was here at my feet; the ridges were rocky ranges of hills.</p> + +<p>I strove to encompass thought of the journey as a whole. We had been +only a few hours. It seemed that we had descended thousands of feet +into the bowels of some vast world of naked rock. Perhaps we had. In +our present size, I am sure the entire trip would have been miles of +distance. Yet to father, up there now in that inconceivable titanic +world, we were still near the surface of the porous rock fragment.</p> + +<p>We took another pellet, and the landscape grew.</p> + +<p>Alt gripped me. "See—the light!"</p> + +<p>A steady red spot of light was visible near by.</p> + +<p>Alt said: "Drake's signal."</p> + +<p>We saw Drake first. He stood in the growing forest as our dwindling +bodies came down into it. The red light painted his figure as he leaned +against a stunted tree-trunk.</p> + +<p>"Frank!"</p> + +<p>"Drake—Drake, we see you!"</p> + +<p>We adjusted our size. He came running forward. He called back: "Dianne! +Ahlma, Dianne—they've come!"</p> + +<p>It was so good to feel his handclasp!</p> + +<p>"Father all right, Frank?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"You've got the rock guarded?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Drake, we—"</p> + +<p>And then I saw Dianne. The glory of her beauty swept me. She ran up and +kissed me.</p> + +<p>"Frank, dear—"</p> + +<p>I do not know what I was to her then. But to me, this was not my +sister. A thousand times more strongly now, I felt it. And no princess +this. Just a girl!</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>The Stowaway</i></h3> + + +<p>We stood in the shadows of the dark forest, with its gnarled, stunted +trees. The red light flamed near by. A dim figure glided up to Drake. +He gave an order; the figure hastened away. In a moment, the red light +vanished.</p> + +<p>Drake spoke hurriedly. He and Dianne and Ahlma were leading Alt and me +toward where the red light had been. Drake half whispered:</p> + +<p>"We saw you coming—lighted the red signal for Alt. Dangerous to keep +it lighted now; Togaro's flyer has been here. His men—they may be near +this size—would capture our flyer if they could."</p> + +<p>We hardly went a hundred yards. To my questions Drake was impatient. +"Presently, Frank. Here, this way."</p> + +<p>I saw, in an open space, the dim shape of an interplanetary vehicle. An +elongated globe, forty feet long, with its bulging middle half as wide. +It lay dark and silent; but I saw that it had elliptical windows and a +small doorway which stood open to receive us.</p> + +<p>Strange vehicle! As we approached I could see that what I had thought +was a dead-black thing of metal was in reality far different. Drake +hurried us up a small ladder, into its interior. But I saw that the +vehicle's side was not solid.</p> + +<p>It seemed rather a myriad woven wires. The thing was a big cage, woven +of intricate metal threads like a basket. Rigid, yet resilient.</p> + +<p>I learned afterward some of the details of this strange vehicle. +Standing inert, as it was now, the outer air circulated freely through +it. The wire, of which its hull and all its interior ribs and braces +were composed, was drawn from a ductile metal unknown to our world, +a metal which contracted or expanded freely under the impulse of an +alternation of electronic current. With the current charging it, the +hull became a solid electrical surface, with the entire interior an +active magnetic field, so that ourselves and all the contents of the +vehicle were contracted in size as the hull diminished.</p> + +<p>No drugs were needed now. We could use them inside the vehicle merely +to change our size in comparison to the vehicle itself.</p> + +<p>There were chemical air-renewers, and heaters to keep the interior warm +against the cold of interplanetary space.</p> + +<p>An interplanetary voyage! I could not at first grasp it. No vast space +was here. We were in a dark forest, with a limited mountain valley +around us. No stars were overhead; no great astronomical reaches were +here. Where could this vehicle go? Into smallness, I knew that. But +how? Sail off over these stunted trees? Why, in a moment with any speed +at all it could reach the mountain barrier down which Alt and I had +just come.</p> + +<p>But I knew, as I pondered, that if this flyer remained just where it +was, as it diminished in size, sufficient space for any flight would +open up around it.</p> + +<p>The door was barred behind us. We passed along a low, narrow passage, +walking on a metal grid of woven wires. I saw small rooms; ladders +leading up and down to other levels. A small room, crowded with strange +instruments faintly throbbing as though all this wired bundle of +mechanism was impatient to be gone.</p> + +<p>We came to a little room with a window in the concave side of the hull; +a table of woven wire; and a few wire chairs.</p> + +<p>"Sit down," said Drake. "You particularly, Frank—be careful as we +start. Your first voyage! The shock is different from the drug. I see +you brought the weapons?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Do you want them now, Drake?"</p> + +<p>"Keep them. We'll look them over presently. Sit quiet, Frank." He spoke +hurriedly, abstractedly. "We must get started at once."</p> + +<p>He hastened from the room to give orders for the starting. I had seen +some eight or ten men aboard the vehicle. Four were in the instrument +control room; Drake went in there.</p> + +<p>I sat down, with Dianne beside me. Alt was whispering to Ahlma near by. +Dianne murmured:</p> + +<p>"Don't talk now—just for a moment."</p> + +<p>I sat waiting. This vehicle with its many small rooms; its small +passages, gave me again the impression that I was too large for my +surroundings. Drake had stooped as he went through the arcade into the +adjacent control room.</p> + +<p>The dark trees showed motionless outside the window.</p> + +<p>Dianne murmured: "Now, Frank."</p> + +<p>It was a slow transition. The wire walls of the room turned faintly +luminous. They hummed. A dull red glow suffused everything. The wire +floor, the ceiling, the chair upon which I was sitting, all glowed red, +like wire slowly heating. Red, then yellow, then almost white, with +a cast of violet. But my hand on the chair-arm felt it to be cool as +before.</p> + +<p>I was conscious of a slight shock. A lurch. But it was within my head, +for the room did not move. Everything was glowing white. Yet the room +remained dim, for the light did not radiate. There was a throbbing; a +hissing, whining sound of the surging current.</p> + +<p>Then the air of the room turned electrical. It faintly snapped; +occasionally in mid-air, a burst of small blue sparks exploded like a +bomb. The outlines of the walls and ceiling and the furniture were lit +with tiny blue lightnings.</p> + +<p>Then I felt the real shock. A swoop of all my senses; a second, in +which I thought I was gone, falling, with only the consciousness of +Dianne's firm hand holding me.</p> + +<p>A moment, then the shock was passed. I steadied, and found that save +for a queer lightness and a tingling, I felt no different from before.</p> + +<p>Dianne murmured: "That's all, Frank; you're past it."</p> + +<p>"Yes. Have we started?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes."</p> + +<p>Drake came back. He eyed me appraisingly, but made no comment. He sat +beside us.</p> + +<p>"Let's see what weapons you brought. Frank, did you encounter any of +Togaro's people? His flyer brought some out. A few. Not many yet. We +haven't seen Togaro—we don't know where he is. But his expedition is +ready. They don't know that we control the fragment of rock—that they +cannot escape from it. They're coming out."</p> + +<p>"If they do, father will stop them."</p> + +<p>Drake was willing enough to talk now. He said: "Yes, father will stop +them. That doesn't worry us. But in the atom—in Dianne's world—did +Alt tell you? They've got a single vehicle, like this one, Frank. +They keep it hidden. We can't find it—or haven't been able to, yet. +Togaro's leaders are winning our people, firing them with desire to +conquer the earth."</p> + +<p>Dianne said: "When we get there—but, oh, Frank, I'm so glad you've +come!" Her hand lay on mine; her fingers had gone cold. This was no +regal princess—just an apprehensive, frightened little girl. Glad I +had come! The weapons I had brought might be of use in this affair. +But myself—what good could I be, trying to cope with a nation in +revolt? Yet instinctively she turned to me.</p> + +<p>"I'm worried, Frank. These are my people—this is my world at stake. +The Togarites are telling our workers that never will they have to work +again."</p> + +<p>Drake interrupted passionately: "Dianne has told them they can't +conquer the earth, that we control things up above! But they don't +believe it. So now I'm going to threaten them. A bullet—they'll think +that's magic. A knife thrust—and, Frank, we can't use the size-change +as a weapon in Dianne's world. We dare not grow too large. You'll +understand—you can understand now if you think of it. The Togarites' +leaders have the drugs. They lurk everywhere in a size abnormally +small. Sometimes they grow gigantic. But they dare not get too large.</p> + +<p>"You see, we cannot fight them in largeness upon Dianne's little earth. +There is a limit to what is safe. We have avoided such combat, and so +have they. But they are more daring now.</p> + +<p>"Their main expedition into largeness is about ready. It's all being +done secretly—Dianne and her government are powerless to stop it. +We think that a multitude of her people are willing to join Togaro's +expedition. The leaders have been waiting for Togaro, but he has not +come."</p> + +<p>I said, "Because he's out in our earth-world and can't get in."</p> + +<p>"Yes, doubtless. And now they won't wait any longer. The disaster, in +spite of everything Dianne and I have been able to do, is now upon us."</p> + +<p>My mind groped with these strange things he was saying. A group of a +hundred or more Togarite leaders had for years been in possession of +the drugs. They had built themselves an interplanetary size-changing +vehicle, like this one in which we were now traveling. They kept it +hidden—in some small size, doubtless. Dianne's controlling government +would have destroyed it, but they could not find it.</p> + +<p>The drugs were kept from the public, of course. But these bandit +Togarite leaders had them; and they could not be discovered and +confiscated either.</p> + +<p>The Togarites wanted, Drake said, about a half million followers. With +this multitude they would conquer the earth and populate it with their +own race.</p> + +<p>"Why?" I demanded. "Why do that?"</p> + +<p>My question sounded inane. Drake shrugged. "Why has any conqueror +lusted for power? The original Togarite leaders are evil fellows, +renegades. Togaro himself tried to conquer Dianne's world, and failed. +They want power, riches, plunder. Togaro wants all that. And he +wants—Dianne."</p> + +<p>I could feel Dianne stir against me. I said nothing, and in a moment +Drake went on:</p> + +<p>"There are ten million of Dianne's people, upon a little globe which +they populate fully. Just the one nation. Perhaps by now the Togarites +have their half million followers. They plan to transport them out—up +to our world—"</p> + +<p>"How?" I demanded. "A single flyer, like this, to transport five +hundred thousand people! Why, it would take thousands of trips! Ten or +twenty years—"</p> + +<p>But as I said it, I understood why that was not so—and comprehended +the deadly danger to Dianne's world. I began: "If they make their +vehicle large enough to contain half a million people at once—"</p> + +<p>I never finished.</p> + +<p>Once before, in the room at King's Cove, Ahlma had given a cry to warn +us of impending danger. She did that now. She and Alt were sitting near +us, listening to our words. Drake had previously taken the automatics +from me. We had put them on a vacant chair; one lay on the floor close +by my feet.</p> + +<p>I heard Ahlma give a startled cry. The automatic on the floor had been +lying between Drake and me. I remembered clearly where I had placed it, +but it was not there now! I followed Ahlma's glance. The weapon was on +the floor, over by the wall. It was moving—sliding soundlessly toward +the door of the room. I saw that a small human figure was tugging at +it—a man eight or ten inches high As tall as he dared get. The weapon +was larger than himself. He was struggling to drag it to the doorway, +get it beyond our sight.</p> + +<p>Ahlma's cry made us all leap to our feet. And Dianne and Ahlma together +recognized the tiny figure.</p> + +<p>"Togaro!"</p> + +<p>He dropped his burden and scuttled from the room. Dianne gripped me. +"Wait, Frank! You're unsteady yet—you'll hurt yourself."</p> + +<p>I found the floor swaying under me as I stood up; I had to drop back.</p> + +<p>Drake and Alt dashed into the passage. We could hear their cries +giving the alarm. Several members of the crew came running. The +passages and all the cabins were searched.</p> + +<p>Useless! Togaro had taken the diminishing drug. With such a start, he +had escaped into smallness beyond pursuit.</p> + +<p>Drake and Alt came back. "It was too dark. We could not see where he +went at all. No use trying to follow him."</p> + +<p>Togaro, a stowaway on board!</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>The Locked Door</i></h3> + + +<p>Amazing voyage into smallness! I find an adequate picture of it +difficult to paint. It was, as Drake had said, a voyage shorter in time +than I had been led to expect. Fifteen or twenty hours of elapsed time, +perhaps. We tried to preserve a normality of routine. We ate several +meals, and I tried to sleep. For the remainder of the time we sat in +that small room, by the window; and I gazed at a panorama so singularly +awe-inspiring that I am at a loss now to describe it.</p> + +<p>For some time the ship did not seem to move. We sat talking. There +was obviously no movement. The room was steady, save for a humming +vibration. But outside the window things were changing. The forest +trees were sliding upward. Expanding, and drawing away. We were +dwindling faster than an intensity of the drug. Then I felt the ship +lift slightly. We hung poised in a rocky void.</p> + +<p>I conjured all manner of wild, gruesome thoughts. Nor were they +all picturing danger to myself or to Dianne's world. Nor even the +threatened conquest of earth. There was a danger that seemed to me now +greater than any of these. Togaro desired Dianne!</p> + +<p>I sat close by Dianne. I tried to tell myself that there was nothing to +fear. Togaro would not dare get large, here on our ship. For if he did, +at once we would seize him.</p> + +<p>We discussed it. The thing seemed incredible, that he was here so close +to us and we could not find him. Incredible, but true.</p> + +<p>We stood at the window, Dianne, Drake, and I. But Alt and Ahlma would +not relax their watching of the room. The ship had been dwindling now +for more than an hour. The forest was gone.</p> + +<p>I saw a dark void, in which seemingly we were hanging in mid-air. At +first I thought it was wholly dark. But as I stared, with my eyes—or +perhaps merely my mind—becoming accustomed to this pregnant darkness, +I found that there were things to see.</p> + +<p>We hung motionless in the void. But presently rock walls were visible; +how far away I could not guess. Great mountains of rock, expanding, +sliding upward, and drawing away, though they did not vanish. It seemed +that my vision must be sharpening, or that the light was increasing. It +was a queer sort of light—an iridescence, vaguely diffused throughout +everything.</p> + +<p>For a long while this went on. The visual sensation was that we were +falling like a swiftly dropping elevator car. But it was not so. The +rock walls were sliding upward, but it was largely an optical illusion.</p> + +<p>A meal was served us. The ship was reaching a greater intensity of its +shrinking size, dwindling more rapidly.</p> + +<p>I could hear the current rising to a higher, sharper and louder whine.</p> + +<p>Drake said, "That's a hundred times faster for us now."</p> + +<p>Another few hours. The scene outside was undergoing a progressive +change. The distant rocks constantly had a different aspect. I could +not fathom it—could not define it. A suggestion of roundness. I stared +at the far-away wall. It seemed as though great round things were piled +in loose masses. A wall of bowlders loosely piled.</p> + +<p>Once, I fancied that they were in movement—creeping, crawling, one +upon the other. And that all the wall was unsolid. A thing of slow, +ponderous movement.</p> + +<p>I became suddenly aware that once more my viewpoint had abruptly +changed. I had envisaged us as a tiny ship, hanging in a great dark +void, with dark round things at some inconceivable distance. And then I +saw it was not so. We were a tremendous ship! These round objects were +tiny particles. Close at hand. Dark, yet glowing. Moving, sliding one +upon the other with a suggestion of fluidity. Nor were they just here +in this one direction. With my face against the window I could see them +overhead. And below. And across the near-by corridor of the ship, a +window there showed them the same on that side.</p> + +<p>From everywhere they crowded us. Abruptly it seemed that we were not +in a void, but in a narrow, confined area with these particles jostling +us. They were all of a size—all of a similar aspect. Tiny things, with +space between them. Flowing like a fluid as we pushed our way among +them.</p> + +<p>Drake said, "They are molecules, Frank. The molecules of the rock +fragment. We'll soon enter one—and then enter our atom."</p> + +<p>I did not answer him. My thoughts went winging off. Millions of +molecules here. Millions? Countless myriads. They shifted and crawled; +jostled; swept past, and away. Then there seemed a darkness as of an +empty void. But always I saw them again.</p> + +<p>The scene was always changing. Open space now, with banks like clouds +of the clustering molecules in the distance. I fixed my attention +upon one such cloud. It was coming rapidly nearer—or perhaps we were +speeding toward it. A luminous cloud. It came up and went past. The +molecules were huge and few. I thought perhaps in that group there were +not more than thirty.</p> + +<p>Clouds speeding, with dark voids between. Why, this was space! Gigantic +space here.</p> + +<p>Then I saw just two of the round things jostle past. And then some +which went by all alone. Giant things now, glowing, unsolid! I began +to think I could see that still other, smaller particles were clinging +together to form each of these unsolid molecules.</p> + +<p>I saw one go past, and caught a glimpse of what seemed empty space +within its luminous outline—and then I could almost fancy I saw the +atoms, a whirling swarm of them clustering to make this unsolid outline.</p> + +<p>Drake's words rang in my thoughts. Enter one of these molecules? Find +our atom?</p> + +<p>I said, "Drake, how can this ship be guided? How in Heaven's name can +we—"</p> + +<p>He told me—or tried to tell me. I am no scientist, to put down here +abstruse explanations of a subject so vastly unknown. Nor would I +obtrude them into this narrative. I recall that Drake explained how +by a shifting of gravitational force this vehicle could be guided +for space-flight. That I understood. The bow of the ship made +attractive—to receive the gravitational attraction of whatever masses +of matter lay in that direction. And the stern made repellent, or +neutral, at will. All that I could understand. An interplanetary +flyer, of the sort which often on earth had been contemplated.</p> + +<p>The size-change principle was also comprehensible in fundamental +generalities. But how, upon this inward trip, could we search these +myriad molecules for one particular molecule? And then find one atom? +And within that atom find one electron—or a proton, whichever it might +be—within which was a vast reach of astronomical space?</p> + +<p>Drake called our guiding instrument a spectrometer—an instrument tuned +to the vibrations of Dianne's world. He spoke of being able to search +out the characteristic spectrum; he spoke of electronic resistance +factors; of the aura of this designated world we sought, its atomic +force which, as we approached it—or receding, went astray—was shown +upon our instrument, thus to guide us.</p> + +<p>Let the textbooks explain it. There are many such now being published. +I can record only those things I saw and did. And they, in truth, are +strange enough so that I can only affirm my veracity and let it pass at +that.</p> + +<p>Beyond our windows came a void of emptiness, with only occasional +single molecules drifting past. They were always larger. Then I saw +them as objects enormous. Great dark worlds of that unsolid stuff we +call solidity!</p> + +<p>Drake insisted that I try and get some sleep. The ship was being +patrolled end to end for any sign of Togaro; but there was none.</p> + +<p>Dianne urged, "You must sleep, Frank. We must all keep normal. There +will be so much to do when we arrive."</p> + +<p>"Tomorrow," said Drake.</p> + +<p>Tomorrow! So incongruous a term! All normality of time or space seemed +gone. But I did try to sleep, and for a while must have done so, for I +dreamed a phantasmagoria of shifting things in a void of blackness.</p> + +<p>I wakened to find Drake alone at the window.</p> + +<p>"The girls are sleeping, Frank. No sign of Togaro. Sit here by me."</p> + +<p>He had an automatic in his hand. We both wore belts of the drugs—and a +belt with holsters for the other weapons.</p> + +<p>"Look, Frank."</p> + +<p>We had been in the vehicle now some twelve or fifteen hours. I was +astonished when Drake told me I had slept four hours at least. I saw +outside the window now a scene wholly different from before. We had +reached, and been maintaining now for a considerable time, our fastest +rate of diminishing size-change. Much faster than near the beginning +of the voyage, and conceivably faster than the most rapid rate that the +drugs could give.</p> + +<p>I gazed in awe from the window. This was astronomical space indeed! +I saw a vast reach of blackness, with blazing stars. Great suns, +resplendent with a corona of flame. White, dull red—some of them +yellow. They lay strewn like gems on a black velvet cloth. Some were in +clusters, faint as luminous dust in the distance. Above us there was a +great band of glittering star-mist, like the Milky Way.</p> + +<p>The whole brilliant scene was swift with electronic movement as of +stars. But I realized that our vehicle was not only dwindling, but +sweeping forward in a flight of tremendous speed. The stars went by in +a steady drift. The heavens in advance of us seemed opening up; the +points of light sped past our window and drew together behind us.</p> + +<p>Tremendous celestial panorama! I was lost in awe watching it. There +were spaces of blackness devoid of stars. Sometimes, far off to the +side, a lens-shaped cluster would drift past, to be lost in the +distance behind us. A universe of itself. Or a great spiral nebula—I +saw one which with a visible movement seemed rotating.</p> + +<p>Then ahead of us another universe would come. A faintly luminous patch. +Spreading wide as we sped toward it—until all in a moment, it seemed, +after crossing an empty void we were again among stars. Great suns +blazing alone. Or binaries, rotating with slow dignity about a common +center of gravity. Or suns, with smaller, dark worlds swinging in +orbits around them. Planets! We could see some of them, shining like +moons in every phase; and some held satellites of their own.</p> + +<p>We had for hours been within the atom. And one of these planets, +somewhere here ahead of us, was Dianne's world!</p> + +<p>I gazed, and there grew upon me presently the realization of a very +strange aspect to this glittering scene. These blazing worlds were not +large! It caught at my breath, this realization. I regarded a flaming +point off to the side. It was drifting backward. A monstrous world of +incandescent gas, millions of miles off there? I suddenly realized that +was not so. Why, it was a mere pin-point! An enduring spark! It was not +far away, but close outside our window. A monstrous, giant sun—yes. +But our vehicle was still so infinitely larger! Why, this was no vast +reach of space—not compared to us!</p> + +<p>I saw us plunge into a myriad points of light. A universe of stars. +But they were still so small in comparison with us, that we crowded +our huge bulk in among them. I saw some of them strike against our +hull—pin-points of fire harmlessly tiny.</p> + +<p>We went through an incandescent cloud of them; they bombarded us like +a rain of sparks. We plunged through and came again to a cavern of +emptiness, and then another universe, appearing ahead of us.</p> + +<p>I could see now the effect of our dwindling. These sparks were growing, +expanding steadily.</p> + +<p>Drake had several times left me to consult the men in the control room. +He said once, as he returned: "You see, Frank, what I mean by haste. We +are chancing it." His tone carried an apprehension. "There are millions +of light-years of distance to be covered in here. That is, they would +be light-years when we were small. While we are large they can be +crossed in a brief time. If we were to wait until we were smaller, +and then make the voyage, this space-flight would take weeks, months +perhaps. Yet we dare not cause too much astronomical disturbance. +We must be normally small before we approach Dianne's world—not to +disturb it in its orbit."</p> + +<p>I said, "Are we near there, Drake?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, near in time. They've just told me our forward flight must stop. +From here, a size-change only. And then, when we are safely small, a +short voyage—and then we'll land."</p> + +<p>"How long, Drake?"</p> + +<p>"They said a few hours."</p> + +<p>He sat down beside me. The scene outside the window had another, more +familiar aspect now. The side-drift of the stars was stopped. They +were widening out. Shifting both upward and downward, and receding +from us as we grew small among them. I fixed my gaze on one which was +level with our window. It seemed moving away. Drawing away to a great +distance, yet it always remained visually as bright as before. A tiny +spark, growing to a great blazing world.</p> + +<p>How long a time passed as I sat there, absorbed, I do not know. Two +hours or more, undoubtedly. Drake occasionally talked, and I answered +him vaguely. They were still diligently searching for Togaro, but it +was a fruitless quest.</p> + +<p>I recall that I suggested we might use care in disembarking, so that +Togaro would be kept a prisoner in smallness here on board.</p> + +<p>But that was impractical, as Drake at once pointed out. Togaro could +easily make himself an inch high and still be reasonably safe from +our observation. No use for us to guard the vehicle doorway. When our +size-changing current was cut off, the wire hull of the ship was not +solid. A figure an inch high could squeeze out through the side of the +hull very easily. Of what use to guard the door!</p> + +<p>"We can't get him, Frank. If he's cautious, handles his size right, +he's safe from us."</p> + +<p>Safe from us! But the thought, like an omen, swept me: were we safe +from him?</p> + +<p>I said, "Shouldn't the girls wake up by now?"</p> + +<p>It seemed that they had been sleeping a very long time; Drake and I had +had another meal served us.</p> + +<p>"They went in just before you woke up, Frank. Only three hours—the +rest will do them good—they were worn out."</p> + +<p>He had already told me that they were being carefully guarded. But now, +as though it were a premonition, a fear grew upon me.</p> + +<p>"Can't we go see them, Drake? Make sure they are all right?"</p> + +<p>He gave me a startled glance. "Come on."</p> + +<p>I was steady enough on my feet now. We went into the small, dim +passageway. It was whining and throbbing with the electrical sounds of +our size-change. An uproar of rhythmical throbs—one could shout along +here and scarce be heard above it.</p> + +<p>As I got to the door, my heart pounded. Their guard was in his place, +fifteen feet down the shadowed passage. But there was something +unnatural in his hunched position as he sat with his back against the +wall. His head seemed to have sunk forward upon his chest. Asleep?</p> + +<p>His hand on the floor held the automatic. His head was slumped. I shook +him. His inert body twisted, and fell sidewise. And we saw, sticking in +his chest, a tiny sword like a bodkin plunged skillfully between his +ribs to reach his heart.</p> + +<p>Murdered!</p> + +<p>The door to the girls' staterooms was closed! We jerked at it. Locked +on the inside. We pounded, shouted, kicked at it frantically.</p> + +<p>There was only silence from within.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>Togaro at Bay</i></h3> + + +<p>The silence was horrible. If the girls were in there, why didn't they +answer? We thumped and pounded.</p> + +<p>"Dianne! Dianne, answer us! Ahlma—Ahlma—"</p> + +<p>Our cries brought members of the crew. The body of the murdered guard +was shoved aside. We jammed the passage, assailing the stout metal door +which was glowing with the current in it.</p> + +<p>"Dianne—Dianne dear!"</p> + +<p>The door resisted our efforts. We stood listening; I put my ear against +the door.</p> + +<p>Only silence. It seemed that even a scream would be less horrible.</p> + +<p>"Break it down," exclaimed Drake. "We must hurry!" He flung his +powerful body against it, but the door held. Alt came running with a +metal bar. We rammed. The passage was too narrow to give us room. But +at last the door yielded a little and we got the bar into the crack and +pried.</p> + +<p>We burst into the room. Ahlma lay upon the bed, unconscious. Her robe +was torn; there were bruises upon her temple, her shoulder and arm. The +room showed evidences of struggle.</p> + +<p>Dianne was gone!</p> + +<p>Ahlma had fainted or been knocked unconscious. We revived her +presently. Meanwhile we were searching the room, examining every inch +of it for tiny human forms who might be lurking in the shadows, still +large enough to be visible.</p> + +<p>But there was nothing.</p> + +<p>"Watch the doorsill!" Drake commanded. "If he's here—he may make a +rush to get out—"</p> + +<p>They carried away the body of the murdered guard; two men knelt, with +faces close to the doorsill, watching it.</p> + +<p>But there was nothing.</p> + +<p>We knew, even before Ahlma revived, what must have happened. Togaro, +with an inch or two of height, armed with a needle-like sword, had +crept upon our guard in the passage. Amazing, reckless villain!</p> + +<p>He must have dared to crawl upon the guard; then leaped, plunging his +little sword like a long needle into the guard's heart.</p> + +<p>Then he had scuttled into the girls' room, to grow large and softly +close its door. He had fifteen minutes, probably, before we discovered +the murder.</p> + +<p>Ahlma revived and told us the rest of it. She had been awakened to +find Togaro—in a size nearly as large as herself—forcing a pellet of +the drug upon Dianne. The girls struggled and fought. Their screams, +barred by the closed door and the humming, throbbing ship, had not been +heard. Togaro had taken the diminishing drug, and forced some of it +upon Dianne. He had struck at Ahlma. Her senses faded. Her last memory +was the sight of Togaro standing in the middle of the floor with Dianne +gripped in his arms. Both he and Dianne were dwindling.</p> + +<p>We searched the room again. But we could find nothing.</p> + +<p>Were Togaro and Dianne still here? If he was still here, we could keep +him here in smallness. If he had got small in the center of the room it +might be hours, or days of marching to reach the doorway and through it +to the passage, even if he could find his way.</p> + +<p>Drake cried, "By heaven, we won't land! I'll keep this ship in space +until we find him! Starve him out—there'll be no food probably, here +in smallness on the floor of this room."</p> + +<p>But starve Dianne also! I was shuddering. Dianne here—down here by my +feet perhaps—here with Togaro, hiding or wandering in some desolate +abyss of smallness. Or perhaps we had already trodden upon them!</p> + +<p>We stood with sudden terror, hardly daring to move. But were they here? +I said, "Let's try getting small, Drake. We've got to try something. +Get small here—in the center of the room where Ahlma says she saw +them. Search for them. Drake, we've got to get her away from him!"</p> + +<p>I was talking wildly and I knew it. Drake gripped me.</p> + +<p>"Wait, let's try and figure it out. Easy, Frank—don't let's lose our +wits."</p> + +<p>It seemed as though every moment was vital. I stood listening to +Drake's theory. Theory, at such a time! A surge of self-condemnation +was upon me. If only I had had the sense to stay close by Dianne!</p> + +<p>Drake was trying to estimate what Togaro had done. This door had been +barred on the inside. But there was a crack under the bottom of the +door an eighth of an inch high, at least. Drake closed the door for a +moment and showed me it.</p> + +<p>"Frank, they could be anywhere. Not here in the room—he wouldn't stay +here in the room—he had fifteen minutes maybe."</p> + +<p>With sinking heart I realized how easily he could have escaped out of +here. He and Dianne, diminishing say to an inch. Then walking to the +locked door. Dwindling again—walking, carrying Dianne—through the +crack under the door.</p> + +<p>He had had fifteen minutes—and another fifteen had now passed. He +could indeed be almost anywhere in the ship.</p> + +<p>There was a sound near by—a scream! Not that exactly. A shout. It +sounded above the throbbing, humming of the ship.</p> + +<p>We stood frozen, listening.</p> + +<p>"Drake, you heard it? Where was it?"</p> + +<p>He murmured, "What was it? A voice—"</p> + +<p>Not in this cabin. We stood listening in the doorway. Diagonally along +the passage on the other side was the door to another small cabin. It +stood open. Had the shout come from there? We had searched all the +cabins ten minutes before. We did not dare move without extreme care. +An incautious step might crush Dianne.</p> + +<p>There was a guard out here in the passage. All the crew were forbidden +to move except with the greatest circumspection. The guard said, "It +sounded in there. Shall I go?"</p> + +<p>A moment of waiting. I murmured, "Drake, over there."</p> + +<p>It came again, unmistakably from that opposite cabin. A single shouted +word, but we heard it.</p> + +<p>"Frank!"</p> + +<p>Dianne's voice!</p> + +<p>We rushed. No need for caution now. Hardly more than a dozen steps to +that open cabin doorway. But as we reached it, the heavy door clanged +violently in our faces!</p> + +<p>We stood baffled. We shouted. "Dianne! Dianne, are you in there?"</p> + +<p>From behind the barred door came Togaro's jeering, sardonic laughter.</p> + +<p>"We are here. Come in and get us—if you dare!"</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>Frank's Plan</i></h3> + + +<p>This door, like the other, resisted our efforts, to smash it. Alt ran +to get the bar.</p> + +<p>We called, "Dianne!"</p> + +<p>She did not answer. With my ear against the door, it seemed that I +could hear a movement inside.</p> + +<p>"Dianne! If you can speak, answer me!"</p> + +<p>I thought I could hear a low, gruff murmur. I demanded, "Togaro! Open +the door!"</p> + +<p>No answer.</p> + +<p>Drake shouted, "Damn it, we'll break it down! Here, give me that bar!"</p> + +<p>We assaulted the door. In the silence between our blows, Togaro's +mocking laugh sounded again. It chilled me; horrible, sardonic, +confident laughter.</p> + +<p>The door began yielding. I warned, "Drake, your automatic."</p> + +<p>He handed the bar to Alt and the two men of the ship's crew who had +joined us. Ahlma, white and trembling, but eager, stood among us. Drake +swept her behind him. He and I stood with weapons ready.</p> + +<p>"Now, Alt."</p> + +<p>With a last blow the door fell inward. From where we crowded in the +passage the front portion of the little cabin was exposed. The huge +legs of Togaro were bent like a jackknife as he sat wedged in the room! +We could see at first only the lower half of him.</p> + +<p>Drake jumped into the doorway; his weapon went up. Togaro's voice +sounded—a dull gruff roar.</p> + +<p>"Wait, you fool! Do not kill me!"</p> + +<p>It checked, for that instant, the shot that Drake might have fired. I +was beside Drake now. The whole interior of the cabin was filled with +the huge body of Togaro. He sat sidewise to the door. The knees of his +bent legs were nearly as high as our heads. His back was jammed against +the stateroom bunk; his head as he sat hunched forward, crowded the +ceiling. His body was wedged solid into the little room.</p> + +<p>And upon his lap, held against his chest, Dianne was standing upright. +Her head came hardly to his bent shoulders. His arm encircled her.</p> + +<p>The scene froze us for an instant. The giant, evil face of Togaro, +above Dianne's head, leered down at us.</p> + +<p>He said, "Do not kill me! Do not dare! Dianne, tell them to talk to +me—not to shoot."</p> + +<p>I met Dianne's gaze. Her size in relation to me, was about normal. Her +face was pale, but she seemed unhurt. She gasped.</p> + +<p>"Frank—Drake—don't try to kill him—you don't understand—"</p> + +<p>Why not kill him? He was holding Dianne in front of him—but from where +I stood I could have sent a bullet into his brain and not endangered +Dianne.</p> + +<p>Or would his death throes have crushed her? I did not dare fire, yet. +Drake felt the same. He lowered his weapon; he pushed mine down.</p> + +<p>"Wait a minute, Frank. Easy."</p> + +<p>Togaro's smile widened. His broad, heavy face had a look of monstrous +evil. He said, "Why, that is better. Now we will talk."</p> + +<p>"What do you want to say?" Drake demanded. "Let Dianne go. Dianne, +climb down—"</p> + +<p>It brought a gibe. "How can she climb down?"</p> + +<p>I said, "We've got you. I can put a bullet into your head in a second. +Do you know what a bullet is?"</p> + +<p>"I know. Yes, young man, I know very well. But you won't do that. +Quiet, Dianne—stand quiet, I am not hurting you."</p> + +<p>His tone changed wholly as he admonished her. Ironic, to me; gentle, +solicitous, and yet ironic also, to her.</p> + +<p>I threatened, "But I will! We'll give you one minute!"</p> + +<p>Drake pushed me back. "What have you got to say, Togaro? You're caught. +You can't get smaller—we can kill you in an instant with these deadly +weapons. You can't hurt us."</p> + +<p>He was indeed so wedged into the cabin that he could scarcely move. But +Drake was making empty threats. Togaro interrupted him calmly, "Can't +hurt you! But you cannot kill me so fast that I will not also kill +Dianne. Crush her to death; here in my arms. Quiet, sweet one, I am +not crushing you—yet."</p> + +<p>We saw now that Togaro's hand held a pellet of the drug, a pellet +expanded to the size of a marble. He showed it to us.</p> + +<p>"The enlarging drug. I think I can get it into my mouth, Drake, before +you can kill me. It will be effective ten minutes at least after my +death. Did you know that? Ten minutes of my body growing, here in this +small room—"</p> + +<p>He left the sentence to our imagination. Across his huge lap the cabin +window was visible. Outside it I could glimpse the black void of +space—a dull-red crescent hung out there, with white stars blazing +around it.</p> + +<p>Our ship was here in space. A growth of Togaro's body, and he would +burst the roof of this cabin and wreck the ship.</p> + +<p>Drake stammered, "But you—you would not dare—"</p> + +<p>"Nor would you," Togaro returned calmly. "You do not want me to crush +Dianne. Or break this tiny ship and kill us all. I do not want it. Fear +nothing, I am no more anxious to die than you. There is of it nothing +for you to fear. I would not like to hurt my little Dianne." His hand +encompassed the span of her shoulder and back with a gesture like a +caress.</p> + +<p>We knew we were defeated. Drake said, "Yes. What do you want?"</p> + +<p>"Go now and tell them in the control room to land as soon as possible. +That is simple."</p> + +<p>Drake turned away. "You watch here, Frank. Keep him covered."</p> + +<p>I stood, a few moments later, in the passage whispering with Drake. We +had an hour of grace. Togaro, from the window beside him, could see our +progress toward landing. We did not dare do anything else with the ship.</p> + +<p>But there was an hour. And I had a plan. Desperate; to me, with my +inexperience in these strange conditions, it was a plan incredibly +awesome. Yet I could think of nothing else which might be done. A plan +by which I might rescue Dianne and kill Togaro.</p> + +<p>I whispered it to Drake.</p> + +<p>He said at last, "Yes, I guess it's the only thing. You think I should +go with you? Two of us—"</p> + +<p>"No. The chances are better with one."</p> + +<p>"Then I will try it," he said. But I shook my head.</p> + +<p>We stood out of Togaro's sight and hearing. Ahlma was with us.</p> + +<p>Ahlma said, "But, Frank, you are not used to it. If you would trust it +to a girl—"</p> + +<p>But that was not feasible. Drake would have been better than I, no +doubt.</p> + +<p>"If I do not come back," I urged, "you, Drake, are needed here. And +when the ship lands—it is you who are needed, not I."</p> + +<p>It seemed the best thing to do. I had an hour before the landing. And I +was ready now. I needed no preparations. I wore my belt of the drugs; I +carried a knife like a short sword.</p> + +<p>I edged up as close to the doorway of Togaro's cabin as I could get +without his seeing me.</p> + +<p>I took the diminishing drug.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>The Tiny Prowler</i></h3> + + +<p>"Good-by, Frank," Drake reached carefully down and touched my dwindling +shoulder with the tip of his finger. "Be cautious—don't take too many +chances."</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Remember—if he once sees you—well, that's the end, Frank."</p> + +<p>I called softly upward. "I'll be careful. You give me the signal, +Drake, when you think I'm small enough to start toward him. And +remember the plan. If I can distract his attention—if Dianne leaps +away—you shoot him."</p> + +<p>I was already not much higher than Drake's shoe top. The passage floor +was in shadow. The wall was drawing away from me.</p> + +<p>I had taken what was perhaps half of one of the pellets of the weakest +intensity. Its effect was gone in a minute or two. I stood quiet, +trying to judge my height compared to Drake; and waiting for his signal +to tell me that I was small enough to dare advance into Togaro's +doorway.</p> + +<p>A scene of singular strangeness, here on the floor of the shadowed +passageway! The floor was a grid, or grill of laced metal. I saw it +now as a spread of level surface; girders three feet wide, with others +crossing to checker it into squares—three-foot squares, each of them +a black abyss. The perpendicular passage wall was fifty feet from me. +The other way, I could see Drake's monstrous figure; it blurred up into +the distance overhead. I gazed, trying to estimate his apparent height. +Four hundred feet tall, or more. Beyond him—it seemed a quarter of a +mile at least—there was the blur of Ahlma's robe.</p> + +<p>I concluded that to Drake I was about an inch high. I saw him move; as +though some great dark mountain were falling upon me, his body stooped +above me. His hand came slowly down; his palm spread like a pink-white +roof close over my head. And then swooped upward; I could feel the +suction-wind as it rose.</p> + +<p>It was our agreed-upon signal. With my heart pounding I turned toward +the cliff which was the passage wall. I walked, half ran upon one of +the broad metal girders.</p> + +<p>I came to the wall; followed one of the girders going lengthwise of the +passage. This huge passage! A vaulted, shadowed place five hundred feet +across, and twice as high.</p> + +<p>Ahead of me the cliff ended in a great opening. Togaro's doorway! I +stopped at the edge of it; stood cautiously peering. I could see into +the gigantic room. Togaro's back seemed half turned to me. I could +distinguish only his foot and leg. The blur of his body showed in the +upper distance; and Dianne up there—a dim golden blur of her robe.</p> + +<p>I took a few more steps. It was several hundred yards into the room to +reach that huge foot.</p> + +<p>But in my present size I could not cross the threshold without the +chance of his seeing me. I had nearly an hour; I decided to get smaller.</p> + +<p>A taste of the drug. The girder beneath my feet widened until it was a +broad, rough metal roadway.</p> + +<p>Space above me and to the sides was so great I seemed almost in the +open. Ahead in the distance there were dim blurs of shape. And there +seemed occasionally the muffled rumble of monstrous voices.</p> + +<p>I ran until I was winded, then walked. How far, I have no idea. It +seemed, altogether, a mile or more. The roadway ended in a great spread +of rough metal surface. I climbed a gentle slope like a mound, passed +over it and descended.</p> + +<p>The threshold! I was in the room.</p> + +<p>I had been advancing toward the mountainous outlines which were +Togaro's body. I came near them now. He wore rough cloth trousers. The +corrugations of them were tremendous fantastic ridges of gray surface +rising into the air.</p> + +<p>I stood again trying to fathom just where I was, and what I might do. I +was still a considerable distance from where those billowing folds of +cloth rested upon this metal ground. I ran again, then walked to get +my wind. I was already tired. The gray mountain was at hand. I think I +was behind Togaro. The folds of his trousers rose in an almost formless +shape to where, several hundred feet up, I thought might be the line of +his belt.</p> + +<p>I stood beside his leg. I even touched him. The cloth was like woven +strands of rope. Each strand was rough with dangling edges.</p> + +<p>I put my hand upon one strand. It was as thick as the rope that ties an +ocean steamship to its dock. There were spaces here into which my whole +arm would go.</p> + +<p>I set my foot into an opening. I could climb this! I gripped one of the +strands. I swung myself up.</p> + +<p>Then realization came to me. Why, this was madness! There was five +hundred feet of height above me, and then I would only reach the ledge +which was Togaro's belt. All this time his least movement would fling +me off, plunge me to my death.</p> + +<p>Madness! I let go, and leaped backward to the ground. I would have to +get larger.</p> + +<p>I took a cautious taste of the enlarging drug, then another.</p> + +<p>The scene around me, with its steady dwindling, began to rationalize. +I found myself standing behind Togaro, in the curve between him and +the stateroom bunk. His waistline came down. I thought that presently +with a leap I might reach up and seize his belt. Or in a moment I would +be able to climb into the bunk. And from there perhaps leap upon his +shoulder.</p> + +<p>I had, for a long time past, been aware of various sounds. I had heard +Drake's voice in the passage, talking, I thought, with Togaro.</p> + +<p>The expanding drug action ceased. I drew my sword. I was now, I think, +compared to Togaro, a foot possibly in height. There were sounds—a +confusion of them—in the air. Voices, blurred by the mingled throb and +hum of the ship.</p> + +<p>But abruptly they all changed. A silence. The new sounds—a clanging, +and a sudden voice! Drake's voice:</p> + +<p>"Dianne! Togaro! Sit still or I'll kill you—"</p> + +<p>I was stricken. Togaro's great body, with Dianne clutched to him, was +heaving, rising.</p> + +<p>He lurched backward, almost to crush me. Drake shouted again, but +his words were lost in the turmoil. It seemed that all the world was +crashing about me—rending, tearing crashes.</p> + +<p>I leaped upward. My sword dropped as I clutched frantically to keep +from falling. I caught at a great leather band, wedged my arm under it +and clung.</p> + +<p>I felt myself heaved monstrously into the air.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>The Escape of Togaro</i></h3> + + +<p>It was an anxious time for Drake, this hour during which he was waiting +for me to make my attack on Togaro. He stood, with Ahlma behind him, +watching me dwindle. Then he stooped, cautiously keeping back where +Togaro could not see him, and gave me the signal.</p> + +<p>I was about an inch high, down by his shoe. His gaze followed me as I +ran toward the doorway. In the shadows there he saw me getting still +smaller, until I was lost to his sight.</p> + +<p>Drake whispered to Ahlma, "We must act naturally." He put his arm +around her in his apprehension for Dianne and me and the knowledge that +there was disaster ahead for us all. "Ahlma."</p> + +<p>She whispered, "Drake!"</p> + +<p>They could find no words, but needed none. For a moment he held her, +kissed her; saw in her misty eyes an answer to the tumult of his heart.</p> + +<p>"We must be alert, Drake. Be ready for what may come." She turned +abruptly and called into the ship, "Frank! Oh, Frank, you go to the +control room and tell them again to hasten our landing. Drake and I +will watch here." Calling so that Togaro would hear her and not be +suspicious that I was not in evidence!</p> + +<p>Drake whispered, "Good idea!"</p> + +<p>Alt came up. He said aloud, "The ship is diminishing very fast. We will +be there soon." He added, in a whisper, "He is gone?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Stay here with us."</p> + +<p>The minutes dragged by. Togaro sat quiet; he held Dianne close to +him; occasionally he spoke to her. Sometimes he would command Drake, +"Remember, when we land—if you do not try to harm me, Dianne will be +safe."</p> + +<p>Through the windows Dianne's world was constantly visible. It lay +now beneath the ship—a great spread of convex, red-brown surface. +The light of its parent sun gleamed upon the mountain tops. The +configurations of the land and water areas were plainly visible, save +where, in patches, cloud masses obscured them.</p> + +<p>The vehicle presently was dwindling quite slowly; then its size-change +ceased. It dropped swiftly down toward the globe's surface.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>There are a few brief astronomical details which I think I should +record. When Drake and the ship landed now upon this little globe Drake +was normal in size to its inhabitants. Calling him then his earthly +standard of six feet tall, a comparative set of measurements may be +given of this atomic world.</p> + +<p>You who read this can visualize only by earthly standards. That is +natural, for to the human mind the conception of one's self is the +starting point of every comparison. During all these events I recall +that I almost always felt myself to be my original, normal size. I saw +landscapes which were huge, and landscapes small as children's toys.</p> + +<p>But always I felt myself to be Frank Ferrule, five feet seven inches +tall. Thus quaintly egotistical is the human viewpoint; to each man is +his own mind the pivot of the universe.</p> + +<p>Dianne's earth within the atom, then, you may visualize as a globe with +a diameter of about three hundred miles. A circumference something +over nine hundred miles. Its inhabitants were far larger, therefore, +in comparison to their globe, than we are to our earth. To them it was +indeed a little world—small as an asteroid would be to us.</p> + +<p>It was called, in the native language, "Mita." A blazing sun was near +it—twenty million miles away, perhaps—and Mita was the only planet. +It rotated on its axis with a revolution of about six hours and forty +minutes; so that, as we experienced the passage of time, the equal days +and nights were each about three and a third hours in duration.</p> + +<p>There was a slight inclination of its axis—a progression of seasons +with a cycle of some three months. There was one small but brilliant +moon.</p> + +<p>Again, I can only say that textbooks are now being filled with the +astronomical technicalities of the planet Mita. I record only such few +stray facts as may make my narrative more understandable.</p> + +<p>There was, for instance, the gravity as we felt it on Mita. In spite +of the globe's smallness, its inhabitants felt a gravitational pull +not much different than we feel it on earth. This was caused by the +planet's tremendous density. A solid little globe of heavy, metallic +rock.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>It was night when the vehicle dropped through Mita's atmosphere, +heading for the largest city of the world's single nation. Drake stood +in the passageway within sight of Togaro and Dianne. There was a window +near him. Through it he could see the landscape as it rose and visibly +expanded until presently it seemed close underneath the ship. The +sunlight had faded from the sky when the ship entered Mita's shadow. It +showed now as a line of red-yellow light on distant mountain tops. A +fading light—the sunset, with the brief night just beginning. The sea +was off there beyond the mountains; and again a line of ocean showed in +the opposite direction.</p> + +<p>Directly beneath the ship was an island-continent. A land-locked lake +with many islands was near its center. A curving reach of lakeshore +showed a patch of checkered, shadowed surface which was the city. +Overhead a half moon was hanging.</p> + +<p>Drake still had Ahlma and Alt beside him. They were watching +Togaro—pretending to watch him, but in reality their anxious gazes +were searching for me. I was, I think, at about this time lurking +behind Togaro. I had reached a size where Drake could have seen me, of +course, had he dared advance into the doorway and look; but he did not.</p> + +<p>Increasing apprehension swept Drake. The time was growing short. He had +ordered the ship to land. It was already filled with the preparatory +sounds: the voices of the navigators in the control room giving orders, +the rattle and clank of moving chains, the opening of a side door for +disembarking.</p> + +<p>Drake's apprehension grew into a panic. He had thought, of course, that +I would make an attack before this. He did not dare now give orders to +have the ship kept in the air. Togaro was watching through the window +at his side—his glance darting out there and then back at Drake. The +giant held Dianne's small form close against his chest.</p> + +<p>He had admonished her not to speak. He kept her face turned now from +the doorway, with his huge arm encircling her. And he forced her to +reach up and with her tiny hands clutch at the collar of his shirt.</p> + +<p>Through the window there was presently the close-at-hand moonlit vista +of the lake, the shore front, and the city buildings. Drake saw the +familiar landing-space. It came swiftly mounting, only a few hundred +feet down now. A crowd of people, dark figures edged with silver +moonlight, stood gazing up at the dropping ship.</p> + +<p>Ahlma murmured, "What can we do?"</p> + +<p>A sudden confusion gripped them. The ship was landing! To Drake it +unreasonably seemed as though this sudden crisis had plunged upon him +all unawares. He had waited too long for me.</p> + +<p>Horror swept him now. Togaro's hand went to his mouth. He took the +enlarging drug! A clanging resounded through the ship. It tilted, +thumped slightly, came to rest upon the ground. For perhaps five +seconds the three in the passageway stood transfixed with horror. Then +Drake shouted:</p> + +<p>"Dianne! Togaro, sit still, or I'll kill you!"</p> + +<p>But it meant nothing, and Drake knew it. He gripped Ahlma and Alt, and +flung them back against the passage wall, staring with futile, helpless +horror.</p> + +<p>The already huge body of Togaro was expanding. But already he filled +the small cabin. He lunged, heaved his shoulders up against the ceiling.</p> + +<p>Drake shouted again, with more rationality this time. "Togaro, don't +hurt Dianne!"</p> + +<p>Togaro panted, "No!"</p> + +<p>He held her in the protecting hollow of his arm. He rose, straining +his shoulders once again against the ceiling in a monstrous lunge. The +ceiling broke.</p> + +<p>Togaro stood a moment in the wreckage, expanding until only his giant +legs remained in the cabin. Then he leaped upward. With a single +jump he cleared the ship and landed upon the ground, scattering the +terror-stricken crowd.</p> + +<p>A growing giant, with huge bounds he fled away down a moonlit road +toward the lake. The crowd on the landing field, staring after him, saw +the small figure of Dianne hanging to his neck.</p> + +<p>At the back of his waistline they saw a far smaller figure. It was +I—clinging desperately to his belt, riding him like a clutching insect +of whose presence he was unaware!</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>Night of Turmoil</i></h3> + + +<p>Drake hurried with Ahlma and Alt from the ship. It was a scene of wild +confusion as the frightened crowd milled over the moonlit field. In the +distance the figure of the running Togaro loomed, a huge dark shape +towering over the landscape. This little world was visibly convex: the +horizon was very close. Drake could see Togaro bounding along the road +which followed the lakeshore, beyond the city outskirts. His giant +figure sank lower until presently it was gone below the horizon.</p> + +<p>The crowd, which had been watching the giant, redoubled its confusion. +Men and women were here; even a few children were held aloft to keep +from being trampled. The near-by throng surged upon Drake.</p> + +<p>Alt gasped, "They saw a man hanging to Togaro. Very small."</p> + +<p>"Frank!"</p> + +<p>"Move—back—" Alt began in English, then burst into a flood of his +native language.</p> + +<p>The crowd was pressing close upon them. Drake had all he could do to +protect Ahlma from the roughly surging people. They were all about +Alt's size—men bare-headed and barelegged, with jackets long to the +knee, flaring like a skirt; women, some of them dressed like the men, +but with hair bound on their heads, or young girls with longer skirts +and flowing hair.</p> + +<p>Drake, who wore the native costume, with a band about his forehead +to hold his hair from his eyes, stood head and shoulders above the +crowd. He held an arm about Ahlma, and struggled to force his way +across the field. His instinct had been to take the enlarging drug and +follow Togaro. But that was not practical. Togaro, always able to be +the larger, could have turned upon him. And with Dianne in Togaro's +arms—and now myself, so tiny, clinging to him—Drake realized that any +combat would only kill us both.</p> + +<p>"Ahlma, we must get over to the field-house."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Drake."</p> + +<p>"See the officials. There should be some one here to meet us."</p> + +<p>The crowd had seen the ship descending and had gathered. The officials +were here. Drake saw a line of the native police guarding the ship, and +at the little field-house there were others.</p> + +<p>Alt said, "There is Jain." He called to the official, a huge +black-coated fellow. Drake knew him; and he spoke English.</p> + +<p>Drake said to Ahlma, "Everyone's frightened. Give way there!"</p> + +<p>But the crowd was more than frightened. Menacing, Drake abruptly +realized, as two men roughly plucked at him.</p> + +<p>"The drugs!" Ahlma gasped. "They want the drugs."</p> + +<p>Jain came wading forward, bellowing with the voice of authority which +now the crowd began to obey.</p> + +<p>Drake called, "I don't want to hurt them." He was far stronger than any +of these people, and he was armed, both with the drugs and the weapons +I had brought. But this was a crowd of Dianne's people.</p> + +<p>Drake had lived among them for a year; he knew them well, and they knew +him. They were an excitable people; in a panic of terror now at the +sight of the giant Togaro. Drake had no wish to do anything to excite +them further.</p> + +<p>He shouted with what he hoped would be reassuring words. Alt shouted in +his own language. They forced their way forward.</p> + +<p>The mob presently began dispersing. Jain led Drake into the +field-house, a small building of metallic blocks. Other officials were +here. There was a hurried consultation.</p> + +<p>Then a conveyance arrived—a long, low wagon on rollers, with a covered +top and a line of small animals to pull it. They climbed aboard and +rumbled off through the city streets to the palace of Dianne.</p> + +<p>I never saw, except with fleeting glimpses, this Shore City, as its +name might be translated into English; nor Dianne's palace, nor any of +her loyal people, the Mitans, as the nation was called.</p> + +<p>To Drake it was all familiar. He had attained a position of authority. +The ruling class—those who were born with the crescent patch on their +foreheads—had accepted him as one of them. Dianne, headstrong little +ruler, had insisted upon going in the flyer when Alt was sent out into +largeness. Now, in spite of Drake's efforts to guard her, she had been +taken by Togaro.</p> + +<p>Jain was very solemn. "The council will blame you, Drake."</p> + +<p>They could not blame Drake more than he blamed himself. Yet, from that +moment Togaro held Dianne in his arms there was nothing Drake could +have done.</p> + +<p>And nothing now that he could think of to do. He sat immersed in gloomy +thoughts. For all his year among these people it was still a strange +world to him. He said suddenly: "Jain, that was my brother clinging to +Togaro. We've got to find where they went."</p> + +<p>Jain was solemn, but there was an excited triumph upon him. For months +now the Togarites had kept hidden in smallness. Their headquarters—the +place where they kept their interplanetary ship—could not be found. +The Mitans had searched. Thousands of organized searchers were +scattered everywhere throughout the land. For months no Togarite giant +had ever appeared.</p> + +<p>But now Togaro's arrival would disclose where his followers lurked.</p> + +<p>"We will get the news at the palace, Drake. We'll know now—and we will +organize an army, with the drugs and your weapons, and go after them, +Drake. We will get them now!"</p> + +<p>It was a ride of no more than ten minutes. The narrow city streets +were lined with low houses, all built of metallic blocks. There were +few lights, for the night was cloudless and the brilliant moon bathed +everything with silver.</p> + +<p>The city was in a turmoil. Crowds thronged the streets, milling and +shoving and shouting.</p> + +<p>The cart nosed its way along. The identity of its occupants was known. +Drake often heard his name shouted. The crowd opened for the cart, but +closed in behind, and followed it.</p> + +<p>They wound up a hill, and entered the tree-shrouded gardens of the +palace. It was a scene of almost normal earthly beauty, with paths +and flowers, and low-stunted trees, heavy with redolent blossoms, all +shining in the white moonlight, with a gentle warm nightbreeze from the +lake.</p> + +<p>The palace was a long building some forty feet in height, overgrown +with climbing plants like some ancient castle of earth. Two stories, +and a queer dome roof like the crown of a helmet surmounted by a +needle-spire. There was a single broad doorway up a short flight of +stone steps. The lower windows at the ground level were barred. But +overhead was a broad balcony with a metal railing, with open doors and +windows giving access to the second floor rooms.</p> + +<p>The palace faced the garden on this side, and on the other stood sheer +upon the brink of a cliff—a perpendicular rocky wall, a hundred feet +down, at the bottom of which the waters of the lake lapped on a narrow +rocky beach.</p> + +<p>As the cart rumbled across the garden, Drake caught a glimpse of the +lake beyond the corner of the building. A moonlit spread of placid +water, sharply convex. At the near horizon a green island loomed in the +moonlight. The cart stopped, and they hurried into the palace.</p> + +<p>The garden behind them was jammed with the arriving mob. A silent, +gathering throng. Ominously silent.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>In the Blood Light of Dawn</i></h3> + + +<p>Drake leaped to his feet. "But this must be stopped! Good God, this is +madness!"</p> + +<p>An hour or more had passed. The brief night was more than half over. +Drake had sat in the palace with the harassed council. Night of +turmoil! This brief night, preface to the end.</p> + +<p>It seemed as though all the city sensed it. The crowds were in a wild +chaos, surging everywhere throughout the city. Aimless, leaderless mobs.</p> + +<p>The government, too, was in chaos, striving to do a multiplicity of +abnormal things at once. A welter of official activities was around +Drake. He sat watching and listening, waiting an opportunity to take +his part in the one thing most vital to him—the expedition which soon +was to start upon the rescue of the Princess Dianne, and the capture of +the Togarites.</p> + +<p>The whereabouts of the enemy was known now. The island at the near-by +horizon held them. It was no more than three miles away across the +water. A public garden and park occupied this small island. No one +lived there, but pleasure parties often went to spend a few hours. The +island had been searched many times and nothing found.</p> + +<p>Yet it was Togaro's headquarters, quite evidently. His giant form had +been seen wading out there. He was there now. Drake from the palace +balcony had stood and seen the towering figure in the moonlight. And +then it had dwindled. In smallness there, beyond doubt, the Togarite +ship was hidden. He and his leaders were there.</p> + +<p>Drake listened to the council making its plans. An expedition of +young men who had been trained in the use of the drugs was now being +assembled. They were coming into the palace now, in groups, as the +messengers sought them out in the city and brought them.</p> + +<p>There seemed only one way to get to the island unperceived by Togaro. +The space-ship in which Drake had arrived was being hastily repaired. +In an hour or two it would be ready. A hundred young men, and Drake +with his automatics, would board it. The ship would then dwindle to a +size very small. It would seem a flight of miles to the island—but the +ship could do that in a brief time. And in such a small size could land +unobserved.</p> + +<p>The cause of the turmoil in the city was puzzling and disturbing to the +council. The arrival of Togaro had created an excitement almost verging +upon panic. But the excitement had started before Togaro's arrival. All +during the three-hour daylight preceding, and the night before that, a +strange air of unrest had been apparent among the people. There were +fifty thousand of them here. The near-by rural districts held another +fifty thousand. There was an influx from the country into the city. No +one knew why. Whole families coming in their carts, then abandoning the +carts, and mingling with the city crowds.</p> + +<p>Messengers arriving from other cities reported the same conditions. +The people everywhere were frightened, acting strangely. The small +government flyer came on its four-hundred-mile voyage from the other +side of the globe. It was mostly water in that hemisphere; but there +was one island—one large city. It, too, was in a turmoil.</p> + +<p>A strange restlessness, which the panic here in the Shore City over +Togaro's arrival could not explain, pervaded Mita. To Drake it was as +though by some occult force the knowledge was spreading throughout the +world of impending doom. But he knew it was nothing occult. Might it +not be that Togaro's followers were dispersed widely over this little +globe, mingling with the people, spreading insidious, frightening +propaganda?</p> + +<p>The minutes passed while Drake sat watching the arriving men whom he +was to lead. The council room was in the upper story. The men came up, +were checked and given instructions, and then taken to the lower floor +to be equipped with belts and the drugs.</p> + +<p>Word came that the space-ship was not badly damaged. The repairs were +progressing. It would be ready for the voyage by dawn.</p> + +<p>All this time, in the garden of the palace the mob had stood +unnaturally silent, watching the building as though trying to guess +what activities were going on inside. Messengers were constantly +arriving and departing. Police were bringing in the young men whom +Drake was to take into smallness. The airship from the other hemisphere +came and landed near by; its officials hurried in through the police +cordon at the palace doorway.</p> + +<p>As though nature were conspiring with a premonition of what the future +might hold, a cloud lifted above the horizon across the city and +passed near the moon; a cloud at a considerable altitude, tinged with +red from the coming sunrise. It threw a red cast upon the moon. The +moonlight suddenly seemed drenching all the scene with blood. An omen? +Drake shuddered. He turned from the window. But the murmur down there +grew to a shouting. It brought his gaze back. A rhythmic shouting—the +repetition of a few words over and over. It may have started with a +single voice, and the crowd took it up like a chant.</p> + +<p>"Alt, what is that?"</p> + +<p>Alt was near Drake. He listened. But Ahlma caught it first.</p> + +<p>"They say, '<i>The world ends tonight! Give us the drugs!</i>'"</p> + +<p>Like a chant the crowd was all shouting it now. "<i>The world ends +tonight! We want the drugs!</i>"</p> + +<p>The council heard it. A silence fell upon the room as they listened. +Then from the palace doorway, the police began shouting. A new turmoil, +then the sound of thuds upon the front palace walls—missiles were +being thrown. A chunk of rock came hurtling through the window. It +narrowly missed Drake and fell with a crash in the midst of the sitting +councilmen.</p> + +<p>It was then Drake leaped to his feet. "But this must be stopped! This +is madness!"</p> + +<p>The mob was attacking the palace doorway. It surged at the foot of the +steps. A rain of rocks came hurtling upward.</p> + +<p>Drake shouted, "Jain, tell the council I'm going to get large! I'll +disperse this mob—Ahlma, you come with me! You can talk to them—try +to calm them! Tell them you are speaking for your princess."</p> + +<p>A turmoil almost equal to the confusion in the garden now broke out in +the council room. The men were all on their feet, jabbering excitedly.</p> + +<p>Jain shouted, "No! They say no, Drake—"</p> + +<p>Drake was spurred by the feeling of helplessness that had made him +stand by and watch Togaro escape with Dianne.</p> + +<p>He handed Ahlma a pellet. Alt pleaded, "Let me come with you."</p> + +<p>Before the council could move to stop them, all three had taken the +drug. The room began dwindling. It struck a sudden calmness to Drake. +He said:</p> + +<p>"Alt, we must get out of here! Tell the council we will not get very +large. Only enough to disperse this mob. That can do no harm. Togaro +knows we are here—if he sees us, what matter? Tell them we'll be small +again soon—I'll be ready to go when the flyer is ready."</p> + +<p>Alt shouted his translation. The balcony doorway was already shrunk to +Drake's waist. He pushed Ahlma through and squeezed through himself +with Alt after them.</p> + +<p>At sight of them the crowd gave a roar of mingled surprise and fear. +The fighting at the palace steps was instantly checked. The crowd stood +and gazed. Surprise; awe; terror. It froze them.</p> + +<p>There was a total silence. Drake gazed down, and then with a moment of +dizziness looked away. The palace was shrinking. He presently reached +up and gripped its spire at the peak of the roof. With his other hand +drew from his belt pellets of the other drug.</p> + +<p>Drake had had much experience with the drugs, each an antidote to the +other; he knew how to check his growth at any point. He checked it now, +and Ahlma and Alt did the same.</p> + +<p>They stood precariously upon a tiny balcony of a toy house whose spire +was not much taller than their heads. A few feet beneath them, hardly +more than a comfortable step down, was the miniature garden. Little +trees, bathed in the blood-light of the moon, and small human figures.</p> + +<p>The balcony strained and swayed beneath the weight. Drake said, "We +must step down. Alt, call down to them, tell them to give us room."</p> + +<p>Alt's voice spurred the crowd to action. The spell which had struck +them motionless was broken. A woman screamed. The crowd took it +up—frenzied screams. In panic, they turned and shoved, fought, +screaming to get away.</p> + +<p>But the adjacent streets were packed with people. The crowd from the +garden pressed at them.</p> + +<p>The balcony was breaking. This toy house; these toy people!</p> + +<p>Drake said, "Step down, Ahlma."</p> + +<p>There was room beneath them now: They stepped from the balcony, and +stood together beside the little palace, with the garden down at their +shoe-tops. The crowd in a frenzy was fighting its way back through +the trees. There were open spaces in the garden now. Patches of open, +blood-red moonlight. But in all of these, motionless tiny figures were +lying where they had been trampled.</p> + +<p>Contrition swept Drake. It seemed that everything he attempted was +doomed to disaster. Ahlma was gripping him.</p> + +<p>"Drake, look—off there!"</p> + +<p>They could see behind them over the palace roof; the shining lake; the +island at the horizon where the Togarites were hiding.</p> + +<p>Alt cried out, stricken with horror. And then Drake saw it.</p> + +<p>They stood, Drake, Ahlma and Alt, three giants, gazing out over the +lake. The dawn was nearer than Drake had realized. The sky above the +island was turning red. A bank of clouds off there was reddening. +The swift-coming dawn was at hand. The moon was fading. The scene +everywhere was brightening.</p> + +<p>Upon the island, where a green hill showed dark against the lightening +sky, something abnormal showed. A dark shape, growing, expanding. +It spread, sidewise and upward; not a human shape, not a giant, but +something far more ominous. It was rounded and oblong; and to be +visible at this distance it must be already a hundred feet long.</p> + +<p>Then in a moment it was twice that. It seemed shoving at the hill with +its growth—shoving itself toward the water.</p> + +<p>The Togaro space-ship! It had come now suddenly from its hiding place. +Realization swept Drake with a surge of horror. Togaro's departure was +at hand!</p> + +<p>The ship was expanding with tremendous rapidity. It soon had shoved +itself off the island with its growth. It lifted slightly and then +settled upon the water, floating on a raft-like hull of pontoons.</p> + +<p>Another minute. It lay off there as though moored to the tiny island. +It was still growing, a monstrous thing now. Most of it was below the +curve of the horizon, but its stern loomed up beside the island. A ship +a mile long now. In another minute it might be twice that.</p> + +<p>Drake's thoughts were whirling. This monstrous thing—why didn't it +rise and be gone?</p> + +<p>As though to answer his thoughts he became aware that Ahlma and Alt had +turned and were gazing again over the city. Then Drake knew why the +Togaro vehicle was lingering.</p> + +<p>From everywhere about the distant landscape, from a hundred points in +the spread of the city, giants were rising! The dawn—this dawn now +beginning—was the signal. Giants, widely scattered at various points, +appearing now out of smallness!</p> + +<p>There was a giant whose head and shoulders rose from one of the city +streets quite near at hand. The sight of him caught Drake's fascinated +attention. He grew with amazing swiftness to a height of perhaps two +hundred feet. Then his growth suddenly stopped. He stood gazing about +him. In the faint light of the dawn Drake could see him plainly—a +Togarite, stocky, wide-shouldered, bullet-headed. He wore, upon his +chest and waist a series of belts. And about his throat a leather +necklace, with pads out over his shoulders.</p> + +<p>His torso, shoulders and neck were black with clinging tiny human +figures! They hung upon his straps like clustering insects. They were +in their normal size, Drake judged. They had climbed upon him when +he was small. He seemed to be carrying a hundred or more. He stood a +moment, then stepped cautiously up to the flat roof of a near-by house. +It cracked with his weight. He leaped over it, into another street. He +may have crushed scores of people who were gathered there. Drake could +hear faint screams. The giant leaped again, found a broader street, ran +down it toward the lake, and waded into the water.</p> + +<p>A hundred such incidents. A hundred such giants simultaneously +appearing at the signal of the dawn. They were carrying ten thousand +people at the least. They appeared from everywhere, laden with the tiny +clinging figures.</p> + +<p>From the distant hills of the open country still more of them came +running, dashing through the city, wrecking its houses, trampling the +crowds in the streets; heading for the lake.</p> + +<p>The water was soon lashed into a turmoil. The giants were all a +prearranged height. The water rose only to their hips. It beat white +against them as they forced their way through it toward the island +where the monstrous vehicle was waiting to receive them.</p> + +<p>Drake understood it now. In smallness the Togarites had been secretly +working; gathering their followers from among the people. It was an +exodus now to the island where the expedition to conquer the earth was +ready to depart.</p> + +<p>There were giants rising from the island now. More of Togaro's +followers, gathered there in smallness, growing now to join this +arriving throng of their fellows. One giant, taller than all the +others, loomed into the sky, black against the blood-red dawn. He was +standing in the lake, far away, so that only his head and shoulders +were above the horizon. It may have been Togaro, directing the +embarkation. He was monstrous; and the vehicle on the water, lying +quiescent now with its stern looming on the curve of the little globe, +was monstrous.</p> + +<p>The giants were clustered out there, climbing with their human freight +into the doorway of the ship. And they were still arriving. The city +was wrecked with their passage. The broken streets were littered with +mangled forms of the trampled crowds.</p> + +<p>The sunrise came. The blurred little sun was red. It bathed the +shattered, screaming city with crimson; it painted the running giants; +it turned the foaming waters of the lake to blood.</p> + +<p>When the turmoil was over and the littered giants had all embarked, +off there against the red morning sky the monstrous vehicle was again +expanding.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>Riding the Giant</i></h3> + + +<p>I must revert now to that moment when I clung to the huge strap which +was the back of Togaro's belt and was lifted through the wrecked cabin +of our ship. I could see very little: the bulge of Togaro's shirt above +me; the strap of his belt, wide as the length of my arm, to which I +clung.</p> + +<p>There was a rending crash. A dizzying, monstrous sweep of movement; a +thump as we struck the ground; then the rhythmic swoops upward and down +which marked Togaro's giant leaps as he ran.</p> + +<p>The wind tore past me. I could see the blur of the swaying ground; I +seemed at least fifty feet above it. Soon I was higher than that, for +Togaro's body was constantly growing.</p> + +<p>Then we were in the lake, Togaro wading. The water rose to his hips. It +surged in white-lashed waves close under me; the spray from it drenched +me. Overhead, fifty feet up or more, I could see one of Dianne's white +arms clinging to Togaro's neck. He had evidently given her some of the +expanding drug, so that she grew proportionately to him.</p> + +<p>I remained tiny. His growth and hers were ended by the time we reached +the island. I tried to keep my wits. I was to Togaro the size of an +insect now. But if he got smaller he would very soon become aware of +me. He stood in the water by the island, looking back at the city. +Presently I felt his belt dwindling. I quickly took some of the +diminishing drug myself.</p> + +<p>We all three dwindled, about maintaining our relative size. The island +came up and spread around us. Down into smallness we shrank. I need not +detail it. I found that presently we were in a forest of immense green +stalks, which might have been grass. They grew gigantic up into the +sky. Soon I could only see beside us one monstrous green stalk.</p> + +<p>There seemed a sort of ravine in the tumbled, uneven ground. Togaro +walked into it. There was a valley. An encampment here!</p> + +<p>The encampment of the Togarites on the island! Microscopically small, +but Togaro dwindled into it now; and upon his belt I still was clinging.</p> + +<p>I saw about me a group of huge dwellings. A crowd of giants. A bustle +of activity, making ready for departure. And then I saw the space-ship. +It was lying hidden here.</p> + +<p>I saw that now Dianne was about the same size as Togaro. He placed her +upon the ground; her head towered above my lofty perch. I heard the +rumble of Togaro's voice over all the clatter of the camp.</p> + +<p>"I will take you aboard, Dianne. We start in two hours."</p> + +<p>We went through the ship's doorway. Down a passage, gigantic. Into a +cabin, gigantic.</p> + +<p>"Dianne, you sit here, quietly, and wait for me. Will you do that? Or +are you going to cause me trouble?"</p> + +<p>She said, "I am not foolish enough to disobey you, Togaro."</p> + +<p>"That is right. I will not hurt you."</p> + +<p>There was a cushion on the floor. She sat down. I peered around the +bulge of Togaro's waist and saw her. She was looking up at him. +Smiling, but it was a pale, harassed smile.</p> + +<p>"You speak in English, Togaro? Why is that?"</p> + +<p>He faced her; the movement of his turning was a wild swoop through the +air for me.</p> + +<p>He said, "When I am Master of the Earth it will be our language. We +will forget Mita, you and I. This is the end of Mita." His chuckle had +an ominous implication. "I will be back presently, Dianne."</p> + +<p>I saw that there was a man stationed here at the door of the room +on guard. My heart was pounding wildly. Togaro was going out. Above +everything I must make my presence known to her. But how could I get +down from Togaro's belt? I was fifty feet above the ground.</p> + +<p>He walked toward the door. I stood recklessly upon the narrow ledge +which was the top thickness of his belt. At the door he stopped to +speak to the guard—telling him no doubt to watch Dianne carefully. +Togaro's back was toward the cabin wall. A window was here, with a +portière and a rope thick as my body. I was swung within a few feet of +it. I leaped, caught the rope, wound my legs around it.</p> + +<p>I slid cautiously down the fifty-foot length of rope to the ground. I +found the floor in shadow. The figure of Dianne was a hundred yards +away.</p> + +<p>I ran over toward the wall and circled toward her.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII</h2> +</div> + +<h3>"<i>Vengeance of Togaro!</i>"</h3> + + +<p>To Dianne, and to the guard in the doorway, I was a figure an inch +or so in height, plainly to be seen if I moved too fast, or left the +shadows of the floor. But I did neither. I reached Dianne safely, +though it took me a long time.</p> + +<p>I circled behind her. I climbed upon the heights of the cushion, I +touched her robe. Did I dare pluck at it? I thought I might perhaps +attract her attention.</p> + +<p>I took another ten minutes, or it may have been half an hour, climbing +along the cushion to its other side. And presently her hand, as she +idly moved it, came to rest quite near me. I looked up and saw that her +face was turned my way.</p> + +<p>I decided to chance it. I darted forward and stood against the curve of +her wrist. She felt me. Her instinctive movement of the hand knocked +me over, but I fell into the soft billows of the cushion. I lay quiet, +praying that she might not cry out.</p> + +<p>She recognized me! She made no sound, did not even move. But near me +one of her fingers was gently swaying.</p> + +<p>I held myself motionless, waiting. In a moment I could feel her turning +cautiously, so that her robe might hide me from the guard's view.</p> + +<p>A fold of the robe presently came over me like a great golden curtain. +Her finger, larger than my body, came carefully feeling for me. I +reached for it. Clung to it. It pulled me as it slowly shifted away. +And then her thumb came near. I was carefully lifted, carried with a +gentle swoop through the air and set down twenty feet away.</p> + +<p>A deep shadow was here; I was near the back wall of the cabin. I knew +Dianne wanted me to stand quiet; knew that she was planning how we +might communicate. Her voice sounded as she spoke to the guard. Their +native language—I could not understand it, but quite evidently she was +telling him that she was tired, for presently she lay prone, with her +head on the cushion.</p> + +<p>Her face was turned toward me, and away from the guard. She had made +our opportunity. I ran forward. The guard could have seen me then, but +he did not, and in a moment Dianne's head was between me and him. I +climbed again upon the cushion. I stood beside Dianne's face. Her ear +was near me.</p> + +<p>"Dianne!"</p> + +<p>Her lips moved, whispering, "Yes, Frank!"</p> + +<p>"Dianne—I came, riding Togaro. I have the drugs."</p> + +<p>"Be very careful, Frank."</p> + +<p>I had no conscious plan. I was unarmed now—I had dropped my weapon in +the cabin of the other ship when I leaped for Togaro's waist. But there +must be some way of getting Dianne out of this room, out of the ship, +back to Drake.</p> + +<p>"Dianne, do you think if I could get larger and surprise this guard +that we could get out?" She had seen more of our surroundings than I.</p> + +<p>"No!" She was plainly agitated, but she held herself quiet, just her +lips moving in the faintest of whispers. "No! Don't get larger—not +now! The passage is full of men—they're loading the ship. We'll be +starting soon, Frank, you can escape! Go! Go now—get back to Drake."</p> + +<p>"No," I murmured. "Dianne, then you must get small."</p> + +<p>"Frank! Run!"</p> + +<p>Togaro had returned! I leaped from the cushion and hid near by.</p> + +<p>An hour passed. I think it must have been that long. Togaro was talking +with Dianne. They spoke in English. He was very gentle with her. He +told her they were almost ready to start; told her with triumph that +his expedition was larger and in better shape than he had expected.</p> + +<p>Dianne knew that father was guarding the rock fragment, and that all +these thousands of Togarites could never escape into our earth-world. +Togaro knew that also. But he ignored it. Had he a plan perhaps to get +his hordes out of the rock?</p> + +<p>Dianne was apparently very docile; but I could hear how cautious she +was in all she said.</p> + +<p>The sounds of the embarkation were constantly audible. Togaro said at +last, "I think we are ready."</p> + +<p>He went to the door and spoke to the guard. Dianne seized the +opportunity to flash me a warning glance.</p> + +<p>Togaro came back. "I've ordered the start."</p> + +<p>The familiar shock came as the size-changing current suffused the ship. +It began enlarging. Togaro took Dianne to the window.</p> + +<p>"Stand here, little sweet one."</p> + +<p>His tone made me shudder. His arm went around her shoulders. I could +see her shrink with repulsion and fear.</p> + +<p>"Togaro—"</p> + +<p>At once he withdrew his arm. Strange scoundrel! He knew how to handle +this girl—or thought he did. He said,</p> + +<p>"My silly little Dianne—you almost love me!" He was quizzically +ironical. "Almost, but not quite! But that—all in good time I will +correct it. Just now we have more important things to worry us."</p> + +<p>"Yes," she murmured. "Togaro, you are hurting me."</p> + +<p>"Hurting you? I am not touching you!"</p> + +<p>"Hurting me—with your threat against my world."</p> + +<p>"How strange a way to say it! Hurting you! Which world do you mean I +threaten? Why, Dianne, I threaten all worlds!"</p> + +<p>He said it boastfully, but with complete irony. "You know that, Dianne. +I am as you once told me, the great heartless fiend. The incarnate +devil—is that the way you say it in English? The heartless, murderous +Togaro. Ah, but not concerning you, little Dianne. My heart is very +full of love for you."</p> + +<p>She surprised me, and him equally, by retorting vehemently,</p> + +<p>"That is a lie! You love yourself—you are in love with your own dream +of conquest. Not in love with me! Filled with desire for me? Not very +much, Togaro! Enough to make you want to hold me here, amuse yourself +with dallying—because you think you are a very great lover. But +your greatest desire is to murder! To kill! To destroy your fellow +creatures—and you ask me to try to love you."</p> + +<p>He put his arm around her again, but she flung him away. He laughed.</p> + +<p>"Masterful little woman—a fit mate for Togaro, master of the earth. +Would you not say it so, Dianne? You have used all your words and have +none left? But if you will not talk, at least you will stand here with +me and look out of the window. See, we have come above the island trees +now."</p> + +<p>They stood silent, gazing. From down by the floor I could see nothing. +Then along the wall I noticed where a translucent pane came to the +floor to join a floor window. It was dark over there. I ran; and found +a jutting edge of casement around which I could peer and see out. It +occurred to me that with Togaro and Dianne absorbed, with their backs +to the cabin, I might now get large. But the guard had not relaxed.</p> + +<p>I stared through the window. We were a gigantic ship now. Our growth +was spreading us over the island. I gazed down from a height at the +small island trees; they were being mashed beneath us as we grew. The +island's hill was near by; we shoved our way at it.</p> + +<p>The island was dwindling beneath us. Then Togaro called an order. I +could hear the echoes of it being relayed to the control room. The ship +lifted; moved away from the tiny island, and settled on the water. I +saw on the island some of Togaro's men growing to giants.</p> + +<p>The red light of dawn was in the sky. It was the scene Drake, Ahlma +and Alt were witnessing as they stood by the palace. Our size-changing +current went off. We lay, a monstrous vehicle, with shallow water all +around us, and a tiny green island near by.</p> + +<p>I heard Togaro say:</p> + +<p>"We are not floating, Dianne. See, the water is so shallow, we are +grounded upon the bottom. The curve of this little earth is already +apparent beneath us—the ends of our ship are in the air."</p> + +<p>"Togaro!" His words, the implication of which escaped me then, brought +a horror to her. "Togaro, we will depart without getting larger?"</p> + +<p>He did not answer, he merely laughed and said, "Wait and see, Dianne. +Look now; my loyal followers are arriving."</p> + +<p>The giants, clustered with their tiny human freight, came wading. They +stood in the lashed blood-red waters; then came aboard.</p> + +<p>The ship resounded with the turmoil of their arrival. They thronged the +corridors; their tiny human burdens were taken from them and herded +like ants into the various cabins. One of the giants, still littered, +came to our door and spoke to Togaro. I saw him as a fellow about +Togaro's own height. The people he was carrying were as small as I now +was myself. He presently turned and went away.</p> + +<p>The embarkation proceeded. For ten minutes or so, Togaro left Dianne +and went outside. He commanded her to stay by the window; and with the +guard doubly watchful, she obeyed.</p> + +<p>Nor did I move. I saw Togaro outside, standing in the water. His figure +grew so monstrous beside the ship that only the lower part of his legs +was visible. He was searching the horizon, no doubt, to make sure that +no more of his men were coming. Then, after a moment, he was dwindling. +He came aboard in his former size.</p> + +<p>"All are aboard, little Dianne. We are ready to make the final start."</p> + +<p>She said, with a frightened hush to her voice: "Start away in space, +Togaro?"</p> + +<p>"No!" he said grimly. "We shall stay here, Dianne, resting upon the +curve of your little world—and grow a little larger. Why not?"</p> + +<p>She could find no words. He added, "We're leaving this world Mita +forever, Dianne."</p> + +<p>She burst out, with more anger than horror this time—but I knew it was +a pretended anger, and that horror was sweeping her. "Why not, indeed! +Bring death here to no purpose—why not?"</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you," he said: "I would have ruled your world, with you +as my queen. Your people would not have me. Rejected me—made me an +outcast. Now they shall pay for it!"</p> + +<p>He said it with a horrible, calm grimness. "Pay for it, Dianne, by +dying! Death at the hand of Togaro. Vengeance of Togaro. Ten million +people die, because Togaro is angry!"</p> + +<p>It struck her silent; she stood white and silent and helpless beside +him. And as though Fate were determined to keep me helpless also, the +guard at the door stood with renewed alertness, his gaze searching the +room.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>Doomed Little Planet!</i></h3> + + +<p>The last scenes upon the planet Mita, as it was given to me to witness +them, were unfolded now beyond this window through which I was gazing. +I suppose it took another hour. It might have been far longer.</p> + +<p>Tremendous fearsome drama! I saw, far below this window, a toy lake—a +scene in miniature of a lake with little green islands. I must have +been near the stern of the ship. Looking down, I could see that our +tremendous hull was jutting into the air, high above the water. Our +growth had pushed us back toward the city at the lakeshore. I saw the +city now come into view beneath me.</p> + +<p>A brief glimpse. It was full daylight. Our hull was jutting a thousand +feet perhaps above the tiny houses. I saw the wrecked and littered +streets where the giants had passed.</p> + +<p>The glimpse of a minute or two, no more. But what I saw down there is +stamped with indelible horror upon my memory. It was a city of wild +confusion, black with surging, tiny people, trampling over the dead +and dying unheeded. Fires broke out in the shattered buildings. The +great black shadow of our looming hull overhead lay for a moment like +a finger of death upon the scene. In the gloom down there, the fires +showed lurid yellow and red, with black smoke rising in tiny wisps.</p> + +<p>A minute, then the scene had dwindled and passed beneath us beyond my +sight. Our hull did not touch the city; upon this shrinking little +globe—this surface becoming every moment more visibly convex—we were +balanced amidships somewhere off in the lake, with the curving world +falling away from under our bow and stern.</p> + +<p>My window soon was high above a toy landscape of miniature forests and +scattered dwellings; and ribbons of roads. There seemed people running +along the roads.</p> + +<p>A line of mountains showed; the sunset was on them; and to one side I +could see a curving ocean. All shrinking—small, but sharp and clear in +every detail as though I were gazing through a diminishing glass.</p> + +<p>The mountains came down under me. The sunlight faded from them; beyond +them I saw the stars.</p> + +<p>I heard Togaro give an order. Our ship lifted a trifle and hung poised. +The sharply curving landscape lowered. Then, with a gasp I realized how +monstrously large we had become. Why this was the top of a little globe +beneath me! It was not far away—only a few miles down; but it was so +small that I could see all the curve of its upper surface—all the +configurations of land and water; and the stars gleaming beyond it. A +little ball, hanging here in space close under me. Its entire diameter +was not much longer now than the hull-length of our ship.</p> + +<p>Another few minutes. The scene from an earthly landscape, was turning +celestial. We were in space. Black space, with blazing, glittering +stars. Mita's sun was visible—a fiery globe with a vivid corona of +mounting flames. Still, close under us, the planet Mita, like a child's +ball, hung attached to us by gravitation.</p> + +<p>The heavens were visibly rotating. We clung to Mita, so that the +rotating planet carried us around. We were a monstrous weight, larger +than the planet now, but still gravitationally attached to it. I could +fancy the planet lurching. Its axial rotation lurching wildly. Its +orbital swing about its little sun suddenly altered.</p> + +<p>We rose presently and swung away from Mita. The sun was over my head—I +could not see it. But beneath me I saw the planet. A ball—like a ball +of steel magnetized, following a monstrous magnet. It followed us. It +clung to our giant bulk, with the force of gravity irresistibly drawing +it after us.</p> + +<p>Now all my vague understanding of Togaro's purpose burst upon me with +full realization. We were swooping toward Mita's little sun! A moment, +and then the ship echoed with Togaro's vehement commands. We swung away +from the sun. With speed and size gigantic, we swooped sidewise and +darted away.</p> + +<p>My window showed celestial space. But I saw how small it was! Distant +tiny stars, all disturbed, chaotic with this giant bulk of our ship +come among them! The sun and Mita were close to us, directly before +my window. A ball of yellow-red blazing gases, and a little lurching +planet!</p> + +<p>We had shaken Mita off, flung it like a pitched ball. Upon that side of +our hull we were repulsive now to gravity. Mita's orbital revolution +about its sun was checked. It staggered—and then began falling.</p> + +<p>A slow movement at first. I stared. Then I could see the movement: a +crazily spinning little ball, lurching, falling—</p> + +<p>Doomed little planet, falling toward its flaming sun!</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>The End of a World</i></h3> + + +<p>I have from Drake his impressions of those last hours on Mita. A wild, +chaotic picture his memory holds. Jumbled impressions—yet as I record +them in that fashion, doubtless I will approximate the truth, for they +were jumbled, frantic scenes of panic—millions of people struggling +upon a doomed world!</p> + +<p>Upon Drake there was a sense of despair; his own futility was so +clearly shown, and the futility of his plans! He had sent Alt to have +me come into the atom with automatics. He stood before Dianne's palace, +gazing at a world gone mad. An automatic was in his hand, as futile as +a cap pistol in the hands of a child.</p> + +<p>By nature Drake was resourceful; cautious, but reckless too, when he +thought reckless daring was necessary. He stood, there as a giant +with Ahlma and Alt, and saw in the blood-red dawn Togaro's monstrous +vehicle expanding into the sky. It did not need Alt's horrified words +to bring realization to Drake; nor the wrecked city—the turmoil of the +panic-stricken throngs—to make Drake realize that this was the end. He +knew it.</p> + +<p>A very human sense of utter failure made Drake stand and tell +himself bitterly that there was no use trying to do anything. But the +feeling passed. It is instinctive to struggle for life against every +most desperate circumstance. Drake became aware that in the wrecked +city spread there in the dawn before him, thousands of people were +struggling for life. Doing nothing with any rational thought—and yet +struggling.</p> + +<p>Behind him, in the palace, he heard the shouts of the councilmen; the +clatter of footsteps. The government, against all these odds, was +striving to do something. Nobody was quitting.</p> + +<p>It stung him into action.</p> + +<p>"Alt, we must get back to normal size! Help them, Alt. This is death if +we stand here."</p> + +<p>They took the drug. The scene dwindled. The Togaro ship off there on +the water seemed rising to new gigantic proportions. Its huge stern was +coming toward the city. Projecting above the water now; Drake could +see the space between the bottom of its hull and the lake surface. It +came, that giant stern, shoving its way forward. The length of its +hull extended like a gray wall off for miles to the horizon where it +lay balanced, with other miles on beyond, the shape of it blurred by +distance against the red sky of dawn.</p> + +<p>Drake attained normal size. Ahlma clung to him.</p> + +<p>Alt, too, was struggling to cope with a terror almost overpowering. +"Drake—what—what can we do?"</p> + +<p>They were down in the garden now, at the doorway of the palace. +Officials were running in and out. Calling orders, with no one to hear +them. Some of the police stood here, inactive, stupefied with terror.</p> + +<p>"Come inside," said Drake. He pulled at the confused Alt. "Don't you +understand? Our ship may be repaired by now. We've got to get it +repaired! Herd the people into it! Make it large enough to take us +all—all these people. Alt, we've got to send messengers—send them in +giant size—to the other cities! The local airships—dispatch them to +bring the people here—get them all into our vehicle and get away! You +understand? This is the end of the world here! Abandon it! This is—the +end!"</p> + +<p>They ran into the turmoil of the palace.</p> + +<p>In the chaos of those final hours Drake must have played a leading +and a masterful part. He does not tell it so, but I think it is true. +Authority—the routine of any official activity—was wholly gone. Of +them all, it was Drake who held most of his wits, who gave orders and +enforced obedience.</p> + +<p>The time was very short. There was an hour—or even less—while the red +dawn faded into full light of day. The monstrous hull of the Togaro +ship projected like a black roof over all the scene. The shadow of it +lay black upon the city, the palace and lake. It grew until up there in +the sky nothing else could be seen.</p> + +<p>Then it lifted. It moved up a few miles. It hovered up there. From +one horizon to the other it loomed, a solid dark shape like a leaden +cloud-bank. Its great pontoons were visible. The rectangles of floor +windows showed in its bulging hull.</p> + +<p>An expanding dark cloud. It soon was spread so wide that all across the +sky was only one small section of its length—one pontoon, one window.</p> + +<p>But during that hour Drake was accomplishing things in all the turmoil +of people almost stricken of reason by terror. The space-ship was ready +at last. The repairs fortunately had been almost finished before the +panic began.</p> + +<p>Messengers were sent into the burning city with orders to herd the +crowd to the landing field. Local ships were sent to other cities. +Some got started, some did not. But a few, at the very last, came +back loaded with refugees. The young men of that army which Drake had +expected to lead into smallness against Togaro, were now most useful +of all. They understood the drugs and could be trusted with them. In +the lower room of the palace Drake stood with the main supply of drugs. +He dealt them out to this little army. A hundred or more. They stood, +white-faced and silent; but alert, eager to obey.</p> + +<p>"Alt, tell them—" Drake cursed his inability to speak with any fluency +this native language. But Alt, always at his elbow, was swift to +interpret. "Alt, tell these ten to get large, very large, and run to +the water city."</p> + +<p>Another ten, somewhere else; and others. In a size gigantic, they could +circle this little globe on foot in an hour or so. They were to pick up +as many of the people as possible and bring them back.</p> + +<p>The lower room of the palace was dark now. The brief day was past. +Night had come. Stars, and the moon. But the moon had only shown for a +moment. The black cloud, the shape of the Togaro vehicle, was up there +among the stars. The moon had swung crazily and was gone.</p> + +<p>Into the palace windows came the mingled sounds of the night of chaos: +screams, the roaring of futile orders in the garden, where a crowd was +surging over the trampled neglected bodies. Darkness out there, painted +by the lurid glare from the burning city.</p> + +<p>Drake dispatched his men. They turned out into the frantic night, +fought their way for space in the milling throngs, and took their drug. +Soon they were rising as giants, moving cautiously to the open country, +then running.</p> + +<p>Drake had been to the landing field several times. The vehicle was +ready. It lay gigantic, spreading all across the field. Thousands of +refugees were in it. Others were momentarily arriving. Ten thousand +now, the officials there told Drake. A thousand, hurt in the throngs or +crushed by the passing of Togaro's giants, had also been carried here.</p> + +<p>Drake sent the other men to search the city—to bring back from the +littered streets any who seemed still alive. From the palace gardens +and the nearest streets, the police were spurred to carry in the maimed.</p> + +<p>A thousand people arrived while Drake stood there on the field. A +local ship came down and landed with another thousand. Two of his men, +gigantic, came dashing up with another thousand clinging to them whom +they had collected in the near-by rural sections. Men and women, and +children huddled in their parents' arms. Some had bundles of clothes, +which for all this clinging to the back of a giant in the last hours +of the end of a world they still were reluctant to abandon. Families, +trudging aimlessly along country roads in the night or driving carts +piled with household treasures, had been seized by these friendly +giants and brought to the vehicle.</p> + +<p>A lump was in Drake's throat. These few thousands of people, arriving +here to what might or might not be ultimate safety—but there were ten +million people here on this doomed little world!</p> + +<p>Drake wondered how long he dared hold the vehicle here. The night +itself was wildly crazy. He saw the moon vanish with a lunge. The stars +were abnormally swaying. A wind was springing up from the lake, a +violent, aimless wind. The water lashed against the shore.</p> + +<p>The arriving giants reported storms in the other hemisphere. The sea +had mounted and submerged many of the islands.</p> + +<p>Then the next dawn came. The sun swung crazily up. Swiftly, abnormally +mounting to the zenith. And there, against all reason of nature, +it seemed to hang motionless; for an hour perhaps. Then it dropped +visually sidewise, and came again, swaying like a pendulum.</p> + +<p>The Togaro vehicle showed only occasionally now as a distant blur among +the stars. Mita was wildly lurching. This was not day and night. A +chaos!</p> + +<p>Drake knew it was near the end. The sun presently hung motionless. It +was growing hotter. Its heat and fiercely intensified light beat down. +Soon they would be intolerable.</p> + +<p>"A few hours more, Alt. That's all we can stay here."</p> + +<p>Drake was horribly worried over Ahlma. She had pleaded:</p> + +<p>"I am experienced with the drug. You must let me go, Drake. Let me get +large—I will bring some of them back to safety—"</p> + +<p>In his harassed activity he had yielded, had stood watching her huge +robed figure running off into the night. She had not yet returned. A +hundred times he had felt that he must drop everything and go after +her. But he could not be spared; nor could he spare Alt.</p> + +<p>Twice Drake had checked the embarking multitude and had ordered the +vehicle to grow larger. It lay now across the field and over half a +dozen near-by city streets. They had been cleared of people, and the +growing vehicle had crushed the houses there into a wreckage of masonry.</p> + +<p>The end was near. The sun was twice its normal size. The glaring heat +was horrible. Jain, with other officials, were demanding the start.</p> + +<p>"No! Not yet!" But Drake knew that not for very long could he force his +way.</p> + +<p>A few giants were still straggling in; Drake and Alt and a hundred +other leaders were standing in a giant size at the vehicle doorway. +The glare of sunlight was blinding. The lake was roaring with a hot, +sulphurous wind plucking at it, lashing it.</p> + +<p>But Ahlma had not come. Then off over the toy landscape, Drake saw the +blur of her robe. Her head and shoulders mounted above the horizon. +She came running with great leaps. As she arrived Drake saw the small +figures upon her. Women and children, almost all of them.</p> + +<p>"Ahlma!" He was her own size. He touched her; words would not come. But +he knew that the safety of all these multitudes had meant less to him +than the life of this one girl.</p> + +<p>"Ahlma, go in. They'll unload them inside—There—the doorway—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Drake. How many are here?"</p> + +<p>"We think about a hundred and ten thousand."</p> + +<p>"Oh!"</p> + +<p>It was so few, out of ten million!</p> + +<p>Ahlma went into the ship. Drake turned to Jain. "Shall we start?"</p> + +<p>"We must!"</p> + +<p>A toy world lay wrecked at their feet. Clouds had come suddenly down. +They swirled over the land—tumbling black mist, shot with lurid green +and turgid yellow. But the sun beat through them. Rain had came in a +downpour; but the sun beat it away and dried it up.</p> + +<p>"Come in then, Jain."</p> + +<p>No, there was another giant coming. He panted up with his cluster of +refugees. And then another came.</p> + +<p>They could wait no longer. There was a moment when no arriving giants +were in sight. Ten million people on this doomed planet—only a few +over a hundred thousand were here to depart. But the sun was too hot. +The scene was strewn with people who had fallen in the heat. Drake was +suddenly staggering. Jain pulled at him, and the door closed after +them. From a stricken toy world, the vehicle struggled away.</p> + +<p>The interior of the ship was a blur of murmuring sounds. A hundred or +so giants, like Drake, to whom the ship was a thing a few hundred feet +long; and a hundred and ten thousand people, small as ants, swarming it +everywhere.</p> + +<p>Drake stood at a window. He thinks he must have stood there for hours. +The surface of Mita dropped away as the ship sped off into space. The +stars showed, celestial space.</p> + +<p>The Togaro vehicle was gone. Drake saw Mita through his window. A +little ball. The sun lighted it upon one side, so that it showed as a +reddish half moon, with the dark portion dimly visible.</p> + +<p>Drake's ship was expanding. But after an hour or so its size-changing +mechanism was shut off. It hovered—the Mitans in control of it +lingering with fascinated gaze to witness the destruction of their +world.</p> + +<p>It took perhaps a few hours more. Mita was falling. The yellow-red +ball of sun hung off there in the black field of space beneath Drake's +window. Mita seemed above, falling slowly. The movement was hardly +visible at first. But it accelerated. The two bodies visibly drawing +together.</p> + +<p>Then Mita was rushing. Drake thinks he remembers seeing a tail +streaming out behind it. A tail, like a comet, as though by its fall it +were turning incandescent and leaving a stream of glowing star-dust. Or +perhaps with its rapid fall, its atmosphere was leaving it—dust-laden +air streaming off into space where the dust caught the sunlight and +glowed. There is no one to say.</p> + +<p>A fall of millions of miles. It was that far, to Mita. I can fancy, +in those last hours, the blazing heat withering everything upon the +planet's surface. Its ten million inhabitants—save those few Drake had +helped to rescue—I can think that long before the end, they were dead; +shriveled, fallen in the heat. Smothered, choked by the gasses which +must have polluted what little atmosphere was left.</p> + +<p>Drake saw the end. The planet plunged. Fell like a plummet at the +last and struck the blazing surface of its sun. There was a flash; a +leaping, extra spurt of flame for just a moment in the sun's corona.</p> + +<p>Then the sun blazed alone. What had been Mita was fused and gone. +Non-existent!</p> + +<p>From the window Drake turned shudderingly away. He had seen the end of +a world.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>In the Campfire Light</i></h3> + + +<p>There were some forty thousand people on the Togarite ship, adventuring +out upon the conquest of the earth. A few hundred men, who were the +Togarite leaders. I think there were perhaps six or eight hundred of +these in all. They were experienced with the drugs, and constituted +Togaro's active army.</p> + +<p>Not very many for the conquest of all the nations of our earth. Yet +enough! I realized it as I contemplated what they could do. Togaro +was planning carefully. There were thousands of other men on this +ship—Mitans who had joined his cause. He could easily have trained +them. But he was wise enough to realize that the diabolical power of +the drugs needed always to be kept under his close control. He could +handle his six or eight hundred trusted men; a larger army might have +been awkward.</p> + +<p>There were several hundred giants aboard the ship now. The rest of the +horde was in a tiny size. They had no drugs. They were men—but there +were women and children also. I could imagine that all the renegades of +Togaro's world were assembled here, eager with the lust of conquest of +an earth they had never seen.</p> + +<p>They swarmed the vehicle now. They were as small as I. Fortunately none +came to this cabin where Dianne was closely watched, and where I was +lurking. If they had come, being so small, they would doubtless have +discovered me.</p> + +<p>I did not dare leave the cabin; nor did I find, during all the voyage +which lasted what seemed twenty-four hours perhaps, an opportunity of +again communicating with Dianne.</p> + +<p>I need not detail this outward voyage. I saw many strange things +through that cabin window. The reverse of the inward trip. Diminishing, +shrinking space. The stars becoming so small that they flared about us +like a rain of sparks.</p> + +<p>Great voids of distance, always shrinking. Then at last, the +gray glowing molecules. Whirling and tumbling. A few at first, +very far away. Then many, very close. Then great clouds of them, +rolling and swirling. Dark. But sometimes shimmering. And always +shrinking—congealing into solidity.</p> + +<p>The transitions from one condition to another—from celestial space +to solid, rocky abyss—were never apparent, and impossible of close +description. I was watching eagerly for solidity. I did not see it +come—I saw only that at last it was there—out there in the void. +A vague, distant rocky wall. It dropped downward, as though we were +mounting. Barren cliffs gigantic, but dwindling. Closing in upon us.</p> + +<p>Activity became apparent throughout the ship as we neared the voyage +end. Dianne, after a few hours, had been given into the charge of +several giant women. She had been taken away to another cabin. A wild +thought came to me that I should cling to her robe. But the thing had +come suddenly, unexpectedly. I was across the cabin. I could not reach +her; the chances of discovery would have been too great. I lay in a +recess niche of the bottom of the wall, and watched her go.</p> + +<p>Later I found upon the floor some crumbs of food which she had dropped +for me. They were, to my size, great chunks of a baked dough, like +bread. I ate part of them. My hunger was appeased, but I suffered from +thirst.</p> + +<p>Togaro used this cabin now for consultation with some of his men. I +lay, carefully hidden. The room was brighter than before, and the guard +was constantly alert. Togaro sat at a table with a few of his men +around him.</p> + +<p>They talked in their native language; I could not understand a word of +it. He seemed to be planning his campaign. He had lived in our world +for a year. He doubtless knew a good deal about it. He spread upon the +table now what seemed to be maps.</p> + +<p>The ship landed in the depths of a stunted forest. Dark, shadowed +verdure, with a dim effulgence of light upon far distant mountain +ranges. The disembarkation took an hour or more. I could hear the +people marching out of the ship, clustering in the forest, setting up +their first encampment with the giants helping them. There seemed no +need for secrecy. Fires began springing up. Portable houses of animal +skins, like tents, were erected. Meals were prepared. A myriad duties +necessary to the welfare of forty thousand people were under way.</p> + +<p>I climbed through the wire-woven side hull of the ship, and reached +the ground safely. I stood beside a tree. The giant ship had mangled a +great spread of the forest. I found that I had got out none too soon. +The ship began shrinking. Its crew was taking it into a smaller size, +to hide it—or abandon it somewhere—and then themselves return to +rejoin the encampment. It dwindled, and presently was gone. The mashed +forest trees lay like broken jackstraws where it had been.</p> + +<p>I stood for perhaps an hour there in the darkness, getting my bearings +upon these new conditions. I was about normal in size to this forest; +this tree was stunted, but its limbs arched out over me for what seemed +twenty or thirty feet.</p> + +<p>I found, too, that these thousands of people encamped here over +several miles of forest territory, were all about my size. And the +giants now began dwindling. Evidently they found it dangerous to move +about—difficult to avoid trampling the tiny multitude. They dwindled +to the smaller stature.</p> + +<p>It was presently almost a normal earthly scene. A forest encampment by +night. Camp fires of burning brush; cone-shaped tents; like wigwams; +families clustered over their outdoor meal; the Togarite leaders +giving orders, directing the activity.</p> + +<p>I did not see Togaro himself. Nor Dianne. I would have to move about +and locate her. I pondered changing size. It did not seem advisable. +With a smaller stature I could not, in days, tramp about this camp and +find Dianne. Or if now I got larger, I would be instantly conspicuous. +I was conspicuous enough already. My garments were different from all +these Mitans—my knitted bathing suit marked me for a stranger. My +whole aspect—my language—differed.</p> + +<p>I made a start. I moved cautiously off through the trees. The lights +from the fires were circles of red and yellow. I kept out of them, in +the recessed shadows. Somewhere, at one of these fires, Dianne must be +sitting. I wondered if I could locate Togaro; he might have Dianne with +him.</p> + +<p>Occasionally figures passed near me. I was seen no doubt, but only +dimly. Once I almost bumped into a man who was gathering brushwood. A +woman and a child came up and took it from him. I mumbled something and +ducked away.</p> + +<p>The incident gave me an idea. The man was garbed in a jacket with +puffed, flaring sleeves and a circular bottom that flared like a skirt +at his knees. And he wore a cone-shaped hat, broad-brimmed. It was a +costume distinctive, and characteristic of most of these men. If I +could get possession of such a jacket and hat, they would disguise me.</p> + +<p>I wandered on, skulking the fringes of the camp like a lurking Indian +in a primitive American forest.</p> + +<p>The camp finally settled to sleep. The fires died. The Togarite men +patrolled back and forth, silent shadows in the gloom.</p> + +<p>I found my opportunity at last. A tent, where by the embers of a fire +outside a man's jacket and hat were lying. I watched my chance when no +guard was near. I darted forward, seized the garments and made away.</p> + +<p>Shrouded by the jacket, hiding my belt of drugs, with the hat brim +pulled low over my eyes, I felt a measure of security. I realized that +I was exhausted—that all during the outward voyage I had hardly dared +relax to sleep. I found now a wooded glen of ferns, dark and secluded, +with a blessed little rill of water at which I slaked my burning thirst.</p> + +<p>Then I lay down, and in a moment was sleeping heavily.</p> + +<p>The sound of voices wakened me. People were passing near me, but they +did not see me. Or if they did, my sleeping form caused no comment. How +long I had slept I did not know. But I was again hungry. And I found +that the camp was fully awake, bustling with its morning duties.</p> + +<p>Morning? The darkness was no different from before. The camp fires were +lighted again. All that day—if day it could be called—I skulked, an +outcast in the encampment, stealing what food I needed. I found that my +aspect, unless under too close a scrutiny, was passing unnoticed.</p> + +<p>But I could not locate Dianne or Togaro. There were forty thousand +people here in the forest. I skulked from one fire to another, but +without success.</p> + +<p>Had Dianne been taken away? Again I cursed myself for an inept fool. +I wondered how long Togaro intended to keep this encampment? Then +presently I realized what was being done. I saw near by, in a clearing, +a giant rising. He grew to what looked like several hundred feet, and +then stopped. A gathered throng was off there, and I made my way in +that direction.</p> + +<p>The tents were struck here. A thousand people were ready to start away. +The giant was giving them the drug. They marched off as they started +growing, with the giant leading them—dim figures towering into the +immensity of distance until presently they had vanished.</p> + +<p>I realized now how this multitude would be taken upward into largeness. +There was not a sufficient supply of the drug for them all to have it +at a small size. The single Togarite captain, getting large, expanded +his drugs and then fed the thousand people in his charge; at every +stage of the journey he would do the same.</p> + +<p>There were parties such as this starting now at regular intervals. I +wandered on; and I found Dianne at last. It was again near the time of +sleep. Ten thousand of the people had departed—but thirty thousand +were still here awaiting their turn.</p> + +<p>Dianne was seated at a camp fire, around which several women were +cooking a meal. A tent stood near by—a peaked canopy of skins. It was +larger than most of the others, with tasseled drapings at its doorway. +Dianne's tent, where she was waited upon by these women, I did not +doubt.</p> + +<p>I stood in the shadows of a tree, just outside the circle of fire +light. The light of the playing logs made Dianne's golden robe glisten; +etched her sharply against the darkness behind her. She sat composed +and quiet, with a regal dignity as the women prepared to serve her. I +thought, as I stood there in the darkness, that I had never seen her so +beautiful.</p> + +<p>Could I get to her? I saw that for all her composed casual manner, she +was very alert.</p> + +<p>I stood planning. A smaller size for me alone was not practical—I +had tried that before. But now, concealed under my jacket was enough +of the diminishing drug for both her and me. If I could get to her +unchallenged, she and I could take the drug and escape into smallness.</p> + +<p>Whatever chance I had was at once gone. Togaro appeared! In a size +normal to Dianne and me, he came sauntering up to her fire and greeted +her. He was broadly smiling, evidently in a high good humor. He wore a +vivid outer jacket; his whole aspect—the colored sash about his hips, +his tasseled leggings—was that of a cavalier in jaunty, debonair mood.</p> + +<p>I saw that he had discarded his belt of drugs. He took off his circular +hat and cast it to the ground.</p> + +<p>The meal was ready. Togaro evidently dismissed the women; they moved +back, out of my line of vision behind the tent. I heard his voice +saying in English:</p> + +<p>"You will serve us, little Dianne. Why not? A supper here together, +before we start the upward trip."</p> + +<p>I could not hear what she said, but he answered:</p> + +<p>"Yes, tonight. When we have eaten, Dianne. I have everything +organized—I am not needed here. You and I and your serving maids will +start. The next camp will be ready ahead of us—it will not be too long +a journey." He laughed. "I would not tire my little Dianne. I am good +to you; can you say it that I am not?"</p> + +<p>I stood tense. To follow them upward would be difficult. It was now or +never.</p> + +<p>Dianne moved about, serving the meal. They sat down facing each other +beside the fire and began to eat. Dianne was as yet wholly unaware of +my presence. I edged a little closer, slipped from one tree to another +until I was behind Togaro, with Dianne facing me.</p> + +<p>I stood now in the darkness beside the bole of a tree, just beyond the +circle of fire light. I was hardly twenty feet from them. I could hear +their voices. My foot touched a loose rock. I stooped and picked it +up—a chunk larger than my fist. I thought that there might be no one +watching the scene. I wanted to creep forward, cross the lighted area, +and strike Togaro before he could make an outcry.</p> + +<p>But Dianne must be made aware of me first, to be on her guard and ready +for my rush.</p> + +<p>I took a step forward. She would see me now, I hoped—see me as a +vague, shadowy form in the gloom. I took off my hat, and got the +diminishing drug quickly available. I stood tense, gripping the chunk +of rock, a finger of my other hand to my lips warning her to silence. +If she would see me, she must have the presence of mind not to start, +or make any sign that would warn Togaro.</p> + +<p>I thought I saw her stiffen. She stared my way.</p> + +<p>"Togaro—"</p> + +<p>It made my heart leap wildly. Was she about to call his attention to my +lurking figure? Did she see me, but not recognize me?</p> + +<p>She stammered, "Togaro—you know I hate you. But hate and love are very +close. I—was wondering why you put on that sash. It's very becoming."</p> + +<p>She had recognized me! I could not miss it—I even fancied she had sent +me a warning glance. But she looked instantly away, smiling now with a +mocking allure upon Togaro.</p> + +<p>She leaned toward him. She repeated, "I hate you, Togaro," exactly as +before, yet with a great difference.</p> + +<p>Though I knew it was deception, it shot a pang through me nevertheless; +and it must have struck at Togaro with a surge of emotion. Whatever +alertness to his surroundings he had had was gone. He put out a hand +and seized her by the shoulder. "Hate me? Why—"</p> + +<p>She swayed toward him and was in his arms. But she struggled a little.</p> + +<p>"Togaro, how dare you! Don't you dare—"</p> + +<p>There is no man who can yield up a woman when she struggles like that. +I thought that over his shoulder she had shot me another glance.</p> + +<p>I darted forward. Dianne was fighting with Togaro. Playfully—but she +saw me coming, and she changed. Gripped him by the face, with one of +her small hands over his mouth. Then she lunged, flung herself upon +him. The attack knocked him sidewise. He fell upon one arm.</p> + +<p>For an instant she held her hand over his mouth against all his +surprised effort to tear it away. In that instant I was upon them. I +did not dare fling the rock.</p> + +<p>Togaro saw me coming. With a lunge he cast off Dianne, and half rose to +meet me. We went down together. He was far stronger than I; and though +I landed on top of him, he rolled me over.</p> + +<p>I was aware of Dianne plucking at us, striving to impede Togaro as we +fought.</p> + +<p>The rock was still in my hand, but Togaro had my arm pinned. He fought +silently, then he let out a bellow. The camp took it up, and the uproar +surged toward us.</p> + +<p>I was underneath him, and his hands went to my throat. But that +released my arm. I struck upward with the chunk of rock. It must have +hit him a glancing blow on the head. He relaxed; slumped, a dead weight +upon me.</p> + +<p>I squirmed out from under him.</p> + +<p>"Frank, this way!"</p> + +<p>Dianne seized me. The alarm was spreading over all this section of the +camp. Men were running toward us. We dashed away into the trees.</p> + +<p>"Wait—here, take this, Dianne."</p> + +<p>We took the drug; ran on through the underbrush, dodging the firelight. +The scene expanded. The shouting in the camp faded into a dim muffled +roar overhead, and then was gone.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>The Black and White Flags</i></h3> + + +<p>"It Seems so strange, Dianne, our being alone together."</p> + +<p>"Strange, Frank?" Her laugh was like the pealing of little fairy bells. +"Strange? Why, when we were children we were together nearly all the +time."</p> + +<p>Six years now since I had been alone with Dianne. She had been my +sister. We were alone now in the abyss—I was very conscious of how +alone we were. We sat by a rock, resting. We had found a pool of water. +This was our first stopping since we had escaped from Togaro.</p> + +<p>We had no food, but we felt that we could get out of the rock fragment +to father before the need of it would be serious. We had encountered no +Togarites. This vast abyss—these endless mountains, cañons and caverns +of rock—seemed able to hold friends and enemies innumerable, and yet +never force them together.</p> + +<p>We had at first got small enough to escape from the Togarite +encampment; had run, cautiously making our size larger so that the +running would take us an appreciable distance from the camp. Once away +from immediate pursuit, we started our upward journey in earnest.</p> + +<p>We had soon found ourselves lost. It was all a strange, desolate, +unknown region to me. But Dianne had traveled it before; as we grew +larger, the main configurations of the dwindling region became familiar +to her. She found a route different from that which the Togarite +expedition had proposed using.</p> + +<p>Discussing it with Dianne, I found myself puzzled at her confidence in +finding her way out and still avoiding the Togarite parties who were +ahead of us. Strange physical conditions, those of this size-change +traveling! Yet a moment's thought made the matter clear.</p> + +<p>Traveling inward—becoming small—the slightest deviation from the +true direction would lead the traveler into vast new realms. Countless +universes spreading at his feet. There was space here, limitless. In +the size we were when upon Mita there was around us in just that single +atom countless light-years of astronomical distance. Coming back, we +left the atom. It shrank to a microscopical point. We grew larger than +the atoms; larger than the molecules.</p> + +<p>Space within this fragment of rock which father was guarding was +constantly shrinking. Yet even in the abyss of the Togarite camp it was +a vast space. I cannot calculate it. But envisaging the distance from +one side of the rock fragment to the other, let us call it a thousand +miles.</p> + +<p>We grew still larger. Soon, to us, there would be only five hundred +miles of distance in here. Then one hundred. Then one mile. Then only a +few feet, until at last we would emerge and see that all the space had +shrunk to the size of our hand.</p> + +<p>Thus, coming out, all roads led in very nearly the same direction. +There was no solidity to the rock when viewed from the smaller +viewpoint; there is, indeed, no solidity to anything. A growing body, +avoiding being crushed, would at last emerge, no matter in what +direction it went.</p> + +<p>Do I make it clear? I hope so.</p> + +<p>At last we stopped, between the drug doses, to rest. We were at the +bottom of a vast circular caldron. Tumbled crags strewn in heaps. The +opposite rim, some ten miles away, was dimly visible in the gloom. +There were shadows in here now; it seemed that overhead a vague sheen +of light was apparent. We were near the top. Soon we would be out. I +touched Dianne's hand.</p> + +<p>"You think we're larger—ahead of all the Togarites now?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I think so."</p> + +<p>I did, also. It was imperative that we get out of the rock first, get +up there and warn father what was coming. If we did that, the expanding +Togaro hordes wouldn't have a chance.</p> + +<p>"We'll have to rig up a black and white flag as a signal to father. You +remember, Dianne? I told you I'd arranged that with him. But how the +deuce can we?"</p> + +<p>She surprised me by drawing from her robe a square of white fabric with +black stripes upon it.</p> + +<p>"Dianne!"</p> + +<p>"I found a chance to make it, Frank—on the ship when Togaro sent me to +another cabin."</p> + +<p>She displayed it proudly. "Is it all right?"</p> + +<p>It certainly was. A flag about two feet square. I stood up now and +spread it out.</p> + +<p>"We'll wave it—like this, Dianne. Father will see it when we're still +very small."</p> + +<p>I showed her how we'd wave it.</p> + +<p>"Frank! Stop!"</p> + +<p>Her gaze was off across the dim abyss of the caldron.</p> + +<p>"Over there, Frank! Do you see something moving? I do!"</p> + +<p>Miles away, partly up the opposite cliffside of the caldron, it seemed +that something was moving. The light was very dim, yet distant objects +were unnaturally sharp and clear. Something moving off there. We +stared. Then we thought we saw human figures standing on that far-off +cliff, and something waving.</p> + +<p>"A flag, Frank!"</p> + +<p>It seemed a flag. A black and white flag, something like our own, +waving at us!</p> + +<p>The space-voyage which Drake, Ahlma, and Alt made from the doomed +planet, was very similar to this one I had just taken on the Togaro +ship. The Mitans landed in the abyss of rock. A hundred miles, or a +thousand, from the Togarite camp? There is no one to judge.</p> + +<p>It was a full day, perhaps, after Togaro landed. A similar scene of +activity ensued, save that nearly three times as many people were here; +unorganized, badly equipped, refugees struggling upward, not bent upon +conquest, seeking only safety.</p> + +<p>The voyage had been a busy one for Drake. He had tried to organize +things. There was not enough food or enough of the expanding drug for +this multitude. Drake organized it into smaller divisions, each in +charge of one of the Mitan officials.</p> + +<p>When they landed, and the ship was hidden, the refugees began moving +upward in size, the leader of each party going ahead with food and +drugs, expanding them and dealing them out to his people.</p> + +<p>It was the same system that Togaro was using. A slow journey upward, +stopping at each stage to erect a new encampment.</p> + +<p>And immediately upon disembarking, Mitan leaders were sent out as +scouts—alert to locate the Togarites, and to avoid them.</p> + +<p>In the first encampment Drake sat in consultation with Jain.</p> + +<p>"I think, Jain, this is the best we can do. Get part way up—get all +the people up to that size—and then wait."</p> + +<p>There was room down here to avoid the Togarites. But farther up in the +dwindling space a clash would be inevitable.</p> + +<p>"You wish to go ahead of us?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, with Alt and Ahlma. They know the way. We will take this black +and white flag." (Ahlma had made a flag.) "We can travel fast, Jain. +We'll go out and see my father. He controls everything up above. The +Togarites can't get out—and if we keep away from them, we're safe +enough. No use killing any of our Mitan people by fighting down in +here."</p> + +<p>"But what about us?" Jain demanded with a touch of suspicion.</p> + +<p>"I'll come back to you, Jain. Warn my father that this Togarite horde +may try to make a rush out, or get out by trickery. Warn him—and make +arrangements so that he can distinguish you Mitans from the Togarites. +Then, in small parties, we will go out."</p> + +<p>Drake, Ahlma, and Alt started upon their journey. They went swiftly. +Thousands of miles, perhaps, from Dianne and me at the beginning. Like +us, they got safely ahead of the Togarites. At one stage they sighted a +Togaro party, but managed to avoid and pass it without being discovered.</p> + +<p>The dwindling space near the top brought them in our vicinity. They +were standing on the caldron rim, and saw our black and white flag as I +tentatively waved it for Dianne. They waved their own.</p> + +<p>We were cautious approaching one another, each suspecting an enemy +ruse. But we came together at last.</p> + +<p>Reunion! The five of us here, with all the Togarites presumably behind +us; and father and the safety of our blessed earth close overhead. It +seemed, with Drake and Alt here with me—with Ahlma and Dianne babbling +news of what had happened to each other—that all our dangers were at +an end. It was an inexpressible relief.</p> + +<p>We grew out of the caldron into the space above, the huge familiar +valley. I remembered it; but it seemed rather darker now than it had +been before.</p> + +<p>With our flags out, we stood expanding. Above this valley was the upper +surface of the rock fragment. Once we got up there to the summit, +father would see us. I wondered if he would be on guard. Or Foley? Or +the other man—Ransome—whom we employed? It had only been a few days +since Alt and I left here. Days? The events which had crowded them made +them seem months to my memory.</p> + +<p>The valley shrank and closed in upon us. A pit now.</p> + +<p>"Drake, shall we climb out? Or wait a little longer?"</p> + +<p>It seemed best for us to start climbing. It was no more than a hundred +feet up. Easy enough, with us three men to help the girls.</p> + +<p>We scrambled up the rocky slope. We were halfway up when it had +dwindled so that the upper rim was barely ten feet above us. There was +light up there, and vague, blurred shadows of form in the hazy sky.</p> + +<p>"Jump, Dianne. Here, I've got you."</p> + +<p>We scrambled out of the closing pit, and stood a moment expanding upon +the upper surface. Jagged rock spires were around us, a broken area of +crags upon the summit of the rock. A few acres up here, and down over +an abyss was the surface of the granite slab.</p> + +<p>The scene shrank further, and then the last drug we had taken ceased +its action. We stood on a narrow, jagged peak of rock. A slope led down +beside us to a broad, undulating plain. It was only ten feet down.</p> + +<p>Alt stood with the girls. Drake and I were together, waving our flags. +We saw things dimly at first—the brighter light up here confused us.</p> + +<p>"Frank, you think he sees us?"</p> + +<p>"What is that, off there?"</p> + +<p>There was something very strange here! A chill swept over me. Drake was +not familiar with the surroundings father and I had prepared for the +guarding of the rock, but I was. This seemed a very strange scene now!</p> + +<p>Words choked me. I stood clutching Drake.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Frank—what's the matter?"</p> + +<p>This light overhead was not the light father and I had rigged up! There +was no giant microscope up there in the sky.</p> + +<p>Vague blurred shapes of a ceiling and wall were up there, and a +light—but not our light in the guarded room of our house at King's +Cove.</p> + +<p>This vast plain, gleaming dimly rough and undulating in the light—it +should have been our granite slab. But it was not!</p> + +<p>Realization surged over me with a chilling rush of horror. This was a +different room. There were people here; I heard an echoing rumble of +their giant voices. But not father, nor Foley nor Ransome!</p> + +<p>The rock fragment had been moved, stolen from father and taken +somewhere else! These were enemies, guarding the rock upon the top of +which we stood fatuously waving our little black and white flags!</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>The Fight on the Rock Summit</i></h3> + + +<p>Alt who was standing with Dianne and Ahlma, must have realized from my +attitude that something was wrong. I stood stammering, clutching at +Drake. Then I got it out.</p> + +<p>"Hide, Drake! This isn't our room—that's not father up there!"</p> + +<p>We swung back, and I shouted, "Alt, back!"</p> + +<p>Alt had already drawn the girls into the shelter of an overhanging +rock. We crouched for a moment, not daring to move. Had we been seen +from above? A blast of poisoned liquid from a spray up there could +kill us here instantly. Or a monstrous finger could come down with a +swoop and mash us.</p> + +<p>Drake murmured, "Shall we take the diminishing drug? Make a run for it, +and back?"</p> + +<p>Failure. It beat at me. All our plans gone down into defeat. This was +defeat—death for us. A retreat into the abyss; but we would meet the +Togarites coming out! And where was father? What had happened up here?</p> + +<p>Alt whispered, "We must get back in."</p> + +<p>Drake gripped me. "Are you sure, Frank? Father may have changed things +around. If we go back in, without knowing—that's the end, Frank! The +end for us all; for the Mitans, depending on us. What will we do?"</p> + +<p>The girls crouched, silent, white-faced. It was only a moment or so. +We never reached a decision—it was forced upon us. From the edge of +the rocky slope near at hand a man's head and shoulders appeared! A man +about our own size! He was climbing up from the plain upon which the +rock lay. A long bar of metal, thin as a sword, was in his teeth.</p> + +<p>He was a hatless, bullet-headed Togarite, a heavy-set fellow, naked +to the waist, with dark hair matting his thick chest. He saw us! He +shouted and others appeared behind him. Four of them altogether.</p> + +<p>Of us all, Alt was the one who had most presence of mind. The Togarite +shouted at us. Alt understood the words. He shoved the girls lower +behind the rock; he snatched my flag, and stood up, waving it. I caught +his words to Drake.</p> + +<p>"They don't know if we're friends or enemies."</p> + +<p>The rock was, as I had feared, out of father's possession. But it was +being guarded now by a method wholly different. The giants in the room +overhead had doubtless not yet seen us. They were, I guessed, not +overly alert, because four of their men in this smaller size were down +here watching for any who might come.</p> + +<p>Instant, swift impressions. I realized that Togaro was expected. The +Togarites were coming. It would be difficult to tell a friend from an +enemy—and so the guards were put into this smaller size.</p> + +<p>Alt waved our flag, and shouted something in his own language. The +Togarites stood in a group, twenty feet away, regarding us; four of +them, with drug belts, and armed with the swordlike bars. They seemed +impressed with our flag. They called again to Alt, and again he +answered. To us, Alt flung over his shoulder:</p> + +<p>"Doubting us, Drake! If I get them over here, leap upon them. They are +only four."</p> + +<p>We were three. But Drake had an automatic. He said softly, "Yes, Alt! +Closer—we must get them all. Then, if we're not seen from above—"</p> + +<p>The Togarites were cautiously advancing. Then they must have seen +Dianne! Recognized her golden robe perhaps. They stopped, and then with +menacing shouts came running at us.</p> + +<p>Alt flung down his flag. "Now!" He made a rush, with Drake and me after +him. Drake's automatic spat. The leading Togarite stumbled, fell and +lay motionless. The others leaped over him. Drake raised his weapon +again; but one of the Togarites flung a bar. It struck Drake's arm. The +automatic clattered away; Drake and the fellow locked together and went +down, rolling on the ground.</p> + +<p>The other two rushed at Alt. He met them full. I was close behind him. +His fists flew; he caught one of his assailants in the face. But the +other struck with the bar. It must have landed upon Alt's head. He +crumpled.</p> + +<p>I was gripped by the fourth Togarite—the one Alt had hit. His bar +missed me. I caught at his arm; held it, tried to wrench away his +weapon. We struggled on the uneven ground. He was a burly fellow. I +wound my legs around him, and suddenly he stumbled and fell. I twisted +and came down on top, but could not hold him. His lunge heaved me up. +I was flung sidewise, but as I scrambled, my hand seized a metal bar +which had been dropped. I clung to it.</p> + +<p>Then the other Togarite leaped upon me. He was finished with Alt. He +jumped upon me as I was trying to rise. I rolled, with the two of them +pounding at me. The bars were thin but heavy things. I warded a blow +from my head. Then my hand with the bar hit one of the men. He fell +away from me.</p> + +<p>I was aware of Drake shouting, "Coming, Frank!"</p> + +<p>My remaining antagonist had me by the throat. He was half on top of me. +Beyond his ugly distorted face I saw Drake rising—and the Togarite +under him lay inert.</p> + +<p>I was pinned. My breath was stopped. In another moment I would have +been unconscious. But Drake came with a leap. He had seized his +automatic where it lay on the rocks. The butt of it crashed against the +skull of the man over me.</p> + +<p>My senses faded, but came instantly back. Drake was pulling the body +off me. He helped me up. Around us lay the four Togarites, motionless. +Alt was lying here also. And Alt, I thought, was dead.</p> + +<p>Dianne and Ahlma came running forward.</p> + +<p>We stood a moment breathless, confused, undecided what to do. The +white-faced, trembling girls bent over Alt. The blow on the head had +perhaps only stunned him. But there was a sharpened bar of metal now, +sticking gruesomely in his side.</p> + +<p>The thing had happened so swiftly! Overhead in some strange, monstrous +room, giants were sitting. As Drake and I stood here in the silence, +victorious in this fight, but with our dead friend here, the rumble of +the talking giants overhead was plainly audible. To them, all this was +a tiny combat, fought upon a quarter of an inch of rock surface. They +had not yet seen or heard us, not realizing that anything unusual was +transpiring on the small chunk of rock at their feet. Ants may fight in +deadly combat and the human, whose shoes is their battle ground may be +all unaware of them.</p> + +<p>I pulled myself together. "Drake, we've got to hide these bodies! +Perhaps we can avoid discovery."</p> + +<p>There were many recesses here. We dragged and tumbled the bodies out of +sight, or at least what we hoped would be out of sight of the people +overhead.</p> + +<p>Drake panted, "We'll have a few minutes, maybe. But they're likely to +discover that their guards are gone."</p> + +<p>"Drake, let's not go back in. We've got to get out, Drake! Out to the +world with these drugs—and with a warning of what is coming."</p> + +<p>"And get to father. Oh, Frank—"</p> + +<p>He did not finish. Had father been killed?</p> + +<p>"We'll get out," I said. "Here, put these vials in your belt, you've +got more room." We were despoiling the dead Togarites of their drug +supply. We hurried from the last one, back to where Alt lay with Dianne +and Ahlma over him. They were in plain sight from above.</p> + +<p>"Carry him somewhere, Drake. We mustn't be seen—above everything, not +be seen. Is he dead, Dianne?"</p> + +<p>She answered, with a surprising hushed calmness, "No, not yet. Our poor +friend!"</p> + +<p>We lifted him up, as quietly as we could. In a small ravine with a +jutting rock above it, we laid him down.</p> + +<p>"The best we can do, Drake."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>The Return to Earth</i></h3> + + +<p>"Not that way, Frank! Let's get around the back—I think it's a better +chance."</p> + +<p>We had clambered down the ten feet of jagged rock. We didn't change +size—we had to risk it as we were, for to have got smaller would have +made the descent too great. Somehow we were not discovered. We seemed +to be on the floor of a room. A stone floor—we saw it as a ridged, +uneven rocky plain. Off in the distance was what might have been a +table, chairs, and the legs of seated men.</p> + +<p>Ahead of us, a quarter of a mile away, was a cliff-like precipice. I +figured it to be the wall of the room. It seemed darker over there.</p> + +<p>We ran. The rock had a small fence around it—a fence which, compared +to the normal room-size, was probably a foot or two high. We darted +through its bars. In five minutes, perhaps, we were in the shelter of +the bottom of the wall. It was seemingly of rocks and earth, piled and +plastered together. It was dank with moisture, but solid to us in this +size.</p> + +<p>We stood a moment in the shadows here, panting from the run.</p> + +<p>"Where do you suppose this is?" Drake demanded. "Can you make anything +out of it, Frank?"</p> + +<p>We were secure for the moment. It was dark over here. Standing with +quiet survey I could imagine that there were three or four men off +there in the distance. That this was a room with a single light +overhead. No window on this side. The other walls were too far away to +be visible.</p> + +<p>"The door," said Drake. "That's what we've got to find—got to get out +through it."</p> + +<p>But where were we? Certainly this was no room in our home. It looked +as though it might be a place hastily, amateurishly built. But it was +tight. No crevices—no cracks or openings. The bottom of this wall was +plastered solid with wet mud. The air down here was dank and heavy with +moisture.</p> + +<p>Dianne murmured, "Listen! That sounds like water."</p> + +<p>A strange, muffled reverberating roar sounded from some great distance. +A giant sea pounding? It seemed like that. My heart sank. Why this +could be a place very far from King's Cove. The wild thought came to +me—was this an earthly sound, this muffled pounding of the sea.</p> + +<p>I said something like that to Drake.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense! They've stolen the rock, Frank, and built this hiding +place—probably not far from King's Cove. Where could they go?"</p> + +<p>Dianne said abruptly, "I think this is all very small—this place +they've built down here."</p> + +<p>It was a new idea to us. But it seemed probably true. The Togarites +would be in hiding. They had stolen the rock, made it small, and built +this tiny housing place.</p> + +<p>Our escape was still undiscovered. Not far from us was a long, slanting +shadow—as though a table perhaps were cutting off the light. We +walked until the shadow was upon us. And by the wall along here was +a neglected pile of caked mud, large as a house to us. We found an +opening like a cave-mouth, and squeezed in.</p> + +<p>We were momentarily safe. "You stay here with the girls," I suggested +to Drake. "I'll get large enough to see what the place looks like and +how we can get out."</p> + +<p>A discussion in the room interrupted us. The rock was visible a quarter +of a mile away. A figure was growing upon it, expanding swiftly. A +man. He leaped from the rock. We could see him moving in the opposite +direction from us, reaching the little fence, climbing over it.</p> + +<p>He had shouted. The distant giant shapes had sprung into action. They +seemed bending down. There was surprise, but no turmoil.</p> + +<p>"Togaro!" murmured Ahlma.</p> + +<p>It was Togaro. As he expanded, there was a size when, with the light +upon him, we saw him plainly. There had been no guards to challenge +him. He had come swiftly out of the rock, and was large enough when he +first shouted to enable the men in the room to recognize him. He was +standing off there now, growing to their size. We could hear the rumble +of their voices.</p> + +<p>It changed our plans. The fact that the guards were missing would now +be discovered.</p> + +<p>"We can't stay here," said Drake. "If they suspect us, they'll begin +searching."</p> + +<p>Nor could we run the miles along the walls of this room, hoping to find +an open door. We decided we would have to dare a slightly larger size. +We stood in the comparative darkness beside this cake of mud and grew—</p> + +<p>The room, in a moment, had dwindled. We huddled against its wall. We +knew that at any moment we might be discovered, but we had to take the +risk. It was a small, windowless cell to its other occupants, though +still gigantic to us.</p> + +<p>Four men, and Togaro, stood by a table of stone. There was a closed +door in the opposite wall. Two men stood by it. A light now sprang over +it, so that the room over there was brightly illumined.</p> + +<p>Ahlma heard them, "Togaro is saying his first party is coming out now."</p> + +<p>They were already coming! The rock seemed much closer to us now, and +smaller. Tiny figures showed on its summit. They leaped down, they +stood expanding.</p> + +<p>It was at once a dismaying and welcome diversion. The missing guards +were forgotten in the turmoil of the arriving Togarites. A hundred or +more of them came. The room was in confusion. They tramped about while +we shrank again into our niche. They grew large, and in parties of ten, +were checked through the door, passing under the light to the darkness +outside.</p> + +<p>The turmoil made it easier for us. We got around the wall, near to the +door. It was a long march, for near the end when we were sure of our +direction, we shrank again to a smaller size, and kept close against +the wall so that we might not be trampled.</p> + +<p>The Togarites were pouring now from the rock. This was the arrival of +the first thousand. They seemed so formidable as they grew gigantic and +jammed the room! Giant hordes, arriving here on earth! The conquest had +begun!</p> + +<p>It made us realize anew that with the world harried by these giants, +possession of the drug was of vital importance. The drugs were Togaro's +chief weapons. But we four had them also. If we could get out of +here—get quickly to the authorities and deliver the drugs—it might be +the difference between defeat and victory for the world.</p> + +<p>We may have stood there an hour. The arriving Togarites poured into the +room; they marched through the doorway in a steady stream.</p> + +<p>But we did not dare try to slip through. The light was bright, and +there were two guards with gaze always upon the floor. From where we +lurked we could see outside; a dim vista of blurred, luminous darkness +and crowding giant figures. There was a babble of rumbling voices, both +outside and in here.</p> + +<p>An hour passed.</p> + +<p>Then came the chance we had felt must come at last. The bodies of the +Togarites we had killed on the rock summit were discovered! A group of +the arriving people carried them down. Togaro had been moving about the +room. His voice rang out with commands.</p> + +<p>Ahlma translated: "He says, 'Close the door!' No more people are to +come now from the rock! Oh, Drake, they're going to search for us! They +know now that we are here!"</p> + +<p>The guards sprang to the sliding door. But that act momentarily took +their gaze from the floor. We were, to them, a few inches high. We were +desperate. The door slid closed; but we had made a wild dash and gone +through!</p> + +<p>We found ourselves outside, in what seemed an outdoor darkness. A void, +with a sheen of distant silver light far overhead. Giants trampling +about. We dashed for a great jagged porous column. It was wood. We hid +in one of its cave cells—a broken niche in its side. There was no +search going on out here for us. The giants were tramping about, moving +away.</p> + +<p>Presently we dared to increase our size again, when the space out +here seemed cleared momentarily of the tramping figures. Of all the +size-change we ever experienced, I think that this was now the most +surprising. The giants in the distance seemed also growing. We could +hear them, but soon realized that another wall was between us and them. +We were, for the moment, alone.</p> + +<p>We had taken only a taste of the enlarging drug.</p> + +<p>"Where are we?" exclaimed Drake. "How small are we?"</p> + +<p>The pounding of the distant sea had been louder out here. But now, as +we grew, it shrank until presently it was a murmur. Not a roar, far +away—but a murmur, near at hand. The gentle lapping of water, close +somewhere here.</p> + +<p>And we found a tiny, mound-like house of sand and mud shrinking at our +feet. It was sheltered by an overhanging arch of rock. The room from +which we had escaped! It dwindled and was gone into smallness.</p> + +<p>A rush of madness swept me as I saw that tiny mound. A kick of the toe +of my shoe would crush it. Kill Togaro and all his men in there. But +the madness passed. For all I knew, father might be in there. And the +rock certainly was down in there. If I stamped, that tiny grain of +rock would be forever lost. And a hundred thousand Mitan refugees were +in it, waiting for Drake to return to them with help!</p> + +<p>Other walls closed in around us. The giants were obviously outside of +them. A floor became apparent—a floor of earth and sand, and near +by there was a vast spread of uneven wood. As we grew, it shrank to +planking. A void of darkness was beyond it. No, not darkness! A patch +of silver sheen. Water, off there. Water, with moonlight on it; water, +lapping gently under this planking on which we were now standing.</p> + +<p>Dawning recognition was coming to us. The rough boards; walls; this +ceiling close over us, with timbered beams; this archway, with shining +water beyond it—it was the interior of our own boathouse on the shore +of King's Cove!</p> + +<p>It was night—a calm, placid night of moonlight on the water. The +boathouse was empty, save for ourselves as at last, in a normal size to +earth, we stood in a corner.</p> + +<p>Our dory was gone. The slip of water here was vacant. Outside the +boathouse we heard the throng of Togarites tramping about the cove!</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>The Theft of the Rock</i></h3> + + +<p>It was the night of May 14 when Alt had come from the rock with his +white flag of truce, and had taken me back into the atom with him. +Togaro had been lurking outside; he had got into our guarded room. He +had ridden me into smallness. Alt and I had not been aware of him. +Father and Foley, watching us dwindle upon our journey, had not seen +him.</p> + +<p>But he was there; and he had leaped off me—small as an insect—and +escaped. I have recounted the incident. It was in the caldron valley, +not far below the upper surface of the rock fragment. I have described +how we met a Togaro giant, who apparently was on his way out.</p> + +<p>It seems obvious to me now that Togaro, when he was hidden upon me +during that hour or so while Alt and I made the first stage of our +inward journey, had been able to overhear our conversation. I recall +that I told Alt then how I had arranged with father that, coming back, +we would use a black and white flag as a signal. As a matter of fact, +Togaro also was probably within our guarded room when father, Foley and +I had discussed it.</p> + +<p>He knew, then, about the flag. He escaped from Alt and me, in the +caldron. He had seen and recognized his follower—had been clinging to +me when we encountered and fought the giant. That fellow was on his +way out, looking for Togaro, very probably, to see why the master was +delayed all those months. There must have been near by other Togarites +with him upon the journey, and Togaro escaped from us in order to join +them.</p> + +<p>I do not know any of this to be a fact; I construct it only in the +light of what actually transpired afterward; and I think that doubtless +it is what happened. Togaro met his men, told them the rock was in +hostile hands, and told them of our flag signal. Then he ordered them +out to capture the rock from father.</p> + +<p>I can even fancy that Togaro lingered to aid in that capture, for it +was very swiftly done; then, finding it successful, he had hastened +back into smallness. Alt and I were inept at the size-change traveling. +We made many blundering miscalculations; it would not have been +difficult for the skillful Togaro to overtake us and to hide upon our +ship as he did.</p> + +<p>Thus Togaro, with the knowledge that the rock was in his possession, +was enabled to bring his expedition up with utter confidence. Dianne +and I had marveled at his assurance.</p> + +<p>I think this is the true explanation. In any case, the fact remains +that the rock was swiftly captured from father. Alt and I departed +at about midnight of May 14. Father watched us go. He was depressed, +harassed, over my going. He watched until Alt and I were no longer +visible. Then he went to bed, leaving Foley on guard.</p> + +<p>What happened to Foley, no one will ever know. Father lay in his room, +with the alarm bell beside him. He could not go to sleep for a long +time. Then he must have dozed.</p> + +<p>He was awakened by the violent ringing of the bell. Foley calling him +that there was danger! It was near dawn; father noticed the daylight +through his bedroom windows. He had not undressed; he seized his +automatic and rushed down the hall.</p> + +<p>He was too precipitate, confused by being awakened too suddenly. +The bell was clanging through the silent house with the urgency of a +fire-alarm. Father burst incautiously into the room where Foley had +been guarding the rock. He remembers seeing the body of Foley upon +the floor. Three or four strange men were in the room—one large, the +others very much smaller. The one of father's stature had a crudely +fashioned black and white flag in his hand—with which, undoubtedly, he +had deceived Foley.</p> + +<p>Father fired point-blank as he blundered into the room. He evidently +missed. The man with the flag flung it. The flagstaff was a bar of +metal; it struck father's head and knocked him senseless.</p> + +<p>Ransome was due to arrive to relieve Foley at seven in the morning. He +came and found Foley dead, with a sharpened bar like a sword impaled in +him. Father was lying there unconscious.</p> + +<p>The room was in no disorder. Father's automatic was beside him. The +granite slab was in its place.</p> + +<p>But the fragment of rock was gone!</p> + +<p>This was during the week of May 15. The local authorities were +skeptical of father's story. Even with the public facts of the previous +year—the coming of the giants, the battle on Bird's Nest Island—what +father now said was incredible. This atom, within the rock, as the +source of the inexplicable "giants," was to these local officials too +much for belief. Heaven knows, one cannot blame them—especially since +the rock had vanished and no one remained who had ever seen it, or even +heard of it, save father and Ransome.</p> + +<p>Father was taken to Portland for treatment. When he had recovered, the +authorities at Washington sent for him. Officialdom there placed more +credence in what he had to say; but not enough to do anything about it! +As a matter of fact, what could they have done?</p> + +<p>On the night of May 20, with father still ill, and in Washington +with Ransome to give their testimony, our place at King's Cove was +unoccupied. The Togarites poured from the tiny rock, a thousand of them +in this first party. They grew into the boathouse, then left it, and +roamed over King's Cove in the moonlight, still growing.</p> + +<p>It must have been near dawn, when the first of them came out. Togaro +was presently with them, I have no doubt. What they did was far +different from the sporadic appearance of those giants of the year +before. Organized, intelligent action now!</p> + +<p>Shortly after that dawn of May 21, the world rang with the news that +giants had come again. In Washington, the officials with whom father +had been in consultation knew now that everything he said was the truth.</p> + +<p>The menace was at hand! The world was fronted by the strangest, gravest +crisis of its civilized history!</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>The World at Bay</i></h3> + + +<p>I can give only a broad picture of those events which followed during +May. They are history today. I saw them, as presently I will explain, +from an inside viewpoint; a narrow viewpoint indeed. But as the world +saw them, so were they now unfolded to father.</p> + +<p>The dawn of May 21 showed giants rising from King's Cove. The first +reports were contradictory and confused. But the giants were there! +They were apparently about two hundred feet tall. A score of them at +first. Then more—a hundred or so.</p> + +<p>The few people who lived in the vicinity of King's Cove took instant +flight. There were at first no casualties except a woman who fainted +and an aged man who died of heart failure running with his family along +the road toward Elton.</p> + +<p>The giants did nothing menacing. They seemed busy moving about the +neighborhood. They trampled it. Cleared it. Spreading out over a mile +or so of territory along the water front. A plane passed overhead and +reported that they appeared to be occupying the territory, not in +haphazard fashion, but with a rational, methodical planning.</p> + +<p>By noon the reports were coming in with more coherency. There had been +a few ships in the channel. They had seen the giants, and had hastily +steamed away. The passing planes brought the most detailed news. By +noon, no airplane passed King's Cove at its accustomed level. They all +were bending aside and flying high. But one or two of the passengerless +mail planes flew low enough for close observation, and within a few +hours both the American and Canadian governments were sending out +official flyers to observe and report.</p> + +<p>There was chaos that morning. No official orders were given to attack +the giants—indeed there was no force available which dared attack +them. By noon, it was father's opinion that any organized attack, until +more was known of the conditions, would be a mistake.</p> + +<p>The Togarites quite evidently were proceeding with definite purpose. +By noon, a line of two-hundred-foot giants were stationed at intervals +along the shore front. They stood, or sat calmly upon the cliffs. They +were half a mile apart—ten of them over a five-mile length.</p> + +<p>Then their line turned inward. At half mile intervals they took up +their posts. A curving line, embracing the town of Elton and several +others. There had been an encounter at Elton. All the towns were +within a few hours abandoned. The whole of this five-mile area—and +ten or fifteen miles shoreward—was abandoned. But at Elton some stray +group of people had been trapped. A giant ahead of his fellows, had +come wandering up. He was shot at by rifles and shot-guns. And hit, +evidently, for he raised his leg, and he let out a cry of pain. He +kicked at a house and demolished it. But he made no effort to fight. He +stood nursing his leg where the bullets had stung it, and watched the +people as they fled away.</p> + +<p>There was a giant stationed up every road where it entered the Togarite +territory. For a few hours, automobiles with panic-stricken refugees +occasionally dashed out. The giants let them pass unmolested.</p> + +<p>Such were the reports that first morning. The observation planes told +that the captured area was bustling with activity. The giants seemed +unarmed, and without belts of drugs. There were not many of them. But +around King's Cove were throngs of Togarites in a smaller size—a size, +it was said, about normal to earth. They occupied our house and all the +other houses of the neighborhood. By evening they had marched to the +deserted towns.</p> + +<p>A rational occupation of this captured territory. And it was said +that they seemed moving, and installing equipment, erecting their own +dwellings. What seemed brown, conical tents were appearing. Firewood +was being gathered. An encampment of war; with families of men, women +and children—noncombatants making themselves comfortable for a +permanent stay.</p> + +<p>A thousand people. But soon it was obvious that they were far more +numerous than that. All day they were appearing—growing from a tiny +size. Hordes of them. By nightfall it was said that there were several +thousand. Presently it was identified that the source of them was the +Ferrule boathouse on the shore of King's Cove.</p> + +<p>The night of May 21-22 would have been moonlit, but the moon and stars +were obscured by clouds. But the Togarites' territory was not dark. +Floodlights of some unknown current brightened it with spots of yellow +from wire grids which the giants set up at intervals. The lighting +systems of the captured towns were out of commission, but the Togarites +quite evidently had their own power.</p> + +<p>A weird scene of activity by night. There were camp fires everywhere. +The area was thronged with the arriving enemy. Unearthly, fantastic +scene! It was an encampment of little people, patrolled by watchful +giants.</p> + +<p>By the morning of the twenty-second, the Togarite lines had spread. A +single giant—five hundred feet tall perhaps—made a rush southward. +As though to clear the territory, he ran toward Portland—came to its +outskirts, stopped and strode back. There had been an exodus from +Portland the day before, and few were left in the city. The giant did +not enter. He went back the way he had come—along the coast—leaving a +trail of devastated towns in his wake.</p> + +<p>I think that this giant may have been Togaro himself, for the reports +said that he wore a belt of drugs—and several times was observed +to change his size. His foray was doubtless to make sure that the +territory southward was clear of inhabitants. Then his lines came down. +The giants marched calmly along the coast—with a similar line of them +some ten miles inland.</p> + +<p>The city of Portland was occupied by the Togarites on the 23rd of May. +It was an orderly advance, made during the night.</p> + +<p>The next day, the lines again moved southward.</p> + +<p>I find it difficult in these limited pages, to portray a broad enough +picture. A myriad abnormal events were taking place throughout the +world. I can only sketch them at random. The organized dissemination of +news, for which our age is famous, proved now a grave menace to public +safety. The giants, in those first few days, probably actually killed +not more than a few hundred people. But the broad-casted news that +giants were upon earth—human enemies capable of growing to limitless +size—that fact publicly known was responsible for the death of many +thousands.</p> + +<p>There were panics—street crowds trampling their fellows—thousands of +miles from any giants. A disorganization of all normal activity. But it +was worst, of course, in eastern Canada, and the Atlantic seaboard of +the United States. In New England it was chaos. A flight, with cities +abandoned, roads thronged with refugees, transportation overloaded.</p> + +<p>Trains, vessels, and the air lines struggled to cope with broken +schedules and a mad rush of frenzied passengers. Accidents of every +sort were reported—but in the mass of extraordinary happenings with +which the news-tape was jammed, they passed almost unnoticed.</p> + +<p>Within a few days, when it became evident that the enemy was moving +southward, Boston was depopulated, as was all of Cape Cod, and every +city and village along the coast.</p> + +<p>Father stayed in Washington. He had immediately advised against a +premature attack of Togaro. Even had Washington overruled him, no +attack could have been made in those first days, for every official +thought and effort was absorbed by the need of transportation. Millions +of people were routed from the threatened territory. This was unlike +any war the world had ever known. Advancing enemy armies had always +found the great bulk of the civilians remaining in captured territory.</p> + +<p>But there was no living soul willing to remain within a hundred miles +of these giants. A psychological terror—and the very real danger of +being trampled upon.</p> + +<p>Transportation was of vital importance. Government airplanes, ships, +soldiers and police were all absorbed in helping the people to escape. +There was little thought of attacking this enemy.</p> + +<p>Yet there had been sporadic encounters. A battleship had put into +Boston harbor, with the intention of helping transport the people. A +giant, ahead of his fellows, had come wading down the coast. There +were still some people in the city of Lynn. He stamped upon them, +and wrecked the snug little city, green and beautiful in the spring +sunlight. Within five minutes it was a burning mass of wreckage. Then +the lone giant came on southward.</p> + +<p>The battleship, whose commander perhaps felt that he was trapped, +turned and steamed out of Boston harbor. Then it faced the giant, and +shelled him from a distance of a few miles.</p> + +<p>The giant, whose head and shoulders were some fifty feet above the +ocean as he waded near shore, was struck and killed. His body stained +the water, lashed it to bloody foam with his dying struggles.</p> + +<p>But from the north another giant rose. Again I think it must have been +Togaro. He grew to a size monstrous and came leaping down the coast. +Some reports have it that he was a thousand feet tall; others say still +higher. He bounded from one village to another in a single leap. Then +he dived into the ocean and swam.</p> + +<p>The battleship was trapped by the hook of Cape Cod. It fired a single +broadside—and missed, for the swimming Togaro saw the smoke-puff of +the guns, and dived in a watery cataclysm.</p> + +<p>He came up close to the ship. He flung an arm over it. Like a toy, the +great battleship up-ended, was heaved up into the air, and sank.</p> + +<p>There were a few survivors, for Togaro ignored them as though they were +ants struggling in a pond. He turned, swam north—waded ashore and +dwindled into the northern distance.</p> + +<p>No more attacks were made on the Togarites by sea. This act of +reprisal—so obvious, and so successful—gave the government pause.</p> + +<p>But there was, that same day, an attack by a group of Canadian planes. +Whether it was officially planned or not I cannot say. A group of +planes, six or eight of them, came down from the border and flew over +the enemy territory.</p> + +<p>This was now about five o'clock in the afternoon. The giants stared +up at the invading planes, but did not seem to heed them. The planes +were emboldened. Perhaps the pilots figured that these giants could not +grow upward fast enough to overtake them. A plane could rise in a few +moments to a height of fifteen or twenty thousand feet. No giant could +do that.</p> + +<p>The little squadron of lead-colored war planes flew into the heart of +the Togarite territory. The center of it, at this time, was inland from +Portland. The planes came low—and one of them dropped a bomb from a +height of under a thousand feet. It struck one of the standing giants. +Wounded but probably did not kill him.</p> + +<p>The planes zoomed up and away. They dropped other bombs. One fell into +the city of Portland.</p> + +<p>But none of the planes escaped. These supposedly unarmed giants were +most efficaciously armed—with the sling-shot! I have already had +occasion to mention it. In the hands of a two-hundred-foot giant, it +was a sling thirty or forty feet long. It flung, not a pebble, but a +rock huge as a bowlder, with a speed almost of a bullet.</p> + +<p>Giants leaped into action beneath the soaring planes. To them, the +planes were toys, flying only a few times higher than the length of +their own bodies. With skilled marksmanship they flung their rocks. The +planes were struck. One by one they came crashing down.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXXI">CHAPTER XXXI</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>Togaro Strikes</i></h3> + + +<p>Father sat that night in the War Department at Washington. He had +been in constant consultation with the authorities, for he, more than +any one in the world, could explain what manner of people were these +Togarites. Yet even father knew very little.</p> + +<p>"We can't stand up against warfare like this!" exclaimed the war +secretary.</p> + +<p>There were orders given that night that under no circumstances were +the Togarites to be attacked. Reprisal by the enemy was too easy—too +efficacious.</p> + +<p>Additional warnings to the public were issued. The enemy was moving +slowly southward—the territory in advance of them was ordered +abandoned. No need to enforce such orders! A wave of refugees rolled +back, a hundred miles in advance of the slow-moving giant lines.</p> + +<p>Indescribable scenes of confusion and terror marked those days toward +the close of May. The Togarites moved largely at night; every dawn +found them farther south. They crossed Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. +The 1st of June found their outposts well into Connecticut, following +the north shore of Long Island Sound. New Haven was trampled by a +single giant, on June 1—the city wrecked in an hour.</p> + +<p>There were changes now in the enemy tactics. In Maine they had been +careful not to demolish the cities unduly. Their own people were +settling there. But now, farther south, only the active warring giants +advanced. They laid everything waste beneath their monstrous tread. An +area a hundred miles wide had been wholly abandoned days before. The +advancing giants waded into it; stamping, kicking—firing it by night +with great torches. A blackened, wrecked swath of country stretched +down from Maine.</p> + +<p>The giants were larger now. As their territory expanded they took +a larger size. It was systematically done. Each seemed to have his +post—a few miles over which he paced back and forth—with one of his +fellows coming south at intervals to relieve him. And the reliefs were +always larger—with more miles of country to pace. By June 1 it was +estimated that they stood some five hundred feet tall.</p> + +<p>On June 1 they had reached Long Island Sound barely a hundred miles +from New York City, where millions of people, in all the chaos, were +still unable to get away. Giants had already crossed the Hudson. One of +them stood in the river and lunged against Bear Mountain Bridge until +he tore it loose.</p> + +<p>For all that the United States and Canada did not dare attack, there +were frantic preparations for war. The battle planes were made ready. +The Canadians were massed on the border—and a great fleet of American +planes assembled in New Jersey. Artillery units were mobilized. +Infantry would be useless. It was used now to aid the flight of the +civilian population. The evacuated areas in advance of the giants were +always under martial law, patrolled by soldiers who retreated slowly +before the oncoming enemy.</p> + +<p>The forts of the Highlands near the Hook—entrance to the port of New +York—were ready to do what they could; and the forts at Wadsworth, on +Staten Island, were ready.</p> + +<p>The Atlantic battle-fleet was massed in the Chesapeake. The Pacific +fleet was hastening through the Panama Canal.</p> + +<p>Resistance seemed so useless! By virtue of size alone, this enemy was +irresistible. Monstrous, terrible weapon of size! No one, contemplating +it, could even have approximated the terror of the reality.</p> + +<p>Yet it seemed horrible to do nothing. Father describes innumerable +conferences in Washington, where the harassed government strove to +plan what might be done. Nor was our government alone. The world was +at stake. Every foreign government was frightened, offering help and +advice.</p> + +<p>Help was coming. Transport planes, bringing volunteers from Britain, +were daily arriving. They flew the far-south route—landed in the +Carolinas, and were rushed North.</p> + +<p>A united, civilized earth opposed this enemy of giants. But to realize +the desperate futility of it, one had only to envisage it from the +giant viewpoint. A little, miniature world, like an anthill, outraged. +Why, a single giant—Togaro alone—if he made himself large enough, +could destroy this anthill activity!</p> + +<p>Father recalls how our war secretary gripped him. "But what does he +want, Ferrule? This Togaro—conquer us? God, man, we can't yield up +our whole country! Our whole earth! Does he want to exterminate us? +Why doesn't he say something, communicate with us, make demands—an +ultimatum—terms for surrender—something! Anything, but not this +gruesome silence!"</p> + +<p>Father was silent. But to him came the wistful thought of Drake, Dianne +and me. He wondered where we were—if only we would come back to him! +If we had the drugs, and brought them now, the earth might be saved.</p> + +<p>Warfare, with both sides using the drugs, would be terrible indeed. +It might, probably would, destroy the world of its own momentum. Then +there came to father with a flash of divination, the true aspect of +what might happen if our earth forces had the drug. Togaro's giants +never wore the drug-belts. Father could guess why. It was a weapon too +powerful, so that Togaro did not dare entrust it now even to his own +men. One, for instance, might be wounded, and in a frenzy take too much +of the drug and run amuck, destroying all his fellows.</p> + +<p>But there was another reason. A giant had already been killed. His body +was floating in the ocean off Boston. Other giants might be killed. The +Earth forces might get possession of the drugs.</p> + +<p>Father wondered where the main drug supply was kept. Probably, he +concluded, it was all upon Togaro's person. One man, controlling +everything.</p> + +<p>Father divined what might happen if the earth forces had the drugs. A +general attack by our planes, our armies and navies, could be made. It +might take the giants by surprise. A thousand of them—there seemed +only that many—might be overcome. If Togaro could be separated from +them so that they could be kept from growing larger, the earth-giants +might fight with Togaro the combat of size.</p> + +<p>Wild and desperate thoughts these. But father had them; and he prayed +wistfully that Drake and I might come and bring with us the drug that +would offer this last desperate hope.</p> + +<p>This was the night of June 1 and 2. The dawn of the 2nd brought a new +menace. In the ocean, far off at the curving eastern horizon beyond +Sandy Hook, the head and shoulders of a giant loomed into the sky. +No, not a giant, this—a titan. A monstrous, titanic thing in human +form. Togaro! No one had seem him arrive. He swam down from Cape Cod, +doubtless, in the darkness just before dawn, expanding as he swam.</p> + +<p>And now he stood some twenty miles offshore. A mountain in the shape of +a man off there. To observers at the sea-level he was standing beneath +the curve of the horizon. And his torso loomed mountainous into the +sky. A thousand feet? A mile? There are no eye-witnesses who can agree.</p> + +<p>He stood a moment, and then he waded toward the Hook, and spoke. It was +a rumble like distant thunder. It was heard all up and down the coast. +Words blurred—but he said them over slowly. And they were heard, and +then distinguished.</p> + +<p>"I will talk now. I will tell you what to do."</p> + +<p>The news was flashed to Washington. In the fort at Sandy Hook the +commander of some gun-crew lost his wits and fired a shot. It struck +Togaro in the shoulder. He stood with surprise and anger. Then he +stooped and reached fumblingly into the ocean. He plucked up a dripping +mass of rock and heaved it—a rock huge as the fort. It fell upon the +Hook; the fortifications were buried beneath it.</p> + +<p>There is no one who can tell with any coherency what happened in those +next minutes. No one in New York could have seen more than the feet +and towering legs of the infuriated titan as he bounded with splashing +steps up the harbor. He wrecked the forts on Staten Island. He splashed +into the upper bay and leaned over lower Manhattan. The Woolworth +Building—a little toy reaching to his knees. The higher domes newly +built along the Battery—they may have towered to the height of his +thighs. He kicked at them. The falling masonry and steel fell into a +litter at his shoe-tops—crashed and fell with what to him was a tiny +clatter and a cloud of dust and smoke surging to his waist. He waded +into it, for only a minute. Inconceivable wreckage!</p> + +<p>He turned and strode back. A few of his leaps carried him down the +harbor, churning up the Narrows, splashing through the Lower Bay, +wading again into the ocean. The dawn was still behind him as he stood +there. And again his roaring voice sounded:</p> + +<p>"That will teach you not to attack me. Now I will tell you what to do!"</p> + +<p>The incredible, inconceivable power of size!</p> + +<p>An hour passed. Father was routed from his bed. In the War Department +he found a throng of officials. The representatives of a dozen foreign +governments were there. A turmoil with no attempt at any rational +conference. The building rang with shouts:</p> + +<p>"We must yield! This is madness. Hopeless."</p> + +<p>A single enemy, armed only with the weapon of size, yet it was hopeless +for all the world to try to fight him!</p> + +<p>Togaro was still standing under the morning sky. His words were heard +in New York, and flashed by wire to Washington.</p> + +<p>"I command that you leave the United States. Take your people out of +it as quickly as possible. I will not interfere with your retreat. I +command you to sail the warships of your world—anchor them off the +coast of Maine so that I may sink them."</p> + +<p>He gave a score of details. He spoke for what was perhaps ten minutes. +He ended:</p> + +<p>"If you yield, send a plane now as a signal. Let it come near me—so +that I may catch it in my hand. I will not kill its pilot."</p> + +<p>There was a sudden heavy silence in that War Department room when the +message came. Then some one said:</p> + +<p>"Shall we yield?"</p> + +<p>It meant giving over the whole world to this tyrant. Every man in the +room knew it. And would it help? The wreckage at Lower Manhattan—those +ten minutes just now at dawn—would yielding up the world spare other +scenes like that? Or would this monster be insatiable?</p> + +<p>"Shall we yield?"</p> + +<p>The white-faced men whispered it to each other. The fate of their +whole world, now in this breathless moment to hang upon their hasty, +frightened decision.</p> + +<p>They were spared the necessity of answering. A secretary burst in from +the adjacent corridor.</p> + +<p>"Ferrule! Dr. Ferrule!"</p> + +<p>A message for father! A telephone from Mount Vernon in the northern +suburbs of New York City, close now to the enemy lines.</p> + +<p>Drake Ferrule had been found! He and a strange girl named Ahlma! They +were safe. A plane had been sent to them, and they were coming to +Washington.</p> + +<p>And the message for father, from Drake:</p> + +<p>"Don't yield! We're coming with the drugs."</p> + +<p>Under the strain of it, the war secretary broke. He burst into an +hysterical laugh. "Don't yield! Why, of course we won't yield! Attack +them now—we're ready!"</p> + +<p>The orders went out. Father tried to stop it. "Wait! Get the drugs +first!"</p> + +<p>But in the pandemonium around him he was unheeded. The attack had long +been planned. The war planes were ready, massed in all the Jersey +airports. The artillery units were ready. The roads and the railways of +New Jersey were open and ready for swift transportation.</p> + +<p>An attack upon the Togarite lines where they crossed, west of the +Hudson, at the New Jersey border!</p> + +<p>And off in the ocean beyond Sandy Hook, the titanic figure of Togaro +stood waiting for his answer. But now, behind him, farther out and to +the north, other huge figures were swimming! He did not at first see +them. Two figures—expanding as they swam, coming to attack him! Then +one of them stood on the ocean bottom; stood upright, towering into the +sky. A figure almost as huge as Togaro.</p> + +<p>The figure of a girl! A girl in a golden robe!</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXXII">CHAPTER XXXII</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>The Fugitives</i></h3> + + +<p>It was near the dawn of May 21 when Drake and I, with Dianne and Ahlma, +crouched in our boathouse at King's Cove. Giants seemed everywhere +outside, towering figures in the moonlight, tramping about the cove.</p> + +<p>I think that our best chance to escape from the Togarite territory was +offered us there at the beginning—those first minutes just before +dawn. We had the drugs. We might have plunged into the channel, +swimming out, expanding our size and taking the chance that we would +not be discovered too soon.</p> + +<p>How easy to look back on what one might have done! But instead of that +we crept from the boathouse and turned inland. Ran back from the cove. +Past our house; Togarites in our normal size were thronging it.</p> + +<p>We were confused. Behind us, giants were rising everywhere. People were +pouring from the boathouse.</p> + +<p>"If we can get to Elton—" Drake panted. We found the road and dashed +along it. The moon was momentarily under a cloud. The concealing +darkness was helpful.</p> + +<p>A giant went past us. We ducked off the road. He did not see us—he +strode toward Elton.</p> + +<p>We started again. Then the moon came out. We did not dare use the open +road. We skulked through the fields. Then the moon was paling with the +coming dawn. We had not escaped. Giants were ahead of us, and to the +sides.</p> + +<p>We crouched by a fence and argued. If we got large, we might in a few +moments dash out of this captured territory. But we would be seen at +once—pounced upon.</p> + +<p>If we got smaller, we would be safe from discovery.</p> + +<p>But Drake was vehement against it. "Damn it, Frank, I've had enough of +that! It'd be a journey of a hundred miles just to Elton, when we're +smaller! I tell you we've got to get out of here quickly! Frank, these +drugs are vital to the world."</p> + +<p>It seemed that our best chance was in our normal size. The dawn came. +We found a dilapidated barn on a side road halfway to Elton. We hid in +it.</p> + +<p>We were, with the daylight upon us, hopelessly caught within the +Togarite lines. It was soon obvious that getting to Elton would not +help us. Giants were already there. We thought, if we could head +inland, but then south, toward Portland, we might get past them.</p> + +<p>So many things we might have dared to do are apparent, looking +back upon it now! We struggled—all those days in May—to get to +civilization somewhere, to find transportation south to New York. We +had the vital weapon—the one thing the world could successfully use +against this enemy. Because it was so important, we were afraid to +chance anything. If Togaro caught us, the world was doomed. Terrible +responsibility! An excess of caution was upon us.</p> + +<p>We skulked and hid by day, and traveled at night. But there were always +giants around us. Patrolling watchfully in the daylight, and at night +with their lights and torches. It seemed that we could never escape +those widening lines. Within a day or two we realized that we should +have headed north; but it was too late now to change.</p> + +<p>We tried to get to the coast. It was too dangerous; there were more +giants that way than anywhere else. We had a hundred narrow escapes +from capture. It was a problem to find food and water as we went. But +there were deserted houses into which we slid by night.</p> + +<p>Once we found an abandoned automobile. We ran it southward, all one +night, dashing forward, stopping with lights out and silent motor when +a giant approached. Then on again—until at last we barely were able +to fling ourselves from it and take the diminishing drug, when a giant +came up, stooped and tossed the car into the air. We lay in the bushes +by the roadside and dwindled in size until the danger was past.</p> + +<p>We lost count of the days on this strange flight. And we lost our +way—wandered, following what roads we dared, working southward by +what devious routes I have no idea. It seemed a hopeless journey. The +country was now a torn mass of wreckage. Littered, burning towns. Roads +obstructed. No storm of nature could ever devastate a countryside like +this!</p> + +<p>After more than a week of wandering, it seemed that we were still as +far inside the spreading Togarite lines as ever. We had stolen garments +to disguise the girls. We had several times tried getting larger. One +dark night, when it chanced that the lights of the giants were not +too near us, we traveled in a fifty-foot size for hours. It gained +us so much distance that we tried it again several times. We passed +inland from Boston, crossing into the desolation of what had been Rhode +Island, then into Connecticut.</p> + +<p>There came a night which, though we did not know it, was the evening +of the 1st of June. We lay in the wreckage of a farmhouse which had +been demolished. The girls were too exhausted to travel farther, and we +all needed a rest. It had been the most fearful day of our trip. That +morning we had been driven out of our hiding place where we intended to +spend the daylight hours. It was an abandoned house near the edge of a +town. What town I do not know.</p> + +<p>Marauding giants had come and burned the town. We had escaped into +smallness. It was night when after desperate efforts, we again emerged +to find ourselves barely a hundred feet away from where we had been +before.</p> + +<p>The night came. We could not travel farther. One of us had always +to be awake on guard. The girls were bravely standing the hardships, +but they were both in miserable plight. They lay now, huddled in this +shattered farmhouse. The broken roof was like a tent over us. We +had had a meal, of food picked up along the way. We decided not to +travel until the next night. The girls wrapped themselves in the men's +overcoats we had found for them. They were soon asleep, huddled amid +the litter of plaster and lath strewn around us.</p> + +<p>Drake and I sat whispering. Drake wore now a single automatic. The +girls and I were unarmed. The automatic was a futile weapon—a thousand +times Drake cursed its futility; never once had we found any rational +use for it.</p> + +<p>"Where do you suppose we are, Frank?"</p> + +<p>We had but the vaguest idea. But it was not far from the coast—Long +Island Sound lay a mile or so off there.</p> + +<p>"Not far from New York," I said. "This might be near Norwalk."</p> + +<p>We had often been able to locate ourselves by broken street signs in +the wrecked towns. At night sometimes, when we were in the fifty-foot +size, we would poke about to find a railroad station which would have +its name upon it.</p> + +<p>It seemed now that the outposts of the captured territory must be close +ahead of us. A line of standing giants had been visible down there. +They had not yet entered New York City, we felt sure.</p> + +<p>"We'd better try and get to the coast," Drake said. "If it weren't for +the girls—" He shot a glance toward where they were sleeping. "Frank, +I wish we'd been able to find a plane, take a chance on getting out of +here with one dash—"</p> + +<p>"Well, we haven't found one," I retorted. There had been many, but +they were all wrecked. "Besides, Drake, we decided that would be too +dangerous. You remember those Canadian war planes."</p> + +<p>We had seen that episode. We saw, indeed, so many strange things which +I have no space here to mention!</p> + +<p>I added: "If we had a plane we'd no more than get it into the air +before we'd be struck. You know that."</p> + +<p>He paused, then reached a sudden decision. "Frank, we'll rest here. +But tomorrow night I'm going to make a break for it. You stay with the +girls. They can't travel much farther."</p> + +<p>He shot another glance at them. Was Dianne awake and listening to us +now? I think so. I seem to recall that she stirred. But at the time we +did not notice.</p> + +<p>Drake went on vehemently. "We've got to do something—get the drugs to +Washington. Why, Frank, in a few days New York City will be gone."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean, make a break for it?"</p> + +<p>"You stay with the girls. Keep hidden. No use to try to travel. Get +yourself food and water and dig in somewhere and wait. And I'll get +out—I can do it, Frank, alone."</p> + +<p>"How?"</p> + +<p>"Get large. We'll get over by the coast. I'll make a dash for it, +swimming. They won't see me until I'm large enough to put up a fight. +Frank, it should have been done long ago."</p> + +<p>He was my older brother, I could not talk him out of it. And it did +seem the only thing left for us to do.</p> + +<p>"You go to sleep, Frank. I'll stand guard for awhile."</p> + +<p>"You're not going to try it tonight?" I demanded, with anxious +suspicion.</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"You promise?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course. I'm tired as hell. Go to sleep. We'll stay here all +tomorrow."</p> + +<p>Sleep came always to us the instant we relaxed. But this time, as +though fate would have it so, I awakened within a few hours.</p> + +<p>"Drake?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>He was sitting beside me; the girls were still asleep.</p> + +<p>"Take your turn, Drake. I'm wide awake." He needed no urging. He rolled +up near me without a word.</p> + +<p>I sat motionless. We were half outdoors; the tilting fallen roof only +partially covered us. I could see the stars.</p> + +<p>I presently went outside. A starlit, moonless night, a few hours before +dawn. No giants seemed in sight. A deserted, desolate, shattered +countryside, wan and pitiful in the starlight. The thought flashed to +me: might we not make a break for it now? No giants were near here at +the moment.</p> + +<p>But we had often tried that before, and there always was a giant within +sight of us when we dared get larger.</p> + +<p>I went back under the broken roof. Out of its other side, where the +shattered wall had left a jagged opening, a small dark form was running.</p> + +<p>Dianne! I caught a glimpse of her golden robe beneath the flap of the +dark overcoat.</p> + +<p>I stopped for nothing, but ran. Outside I called softly, "Dianne! Where +are you going? Come back!"</p> + +<p>There was a dim road. She was running along it.</p> + +<p>I called again, but she did not stop, so I dashed after her.</p> + +<p>I was overtaking her at first; then her strides lengthened and she drew +away from me.</p> + +<p>I gasped with horror, and fumbled at my belt. She had taken the drug; +her running figure on the starlit road was growing larger!</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII">CHAPTER XXXIII</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>The Combat of Titans</i></h3> + + +<p>I need not concern these pages with further details of Drake and Ahlma. +I have already made it clear that they escaped that same morning. Drake +awakened, just before dawn, to find that Dianne and I were gone. He +and Ahlma rushed outside. There was a commotion off by the coast. They +stared at it, half understanding. Drake soon realized that his best +move would be not to follow me.</p> + +<p>He and Ahlma ran the other way, and took the fifty-foot size. They +were desperate; and luck or Fate, as you will, was with them. The +patrolling giants were standing in amazement, gazing off toward Long +Island. Under ordinary circumstances of those past days Drake and Ahlma +would have been attacked in a moment. But now the giants did not notice +these fifty-foot figures running along the ground. The boundary of the +Togarite lines chanced to be near here. A fifty-foot human runs with +strides of thirty or forty feet. Drake and Ahlma, taking every chance +now, clung to the open road.</p> + +<p>They got past the Togarite area within half an hour. The giants all +were behind them. The country was still devastated. Then the pair +passed into an abandoned area, still intact, where the giants had not +been, and crossed it.</p> + +<p>They came at last, just after dawn, within sight of soldiers patrolling +the edge of what still was civilization. Drake took the overcoat from +Ahlma so that her robe would show. They dwindled to normal size; +encountered the soldiers.</p> + +<p>Civilization at last! A motor car took them to where a plane was +available. Drake learned that father was in Washington—the whole +world now knew father's name, and where he was, and what he had to say!</p> + +<p>The telephone lines here were down. Drake found a way of sending a +radiogram. But at that moment Togaro was devastating New York—in the +chaos Drake's message was never delivered. The plane landed in Mount +Vernon. Drake telephoned his message: "Don't yield—I have the drugs—"</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, in the starlit darkness before dawn, I ran after the +fugitive Dianne. She had taken the drug—I took mine also.</p> + +<p>"Dianne!"</p> + +<p>She saw that she could not shake me off. She stopped abruptly. She had +cast away the overcoat because it impeded her running. I dashed up to +her golden-robed figure. The trees were dwindling beside us; the open +starlight was overhead.</p> + +<p>"Dianne, are you crazy?"</p> + +<p>"Go back, Frank!"</p> + +<p>I was fumbling for the other drug. I pulled at her, but she resisted me.</p> + +<p>"Frank, go back. Not two of us—Drake said one was best—he said it to +you. He did say it. Frank, I mustn't stay here—I must run—run—"</p> + +<p>But still I held her. She exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"If you try to stop me, I'll call out!"</p> + +<p>"Dianne, you promised me you'd be careful—not try a wild thing like +this." I shook her. "Did you promise?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. But I've changed my mind."</p> + +<p>A madness was on her. She fought to escape me. "Let me go! Oh, Frank, I +can make it! I can run very fast, and I know how to handle the drugs."</p> + +<p>"No!"</p> + +<p>"Then you come with me."</p> + +<p>We were head and shoulders above the trees now. Across the dwindling +fields I could see the open water of the Sound. A giant was to one +side, a mile or so. He had seen us!</p> + +<p>It was too late to retreat. Suddenly Dianne jerked away from me. I ran +beside her, saying:</p> + +<p>"We'll head for the water, straight over the fields."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Frank."</p> + +<p>A dozen giants who yet were larger than ourselves were near at hand, +running at us.</p> + +<p>Then they stopped and stared off toward Long Island. A monstrous figure +rose up in the distant ocean; stood a moment, and then plunged again. +Togaro, swimming down to New York!</p> + +<p>Dianne recognized him. "Togaro!"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Alone! Dianne, I think he's got all their drugs."</p> + +<p>"We must get larger than he is!"</p> + +<p>The water off Long Island Sound spread close ahead. Off to one side, +down by our feet, a wrecked little village lay in the starlight. We +were bounding along—Dianne ran like a fawn.</p> + +<p>Giants—diverted momentarily by watching Togaro—were now closing in +upon us. One fellow in advance of the others barred our way. I ran at +him. His sling whizzed a pebble at me. It struck my shoulder. My fist +caught his jaw. He toppled backward into the Sound. Dianne went past +him, splashing.</p> + +<p>I caught up with her. The other giants had retreated. They had no +drugs, and we were now taller than they. Their slings flung a rain of +pebbles after us.</p> + +<p>We waded the Sound. The giants on Long Island kept away from us. We had +grown well over five hundred feet now, and bounded across the little +width of the island.</p> + +<p>The dawn was coming. We stood gazing out over the placid ocean; it +lapped with a foaming line of ripples on the narrow beach.</p> + +<p>Togaro was down by Sandy Hook. His monstrous figure loomed up against +the fading stars. He had not seen us, evidently. There was no way that +these frightened giants near here could communicate with him.</p> + +<p>We took more of the drug.</p> + +<p>"If we can get as large as he is, Dianne—"</p> + +<p>She pulled me down so that we crouched along the empty length of beach. +A giant behind us flung a bowlder. But to us now it was small as a pea. +It stung my face where it struck.</p> + +<p>"Let's try swimming down," I murmured. "Take it slowly and wait until +we get large enough to attack him."</p> + +<p>My heart was thumping so that it seemed almost to smother me. This +would be the supreme test. These Togarite giants to me now were +dwindling pygmies. They had none of the drug. Helpless, futile little +enemies. The Togarite hordes up in Maine? Why, they would soon be small +as ants. The Earth forces, hovering on the outskirts of this little +patch of devastated country, were only excited little gnats.</p> + +<p>I laughed with a touch of hysteria as the power of my size surged over +me.</p> + +<p>"Dianne, all that back there amounts to nothing. We can control it. +There's only Togaro!"</p> + +<p>Just that single enemy left. We heard the rumble of his voice. We saw +him stride toward New York City—his head and shoulders towering over +the horizon level.</p> + +<p>We swam beside a dwindling shore front.</p> + +<p>"Dianne, you must keep close behind me."</p> + +<p>Fear for her came upon me again. We were both unarmed, but so was +Togaro, very probably. There was only the weapon of size.</p> + +<p>"Don't go so fast, Dianne. Look, he's coming back from the city! Are we +large as he is?"</p> + +<p>She was swimming ahead of me.</p> + +<p>"Try standing up, Dianne. See if you can wade yet. Dianne, wait! Keep +behind me, I tell you!"</p> + +<p>She was a faster swimmer than I. She did not heed me. The curve of the +tiny island was beside us. A cove, with a headland a few feet high, was +to our right—the entrance to New York harbor. A line of buoys, smaller +than fishing bobs, lay on the water to mark the ship channel.</p> + +<p>Togaro was farther out in the open sea. My foot touched the ocean +bottom.</p> + +<p>Dianne suddenly stood up. Then Togaro turned and saw us!</p> + +<p>I called: "Dianne! Come back!"</p> + +<p>Togaro was still somewhat taller than Dianne. He was what seemed a +hundred feet from her. I was swimming frantically, twenty feet or so +behind her. She and I were growing; and I saw Togaro's hand go to his +mouth. He had taken more of the enlarging drug!</p> + +<p>He stood for just an instant, surprised by our presence. Then he +shouted:</p> + +<p>"You! Why—"</p> + +<p>She made a rush forward, and dived into the water. With all my strength +I swam. Togaro moved sidewise, then came at me. But Dianne suddenly +appeared, rose up at his waist, where the water surged, and gripped him.</p> + +<p>He bellowed: "Dianne—let go of me, you fool!"</p> + +<p>She must have tripped him. He went down, splashing, roaring. I saw him +strike her and heave her off.</p> + +<p>I had stood up. The water was below my waist now. The little headlands +of the land seemed only a few hundred feet away. I waded, and as +Togaro shook Dianne loose and heaved himself upright, I closed with him.</p> + +<p>He was a full head taller. His powerful arms went around me, bending me +backward. His evil face leered at me.</p> + +<p>"So, Frank Ferrule? You want to make a test like this? I'll kill you +now—as I should have long ago."</p> + +<p>He was horribly strong. His arms were crushing me. We were both +expanding. We swayed and struggled, lashing the water white around us. +His drug belt, with its water-tight metal vials, pressed against me. +One of his legs went behind me, but I twisted, avoiding being thrown.</p> + +<p>The water level was receding. It was down to our knees now. I +straightened and got a hand under Togaro's chin. He suddenly cast me +loose, and as I staggered and almost fell he leaped upon my back, +forcing me down.</p> + +<p>We had surged away from Dianne. I called frantically: "Dianne—keep +off! You make it harder for me."</p> + +<p>I found myself bent down by Togaro's weight, so that I was half +sprawled upon a tiny shore front. A little line of cliffs the size of +my hand. Fortifications here—a child's toy fort, smashed by a chunk of +rock lying upon it.</p> + +<p>I sprawled. There were humans here, frantic little insects running.</p> + +<p>I managed to get up and twisted again to face Togaro. I got a blow in +the face as we broke apart. But I gave one in return, then I hit him in +the chest and ducked his swing.</p> + +<p>Blood from my forehead where his knuckles had cut was in my eyes. I +dashed it away.</p> + +<p>I was more agile than Togaro with my fists; unskilled, yet I soon saw +that I had more science than he. I gave him two blows for one, at the +least. He staggered over and tripped on the cliffs of the shore.</p> + +<p>But I knew it was a ruse. He had tried to clinch with me, but I was +avoiding him. He knew I had him at a disadvantage if I could keep him +away. He half fell, but instead of following I stepped backward. Dianne +was beside me.</p> + +<p>"Get back," she cried.</p> + +<p>She had found a rock on the ocean bottom. She heaved it, dripping, at +Togaro as he rose. It caught his shoulder, but did not seem to hurt him.</p> + +<p>I gasped: "Dianne—back, for God's sake."</p> + +<p>She obeyed me and retreated.</p> + +<p>Togaro came at me again.</p> + +<p>There was an instant as I stood there, waiting with raised fists to +receive him, that a horrible sense of dizziness swept me. I felt myself +standing a mile or two in the air. I could see down the lower bay, the +Narrows—and see the wrecked buildings of Manhattan. All far below me, +as though I were poised in a plane—this whole familiar scene dwarfed +into miniature by my altitude.</p> + +<p>Then my viewpoint changed. I was of normal size, standing here in a +foot or two of water. This, at my feet, was a little green and brown +model of New York harbor.</p> + +<p>Togaro was rushing me. He hit me in the body. As I went a step backward +from the impact he tried to grip me. But I was too quick; and as he +rushed he launched a swing which, had it caught my chin, would have +finished me. I ducked it. He slewed around with the effort. Then I hit +him in the forehead. He stood swaying, then fell.</p> + +<p>I was afraid to go near him. I stood away. He was up again in a moment. +But there was a difference now. I was taller than he! My dose of the +drug was still effective, but his had stopped!</p> + +<p>He knew it was the end; defeat. I was ready with a blow that would +have finished him, and he knew it. The expression on his face held me +transfixed for an instant. A stupid, bewildered surprise. But that +faded. There came something else. A look of regret as he flung a glance +down at the tiny landscape? Regret, as he saw Dianne crouching behind +me? If it were that, it was instantly gone. His hand went to his mouth!</p> + +<p>A trick? But he leaped backward, flung up his arms with a gesture that +stopped me again. He was staggering. He stood swaying, with one foot +upon the few inches of the cliffs. The blood was draining from his face.</p> + +<p>He had taken poison—his last titanic gesture!</p> + +<p>He stood, and upon his livid, contorted face came a twisted leer of +irony.</p> + +<p>"Dianne, you win." From his belt he plucked a small globe of metal. +"You win—but your—damned Mitans—lose!"</p> + +<p>The fragment of rock was in that little globe! I knew it! As I leaped +he flung the gleaming sphere over my head. It rose in an arc and fell +into the sea. It must have burst with the impact. There was a puff. +Within it, the tiny grain which held the Mitan world was lost forever.</p> + +<p>Togaro kept to his feet a moment longer. He gasped again:</p> + +<p>"You win—damn you both!"</p> + +<p>Then he crumpled limply and fell at our feet, his monstrous body +crashing down across the Highlands, and his head and shoulders sprawled +far into the Lower Bay!</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV">CHAPTER XXXIV</h2> +</div> + +<h3><i>Princess of the Cottage</i></h3> + + +<p>It seems that there is not much more I need record. A year has passed. +It is summer again, and but for the fact I have lived those scenes over +in my memory as I set them down here, they would seem remote indeed.</p> + +<p>There was a mild turmoil, that morning of the second of June when +the titanic body of Togaro came crashing down. Wild scenes of a tiny +battle. But it was over almost before it started. Only the war planes, +of all the earth forces, had time to get into action. They soared over +the Togarite lines. But there was no courage left in the giants. They +had no drugs. It was as we thought—Togaro kept upon his person the +entire supply. The giants had seen his monstrous body fall—</p> + +<p>They fought. Some of them were killed by the planes—and some of the +planes were brought down. Then Drake entered the battle. He had seen +from his rising plane at Mount Vernon what was transpiring. He hastily +landed and took a heavy dose of the enlarging drug.</p> + +<p>The giants fled before him.</p> + +<p>The thing was over almost before Dianne and I could stride across the +intervening tiny landscape to reach Drake. He had trampled some of the +giants. But most of them he spared.</p> + +<p>There was a day of wild confusion; but the Togarites were ready enough +to do what they were told.</p> + +<p>They were herded by Drake and me into Maine, then were reduced to +normal earth size.</p> + +<p>There is an island now where they, and the forty thousand followers +with them, are isolated. Dianne and I have never been there. Dianne +wants to forget the Mitans—those of her loyal people who were lost +within the rock fragment.</p> + +<p>The futile dragging of the Atlantic Ocean off Sandy Hook has proved +unavailing. The rock must have been no larger than a grain of sand in +that fragile globe which Togaro cast away. It is gone forever.</p> + +<p>The drugs, too, are gone. The authorities very wisely decided it was +too dangerous a thing to be allowed to exist on earth. The entire +supply unanalyzed has been chemically destroyed.</p> + +<p>It is June again now. One would hardly know that all these strange +things happened only a year ago. The devastated area up through New +England is looking better every week that passes. The countryside is +green again in the summer warmth; the wrecked cities are repeopled and +being rebuilt.</p> + +<p>There was a gruesome task for Drake and me. In monstrous size we +carried the dead body of Togaro as far out into the ocean as we could +wade, then fastened rocks to it, and a rope. Then, swimming, we towed +it a thousand miles farther and sank it into the ocean depths.</p> + +<p>We want to forget all that now. When this narrative is finished—as it +will be in a moment—I want to forget it forever. That was the past; +the future holds so much of peace and beauty.</p> + +<p>There is for me the glory of Dianne and her love.</p> + +<p>We are living in a cottage by the sea. Drake and Ahlma live near +us. Father is in New York. He says he would not live with a married +couple—even with such beautiful and amiable daughters-in-law as Ahlma +and Dianne. But he visits us often.</p> + +<p>There is nothing of the princess about Dianne now, save that she is +princess of our little cottage. We have no servant. When our family is +larger we will have one, but just now Dianne is playing at housekeeping.</p> + +<p>She was in here half an hour ago, urging me to stop my writing.</p> + +<p>"It's nine o'clock, Frank. Bright moonlight. I'm going to build a fire. +Camp fire—I've got clams. We'll bake them for Ahlma and Drake when +they get back from the pictures."</p> + +<p>"Right, Dianne. Go do that."</p> + +<p>"But, Frank—"</p> + +<p>"Get it started. Remember your signal fire on Bird's Nest? Let's make +the signal again—like we used to when we were kids—"</p> + +<p>"Come on."</p> + +<p>"Can't—but I'll be through soon."</p> + +<p>She went away, but she came back after awhile.</p> + +<p>"The fire's built. Come on, Frank."</p> + +<p>I imagine I ignored her. But she came again, just a minute ago.</p> + +<p>She called in: "Oh, Frank!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Dianne?"</p> + +<p>"Come on. Please stop."</p> + +<p>"Presently."</p> + +<p>"Frank Ferrule, you can make your own smoke signals for Drake and +Ahlma. I'm going to bed."</p> + +<p>I think I had better stop.</p> + + +<p class="ph2"><span class="smcap">The End</span></p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">A SCIENCE-FICTION MASTERPIECE</p> + + +<p>A beautiful girl comes from nowhere to warn a world against a dreadful +peril—Giants rise up out of the sea to threaten unsuspecting cities +and towns—And two young men battle an Atomic Napoleon to save their +girls from his lustful clutches and a world from his greedy ambitions.</p> + +<p>AMAZING—the journey through smallness to a world of the atomic hidden +in the heart of a meteor!</p> + +<p>STARTLING—the destruction of a planet by one man's wrath!</p> + +<p>ASTOUNDING—the invasion of America by an army of giants tall as the +Empire State Building!</p> + +<p>PRINCESS OF THE ATOM is a long-sought masterpiece by a leading +imaginative writer, Ray Cummings. This unusual novel introduces the new +series of AVON FANTASY NOVELS, designed for the millions who enjoy the +new thrill of Science-Fiction.</p> + +<p>RAY CUMMINGS, author of "Princess of the Atom," has been called "the +dean of fantasy writers." As assistant to Thomas A. Edison, he became +well-grounded in science and its potentialities, and has since achieved +a distinguished reputation as an author of outstandingly imaginative +novels and short stories.</p> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75690 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/75690-h/images/cover.jpg b/75690-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5bbd8ed --- /dev/null +++ b/75690-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/75690-h/images/illusc.jpg b/75690-h/images/illusc.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8e661bf --- /dev/null +++ b/75690-h/images/illusc.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b5dba15 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This book, 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. 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