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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/77512-h/77512-h.htm b/77512-h/77512-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9a3a442 --- /dev/null +++ b/77512-h/77512-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3642 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + The Giant World | 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%; +} + +.caption p +{ + text-align: center; + text-indent: 0; + margin: 0.25em 0; + font-weight: bold; +} + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +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; +} + +.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; } + +.ph3 { text-align: right; text-indent: 0em; } +.ph3 { font-size: medium; margin: .83em auto; } + +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;} + + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77512 ***</div> + +<div class="figcenter x-ebookmaker-drop"> + <img src="images/illusc.jpg" alt=""> +</div> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<div class="titlepage"> + +<h1>The GIANT WORLD</h1> + +<p class="ph1">By RAY CUMMINGS</p> + +<p>NOTE—This: serial, while complete in itself, is a<br> +sequel to <i>Explorers Into Infinity</i>, which<br> +narrated the previous adventures of Brett and Martt<br> +on the distant world. The story appeared in<br> +<span class="smcap">Weird Tales</span> for last April, May and June.</p> + +<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br> +Weird Tales January, February, March 1928.]</p> + + +</div> + +<hr class="chap"> + + +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> + +<table> +<tr><td class="tdr">1</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_1">THE SUMMONS</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">2</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_2">STOLEN INTO SMALLNESS</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">3</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_3">THE THING IN THE FOG</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">4</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_4">THE WILD NIGHT RIDE</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">5</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_5">CLIMBING INTO LARGENESS UNFATHOMABLE</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">6</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_6">THE BLOOD-RED DAY</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">7</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_7">THE FIGHT ON THE PARAPET</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">8</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_8">YOUTH!</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_1"><i>CHAPTER 1</i></h2> +</div> + +<h3>THE SUMMONS</h3> + + +<p>I was startled. Yet I think that I subconsciously I was prepared for +it; expecting it. The little cylinder flipped out of its tube and +dropped on my desk before me. My name was on it, glowing with tiny +luminous letters: <i>Frank Elgon, Interplanetary Mails, Division 4, +Great-New York</i>. It looked just like any other Departmental message +cylinder. But instinctively I knew it was not; and my heart was +beating fast as I clicked it open.</p> + +<p>Relayed through Code Headquarters. I saw that on the small rolled tape +inside. And saw the signature, Dr. Gryce. It should not have been +startling, but my fingers were trembling as I unrolled the tape and +hooked it into the automatic decoder. And I stood gripping my chair as +the line of English letters pricked themselves on the blank white sheet +at which I was staring:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>"Frank—I can not bear it any longer. We must go—we must find +Brett at any cost. Will you stand by us? Come at once. Hurry.</p> + +<p class="ph3"><span class="smcap">Dr. Gryce.</span>"</p> +</div> + +<p>My mind leaped back. I sat at my desk staring blankly, while in +the office around me all the bustling activity of the accursed +Interplanetary Mails faded before the surging visions of my memory. +It was four years since that other momentous day when Dr. Gryce had +sent for me. And I had gone to him; and listened amazed at his weird, +fantastic theories. Our sun, planets, and stars—all the vastness of +the star-filled heavens, he had told me then—were but the infinite +smallness of a greater world. All this that we call our Celestial +Universe was no more than an atom—of the giant world encompassing it.</p> + +<p>Fantasy! Yet it had proved sober, tragic fact. Tragic, because Dr. +Gryce's older son, Brett, had gone out there to that giant world. Gone, +and never returned. Nor been heard from; four years now, while old Dr. +Gryce at the end of his life waited despairingly.</p> + +<p>I had known always that the time would come when Dr. Gryce would wait +no longer. He would send for me—friend of Brett—and friend of his +other two children, Martt and Francine. For a year every cylinder that +had dropped on my desk had made my heart leap that it might contain +this summons which now lay before me.</p> + +<p>"<i>I can not bear it any longer. Will you stand by us?</i>" So simple +an appeal! But I knew the turgid torrent of heartache—the final +desperation of an old man's suffering—which prompted it.</p> + +<p>Young Grante at the desk next to mine was sorting his pile of official +communications newly arrived by the Venus mail. I turned to him.</p> + +<p>"I'm going away," I told him. In spite of myself—an unfortunate +mannerism when I am perturbed—my voice sounded gruff, ill-tempered. +"There is no time to argue—will you please notify Official 4 that +my—my post is vacant."</p> + +<p>He raised his eyebrows. "Vacant?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. I'm going away." I was on my feet. Outwardly calm, but within me +was a seething emotion. Going away! Out there into the immensity of the +Unknown, where my friend Brett had gone, not to return. Young Grante +could not guess. He was thinking Great-London perhaps—or the Asiatic +province. Or perchance, Venus, or Mars.</p> + +<p>I laughed harshly. "Don't question me, Grante. Just tell them—my post +is vacant."</p> + +<p>I left the room with his amazed stare following me. In the corridor, +through a window I caught a glimpse of the tenth pedestrian level; its +crowd of people moving upon the diverse activities of their tiny lives. +Already I felt apart from them. Frank Elgon, Division 4. Presently, to +such of them as knew me, I would be no more than a memory. "That young, +rather quarrelsome Elgon, who walked out of his office in a temper, and +vanished." They would say that, and then forget me.</p> + +<p>I laughed again. But the thought brought a pang of regret, and a +shudder.</p> + +<p>In ten minutes I was within a pneumatic cylinder, speeding underground +to the Southern Pennsylvania area, to the home of Dr. Gryce.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">II</p> + +<p>Martt and Frannie met me at the outer gateway. Their manner held a +singular gravity. I had expected them to be excited, of course. But +their grave, somber smiles of greeting, their instinctively hushed +voices, seemed unnatural. This was no reckless, devil-may-care spirit +of high adventure which I had anticipated the twins of Dr. Gryce would +display. Sober drama. Their involuntary glances at the white house +nestling against the hillside carried a foreboding.</p> + +<p>Drama, but it seemed almost to be tragedy. My heart sank. There was +something very wrong here with the Gryces; something more imminent than +the fact of Brett's absence over four years.</p> + +<p>But I said nothing. Dear little Frannie gave me her two hands. They +were cold.</p> + +<p>Martt said, "Thank you for coming, Frank. Father is—waiting for you." +His voice, usually flaunting, mocking at everything with the reckless +spirit of youth, chilled me with its queerly broken tone.</p> + +<p>We crossed the flowering gardens to the white house standing so +peaceful in the afternoon sunlight. Martt led the way. The twins were +twenty-one years old now. Alike physically, and in temperament. Both +smaller than average height; slim and delicate of mold; blue-eyed, +and fair of hair. They were always laughing; carefree—the spirit of +irresponsible youth. But not today. I regarded Martt, trudging ahead +of me—debonair, jaunty of figure in his tight black silk trousers and +loose white shirt, bare-headed, his crisp, curly hair tousled by the +wind. But there was a slump to his shoulders, a heaviness to his tread. +And little Frannie behind him: girlishly beautiful, with her tossing +golden curls, her familiar house costume of gray blouse and widely +flaring knee-length trousers. But there was upon her a preternatural +solemnity; a maturity of aspect indefinable.</p> + +<p>At the doorway Martt turned and fixed me with his somber, blue-eyed +gaze. And spoke with the same queer hush to his voice.</p> + +<p>"Father is upstairs, Frank. He is—dying. He wants very much to live +until you arrive."</p> + +<p>Upon the pillows in the darkened room lay Dr. Gryce's head with its +shaggy, snow-white hair, the mound of the sheet betraying his pitifully +wasted body.</p> + +<p>Martt said softly, very gently, "Frank is here, Father. You see he came +in time—plenty of time."</p> + +<p>But the head, with face to the wall, did not move; no stirring marked +the fragile body lying there.</p> + +<p>Martt gave a cry; with Frannie he rushed to the bedside. It was all +too evident. In a moment Martt stood up, leaned silently against the +bedpost, a hand before his eyes as though dazed. And Frannie knelt at +the bed and sobbed.</p> + +<p>We expect death all our lives, yet the instinct of life within us never +ceases to feel a shock, and a revulsion. For a long time these children +of Dr. Gryce did not move or speak. Then Frannie leaped to her feet. +Her face was tear-stained; but her sobs were suddenly checked, and her +eyes were blazing.</p> + +<p>"Martt! His last wish—the very last thing he said—was that we go out +ourselves and find Brett. He said it—he said Brett might need us—his +dying wish. And I'm going, and so are you. We've got to, Martt! And +we want Frank with us. Oh, Frank, you'll go with us, won't you? Out +there—to join Brett?"</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">III</p> + +<p>The burial was passed. We had not spoken of our enterprise, but +it had never left my thoughts. This boy and girl so newly come +to maturity—but I was twenty-nine. Upon me would fall the main +responsibility.</p> + +<p>We sat at last in Dr. Gryce's study—the three of us alone—to discuss +our task. With the first poignancy of their shock and sorrow already +dulled by time, upon the faces of Martt and Frannie was stamped grimly +their simple purpose.</p> + +<p>"But, Martt," I said, "Brett's vehicle was very intricate. It +traveled in Space—but in Time as well. And grew gigantic in size. +Your father's genius built it. But we have no such genius to build +another——"</p> + +<p>"You forget," he interrupted. "Think back, Frank. That day you came +here. And we showed you the models of the vehicle. There were four of +them——"</p> + +<p>Then I remembered. Dr. Gryce had shown me four small models. One he had +sent back into Time. A flash, like a dissipating puff of vapor it was +gone into the Past; still here in Space above the taboret on which it +was standing, but vanished with centuries of Time to hide it from my +sight.</p> + +<p>Another of the models, with Time unchanged, Dr. Gryce had sent into +Infinite Smallness. I remembered watching it dwindling; a speck, a +pinhead, then invisible even to the microscope.</p> + +<p>Two of the models were left. Martt and Frannie, but seventeen years old +then, had taken one into the garden. Had started it growing in size. I +recalled our frantic efforts to check its growth, lest it demolish the +house. This was the one in which Martt and Brett had gone to the giant +world and in which Brett had returned alone to that distant part of our +universe.</p> + +<p>One model had remained. I had never thought of it since. Martt was +saying, ". . . and we still have that last model. Father kept it +very carefully." Martt's smile was wistful with the memory. "I think +he—Father—had a premonition that he would not live to carry out his +purpose. . . . The model is here."</p> + +<p>He opened a locked steel box. Again I gazed silently at that small cube +of milk-white metal—a cube the length of my forearm, with its tiny +tower on top, its glasslike balcony, its windows and its doors.</p> + +<p>"It's all complete," said Martt. "And I know how to operate it."</p> + +<p>Frannie said with a touch of breathlessness, "For a month past, Father +has been gathering the necessary instruments. And the supplies—you see +he—he really thought he was going to live——"</p> + +<p>"We're all ready," Martt added. "We will increase this model to normal +size. Load it with our supplies. We can start tomorrow, Frank."</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">IV</p> + +<p>Five million light-years from Earth! Who of finite human mind can +conceive such unfathomable distance! Yet, as I crouched on the floor of +the vehicle gazing down at the radiance emerging from the black void +which was our first sight of the Inner Surface, the distance had seemed +no more than gigantic. We were, in size, many million times our Earthly +stature. The tiny Earth, from our larger viewpoint, was a little orange +spinning above us in the void—a mere one-twentieth light-year away.</p> + +<p>Martt, for all his youth, had proved competent. He had made the trip +once before with Brett; he handled the vehicle carefully, and with +skill. He said now, as we three crouched by the floor window, "We'll +soon be down to the atmosphere, Frank. I'm checking our fall—we want +no errors——"</p> + +<p>We were reversed in Time—holding very nearly at a single instant, so +that on the Inner Surface the time now was the same as it had been when +we left the Earth.</p> + +<p>We argued the point; Martt said, "I think when we land—we should +choose the point in Time about four years beyond Brett's landing. So +that it will be four years to us—and also to him. Don't you?"</p> + +<p>We decided upon that, so that we would reach the Inner Surface and +find Brett had been there four years. It seemed to strike a greater +normality. Find Brett! Would we find him? I wondered, as I knew Martt +and Frannie were wondering. But in our plans we always took it for +granted.</p> + +<p>The radiance beneath us grew brighter. And at last we entered the upper +strata of atmosphere, falling gently downward. It was a fair, beautiful +land, as Brett and Martt had said. A sylvan landscape, with an air of +quiet peace upon it. A broad vista of land and water; patches of human +habitation—houses, villages; a city.</p> + +<p>Martt was at the telescope. "Pretty good, Frank! I've hit it—I see the +city—off there, isn't it? And the crescent lake."</p> + +<p>He changed our direction slightly. As we dropped, the broad crescent +lake lay beneath us. Trees bordered its banks; and to the right was the +city of low-roofed, crescent-shaped buildings banked with flowers. And +beyond the city a rolling country of gently undulating hills, with a +jagged mountain range up near the horizon.</p> + +<p>From this height it was a visibly concave surface. And it was gray and +colorless, for we were passing abnormally through its Time. Then Martt +threw off the Time-switch; we took the normal Time-rate of the realm. +And in size we were also normal.</p> + +<p>At a height of perhaps a thousand feet Martt held us poised above the +city. "They'll see us now," he said. "If—if Brett is down there he'll +recognize us. I'll land in the grove where we landed before. We'll give +Brett time to get there to meet us."</p> + +<p>With the Time-switch off, color and movement had sprung into the scene. +The forests were a somber growth of dull, orange-colored vegetation. +The water was a shimmering purple; and above us was a purple sky, with +faint clouds, and dim stars up there—stars which seemed very small and +very close.</p> + +<p>The white houses gleamed and glowed in the starlight. Yet it seemed +not night; nor day either. A queerly shimmering twilight. Shadowless, +as though everything were vaguely phosphorescent.</p> + +<p>In the broad city streets there was movement. Vehicles; people. And the +people now were gathered in groups, staring up at us.</p> + +<p>We landed in the little clearing at the edge of the lake near the city. +And now at the last, Frannie gave voice to the fear which was within us +all. "Oh Frank, do you think Brett will be here?"</p> + +<p>There were human figures in the near-by thickets. I saw them through +the windows, but we were too busy with the landing to look closely. The +vehicle came to rest. Martt and I flung open the door. The vegetation +was thick near by; we stepped from the vehicle onto a soft, mossy +sward, and stood in a timid group, with tumultuously beating hearts.</p> + +<p>"Martt! Frannie! Frank!" It was his voice! Brett was here! And we saw +him step from a thicket. His familiar voice; his familiar figure, but +so fantastically garbed that it brought to me a wild desire to laugh, +for I was half hysterical with the relief of seeing him.</p> + +<p>Frannie cried, "Brett! My brother! You're all right, Brett, aren't you? +I'm glad you're all right."</p> + +<p>Under stress, how inarticulate are we humans! I said awkwardly, "How +are you, Brett? We thought we'd come and see you."</p> + +<p>He took Frannie in his arms. And wrung Martt's hand, and mine, while +his strange companions stood in the background among the trees, +watching us.</p> + +<p>"Of course I'm all right," he declared. "And terrifically happy." A +shadow crossed his face; his glance went to the vehicle's doorway. +"Father didn't come with you?"</p> + +<p>Then Martt showed a wisdom far beyond his years. This was no time to +bring sorrow to Brett. Martt said smoothly, "Father is better than he +has ever been, Brett. We'll tell you—later."</p> + +<p>"Good! That's fine!" Brett's face was radiant. "You're just in time, +you three. I'm to be married tonight."</p> + +<p>But even then as I wrung his hand again, and congratulated him, I had a +premonition that it was not to be.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_2"><i>CHAPTER 2</i></h2> +</div> + +<h3>STOLEN INTO SMALLNESS</h3> + + +<p>"Life is pleasant here," said Brett. "Pleasant, and indolent. It does +not make for progress, but it is happiness—and I'm beginning to wonder +if that is not best, after all."</p> + +<p>We were sitting in an arcaded passage on the roof of the home where +Brett lived. Crescent archways opened to the roof, where stood banks +of vivid flowers, with a vista of the city beyond. The building seemed +of baked earth, rough like adobe, and of dull orange color. It was a +two-storied, crescent-shaped structure, set upon a wide street-corner +near the edge of the city. The home of Leela's father. I had never +forgotten Leela—the girl Brett and Martt had rescued from the giant on +their first visit here. Brett had fallen in love with her. It was she +whom tonight he was to marry. And this was her father's home—Greedo, +the old musician.</p> + +<p>"I have lived here with them six months," Brett said.</p> + +<p>Martt exclaimed, "Six months! Why Brett, you have been gone four years!"</p> + +<p>We had miscalculated the Time-change of the vehicle. Our purpose had +been to strike this realm of the Inner Surface at a point in Time which +to Brett would be four years. But now we found it six months only.</p> + +<p>Brett smiled. "I'm glad you didn't postpone your arrival. You've no +idea how pleased I am to have you—tonight of all nights."</p> + +<p>We had not yet seen Leela, or her father. Brett said that Leela would +be up presently to greet us. The city was excited over our coming. A +crowd was gathered in the street before the house; Brett had made them +a brief speech; Frannie, Martt and I had stood at the parapet and waved +to them.</p> + +<p>Then Brett had spoken of a younger sister of Leela's. Her name was +Zelea—they called her Zee.</p> + +<p>Martt sat up at this. "Where was she when we were here before?"</p> + +<p>"Away," said Brett. "She was too young to meet a man then. Only now has +she come to be sixteen. You'll like her, Martt. I want you to like her."</p> + +<p>"I will," said Martt enthusiastically, "if she's anything like Leela."</p> + +<p>"You were telling us about the life here," I suggested. "We always +called this land the Inner Surface——"</p> + +<p>"Yes," he agreed. "It is concave, like the inner shell of some great, +hollow globe. Within the space it encloses——" He gestured to where, +through the arcade, a segment of purple, star-filled sky was visible. +"All that which we of Earth called the Celestial Universe is enclosed +by this concave shell. You would think that this must be a gigantic +region——" He smiled again. "It is not. Compared to our present +enormous size, I imagine the circumference of this Inner Surface is +not unduly great. I don't know. These people have not explored very +far. They are not wanderers—they are too indolent, too contented, to +wander."</p> + +<p>He paused to drink from a shallow receptacle which stood before us, and +offered Martt and me what appeared to be arrant cylinders to smoke.</p> + +<p>"I have learned a little of the language. Proper names are impossible +to translate. But the meaning of their word for this land, I call +in English. Romantica. The romantic land. It is, I fancy, about +five hundred miles square. Beyond it lie forests and mountains. No +one here has ever penetrated them. There are wild beasts, birds, +insect life—and fish and reptiles in the water. But they are not +dangerous—not aggressive. It is not because of them that these people +avoid exploration. It is—just indolence."</p> + +<p>"I don't wonder," I said. "This is very peaceful here—I have no +desire to do anything in particular." From the city streets a drone of +activity floated up to us; but it was almost somnolent.</p> + +<p>"It's always like this," said Brett. "Almost no change of seasons—the +light always the same. There is no disease here—or very little. +Food—grains, and what we would call vegetables, grow abundantly in +this rich soil. The trees give milk—even the bark and pulp of them are +edible. Life is easy. There is nothing to struggle against.</p> + +<p>"Through generations, it has made the people kindly. There is little +crime. No struggle for land, or food or clothing. Crimes involving +sex——" He gestured. "Wherever humans exist there will be crimes of +that origin. But our women here are very sensible, and when a woman +does what is right—well, you know, don't you, that most deeds of +violence into which men plunge over women have a woman's wrong actions +at the bottom of them? There is little of that here, for the women take +care that there shall not be.</p> + +<p>"So they call their country Romantica. They are not a scientific +people. They do not struggle for advancement. Art has taken the place +of science. Painting. Sculpture. Music. They have developed music +very far. It has a soul here. It speaks—it sings—it seems a living +entity. It is—what music ought to be, but seldom is—the pure voice +of love, of romance. . . . I was telling you about our country. Most +of its population live in villages, and in individual dwellings +strewn about the hills. There are but two large cities. This one—the +largest—they call Crescent. Or at least their word for it suggests the +shape of the lake. The other city is about fifty miles from here"—he +gestured again—"off there where you see the line of mountains. They +call it Reaf. It's a quaint city. Built largely over the water—rivers +there—hot, subterranean rivers which rush underground—under the +mountains. They go—who knows where? No one has ever been down them. +The mountains are honeycombed with caves, tunnels, passages leading +within, and up. Always up. But into them no one has ever penetrated. +Legends tell fabulous tales of a great world up there. The giants, we +think——"</p> + +<p>When Brett and Martt had first come here, giants had appeared. +Dwindling giants—strange, savage beings of half-human aspect. They +had appeared—no one knew from where. Growing smaller until they were +normal size to this realm. Not many had been seen. Some had kept on +dwindling; they had grown so small, when attacked, that they had become +invisible. At the thought, I moved my foot involuntarily with a shudder +of uneasiness. Here on the floor beside me now, men like beasts might +be lurking, so small I could not see them. Yet in a moment they might +grow to a stature greater than my own. . . .</p> + +<p>Men like beasts! . . . And I remembered that, with size gigantic, they +had destroyed the third city of Romantica.</p> + +<p>Upon Brett's face lay a cloud of apprehension. "We have never heard +from them since. It is thought—I think myself—that they came from +the subterranean rivers, or through the underground passages of the +mountains. I conceive this concave surface upon which we're living +to be the inner surface of a shell. It may not be very thick—there +at Reaf. Above it—beyond it—up or down are mere comparative +terms—beyond it must lie some vastly greater outside world. This whole +realm is doubtless within an atom of that greater world. It would be a +convex surface up there—with a sky and stars beyond. . . .</p> + +<p>"We have never seen the giants since that time when Martt and I rescued +Leela. Everyone here seems to have forgotten them——" Brett's voice +was heavy with apprehension. "These people are so trustful! They forget +so quickly! No one worries. Our rulers here—a venerable man and woman +long past the age when death is expected—are so gentle, kindly, that +they can not imagine harm coming to their people. They have forgotten +the Hill City which the giants destroyed. Trampled upon it! Six or +eight giants—they must have been several hundred feet tall—stamping, +kicking the building! I've been there—I've seen the ruins—strewn for +miles—and with buildings, colonnades and terraces mashed into the +ground! There were no more than half a thousand people surviving that +destruction of the Hill City—and thousands died. But everyone says +now, 'The giants are gone. We are safe.'"</p> + +<p>Brett's voice had risen to a swift vehemence. "It's been like living +on a volcano to me, all these months. There are no weapons here. My +own few flash-cylinders—of what use would a tiny flash of lightning +be against beings so gigantic? We've got to do something. For if those +giants come again——"</p> + +<p>A step sounded in the oval doorway near at hand. Leela stood +smilingly, deprecatingly before us.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">II</p> + +<p>Brett said, "Come here, Leela. This is my sister, and my friend, Frank +Elgon. And here's Martt."</p> + +<p>Leela advanced hesitantly, her face a wave of color as she met our +gazes. She was smaller, and even slighter than Frannie, her figure +adorned and revealed by its single, simple garment—more like a short, +glistening veil than a dress. Her hair was long and dark, caught by +a band at her neck, and flowing free beneath. Her arms and legs were +bare. At her wrists, gray-blue bands with small tassels; on her feet, +queerly high-heeled wooden sandals, with tasseled thongs crossing on +her ankles. The sandals clacked as she walked; her step was mincing, +with a suggestion of the Orientals of our Earth.</p> + +<p>Brett eyed the sandals with a humorous twinkle. "For why are those, +Leela?"</p> + +<p>Her blush heightened. "In honor of our guests. I thought you would like +them."</p> + +<p>With a swift gesture, she stooped, untied the thongs and cast the +sandals off. Her feet were very white, small and delicately formed, +with rounded, polished nails stained pink. She stood untrammeled, lithe +and graceful as a faun.</p> + +<p>"I am glad to meet Brett's sister—and his friend. And you, Martt—I +am glad to see you again." Her voice was soft as a Latin's. She shook +hands with Martt and with me, and returned Frannie's affectionate +embrace.</p> + +<p>As I saw them together—these two girls of different worlds—I was +struck with the dissimilarity of them. Pert, vivacious little Frannie, +blue-eyed, fair of hair—brown-skinned from the outdoor life she loved. +And Leela—smooth, white skin, dark hair and luminous eyes, a fragile +grace to her every movement. None of my words are adequate. There was +about her an aura of romance; a strange wild spirit of something for +which every man in his soul has a longing; a beauty with a quality +ethereal—half human, but half divine.</p> + +<p>A twinge of conscience came to me that I—Frank Elgon—could think such +thoughts and see such beauty in any girl who was not Frannie.</p> + +<p>Leela was saying, "My father would have you come down soon. And Zee is +down there—Zee is very much excited, Brett. There is so much to do +before tonight——"</p> + +<p>Brett's arm was around her. "And you—of course you're not excited, are +you, Leela?"</p> + +<p>She returned his caress, embarrassed further by his teasing. He added, +"We will be down presently."</p> + +<p>"Yes," she said; and with a pretty gesture, she left us.</p> + +<p>The sandals lay discarded on the floor. Brett gathered them up, +regarding them tenderly. "She is so easy to tease, I love to do it. But +if you try that with Zee——"</p> + +<p>"You shouldn't tease her," said Frannie. "She's a darling. I love her +already."</p> + +<p>Brett's wedding day! For all his quiet, whimsical teasing of Leela, +the love he bore her enveloped him like a shining cloak. Yet his +father whom he loved so dearly was dead, and Brett did not know it. I +whispered to Martt about it later.</p> + +<p>"I think we should not tell him," said Martt. "Not—until we have to."</p> + +<p>And we did not. Looking back on it now, how much was to happen to +Brett—to Martt, to us all! What fearsome things—danger, desperation, +despair—were to be our allotted portion before we even thought again +of old Dr. Gryce who was dead!</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">III</p> + +<p>Brett was to be married that evening—a public festival and ceremony +over which the whole city was in an anticipatory fever.</p> + +<p>"The festival of lights and music," said Brett. "They hold it at +periodic times. It is a wonderful sight. It generally includes a +marriage—girls find it romantic. Leela selected it for us. Greedo +is in charge of it—Leela and Zee always take part in its music. We +must go down—they are waiting for us—there is so much for them to do +between now and this evening."</p> + +<p>"I'll help," said Frannie. "Come on, Martt—I guess you want to meet +Zee, don't you?"</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">IV</p> + +<p>We found Leela's father to be a grave, black-robed, kind-faced old man +of an age indeterminate. Sixty, or eighty, I could not have told. In +vigorous health, evidently. His figure was spare, straight, but not +tall. His thick, gray-black hair he wore long to the base of the neck.</p> + +<p>He greeted us quietly, with an admirable dignity commanding immediate +respect.</p> + +<p>"You are a musician," I said, after we had been talking for a time. +"Brett has told us something about your music here. It must be very +beautiful."</p> + +<p>He smiled. "Music is a wonderful thing. It ennobles. There is in it +a touch of something beyond our poor human understanding. A touch +of—what you call Divinity."</p> + +<p>"You speak our language very well," I exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"A language is not difficult. All minds are similar—that is why music +can make so universal an appeal." His voice was earnest, his eyes +sparkling. It was the subject most absorbing to him.</p> + +<p>I said, "You teach music——"</p> + +<p>He raised a deprecating hand. "Yes. But that is nothing. I teach the +fundamentals"—he struck his breast—"the rest comes from within. For +myself, I am a mere retailer of sound. A peddler of something someone +else has made. The composer—he is the real artist. I have hoped that +some day Leela will compose. Brett has promised that he will urge +her. . . . Just now, she sings." He twinkled at Leela. "I fear she +thinks she sings very well. Pouf! It is nothing! She, too, is only a +sound-peddler."</p> + +<p>With a burst, Zee entered the room. A smaller replica of Leela. Yet how +different! She came like a mountain torrent tumbling from the hillside. +Her short, dull-red draperies whirled about her elfin figure. Her dark +eyes were blazing. Black hair, flying over her shoulders with her +tumultuous entrance.</p> + +<p>"Father! That is not so!" She stamped one of her bare feet, then rose +on strong, supple toes and whirled half around. The muscles stood out +beneath the smooth satin skin of her calves. "Leela, why do you let him +say such a thing? You sing beautifully." She whirled back. "And what am +I, then?"</p> + +<p>The old man was wholly unperturbed. "You, Zee? Why, you are a peddler +of movement. Very swift, tempestuous movement, generally." He added to +me, "She thinks she is an artist. She is not. She is only a dancer."</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">V</p> + +<p>It was what on Earth would have been termed late evening when we +started for the festival. Greedo, with his two daughters, had left half +an hour before.</p> + +<p>We were dressed now in the fashion of the country. Brett had suggested +it; Martt had insisted upon it. I remembered with what a jaunty +swagger Martt had worn his clothes upon his return to Earth that +other time. He was dressed similarly now. A cloth shirt of glaring +green, with a high, rolling collar in front, and low in the back; +short trousers very wide and flapping at the knee. The trousers were +a lighter green, with dark green stripes; his stockings were tan; and +his green shoes were long and pointed. Over his shirt was a short tan +jacket, wide-shouldered and with puffed sleeves, and bangles dangling +from elbows and wrists. And there was a skirt to the jacket, rolling +upward at the waist.</p> + +<p>My own costume was in the same fashion; and though it was a sober gray, +befitting my more mature years, I felt for a time awkward and foolish +in it. But when in the crowded city streets I found that no one seemed +particularly to remark me, I soon forgot it.</p> + +<p>Brett wore a long cloak; I did not see how he was dressed. Frannie also +wore a cloak. Just before leaving she tossed it aside, and stood before +me, waiting for my admiration, with her characteristic twinkle, and her +pert upflung face daring me to disapprove. Even by contrast with Leela +and Zee, to my eyes at least Frannie was very pretty. She wore the +single draped garment with silver cords crossed at her breasts to shape +her figure; and with banded wrists, and tasseled bands above the knees. +Her blond curls were tied with flowing tassels. The whole costume, a +gray and blue, with a single deep-blue flower in her hair. And thin, +flexible sandals on her little feet.</p> + +<p>She eyed me. "Do you like me, Frank?"</p> + +<p>"I—why, why—Frannie——" I would have told her then that I loved her, +as I had very nearly told her myriad times in ten years past. But who +was I to ask the love of any girl? A sorter of planetary messages, poor +as a towerman in the lower traffic! "I—why yes, Frannie. Of course I +like you. You're—beautiful."</p> + +<p>She had a quaint little circular hat, stiff and round, with a dull-red +plume and a tassel. We men wore hats of a solidly wooden aspect—low, +round crowns and triangular brims. Martt's was sea-green, with tassels +all around its brim. But mine and Brett's were sober gray, and +unadorned.</p> + +<p>We started on foot. The city streets were dim in the luminous twilight. +Overhead, the sky with its thin-strewn stars was cloudless. A holiday +aspect was everywhere. Crowds of people were in the streets. Young men +and girls, gay with laughter. Most of them were cloaked. A vehicle, +with runners like a sleigh gliding over the grassy pavement, drawn by a +squat, four-legged animal, went by us. It was jammed with girls; one of +them leaned out and waved at me. Her slim white arm came down; her hand +twitched off my hat, sent it spinning. I caught a glimpse of her face; +dark, laughing eyes, a mouth with mocking lips stained red. . . .</p> + +<p>The sleigh passed on.</p> + +<p>With Brett leading us we turned toward the lake. Most of the crowd +seemed to be heading that way. Occasionally we were recognized. Stares +of interest at us, the strangers, and cheers for Brett.</p> + +<p>He said to me, "They're all very happy, Frank. Like children." I +fancied that he sighed—he, for whom this night of all nights should +have been his happiest.</p> + +<p>In a group, with the swirling merrymakers about us, we made our way +to the lake shore. The water was rippled by a gentle night breeze; +the stars gleamed on the water surface with tiny silver paths. Boats +were here—double canoes with outriders; and a few sailboats, small, +single-masted, with triangular and crescent sails.</p> + +<p>We found a small canoe; Brett sculled it with a broad-bladed paddle. +Other boats were around us. A long canoe with a dozen sweeping +paddles shot by us with the racing strokes of its men, and with +shouts from its laughing girls. Another, smaller, turned over. Its +men swam, and righted it. They climbed aboard, hauling up the girls. +The wet draperies clung to them; they came up like dripping, gleeful +water-sprites, tossing their black hair. . . . A barge went slowly +along, drawn by two canoes. A lighted canopy was over its occupants—a +huge, woven garland of flowers. The canopy gleamed with spots of +vivid-colored lights.</p> + +<p>"The luminous flowers," said Brett. And I saw that the large purple +blossoms were gleaming with a purple light—a phosphorescence inherent +in them; and red blossoms, like crimson lanterns; and others orange, +and green. Music floated upward from the barge, soft and sweet over +the water. The tinkle of strings—the voices of girls singing, and men +humming with a deeper background of harmony. . . .</p> + +<p>A night for love-making. The night romantic. Brett's wedding night—and +yet, he had sighed. I knew why, for upon my own heart lay a weight +of apprehension, heavier because it was so incongruous. Martt quite +evidently did not feel it—he was shouting and laughing constantly +with his pleasure. A girl from a neighboring boat tossed him a large, +blood-red, glowing blossom. It fell short, went into the water and +slowly sank, staining the water with its red light. Martt all but +turned us over trying to rescue it.</p> + +<p>Frannie, too, seemed gay. I tried to smile; but I felt that it was +forced. The depression upon me would not be shaken off. It grew to +seem almost sinister. The very atmosphere of happiness around me seemed +to intensify it. These merrymakers—in the midst of life. . . . At such +a moment as this, death could choose to strike. . . .</p> + +<p>"Look!" shouted Martt. "The lights off there—is that where we're +going?"</p> + +<p>A patch of gay-colored lights gleamed from over the water ahead. "Yes," +said Brett. "An island there, where they hold the festival. It's not +far."</p> + +<p>It was an irregular circular island, a mile perhaps in extent. The lake +waters indented it with a hundred tiny bays, inlets, and narrow, placid +waterways. We ascended one of them. The surface of the island was +gently undulating, and wooded, with mossy dells—nooks arched with the +luminous flowers. Nooks for love-making.</p> + +<p>The whole island was strewn thick with the flowers; they grew upon +tall, single stems—gay-colored lanterns nodding in the breeze. Beneath +them were laughing couples; some hidden, sought and found by groups of +marauding girls, to seize the man and laughingly whisk him away. And +everywhere was music, soft as an echo. . . .</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>We ascended the narrow waterways, came to a lagoon with a glassy +surface wherein a thousand spots of the lantern-flowers were +mirrored like colored stars. Near the shore here, beyond a dock at +which we landed, was a broad enclosed space with an arcade of the +lantern-flowers arching over it. Brilliant with their light. Most of +the crowd seemed congregated there—a milling throng on the level floor +inside, with liquid strains of music mingling with the shouts and +laughter.</p> + +<p>"We'll go in there," said Brett. "I'll find seats for you—then I must +leave, to join Leela and her father. There is to be a musical program. +But first—just Greedo, Zee and Leela, and our marriage. Most of the +music comes afterward."</p> + +<p>Within the arcade the lights blended into a kaleidoscope of color. All +the cloaks were discarded now. Costumes vividly splashed as a painter's +palette. Heavy perfumes. And that soft, echoing music. I could not tell +its source.</p> + +<p>At one end of the room was a raised, canopied platform, with doors +behind it. Most of the crowd were choosing low seats, like stools +ranged in rows. Brett got us settled.</p> + +<p>"I'll leave you now—and meet you over there by the right-hand end of +the platform, afterward."</p> + +<p>He left us. With Frannie between us, Martt and I sat quiet, watching +and listening. We had not long to wait. The light around us began to +dim; sliding curtains were obscuring the flowers over us. A hush fell +upon the crowd. The soft music was stilled. A hush of expectancy.</p> + +<p>The arcade was in gloom. The light on the platform intensified. A +deep-red glow, with a single spot focused upon a small, raised dais. +Into the red glow came Greedo, robed unobtrusively in black. He was +carrying a crescent frame of strings. He seated himself, and in the +silence swept his hands across the strings. His fingers plucked them +like a harp; and then his other hand slid upon them. The staccato +notes rippled clear as a mountain rill, soft, muted to seem an echo of +music. And blended with them was a low, crying melody—a fragment, then +silence.</p> + +<p>Leela had appeared. She crossed through the red glow, mounted the +dais, and stood in the silver light—Leela, robed to her feet in a +misty silver veil through which her figure vaguely was outlined. She +stood there drooping—a Naiad veiled in the fountain mist. . . . Then +Greedo's music sounded. And Leela sang.</p> + +<p>It was like nothing I had ever heard before. Music, toned strangely, +with strange intervals to make it neither major nor minor. Not +happiness, nor yet sadness. A wistfulness. A longing. But with the +promise of fulfilment.</p> + +<p>I listened, breathlessly; and the arcade around me faded. Greedo's +figure in the shadow was forgotten. There was only the white figure of +Leela; her face, the purity of girlhood, her eyes half closed, her lips +parted with the song. Nothing else—save myself. I stood in a void, +stretching out my arms to Romance. All that I had ever dreamed, and +vaguely longed for without understanding what it meant, was upon me. +All that woman could mean to man—the spirit of the ideal never to be +attained in mortal flesh—seemed suddenly attained. Romance—that thing +elusive—intangible as a thought in the vaguest of dreams. It was mine!</p> + +<p>The song ended. Applause rang out. Leela was gone.</p> + +<p>Martt breathed beside me, "Frank! Wasn't that—wonderful! It was +like——Look, here comes Zee!"</p> + +<p>Zee was on the platform—a whirlwind of veils, stained by the red +light, white limbs flashing as she whirled. Greedo's music was faster +now. Snapping staccato, with a thrum of melody. The lights changed to +a mingled riot of color within which Zee was dancing. An elf. A sprite +of the woodland, with tossing hair and fluttering arms; and a laughing +face. . . . A figure in the fairy-tale of a child. . . .</p> + +<p>But only for a moment. Then the dance slowed. Maturity came suddenly. +Zee mounted the dais, and the light there was abruptly green. She stood +in an attitude of terror, her eyes wide, hands before her, posturing +with horror.</p> + +<p>It made my heart leap. For an instant I fancied it had been real. But +the light turned silver. The horror faded into a passion of love, +her white arms extended, her breasts rising and falling beneath the +veils, her red lips parted with passionate longing. The abandonment +of youth—so young, with newly awakened passion as yet but half +understood. Then again she was whirling around the platform, leaping on +her bare toes, light as a faun. . . .</p> + +<p>Behind me, suddenly a woman screamed! The reality of a long scream +of terror! Greedo's music ceased. The lights wavered. Zee was gone. +A scream from the audience; then another. A chaos of mingled cries. +Clattering of feet. Stools overturned. . . . Someone fell against me. I +went down, recovered and climbed upright. The audience was in a panic. +I heard Martt shout, "Look, Frank! Look there over the water!"</p> + +<p>People were pushing me—surging to escape from the arcade. Shouting. +Calling to one another. And the woman behind me was still screaming.</p> + +<p>I saw it then. Through the open side of the arcade, out a mile or +more over the water, the great giant figure of a man was standing, +waist-deep in the lake, his naked torso towering a hundred feet above +it. A giant, wading in the lake, his face grotesque, malevolently +grinning in the starlight!</p> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt=""> + <div class="caption"> + <p>"The giant grinned malevolently in the starlight."</p> + </div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap"> + + + +<p class="ph2">VI</p> + +<p>The crowd within the arcade was in a wild panic of terror. I was pushed +and shoved, knocked down by heedless, rushing figures. Everyone was +trying to get outside. In a moment I was swept away. I could not get +back to where I was sitting, or even tell where the spot had been. +Martt and Frannie I could not see; the place was all a dim chaos of +disheveled, panic-stricken figures. A moment before they had been so +gay and jaunty! . . .</p> + +<p>A girl rushed past me. The veiling had been torn from her shoulders. +Her eyes for an instant met mine, as she searched my face hoping to +recognize in me the companion from whom she had been separated. Her +dark eyes were wide, red-rimmed with fear. Her face, with all the +beauty of youth gone from it, was chalk-white.</p> + +<p>She turned and rushed away from me. I thought again, "In the midst of +life . . . why, this is horrible!" That giant off there—he could wade +to the island in a few moments. . . .</p> + +<p>I fought my way out of the arcade, out under the trees by the edge +of the lagoon. There was more room out there. In the starlight I +could see figures rushing aimlessly away, scattering under the +lantern-flowers . . . others hurriedly crowding the boats. One boat was +overturned. I wondered vaguely if the struggling figures in the water +would be drowned.</p> + +<p>Back near the wall of the arcade I saw a girl's figure running. It +seemed familiar. Was it Frannie? I dashed after her. But people running +in between us blocked me. I lost sight of her; saw her momentarily as +she seemed to dart around the farther arcade corner. But when I got +there, she was not in sight. Was it Frannie? Had she gone this way? Or +into that door, back into the rear of the arcade?</p> + +<p>I stood in doubt. Then I saw Brett, running past me, out under the +lantern-flowers some fifty feet away. His cloak was discarded; he was +bare-headed. Brett in his marriage robe! Black and white, with golden +tassels gayly dangling from the rolled skirt of his jacket. He was +disheveled; as he ran, I saw him tear off the jacket impatiently and +toss it away.</p> + +<p>"Brett! Oh, Brett!"</p> + +<p>He stopped; whirled toward me. "Frank! Where's Frannie—and Martt?"</p> + +<p>"I do not know," I said. "I lost them. That giant——"</p> + +<p>"The giant is wading the other way now." He pulled me past a thicket, +and pointed. I could see the back of the giant's naked shoulders, +towering up against the stars. He was going the other way—wading +toward the far-distant opposite lake shore. And now against the +island's banks, the waves the giant made were beginning to pound.</p> + +<p>Brett said: "I don't know where Leela is. I was in there with her—and +with Zee. I rushed out when the alarm came—when I went back they were +gone." He stood irresolute. "We must find them, Frank. And get back +home." He drew a long breath. "It has come, you see, as I feared."</p> + +<p>"I thought I saw Frannie," I said. "Running—that way. But I'm not +sure. I lost sight of her——"</p> + +<p>From behind the pavilion came a scream. The scream of a girl. +Familiar. . . . The blood drained from Brett's face. "Leela!"</p> + +<p>And then I heard Frannie screaming from there also. We ran. The two +girls were standing there clinging to each other. They seemed unharmed. +But they were trembling, shuddering, arms gripping one another.</p> + +<p>"Leela! What is it?" Brett held her off, regarding her. "You're not +hurt, are you? What is it?"</p> + +<p>We four seemed alone here beside the arcade. Lantern-flowers were over +us; a thicket was near by. Frannie's arms were around me.</p> + +<p>"Frank—oh——" She choked; she seemed struggling to tell me something.</p> + +<p>I held her close. "You're not hurt, Frannie. Just frightened. What +became of Martt?"</p> + +<p>Oh, horrible! What gruesome, horrible thing was this! Within my arms I +could feel her sensibly shrinking! Her shoulders within my encircling +arm, melting . . . palpably dwindling.</p> + +<p>Horrible! And there was a great cry from Brett. "Leela! My God, +Leela——"</p> + +<p>At the horror of it, Brett and I stood dumbly staring; and again the +girls clung together. They seemed dizzy; they swayed, almost fell, then +steadied themselves.</p> + +<p>Visibly smaller now, like beautifully formed little children, clinging +together, no taller than my waist.</p> + +<p>Dwindling!</p> + +<p>Then Frannie pointed to the thicket. Two small human figures stood +there—a foot high, no more. A grinning gnomelike man, with black +matted hair on his naked chest; and a woman—a woman thick and +shapeless. A foot in height. But they were shrinking very fast. And +beside them were four small animals with horns—grotesque like a dream +mingling dog and horse and moose. The animals, too, were dwindling.</p> + +<p>Brett saw them; but neither he nor I made a move. At our feet Frannie +and Leela, no higher than our ankles now, were gazing up at us, with +tiny upraised arms, pleading.</p> + +<p>"Leela! Frannie!" We knelt by them. Then Brett in an agony of terror +lifted Leela in his hand. "Leela! Don't—don't get any smaller!"</p> + +<p>Then he put her down. She ran, half fell the distance of my foot to +reach Frannie. And I heard Frannie's tiny voice calling up to us in +gasps, "We're going! He—that man there with the woman—caught us. +Forced—down our throats—a drug. We—going——"</p> + +<p>Smaller than my finger. Then so small we knelt to see them. They were +huddled against the side of a pebble. Then they seemed struggling +toward the pebble. Behind it. Under it. Under its curve. . . .</p> + +<p>Brett cried, "Don't move, Frank! My God, we might trample on them! +Don't move!"</p> + +<p>The figures in the thicket had vanished. By the pebble which Brett +guarded so carefully I thought I saw Leela and Frannie. Saw a movement, +as though an ant were there, hiding under the pebble.</p> + +<p>Then—they were not visible. We did not dare look too closely. They +were gone! Still there within a foot of our straining eyes—but so +immeasurably distant! Lost! Gone! Stolen into smallness!</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_3"><i>CHAPTER 3</i></h2> +</div> + +<h3>THE THING IN THE FOG</h3> + + +<p>Within the arcade, when the alarm had sounded, Martt leaped to his +feet, dragging Frannie after him. He saw me knocked to the floor, but +could not reach me. A press of panic-stricken people was sweeping him +away, but he clung to Frannie. Then he saw me regain my feet; saw me +looking around. But I did not see him; and though he shouted at me, in +the noise and confusion his words were lost.</p> + +<p>Frannie gasped, "What is it? What's the matter, Martt? What is it?"</p> + +<p>Martt did not know. But he guessed, and his heart went cold with fear. +"We must get outside, Frannie. Hold tight! This way—it's nearer! There +goes Frank—we'll join him outside."</p> + +<p>Martt was forcing a way for them through the crowd. Frannie stumbled. +Her hold on him was broken. She fell; and before he could reach her +he was knocked backward by a running man. When he regained his feet a +swift-moving group was between him and Frannie. He saw two girls stop +and help her up; then discard her. Saw her turn, confused, and run +into a space where the crowd was thinner. He was being shoved away from +her.</p> + +<p>"Frannie! Wait! This way!"</p> + +<p>But she did not hear him. And then he could no longer see her; there +were too many people in between. He struggled in that direction, then +he thought he saw me, and turned momentarily the other way. . . .</p> + +<p>Martt found himself alone, outside the arcade. The crowd was thinner. +Still he was not certain of the cause of all this panic. Then he saw +the giant. Stood, and stared with tumultuously beating heart.</p> + +<p>A man bumped into him; for an instant he thought that it was Brett. +Memory of Brett reminded him that Brett was probably within the arcade, +back of the platform-stage. He saw an opening, there in the arcade +wall; he thought it was a doorway, leading back of the stage. He +started for it, ran headlong into a girl standing there, staring out +over the water to where the giant now had faced about and was wading +away.</p> + +<p>"Martt!"</p> + +<p>"You, Zee! Where's Brett? Where are Leela and your father?"</p> + +<p>She clung to him, her draperies drooping, her hair tumbling in great +dark waves over her white shoulders as she shook her head.</p> + +<p>"I do not know. They were in there a moment ago. Frannie came in—she +and Leela were at the other door. Martt—that giant——"</p> + +<p>"He's going away, Zee. Look! You see him turned about? Don't be +frightened. We must find Brett. I don't know where Frank is—I lost +him. There he is—isn't that Frank? Oh—Frank!"</p> + +<p>They ran toward a man's figure, passing along a distant line of trees. +But when they caught up with it, the man was a stranger. Ahead of them, +hidden by a thicket, voices were shouting. A rhythmic call. Martt and +Zee listened; but Martt could not understand the shouted words.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Zee? Can you understand them?"</p> + +<p>"They're saying, 'The messenger from Reaf!' Some messenger from Reaf +has come with news."</p> + +<p>"Come on. Let's go see what it is."</p> + +<p>He gripped her hand. They ran swiftly through the woods. They were +already several hundred feet from the arcade. The lagoon was on +its other side; ahead of them was a patch of woods, dark, for the +lantern-flowers did not grow along here. And beyond the woods, the +shore of the island where the shouting sounded.</p> + +<p>They ran. Soon Zee was ahead, leaping like a young chamois, her veils +and hair flying.</p> + +<p>"Wait!" he called. "Not so fast!"</p> + +<p>She stopped abruptly. And Martt stopped. There was a pounding on the +shore; waves rolling up, as though the peaceful lake were torn by a +storm.</p> + +<p>"What's that, Zee?" But the shouting began again; and without +answering, Zee started ahead.</p> + +<p>The starlit lake came into view. Like a distant, monstrous shadow, the +retreating giant was visible against the stars. On the shore, white +waves were rolling up. A boat was here, with its sail flapping. A wave +caught it, turned it over.</p> + +<p>On the strand a group of people were standing with the man who had come +in this boat from Reaf. Zee joined the group. In a moment she returned.</p> + +<p>"He says—the messenger says—that giants are in Reaf! The city is +emptied—the people have scattered into the country. The road to +Crescent is crowded with people coming here."</p> + +<p>"Giants! There—as well as here——"</p> + +<p>"Yes. They did not attack. There were two giants. They stood in the +lake and laughed while the people fled from the city. Hundreds were +killed in the rush to get out—hundreds were swept away into the +subterranean rivers and the giants stood and laughed. The city is +deserted, and the two giants are there now."</p> + +<p>Men were helping the messenger right his boat. The group on the shore +scattered back over the island, calling, "Giants! Giants are in Reaf!"</p> + +<p>The messenger climbed into his boat, headed it out over the now calmer +lake.</p> + +<p>Martt and Zee momentarily were alone. He stared at her. He was stunned, +confused. Giants, everywhere. This thing that had been worrying Brett +for so long had come. Death, everywhere.</p> + +<p>"Let's get back, Zee. We must find Brett."</p> + +<p>It seemed shorter along the shore—a turn of the island near by, +into the lagoon, and thus back to the arcade. They started off, +running again. It was deserted along here. Zee was leading. Suddenly +she stopped in full flight, gripped Martt, drew him behind a huge, +pot-bellied tree trunk which stood near the water's edge.</p> + +<p>"Zee, what——?"</p> + +<p>"There, over there."</p> + +<p>"Where? I don't see anything."</p> + +<p>She whispered insistently, "Over there—in that open space. Back from +the shore."</p> + +<p>She was crouching, and he crouched beside her; followed her gesture +with his gaze—and saw what she saw.</p> + +<p>Tiny moving figures on the ground. Four of them, small dark blobs +against the white sand. They were about a hundred feet away from where +Martt and Zee were crouching. They had come out of the woods evidently, +and were crossing this patch of white sand, heading for the water. +Martt blinked and rubbed his eyes, staring at them. They moved in tiny +leaps, bounding soundlessly over the sand. Each of them a foot long +perhaps. Strange in shape; animal or human, he could not say.</p> + +<p>"What are they, Zee?"</p> + +<p>But she did not answer. Her little body was shrinking against him; he +could feel her shudder.</p> + +<p>The figures seemed long and thin, horizontal to the ground, with +something sticking upright like a tower from the middle of them. Martt +gasped. He had thought them four animals, with humps like upright +towers. They were not. He saw them now as running dogs with horns, each +with a tiny human figure on its back. And he gasped again. They were +growing larger!</p> + +<p>They crossed the sand in bounds and momentarily stopped. Already they +were fully half normal size. Four horned animals that might have been +grotesque dogs, or horses. Saddled; and mounted upon them, a heavy-set, +half-naked man; a strange, shapeless woman—and two girls!</p> + +<p>Normal size now! No, already they were larger! Growing rapidly larger! +Frannie and Leela!</p> + +<p>Martt half started to his feet. He opened his mouth to shout +impulsively, but Zee drew him back and silenced him. The four animals +were taking to the water. Swimming with heads stretched out. Martt +could see Frannie and Leela bending forward, each clutching the horn of +her mount. In single file the animals swam swiftly out into the starlit +lake. They did not seem to be growing any further. Twice normal size +perhaps. Soon they were four dark blobs on the shining water. Visually +seeming smaller by distance. V-shaped lines of silver phosphorescence +streamed out in the water behind them with their swift forward +progress.</p> + +<p>And presently they were vanished.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Martt and Zee stood up. They could not explain it. They tried to, but +could not. But the main facts were clear. That had been a man and +woman giant, and four of their animals. They had captured Frannie and +Leela. Had made the girls and the animals change size like themselves. +They had all, just now, been very small in size. To escape observation +coming across the island to its shore, Martt concluded.</p> + +<p>He said, "We must get to Brett—tell him about this. And then—go after +them——"</p> + +<p>Again they started running along the shore, intending to turn at the +lagoon-mouth for the arcade. Martt's thoughts flew swift as his legs. +Leela and Frannie captured . . . they must be rescued . . . then all +of them would get into the vehicle and go to Earth—get out of this +danger. . . .</p> + +<p>Zee was saying, "That is Reaf, off that way where they went."</p> + +<p>The wading giant had also gone that way. The messenger had said that +Reaf was deserted, that giants were there. Evidently Reaf was the place +at which these giants first appeared. Evidently it was the point of +entrance and departure for them into and out of this realm. Leela and +Frannie were being taken to Reaf. . . .</p> + +<p>Martt's heart leaped. An idea was forming in his mind. A plan—a mad, +reckless plan. But it seemed possible of success. . . . He thought of +the vehicle. It would be of no use against these giants. It was too +unwieldy. Besides, shut up in it one could not attack. And when they +stopped it to disembark, the giants would overwhelm it. Or, if at the +moment it was too gigantic for them, then they would escape before +the occupants of the vehicle could get out to stop them. . . . And +besides, the vehicle was too precious—no chances like that should be +taken with it.</p> + +<p>Martt told himself that he must get Brett to hide the vehicle. Guard it +somehow. . . .</p> + +<p>A mad idea, this plan he was pondering. . . . They came to the +lagoon-mouth; and here, to crystallize Martt's plan, to make it seem +feasible—here lay a small sailboat, deserted by its owner. It lay, +half pulled up on the sand, around the bend of the lagoon.</p> + +<p>"Zee! Stop! Wait! I want to talk to you."</p> + +<p>Zee had been bounding ahead of him. She stopped, waited, faced him. He +was breathless.</p> + +<p>"That sailboat," he said. "It's one of the fast kind, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes." She regarded it. "Yes. Very fast."</p> + +<p>It was no more than a shell. A flat, spoon-shaped affair, with a small +cockpit just large enough for two; and it had a very tall, flexible +mast, and an overlarge crescent sail. The sail was flapping. Out on the +lake the wind had risen. It was blowing directly toward Reaf.</p> + +<p>"Zee, listen—could you sail that boat?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes."</p> + +<p>"You could handle it in that wind out there?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Of course."</p> + +<p>"And it would go—how fast, Zee?"</p> + +<p>"You mean—to Reaf?" She was as excited as he.</p> + +<p>"Yes. To Reaf. We could get there. Go after them. Cautiously. We could +hide before we got there. I've a plan——"</p> + +<p>"How long to Reaf?" She pondered. "Three—what you call hours. We go +fast in a wind like that."</p> + +<p>"Yes. That's it. Fast. Three hours. Zee, listen. Reaf must be where +the giants go to leave for their own world. They're taking Frannie +and Leela there. You see? And if we can get there—get into Reaf"—he +gestured—"Zee, if they—those giants are very big, then we to them are +small. Tiny. And it's quite dark. It would be dark in the caverns near +Reaf—the houses there near the subterranean rivers. We would be so +small the giants might not see us."</p> + +<p>He drew a long breath. "My plan, Zee, is to get in there, hide, and +find a giant from whom we can steal the drugs. With the drugs——"</p> + +<p>She was trembling with excitement. No fear now. Reckless as only youth +can be. "Oh Martt, if we could get the drugs! Brett said the giants +must be using drugs. And make ourselves larger than the giants——"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Then I can fight them. Rescue Leela and Frannie. We've got to do +it. Bring Leela and Frannie safely back. We'll say, 'Here they are, +Brett.' But if we wait, if we stop now it will be too late."</p> + +<p>Before Martt's eyes was the vision of himself and Zee returning +victoriously with the rescued girls. And with the drugs in his +possession. There would be no danger then. The giants, knowing the +drugs were stolen, would not dare remain. . . . They would all escape +up into their own world. . . .</p> + +<p>"Will you do it, Zee? Shall we go?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>Martt thought of his flash-cylinder. "I wish I had it, Zee."</p> + +<p>"Where is it?"</p> + +<p>"In the vehicle. But we have no time to get it."</p> + +<p>"I think it would not be of much use."</p> + +<p>"No. I don't think so either. But all I've got is this." He displayed a +knife whose blade, as long as his hand, slid back into its handle for a +sheath.</p> + +<p>"Good," she said. He replaced the knife. They climbed into the boat. +Martt shoved it off.</p> + +<p>In a moment they were beyond the quiet lagoon, heading out into the +starlit lake, with the lights of the island fading behind them.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">II</p> + +<p>The wind was strong when they were beyond the island. The sail bellied +out in front of them like a great crescent dish; the spoon-shaped boat, +barely skimming the surface of the water, rode high on a white wave +beneath it. Zee lay on her side, upraised upon an elbow with her hand +on the knife-blade rudder that trailed the water behind them. Beside +her, hunched with arms wrapping his upraised knees, Martt sat and +peered ahead under the sail.</p> + +<p>The lake was dim in the starlight; its concavity rose to the horizon. +It seemed empty ahead. No boats. The wading giant had vanished; the +swimming figures were gone.</p> + +<p>As they sailed with the wind, the night seemed windless and calm, save +that the lake boiled under them, swiftly passing. Martt was in no mood +to talk. Zee, too, was silent, engrossed with her task of guiding the +boat.</p> + +<p>Occasionally, with a surreptitious, sidelong glance, Martt regarded her +intent little face, earnest and solemn. Long, dark lashes, tendrils of +dark hair around the slim white column of her throat; her outstretched +limbs revealed by the stirring draperies. . . . A lock of her hair flew +across his cheek. He touched it, cast it away.</p> + +<p>"Zee?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Martt?"</p> + +<p>"I was thinking—you dance very beautifully."</p> + +<p>She turned to him, and smiled; a whimsical smile, and her eyes were +dark woodland dells of fairyland. "Father does not think so. A peddler +of movement—violent, tempestuous movement! Do you think that, Martt?"</p> + +<p>"No," he assured her. "Of course I don't." As she turned back to her +steering, his fingers furtively caught a hem of her robe and held it.</p> + +<p>There was a long silence. Then he said, as though there had been no +silence, "Of course I don't. I think you dance beautifully." And he +added, "It made me——" His tongue was about to say, "It made me love +you," but his beating heart smothered the words. He amended, "It made +me think that your father was very wrong to say that. And about Leela, +too."</p> + +<p>At the mention of Leela he saw a shadow cross Zee's face. He tensed +himself; set his jaw grimly. This was no time for thoughts of love. +Leela, and his sister Frannie, were captured by giants. There was work, +danger for him and for Zee, up ahead in this starlit night. He would +need all his wits, all his resourcefulness. . . .</p> + +<p>He remembered the one visit he had formerly made to Reaf; tried to +recall how the city lay. Tried to plan what he and Zee would do, now +when they got there.</p> + +<p>He said, "Zee, the rivers at Reaf that plunge into the mountains—no +one has been in them very far?"</p> + +<p>"No," she said.</p> + +<p>"Can you walk along their banks, inside, under the mountains?"</p> + +<p>She nodded. "In some places there are narrow ledges beside the water. +But how far—no one knows."</p> + +<p>"And in other places—near Reaf, I mean—there are tunnels? +Passageways?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Back into the caves and beyond."</p> + +<p>"I think," he said, "that back through there is the way to the giants' +huge outer world. They've come down, and through the ground behind the +mountains. Do you suppose they'll take Leela and Frannie up to their +own realm? Or keep them in Reaf?"</p> + +<p>"I think—we do not know anything about it," she said.</p> + +<p>He smiled grimly. "You're right, we don't. Why the giants should come +here at all I don't know. But we're going to know more about it before +we get through with them, Zee. What I'm hoping is that we might find +one of them alone. We've got to get the drugs away from them somehow. +We've got to."</p> + +<p>Martt remembered once arguing with Brett about the giants. Brett +had thought that they used some drug—two drugs—one to shrink +proportionately each of their body cells, and the other similarly to +increase the size of the cells. Drugs of the kind had already been +sought for on Earth. Nitrogen was the basis for growth. And the new +element, Parogen, had been found to cause a shrinkage. In Mars they had +developed such drugs further—but they were still impractical for human +use.</p> + +<p>These giants evidently had something of the kind. And it must be +radio-active—it must cause a radiation affecting vegetable or animal +matter in near proximity to the changing body. The garments of the +giants expanded and contracted with their bodies. But Brett had said +that a weapon in your hand—particularly one of mineral—would not +change size. . . . The thought was to some slight degree, at least, +comforting to Martt; the giants would be unarmed.</p> + +<p>Zee's voice broke in on his thoughts. "Look, there are the mountains +behind Reaf."</p> + +<p>Over the lake, ahead of them the distant horizon was a haze of +phosphorescence. But to the left a line of shore had become visible; +and now Martt saw up ahead the vague, dark outlines of the mountains. +Sharp, jagged peaks, tinged with a green-white.</p> + +<p>Another hour. The shore to the left was nearer. Undulating land along +the lake. A ribbon of road along the water . . . Martt thought he could +see blobs moving along it. Away from Reaf, moving toward Crescent.</p> + +<p>"The refugees from Reaf," said Zee. "The messenger said all the roads +were crowded."</p> + +<p>Another half-hour. Ahead the mountains frowned, rising sheer from +the water. The lake was more shallow here; they began passing flat, +muddy islands, with river channels flowing between them as in a delta. +A blur there, at the foot of the mountains, was Reaf. The silver +phosphorescence of the lake was darkening; the water looked muddy, +turgid. In a narrow channel between two islands, Martt noticed a quite +visible current flowing toward Reaf. It rippled the water as it passed +over a bar which Zee skilfully avoided.</p> + +<p>There were other islands, with water bubbling up from them, and clouds +of steam rising. Zee trailed her hand overboard.</p> + +<p>"We are in the warm water now. Feel it, Martt."</p> + +<p>The lake water, fed by boiling springs from all this region, was +noticeably warmer. And every moment the current toward Reaf was +becoming stronger. Martt knew that all this part of the lake converged +to the mouths of the subterranean rivers at Reaf; converged and plunged +under the ground.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>The city of Reaf was now in sight. It spread sidewise over an area of +a mile or two. The houses were perched on stilts, like flat, awkward, +long-legged birds squatting in the water.</p> + +<p>During all this time Martt and Zee had been watching closely for any +sign of giants. There were none in sight—nothing that seemed alive +over this turgid water, the disconsolate group of houses, the sheer +cliffs with the sullen mountains above them. Two yawning black openings +showed where the rivers entered. . . .</p> + +<p>A deserted city, its inhabitants fled. Some had been drowned, the +messenger said. There would be no floating bodies; the current would +have sucked them all into those yawning black mouths. . . . A deserted +city. But somewhere in there among the houses, giants might be +lurking. . . .</p> + +<p>Martt said abruptly, "We'd better get the sail down. They can see it +too easily." They were still some two miles from the outskirts of the +city. But no more than half a mile from the nearer shore. It swung past +them to the left; perpendicular black cliffs rising from the water with +a narrow rocky strip along the bottom against which the water sucked.</p> + +<p>Zee helped Martt lower the sail. There were poles aboard; the lake here +was no more than five feet deep. They could pole the boat ashore. Walk +unobserved toward the nearer river-mouth. Into the city, to hide among +its buildings.</p> + +<p>With a thrill of apprehension Martt realized that they might already +have been seen. But he thought it unlikely. From the hot water, vapor +was rising in a fog. It hung like a white shroud over Reaf. Once in it, +surrounded by the fog, they would be comparatively safe.</p> + +<p>"Zee, can you swim?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," she said. "But Martt, if you get in the water, be very +careful of the rivers."</p> + +<p>Silently they poled the boat to shore. Drew it up from the current, +left it on a shelving rock ledge. The strip here was some ten feet +wide; the hot, black lake in front, sluggishly surging toward Reaf; +and above them the smooth cliff-face.</p> + +<p>The wind had turned—a swirling current turned by the mountains. The +fog from Reaf came rolling down upon them. It grew dark; the stars were +obscured. In the humid steam they could see no more than twenty feet.</p> + +<p>"Good," said Martt. "This is what we want." He spoke in a half-whisper; +stoutly, but his heart was beating fast. He drew his knife and opened +its blade. "Come on, Zee. And listen, you keep close to me. Whatever +happens, we must keep together. And if you see anything—or hear +anything—don't speak. Just touch my arm."</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>They started, creeping silently along the rocks in the fog. It seemed +miles. The water was hot beside them. The fog, like a gray curtain, +opened reluctantly before their advance. Presently the ghostly outlines +of houses were visible, a group of them clinging forlornly together +near the shore. Wooden platforms like balconies connected them. A +bridge came over and down to the rocks.</p> + +<p>Then other buildings. A large one of two stories, backed against the +cliff-face. Martt and Zee went under it, groping in the blackness among +its piling. The close, heavy air smelt of fish.</p> + +<p>They came out to find that the rocky shore had ended. A narrow incline +walk led out and up over the water to another group of ghostly +buildings. They were some thirty feet away, standing on stilts some ten +feet high. In the gray darkness of the fog their shadowy outlines were +barely visible.</p> + +<p>Martt stopped. "Zee," he whispered, "how far are we from the nearest +river-mouth?"</p> + +<p>"Not far," she said. "Listen."</p> + +<p>In the silence he heard the rush of water. As he stood there, suddenly +this whole adventure seemed impractical. There were no giants here. +They had all gone on, up into largeness unfathomable, taking Leela +and Frannie with them. How could he follow? Even if he dared plunge +under the mountains, he could never reach that outer realm. It was +gigantic—compared to his present size it might be a million miles away.</p> + +<p>Or, if there were giants still lurking here in Reaf, of what use to +seek them out and be killed by them?</p> + +<p>For an instant Martt hopelessly considered turning back. But he never +reached the decision; Zee's fingers gripped his arm—cold, shuddering +fingers. He stared, as he saw her staring, and within him his blood +seemed to stop its flow.</p> + +<p>Something was coming down the narrow incline bridge at the foot of +which Martt and Zee were standing frozen, transfixed with horror. +Something . . . in all the dark murk of fog Martt could not make it +out. An animal? It seemed oblong, the size of a large dog. He could see +its moving legs—eight or ten legs, moving as it walked. He felt Zee +stir beside him; he withstood his impulse to run. That would make too +much noise; the thing would bound after them—catch them. . . .</p> + +<p>There was a rotting post beside Zee. She and Martt crouched there and +watched with a horrified fascination the thing as it came padding down +the incline. It was vaguely green-white; it seemed luminous. As it +approached, Martt saw it was a sleek body, moving lithe like a panther. +A green-white thing. And then he saw that it was headless. A blunt end, +with a gaping, dripping mouth and a shining green eye on a protruding +stalk. It stopped, turned the eye to look upward and back.</p> + +<p>Martt's breath was stopped. In the silence he seemed to hear his own +tumultuously beating heart, and Zee's. The thing was coming on again. +Now Martt could hear sounds from it. A whining; a babbling. And from +the houses, up there at the end of the incline, came another sound. A +great, heavy breathing. A giant was up there asleep! This thing—like +nothing of Zee's world—belonged to the giants! Martt's heart, for all +his horror, leaped with exultation. A giant, asleep! A giant smaller in +size now, if he were up in those houses. He would have the drugs; they +could steal the drugs from him while he slept.</p> + +<p>The thing on the incline was quite close. It glowed with its own light, +greenly phosphorescent, like the ghost of something in a dream, leprous +with its missing head.</p> + +<p>Another moment. It was passing close beside Martt. A luminous liquid +dripping from the gaping slit of its mouth. Its eye on the stalk peered +ahead. Its voice was clearly audible. A whine; and babbling sounds like +words.</p> + +<p>Revulsion, even more than fear, swept Martt. This thing was muttering +words! Animal, or human—it was talking, babbling to itself. Strange +words of an unknown tongue—but human words. Babbling them as though +with reason unhinged. Gruesome! This leprous thing—leprous of body; +and leprous of mind!</p> + +<p>It passed within an arm's length of Martt as he crouched. And suddenly, +without conscious thought, he struck at it with his naked knife. +Horrible! The knife sank, but the thing was scarce ponderable! Martt's +hand with the knife went down and through the luminous green body, with +a feeling of warmth and a wet stickiness, but no more.</p> + +<p>The force of the blow, unresisted, threw Martt off his balance. He +fell forward, but still clutched the knife. The thing, with a sharp, +horrible cry of pain, lurched backward. Then stood with its eye +quivering, poised for its attack.</p> + + + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_4"><i>CHAPTER 4</i></h2> +</div> + +<h3>THE WILD NIGHT RIDE</h3> + + +<p>Frannie forced her way out of the crowded arcade, with its struggling, +panic-stricken occupants. She was confused, terrified. Separated from +me, and then from Martt, her only idea was to find us again; or find +Brett. Outside the arcade she turned aimlessly to where the crowd +momentarily was least dense. Panic-stricken people—all strangers. Then +she saw Leela in the shadow of a doorway of the arcade, and ran to her.</p> + +<p>"Leela! What is it? What has happened?"</p> + +<p>People around them were shouting. Leela said, "Giants. There is a +giant off there in the lake. I was looking for Brett. He came out +here. Oh, Frannie——"</p> + +<p>The two girls clung to each other. It was dark where they stood. At +the moment the crowd had surged the other way. Suddenly Frannie became +aware of a dark form looming beside her. A man twice the size of +herself. She tried to scream, but a great palm went over her face. She +felt herself being jerked from her feet. . . .</p> + +<p>She half fainted; recovered to find herself in a thicket within a few +feet of the arcade. Leela was beside her. Leela panted, "Don't scream, +Frannie! They'll—kill us if we scream!"</p> + +<p>The man was with them, and a thick-set lump of a woman. Not so large +now. Almost normal in size, for they were dwindling. The man was naked +to the waist, a gray-white, barrel-like chest matted with hair. A face, +fearsome with menacing eyes, and a head of matted black locks.</p> + +<p>And in the thicket were four horned animals; saddled, like large horses +with spreading antlers. The animals were dwindling. . . .</p> + +<p>The man rasped a command at Leela. From his belt he drew small pellets, +white like tiny pills of medicine. He thrust one at Leela, forced it +down her throat. Leela gasped, "You must take it, Frannie. He says—it +is harmless—but if we resist—he will kill."</p> + +<p>Then the man thrust his fingers into Frannie's mouth, his arm holding +her roughly. She gulped, swallowed. It was an acrid taste. . . .</p> + +<p>The man pushed her roughly from the thicket. And pushed Leela. His +triumphant laugh was the rasp of a file on metal. Leela and Frannie +stumbled to the wall of the arcade, stood clinging together. And +suddenly, with the realization of what was upon her, Leela screamed. +And Frannie screamed, though she did not yet understand.</p> + +<p>A wave of nausea possessed Frannie. Her head was reeling. Voices +sounded near by—familiar men's voices. My voice, and Brett's! We came +running at the sound of the screams.</p> + +<p>Frannie held tight to the swaying Leela as Brett and I rushed up. And +I took Frannie in my arms. Brett was demanding, "Leela, what is it? +You're not hurt, are you? What is it?"</p> + +<p>Frannie wanted to try and tell me. "Frank—oh——" She choked; her +throat was constricted.</p> + +<p>And then Frannie really knew! Within my arms she felt herself +shrinking! Growing smaller; but it was not so much that; rather was it +that my encircling arm was expanding, holding her more loosely.</p> + +<p>With the horror of it, Brett and I stood apart. Frannie's nausea was +passing; her head was steadier, but dizzy with the strange movement of +the scene around her. She clung to Leela, and, of everything within her +vision, only Leela was unchanging. The wall of the arcade was slowly +passing upward; its nearer corner was moving slowly away; Brett and +I were growing. Our waists reaching to Frannie's head; and then our +knees. She gazed upward to where, fifteen or twenty feet above her, our +horrified faces stared down.</p> + +<p>The mind always takes its personal viewpoint. Frannie and Leela were +dwindling into smallness. But now that the nausea and dizziness +were past, to them, they alone were normal. Everything else seemed +changing . . . the whole scene, growing gigantic. . . .</p> + +<p>It was a slow, crawling growth—a steady, visible movement. The ground +beneath their feet was a fine white sand. To Frannie's sight this patch +of sand had originally been some ten feet, with the arcade wall on one +side, and a thicket on the other. But the ground was shifting outward +with herself as a center. Under her bare feet she could feel its steady +movement—drawing outward, shifting so that her feet were drawn apart. +She had to move them constantly.</p> + +<p>Beside her now she saw my foot and ankle as large as herself; the +towering shafts of my legs—my face a hundred feet or more above her. +The arcade wall stretched up almost out of sight—lantern-flowers +loomed up there like great colored suns. . . . The thicket was a +hundred feet away—a tangle of jungle.</p> + +<p>Then Frannie saw the giant Brett reach down and pick Leela up on his +hand—saw Leela whirled gasping into the air. A moment, then Brett set +her gently back on the ground. She was some twenty feet from Frannie. +She ran, half stumbled across the rough white ground until again the +girls were together.</p> + +<p>The arch of my sandaled foot was now as tall as Frannie. The arcade +wall was very distant; the thicket was a blur in the distance. That +small patch of white sand had unrolled to a great stony plain. Rough; +yellow-white stones strewn everywhere. Frannie saw my feet and +Brett's—as large as the arcade once had been—moving away with great +surging bounds up into the air and back. A boulder was near by—a rock +as tall as Frannie. It was visibly growing. She gripped Leela—together +they crept to the boulder's side, huddled there.</p> + +<p>But they could not remain still. The boulder was expanding. It towered +over them; but it was drawing away as well, for the ground was +expanding. Constantly they shifted their position to remain close to +it, to huddle under its protecting curve. It had been a rock taller +than their heads; it was now a mountain. It loomed above them—a +bulging cliff-face of naked, ragged rock.</p> + +<p>Then it was no longer moving. Everything now had steadied; the ground +was motionless. A normality came to Leela and Frannie. Their terror +faded into apprehension, and a desire, a determination to do what they +could to help themselves. They stood up and looked around them.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">II</p> + +<p>They were in the midst of a vast, rock-strewn plain, illumined by a +half twilight. It seemed miles in extent—a rolling country of naked +rock over which, for a sky, hung a remote murk of distance. A naked +landscape, rolling upward to a circular horizon, with the circular +mountain of rock standing beside them at its center.</p> + +<p>Leela now seemed quite calm. She said, "We are not unfathomably small. +Too small for Brett to see us, but not if he gets a glass to magnify. +He will mark the spot where we are—he will do something, Frannie—we +must not be too much frightened."</p> + +<p>There seemed nothing that they could do to help themselves. No use to +wander; though no great harm either, for they could roam for miles over +this rocky waste to cover no more than a foot or two of the white sand +Brett would be guarding.</p> + +<p>To Frannie's imagination came the thought of insects! A crawling ant in +that white sand would now be a monster gigantic! She gazed around in +terror, but there was nothing of the kind in sight.</p> + +<p>A desolate landscape, empty of movement. Frannie's heart leaped. In the +distance something was moving! She gripped Leela.</p> + +<p>"There's something out there—something moving out there!"</p> + +<p>Tiny moving specks. Too terrified to run, the girls stood staring. +A mile or two away, specks were moving across the rocky plain. They +seemed coming nearer. They separated into four specks. Four gray +blobs, coming swiftly forward.</p> + +<p>In a few moments they were distinguishable. Four running animals, +bounding, leaping over the rocks. Animals with horns. Two of them +running free; two with riders.</p> + +<p>Leela gasped, "That's the giant! And the woman! They're coming to find +us!"</p> + +<p>For a moment the two girls stood transfixed, heedless that they would +be discovered. To Frannie came the thought: The giant, the woman and +the four animals had been dwindling. They had stood in the thicket, +hiding from Brett. They were coming from the thicket now, riding over +the vast rocky plain headlong to regain their captives. Brett could not +see them; they were too small. Brett was probably standing a few feet +from here on the sand—afraid to come closer for fear of treading upon +the girls; and those few feet were miles away across this naked desert.</p> + +<p>The four animals came leaping forward. They ran low to the ground, +necks extended like huge dogs on a trail. Already they were no more +than half a mile away. The figures of the riding man and woman showed +plainly. They all seemed about normal size as compared to Frannie and +Leela.</p> + +<p>Abruptly Frannie recovered her wits. "We must hide! They must not find +us!"</p> + +<p>They hid, out of sight around a corner of the lower rock-face of the +mountain; crouched, waiting with wildly beating hearts.</p> + +<p>But it was useless. Either they had been seen or the animals scented +them. Soon they heard the man calling his mount. No noise of galloping +hoofs, for the beasts ran lightly on padded feet. A moment, then the +animals burst into view around the jutting rock; bounded up and stopped +before the crouching girls.</p> + +<p>The man dismounted. His grin was a leer of triumph. He spoke to +Leela—a harsh, guttural command in her own language, as he had spoken +before when he forced the drug upon her.</p> + +<p>Leela dragged herself to her feet, and Frannie after her. The man spoke +again. Less harshly this time, and at greater length. He gestured at +Frannie.</p> + +<p>Leela said, with a quiver in her voice that she tried to hold to +calmness, "He tells me that his name is Rokk. This woman here is his +mate—he calls her Mobah. He says they come from a very big world—down +here to our world of infinite smallness. Oh, Frannie, what can we do? +He says they are going to take us with them, up there to that Giant +World."</p> + +<p>Frannie, too, strove for calmness. "Ask him—why? What harm have we +done to him? Tell him—we don't want to go——"</p> + +<p>Leela turned to this man who had called himself Rokk. Then she appealed +to the woman—but the woman stared dumbly and turned away.</p> + +<p>"Frannie—he says we will learn later what he wants. He says—we will +not be harmed if we cause no trouble. We are going—he says he is going +to take us——"</p> + +<p>"Which way?" Frannie interrupted.</p> + +<p>"I don't know. I suppose to Reaf."</p> + +<p>"Ask him."</p> + +<p>Leela asked him. "Yes, by way of Reaf. He says we will mount the +animals—he calls them dhranes. They run very swiftly—as Brett +describes your wolves of the northern ice-fields of your Earth."</p> + +<p>Frannie demanded, "He says we go to Reaf?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. We will cross the island—out the lagoon—riding the dhranes as +they swim."</p> + +<p>Memory of the island—the arcade—the lagoon and the lake came to +Frannie. The island! It seemed so remote, so gigantic. This vast rocky +waste surrounding them now was only a small patch of white sand beside +the arcade wall.</p> + +<p>She said swiftly, "Leela, ask him how we can ever do that when we are +so small? Why, it must be hundreds of miles—for us in this size—just +to reach the shore of the island."</p> + +<p>"I told him that. He said, 'Of course.' He said he has been riding from +the thicket ever since he got small enough to avoid Brett's sight. +While they were still diminishing they were riding. He was afraid Brett +would see them—but he had to take that chance."</p> + +<p>"I mean," said Frannie breathlessly, "tell him we must get larger. It +is too far in this small size. Tell him you know the island and the +lake well—we will help him escape——"</p> + +<p>Leela nodded eagerly. "So that if we get large, Brett may see us?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Try and get him to make us large at once—now. Tell him we'll +help him——"</p> + +<p>Rokk grinned sardonically at Leela's words. Leela turned to Frannie in +chagrin.</p> + +<p>"He says he will do as he thinks best—and we will do as we are told."</p> + +<p>Rokk added another command. Leela said, "We must mount the dhranes, +Frannie. I think we had better do as he says—and not talk. Can you +ride a saddle like that?"</p> + +<p>From Frannie's viewpoint, the dhranes were now about the size of +small horses—four-legged, long-haired, shaggy beasts with crooked, +wide-spreading antlers. They moved as though on springs. Frannie was +reminded by their movements of giant leopards she had seen in cages on +Earth. But they seemed gentle, docile enough. The saddles were oblong, +padded with fur, with a high and a low foot-rail, both upon the same +side, on which the rider's feet could rest.</p> + +<p>"I can ride that," said Frannie; and nimbly mounted. There was no +bridle; Frannie leaned forward and clutched the antlers. Leela mounted. +Rokk moved his dhrane about by spoken words, and by slapping its +haunches with his hands.</p> + +<p>Leela said, "He is going to give us some of the drug, Frannie. Some +now—to make us larger. But before we are very large he says we will +be beyond the arcade, in the woods where Brett can not see us. We will +ride very fast——"</p> + +<p>The animals lapped their drug eagerly. The man and woman took theirs, +with Leela and Frannie. To Frannie again came a moment of nausea—a +reeling of the senses. But it was quickly passed.</p> + +<p>Rokk shouted. Frannie tensed herself. The dhrane under her bounded +forward. The ride began.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">III</p> + +<p>At first Frannie clung tensely to the antlers; but soon she found it +was not necessary to do so. The dhrane ran with long, smooth bounds; +sure-footed on the rocks as a chamois, noiseless, lithe as a great cat. +It ran, with head extended, low to the ground; beneath her, Frannie +could feel the play of its smooth muscles, rippling under its shaggy +skin.</p> + +<p>The woman Mobah rode her dhrane behind Frannie. Leela was directly +ahead, with Rokk leading. In single file they bounded forward. Leela's +black hair and draperies flew in the wind. She rode, bending forward, +her body loosely responsive to the animal's bounds.</p> + +<p>The wind of their forward movement sang in Frannie's ears. The ground +fled by under her with a blur of yellow movement. And all around her +was the murky night, rushing at her, passing, and closing in behind.</p> + +<p>A wild, night ride like the fairy dream of a child. Wild, and +free . . . a fairy dream. . . .</p> + +<p>An exaltation was upon Frannie; she urged her mount to greater speed. +And thought of the drug she had taken. . . .</p> + +<p>The drug was acting. The rushing night seemed shrinking. Everywhere +the murk was contracting. The ground was smoothing and turning from +its yellow to white. Overhead a remote—very remote—spot of red light +shone like a dying sun in the heavens. A lantern-flower! Frannie's +heart leaped with triumph. They were growing larger. . . .</p> + +<p>She heard Rokk shout to his dhrane; felt her own mount stretch +closer to the ground as the speed was increasing. The rushing night +contracting . . . they seemed riding up . . . and up . . . the ground, +the night was shrinking under them. . . .</p> + +<p>A wild, night ride up through a fairy's dream . . . it seemed endless. +Wildly free, with the exaltation of a child's fancy upon it. . . .</p> + +<p>Frannie became aware that the vast rocky plain was shrunken to a +smoother level. And ahead now, she saw a great forest, with colored +suns about it. Soon they were in the forest. A jungle. Flat, orange +stalks of grass twenty feet high. The dhranes bounded through them. +Shaggy outlines of tree trunks, each vast as a mountain. They rose into +unfathomable murky distance overhead. But these were all dwindling. The +giant jungle was shrinking . . . passing slowly, but ever faster.</p> + +<p>A fantasy . . . the dream of a child. . . .</p> + +<p>Rokk called again. Their pace slackened. Frannie saw an open space +ahead. Coarse white sand—a patch of it half a mile in extent. Beyond +it a broad beach. Water shining off there. The lake, with stars above +it.</p> + +<p>The dhranes ran more slowly. The white open space shrank as they +traversed it. The beach rushed at them. It had narrowed. Frannie saw +it as almost of normal aspect—the narrow shore of the island. The lake +was starlit—beautiful.</p> + +<p>Rokk paused a moment at the water's edge. Frannie gazed around. +The woods were behind them. A large, dark tree-trunk was near by +on the shore. Frannie gazed that way idly; and though she did not +know it, Martt and Zee were crouching there, staring with a confused +fascination. A moment. The shore shrunk further; the water had advanced +to lap the stamping, impatient feet of the dhranes. Rokk spoke softly. +His dhrane waded in, with the others following.</p> + +<p>Frannie again gripped her beast's horns. The water rose almost to the +saddle. It was warm and pleasant. The dhrane swam smoothly, swiftly, +with neck stretched out, nose skimming the surface.</p> + +<p>A dwindling silver lake. Ripples of silver-green phosphorescence; lines +of silver fire diverging behind the swimming animals. . . .</p> + +<p>Frannie turned to gaze at the receding island. An island already +shrunken, dotted with shrinking colored lights. And ahead, the empty +starlit lake.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">IV</p> + +<p>Riding over the land, it had been a breathless whistling of wind, a +swift surging of the ground beneath Frannie's feet. Here in the lake it +was quiet and calm; the warm lapping of the silver-streaked water; the +quiet stars overhead. Frannie heard Rokk talking back over his shoulder +to Leela, and then Leela drew in her mount and spoke to Frannie.</p> + +<p>"He says the giants have all gone back through Reaf to their own world. +One was wading out here toward Reaf. He was very large then; he is to +stay in Reaf on guard, while we go on. He is there now—it is not far."</p> + +<p>"How big are we, Leela? Did he say?" There was no way, here in the +lake, by which size could be compared. The exaltation of the ride—its +swift, tempestuous movement—the wild, romantic fantasy of it—all this +was leaving Frannie. A depression was upon her. She added, "Oh, Leela, +Brett did not see us! And Frank—will we ever see them again?"</p> + +<p>Leela said, "We are about twice normal size—it will not be far to +Reaf, swimming like this." In the starlight, Frannie could see that +Leela was smiling; a wistful, heavy-hearted smile. She was trying to be +brave. And Frannie smiled back.</p> + +<p>"We mustn't get frightened, Leela. Just watch our chance—try to +escape. You stay by me all you can. I mean—when we get"—there was a +catch in her voice—"when we get—under the mountains beyond Reaf."</p> + +<p>Leela nodded. Rokk was calling, and Leela urged her dhrane forward.</p> + +<p>Soon the left-hand shore and the mountains ahead were visible. The +water grew warmer. Small islands appeared. The dhranes panted with the +heat of the water; in the muddy channels between the islands, sometimes +they floundered. Steam was in the air; ahead it lay like a bank of fog, +with the frowning mountains rising above it.</p> + +<p>Presently, through the fog, the houses of Reaf came into view. Small +ghostly outlines of houses on stilts. To the right of them was a +yawning black mouth where one of the rivers plunged into the mountain. +The turgid current was swinging that way; Rokk urged the dhrane across +it, to the left.</p> + +<p>Soon they were swimming among the houses. These seemed very small. +Frannie reached up from the dhrane's back and laid her hand on the +roof of one as she passed it. Rokk was heading inshore. The mountain +here was a frowning cliff-face, with a very narrow ledge at the water +level. The ledge ended in a wooden incline bridge leading upward to a +group of buildings near shore. Six or eight small houses with doors +and rectangles of windows, clustered there together, perched on stiff +wooden legs over the water. The incline bridge connected them with the +shore, and they were strung together by a broad wooden platform.</p> + +<p>Rokk shouted, and from behind the buildings a giant appeared. He had +been sitting in the water. He stood up, with mud and slime dripping +from him. A man, like Rokk, but younger. His hair was sleek and black, +and fell long to his bared chest, across which a skin was draped. His +face was broad and flat, and hairless. He stood with the water to his +knees, beside the buildings with his arm arched over their roofs as he +leaned against them.</p> + +<p>He smiled. He called, "<i>Ae</i>, Rokk!" And Rokk answered, "<i>Ae</i>, Degg."</p> + +<p>They spoke together. Then they spoke in Leela's language. Leela +murmured to Frannie, "This man Degg is to remain here until we are +safely above."</p> + +<p>Rokk issued his commands. Degg sat down again in the water, waist-deep, +with his arms holding his hunched-up knees. He yawned and waved his +hand as Rokk swam his dhrane away.</p> + +<p>Again in single file, they swam. As they passed the buildings Frannie +chanced to glance up. On the porch-like platform up there she caught +a glimpse of a green-white shape—a thing stretched out somnolent—a +thing, headless!</p> + +<p>It was only a glimpse. Frannie's swimming dhrane carried her beyond +sight of it. . . . She was shuddering.</p> + +<p>The water now was unpleasantly hot. The current was strong. It was +beginning to ripple the water. Ugly, white ripples . . . sinister.</p> + +<p>The dhranes swam with the moving water. But they tossed their heads, +uneasy. . . . Rokk was continually shouting, forcing his mount forward.</p> + +<p>There were no houses here. The cliff-face was moving swiftly past. And +then a black mouth swept into view. A hundred feet high and twice as +broad. A mouth, with steam like the fetid breath of a monster. . . .</p> + +<p>The water was sweeping that way. Surging in a torrent. White water, +leaping over jagged rock-points that split it into foam. . . .</p> + +<p>And from the mouth came a sullen roaring. . . .</p> + +<p>Frannie's dhrane lifted its head with a sharp bleat of fear. Its body +was swung sidewise by the tumbling water, but it recovered and swam +desperately.</p> + +<p>The roaring rose to a deafening torrent of sound. White water was +leaping everywhere. Frannie half closed her eyes; she could see a +whirling blob which was Leela ahead of her. Then the black mouth opened +to encompass the world as Frannie was swept into it.</p> + +<p>An inferno of roaring blackness. . . .</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_5"><i>CHAPTER 5</i></h2> +</div> + +<h3>CLIMBING INTO LARGENESS UNFATHOMABLE</h3> + + +<p>In the fog and darkness at the foot of the incline, Martt stood tense, +with upraised knife. The green-white thing was poised for its leap. It +was not babbling now; its eye on the stalk glared balefully. A shudder +swept Martt, as Frannie had shuddered an hour before when she and Leela +passed this way, and she had caught a glimpse of this thing lying +somnolent on the platform above.</p> + +<p>Martt muttered, "Stay back, Zee." And then the headless thing leaped. +Martt caught it on his outflung hand and knife, but did not stop it. He +felt his hand sinking within it—a soft, sticky warmth. Its body came +on, and struck his chest—a blow as though a soft, yielding pillow had +struck him.</p> + +<p>There was a moment, there in the darkness, of unutterable horror as +Martt felt and saw his body mingled with the body of this gleaming +thing clawing at him. He struck wildly, fighting, kicking in a panic of +futility. Wet, warm and sticky! He seemed to tear its body apart. But +the glowing, lurid outlines, wavering, came back always into shape.</p> + +<p>The thing itself was in a panic. Lunging, twisting. Its claws scraped +Martt's face, too imponderable to scratch. The slit of its mouth +opened to grip his throat; its teeth sank impotently within his flesh. +Pressing against him . . . the slime of it was warm, with a stench, +noisome. . . .</p> + +<p>Horrible! A nausea made Martt reel. And the thing now was crying with +terrible, frightened cries. But they were low, suppressed.</p> + +<p>Martt staggered. And suddenly the lurid green shape gathered itself and +fled. Martt saw a quivering dark wound in its side. It fled whimpering +along the rocks of the shore and disappeared.</p> + +<p>Martt relaxed. He was unhurt. He stooped to the water and washed the +stickiness from him. He felt a wild, hysterical desire to laugh.</p> + +<p>"Zee, it—that thing was as frightened as I was!"</p> + +<p>"Are you all right, Martt? It's gone! What was it?" She clutched at him +anxiously.</p> + +<p>"Yes—all right. It couldn't hurt me and I couldn't hurt it. Not much." +He laughed again, but suddenly sobered. "Zee, there's a giant up there +asleep. Hear him?"</p> + +<p>They listened. From up there in the fog the deep, heavy breathing +still sounded. Martt whispered, "You wait here, Zee. I'll creep up on +him—get the drugs." He turned to her tensely. "Zee, you stay here. +Close against the rocks. Whatever happens, you stay here. I'll—if I +get the drugs—I'll make myself very large. Kill him—then I'll come +back to you. Don't move—whatever happens."</p> + +<p>He left her. The wooden incline sloped sharply upward. The fog +momentarily seemed clearing. Martt saw above him the outlines of the +houses, a broad platform connecting them. And stretched the length +of the platform was the huge, recumbent figure of a man. He seemed +about forty feet tall. He lay hunched, cramped for space, with one arm +upflung to the roof of a house, and one leg dangling nearly to the +water.</p> + +<p>Martt reached the platform. He crept past the giant's legs. The waist, +wrapped in a skin, was rising and falling with the giant's breathing. +Martt's own breath was held. His heart was thumping wildly. The giant +stirred; Martt stepped nimbly aside to avoid the movement of the great +body.</p> + +<p>At the giant's waist he paused, reached up, fumbling. There seemed a +belt here, with pockets. The drugs should be there. The bulge of the +giant's middle was nearly as high as Martt's chest as he stood upright. +He reached up, and over, feeling with careful fingers.</p> + +<p>With a thrill of triumph, Martt found two cylinders, each as long +as his forearm. In the starlight he opened them, drew from each a +flat, square tablet of compressed powder. The drugs! But which was +for growth and which for shrinkage? One was larger than the other. It +suggested growth. It was flat and square—the length of Martt's thumb. +Impulsively he would have crushed it in his mouth and swallowed it. +But a thought gave him pause. This giant was nearly seven times larger +than himself. This expanded dose of the drug then would be too great. +Martt bit off a corner of the white tablet. Swallowed it. An acrid +taste. . . . He replaced the remainder in the cylinder and put both +cylinders in his pocket, tying his jacket close around them. Would they +expand with his body? He could only hope so.</p> + +<p>Expand? How did he know but that he had taken the wrong drug? Well, he +could soon rectify that. . . . A panic swept Martt that the giant might +awaken too soon. . . . The drug was taking effect; Martt was sick and +dizzy. He reeled to a post at an outer corner of the platform. Clung +there. He all but slipped and fell into the water ten feet below.</p> + +<p>A moment, then the sickness passed. He was growing! He could feel +the post shrinking within his grip. The outlines of the houses were +contracting. The knife in his hand, already tiny, slipped and fell into +the water with a splash.</p> + +<p>The post soon was too small for Martt to hold. He reached over and +steadied himself upon the grass roof of the nearest house. It was +melting under his hands. The sleeping giant lay at his feet, a giant no +longer; a man, like himself—the two of them crowding a tiny, flimsy +platform with toy houses beside it, and black water flowing sluggishly +close underneath.</p> + +<p>A sense of power swept Martt. A triumph. He was not afraid of this man, +unarmed like himself. Already the man was undersized. . . . Why, Martt +could grip him, choke him! . . . These toy houses—a sweep of Martt's +arm would have scattered them.</p> + +<p>Martt was bending awkwardly over the roof-tops. A ripping, tearing +noise sounded. The platform, the houses, quivered, wavered, collapsed! +The whole structure, bending beneath the weight of the two huge bodies, +gave way. Martt found himself floundering in warm, muddy water, +entangled in a debris of splintered wood and grasslike house-roofs.</p> + +<p>And with him, his antagonist, awakened to a startled confusion, +floundering, struggling to get upon his feet.</p> + +<p>Martt rose to his knees. The shallow lake bottom was sticky with mud. +A house-roof hung upon his shoulder. He heaved it off; stood upright, +dripping, breathless. The other man was up also. In the starlight, amid +the floating wreckage, they faced each other. Martt was the taller; and +he was still growing. He saw his enemy shrinking before him. A slim +young fellow, with long black hair. A broad, flat face, with a startled +surprize on it.</p> + +<p>Martt laughed. And shouted, "I've got you now!" He would have leaped. +But abruptly he recalled Zee, tiny in size, huddled there by the shore. +A lunge of his body—or of this other man's body—a flip of one of +these torn housebeams—and Zee would be killed. . . .</p> + +<p>Martt turned and waded rapidly away. He wondered if the other man would +follow him. Martt wanted to get him farther out into the lake. It was +an error; for as Martt turned to look back, he saw his antagonist's +hand go to his belt; and then to his mouth. More of the drug! Martt +thought that he had in his own pocket all there was of it here. But +the giant had more. Already he was growing. As Martt stood undecided, +he saw the giant growing like himself. He was smaller than Martt now, +but growing more swiftly. He stood for an instant with his arms upflung +toward the stars; then he came wading forward.</p> + +<p>The mountains were at Martt's right hand. Shrinking, swiftly +contracting. The water now came not much over his ankles; a small patch +of wreckage marked where the collapsed buildings had stood.</p> + +<p>Martt retreated slightly; he turned, moved to the cliff-face with his +back against it.</p> + +<p>Then, with a swirl of water, his enemy rushed at him. Martt met the +rush unyielding. They locked. Swaying, struggling each to throw the +other. The lake at their ankles was lashed white. They fought silently, +grimly. The fellow was strong; he pushed Martt backward against the +Mountain. His hands strove for Martt's throat. But Martt ripped them +away. With a body-hold he bent his adversary backward; but always he +could feel the man's body swelling within his grasp.</p> + +<p>A desperation seized Martt. If he could not win now, at once, he would +lose. This fellow was growing too large. Beside them, as they swayed, +Martt caught a glimpse of the mountain. It was now a cliff not much +higher than his head. At his feet Martt was dimly aware of a small +black hole in the cliff into which water was rushing.</p> + +<p>One of Martt's legs was wrapped around the legs of his adversary; and +suddenly the man tipped. They went down together, Martt on top. It was +like falling into a puddle of water. They lunged, rolled over. And then +the giant rose, with Martt clinging to him. He was much larger than +Martt now; he heaved himself upward, flung Martt against the cliff. +Martt's head and shoulders went over its top. Jagged spires of rock; +loose rocks lying there. The giant jerked Martt back; he fell on his +feet; saw his antagonist towering over him.</p> + +<p>But in Martt's hand now was a jagged lump of rock which he had snatched +from the cliff. He flung it, and it caught the giant full on the +forehead. He staggered, and as his grip on Martt loosened, Martt leaped +away.</p> + +<p>And the giant came crashing down, his huge body falling before the hole +in the mountain; blocking it so that the surging lake backed up with a +deepening torrent of the hot, black water.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">II</p> + +<p>Martt stood panting in the starlight. He had won. The scene around +him was still dwindling, but in a moment it stopped. Cliffs to his +shoulder. A shrunken, shallow lake. Its tiny flat islands were no +bigger than his foot. Along its shore where the cliff ended he could +see the open country. Tiny threads of roads. An island with points +of colored light—the island of the festival. At his feet, miniature +houses on stilts, many of them strewn on the water, trampled by this +combat of giants in which he had been victorious.</p> + +<p>And the fallen giant there in the water, blocking the river-mouth, the +water deepening against his side.</p> + +<p>Martt took a cautious step. Zee was down there somewhere. Then he saw +her figure, dimly, in the mist which hung over the lake at his ankles. +She seemed about the size of his finger. She was standing at the +water's edge, waving up to him.</p> + +<p>He bent down—carefully. He said softly, "I see you, Zee. You must get +larger. I'll give you some of the drug to take."</p> + +<p>She shouted, "Yes." It was a very tiny voice, echoing from far away.</p> + +<p>Martt's jacket had been partly torn from him. One of his shoulders was +bare, bleeding from where he had been thrown against the cliff-top. He +stooped and dashed water upon the wound; and saw Zee crouch and shield +herself from the deluge of water he splashed.</p> + +<p>He thought, "Careful, Martt;" and from his pocket drew one of the +cylinders. The tablets of the drug still were the size of his thumb. +He took one, laid it carefully at the water's edge, near Zee. It was +nearly the size of her body. She walked to it, examined it.</p> + +<p>"Break it," he said. "Eat some—about the size of your thumb."</p> + +<p>He could hardly have seen a speck of it so small. Zee found a loose +rock. She pounded at the white tablet. Ate a fragment. And presently +Martt gave her some of the other drug to stop her growth; and she was +his own size, standing beside him, gazing at the shrunken scene in +wonderment.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">III</p> + +<p>They stood consulting over what they should do. They had the precious +drugs. Should they return with them to Brett, or go on and rescue +Frannie and Leela? Martt was confident. With the drugs in his pocket, +all sense of fear was passed. It was obvious that the world here was in +no danger. This fallen giant at their feet was the last. But Frannie +and Leela were captured; were taken up to that other realm. To delay +following would be most dangerous of all.</p> + +<p>And Zee agreed. Her eyes were sparkling. She stretched out her white +arms. She said, "With this power we would be cowards to turn back——"</p> + +<p>The giant still had some of the drugs about his person. Martt bent over +him.</p> + +<p>"Zee! He isn't dead!"</p> + +<p>The young giant's face was white; blood was on his forehead where the +rock had struck. He opened his eyes; rolled over in the water. The +dammed river surged again into its black hole.</p> + +<p>"Zee, look! He isn't dead!"</p> + +<p>He sat up; smiled in a daze, struggled to rise to his feet but could +not.</p> + +<p>The rock which Martt had hurled lay like a great boulder in the lake. +Martt seized it, but Zee caught his wrist.</p> + +<p>"Martt! Don't——"</p> + +<p>A sense of shame struck at Martt; he dropped the rock. "Zee, can you +talk to him—try if he understands your language."</p> + +<p>She spoke, and the young giant answered. He was trying to smile, +grateful for the words. Zee stooped and splashed water on his wounded +forehead.</p> + +<p>"Martt, he says his name is Degg—he has seen Leela and Frannie—a man +and woman took them into the river-mouth."</p> + +<p>The fellow did not seem greatly hurt. He was frightened, watchful, but +docile enough. Martt took the drugs from him. "Ask him the way up to +his world—it will help us——"</p> + +<p>It was the one thing that would help them! Martt realized it.</p> + +<p>Degg, outwardly at least, seemed friendly enough. When Zee promised +that they would not hurt him—would take him to his own world, the only +way he would ever get there, since he had no drugs—he agreed readily +to lead them.</p> + +<p>"But we must be careful," said Martt. "Never let him get larger than +ourselves. And watch him, always."</p> + +<p>At Degg's direction, first they diminished their stature until, +compared to the buildings of Reaf, they were about fifty feet tall. +Degg said, in Zee's language, "We wade now into the black river. Rokk +likes to swim—but wading is easier."</p> + +<p>They were ready to start. Soon they would be beyond this world—up into +largeness unfathomable. Martt said, "We must leave some message for +Brett. Let him know what became of us."</p> + +<p>There was no way to leave a written message. Conspicuously on a rock +near the shore, Martt left the broad belt of his jacket. As he turned +away, Degg was calling softly, "<i>Ae!</i> Eeff! Eeff, come here!" The +green-white, headless thing was lurking among the rocks. "Eeff, come +here!"</p> + +<p>It advanced, whimpering. Compared to Martt's fifty-foot stature it +seemed now no bigger than a rat. Martt conquered his aversion and stood +waiting while it approached. In the starlight it glowed unreal; its eye +on the stalk pointed distrustfully at Martt. It stood at Degg's feet; +whimpering—and mumbling words.</p> + +<p>Degg said to Zee, "It is afraid of your man. I tell it you will do no +harm. It wants to come with us." He stooped over. "Eeff, you come with +us?"</p> + +<p>It understood, partly the words spoken in Zee's language, and partly +the gesture. It said mouthingly, "Yes, Eeff come—with you."</p> + +<p>Uncanny! Horrible! Martt shuddered. Degg was saying, "It is a very good +friend to me. May we take it?"</p> + +<p>"All right," said Martt shortly, when Zee translated. But it worried +him. He resolved more than ever to watch Degg carefully, and to watch +this headless thing Degg called a friend.</p> + +<p>They fed a small morsel of the drug to Eeff, until it had grown to a +size normal to them. Then they started. The black mouth of the river, +to them in this size, seemed a passageway ten or twelve feet high and +twice as broad. The river swirled about their legs; hot, with steam +rising. Soon they were in darkness, following the river around a bend. +But only for a moment. Martt and Zee were hand in hand. Degg was in +advance; Martt could just distinguish Degg's figure with the shining +blob of Eeff in the water beside him.</p> + +<p>Darkness. But Martt's eyes were growing accustomed to it. And now the +rocks of the caverns seemed to be giving light—a dim phosphorescence. +The cavern expanded. They waded across a broad, shallow lake where +the water was calm. Then again into a tunnel. Miles down its tortuous +course with the river swirling and tumbling about them.</p> + +<p>Sometimes there was a dry ledge upon which they could walk. Sometimes +the river deepened, and they had to swim. Always Degg advanced grimly, +steadily, and silently. A foreboding grew upon Martt. Were they going +right? Was this the way Frannie and Leela had gone? Once he whispered, +"Do you think, Zee, that he's tricking us?"</p> + +<p>She shook her head. "You have all the drugs. He would not dare."</p> + +<p>They had waded for hours. Then ahead of them they saw Degg pause. The +river here plunged straight down into a black abyss. To the left a +passageway turned upward. It was some ten feet high and two or three +times as wide. It went up at an incline into the green, luminous +darkness. They followed Degg. A mile perhaps, steadily climbing. Martt +calculated. They had already walked possibly fifteen miles—and they +were more than eight times the normal size of Zee's world. That was +more than a hundred and twenty miles underground—most of it downward.</p> + +<p>Martt realized that he was tired. And hungry. Before leaving Reaf he +had thought of food necessary for this trip. Degg had a concentrated +food—a dull brown powder. Martt promptly had appropriated it—had +tested it to make sure it was not a size-drug. . . .</p> + +<p>The passageway abruptly opened into black, empty space. A rocky slope +rolling gently upward, strewn with huge black boulders. It extended as +far as Martt could see, upward into a luminous darkness. Overhead was a +black sky—murky with distance.</p> + +<p>Degg stopped. "We begin getting large here."</p> + +<p>Zee translated it to Martt.</p> + +<p>"Let's eat, then," said Martt. "Zee, aren't you tired and hungry?"</p> + +<p>There was water lying in flat pools on the rocks. It was clear, cold +and sweet. They sat down, talking and eating. Then Zee slept. And Degg +slept also.</p> + +<p>Martt sat alert, watching, while the headless thing stretched itself +somnolent on a rock near by, its single eye on the stalk wilting +downward in drowsiness.</p> + +<p>Martt strove to master his revulsion. He called softly, "Eeff! Eeff, +come here!"</p> + +<p>But it would not come. It moved farther away, whimpering to itself.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">IV</p> + +<p>"Zee, wake up! We've got to get started. You've slept hours."</p> + +<p>The real size-change now began. In single file they walked up the black +slope. It shrank beneath them—creeping, crawling, dwindling away under +their feet. The boulders shrank into rocks, into pebbles. In an hour +they were walking upon a smooth surface.</p> + +<p>The black void was no longer empty. Mountains showed ahead—and to the +sides. Giant faces of rock, looming into unfathomable distance of the +black sky. The mountains were drawing closer; contracting, rushing down +with a violent movement.</p> + +<p>Martt apprehensively glanced behind. A wall of dwindling rock was +coming after them. The drug in these larger doses seemed acting with a +multiplied power. The scene was a dizzy swirl of movement. Mountains +closing in everywhere. To Martt came a flash of terror. They would +be crushed. Their bodies were growing tremendously to fill this +constricted space. . . .</p> + +<p>Degg had stopped walking. They were gathered in a group. They were now +in the center of a circular valley, with a ring of mountains closing +in. A ten-mile valley . . . a mile . . . a hundred feet. . . .</p> + +<p>But the mountains shrank to hills; to a low cliff-wall—a ridge. . . . +It closed in. . . .</p> + +<p>"Now!" shouted Degg. They leaped over the low ledge of encircling rock; +scrambled over it and fell on a level ground above. . . .</p> + +<p>Beside them Martt saw a small jagged hole in the ground. . . . The size +of his waist . . . his fist . . . his finger. . . . It dwindled, closed +and was gone; while again, above them and all about, were black, empty +spaces, filled soon with shrinking canyons out of which hastily they +climbed. . . .</p> + +<p>A fantasmagoria of climbing, struggling upward to avoid being crushed +by their own growth. . . .</p> + +<p>There was a canyon too narrow, with sides too high. . . . They had to +stop their growth, and climb its jagged, precipitous side. The climb +took hours. There was another meal, while Martt slept and Zee remained +on guard.</p> + +<p>Then another valley. Broad, with a steeply inclined floor. They grew +out of it; into another; and another. . . .</p> + +<p>Martt became conscious of a change in the air. Cooler, with a dankness. +And now at last, overhead the void was no longer black. A suggestion +of purple. And suddenly as they leaped from a chasm which shrank and +closed under them, Martt saw a sky. Somber purple, with stars.</p> + +<p>A new conception of it all swept Martt. His Earth—the stars of its +Universe. The Inner Surface of the Atom, Zee's realm—millions of times +larger. And now—compared to Reaf . . . was he now a million times the +size of Reaf? . . . Or a million million? Largeness, unfathomable. A +convex world out here. The surface of a globe, whirling in Space. And +overhead, still other stars, so gigantic—so remote!</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">V</p> + +<p>Martt gazed curiously around. They were at last in Degg's world—the +region of the Arcs. A tumbled land of crags upon which lay a gray-black +snow. Martt's heart sank before its utter desolation—a tumbled waste, +upheaved as though by some cataclysm of nature. Desolation! And as +though to veil it, a fall of blackish snow—a somber, tragic shroud.</p> + +<p>It was night. And, Martt surmised, a winter season. Yet the air was not +cold; merely dank. And the snow seemed not cold, congealed perhaps by +the dank, heavy air; but to Martt's touch, not cold, no more than chill.</p> + +<p>With her bare limbs and filmy veiling, Zee was shivering. Martt +discarded his jacket, but she did not want it.</p> + +<p>He said, "But you must be cold, Zee."</p> + +<p>"I'm not." She shook herself. "I'm—frightened. This—night up +here—it's like a tomb, Martt."</p> + +<p>Tomblike, indeed. A dank, chill silence brooded over the night. And +then, almost unheralded, it was not night, but day. A small, cold-red +sun leaped up from the distant black horizon. A day of dull, flat +light. It stained the snow with blood. . . .</p> + +<p>Blood everywhere. . . .</p> + +<p>Degg said somberly to Zee, "Always blood. It is an omen. . . . My land, +doomed——" There was a quiver in Zee's voice as she repeated his words +to Martt.</p> + +<p>They had come now not to mistrust Degg. He seemed a well-meaning youth. +Simple-minded. He had told them something of his world—of Rokk, and +the woman Mobah. Degg, in his heart, hated and feared Rokk.</p> + +<p>"Why?" demanded Zee.</p> + +<p>He turned his dark, solemn eyes upon her. "You are too gentle, little +girl Zee, to understand. We have many—horrible things here in Arc. I +would not talk of them with you."</p> + +<p>It had been Rokk's plan, Degg said, to take Leela and Frannie to the +place where he lived. Degg was to join Rokk there. . . . It was not +so very far. . . . Degg called it Rokk's mound. They were headed that +way now. Soon it would be night again—Martt could do what he thought +was best toward rescuing the two girl prisoners. And Martt promised he +would protect Degg.</p> + +<p>Vaguely in Martt's mind had been the idea that he could use the +drugs again now—make himself still larger—catch Rokk unawares. But +the large drug would take no further effect. The maximum size had +been reached. Degg did not know why; save that these drugs were for +smallness—the large one merely an antidote to the other.</p> + +<p>Martt was left without tangible plan. But his first desire was to get +near Rokk's mound—whatever sort of place that might be. And he would +decide then what could be done.</p> + +<p>The blood-red sun came swiftly up in a low arc, and plunged as swiftly +down again. To Martt, it had been some half an hour of daylight. Now +came the brooding night—and in another half-hour the sun would again +make its low sweep.</p> + +<p>Martt urged Degg forward. Eeff was leading—lurid, green-white against +the black of the ground. Then it stopped. Its eye quivered; it +screamed—a long, shuddering, half-human cry of fright.</p> + +<p>Degg stood frozen—a statue in the gloom. And then Martt—and Zee also, +for she uttered a low, suppressed cry—saw what had frightened Eeff.</p> + +<p>It was about a hundred feet away—a dull, glowing red as though the +blood of sunlight were upon it. A thing which might have been a long, +blood-red vine. Not animal, but vegetable. It lay on the ground—a +great, thick stem, with upflung leafy branches waving like tentacles. +At intervals, upon long stalks, were round spots of green light. +Gleaming, baleful eyes.</p> + +<p>The thing was lying its length upon the ground. Not quiescent, but +everywhere in quivering, undulating, snakelike movement. Its eyes +seemed all turned this one way. Eyes suggesting an intelligence—a +reasoning behind them. A thing, not animal but vegetable! Its brain, +lacking even the least vestige of human or animal restraint, cast in a +mold unutterably horrible.</p> + +<p>Eeff was crouching at Degg's feet, babbling with terror. Degg muttered, +"It is unrooted! Free! It—I told Rokk they would break free some +time—before he was ready!"</p> + +<p>"Unrooted!" Zee echoed.</p> + +<p>Unrooted! It was slithering, out there in the darkness. . . . It shrank +to a blood-red blur. . . . It vanished. . . .</p> + +<p>They went on again. Degg would not talk, save to reiterate fearsomely, +"I knew they would cast off their roots! Roaming, everywhere. And Rokk +thought he dared to grow them——"</p> + +<p>A rise of ground lay ahead. Beyond its crest only the purple sky was +visible, with stars sweeping in rapid, low arcs. Martt, Degg and Zee +were walking together, with Eeff close before them.</p> + +<p>Eeff began whimpering again; then screamed. And ahead, from over the +crest of the hill, as though in answer came an echoing scream! Yet not +an echo! A scream, human! It drove the blood to Martt's heart; stopped +his breathing. The scream of a voice familiar—a girl's voice—Frannie!</p> + +<p>For all the horror surging over him, Martt leaped forward. And stopped, +stricken on the hill-crest.</p> + +<p>Beneath him in the gloom lay a shallow, bowl-like depression. The +starlight illumined it wanly. Frannie was down there, struggling in +the grip of a blood-red, vegetable thing! A segment of it was wrapped +around her, dragging her forward. The light of it drenched her with +blood; its myriad green eyes glared throughout its waving length.</p> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/illus2.jpg" alt=""> + <div class="caption"> + <p>"Frannie struggled in the grip of the blood-red, vegetable thing."</p> + </div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap"> + + +<p>And ahead of it was a line of others of its kind, leading the way, +slithering up and over the opposite slope!</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_6"><i>CHAPTER 6</i></h2> +</div> + +<h3>THE BLOOD-RED DAY</h3> + + +<p>To Frannie, the subterranean river was an inferno of roaring blackness. +Her dhrane was whirled along, sometimes swimming, sometimes floundering +desperately. Frannie clung to its antlers and closed her eyes. . . . +An eternity. . . . She heard Rokk shouting; felt the dhrane scrambling +upon solid ground. The water dropped away from its sides. . . .</p> + +<p>Frannie found herself and her dhrane standing in a dull, luminous +darkness upon a ledge by the river. The other dhranes were there. Rokk +spoke to Leela.</p> + +<p>"What does he say?" Frannie demanded.</p> + +<p>"He says we must get larger—this is too dangerous."</p> + +<p>They followed then the methods used afterward by Degg in guiding Martt +and Zee. Wading, in a large size, they went down the river. Then into +the passageway leading upward.</p> + +<p>And then the climb into largeness. To Frannie it seemed unending; but +though they were only an hour or two ahead of Martt in starting, they +were several hours ahead when they reached the giant world. Frannie and +Leela were near to exhaustion, even though they had ridden most of the +way. Rokk had not paused to sleep.</p> + +<p>It was day when they reached the desolate land of the Arcs. Then a +tomblike night; then blood-red day again.</p> + +<p>Rokk rode now with Frannie and Leela beside him, and the woman Mobah +behind. Rokk was jubilant. He talked swiftly to Leela. At intervals, +Leela translated.</p> + +<p>"He says he is glad to have us. He is taking us to his house—his +mound, he calls it. He says, very soon there is something important +happening up here. He is going to take us—show us it—happening." +Leela shuddered.</p> + +<p>"What is going to happen?" Frannie demanded.</p> + +<p>"I don't know. Something—sinister, horrible. You saw his face when he +told me?"</p> + +<p>Frannie had seen it, indeed, but she was striving to master her fear. +There was something queerly sinister, inhuman, about Rokk. And his +smile had a leer to it. Shining in his dark eyes, which often were +fixed thoughtfully on Leela, there was a look Frannie could not fail +to understand. The woman, Mobah, had noticed it. Once, over her broad +expressionless face a torrent of passion had swept. Hate? Jealousy? It +flashed at Leela—and at Frannie—and was instantly gone.</p> + +<p>Frannie said now, "Ask him what he wants of us. Why did he ever go +down into our world?"</p> + +<p>Leela listened to Rokk's smiling explanation. The man's voice was soft, +caressing. Leela went white.</p> + +<p>"He says, Frannie—he says his world here is very harsh—not good to +live in. There is very little food—he says that he and some other +men—his followers—are planning to descend into my world and conquer +it. Kill all its men—Frannie, don't you understand?—kill, just the +men of my world——"</p> + +<p>There was a silence. Then Leela added, with a frightened hush to her +voice, "Up here all is bleak and terrible. The women are all like this +woman behind us—unbeautiful——"</p> + +<p>Rokk was riding faster now, and soon, as they ascended a rise of +ground, his home came into view. It lay on a falling slope, with paths +trodden in the snow about it—a bulging mound built of pressed blocks +of the gray-black snow. It rose above the surface perhaps ten feet—an +oblong mound twenty feet wide and five times as long, like the grave of +some giant buried there, with a small upright chimney at its farther +end for a headstone. A few rectangles of white marked its doors and +windows as though one might care to stand on the ground and gaze down +at the coffin entombed within. Near by, two other mounds lay like the +graves of children, with beaten paths connecting them.</p> + +<p>Rokk's home was set alone in the midst of this snowy waste! Frannie's +heart was cold with apprehension. What was to be her fate—and +Leela's—within?</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>At Rokk's call a half-grown boy appeared in a doorway of the main +mound. He led the dhranes away. Frannie and Leela were taken down a +crude flight of icy steps and into the mound. It was much longer than +it appeared; it seemed to extend at least another story underground, +for Frannie saw an incline leading downward.</p> + +<p>They had entered the top story. Rokk led them along a passageway; +Frannie saw low-roofed rooms, with ceilings curved to the mound. Each +with a window opening at the ground level; and with crude furniture +seemingly fashioned from stone blocks.</p> + +<p>Into such a room Rokk ushered them. He was smiling, bowing like a +friendly host; his words to Leela were suave. But in his eyes there +was an unmistakable irony, and when Frannie hesitated at the door, he +pushed her roughly.</p> + +<p>Mobah had disappeared. Rokk stood a moment talking to Leela. The door +to the passageway was open. Rokk and Leela had their backs to it. +Frannie became aware that beyond the door Mobah was standing listening. +And in the dimness there, Frannie caught a glimpse of the woman's +intense face. It was torn with a jealous passion—a torrent of loosed +passion debasing its calm stolidity into an aspect almost bestial.</p> + +<p>As Rokk turned slightly, the lurking woman silently fled. Rokk bowed +to Frannie, and to Leela—a bow ceremoniously grotesque, but with a +dignity, nevertheless. His hand lingered on Leela's white arm, but +Leela jerked away. He shrugged, smiled, and went through the door, +barring it after him.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Frannie!" Leela at last gave way. She sobbed with fright +unrestrained; and this gave Frannie additional strength to be calm. She +sat Leela on the couch—a railed slab of stone, with a litter of furs +on it like the bed of an animal. She tried to comfort Leela. Then left +her; tried the door softly. It was stoutly barred.</p> + +<p>Then she tried the window. It had a pane as transparent as glass, but +evidently unbreakable. Frannie struck it recklessly with her fist. And +there seemed no way to open the window. Through it Frannie could see +along the snow-covered ground outside. The night had just come. The +ground was dark, with faint stars showing above.</p> + +<p>Frannie sat on the bed with Leela. They were both so exhausted that for +a time they slept. Hours, perhaps—Frannie never knew. Then she awoke. +The scene in the room was unchanged. It was night again. Leela was +awake. Frannie began questioning her as to what Rokk most recently had +said. Leela was outwardly calm now.</p> + +<p>"He—insists we are not to be harmed, Frannie. He told me—just before +he left—that he wanted me to like him." A shiver ran over Leela's +frail body. "He will work to make me like him—he will be very good to +me. And you—he says there is a young man—that man he left back in +Reaf—named Degg. He is sure Degg will like you, Frannie."</p> + +<p>"Did he say any more about that important thing which is going to +happen?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. He said he is going to take us somewhere—as soon as we have +rested, and Degg has come to join us here. Take us somewhere—where we +shall see a wonderful awesome sight. Frannie, he told me the men here +in this world do not like their women. He has brought me and you—to +show us to the men—that they may see how beautiful women can be. +Then—they will join him to go down into smallness—to conquer——"</p> + +<p>Leela choked. She added, and a hush fell upon her voice: "Frannie, this +Rokk has planned it all. He says there is too little food here. The +women—and the children that the men no longer want to feed—are all +placed apart. Exiled to a city—where he is going to take us. And show +us——"</p> + +<p>A tapping at the window checked her. The girls stared at each other +with the blood draining from their faces. A gentle tapping from +outside. A scraping, fumbling as though soft fingers were working at +the window.</p> + +<p>Frannie stood up, trembling. Then she moved along the wall, and with +her face to the window, peered out. The tapping had stopped. Outside +she saw a faint, lurid red glow. And three gleaming spots of green. +Moving, peering. And then like the tendrils of a creeping vine, a +leafy something, with a red sheen upon it, gently beating at the pane; +tapping—fumbling.</p> + +<p>Frannie drew back. "Leela—out there——" But another sound stopped +her. Someone—something—was unbarring the door of their room! The +two girls were frozen with terror, incapable of sound or movement. +A bar dropping with a muffled thump! The door slowly began opening +inward. . . .</p> + +<p>It was the woman Mobah. Her face was grim; her dull eyes were +smoldering green-black coals. She flung a menacing glance at the girls, +moved swiftly across the room. Her fingers at the pane touched some +hidden lock. The window swung open.</p> + +<p>Mobah darted back, seized Leela, tried to shove her toward Frannie +and the window. Leela screamed, resisted, fought with all her little +strength and called a warning to Frannie.</p> + +<p>But it was too late. Through the window a thick, red-glowing tentacle +came slithering. Its green eyes were waving triumphantly. It caught +Frannie; rolled back upon itself, jerking her upward.</p> + +<p>Heavy steps sounded in the passageway outside the room, and Rokk's +alarmed voice, shouting. Rokk burst in. He knocked Mobah aside with a +blow of his fist, and swept Leela protectingly backward.</p> + +<p>The segment of red thing within the room slithered out the window, +carrying Frannie with it.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">II</p> + +<p>"She is gone, my lady Leela. It is unfortunate, but we can not help it. +She is lost—we shall never see her again."</p> + +<p>Leela and Rokk were alone in the room. Leela shrank upon the couch; +against his gaze she huddled with a corner of the robe drawn to shield +her white limbs. He stood before her.</p> + +<p>"Gone, Leela. Dead, by now. . . . Don't shudder, little white woman. It +is the law of life—some live, some die. . . . But Degg will be sorry."</p> + +<p>She had no words, no heart with which to answer.</p> + +<p>He went on, with a frown crossing his face. "That vegetable thing +coming here has changed my plans. It has no right to be unrooted. +I grew it, Lady Leela—and many others of its kind—for a certain +purpose. But now it has broken away, before I was quite ready to dig it +up. It thinks it is full-grown. It is conscious of its power. And that +which during all its growth I have taught it to do——" He shrugged. +"I suppose they have all broken loose. All roaming——" A horrible +grimness came to Rokk's voice. "Well, they will do what I taught +them—we shall have to hurry if we wish to see it, Lady Leela."</p> + +<p>Leela summoned words. "To see—what?"</p> + +<p>He smiled. "You are impatient—and as becomes only a woman—curious! +You shall see, little white woman—blood-red things——" He gestured. +"Enough of that. But you shall realize how great is Rokk. I planned it +all. But now I shall have to change my plans a little. I had wanted +to show you and your friend—the little Frannie—to the men of this +world. So that they—our men—would know how beautiful women can be. +There is no time now, with the red things broken loose. We shall have +to be careful, my Leela. I shall send word to all the men everywhere +to have a care. . . . I wish Degg would come—but we can not wait for +him now. . . . There are animals, too, who should be guarded from these +roaming red vines I have grown. You have not seen our animals, Leela? +Degg has one—a very friendly thing; we call it Eeff. It is but half +human—and only half materialized into substance. A loyal friend, if it +likes you. But its mentality is that of an imbecile. . . . I talk too +much, like a loose-tongued woman. There is no time—we must start."</p> + +<p>He called roughly, "Mobah! Come here at once!"</p> + +<p>The woman appeared, sullen, defiant. On the flesh of her heavy gray +shoulder was a red bruise where Rokk had struck her.</p> + +<p>"Mobah! Bring the dhranes. We are leaving for the Ice City. Tell my boy +here to have Degg follow us when he comes. . . . Hurry! . . ."</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">III</p> + +<p>They rode fast. Alternate night and day—endless frozen wastes. +Occasionally they passed single mounds, isolated like that of Rokk. +Others in groups; blood-stained graveyards by day—eery and gruesome +in the starlight. Leela saw many of the green-white animals, lurking +like werewolves prowling among the mounds. And there were men gazing +curiously at the travelers. To them often Rokk gave a warning that the +vegetable things were loose.</p> + +<p>But he said to Leela, "There really is no danger. These things I have +grown will do my purpose in the Ice City. Then I will command them back +to their fields. Let them rot there harmlessly in a red welter. I can +control them. They know me for their creator—their master."</p> + +<p>There were few women or girls to be seen about the mounds. Rokk said, +with a horrible irony, "We have sent most of them to the Ice City. +It is a very beautiful place—we men have sent our women there. The +women——" He laughed sarcastically. "They are very stupid. They do +not guess our purpose."</p> + +<p>They rode in silence. Then Rokk spoke again. "My woman, Mobah"—he +glanced behind at the patient figure riding behind them—"I have kept +Mobah with me. She is good to work in the mound. But you, my Lady +Leela——" He chuckled. "We shall get rid of Mobah all in good time. We +do not want her around, do we? But I will not make you work, Leela. In +your city of Crescent, little white woman, you and I will be very great +people. I shall be the leader of all our men——"</p> + +<p>Again Leela did not answer.</p> + +<p>A red day plunged into night. Far to the left across the snowy wastes +to the distant horizon, Leela saw a white radiance in the sky. A vague +patch of silver, as of light reflected from some remote distance below +the horizon. Rokk waved his hand.</p> + +<p>"You see that, Leela? That is where I found the drugs. This globe is +very fair, off there. Longer days and nights. A warm, fruitful summer. +Food is there. Trees, with fruit. But it is all owned by another race +of people. They will not let us in. They are very powerful—very far +advanced in civilization. A wonderful age of science. . . . They know +everything. I crept into one of their cities and stole the drugs."</p> + +<p>To Leela then was driven home the conception of how vast is God's +great plan of the Universe. This miserable region owned by Rokk's +people was no more than the Polar waste of this globe. A fairer land of +science lay there where the distant radiance showed. A great, cultured +civilization perhaps. And farther beyond it—other races—all on this +one tiny globe whirling among these stars. . . .</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>They came at last within sight of the City of Ice. In the starlight +it glittered with a pale sheen. It stood on a broad plateau above the +surrounding valleys—a place of white spires, glittering under the +stars, the whole surrounded by a high white wall of ice.</p> + +<p>And as they came closer, Leela saw within the city a yellow-red glare. +Behind it, a high tower of stone dominated the scene; the glare painted +the tower a yellow-red upon one side. "The pit of fire," said Rokk. +"The one place in all our realm where the fires underground come near +the surface. It brings a warmth—a beauty. You shall see." He laughed +his horrible laugh. "That is why we tell the women they should like it +here——"</p> + +<p>They approached the wall. Rokk gazed around. "We are but just in time." +In the farther distance beyond the city was a red sheen against the +ground. Rokk understood it, though at the moment Leela did not. "Just +in time, little woman. I had thought we might better enter by the +tunnel under the wall. But that is not necessary."</p> + +<p>They rode through a gate, plunged at once into a passageway, and +emerged presently within the stone tower, left the dhranes there, and +mounted the tower. At its top, Rokk stood with Leela. Mobah sullenly +was behind them. Rokk glanced back at her. He said softly, "I think +perhaps she guesses what is to happen. But she can do nothing about it."</p> + +<p>Presently Mobah moved away and disappeared. Rokk patted his belt. +"I have all the drugs here, Leela. All there are in this whole +realm—except a very little of each which I left with Degg. We must +guard them carefully."</p> + +<p>To Leela came the thought that she might gain possession of the drugs +and thus escape. But Rokk was very watchful.</p> + +<p>They stood upon a broad balcony, with the single tower room behind them +and a breast-high parapet in front. At the parapet, Leela gazed down. +From this height the city lay spread beneath them. It was still night. +A simple, placid scene, quiet, and in a measure beautiful. A few broad +streets of packed, gray-black snow. Flat, oblong houses of ice blocks +which were white and glittering, with spires and minarets occasionally +adorning them.</p> + +<p>Directly beneath Leela, at the foot of the tower, was a yawning +yellow-red pit. She could see directly down into it; a glare, some +great distance down to where the fires of the earth were broken out. +Rising wisps of smoke . . . a sulfurous, fiery breath . . . and a +torrent of grateful heat surging upward.</p> + +<p>Around the pit, the city was built of stone for a distance, like +a broad, square park. Trees were growing there; huge, graceful +ferns; blue-green leaves like great flopping ears of an animal. And +giant palms, hung with purple fruit. . . . A tropical garden, with +flower-lined, winding paths. . . . By contrast with all this bleak +region Leela had seen, the single little park was very beautiful.</p> + +<p>There were a few women moving about the city—dull, heavy-looking, +shapeless women robed in a monotone of drab garments. Uninspired of +aspect. Yet each had a soul . . . desires . . . longings. . . .</p> + +<p>In the park a woman sat and played with a little girl. There was +another woman, newly arrived here, with a baby at her breast. . . .</p> + +<p>Rokk's voice broke upon Leela's thoughts with a rasp. "But who is to +feed them? It gets very tiresome, giving them food. . . . Ah! Now you +shall see my solution, Lady Leela——"</p> + +<p>Beyond the city walls, out over the starlit, snowy wastes, spots of red +sheen were visible. Moving. Coming nearer. Spots of red sheen resolving +into long, thin lines of red. Undulating, twisting, slithering forward. +Green spots of eyes, waving, peering.</p> + +<p>Red, growing things unrooted. Coming monstrously to do that for which +during all their growth they had been trained. There seemed thousands +of them. Over every distant slope they came closing in upon the city. +Thick red vines a hundred feet long. Others grown into a tangled +clump, every separate tendril of which was in slimy movement. A red +boll, like the bulging trunk of a tree. It rolled, leaped. Another of +a flat, round central growth, with prickling spines like huge needles +standing erect, and waving, groping tentacles. It hitched itself along, +awkwardly.</p> + +<p>They came from everywhere. Red, gleaming monsters of the ground, +advancing with a grim, uncanny silence, closing in upon the city.</p> + +<p>Leela watched, with the blood freezing in her veins. Within the city no +alarm had sounded. The woman in the park played with her little girl. +But the baby at the other woman's breast was crying. . . .</p> + +<p>The first of the red things reached the city wall. Slithered up like +some monstrous red ivy growing there. A thing of dangling green pods +from which a slimy juice was dripping. A segment of it raised high over +the wall, with green eyes staring down.</p> + +<p>In a near-by street a headless, friendly animal gave out its imbecilic +cry. The two women in the park looked and saw, and screamed. . . .</p> + +<p>The red thing rose and slithered over the wall. Stretched its length +down a street; then encircled a house, its wide-flung segments +slithering into every door and window. Screams from in there sounded +over the silent, starlit city. Shrill, throat-tearing screams of +women . . . and the piping, terrified cries of children. . . .</p> + +<p>The alarm spread. The cries were caught up, echoed from everywhere +about the city. Women and girl children were rushing in a panic from +the houses. . . .</p> + +<p>Over the wall at its every point, the red things were climbing . . . +spreading over the city . . . filling the streets . . . climbing with +a red, leafy growth into houses . . . green peering eyes, searching +everywhere. . . .</p> + +<p>One of the flat, round growths with prickling spines—needles each +as long as a human body—lurched itself into the park. With a sudden +spring it caught a running woman. Its tentacles tossed her aloft. She +fell, impaled upon its swordlike spines. Its tentacles pulled an arm +from her body . . . tossed the arm away. . . . The woman was still +screaming—horribly. . . .</p> + +<p>Leela, sickened, covered her face with her hands. She heard Rokk's +gloating voice, "You see—my solution? Look, little white woman! Make +your heart stout, like Rokk's. This is the law of life. Some live, some +die. We—you and I—will live, for love, when this blood-red day is +over."</p> + +<p>Day! The dawn had come. The red sun rose from the horizon in its low +arc. Red, staining everything.</p> + +<p>Leela, with a fascination, again involuntarily stared. The city was a +chaos of terror. From windows, with reason fled, women were leaping. +The red things caught them as they fell. . . . On a flat housetop a +woman crouched with a baby in her arms, and a little girl huddling at +her knees. A slim red arm came up over the parapet of roof. Other red +things came up, and poised with watching green eyes. The woman fought +the red arm with all her meager strength. It seized the baby, waved the +small, gray-white body aloft, dashed it to a red pulp against the stone +of the parapet. Other arms jerked the little girl away. A flat, red +thing engulfed the woman and sat mouthing and tearing. . . .</p> + +<p>In the park a crowd of the women were huddled. Some were trying to +climb the high railing at the pit of fire, but could not. The red +things slithered among them. . . .</p> + +<p>The blood-red day! A white, glittering city, stained crimson now. +Splashed and stained; and upon it the red sun poured a polluting, gory +light. . . .</p> + +<p>The blood-red day. . . .</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_7"><i>CHAPTER 7</i></h2> +</div> + +<h3>THE FIGHT ON THE PARAPET</h3> + + +<p>Martt stood in the starlight at the top of the slope, frozen into +immobility with horror. Frannie was struggling in the grip of the red +vine, being dragged along, with others of its kind leading the way. +Grown and taught for nothing but the blood-red day of the Ice City, +these things with single purpose were dragging Frannie there.</p> + +<p>Martt stood stricken for an instant. The red thing paused. All +its green eyes turned. Beyond it the other things came to a stop, +irresolute, and then slithered on. But the one with Frannie lay +momentarily quiescent; only its eyes were quivering.</p> + +<p>Martt became aware that Zee and Degg were beside him. Eeff was +crouching at its master's feet, whimpering with terror. Martt shouted, +"Zee, run back! Come on, Degg!"</p> + +<p>He caught a glimpse of Degg's face, gray with fright. But his eyes +showed a sudden determination. And Degg leaped, with Martt after him.</p> + +<p>The red thing flung up its forward tentacles, and shoved Frannie +farther back within its folds. Degg leaped for the clump of its +branches where Frannie was entangled.</p> + +<p>Martt, running forward, abruptly stopped. One of the drug cylinders +within his pockets had bumped his thigh. A thought swept him—the +drug for smallness! He stopped; recklessly poured from the cylinder +nearly half its contents. And stood, with a huge buckle of his jacket, +crushing the white tablets into a powder in his hand.</p> + +<p>Degg had fought his way to Frannie. He had torn her loose, thrust her +violently away, but was himself entrapped. He fought, ripping, tearing +at the red branches, struggling to avoid the sinuous tentacles which +curled back at him. A thick tendril of the vine had wound itself about +his legs. . . .</p> + +<p>With the powder in his left hand, Martt rushed forward. There was a +part of the red thing which seemed of lesser size and strength. Martt +rushed in among its lashing brambles. They entwined him. He ducked the +sweep of a tentacle thick as his body. Eyes on the branches peered +into his face. He seized one, pulled it off. A slime with a red +phosphorescence was on his fingers. A pod struck his face; he tore it +open and scattered its seeds. A red, noisome juice spattered him. . . .</p> + +<p>Martt was fighting only with his right hand. One of his legs was +gripped and held; he kicked, striving to free it.</p> + +<p>These smaller branches were easily broken. They mashed, some of them +like a porous, tropical plant, oozing sap. They were spongy. Martt +scattered a little of the white powder; sifted it through his fingers. +The vegetable growth sucked it up—the drug mingled with the sap of its +bruises.</p> + +<p>The branches were dwindling. Upon vegetable the drug acted more +swiftly than upon animal cells. The smaller tendrils shriveled. Then +branches of greater thickness. Martt could feel them letting go their +hold—shrinking, loosening their grip.</p> + +<p>Around him in a moment was a shriveled, shrunken bramble. He kicked +himself free. A huge tentacle from another portion licked back and +seized him; whirled him aloft. But he kept his wits. Tore at it with +his fingers; rubbed the drug into its bruised bark. Along all its +length, the drug acted. Martt's weight brought its shriveled strength +to the ground. He fell upon his feet; tore himself loose again. Stamped +and tore, and leaped away.</p> + +<p>Throughout all the length of the monstrous vine, now, the drug was +acting. Martt momentarily stood inactive, panting. He saw that Degg had +freed Frannie—saw her and Zee huddled at a distance on the slope near +by. Degg was still fighting; one of his legs seemed queerly twisted; an +arm of the red vine held him, but he kept his feet. Eeff was darting +forward and back, too much terrified to approach, yet anxious to help.</p> + +<p>The vine everywhere was shrinking. Martt ran to free Degg. But he was +too late. The largest remaining tentacle lashed forward; it caught +Degg, whirled him up in the air and flung him heavily to the ground. +Degg lay still.</p> + +<p>A moment. Then the vine was so shriveled that Martt waded throughout +its lashing length. Tore it apart. Scattered it. Stamped upon its +twisting, slithering red segments.</p> + +<p>All dwindling. Separate, dismembered segments quivering around +him . . . smaller . . . red, twisting lines, with tiny green +eyes. . . . They winked and vanished into smallness. . . .</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">II</p> + +<p>"Is he dead? Oh, Martt, do you think he is dead?"</p> + +<p>They bent over Degg and he opened his eyes. Martt knelt and lifted +his head. It was evident that he was dying; and evident, too, that he +knew it. He spoke, laboriously whispered words in Zee's language. He +tried to gesture toward Zee; on his face was an earnestness, almost a +desperation lest he might fail to give his dying message.</p> + +<p>Martt said, "Zee, he's trying to talk to you. Bend closer—he's +talking."</p> + +<p>Zee knelt at his head. He was panting, struggling breathlessly with +each word. "Rokk—was going to take your sister Leela to the—City of +Ice. Now that the red things are loose—I think you will find—him and +her—there."</p> + +<p>His breath ended with a long sigh. But he began again. "Eeff will lead +you. Tell Eeff—to take you through the—tunnel into the—stone tower. +And—hurry!"</p> + +<p>His eyes closed. Then they opened very wide. They tried to focus on +Zee's face. She bent lower to hear his faint whisper. "Hurry! You +understand—about Leela, there with Rokk. He means, for her, a thing +very terrible. You must—hurry." He added, with a breath so faint she +barely heard his words, "You are—so very beautiful, little Zee. I +never saw—any woman so beautiful. But I am not Rokk—I could not have +harmed you."</p> + +<p>He stiffened just a trifle; then went limp, his head with staring eyes +dangling backward over Martt's arm.</p> + +<p>Martt laid him gently on the ground. Eeff went and sat by him, crying +softly.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">III</p> + +<p>It was red day when they approached the City of Ice. Eeff had led them, +as Degg suggested. They saw the city from far off, with a red glow +staining its white glitter. Then Eeff plunged them into a black tunnel. +It seemed miles. Then it ascended, and they emerged into a wave of +heat, with a yellow-red glare beside them.</p> + +<p>They were at the bottom of a tall stone tower; a doorway was near at +hand. Martt gazed up the tower's side. A man was up there, behind a +parapet, gazing out at the city: a man's head and shoulders, queerly +foreshortened. But Martt recognized him.</p> + +<p>Rokk!</p> + +<p>Martt pushed Zee and Frannie hastily into the tower. He commanded, "You +two stay here, with Eeff. I'm going up. You stay here."</p> + +<p>Again Martt thought of the drug cylinders he was carrying. He drew them +from his pockets, handed them swiftly to Zee. "Keep these. Whatever +happens—if I don't come back—use them. Eeff will lead you home. To +Reaf. Ask it if it can lead you."</p> + +<p>Zee said, in her own language, "Eeff, come here. Can you lead me +back—down there where we met Degg in that place called Reaf? You +remember? Where the water was?"</p> + +<p>The headless thing turned its eye upon her. It chattered, "Yes, I +remember. I can go there—but I want Degg. I want to go back to Degg."</p> + +<p>Martt, alone, mounted the circular incline softly, and as swiftly +as he dared. Had Rokk seen him? He did not think so. Was Leela up +there? . . . If he could get behind Rokk unobserved. . . .</p> + +<p>Half-way up there was an oval window in the tower through which Martt +caught his first view of the interior of the city.</p> + +<p>The sun was sinking at the horizon. The end of the blood-red day! A +silence had fallen with the falling sun. A crimson city, strewn with +what had once been living, human flesh and blood—dismembered now . . . +strewn . . . unnamable. . . .</p> + +<p>And climbing the walls, red monsters slithering away—seeking other +horrors.</p> + +<p>The silent nightfall of the blood-red day.</p> + +<p>Martt's gorge rose. He turned from the window, and mounted the incline.</p> + +<p>The room at the top was circular, with many windows. An empty room of +stone, almost dark, with the starlight streaming in dimly to illumine +it.</p> + +<p>Martt crept softly. Through a doorway he could see Rokk's figure on the +balcony outside. And another figure. Leela, white of face, with her +black hair streaming, and her tattered, dirt-stained veiling falling +about her. Leela! She was standing, half turned, shuddering with +horror. She saw Martt! Surprize, wonderment, joy mirrored her face. +His fingers went to his lips warningly. But not quite in time. She +uttered a low cry, instantly checked.</p> + +<p>Rokk swing about. He, too, saw Martt; he stiffened, with his shoulders +flung back against the parapet and his jaw dropping. Martt had +instantly leaped, but Rokk met him squarely, surged forward, and they +fell.</p> + +<p>Rokk was the stronger; Martt knew it at once. He rolled, desperately +struggling to come on top, with his legs braced against the floor. But +Rokk flung him off and regained his feet.</p> + +<p>Instantly Martt was up, quicker, lighter than his antagonist. He struck +for Rokk's face, missed and then caught Rokk full on the chest with +his fist. The man staggered, but he was not hurt. Rokk's swing went +wide, as Martt nimbly ducked. Again they came together. Surged across +the balcony, kicking, tearing, seeking each other's throats. Locked, +with legs entwined they struck the parapet, rebounded, fell and rolled +together to the opposite wall. A primitive struggle of men using only +the weapons with which nature had endowed them. Fighting grimly, almost +silently, each with no thought but to kill.</p> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/illus3.jpg" alt=""> + <div class="caption"> + <p>"He had no other thought but to kill."</p> + </div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap"> + + +<p>Leela, near by, stood helpless, confused, a hand pressed against her +mouth in terror. There was a sound, a startled outcry. Frannie and Zee +were in the tower room, with Eeff cowering behind them.</p> + +<p>Martt momentarily was on top of his adversary, with Rokk's hairy hand +beneath his chin, pressing his head back. Martt ripped the hand away. +He called, "Run! Run—all of you!"</p> + +<p>Rokk heaved him backward, half rose, and surged over on top. Martt +saw vaguely another figure appear on the balcony. A heavy, gray-faced +woman. He heard Rokk pant, "Mobah!"</p> + +<p>The woman leaped upon the scene. She avoided Zee and Frannie. She +strove to get at Martt. She kicked; she tried to strike at him. He +heard Zee's voice, "Frannie! Leela! Help me!" As he fought, he was +aware that the three girls were pulling at the woman—pulling her away, +holding her.</p> + +<p>Martt momentarily had slackened his efforts. Rokk's fist caught him in +the face, dazed him. Martt felt Rokk lifting him up, heaving him. His +body struck the three-foot-wide, level top of the parapet. He clung +desperately, as Rokk leaped up to throw him off.</p> + +<p>They were locked together, rolling on the parapet top! Martt at its +edge, his head momentarily over, felt a wave of heat—saw, far down, +the red-yellow glare. Rokk suddenly tried to cast him loose. Then was +pushing. They were both lying at the edge.</p> + +<p>Scrambling. Panting. And suddenly Zee was up on the parapet, +crouching—her frail white hands gouging at Rokk's face. It confused +him. He relaxed. Martt gave one last desperate surge. He saw, and felt +Rokk's body slipping, sliding over the edge, feet first. Rokk's hold on +Martt was torn away, by his own weight and by Zee's frenzied, plucking +fingers. His face, close to Martt's for an instant, showed wide, +terrified eyes; a mouth that gaped.</p> + +<p>His hold broke. His body slid. He was gone! Martt lay panting at the +edge, with Zee's steadying grip upon him. A cry sounded. A wail. The +woman Mobah had torn loose from Frannie and Leela. She leaped to the +parapet. Poised for an instant—a grim, gray statue of despair. Bereft +of reason, she called, "Rokk! Rokk!" And with a long, shuddering cry, +she plunged.</p> + +<p>There was silence for a moment on the parapet. No one looked down. And +from over the distant, desolate horizon, presently the red sun came up +with the dawn of a new day.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_8"><i>CHAPTER 8</i></h2> +</div> + +<h3>YOUTH!</h3> + + +<p>Life is very strange. Brett and I—Frank Elgon of the Interplanetary +Mails—of full maturity, at the peak of our physical and mental +strength—how inglorious were the parts we played! So inconsequential I +scarcely have the heart to recount our futile actions. Yet we thought +always that we were doing our best.</p> + +<p>We stood there beside the arcade, helplessly watching Frannie and Leela +disappear into smallness. Brett left me to guard the spot. He rushed +away; came back to tell me that the giant wading in the lake was gone, +that he could not find Martt or Zee.</p> + +<p>For a time we watched the small pebble beneath which Leela and Frannie +had vanished. We even dared to move it carefully, but we could not see +them.</p> + +<p>The island was emptying of its people. We thought that Martt and Zee +might have gone home. We decided to go and join them. Perhaps to take +our vehicle, make it small to search for Leela, since we had no drugs.</p> + +<p>I told Brett of his father's death. And it was well advanced into the +morning before we learned that people on the island had seen Martt and +Zee sailing for Reaf. Hours during which we had aimlessly searched, and +prepared the vehicle for its trip into smallness to try and find Leela +and Frannie.</p> + +<p>Martt and Zee had sailed for Reaf! Following the giant! We had thought +of doing that, to try and obtain the drugs. But it had seemed reckless, +foolhardy, impossible of success. Yet Martt had done it without +hesitation. There is a caution comes at thirty which does not hamper +twenty-one.</p> + +<p>We procured a boat. Provisioned it. And sailed for Reaf, armed with our +flash-cylinders. And there we found a huge belt lying on the rocks +near a scattered wreck of buildings strewn upon the water.</p> + +<p>Martt's belt, of a size which showed us he had used the drug! He had +left the belt to explain that he had gone on to the giant world.</p> + +<p>But we were utterly helpless! We could not follow him. We were starting +aimlessly toward the river, when along the rocks there, we saw four +moving figures. Normal in size. Martt, returning with the three girls! +All of them tattered, bruised, blood-stained, their garments dirty and +torn. But unharmed.</p> + +<p>They waved at us. We landed and ran along the rocks. Martt's smile was +tired, but very happy.</p> + +<p>"Here they are, Brett. I brought them back—Zee and I did—here they +are." He added, "We had a headless thing named Eeff. It led us back, +but just now at the last, it ran away. It said it wanted to find Degg. +It ran, forgetting it needed the drugs. A half-witted, cowardly sort of +thing, but I liked it. Oh, there is so much to tell you——"</p> + +<p>Deeds of youth! No caution, no pondering! Glorious deeds of youth, +unfettered by maturity! No theory—just accomplishment!</p> + +<p>Frannie was saying to me, "Oh Frank——" I held out my hand, but she +flung herself upon me. "Frank, I—I've wanted so to get back to you!"</p> + +<p>She clung to me. Her arms went around my neck. She was kissing me! Me, +Frank Elgon! Poor as a guider of the lower traffic, and just now proved +so inglorious of action. But Frannie was kissing me! And whispering, +"Oh, Frank, I love you! Don't you know it? Haven't you always known it? +You'd never say it to me. Please—please say it now!"</p> + +<p>I murmured, "I love you, Frannie!" And held her close. That this could +happen to me, ineffectual Frank Elgon!</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">II</p> + +<p>Our last evening in Crescent. We were all going to the Earth—all +but old Greedo. Brett and Leela had decided to be married on Earth. +Frannie and I also, for Frannie did not seem to care how poor I was. +Greedo wanted to go; but he said he was too old. A visit to Earth for +his daughters, and then he hoped we would come back. Our last evening. +I chanced to go alone to the roof-top of Greedo's home. Its banks of +flowers were vivid in the twilight. A breeze rustled the tall potted +ferns. The stars overhead were glowing with a silver radiance, mirrored +in the distant, placid waters of the lake. Within the house downstairs, +Leela's softly singing voice floated up.</p> + +<p>Two figures sat in the starlight, among the flowers. Zee and Martt; +close together, with his arm around her, and her head against his side, +the tangle of her dark hair enveloping him.</p> + +<p>I heard him say, awkwardly but very tenderly, "Three couples can be +married at once, on Earth, Zee. Let's do that. Shall we?"</p> + +<p>And heard her answering whisper, "Yes. Let's."</p> + +<p>I tiptoed silently away.</p> + + +<p class="ph2">THE END</p> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77512 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/77512-h/images/cover.jpg b/77512-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ed5d714 --- /dev/null +++ b/77512-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/77512-h/images/illus1.jpg b/77512-h/images/illus1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8d59fd0 --- /dev/null +++ b/77512-h/images/illus1.jpg diff --git a/77512-h/images/illus2.jpg b/77512-h/images/illus2.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f1ae4e6 --- /dev/null +++ b/77512-h/images/illus2.jpg diff --git a/77512-h/images/illus3.jpg b/77512-h/images/illus3.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..61eebbb --- /dev/null +++ b/77512-h/images/illus3.jpg diff --git a/77512-h/images/illusc.jpg b/77512-h/images/illusc.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6cca908 --- /dev/null +++ b/77512-h/images/illusc.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6c72794 --- /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. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fcfac88 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for eBook #77512 +(https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77512) diff --git a/giantworld_txt.txt b/giantworld_txt.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..88c6911 --- /dev/null +++ b/giantworld_txt.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3451 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77512 *** + + + + + The GIANT WORLD + + By RAY CUMMINGS + + NOTE--This: serial, while complete in itself, is a + sequel to _Explorers Into Infinity_, which + narrated the previous adventures of Brett and Martt + on the distant world. The story appeared in + WEIRD TALES for last April, May and June. + + [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from + Weird Tales January, February, March 1928.] + + + + + CONTENTS + + 1 THE SUMMONS + 2 STOLEN INTO SMALLNESS + 3 THE THING IN THE FOG + 4 THE WILD NIGHT RIDE + 5 CLIMBING INTO LARGENESS UNFATHOMABLE + 6 THE BLOOD-RED DAY + 7 THE FIGHT ON THE PARAPET + 8 YOUTH! + + + + + _CHAPTER 1_ + + THE SUMMONS + + +I was startled. Yet I think that I subconsciously I was prepared for +it; expecting it. The little cylinder flipped out of its tube and +dropped on my desk before me. My name was on it, glowing with tiny +luminous letters: _Frank Elgon, Interplanetary Mails, Division 4, +Great-New York_. It looked just like any other Departmental message +cylinder. But instinctively I knew it was not; and my heart was +beating fast as I clicked it open. + +Relayed through Code Headquarters. I saw that on the small rolled tape +inside. And saw the signature, Dr. Gryce. It should not have been +startling, but my fingers were trembling as I unrolled the tape and +hooked it into the automatic decoder. And I stood gripping my chair as +the line of English letters pricked themselves on the blank white sheet +at which I was staring: + + "Frank--I can not bear it any longer. We must go--we must find + Brett at any cost. Will you stand by us? Come at once. Hurry. + + DR. GRYCE." + +My mind leaped back. I sat at my desk staring blankly, while in +the office around me all the bustling activity of the accursed +Interplanetary Mails faded before the surging visions of my memory. +It was four years since that other momentous day when Dr. Gryce had +sent for me. And I had gone to him; and listened amazed at his weird, +fantastic theories. Our sun, planets, and stars--all the vastness of +the star-filled heavens, he had told me then--were but the infinite +smallness of a greater world. All this that we call our Celestial +Universe was no more than an atom--of the giant world encompassing it. + +Fantasy! Yet it had proved sober, tragic fact. Tragic, because Dr. +Gryce's older son, Brett, had gone out there to that giant world. Gone, +and never returned. Nor been heard from; four years now, while old Dr. +Gryce at the end of his life waited despairingly. + +I had known always that the time would come when Dr. Gryce would wait +no longer. He would send for me--friend of Brett--and friend of his +other two children, Martt and Francine. For a year every cylinder that +had dropped on my desk had made my heart leap that it might contain +this summons which now lay before me. + +"_I can not bear it any longer. Will you stand by us?_" So simple +an appeal! But I knew the turgid torrent of heartache--the final +desperation of an old man's suffering--which prompted it. + +Young Grante at the desk next to mine was sorting his pile of official +communications newly arrived by the Venus mail. I turned to him. + +"I'm going away," I told him. In spite of myself--an unfortunate +mannerism when I am perturbed--my voice sounded gruff, ill-tempered. +"There is no time to argue--will you please notify Official 4 that +my--my post is vacant." + +He raised his eyebrows. "Vacant?" + +"Yes. I'm going away." I was on my feet. Outwardly calm, but within me +was a seething emotion. Going away! Out there into the immensity of the +Unknown, where my friend Brett had gone, not to return. Young Grante +could not guess. He was thinking Great-London perhaps--or the Asiatic +province. Or perchance, Venus, or Mars. + +I laughed harshly. "Don't question me, Grante. Just tell them--my post +is vacant." + +I left the room with his amazed stare following me. In the corridor, +through a window I caught a glimpse of the tenth pedestrian level; its +crowd of people moving upon the diverse activities of their tiny lives. +Already I felt apart from them. Frank Elgon, Division 4. Presently, to +such of them as knew me, I would be no more than a memory. "That young, +rather quarrelsome Elgon, who walked out of his office in a temper, and +vanished." They would say that, and then forget me. + +I laughed again. But the thought brought a pang of regret, and a +shudder. + +In ten minutes I was within a pneumatic cylinder, speeding underground +to the Southern Pennsylvania area, to the home of Dr. Gryce. + + + II + +Martt and Frannie met me at the outer gateway. Their manner held a +singular gravity. I had expected them to be excited, of course. But +their grave, somber smiles of greeting, their instinctively hushed +voices, seemed unnatural. This was no reckless, devil-may-care spirit +of high adventure which I had anticipated the twins of Dr. Gryce would +display. Sober drama. Their involuntary glances at the white house +nestling against the hillside carried a foreboding. + +Drama, but it seemed almost to be tragedy. My heart sank. There was +something very wrong here with the Gryces; something more imminent than +the fact of Brett's absence over four years. + +But I said nothing. Dear little Frannie gave me her two hands. They +were cold. + +Martt said, "Thank you for coming, Frank. Father is--waiting for you." +His voice, usually flaunting, mocking at everything with the reckless +spirit of youth, chilled me with its queerly broken tone. + +We crossed the flowering gardens to the white house standing so +peaceful in the afternoon sunlight. Martt led the way. The twins were +twenty-one years old now. Alike physically, and in temperament. Both +smaller than average height; slim and delicate of mold; blue-eyed, +and fair of hair. They were always laughing; carefree--the spirit of +irresponsible youth. But not today. I regarded Martt, trudging ahead +of me--debonair, jaunty of figure in his tight black silk trousers and +loose white shirt, bare-headed, his crisp, curly hair tousled by the +wind. But there was a slump to his shoulders, a heaviness to his tread. +And little Frannie behind him: girlishly beautiful, with her tossing +golden curls, her familiar house costume of gray blouse and widely +flaring knee-length trousers. But there was upon her a preternatural +solemnity; a maturity of aspect indefinable. + +At the doorway Martt turned and fixed me with his somber, blue-eyed +gaze. And spoke with the same queer hush to his voice. + +"Father is upstairs, Frank. He is--dying. He wants very much to live +until you arrive." + +Upon the pillows in the darkened room lay Dr. Gryce's head with its +shaggy, snow-white hair, the mound of the sheet betraying his pitifully +wasted body. + +Martt said softly, very gently, "Frank is here, Father. You see he came +in time--plenty of time." + +But the head, with face to the wall, did not move; no stirring marked +the fragile body lying there. + +Martt gave a cry; with Frannie he rushed to the bedside. It was all +too evident. In a moment Martt stood up, leaned silently against the +bedpost, a hand before his eyes as though dazed. And Frannie knelt at +the bed and sobbed. + +We expect death all our lives, yet the instinct of life within us never +ceases to feel a shock, and a revulsion. For a long time these children +of Dr. Gryce did not move or speak. Then Frannie leaped to her feet. +Her face was tear-stained; but her sobs were suddenly checked, and her +eyes were blazing. + +"Martt! His last wish--the very last thing he said--was that we go out +ourselves and find Brett. He said it--he said Brett might need us--his +dying wish. And I'm going, and so are you. We've got to, Martt! And +we want Frank with us. Oh, Frank, you'll go with us, won't you? Out +there--to join Brett?" + + + III + +The burial was passed. We had not spoken of our enterprise, but +it had never left my thoughts. This boy and girl so newly come +to maturity--but I was twenty-nine. Upon me would fall the main +responsibility. + +We sat at last in Dr. Gryce's study--the three of us alone--to discuss +our task. With the first poignancy of their shock and sorrow already +dulled by time, upon the faces of Martt and Frannie was stamped grimly +their simple purpose. + +"But, Martt," I said, "Brett's vehicle was very intricate. It +traveled in Space--but in Time as well. And grew gigantic in size. +Your father's genius built it. But we have no such genius to build +another----" + +"You forget," he interrupted. "Think back, Frank. That day you came +here. And we showed you the models of the vehicle. There were four of +them----" + +Then I remembered. Dr. Gryce had shown me four small models. One he had +sent back into Time. A flash, like a dissipating puff of vapor it was +gone into the Past; still here in Space above the taboret on which it +was standing, but vanished with centuries of Time to hide it from my +sight. + +Another of the models, with Time unchanged, Dr. Gryce had sent into +Infinite Smallness. I remembered watching it dwindling; a speck, a +pinhead, then invisible even to the microscope. + +Two of the models were left. Martt and Frannie, but seventeen years old +then, had taken one into the garden. Had started it growing in size. I +recalled our frantic efforts to check its growth, lest it demolish the +house. This was the one in which Martt and Brett had gone to the giant +world and in which Brett had returned alone to that distant part of our +universe. + +One model had remained. I had never thought of it since. Martt was +saying, ". . . and we still have that last model. Father kept it +very carefully." Martt's smile was wistful with the memory. "I think +he--Father--had a premonition that he would not live to carry out his +purpose. . . . The model is here." + +He opened a locked steel box. Again I gazed silently at that small cube +of milk-white metal--a cube the length of my forearm, with its tiny +tower on top, its glasslike balcony, its windows and its doors. + +"It's all complete," said Martt. "And I know how to operate it." + +Frannie said with a touch of breathlessness, "For a month past, Father +has been gathering the necessary instruments. And the supplies--you see +he--he really thought he was going to live----" + +"We're all ready," Martt added. "We will increase this model to normal +size. Load it with our supplies. We can start tomorrow, Frank." + + + IV + +Five million light-years from Earth! Who of finite human mind can +conceive such unfathomable distance! Yet, as I crouched on the floor of +the vehicle gazing down at the radiance emerging from the black void +which was our first sight of the Inner Surface, the distance had seemed +no more than gigantic. We were, in size, many million times our Earthly +stature. The tiny Earth, from our larger viewpoint, was a little orange +spinning above us in the void--a mere one-twentieth light-year away. + +Martt, for all his youth, had proved competent. He had made the trip +once before with Brett; he handled the vehicle carefully, and with +skill. He said now, as we three crouched by the floor window, "We'll +soon be down to the atmosphere, Frank. I'm checking our fall--we want +no errors----" + +We were reversed in Time--holding very nearly at a single instant, so +that on the Inner Surface the time now was the same as it had been when +we left the Earth. + +We argued the point; Martt said, "I think when we land--we should +choose the point in Time about four years beyond Brett's landing. So +that it will be four years to us--and also to him. Don't you?" + +We decided upon that, so that we would reach the Inner Surface and +find Brett had been there four years. It seemed to strike a greater +normality. Find Brett! Would we find him? I wondered, as I knew Martt +and Frannie were wondering. But in our plans we always took it for +granted. + +The radiance beneath us grew brighter. And at last we entered the upper +strata of atmosphere, falling gently downward. It was a fair, beautiful +land, as Brett and Martt had said. A sylvan landscape, with an air of +quiet peace upon it. A broad vista of land and water; patches of human +habitation--houses, villages; a city. + +Martt was at the telescope. "Pretty good, Frank! I've hit it--I see the +city--off there, isn't it? And the crescent lake." + +He changed our direction slightly. As we dropped, the broad crescent +lake lay beneath us. Trees bordered its banks; and to the right was the +city of low-roofed, crescent-shaped buildings banked with flowers. And +beyond the city a rolling country of gently undulating hills, with a +jagged mountain range up near the horizon. + +From this height it was a visibly concave surface. And it was gray and +colorless, for we were passing abnormally through its Time. Then Martt +threw off the Time-switch; we took the normal Time-rate of the realm. +And in size we were also normal. + +At a height of perhaps a thousand feet Martt held us poised above the +city. "They'll see us now," he said. "If--if Brett is down there he'll +recognize us. I'll land in the grove where we landed before. We'll give +Brett time to get there to meet us." + +With the Time-switch off, color and movement had sprung into the scene. +The forests were a somber growth of dull, orange-colored vegetation. +The water was a shimmering purple; and above us was a purple sky, with +faint clouds, and dim stars up there--stars which seemed very small and +very close. + +The white houses gleamed and glowed in the starlight. Yet it seemed +not night; nor day either. A queerly shimmering twilight. Shadowless, +as though everything were vaguely phosphorescent. + +In the broad city streets there was movement. Vehicles; people. And the +people now were gathered in groups, staring up at us. + +We landed in the little clearing at the edge of the lake near the city. +And now at the last, Frannie gave voice to the fear which was within us +all. "Oh Frank, do you think Brett will be here?" + +There were human figures in the near-by thickets. I saw them through +the windows, but we were too busy with the landing to look closely. The +vehicle came to rest. Martt and I flung open the door. The vegetation +was thick near by; we stepped from the vehicle onto a soft, mossy +sward, and stood in a timid group, with tumultuously beating hearts. + +"Martt! Frannie! Frank!" It was his voice! Brett was here! And we saw +him step from a thicket. His familiar voice; his familiar figure, but +so fantastically garbed that it brought to me a wild desire to laugh, +for I was half hysterical with the relief of seeing him. + +Frannie cried, "Brett! My brother! You're all right, Brett, aren't you? +I'm glad you're all right." + +Under stress, how inarticulate are we humans! I said awkwardly, "How +are you, Brett? We thought we'd come and see you." + +He took Frannie in his arms. And wrung Martt's hand, and mine, while +his strange companions stood in the background among the trees, +watching us. + +"Of course I'm all right," he declared. "And terrifically happy." A +shadow crossed his face; his glance went to the vehicle's doorway. +"Father didn't come with you?" + +Then Martt showed a wisdom far beyond his years. This was no time to +bring sorrow to Brett. Martt said smoothly, "Father is better than he +has ever been, Brett. We'll tell you--later." + +"Good! That's fine!" Brett's face was radiant. "You're just in time, +you three. I'm to be married tonight." + +But even then as I wrung his hand again, and congratulated him, I had a +premonition that it was not to be. + + + + + _CHAPTER 2_ + + STOLEN INTO SMALLNESS + + +"Life is pleasant here," said Brett. "Pleasant, and indolent. It does +not make for progress, but it is happiness--and I'm beginning to wonder +if that is not best, after all." + +We were sitting in an arcaded passage on the roof of the home where +Brett lived. Crescent archways opened to the roof, where stood banks +of vivid flowers, with a vista of the city beyond. The building seemed +of baked earth, rough like adobe, and of dull orange color. It was a +two-storied, crescent-shaped structure, set upon a wide street-corner +near the edge of the city. The home of Leela's father. I had never +forgotten Leela--the girl Brett and Martt had rescued from the giant on +their first visit here. Brett had fallen in love with her. It was she +whom tonight he was to marry. And this was her father's home--Greedo, +the old musician. + +"I have lived here with them six months," Brett said. + +Martt exclaimed, "Six months! Why Brett, you have been gone four years!" + +We had miscalculated the Time-change of the vehicle. Our purpose had +been to strike this realm of the Inner Surface at a point in Time which +to Brett would be four years. But now we found it six months only. + +Brett smiled. "I'm glad you didn't postpone your arrival. You've no +idea how pleased I am to have you--tonight of all nights." + +We had not yet seen Leela, or her father. Brett said that Leela would +be up presently to greet us. The city was excited over our coming. A +crowd was gathered in the street before the house; Brett had made them +a brief speech; Frannie, Martt and I had stood at the parapet and waved +to them. + +Then Brett had spoken of a younger sister of Leela's. Her name was +Zelea--they called her Zee. + +Martt sat up at this. "Where was she when we were here before?" + +"Away," said Brett. "She was too young to meet a man then. Only now has +she come to be sixteen. You'll like her, Martt. I want you to like her." + +"I will," said Martt enthusiastically, "if she's anything like Leela." + +"You were telling us about the life here," I suggested. "We always +called this land the Inner Surface----" + +"Yes," he agreed. "It is concave, like the inner shell of some great, +hollow globe. Within the space it encloses----" He gestured to where, +through the arcade, a segment of purple, star-filled sky was visible. +"All that which we of Earth called the Celestial Universe is enclosed +by this concave shell. You would think that this must be a gigantic +region----" He smiled again. "It is not. Compared to our present +enormous size, I imagine the circumference of this Inner Surface is +not unduly great. I don't know. These people have not explored very +far. They are not wanderers--they are too indolent, too contented, to +wander." + +He paused to drink from a shallow receptacle which stood before us, and +offered Martt and me what appeared to be arrant cylinders to smoke. + +"I have learned a little of the language. Proper names are impossible +to translate. But the meaning of their word for this land, I call +in English. Romantica. The romantic land. It is, I fancy, about +five hundred miles square. Beyond it lie forests and mountains. No +one here has ever penetrated them. There are wild beasts, birds, +insect life--and fish and reptiles in the water. But they are not +dangerous--not aggressive. It is not because of them that these people +avoid exploration. It is--just indolence." + +"I don't wonder," I said. "This is very peaceful here--I have no +desire to do anything in particular." From the city streets a drone of +activity floated up to us; but it was almost somnolent. + +"It's always like this," said Brett. "Almost no change of seasons--the +light always the same. There is no disease here--or very little. +Food--grains, and what we would call vegetables, grow abundantly in +this rich soil. The trees give milk--even the bark and pulp of them are +edible. Life is easy. There is nothing to struggle against. + +"Through generations, it has made the people kindly. There is little +crime. No struggle for land, or food or clothing. Crimes involving +sex----" He gestured. "Wherever humans exist there will be crimes of +that origin. But our women here are very sensible, and when a woman +does what is right--well, you know, don't you, that most deeds of +violence into which men plunge over women have a woman's wrong actions +at the bottom of them? There is little of that here, for the women take +care that there shall not be. + +"So they call their country Romantica. They are not a scientific +people. They do not struggle for advancement. Art has taken the place +of science. Painting. Sculpture. Music. They have developed music +very far. It has a soul here. It speaks--it sings--it seems a living +entity. It is--what music ought to be, but seldom is--the pure voice +of love, of romance. . . . I was telling you about our country. Most +of its population live in villages, and in individual dwellings +strewn about the hills. There are but two large cities. This one--the +largest--they call Crescent. Or at least their word for it suggests the +shape of the lake. The other city is about fifty miles from here"--he +gestured again--"off there where you see the line of mountains. They +call it Reaf. It's a quaint city. Built largely over the water--rivers +there--hot, subterranean rivers which rush underground--under the +mountains. They go--who knows where? No one has ever been down them. +The mountains are honeycombed with caves, tunnels, passages leading +within, and up. Always up. But into them no one has ever penetrated. +Legends tell fabulous tales of a great world up there. The giants, we +think----" + +When Brett and Martt had first come here, giants had appeared. +Dwindling giants--strange, savage beings of half-human aspect. They +had appeared--no one knew from where. Growing smaller until they were +normal size to this realm. Not many had been seen. Some had kept on +dwindling; they had grown so small, when attacked, that they had become +invisible. At the thought, I moved my foot involuntarily with a shudder +of uneasiness. Here on the floor beside me now, men like beasts might +be lurking, so small I could not see them. Yet in a moment they might +grow to a stature greater than my own. . . . + +Men like beasts! . . . And I remembered that, with size gigantic, they +had destroyed the third city of Romantica. + +Upon Brett's face lay a cloud of apprehension. "We have never heard +from them since. It is thought--I think myself--that they came from +the subterranean rivers, or through the underground passages of the +mountains. I conceive this concave surface upon which we're living +to be the inner surface of a shell. It may not be very thick--there +at Reaf. Above it--beyond it--up or down are mere comparative +terms--beyond it must lie some vastly greater outside world. This whole +realm is doubtless within an atom of that greater world. It would be a +convex surface up there--with a sky and stars beyond. . . . + +"We have never seen the giants since that time when Martt and I rescued +Leela. Everyone here seems to have forgotten them----" Brett's voice +was heavy with apprehension. "These people are so trustful! They forget +so quickly! No one worries. Our rulers here--a venerable man and woman +long past the age when death is expected--are so gentle, kindly, that +they can not imagine harm coming to their people. They have forgotten +the Hill City which the giants destroyed. Trampled upon it! Six or +eight giants--they must have been several hundred feet tall--stamping, +kicking the building! I've been there--I've seen the ruins--strewn for +miles--and with buildings, colonnades and terraces mashed into the +ground! There were no more than half a thousand people surviving that +destruction of the Hill City--and thousands died. But everyone says +now, 'The giants are gone. We are safe.'" + +Brett's voice had risen to a swift vehemence. "It's been like living +on a volcano to me, all these months. There are no weapons here. My +own few flash-cylinders--of what use would a tiny flash of lightning +be against beings so gigantic? We've got to do something. For if those +giants come again----" + +A step sounded in the oval doorway near at hand. Leela stood +smilingly, deprecatingly before us. + + + II + +Brett said, "Come here, Leela. This is my sister, and my friend, Frank +Elgon. And here's Martt." + +Leela advanced hesitantly, her face a wave of color as she met our +gazes. She was smaller, and even slighter than Frannie, her figure +adorned and revealed by its single, simple garment--more like a short, +glistening veil than a dress. Her hair was long and dark, caught by +a band at her neck, and flowing free beneath. Her arms and legs were +bare. At her wrists, gray-blue bands with small tassels; on her feet, +queerly high-heeled wooden sandals, with tasseled thongs crossing on +her ankles. The sandals clacked as she walked; her step was mincing, +with a suggestion of the Orientals of our Earth. + +Brett eyed the sandals with a humorous twinkle. "For why are those, +Leela?" + +Her blush heightened. "In honor of our guests. I thought you would like +them." + +With a swift gesture, she stooped, untied the thongs and cast the +sandals off. Her feet were very white, small and delicately formed, +with rounded, polished nails stained pink. She stood untrammeled, lithe +and graceful as a faun. + +"I am glad to meet Brett's sister--and his friend. And you, Martt--I +am glad to see you again." Her voice was soft as a Latin's. She shook +hands with Martt and with me, and returned Frannie's affectionate +embrace. + +As I saw them together--these two girls of different worlds--I was +struck with the dissimilarity of them. Pert, vivacious little Frannie, +blue-eyed, fair of hair--brown-skinned from the outdoor life she loved. +And Leela--smooth, white skin, dark hair and luminous eyes, a fragile +grace to her every movement. None of my words are adequate. There was +about her an aura of romance; a strange wild spirit of something for +which every man in his soul has a longing; a beauty with a quality +ethereal--half human, but half divine. + +A twinge of conscience came to me that I--Frank Elgon--could think such +thoughts and see such beauty in any girl who was not Frannie. + +Leela was saying, "My father would have you come down soon. And Zee is +down there--Zee is very much excited, Brett. There is so much to do +before tonight----" + +Brett's arm was around her. "And you--of course you're not excited, are +you, Leela?" + +She returned his caress, embarrassed further by his teasing. He added, +"We will be down presently." + +"Yes," she said; and with a pretty gesture, she left us. + +The sandals lay discarded on the floor. Brett gathered them up, +regarding them tenderly. "She is so easy to tease, I love to do it. But +if you try that with Zee----" + +"You shouldn't tease her," said Frannie. "She's a darling. I love her +already." + +Brett's wedding day! For all his quiet, whimsical teasing of Leela, +the love he bore her enveloped him like a shining cloak. Yet his +father whom he loved so dearly was dead, and Brett did not know it. I +whispered to Martt about it later. + +"I think we should not tell him," said Martt. "Not--until we have to." + +And we did not. Looking back on it now, how much was to happen to +Brett--to Martt, to us all! What fearsome things--danger, desperation, +despair--were to be our allotted portion before we even thought again +of old Dr. Gryce who was dead! + + + III + +Brett was to be married that evening--a public festival and ceremony +over which the whole city was in an anticipatory fever. + +"The festival of lights and music," said Brett. "They hold it at +periodic times. It is a wonderful sight. It generally includes a +marriage--girls find it romantic. Leela selected it for us. Greedo +is in charge of it--Leela and Zee always take part in its music. We +must go down--they are waiting for us--there is so much for them to do +between now and this evening." + +"I'll help," said Frannie. "Come on, Martt--I guess you want to meet +Zee, don't you?" + + + IV + +We found Leela's father to be a grave, black-robed, kind-faced old man +of an age indeterminate. Sixty, or eighty, I could not have told. In +vigorous health, evidently. His figure was spare, straight, but not +tall. His thick, gray-black hair he wore long to the base of the neck. + +He greeted us quietly, with an admirable dignity commanding immediate +respect. + +"You are a musician," I said, after we had been talking for a time. +"Brett has told us something about your music here. It must be very +beautiful." + +He smiled. "Music is a wonderful thing. It ennobles. There is in it +a touch of something beyond our poor human understanding. A touch +of--what you call Divinity." + +"You speak our language very well," I exclaimed. + +"A language is not difficult. All minds are similar--that is why music +can make so universal an appeal." His voice was earnest, his eyes +sparkling. It was the subject most absorbing to him. + +I said, "You teach music----" + +He raised a deprecating hand. "Yes. But that is nothing. I teach the +fundamentals"--he struck his breast--"the rest comes from within. For +myself, I am a mere retailer of sound. A peddler of something someone +else has made. The composer--he is the real artist. I have hoped that +some day Leela will compose. Brett has promised that he will urge +her. . . . Just now, she sings." He twinkled at Leela. "I fear she +thinks she sings very well. Pouf! It is nothing! She, too, is only a +sound-peddler." + +With a burst, Zee entered the room. A smaller replica of Leela. Yet how +different! She came like a mountain torrent tumbling from the hillside. +Her short, dull-red draperies whirled about her elfin figure. Her dark +eyes were blazing. Black hair, flying over her shoulders with her +tumultuous entrance. + +"Father! That is not so!" She stamped one of her bare feet, then rose +on strong, supple toes and whirled half around. The muscles stood out +beneath the smooth satin skin of her calves. "Leela, why do you let him +say such a thing? You sing beautifully." She whirled back. "And what am +I, then?" + +The old man was wholly unperturbed. "You, Zee? Why, you are a peddler +of movement. Very swift, tempestuous movement, generally." He added to +me, "She thinks she is an artist. She is not. She is only a dancer." + + + V + +It was what on Earth would have been termed late evening when we +started for the festival. Greedo, with his two daughters, had left half +an hour before. + +We were dressed now in the fashion of the country. Brett had suggested +it; Martt had insisted upon it. I remembered with what a jaunty +swagger Martt had worn his clothes upon his return to Earth that +other time. He was dressed similarly now. A cloth shirt of glaring +green, with a high, rolling collar in front, and low in the back; +short trousers very wide and flapping at the knee. The trousers were +a lighter green, with dark green stripes; his stockings were tan; and +his green shoes were long and pointed. Over his shirt was a short tan +jacket, wide-shouldered and with puffed sleeves, and bangles dangling +from elbows and wrists. And there was a skirt to the jacket, rolling +upward at the waist. + +My own costume was in the same fashion; and though it was a sober gray, +befitting my more mature years, I felt for a time awkward and foolish +in it. But when in the crowded city streets I found that no one seemed +particularly to remark me, I soon forgot it. + +Brett wore a long cloak; I did not see how he was dressed. Frannie also +wore a cloak. Just before leaving she tossed it aside, and stood before +me, waiting for my admiration, with her characteristic twinkle, and her +pert upflung face daring me to disapprove. Even by contrast with Leela +and Zee, to my eyes at least Frannie was very pretty. She wore the +single draped garment with silver cords crossed at her breasts to shape +her figure; and with banded wrists, and tasseled bands above the knees. +Her blond curls were tied with flowing tassels. The whole costume, a +gray and blue, with a single deep-blue flower in her hair. And thin, +flexible sandals on her little feet. + +She eyed me. "Do you like me, Frank?" + +"I--why, why--Frannie----" I would have told her then that I loved her, +as I had very nearly told her myriad times in ten years past. But who +was I to ask the love of any girl? A sorter of planetary messages, poor +as a towerman in the lower traffic! "I--why yes, Frannie. Of course I +like you. You're--beautiful." + +She had a quaint little circular hat, stiff and round, with a dull-red +plume and a tassel. We men wore hats of a solidly wooden aspect--low, +round crowns and triangular brims. Martt's was sea-green, with tassels +all around its brim. But mine and Brett's were sober gray, and +unadorned. + +We started on foot. The city streets were dim in the luminous twilight. +Overhead, the sky with its thin-strewn stars was cloudless. A holiday +aspect was everywhere. Crowds of people were in the streets. Young men +and girls, gay with laughter. Most of them were cloaked. A vehicle, +with runners like a sleigh gliding over the grassy pavement, drawn by a +squat, four-legged animal, went by us. It was jammed with girls; one of +them leaned out and waved at me. Her slim white arm came down; her hand +twitched off my hat, sent it spinning. I caught a glimpse of her face; +dark, laughing eyes, a mouth with mocking lips stained red. . . . + +The sleigh passed on. + +With Brett leading us we turned toward the lake. Most of the crowd +seemed to be heading that way. Occasionally we were recognized. Stares +of interest at us, the strangers, and cheers for Brett. + +He said to me, "They're all very happy, Frank. Like children." I +fancied that he sighed--he, for whom this night of all nights should +have been his happiest. + +In a group, with the swirling merrymakers about us, we made our way +to the lake shore. The water was rippled by a gentle night breeze; +the stars gleamed on the water surface with tiny silver paths. Boats +were here--double canoes with outriders; and a few sailboats, small, +single-masted, with triangular and crescent sails. + +We found a small canoe; Brett sculled it with a broad-bladed paddle. +Other boats were around us. A long canoe with a dozen sweeping +paddles shot by us with the racing strokes of its men, and with +shouts from its laughing girls. Another, smaller, turned over. Its +men swam, and righted it. They climbed aboard, hauling up the girls. +The wet draperies clung to them; they came up like dripping, gleeful +water-sprites, tossing their black hair. . . . A barge went slowly +along, drawn by two canoes. A lighted canopy was over its occupants--a +huge, woven garland of flowers. The canopy gleamed with spots of +vivid-colored lights. + +"The luminous flowers," said Brett. And I saw that the large purple +blossoms were gleaming with a purple light--a phosphorescence inherent +in them; and red blossoms, like crimson lanterns; and others orange, +and green. Music floated upward from the barge, soft and sweet over +the water. The tinkle of strings--the voices of girls singing, and men +humming with a deeper background of harmony. . . . + +A night for love-making. The night romantic. Brett's wedding night--and +yet, he had sighed. I knew why, for upon my own heart lay a weight +of apprehension, heavier because it was so incongruous. Martt quite +evidently did not feel it--he was shouting and laughing constantly +with his pleasure. A girl from a neighboring boat tossed him a large, +blood-red, glowing blossom. It fell short, went into the water and +slowly sank, staining the water with its red light. Martt all but +turned us over trying to rescue it. + +Frannie, too, seemed gay. I tried to smile; but I felt that it was +forced. The depression upon me would not be shaken off. It grew to +seem almost sinister. The very atmosphere of happiness around me seemed +to intensify it. These merrymakers--in the midst of life. . . . At such +a moment as this, death could choose to strike. . . . + +"Look!" shouted Martt. "The lights off there--is that where we're +going?" + +A patch of gay-colored lights gleamed from over the water ahead. "Yes," +said Brett. "An island there, where they hold the festival. It's not +far." + +It was an irregular circular island, a mile perhaps in extent. The lake +waters indented it with a hundred tiny bays, inlets, and narrow, placid +waterways. We ascended one of them. The surface of the island was +gently undulating, and wooded, with mossy dells--nooks arched with the +luminous flowers. Nooks for love-making. + +The whole island was strewn thick with the flowers; they grew upon +tall, single stems--gay-colored lanterns nodding in the breeze. Beneath +them were laughing couples; some hidden, sought and found by groups of +marauding girls, to seize the man and laughingly whisk him away. And +everywhere was music, soft as an echo. . . . + + * * * * * + +We ascended the narrow waterways, came to a lagoon with a glassy +surface wherein a thousand spots of the lantern-flowers were +mirrored like colored stars. Near the shore here, beyond a dock at +which we landed, was a broad enclosed space with an arcade of the +lantern-flowers arching over it. Brilliant with their light. Most of +the crowd seemed congregated there--a milling throng on the level floor +inside, with liquid strains of music mingling with the shouts and +laughter. + +"We'll go in there," said Brett. "I'll find seats for you--then I must +leave, to join Leela and her father. There is to be a musical program. +But first--just Greedo, Zee and Leela, and our marriage. Most of the +music comes afterward." + +Within the arcade the lights blended into a kaleidoscope of color. All +the cloaks were discarded now. Costumes vividly splashed as a painter's +palette. Heavy perfumes. And that soft, echoing music. I could not tell +its source. + +At one end of the room was a raised, canopied platform, with doors +behind it. Most of the crowd were choosing low seats, like stools +ranged in rows. Brett got us settled. + +"I'll leave you now--and meet you over there by the right-hand end of +the platform, afterward." + +He left us. With Frannie between us, Martt and I sat quiet, watching +and listening. We had not long to wait. The light around us began to +dim; sliding curtains were obscuring the flowers over us. A hush fell +upon the crowd. The soft music was stilled. A hush of expectancy. + +The arcade was in gloom. The light on the platform intensified. A +deep-red glow, with a single spot focused upon a small, raised dais. +Into the red glow came Greedo, robed unobtrusively in black. He was +carrying a crescent frame of strings. He seated himself, and in the +silence swept his hands across the strings. His fingers plucked them +like a harp; and then his other hand slid upon them. The staccato +notes rippled clear as a mountain rill, soft, muted to seem an echo of +music. And blended with them was a low, crying melody--a fragment, then +silence. + +Leela had appeared. She crossed through the red glow, mounted the +dais, and stood in the silver light--Leela, robed to her feet in a +misty silver veil through which her figure vaguely was outlined. She +stood there drooping--a Naiad veiled in the fountain mist. . . . Then +Greedo's music sounded. And Leela sang. + +It was like nothing I had ever heard before. Music, toned strangely, +with strange intervals to make it neither major nor minor. Not +happiness, nor yet sadness. A wistfulness. A longing. But with the +promise of fulfilment. + +I listened, breathlessly; and the arcade around me faded. Greedo's +figure in the shadow was forgotten. There was only the white figure of +Leela; her face, the purity of girlhood, her eyes half closed, her lips +parted with the song. Nothing else--save myself. I stood in a void, +stretching out my arms to Romance. All that I had ever dreamed, and +vaguely longed for without understanding what it meant, was upon me. +All that woman could mean to man--the spirit of the ideal never to be +attained in mortal flesh--seemed suddenly attained. Romance--that thing +elusive--intangible as a thought in the vaguest of dreams. It was mine! + +The song ended. Applause rang out. Leela was gone. + +Martt breathed beside me, "Frank! Wasn't that--wonderful! It was +like----Look, here comes Zee!" + +Zee was on the platform--a whirlwind of veils, stained by the red +light, white limbs flashing as she whirled. Greedo's music was faster +now. Snapping staccato, with a thrum of melody. The lights changed to +a mingled riot of color within which Zee was dancing. An elf. A sprite +of the woodland, with tossing hair and fluttering arms; and a laughing +face. . . . A figure in the fairy-tale of a child. . . . + +But only for a moment. Then the dance slowed. Maturity came suddenly. +Zee mounted the dais, and the light there was abruptly green. She stood +in an attitude of terror, her eyes wide, hands before her, posturing +with horror. + +It made my heart leap. For an instant I fancied it had been real. But +the light turned silver. The horror faded into a passion of love, +her white arms extended, her breasts rising and falling beneath the +veils, her red lips parted with passionate longing. The abandonment +of youth--so young, with newly awakened passion as yet but half +understood. Then again she was whirling around the platform, leaping on +her bare toes, light as a faun. . . . + +Behind me, suddenly a woman screamed! The reality of a long scream +of terror! Greedo's music ceased. The lights wavered. Zee was gone. +A scream from the audience; then another. A chaos of mingled cries. +Clattering of feet. Stools overturned. . . . Someone fell against me. I +went down, recovered and climbed upright. The audience was in a panic. +I heard Martt shout, "Look, Frank! Look there over the water!" + +People were pushing me--surging to escape from the arcade. Shouting. +Calling to one another. And the woman behind me was still screaming. + +I saw it then. Through the open side of the arcade, out a mile or +more over the water, the great giant figure of a man was standing, +waist-deep in the lake, his naked torso towering a hundred feet above +it. A giant, wading in the lake, his face grotesque, malevolently +grinning in the starlight! + +[Illustration: "The giant grinned malevolently in the starlight."] + + + VI + +The crowd within the arcade was in a wild panic of terror. I was pushed +and shoved, knocked down by heedless, rushing figures. Everyone was +trying to get outside. In a moment I was swept away. I could not get +back to where I was sitting, or even tell where the spot had been. +Martt and Frannie I could not see; the place was all a dim chaos of +disheveled, panic-stricken figures. A moment before they had been so +gay and jaunty! . . . + +A girl rushed past me. The veiling had been torn from her shoulders. +Her eyes for an instant met mine, as she searched my face hoping to +recognize in me the companion from whom she had been separated. Her +dark eyes were wide, red-rimmed with fear. Her face, with all the +beauty of youth gone from it, was chalk-white. + +She turned and rushed away from me. I thought again, "In the midst of +life . . . why, this is horrible!" That giant off there--he could wade +to the island in a few moments. . . . + +I fought my way out of the arcade, out under the trees by the edge +of the lagoon. There was more room out there. In the starlight I +could see figures rushing aimlessly away, scattering under the +lantern-flowers . . . others hurriedly crowding the boats. One boat was +overturned. I wondered vaguely if the struggling figures in the water +would be drowned. + +Back near the wall of the arcade I saw a girl's figure running. It +seemed familiar. Was it Frannie? I dashed after her. But people running +in between us blocked me. I lost sight of her; saw her momentarily as +she seemed to dart around the farther arcade corner. But when I got +there, she was not in sight. Was it Frannie? Had she gone this way? Or +into that door, back into the rear of the arcade? + +I stood in doubt. Then I saw Brett, running past me, out under the +lantern-flowers some fifty feet away. His cloak was discarded; he was +bare-headed. Brett in his marriage robe! Black and white, with golden +tassels gayly dangling from the rolled skirt of his jacket. He was +disheveled; as he ran, I saw him tear off the jacket impatiently and +toss it away. + +"Brett! Oh, Brett!" + +He stopped; whirled toward me. "Frank! Where's Frannie--and Martt?" + +"I do not know," I said. "I lost them. That giant----" + +"The giant is wading the other way now." He pulled me past a thicket, +and pointed. I could see the back of the giant's naked shoulders, +towering up against the stars. He was going the other way--wading +toward the far-distant opposite lake shore. And now against the +island's banks, the waves the giant made were beginning to pound. + +Brett said: "I don't know where Leela is. I was in there with her--and +with Zee. I rushed out when the alarm came--when I went back they were +gone." He stood irresolute. "We must find them, Frank. And get back +home." He drew a long breath. "It has come, you see, as I feared." + +"I thought I saw Frannie," I said. "Running--that way. But I'm not +sure. I lost sight of her----" + +From behind the pavilion came a scream. The scream of a girl. +Familiar. . . . The blood drained from Brett's face. "Leela!" + +And then I heard Frannie screaming from there also. We ran. The two +girls were standing there clinging to each other. They seemed unharmed. +But they were trembling, shuddering, arms gripping one another. + +"Leela! What is it?" Brett held her off, regarding her. "You're not +hurt, are you? What is it?" + +We four seemed alone here beside the arcade. Lantern-flowers were over +us; a thicket was near by. Frannie's arms were around me. + +"Frank--oh----" She choked; she seemed struggling to tell me something. + +I held her close. "You're not hurt, Frannie. Just frightened. What +became of Martt?" + +Oh, horrible! What gruesome, horrible thing was this! Within my arms I +could feel her sensibly shrinking! Her shoulders within my encircling +arm, melting . . . palpably dwindling. + +Horrible! And there was a great cry from Brett. "Leela! My God, +Leela----" + +At the horror of it, Brett and I stood dumbly staring; and again the +girls clung together. They seemed dizzy; they swayed, almost fell, then +steadied themselves. + +Visibly smaller now, like beautifully formed little children, clinging +together, no taller than my waist. + +Dwindling! + +Then Frannie pointed to the thicket. Two small human figures stood +there--a foot high, no more. A grinning gnomelike man, with black +matted hair on his naked chest; and a woman--a woman thick and +shapeless. A foot in height. But they were shrinking very fast. And +beside them were four small animals with horns--grotesque like a dream +mingling dog and horse and moose. The animals, too, were dwindling. + +Brett saw them; but neither he nor I made a move. At our feet Frannie +and Leela, no higher than our ankles now, were gazing up at us, with +tiny upraised arms, pleading. + +"Leela! Frannie!" We knelt by them. Then Brett in an agony of terror +lifted Leela in his hand. "Leela! Don't--don't get any smaller!" + +Then he put her down. She ran, half fell the distance of my foot to +reach Frannie. And I heard Frannie's tiny voice calling up to us in +gasps, "We're going! He--that man there with the woman--caught us. +Forced--down our throats--a drug. We--going----" + +Smaller than my finger. Then so small we knelt to see them. They were +huddled against the side of a pebble. Then they seemed struggling +toward the pebble. Behind it. Under it. Under its curve. . . . + +Brett cried, "Don't move, Frank! My God, we might trample on them! +Don't move!" + +The figures in the thicket had vanished. By the pebble which Brett +guarded so carefully I thought I saw Leela and Frannie. Saw a movement, +as though an ant were there, hiding under the pebble. + +Then--they were not visible. We did not dare look too closely. They +were gone! Still there within a foot of our straining eyes--but so +immeasurably distant! Lost! Gone! Stolen into smallness! + + + + + _CHAPTER 3_ + + THE THING IN THE FOG + + +Within the arcade, when the alarm had sounded, Martt leaped to his +feet, dragging Frannie after him. He saw me knocked to the floor, but +could not reach me. A press of panic-stricken people was sweeping him +away, but he clung to Frannie. Then he saw me regain my feet; saw me +looking around. But I did not see him; and though he shouted at me, in +the noise and confusion his words were lost. + +Frannie gasped, "What is it? What's the matter, Martt? What is it?" + +Martt did not know. But he guessed, and his heart went cold with fear. +"We must get outside, Frannie. Hold tight! This way--it's nearer! There +goes Frank--we'll join him outside." + +Martt was forcing a way for them through the crowd. Frannie stumbled. +Her hold on him was broken. She fell; and before he could reach her +he was knocked backward by a running man. When he regained his feet a +swift-moving group was between him and Frannie. He saw two girls stop +and help her up; then discard her. Saw her turn, confused, and run +into a space where the crowd was thinner. He was being shoved away from +her. + +"Frannie! Wait! This way!" + +But she did not hear him. And then he could no longer see her; there +were too many people in between. He struggled in that direction, then +he thought he saw me, and turned momentarily the other way. . . . + +Martt found himself alone, outside the arcade. The crowd was thinner. +Still he was not certain of the cause of all this panic. Then he saw +the giant. Stood, and stared with tumultuously beating heart. + +A man bumped into him; for an instant he thought that it was Brett. +Memory of Brett reminded him that Brett was probably within the arcade, +back of the platform-stage. He saw an opening, there in the arcade +wall; he thought it was a doorway, leading back of the stage. He +started for it, ran headlong into a girl standing there, staring out +over the water to where the giant now had faced about and was wading +away. + +"Martt!" + +"You, Zee! Where's Brett? Where are Leela and your father?" + +She clung to him, her draperies drooping, her hair tumbling in great +dark waves over her white shoulders as she shook her head. + +"I do not know. They were in there a moment ago. Frannie came in--she +and Leela were at the other door. Martt--that giant----" + +"He's going away, Zee. Look! You see him turned about? Don't be +frightened. We must find Brett. I don't know where Frank is--I lost +him. There he is--isn't that Frank? Oh--Frank!" + +They ran toward a man's figure, passing along a distant line of trees. +But when they caught up with it, the man was a stranger. Ahead of them, +hidden by a thicket, voices were shouting. A rhythmic call. Martt and +Zee listened; but Martt could not understand the shouted words. + +"What is it, Zee? Can you understand them?" + +"They're saying, 'The messenger from Reaf!' Some messenger from Reaf +has come with news." + +"Come on. Let's go see what it is." + +He gripped her hand. They ran swiftly through the woods. They were +already several hundred feet from the arcade. The lagoon was on +its other side; ahead of them was a patch of woods, dark, for the +lantern-flowers did not grow along here. And beyond the woods, the +shore of the island where the shouting sounded. + +They ran. Soon Zee was ahead, leaping like a young chamois, her veils +and hair flying. + +"Wait!" he called. "Not so fast!" + +She stopped abruptly. And Martt stopped. There was a pounding on the +shore; waves rolling up, as though the peaceful lake were torn by a +storm. + +"What's that, Zee?" But the shouting began again; and without +answering, Zee started ahead. + +The starlit lake came into view. Like a distant, monstrous shadow, the +retreating giant was visible against the stars. On the shore, white +waves were rolling up. A boat was here, with its sail flapping. A wave +caught it, turned it over. + +On the strand a group of people were standing with the man who had come +in this boat from Reaf. Zee joined the group. In a moment she returned. + +"He says--the messenger says--that giants are in Reaf! The city is +emptied--the people have scattered into the country. The road to +Crescent is crowded with people coming here." + +"Giants! There--as well as here----" + +"Yes. They did not attack. There were two giants. They stood in the +lake and laughed while the people fled from the city. Hundreds were +killed in the rush to get out--hundreds were swept away into the +subterranean rivers and the giants stood and laughed. The city is +deserted, and the two giants are there now." + +Men were helping the messenger right his boat. The group on the shore +scattered back over the island, calling, "Giants! Giants are in Reaf!" + +The messenger climbed into his boat, headed it out over the now calmer +lake. + +Martt and Zee momentarily were alone. He stared at her. He was stunned, +confused. Giants, everywhere. This thing that had been worrying Brett +for so long had come. Death, everywhere. + +"Let's get back, Zee. We must find Brett." + +It seemed shorter along the shore--a turn of the island near by, +into the lagoon, and thus back to the arcade. They started off, +running again. It was deserted along here. Zee was leading. Suddenly +she stopped in full flight, gripped Martt, drew him behind a huge, +pot-bellied tree trunk which stood near the water's edge. + +"Zee, what----?" + +"There, over there." + +"Where? I don't see anything." + +She whispered insistently, "Over there--in that open space. Back from +the shore." + +She was crouching, and he crouched beside her; followed her gesture +with his gaze--and saw what she saw. + +Tiny moving figures on the ground. Four of them, small dark blobs +against the white sand. They were about a hundred feet away from where +Martt and Zee were crouching. They had come out of the woods evidently, +and were crossing this patch of white sand, heading for the water. +Martt blinked and rubbed his eyes, staring at them. They moved in tiny +leaps, bounding soundlessly over the sand. Each of them a foot long +perhaps. Strange in shape; animal or human, he could not say. + +"What are they, Zee?" + +But she did not answer. Her little body was shrinking against him; he +could feel her shudder. + +The figures seemed long and thin, horizontal to the ground, with +something sticking upright like a tower from the middle of them. Martt +gasped. He had thought them four animals, with humps like upright +towers. They were not. He saw them now as running dogs with horns, each +with a tiny human figure on its back. And he gasped again. They were +growing larger! + +They crossed the sand in bounds and momentarily stopped. Already they +were fully half normal size. Four horned animals that might have been +grotesque dogs, or horses. Saddled; and mounted upon them, a heavy-set, +half-naked man; a strange, shapeless woman--and two girls! + +Normal size now! No, already they were larger! Growing rapidly larger! +Frannie and Leela! + +Martt half started to his feet. He opened his mouth to shout +impulsively, but Zee drew him back and silenced him. The four animals +were taking to the water. Swimming with heads stretched out. Martt +could see Frannie and Leela bending forward, each clutching the horn of +her mount. In single file the animals swam swiftly out into the starlit +lake. They did not seem to be growing any further. Twice normal size +perhaps. Soon they were four dark blobs on the shining water. Visually +seeming smaller by distance. V-shaped lines of silver phosphorescence +streamed out in the water behind them with their swift forward +progress. + +And presently they were vanished. + + * * * * * + +Martt and Zee stood up. They could not explain it. They tried to, but +could not. But the main facts were clear. That had been a man and +woman giant, and four of their animals. They had captured Frannie and +Leela. Had made the girls and the animals change size like themselves. +They had all, just now, been very small in size. To escape observation +coming across the island to its shore, Martt concluded. + +He said, "We must get to Brett--tell him about this. And then--go after +them----" + +Again they started running along the shore, intending to turn at the +lagoon-mouth for the arcade. Martt's thoughts flew swift as his legs. +Leela and Frannie captured . . . they must be rescued . . . then all +of them would get into the vehicle and go to Earth--get out of this +danger. . . . + +Zee was saying, "That is Reaf, off that way where they went." + +The wading giant had also gone that way. The messenger had said that +Reaf was deserted, that giants were there. Evidently Reaf was the place +at which these giants first appeared. Evidently it was the point of +entrance and departure for them into and out of this realm. Leela and +Frannie were being taken to Reaf. . . . + +Martt's heart leaped. An idea was forming in his mind. A plan--a mad, +reckless plan. But it seemed possible of success. . . . He thought of +the vehicle. It would be of no use against these giants. It was too +unwieldy. Besides, shut up in it one could not attack. And when they +stopped it to disembark, the giants would overwhelm it. Or, if at the +moment it was too gigantic for them, then they would escape before +the occupants of the vehicle could get out to stop them. . . . And +besides, the vehicle was too precious--no chances like that should be +taken with it. + +Martt told himself that he must get Brett to hide the vehicle. Guard it +somehow. . . . + +A mad idea, this plan he was pondering. . . . They came to the +lagoon-mouth; and here, to crystallize Martt's plan, to make it seem +feasible--here lay a small sailboat, deserted by its owner. It lay, +half pulled up on the sand, around the bend of the lagoon. + +"Zee! Stop! Wait! I want to talk to you." + +Zee had been bounding ahead of him. She stopped, waited, faced him. He +was breathless. + +"That sailboat," he said. "It's one of the fast kind, isn't it?" + +"Yes." She regarded it. "Yes. Very fast." + +It was no more than a shell. A flat, spoon-shaped affair, with a small +cockpit just large enough for two; and it had a very tall, flexible +mast, and an overlarge crescent sail. The sail was flapping. Out on the +lake the wind had risen. It was blowing directly toward Reaf. + +"Zee, listen--could you sail that boat?" + +"Oh, yes." + +"You could handle it in that wind out there?" + +"Yes. Of course." + +"And it would go--how fast, Zee?" + +"You mean--to Reaf?" She was as excited as he. + +"Yes. To Reaf. We could get there. Go after them. Cautiously. We could +hide before we got there. I've a plan----" + +"How long to Reaf?" She pondered. "Three--what you call hours. We go +fast in a wind like that." + +"Yes. That's it. Fast. Three hours. Zee, listen. Reaf must be where +the giants go to leave for their own world. They're taking Frannie +and Leela there. You see? And if we can get there--get into Reaf"--he +gestured--"Zee, if they--those giants are very big, then we to them are +small. Tiny. And it's quite dark. It would be dark in the caverns near +Reaf--the houses there near the subterranean rivers. We would be so +small the giants might not see us." + +He drew a long breath. "My plan, Zee, is to get in there, hide, and +find a giant from whom we can steal the drugs. With the drugs----" + +She was trembling with excitement. No fear now. Reckless as only youth +can be. "Oh Martt, if we could get the drugs! Brett said the giants +must be using drugs. And make ourselves larger than the giants----" + +"Yes. Then I can fight them. Rescue Leela and Frannie. We've got to do +it. Bring Leela and Frannie safely back. We'll say, 'Here they are, +Brett.' But if we wait, if we stop now it will be too late." + +Before Martt's eyes was the vision of himself and Zee returning +victoriously with the rescued girls. And with the drugs in his +possession. There would be no danger then. The giants, knowing the +drugs were stolen, would not dare remain. . . . They would all escape +up into their own world. . . . + +"Will you do it, Zee? Shall we go?" + +"Yes." + +Martt thought of his flash-cylinder. "I wish I had it, Zee." + +"Where is it?" + +"In the vehicle. But we have no time to get it." + +"I think it would not be of much use." + +"No. I don't think so either. But all I've got is this." He displayed a +knife whose blade, as long as his hand, slid back into its handle for a +sheath. + +"Good," she said. He replaced the knife. They climbed into the boat. +Martt shoved it off. + +In a moment they were beyond the quiet lagoon, heading out into the +starlit lake, with the lights of the island fading behind them. + + +II + +The wind was strong when they were beyond the island. The sail bellied +out in front of them like a great crescent dish; the spoon-shaped boat, +barely skimming the surface of the water, rode high on a white wave +beneath it. Zee lay on her side, upraised upon an elbow with her hand +on the knife-blade rudder that trailed the water behind them. Beside +her, hunched with arms wrapping his upraised knees, Martt sat and +peered ahead under the sail. + +The lake was dim in the starlight; its concavity rose to the horizon. +It seemed empty ahead. No boats. The wading giant had vanished; the +swimming figures were gone. + +As they sailed with the wind, the night seemed windless and calm, save +that the lake boiled under them, swiftly passing. Martt was in no mood +to talk. Zee, too, was silent, engrossed with her task of guiding the +boat. + +Occasionally, with a surreptitious, sidelong glance, Martt regarded her +intent little face, earnest and solemn. Long, dark lashes, tendrils of +dark hair around the slim white column of her throat; her outstretched +limbs revealed by the stirring draperies. . . . A lock of her hair flew +across his cheek. He touched it, cast it away. + +"Zee?" + +"Yes, Martt?" + +"I was thinking--you dance very beautifully." + +She turned to him, and smiled; a whimsical smile, and her eyes were +dark woodland dells of fairyland. "Father does not think so. A peddler +of movement--violent, tempestuous movement! Do you think that, Martt?" + +"No," he assured her. "Of course I don't." As she turned back to her +steering, his fingers furtively caught a hem of her robe and held it. + +There was a long silence. Then he said, as though there had been no +silence, "Of course I don't. I think you dance beautifully." And he +added, "It made me----" His tongue was about to say, "It made me love +you," but his beating heart smothered the words. He amended, "It made +me think that your father was very wrong to say that. And about Leela, +too." + +At the mention of Leela he saw a shadow cross Zee's face. He tensed +himself; set his jaw grimly. This was no time for thoughts of love. +Leela, and his sister Frannie, were captured by giants. There was work, +danger for him and for Zee, up ahead in this starlit night. He would +need all his wits, all his resourcefulness. . . . + +He remembered the one visit he had formerly made to Reaf; tried to +recall how the city lay. Tried to plan what he and Zee would do, now +when they got there. + +He said, "Zee, the rivers at Reaf that plunge into the mountains--no +one has been in them very far?" + +"No," she said. + +"Can you walk along their banks, inside, under the mountains?" + +She nodded. "In some places there are narrow ledges beside the water. +But how far--no one knows." + +"And in other places--near Reaf, I mean--there are tunnels? +Passageways?" + +"Yes. Back into the caves and beyond." + +"I think," he said, "that back through there is the way to the giants' +huge outer world. They've come down, and through the ground behind the +mountains. Do you suppose they'll take Leela and Frannie up to their +own realm? Or keep them in Reaf?" + +"I think--we do not know anything about it," she said. + +He smiled grimly. "You're right, we don't. Why the giants should come +here at all I don't know. But we're going to know more about it before +we get through with them, Zee. What I'm hoping is that we might find +one of them alone. We've got to get the drugs away from them somehow. +We've got to." + +Martt remembered once arguing with Brett about the giants. Brett +had thought that they used some drug--two drugs--one to shrink +proportionately each of their body cells, and the other similarly to +increase the size of the cells. Drugs of the kind had already been +sought for on Earth. Nitrogen was the basis for growth. And the new +element, Parogen, had been found to cause a shrinkage. In Mars they had +developed such drugs further--but they were still impractical for human +use. + +These giants evidently had something of the kind. And it must be +radio-active--it must cause a radiation affecting vegetable or animal +matter in near proximity to the changing body. The garments of the +giants expanded and contracted with their bodies. But Brett had said +that a weapon in your hand--particularly one of mineral--would not +change size. . . . The thought was to some slight degree, at least, +comforting to Martt; the giants would be unarmed. + +Zee's voice broke in on his thoughts. "Look, there are the mountains +behind Reaf." + +Over the lake, ahead of them the distant horizon was a haze of +phosphorescence. But to the left a line of shore had become visible; +and now Martt saw up ahead the vague, dark outlines of the mountains. +Sharp, jagged peaks, tinged with a green-white. + +Another hour. The shore to the left was nearer. Undulating land along +the lake. A ribbon of road along the water . . . Martt thought he could +see blobs moving along it. Away from Reaf, moving toward Crescent. + +"The refugees from Reaf," said Zee. "The messenger said all the roads +were crowded." + +Another half-hour. Ahead the mountains frowned, rising sheer from +the water. The lake was more shallow here; they began passing flat, +muddy islands, with river channels flowing between them as in a delta. +A blur there, at the foot of the mountains, was Reaf. The silver +phosphorescence of the lake was darkening; the water looked muddy, +turgid. In a narrow channel between two islands, Martt noticed a quite +visible current flowing toward Reaf. It rippled the water as it passed +over a bar which Zee skilfully avoided. + +There were other islands, with water bubbling up from them, and clouds +of steam rising. Zee trailed her hand overboard. + +"We are in the warm water now. Feel it, Martt." + +The lake water, fed by boiling springs from all this region, was +noticeably warmer. And every moment the current toward Reaf was +becoming stronger. Martt knew that all this part of the lake converged +to the mouths of the subterranean rivers at Reaf; converged and plunged +under the ground. + + * * * * * + +The city of Reaf was now in sight. It spread sidewise over an area of +a mile or two. The houses were perched on stilts, like flat, awkward, +long-legged birds squatting in the water. + +During all this time Martt and Zee had been watching closely for any +sign of giants. There were none in sight--nothing that seemed alive +over this turgid water, the disconsolate group of houses, the sheer +cliffs with the sullen mountains above them. Two yawning black openings +showed where the rivers entered. . . . + +A deserted city, its inhabitants fled. Some had been drowned, the +messenger said. There would be no floating bodies; the current would +have sucked them all into those yawning black mouths. . . . A deserted +city. But somewhere in there among the houses, giants might be +lurking. . . . + +Martt said abruptly, "We'd better get the sail down. They can see it +too easily." They were still some two miles from the outskirts of the +city. But no more than half a mile from the nearer shore. It swung past +them to the left; perpendicular black cliffs rising from the water with +a narrow rocky strip along the bottom against which the water sucked. + +Zee helped Martt lower the sail. There were poles aboard; the lake here +was no more than five feet deep. They could pole the boat ashore. Walk +unobserved toward the nearer river-mouth. Into the city, to hide among +its buildings. + +With a thrill of apprehension Martt realized that they might already +have been seen. But he thought it unlikely. From the hot water, vapor +was rising in a fog. It hung like a white shroud over Reaf. Once in it, +surrounded by the fog, they would be comparatively safe. + +"Zee, can you swim?" + +"Oh, yes," she said. "But Martt, if you get in the water, be very +careful of the rivers." + +Silently they poled the boat to shore. Drew it up from the current, +left it on a shelving rock ledge. The strip here was some ten feet +wide; the hot, black lake in front, sluggishly surging toward Reaf; +and above them the smooth cliff-face. + +The wind had turned--a swirling current turned by the mountains. The +fog from Reaf came rolling down upon them. It grew dark; the stars were +obscured. In the humid steam they could see no more than twenty feet. + +"Good," said Martt. "This is what we want." He spoke in a half-whisper; +stoutly, but his heart was beating fast. He drew his knife and opened +its blade. "Come on, Zee. And listen, you keep close to me. Whatever +happens, we must keep together. And if you see anything--or hear +anything--don't speak. Just touch my arm." + + * * * * * + +They started, creeping silently along the rocks in the fog. It seemed +miles. The water was hot beside them. The fog, like a gray curtain, +opened reluctantly before their advance. Presently the ghostly outlines +of houses were visible, a group of them clinging forlornly together +near the shore. Wooden platforms like balconies connected them. A +bridge came over and down to the rocks. + +Then other buildings. A large one of two stories, backed against the +cliff-face. Martt and Zee went under it, groping in the blackness among +its piling. The close, heavy air smelt of fish. + +They came out to find that the rocky shore had ended. A narrow incline +walk led out and up over the water to another group of ghostly +buildings. They were some thirty feet away, standing on stilts some ten +feet high. In the gray darkness of the fog their shadowy outlines were +barely visible. + +Martt stopped. "Zee," he whispered, "how far are we from the nearest +river-mouth?" + +"Not far," she said. "Listen." + +In the silence he heard the rush of water. As he stood there, suddenly +this whole adventure seemed impractical. There were no giants here. +They had all gone on, up into largeness unfathomable, taking Leela +and Frannie with them. How could he follow? Even if he dared plunge +under the mountains, he could never reach that outer realm. It was +gigantic--compared to his present size it might be a million miles away. + +Or, if there were giants still lurking here in Reaf, of what use to +seek them out and be killed by them? + +For an instant Martt hopelessly considered turning back. But he never +reached the decision; Zee's fingers gripped his arm--cold, shuddering +fingers. He stared, as he saw her staring, and within him his blood +seemed to stop its flow. + +Something was coming down the narrow incline bridge at the foot of +which Martt and Zee were standing frozen, transfixed with horror. +Something . . . in all the dark murk of fog Martt could not make it +out. An animal? It seemed oblong, the size of a large dog. He could see +its moving legs--eight or ten legs, moving as it walked. He felt Zee +stir beside him; he withstood his impulse to run. That would make too +much noise; the thing would bound after them--catch them. . . . + +There was a rotting post beside Zee. She and Martt crouched there and +watched with a horrified fascination the thing as it came padding down +the incline. It was vaguely green-white; it seemed luminous. As it +approached, Martt saw it was a sleek body, moving lithe like a panther. +A green-white thing. And then he saw that it was headless. A blunt end, +with a gaping, dripping mouth and a shining green eye on a protruding +stalk. It stopped, turned the eye to look upward and back. + +Martt's breath was stopped. In the silence he seemed to hear his own +tumultuously beating heart, and Zee's. The thing was coming on again. +Now Martt could hear sounds from it. A whining; a babbling. And from +the houses, up there at the end of the incline, came another sound. A +great, heavy breathing. A giant was up there asleep! This thing--like +nothing of Zee's world--belonged to the giants! Martt's heart, for all +his horror, leaped with exultation. A giant, asleep! A giant smaller in +size now, if he were up in those houses. He would have the drugs; they +could steal the drugs from him while he slept. + +The thing on the incline was quite close. It glowed with its own light, +greenly phosphorescent, like the ghost of something in a dream, leprous +with its missing head. + +Another moment. It was passing close beside Martt. A luminous liquid +dripping from the gaping slit of its mouth. Its eye on the stalk peered +ahead. Its voice was clearly audible. A whine; and babbling sounds like +words. + +Revulsion, even more than fear, swept Martt. This thing was muttering +words! Animal, or human--it was talking, babbling to itself. Strange +words of an unknown tongue--but human words. Babbling them as though +with reason unhinged. Gruesome! This leprous thing--leprous of body; +and leprous of mind! + +It passed within an arm's length of Martt as he crouched. And suddenly, +without conscious thought, he struck at it with his naked knife. +Horrible! The knife sank, but the thing was scarce ponderable! Martt's +hand with the knife went down and through the luminous green body, with +a feeling of warmth and a wet stickiness, but no more. + +The force of the blow, unresisted, threw Martt off his balance. He +fell forward, but still clutched the knife. The thing, with a sharp, +horrible cry of pain, lurched backward. Then stood with its eye +quivering, poised for its attack. + + + + + _CHAPTER 4_ + + THE WILD NIGHT RIDE + + +Frannie forced her way out of the crowded arcade, with its struggling, +panic-stricken occupants. She was confused, terrified. Separated from +me, and then from Martt, her only idea was to find us again; or find +Brett. Outside the arcade she turned aimlessly to where the crowd +momentarily was least dense. Panic-stricken people--all strangers. Then +she saw Leela in the shadow of a doorway of the arcade, and ran to her. + +"Leela! What is it? What has happened?" + +People around them were shouting. Leela said, "Giants. There is a +giant off there in the lake. I was looking for Brett. He came out +here. Oh, Frannie----" + +The two girls clung to each other. It was dark where they stood. At +the moment the crowd had surged the other way. Suddenly Frannie became +aware of a dark form looming beside her. A man twice the size of +herself. She tried to scream, but a great palm went over her face. She +felt herself being jerked from her feet. . . . + +She half fainted; recovered to find herself in a thicket within a few +feet of the arcade. Leela was beside her. Leela panted, "Don't scream, +Frannie! They'll--kill us if we scream!" + +The man was with them, and a thick-set lump of a woman. Not so large +now. Almost normal in size, for they were dwindling. The man was naked +to the waist, a gray-white, barrel-like chest matted with hair. A face, +fearsome with menacing eyes, and a head of matted black locks. + +And in the thicket were four horned animals; saddled, like large horses +with spreading antlers. The animals were dwindling. . . . + +The man rasped a command at Leela. From his belt he drew small pellets, +white like tiny pills of medicine. He thrust one at Leela, forced it +down her throat. Leela gasped, "You must take it, Frannie. He says--it +is harmless--but if we resist--he will kill." + +Then the man thrust his fingers into Frannie's mouth, his arm holding +her roughly. She gulped, swallowed. It was an acrid taste. . . . + +The man pushed her roughly from the thicket. And pushed Leela. His +triumphant laugh was the rasp of a file on metal. Leela and Frannie +stumbled to the wall of the arcade, stood clinging together. And +suddenly, with the realization of what was upon her, Leela screamed. +And Frannie screamed, though she did not yet understand. + +A wave of nausea possessed Frannie. Her head was reeling. Voices +sounded near by--familiar men's voices. My voice, and Brett's! We came +running at the sound of the screams. + +Frannie held tight to the swaying Leela as Brett and I rushed up. And +I took Frannie in my arms. Brett was demanding, "Leela, what is it? +You're not hurt, are you? What is it?" + +Frannie wanted to try and tell me. "Frank--oh----" She choked; her +throat was constricted. + +And then Frannie really knew! Within my arms she felt herself +shrinking! Growing smaller; but it was not so much that; rather was it +that my encircling arm was expanding, holding her more loosely. + +With the horror of it, Brett and I stood apart. Frannie's nausea was +passing; her head was steadier, but dizzy with the strange movement of +the scene around her. She clung to Leela, and, of everything within her +vision, only Leela was unchanging. The wall of the arcade was slowly +passing upward; its nearer corner was moving slowly away; Brett and +I were growing. Our waists reaching to Frannie's head; and then our +knees. She gazed upward to where, fifteen or twenty feet above her, our +horrified faces stared down. + +The mind always takes its personal viewpoint. Frannie and Leela were +dwindling into smallness. But now that the nausea and dizziness +were past, to them, they alone were normal. Everything else seemed +changing . . . the whole scene, growing gigantic. . . . + +It was a slow, crawling growth--a steady, visible movement. The ground +beneath their feet was a fine white sand. To Frannie's sight this patch +of sand had originally been some ten feet, with the arcade wall on one +side, and a thicket on the other. But the ground was shifting outward +with herself as a center. Under her bare feet she could feel its steady +movement--drawing outward, shifting so that her feet were drawn apart. +She had to move them constantly. + +Beside her now she saw my foot and ankle as large as herself; the +towering shafts of my legs--my face a hundred feet or more above her. +The arcade wall stretched up almost out of sight--lantern-flowers +loomed up there like great colored suns. . . . The thicket was a +hundred feet away--a tangle of jungle. + +Then Frannie saw the giant Brett reach down and pick Leela up on his +hand--saw Leela whirled gasping into the air. A moment, then Brett set +her gently back on the ground. She was some twenty feet from Frannie. +She ran, half stumbled across the rough white ground until again the +girls were together. + +The arch of my sandaled foot was now as tall as Frannie. The arcade +wall was very distant; the thicket was a blur in the distance. That +small patch of white sand had unrolled to a great stony plain. Rough; +yellow-white stones strewn everywhere. Frannie saw my feet and +Brett's--as large as the arcade once had been--moving away with great +surging bounds up into the air and back. A boulder was near by--a rock +as tall as Frannie. It was visibly growing. She gripped Leela--together +they crept to the boulder's side, huddled there. + +But they could not remain still. The boulder was expanding. It towered +over them; but it was drawing away as well, for the ground was +expanding. Constantly they shifted their position to remain close to +it, to huddle under its protecting curve. It had been a rock taller +than their heads; it was now a mountain. It loomed above them--a +bulging cliff-face of naked, ragged rock. + +Then it was no longer moving. Everything now had steadied; the ground +was motionless. A normality came to Leela and Frannie. Their terror +faded into apprehension, and a desire, a determination to do what they +could to help themselves. They stood up and looked around them. + + + II + +They were in the midst of a vast, rock-strewn plain, illumined by a +half twilight. It seemed miles in extent--a rolling country of naked +rock over which, for a sky, hung a remote murk of distance. A naked +landscape, rolling upward to a circular horizon, with the circular +mountain of rock standing beside them at its center. + +Leela now seemed quite calm. She said, "We are not unfathomably small. +Too small for Brett to see us, but not if he gets a glass to magnify. +He will mark the spot where we are--he will do something, Frannie--we +must not be too much frightened." + +There seemed nothing that they could do to help themselves. No use to +wander; though no great harm either, for they could roam for miles over +this rocky waste to cover no more than a foot or two of the white sand +Brett would be guarding. + +To Frannie's imagination came the thought of insects! A crawling ant in +that white sand would now be a monster gigantic! She gazed around in +terror, but there was nothing of the kind in sight. + +A desolate landscape, empty of movement. Frannie's heart leaped. In the +distance something was moving! She gripped Leela. + +"There's something out there--something moving out there!" + +Tiny moving specks. Too terrified to run, the girls stood staring. +A mile or two away, specks were moving across the rocky plain. They +seemed coming nearer. They separated into four specks. Four gray +blobs, coming swiftly forward. + +In a few moments they were distinguishable. Four running animals, +bounding, leaping over the rocks. Animals with horns. Two of them +running free; two with riders. + +Leela gasped, "That's the giant! And the woman! They're coming to find +us!" + +For a moment the two girls stood transfixed, heedless that they would +be discovered. To Frannie came the thought: The giant, the woman and +the four animals had been dwindling. They had stood in the thicket, +hiding from Brett. They were coming from the thicket now, riding over +the vast rocky plain headlong to regain their captives. Brett could not +see them; they were too small. Brett was probably standing a few feet +from here on the sand--afraid to come closer for fear of treading upon +the girls; and those few feet were miles away across this naked desert. + +The four animals came leaping forward. They ran low to the ground, +necks extended like huge dogs on a trail. Already they were no more +than half a mile away. The figures of the riding man and woman showed +plainly. They all seemed about normal size as compared to Frannie and +Leela. + +Abruptly Frannie recovered her wits. "We must hide! They must not find +us!" + +They hid, out of sight around a corner of the lower rock-face of the +mountain; crouched, waiting with wildly beating hearts. + +But it was useless. Either they had been seen or the animals scented +them. Soon they heard the man calling his mount. No noise of galloping +hoofs, for the beasts ran lightly on padded feet. A moment, then the +animals burst into view around the jutting rock; bounded up and stopped +before the crouching girls. + +The man dismounted. His grin was a leer of triumph. He spoke to +Leela--a harsh, guttural command in her own language, as he had spoken +before when he forced the drug upon her. + +Leela dragged herself to her feet, and Frannie after her. The man spoke +again. Less harshly this time, and at greater length. He gestured at +Frannie. + +Leela said, with a quiver in her voice that she tried to hold to +calmness, "He tells me that his name is Rokk. This woman here is his +mate--he calls her Mobah. He says they come from a very big world--down +here to our world of infinite smallness. Oh, Frannie, what can we do? +He says they are going to take us with them, up there to that Giant +World." + +Frannie, too, strove for calmness. "Ask him--why? What harm have we +done to him? Tell him--we don't want to go----" + +Leela turned to this man who had called himself Rokk. Then she appealed +to the woman--but the woman stared dumbly and turned away. + +"Frannie--he says we will learn later what he wants. He says--we will +not be harmed if we cause no trouble. We are going--he says he is going +to take us----" + +"Which way?" Frannie interrupted. + +"I don't know. I suppose to Reaf." + +"Ask him." + +Leela asked him. "Yes, by way of Reaf. He says we will mount the +animals--he calls them dhranes. They run very swiftly--as Brett +describes your wolves of the northern ice-fields of your Earth." + +Frannie demanded, "He says we go to Reaf?" + +"Yes. We will cross the island--out the lagoon--riding the dhranes as +they swim." + +Memory of the island--the arcade--the lagoon and the lake came to +Frannie. The island! It seemed so remote, so gigantic. This vast rocky +waste surrounding them now was only a small patch of white sand beside +the arcade wall. + +She said swiftly, "Leela, ask him how we can ever do that when we are +so small? Why, it must be hundreds of miles--for us in this size--just +to reach the shore of the island." + +"I told him that. He said, 'Of course.' He said he has been riding from +the thicket ever since he got small enough to avoid Brett's sight. +While they were still diminishing they were riding. He was afraid Brett +would see them--but he had to take that chance." + +"I mean," said Frannie breathlessly, "tell him we must get larger. It +is too far in this small size. Tell him you know the island and the +lake well--we will help him escape----" + +Leela nodded eagerly. "So that if we get large, Brett may see us?" + +"Yes. Try and get him to make us large at once--now. Tell him we'll +help him----" + +Rokk grinned sardonically at Leela's words. Leela turned to Frannie in +chagrin. + +"He says he will do as he thinks best--and we will do as we are told." + +Rokk added another command. Leela said, "We must mount the dhranes, +Frannie. I think we had better do as he says--and not talk. Can you +ride a saddle like that?" + +From Frannie's viewpoint, the dhranes were now about the size of +small horses--four-legged, long-haired, shaggy beasts with crooked, +wide-spreading antlers. They moved as though on springs. Frannie was +reminded by their movements of giant leopards she had seen in cages on +Earth. But they seemed gentle, docile enough. The saddles were oblong, +padded with fur, with a high and a low foot-rail, both upon the same +side, on which the rider's feet could rest. + +"I can ride that," said Frannie; and nimbly mounted. There was no +bridle; Frannie leaned forward and clutched the antlers. Leela mounted. +Rokk moved his dhrane about by spoken words, and by slapping its +haunches with his hands. + +Leela said, "He is going to give us some of the drug, Frannie. Some +now--to make us larger. But before we are very large he says we will +be beyond the arcade, in the woods where Brett can not see us. We will +ride very fast----" + +The animals lapped their drug eagerly. The man and woman took theirs, +with Leela and Frannie. To Frannie again came a moment of nausea--a +reeling of the senses. But it was quickly passed. + +Rokk shouted. Frannie tensed herself. The dhrane under her bounded +forward. The ride began. + + + III + +At first Frannie clung tensely to the antlers; but soon she found it +was not necessary to do so. The dhrane ran with long, smooth bounds; +sure-footed on the rocks as a chamois, noiseless, lithe as a great cat. +It ran, with head extended, low to the ground; beneath her, Frannie +could feel the play of its smooth muscles, rippling under its shaggy +skin. + +The woman Mobah rode her dhrane behind Frannie. Leela was directly +ahead, with Rokk leading. In single file they bounded forward. Leela's +black hair and draperies flew in the wind. She rode, bending forward, +her body loosely responsive to the animal's bounds. + +The wind of their forward movement sang in Frannie's ears. The ground +fled by under her with a blur of yellow movement. And all around her +was the murky night, rushing at her, passing, and closing in behind. + +A wild, night ride like the fairy dream of a child. Wild, and +free . . . a fairy dream. . . . + +An exaltation was upon Frannie; she urged her mount to greater speed. +And thought of the drug she had taken. . . . + +The drug was acting. The rushing night seemed shrinking. Everywhere +the murk was contracting. The ground was smoothing and turning from +its yellow to white. Overhead a remote--very remote--spot of red light +shone like a dying sun in the heavens. A lantern-flower! Frannie's +heart leaped with triumph. They were growing larger. . . . + +She heard Rokk shout to his dhrane; felt her own mount stretch +closer to the ground as the speed was increasing. The rushing night +contracting . . . they seemed riding up . . . and up . . . the ground, +the night was shrinking under them. . . . + +A wild, night ride up through a fairy's dream . . . it seemed endless. +Wildly free, with the exaltation of a child's fancy upon it. . . . + +Frannie became aware that the vast rocky plain was shrunken to a +smoother level. And ahead now, she saw a great forest, with colored +suns about it. Soon they were in the forest. A jungle. Flat, orange +stalks of grass twenty feet high. The dhranes bounded through them. +Shaggy outlines of tree trunks, each vast as a mountain. They rose into +unfathomable murky distance overhead. But these were all dwindling. The +giant jungle was shrinking . . . passing slowly, but ever faster. + +A fantasy . . . the dream of a child. . . . + +Rokk called again. Their pace slackened. Frannie saw an open space +ahead. Coarse white sand--a patch of it half a mile in extent. Beyond +it a broad beach. Water shining off there. The lake, with stars above +it. + +The dhranes ran more slowly. The white open space shrank as they +traversed it. The beach rushed at them. It had narrowed. Frannie saw +it as almost of normal aspect--the narrow shore of the island. The lake +was starlit--beautiful. + +Rokk paused a moment at the water's edge. Frannie gazed around. +The woods were behind them. A large, dark tree-trunk was near by +on the shore. Frannie gazed that way idly; and though she did not +know it, Martt and Zee were crouching there, staring with a confused +fascination. A moment. The shore shrunk further; the water had advanced +to lap the stamping, impatient feet of the dhranes. Rokk spoke softly. +His dhrane waded in, with the others following. + +Frannie again gripped her beast's horns. The water rose almost to the +saddle. It was warm and pleasant. The dhrane swam smoothly, swiftly, +with neck stretched out, nose skimming the surface. + +A dwindling silver lake. Ripples of silver-green phosphorescence; lines +of silver fire diverging behind the swimming animals. . . . + +Frannie turned to gaze at the receding island. An island already +shrunken, dotted with shrinking colored lights. And ahead, the empty +starlit lake. + + + IV + +Riding over the land, it had been a breathless whistling of wind, a +swift surging of the ground beneath Frannie's feet. Here in the lake it +was quiet and calm; the warm lapping of the silver-streaked water; the +quiet stars overhead. Frannie heard Rokk talking back over his shoulder +to Leela, and then Leela drew in her mount and spoke to Frannie. + +"He says the giants have all gone back through Reaf to their own world. +One was wading out here toward Reaf. He was very large then; he is to +stay in Reaf on guard, while we go on. He is there now--it is not far." + +"How big are we, Leela? Did he say?" There was no way, here in the +lake, by which size could be compared. The exaltation of the ride--its +swift, tempestuous movement--the wild, romantic fantasy of it--all this +was leaving Frannie. A depression was upon her. She added, "Oh, Leela, +Brett did not see us! And Frank--will we ever see them again?" + +Leela said, "We are about twice normal size--it will not be far to +Reaf, swimming like this." In the starlight, Frannie could see that +Leela was smiling; a wistful, heavy-hearted smile. She was trying to be +brave. And Frannie smiled back. + +"We mustn't get frightened, Leela. Just watch our chance--try to +escape. You stay by me all you can. I mean--when we get"--there was a +catch in her voice--"when we get--under the mountains beyond Reaf." + +Leela nodded. Rokk was calling, and Leela urged her dhrane forward. + +Soon the left-hand shore and the mountains ahead were visible. The +water grew warmer. Small islands appeared. The dhranes panted with the +heat of the water; in the muddy channels between the islands, sometimes +they floundered. Steam was in the air; ahead it lay like a bank of fog, +with the frowning mountains rising above it. + +Presently, through the fog, the houses of Reaf came into view. Small +ghostly outlines of houses on stilts. To the right of them was a +yawning black mouth where one of the rivers plunged into the mountain. +The turgid current was swinging that way; Rokk urged the dhrane across +it, to the left. + +Soon they were swimming among the houses. These seemed very small. +Frannie reached up from the dhrane's back and laid her hand on the +roof of one as she passed it. Rokk was heading inshore. The mountain +here was a frowning cliff-face, with a very narrow ledge at the water +level. The ledge ended in a wooden incline bridge leading upward to a +group of buildings near shore. Six or eight small houses with doors +and rectangles of windows, clustered there together, perched on stiff +wooden legs over the water. The incline bridge connected them with the +shore, and they were strung together by a broad wooden platform. + +Rokk shouted, and from behind the buildings a giant appeared. He had +been sitting in the water. He stood up, with mud and slime dripping +from him. A man, like Rokk, but younger. His hair was sleek and black, +and fell long to his bared chest, across which a skin was draped. His +face was broad and flat, and hairless. He stood with the water to his +knees, beside the buildings with his arm arched over their roofs as he +leaned against them. + +He smiled. He called, "_Ae_, Rokk!" And Rokk answered, "_Ae_, Degg." + +They spoke together. Then they spoke in Leela's language. Leela +murmured to Frannie, "This man Degg is to remain here until we are +safely above." + +Rokk issued his commands. Degg sat down again in the water, waist-deep, +with his arms holding his hunched-up knees. He yawned and waved his +hand as Rokk swam his dhrane away. + +Again in single file, they swam. As they passed the buildings Frannie +chanced to glance up. On the porch-like platform up there she caught +a glimpse of a green-white shape--a thing stretched out somnolent--a +thing, headless! + +It was only a glimpse. Frannie's swimming dhrane carried her beyond +sight of it. . . . She was shuddering. + +The water now was unpleasantly hot. The current was strong. It was +beginning to ripple the water. Ugly, white ripples . . . sinister. + +The dhranes swam with the moving water. But they tossed their heads, +uneasy. . . . Rokk was continually shouting, forcing his mount forward. + +There were no houses here. The cliff-face was moving swiftly past. And +then a black mouth swept into view. A hundred feet high and twice as +broad. A mouth, with steam like the fetid breath of a monster. . . . + +The water was sweeping that way. Surging in a torrent. White water, +leaping over jagged rock-points that split it into foam. . . . + +And from the mouth came a sullen roaring. . . . + +Frannie's dhrane lifted its head with a sharp bleat of fear. Its body +was swung sidewise by the tumbling water, but it recovered and swam +desperately. + +The roaring rose to a deafening torrent of sound. White water was +leaping everywhere. Frannie half closed her eyes; she could see a +whirling blob which was Leela ahead of her. Then the black mouth opened +to encompass the world as Frannie was swept into it. + +An inferno of roaring blackness. . . . + + + + + _CHAPTER 5_ + + CLIMBING INTO LARGENESS UNFATHOMABLE + + +In the fog and darkness at the foot of the incline, Martt stood tense, +with upraised knife. The green-white thing was poised for its leap. It +was not babbling now; its eye on the stalk glared balefully. A shudder +swept Martt, as Frannie had shuddered an hour before when she and Leela +passed this way, and she had caught a glimpse of this thing lying +somnolent on the platform above. + +Martt muttered, "Stay back, Zee." And then the headless thing leaped. +Martt caught it on his outflung hand and knife, but did not stop it. He +felt his hand sinking within it--a soft, sticky warmth. Its body came +on, and struck his chest--a blow as though a soft, yielding pillow had +struck him. + +There was a moment, there in the darkness, of unutterable horror as +Martt felt and saw his body mingled with the body of this gleaming +thing clawing at him. He struck wildly, fighting, kicking in a panic of +futility. Wet, warm and sticky! He seemed to tear its body apart. But +the glowing, lurid outlines, wavering, came back always into shape. + +The thing itself was in a panic. Lunging, twisting. Its claws scraped +Martt's face, too imponderable to scratch. The slit of its mouth +opened to grip his throat; its teeth sank impotently within his flesh. +Pressing against him . . . the slime of it was warm, with a stench, +noisome. . . . + +Horrible! A nausea made Martt reel. And the thing now was crying with +terrible, frightened cries. But they were low, suppressed. + +Martt staggered. And suddenly the lurid green shape gathered itself and +fled. Martt saw a quivering dark wound in its side. It fled whimpering +along the rocks of the shore and disappeared. + +Martt relaxed. He was unhurt. He stooped to the water and washed the +stickiness from him. He felt a wild, hysterical desire to laugh. + +"Zee, it--that thing was as frightened as I was!" + +"Are you all right, Martt? It's gone! What was it?" She clutched at him +anxiously. + +"Yes--all right. It couldn't hurt me and I couldn't hurt it. Not much." +He laughed again, but suddenly sobered. "Zee, there's a giant up there +asleep. Hear him?" + +They listened. From up there in the fog the deep, heavy breathing +still sounded. Martt whispered, "You wait here, Zee. I'll creep up on +him--get the drugs." He turned to her tensely. "Zee, you stay here. +Close against the rocks. Whatever happens, you stay here. I'll--if I +get the drugs--I'll make myself very large. Kill him--then I'll come +back to you. Don't move--whatever happens." + +He left her. The wooden incline sloped sharply upward. The fog +momentarily seemed clearing. Martt saw above him the outlines of the +houses, a broad platform connecting them. And stretched the length +of the platform was the huge, recumbent figure of a man. He seemed +about forty feet tall. He lay hunched, cramped for space, with one arm +upflung to the roof of a house, and one leg dangling nearly to the +water. + +Martt reached the platform. He crept past the giant's legs. The waist, +wrapped in a skin, was rising and falling with the giant's breathing. +Martt's own breath was held. His heart was thumping wildly. The giant +stirred; Martt stepped nimbly aside to avoid the movement of the great +body. + +At the giant's waist he paused, reached up, fumbling. There seemed a +belt here, with pockets. The drugs should be there. The bulge of the +giant's middle was nearly as high as Martt's chest as he stood upright. +He reached up, and over, feeling with careful fingers. + +With a thrill of triumph, Martt found two cylinders, each as long +as his forearm. In the starlight he opened them, drew from each a +flat, square tablet of compressed powder. The drugs! But which was +for growth and which for shrinkage? One was larger than the other. It +suggested growth. It was flat and square--the length of Martt's thumb. +Impulsively he would have crushed it in his mouth and swallowed it. +But a thought gave him pause. This giant was nearly seven times larger +than himself. This expanded dose of the drug then would be too great. +Martt bit off a corner of the white tablet. Swallowed it. An acrid +taste. . . . He replaced the remainder in the cylinder and put both +cylinders in his pocket, tying his jacket close around them. Would they +expand with his body? He could only hope so. + +Expand? How did he know but that he had taken the wrong drug? Well, he +could soon rectify that. . . . A panic swept Martt that the giant might +awaken too soon. . . . The drug was taking effect; Martt was sick and +dizzy. He reeled to a post at an outer corner of the platform. Clung +there. He all but slipped and fell into the water ten feet below. + +A moment, then the sickness passed. He was growing! He could feel +the post shrinking within his grip. The outlines of the houses were +contracting. The knife in his hand, already tiny, slipped and fell into +the water with a splash. + +The post soon was too small for Martt to hold. He reached over and +steadied himself upon the grass roof of the nearest house. It was +melting under his hands. The sleeping giant lay at his feet, a giant no +longer; a man, like himself--the two of them crowding a tiny, flimsy +platform with toy houses beside it, and black water flowing sluggishly +close underneath. + +A sense of power swept Martt. A triumph. He was not afraid of this man, +unarmed like himself. Already the man was undersized. . . . Why, Martt +could grip him, choke him! . . . These toy houses--a sweep of Martt's +arm would have scattered them. + +Martt was bending awkwardly over the roof-tops. A ripping, tearing +noise sounded. The platform, the houses, quivered, wavered, collapsed! +The whole structure, bending beneath the weight of the two huge bodies, +gave way. Martt found himself floundering in warm, muddy water, +entangled in a debris of splintered wood and grasslike house-roofs. + +And with him, his antagonist, awakened to a startled confusion, +floundering, struggling to get upon his feet. + +Martt rose to his knees. The shallow lake bottom was sticky with mud. +A house-roof hung upon his shoulder. He heaved it off; stood upright, +dripping, breathless. The other man was up also. In the starlight, amid +the floating wreckage, they faced each other. Martt was the taller; and +he was still growing. He saw his enemy shrinking before him. A slim +young fellow, with long black hair. A broad, flat face, with a startled +surprize on it. + +Martt laughed. And shouted, "I've got you now!" He would have leaped. +But abruptly he recalled Zee, tiny in size, huddled there by the shore. +A lunge of his body--or of this other man's body--a flip of one of +these torn housebeams--and Zee would be killed. . . . + +Martt turned and waded rapidly away. He wondered if the other man would +follow him. Martt wanted to get him farther out into the lake. It was +an error; for as Martt turned to look back, he saw his antagonist's +hand go to his belt; and then to his mouth. More of the drug! Martt +thought that he had in his own pocket all there was of it here. But +the giant had more. Already he was growing. As Martt stood undecided, +he saw the giant growing like himself. He was smaller than Martt now, +but growing more swiftly. He stood for an instant with his arms upflung +toward the stars; then he came wading forward. + +The mountains were at Martt's right hand. Shrinking, swiftly +contracting. The water now came not much over his ankles; a small patch +of wreckage marked where the collapsed buildings had stood. + +Martt retreated slightly; he turned, moved to the cliff-face with his +back against it. + +Then, with a swirl of water, his enemy rushed at him. Martt met the +rush unyielding. They locked. Swaying, struggling each to throw the +other. The lake at their ankles was lashed white. They fought silently, +grimly. The fellow was strong; he pushed Martt backward against the +Mountain. His hands strove for Martt's throat. But Martt ripped them +away. With a body-hold he bent his adversary backward; but always he +could feel the man's body swelling within his grasp. + +A desperation seized Martt. If he could not win now, at once, he would +lose. This fellow was growing too large. Beside them, as they swayed, +Martt caught a glimpse of the mountain. It was now a cliff not much +higher than his head. At his feet Martt was dimly aware of a small +black hole in the cliff into which water was rushing. + +One of Martt's legs was wrapped around the legs of his adversary; and +suddenly the man tipped. They went down together, Martt on top. It was +like falling into a puddle of water. They lunged, rolled over. And then +the giant rose, with Martt clinging to him. He was much larger than +Martt now; he heaved himself upward, flung Martt against the cliff. +Martt's head and shoulders went over its top. Jagged spires of rock; +loose rocks lying there. The giant jerked Martt back; he fell on his +feet; saw his antagonist towering over him. + +But in Martt's hand now was a jagged lump of rock which he had snatched +from the cliff. He flung it, and it caught the giant full on the +forehead. He staggered, and as his grip on Martt loosened, Martt leaped +away. + +And the giant came crashing down, his huge body falling before the hole +in the mountain; blocking it so that the surging lake backed up with a +deepening torrent of the hot, black water. + + + II + +Martt stood panting in the starlight. He had won. The scene around +him was still dwindling, but in a moment it stopped. Cliffs to his +shoulder. A shrunken, shallow lake. Its tiny flat islands were no +bigger than his foot. Along its shore where the cliff ended he could +see the open country. Tiny threads of roads. An island with points +of colored light--the island of the festival. At his feet, miniature +houses on stilts, many of them strewn on the water, trampled by this +combat of giants in which he had been victorious. + +And the fallen giant there in the water, blocking the river-mouth, the +water deepening against his side. + +Martt took a cautious step. Zee was down there somewhere. Then he saw +her figure, dimly, in the mist which hung over the lake at his ankles. +She seemed about the size of his finger. She was standing at the +water's edge, waving up to him. + +He bent down--carefully. He said softly, "I see you, Zee. You must get +larger. I'll give you some of the drug to take." + +She shouted, "Yes." It was a very tiny voice, echoing from far away. + +Martt's jacket had been partly torn from him. One of his shoulders was +bare, bleeding from where he had been thrown against the cliff-top. He +stooped and dashed water upon the wound; and saw Zee crouch and shield +herself from the deluge of water he splashed. + +He thought, "Careful, Martt;" and from his pocket drew one of the +cylinders. The tablets of the drug still were the size of his thumb. +He took one, laid it carefully at the water's edge, near Zee. It was +nearly the size of her body. She walked to it, examined it. + +"Break it," he said. "Eat some--about the size of your thumb." + +He could hardly have seen a speck of it so small. Zee found a loose +rock. She pounded at the white tablet. Ate a fragment. And presently +Martt gave her some of the other drug to stop her growth; and she was +his own size, standing beside him, gazing at the shrunken scene in +wonderment. + + + III + +They stood consulting over what they should do. They had the precious +drugs. Should they return with them to Brett, or go on and rescue +Frannie and Leela? Martt was confident. With the drugs in his pocket, +all sense of fear was passed. It was obvious that the world here was in +no danger. This fallen giant at their feet was the last. But Frannie +and Leela were captured; were taken up to that other realm. To delay +following would be most dangerous of all. + +And Zee agreed. Her eyes were sparkling. She stretched out her white +arms. She said, "With this power we would be cowards to turn back----" + +The giant still had some of the drugs about his person. Martt bent over +him. + +"Zee! He isn't dead!" + +The young giant's face was white; blood was on his forehead where the +rock had struck. He opened his eyes; rolled over in the water. The +dammed river surged again into its black hole. + +"Zee, look! He isn't dead!" + +He sat up; smiled in a daze, struggled to rise to his feet but could +not. + +The rock which Martt had hurled lay like a great boulder in the lake. +Martt seized it, but Zee caught his wrist. + +"Martt! Don't----" + +A sense of shame struck at Martt; he dropped the rock. "Zee, can you +talk to him--try if he understands your language." + +She spoke, and the young giant answered. He was trying to smile, +grateful for the words. Zee stooped and splashed water on his wounded +forehead. + +"Martt, he says his name is Degg--he has seen Leela and Frannie--a man +and woman took them into the river-mouth." + +The fellow did not seem greatly hurt. He was frightened, watchful, but +docile enough. Martt took the drugs from him. "Ask him the way up to +his world--it will help us----" + +It was the one thing that would help them! Martt realized it. + +Degg, outwardly at least, seemed friendly enough. When Zee promised +that they would not hurt him--would take him to his own world, the only +way he would ever get there, since he had no drugs--he agreed readily +to lead them. + +"But we must be careful," said Martt. "Never let him get larger than +ourselves. And watch him, always." + +At Degg's direction, first they diminished their stature until, +compared to the buildings of Reaf, they were about fifty feet tall. +Degg said, in Zee's language, "We wade now into the black river. Rokk +likes to swim--but wading is easier." + +They were ready to start. Soon they would be beyond this world--up into +largeness unfathomable. Martt said, "We must leave some message for +Brett. Let him know what became of us." + +There was no way to leave a written message. Conspicuously on a rock +near the shore, Martt left the broad belt of his jacket. As he turned +away, Degg was calling softly, "_Ae!_ Eeff! Eeff, come here!" The +green-white, headless thing was lurking among the rocks. "Eeff, come +here!" + +It advanced, whimpering. Compared to Martt's fifty-foot stature it +seemed now no bigger than a rat. Martt conquered his aversion and stood +waiting while it approached. In the starlight it glowed unreal; its eye +on the stalk pointed distrustfully at Martt. It stood at Degg's feet; +whimpering--and mumbling words. + +Degg said to Zee, "It is afraid of your man. I tell it you will do no +harm. It wants to come with us." He stooped over. "Eeff, you come with +us?" + +It understood, partly the words spoken in Zee's language, and partly +the gesture. It said mouthingly, "Yes, Eeff come--with you." + +Uncanny! Horrible! Martt shuddered. Degg was saying, "It is a very good +friend to me. May we take it?" + +"All right," said Martt shortly, when Zee translated. But it worried +him. He resolved more than ever to watch Degg carefully, and to watch +this headless thing Degg called a friend. + +They fed a small morsel of the drug to Eeff, until it had grown to a +size normal to them. Then they started. The black mouth of the river, +to them in this size, seemed a passageway ten or twelve feet high and +twice as broad. The river swirled about their legs; hot, with steam +rising. Soon they were in darkness, following the river around a bend. +But only for a moment. Martt and Zee were hand in hand. Degg was in +advance; Martt could just distinguish Degg's figure with the shining +blob of Eeff in the water beside him. + +Darkness. But Martt's eyes were growing accustomed to it. And now the +rocks of the caverns seemed to be giving light--a dim phosphorescence. +The cavern expanded. They waded across a broad, shallow lake where +the water was calm. Then again into a tunnel. Miles down its tortuous +course with the river swirling and tumbling about them. + +Sometimes there was a dry ledge upon which they could walk. Sometimes +the river deepened, and they had to swim. Always Degg advanced grimly, +steadily, and silently. A foreboding grew upon Martt. Were they going +right? Was this the way Frannie and Leela had gone? Once he whispered, +"Do you think, Zee, that he's tricking us?" + +She shook her head. "You have all the drugs. He would not dare." + +They had waded for hours. Then ahead of them they saw Degg pause. The +river here plunged straight down into a black abyss. To the left a +passageway turned upward. It was some ten feet high and two or three +times as wide. It went up at an incline into the green, luminous +darkness. They followed Degg. A mile perhaps, steadily climbing. Martt +calculated. They had already walked possibly fifteen miles--and they +were more than eight times the normal size of Zee's world. That was +more than a hundred and twenty miles underground--most of it downward. + +Martt realized that he was tired. And hungry. Before leaving Reaf he +had thought of food necessary for this trip. Degg had a concentrated +food--a dull brown powder. Martt promptly had appropriated it--had +tested it to make sure it was not a size-drug. . . . + +The passageway abruptly opened into black, empty space. A rocky slope +rolling gently upward, strewn with huge black boulders. It extended as +far as Martt could see, upward into a luminous darkness. Overhead was a +black sky--murky with distance. + +Degg stopped. "We begin getting large here." + +Zee translated it to Martt. + +"Let's eat, then," said Martt. "Zee, aren't you tired and hungry?" + +There was water lying in flat pools on the rocks. It was clear, cold +and sweet. They sat down, talking and eating. Then Zee slept. And Degg +slept also. + +Martt sat alert, watching, while the headless thing stretched itself +somnolent on a rock near by, its single eye on the stalk wilting +downward in drowsiness. + +Martt strove to master his revulsion. He called softly, "Eeff! Eeff, +come here!" + +But it would not come. It moved farther away, whimpering to itself. + + + IV + +"Zee, wake up! We've got to get started. You've slept hours." + +The real size-change now began. In single file they walked up the black +slope. It shrank beneath them--creeping, crawling, dwindling away under +their feet. The boulders shrank into rocks, into pebbles. In an hour +they were walking upon a smooth surface. + +The black void was no longer empty. Mountains showed ahead--and to the +sides. Giant faces of rock, looming into unfathomable distance of the +black sky. The mountains were drawing closer; contracting, rushing down +with a violent movement. + +Martt apprehensively glanced behind. A wall of dwindling rock was +coming after them. The drug in these larger doses seemed acting with a +multiplied power. The scene was a dizzy swirl of movement. Mountains +closing in everywhere. To Martt came a flash of terror. They would +be crushed. Their bodies were growing tremendously to fill this +constricted space. . . . + +Degg had stopped walking. They were gathered in a group. They were now +in the center of a circular valley, with a ring of mountains closing +in. A ten-mile valley . . . a mile . . . a hundred feet. . . . + +But the mountains shrank to hills; to a low cliff-wall--a ridge. . . . +It closed in. . . . + +"Now!" shouted Degg. They leaped over the low ledge of encircling rock; +scrambled over it and fell on a level ground above. . . . + +Beside them Martt saw a small jagged hole in the ground. . . . The size +of his waist . . . his fist . . . his finger. . . . It dwindled, closed +and was gone; while again, above them and all about, were black, empty +spaces, filled soon with shrinking canyons out of which hastily they +climbed. . . . + +A fantasmagoria of climbing, struggling upward to avoid being crushed +by their own growth. . . . + +There was a canyon too narrow, with sides too high. . . . They had to +stop their growth, and climb its jagged, precipitous side. The climb +took hours. There was another meal, while Martt slept and Zee remained +on guard. + +Then another valley. Broad, with a steeply inclined floor. They grew +out of it; into another; and another. . . . + +Martt became conscious of a change in the air. Cooler, with a dankness. +And now at last, overhead the void was no longer black. A suggestion +of purple. And suddenly as they leaped from a chasm which shrank and +closed under them, Martt saw a sky. Somber purple, with stars. + +A new conception of it all swept Martt. His Earth--the stars of its +Universe. The Inner Surface of the Atom, Zee's realm--millions of times +larger. And now--compared to Reaf . . . was he now a million times the +size of Reaf? . . . Or a million million? Largeness, unfathomable. A +convex world out here. The surface of a globe, whirling in Space. And +overhead, still other stars, so gigantic--so remote! + + + V + +Martt gazed curiously around. They were at last in Degg's world--the +region of the Arcs. A tumbled land of crags upon which lay a gray-black +snow. Martt's heart sank before its utter desolation--a tumbled waste, +upheaved as though by some cataclysm of nature. Desolation! And as +though to veil it, a fall of blackish snow--a somber, tragic shroud. + +It was night. And, Martt surmised, a winter season. Yet the air was not +cold; merely dank. And the snow seemed not cold, congealed perhaps by +the dank, heavy air; but to Martt's touch, not cold, no more than chill. + +With her bare limbs and filmy veiling, Zee was shivering. Martt +discarded his jacket, but she did not want it. + +He said, "But you must be cold, Zee." + +"I'm not." She shook herself. "I'm--frightened. This--night up +here--it's like a tomb, Martt." + +Tomblike, indeed. A dank, chill silence brooded over the night. And +then, almost unheralded, it was not night, but day. A small, cold-red +sun leaped up from the distant black horizon. A day of dull, flat +light. It stained the snow with blood. . . . + +Blood everywhere. . . . + +Degg said somberly to Zee, "Always blood. It is an omen. . . . My land, +doomed----" There was a quiver in Zee's voice as she repeated his words +to Martt. + +They had come now not to mistrust Degg. He seemed a well-meaning youth. +Simple-minded. He had told them something of his world--of Rokk, and +the woman Mobah. Degg, in his heart, hated and feared Rokk. + +"Why?" demanded Zee. + +He turned his dark, solemn eyes upon her. "You are too gentle, little +girl Zee, to understand. We have many--horrible things here in Arc. I +would not talk of them with you." + +It had been Rokk's plan, Degg said, to take Leela and Frannie to the +place where he lived. Degg was to join Rokk there. . . . It was not +so very far. . . . Degg called it Rokk's mound. They were headed that +way now. Soon it would be night again--Martt could do what he thought +was best toward rescuing the two girl prisoners. And Martt promised he +would protect Degg. + +Vaguely in Martt's mind had been the idea that he could use the +drugs again now--make himself still larger--catch Rokk unawares. But +the large drug would take no further effect. The maximum size had +been reached. Degg did not know why; save that these drugs were for +smallness--the large one merely an antidote to the other. + +Martt was left without tangible plan. But his first desire was to get +near Rokk's mound--whatever sort of place that might be. And he would +decide then what could be done. + +The blood-red sun came swiftly up in a low arc, and plunged as swiftly +down again. To Martt, it had been some half an hour of daylight. Now +came the brooding night--and in another half-hour the sun would again +make its low sweep. + +Martt urged Degg forward. Eeff was leading--lurid, green-white against +the black of the ground. Then it stopped. Its eye quivered; it +screamed--a long, shuddering, half-human cry of fright. + +Degg stood frozen--a statue in the gloom. And then Martt--and Zee also, +for she uttered a low, suppressed cry--saw what had frightened Eeff. + +It was about a hundred feet away--a dull, glowing red as though the +blood of sunlight were upon it. A thing which might have been a long, +blood-red vine. Not animal, but vegetable. It lay on the ground--a +great, thick stem, with upflung leafy branches waving like tentacles. +At intervals, upon long stalks, were round spots of green light. +Gleaming, baleful eyes. + +The thing was lying its length upon the ground. Not quiescent, but +everywhere in quivering, undulating, snakelike movement. Its eyes +seemed all turned this one way. Eyes suggesting an intelligence--a +reasoning behind them. A thing, not animal but vegetable! Its brain, +lacking even the least vestige of human or animal restraint, cast in a +mold unutterably horrible. + +Eeff was crouching at Degg's feet, babbling with terror. Degg muttered, +"It is unrooted! Free! It--I told Rokk they would break free some +time--before he was ready!" + +"Unrooted!" Zee echoed. + +Unrooted! It was slithering, out there in the darkness. . . . It shrank +to a blood-red blur. . . . It vanished. . . . + +They went on again. Degg would not talk, save to reiterate fearsomely, +"I knew they would cast off their roots! Roaming, everywhere. And Rokk +thought he dared to grow them----" + +A rise of ground lay ahead. Beyond its crest only the purple sky was +visible, with stars sweeping in rapid, low arcs. Martt, Degg and Zee +were walking together, with Eeff close before them. + +Eeff began whimpering again; then screamed. And ahead, from over the +crest of the hill, as though in answer came an echoing scream! Yet not +an echo! A scream, human! It drove the blood to Martt's heart; stopped +his breathing. The scream of a voice familiar--a girl's voice--Frannie! + +For all the horror surging over him, Martt leaped forward. And stopped, +stricken on the hill-crest. + +Beneath him in the gloom lay a shallow, bowl-like depression. The +starlight illumined it wanly. Frannie was down there, struggling in +the grip of a blood-red, vegetable thing! A segment of it was wrapped +around her, dragging her forward. The light of it drenched her with +blood; its myriad green eyes glared throughout its waving length. + +[Illustration: "Frannie struggled in the grip of the blood-red, +vegetable thing."] + +And ahead of it was a line of others of its kind, leading the way, +slithering up and over the opposite slope! + + + + + _CHAPTER 6_ + + THE BLOOD-RED DAY + + +To Frannie, the subterranean river was an inferno of roaring blackness. +Her dhrane was whirled along, sometimes swimming, sometimes floundering +desperately. Frannie clung to its antlers and closed her eyes. . . . +An eternity. . . . She heard Rokk shouting; felt the dhrane scrambling +upon solid ground. The water dropped away from its sides. . . . + +Frannie found herself and her dhrane standing in a dull, luminous +darkness upon a ledge by the river. The other dhranes were there. Rokk +spoke to Leela. + +"What does he say?" Frannie demanded. + +"He says we must get larger--this is too dangerous." + +They followed then the methods used afterward by Degg in guiding Martt +and Zee. Wading, in a large size, they went down the river. Then into +the passageway leading upward. + +And then the climb into largeness. To Frannie it seemed unending; but +though they were only an hour or two ahead of Martt in starting, they +were several hours ahead when they reached the giant world. Frannie and +Leela were near to exhaustion, even though they had ridden most of the +way. Rokk had not paused to sleep. + +It was day when they reached the desolate land of the Arcs. Then a +tomblike night; then blood-red day again. + +Rokk rode now with Frannie and Leela beside him, and the woman Mobah +behind. Rokk was jubilant. He talked swiftly to Leela. At intervals, +Leela translated. + +"He says he is glad to have us. He is taking us to his house--his +mound, he calls it. He says, very soon there is something important +happening up here. He is going to take us--show us it--happening." +Leela shuddered. + +"What is going to happen?" Frannie demanded. + +"I don't know. Something--sinister, horrible. You saw his face when he +told me?" + +Frannie had seen it, indeed, but she was striving to master her fear. +There was something queerly sinister, inhuman, about Rokk. And his +smile had a leer to it. Shining in his dark eyes, which often were +fixed thoughtfully on Leela, there was a look Frannie could not fail +to understand. The woman, Mobah, had noticed it. Once, over her broad +expressionless face a torrent of passion had swept. Hate? Jealousy? It +flashed at Leela--and at Frannie--and was instantly gone. + +Frannie said now, "Ask him what he wants of us. Why did he ever go +down into our world?" + +Leela listened to Rokk's smiling explanation. The man's voice was soft, +caressing. Leela went white. + +"He says, Frannie--he says his world here is very harsh--not good to +live in. There is very little food--he says that he and some other +men--his followers--are planning to descend into my world and conquer +it. Kill all its men--Frannie, don't you understand?--kill, just the +men of my world----" + +There was a silence. Then Leela added, with a frightened hush to her +voice, "Up here all is bleak and terrible. The women are all like this +woman behind us--unbeautiful----" + +Rokk was riding faster now, and soon, as they ascended a rise of +ground, his home came into view. It lay on a falling slope, with paths +trodden in the snow about it--a bulging mound built of pressed blocks +of the gray-black snow. It rose above the surface perhaps ten feet--an +oblong mound twenty feet wide and five times as long, like the grave of +some giant buried there, with a small upright chimney at its farther +end for a headstone. A few rectangles of white marked its doors and +windows as though one might care to stand on the ground and gaze down +at the coffin entombed within. Near by, two other mounds lay like the +graves of children, with beaten paths connecting them. + +Rokk's home was set alone in the midst of this snowy waste! Frannie's +heart was cold with apprehension. What was to be her fate--and +Leela's--within? + + * * * * * + +At Rokk's call a half-grown boy appeared in a doorway of the main +mound. He led the dhranes away. Frannie and Leela were taken down a +crude flight of icy steps and into the mound. It was much longer than +it appeared; it seemed to extend at least another story underground, +for Frannie saw an incline leading downward. + +They had entered the top story. Rokk led them along a passageway; +Frannie saw low-roofed rooms, with ceilings curved to the mound. Each +with a window opening at the ground level; and with crude furniture +seemingly fashioned from stone blocks. + +Into such a room Rokk ushered them. He was smiling, bowing like a +friendly host; his words to Leela were suave. But in his eyes there +was an unmistakable irony, and when Frannie hesitated at the door, he +pushed her roughly. + +Mobah had disappeared. Rokk stood a moment talking to Leela. The door +to the passageway was open. Rokk and Leela had their backs to it. +Frannie became aware that beyond the door Mobah was standing listening. +And in the dimness there, Frannie caught a glimpse of the woman's +intense face. It was torn with a jealous passion--a torrent of loosed +passion debasing its calm stolidity into an aspect almost bestial. + +As Rokk turned slightly, the lurking woman silently fled. Rokk bowed +to Frannie, and to Leela--a bow ceremoniously grotesque, but with a +dignity, nevertheless. His hand lingered on Leela's white arm, but +Leela jerked away. He shrugged, smiled, and went through the door, +barring it after him. + +"Oh, Frannie!" Leela at last gave way. She sobbed with fright +unrestrained; and this gave Frannie additional strength to be calm. She +sat Leela on the couch--a railed slab of stone, with a litter of furs +on it like the bed of an animal. She tried to comfort Leela. Then left +her; tried the door softly. It was stoutly barred. + +Then she tried the window. It had a pane as transparent as glass, but +evidently unbreakable. Frannie struck it recklessly with her fist. And +there seemed no way to open the window. Through it Frannie could see +along the snow-covered ground outside. The night had just come. The +ground was dark, with faint stars showing above. + +Frannie sat on the bed with Leela. They were both so exhausted that for +a time they slept. Hours, perhaps--Frannie never knew. Then she awoke. +The scene in the room was unchanged. It was night again. Leela was +awake. Frannie began questioning her as to what Rokk most recently had +said. Leela was outwardly calm now. + +"He--insists we are not to be harmed, Frannie. He told me--just before +he left--that he wanted me to like him." A shiver ran over Leela's +frail body. "He will work to make me like him--he will be very good to +me. And you--he says there is a young man--that man he left back in +Reaf--named Degg. He is sure Degg will like you, Frannie." + +"Did he say any more about that important thing which is going to +happen?" + +"Yes. He said he is going to take us somewhere--as soon as we have +rested, and Degg has come to join us here. Take us somewhere--where we +shall see a wonderful awesome sight. Frannie, he told me the men here +in this world do not like their women. He has brought me and you--to +show us to the men--that they may see how beautiful women can be. +Then--they will join him to go down into smallness--to conquer----" + +Leela choked. She added, and a hush fell upon her voice: "Frannie, this +Rokk has planned it all. He says there is too little food here. The +women--and the children that the men no longer want to feed--are all +placed apart. Exiled to a city--where he is going to take us. And show +us----" + +A tapping at the window checked her. The girls stared at each other +with the blood draining from their faces. A gentle tapping from +outside. A scraping, fumbling as though soft fingers were working at +the window. + +Frannie stood up, trembling. Then she moved along the wall, and with +her face to the window, peered out. The tapping had stopped. Outside +she saw a faint, lurid red glow. And three gleaming spots of green. +Moving, peering. And then like the tendrils of a creeping vine, a +leafy something, with a red sheen upon it, gently beating at the pane; +tapping--fumbling. + +Frannie drew back. "Leela--out there----" But another sound stopped +her. Someone--something--was unbarring the door of their room! The +two girls were frozen with terror, incapable of sound or movement. +A bar dropping with a muffled thump! The door slowly began opening +inward. . . . + +It was the woman Mobah. Her face was grim; her dull eyes were +smoldering green-black coals. She flung a menacing glance at the girls, +moved swiftly across the room. Her fingers at the pane touched some +hidden lock. The window swung open. + +Mobah darted back, seized Leela, tried to shove her toward Frannie +and the window. Leela screamed, resisted, fought with all her little +strength and called a warning to Frannie. + +But it was too late. Through the window a thick, red-glowing tentacle +came slithering. Its green eyes were waving triumphantly. It caught +Frannie; rolled back upon itself, jerking her upward. + +Heavy steps sounded in the passageway outside the room, and Rokk's +alarmed voice, shouting. Rokk burst in. He knocked Mobah aside with a +blow of his fist, and swept Leela protectingly backward. + +The segment of red thing within the room slithered out the window, +carrying Frannie with it. + + + II + +"She is gone, my lady Leela. It is unfortunate, but we can not help it. +She is lost--we shall never see her again." + +Leela and Rokk were alone in the room. Leela shrank upon the couch; +against his gaze she huddled with a corner of the robe drawn to shield +her white limbs. He stood before her. + +"Gone, Leela. Dead, by now. . . . Don't shudder, little white woman. It +is the law of life--some live, some die. . . . But Degg will be sorry." + +She had no words, no heart with which to answer. + +He went on, with a frown crossing his face. "That vegetable thing +coming here has changed my plans. It has no right to be unrooted. +I grew it, Lady Leela--and many others of its kind--for a certain +purpose. But now it has broken away, before I was quite ready to dig it +up. It thinks it is full-grown. It is conscious of its power. And that +which during all its growth I have taught it to do----" He shrugged. +"I suppose they have all broken loose. All roaming----" A horrible +grimness came to Rokk's voice. "Well, they will do what I taught +them--we shall have to hurry if we wish to see it, Lady Leela." + +Leela summoned words. "To see--what?" + +He smiled. "You are impatient--and as becomes only a woman--curious! +You shall see, little white woman--blood-red things----" He gestured. +"Enough of that. But you shall realize how great is Rokk. I planned it +all. But now I shall have to change my plans a little. I had wanted +to show you and your friend--the little Frannie--to the men of this +world. So that they--our men--would know how beautiful women can be. +There is no time now, with the red things broken loose. We shall have +to be careful, my Leela. I shall send word to all the men everywhere +to have a care. . . . I wish Degg would come--but we can not wait for +him now. . . . There are animals, too, who should be guarded from these +roaming red vines I have grown. You have not seen our animals, Leela? +Degg has one--a very friendly thing; we call it Eeff. It is but half +human--and only half materialized into substance. A loyal friend, if it +likes you. But its mentality is that of an imbecile. . . . I talk too +much, like a loose-tongued woman. There is no time--we must start." + +He called roughly, "Mobah! Come here at once!" + +The woman appeared, sullen, defiant. On the flesh of her heavy gray +shoulder was a red bruise where Rokk had struck her. + +"Mobah! Bring the dhranes. We are leaving for the Ice City. Tell my boy +here to have Degg follow us when he comes. . . . Hurry! . . ." + + + III + +They rode fast. Alternate night and day--endless frozen wastes. +Occasionally they passed single mounds, isolated like that of Rokk. +Others in groups; blood-stained graveyards by day--eery and gruesome +in the starlight. Leela saw many of the green-white animals, lurking +like werewolves prowling among the mounds. And there were men gazing +curiously at the travelers. To them often Rokk gave a warning that the +vegetable things were loose. + +But he said to Leela, "There really is no danger. These things I have +grown will do my purpose in the Ice City. Then I will command them back +to their fields. Let them rot there harmlessly in a red welter. I can +control them. They know me for their creator--their master." + +There were few women or girls to be seen about the mounds. Rokk said, +with a horrible irony, "We have sent most of them to the Ice City. +It is a very beautiful place--we men have sent our women there. The +women----" He laughed sarcastically. "They are very stupid. They do +not guess our purpose." + +They rode in silence. Then Rokk spoke again. "My woman, Mobah"--he +glanced behind at the patient figure riding behind them--"I have kept +Mobah with me. She is good to work in the mound. But you, my Lady +Leela----" He chuckled. "We shall get rid of Mobah all in good time. We +do not want her around, do we? But I will not make you work, Leela. In +your city of Crescent, little white woman, you and I will be very great +people. I shall be the leader of all our men----" + +Again Leela did not answer. + +A red day plunged into night. Far to the left across the snowy wastes +to the distant horizon, Leela saw a white radiance in the sky. A vague +patch of silver, as of light reflected from some remote distance below +the horizon. Rokk waved his hand. + +"You see that, Leela? That is where I found the drugs. This globe is +very fair, off there. Longer days and nights. A warm, fruitful summer. +Food is there. Trees, with fruit. But it is all owned by another race +of people. They will not let us in. They are very powerful--very far +advanced in civilization. A wonderful age of science. . . . They know +everything. I crept into one of their cities and stole the drugs." + +To Leela then was driven home the conception of how vast is God's +great plan of the Universe. This miserable region owned by Rokk's +people was no more than the Polar waste of this globe. A fairer land of +science lay there where the distant radiance showed. A great, cultured +civilization perhaps. And farther beyond it--other races--all on this +one tiny globe whirling among these stars. . . . + + * * * * * + +They came at last within sight of the City of Ice. In the starlight +it glittered with a pale sheen. It stood on a broad plateau above the +surrounding valleys--a place of white spires, glittering under the +stars, the whole surrounded by a high white wall of ice. + +And as they came closer, Leela saw within the city a yellow-red glare. +Behind it, a high tower of stone dominated the scene; the glare painted +the tower a yellow-red upon one side. "The pit of fire," said Rokk. +"The one place in all our realm where the fires underground come near +the surface. It brings a warmth--a beauty. You shall see." He laughed +his horrible laugh. "That is why we tell the women they should like it +here----" + +They approached the wall. Rokk gazed around. "We are but just in time." +In the farther distance beyond the city was a red sheen against the +ground. Rokk understood it, though at the moment Leela did not. "Just +in time, little woman. I had thought we might better enter by the +tunnel under the wall. But that is not necessary." + +They rode through a gate, plunged at once into a passageway, and +emerged presently within the stone tower, left the dhranes there, and +mounted the tower. At its top, Rokk stood with Leela. Mobah sullenly +was behind them. Rokk glanced back at her. He said softly, "I think +perhaps she guesses what is to happen. But she can do nothing about it." + +Presently Mobah moved away and disappeared. Rokk patted his belt. +"I have all the drugs here, Leela. All there are in this whole +realm--except a very little of each which I left with Degg. We must +guard them carefully." + +To Leela came the thought that she might gain possession of the drugs +and thus escape. But Rokk was very watchful. + +They stood upon a broad balcony, with the single tower room behind them +and a breast-high parapet in front. At the parapet, Leela gazed down. +From this height the city lay spread beneath them. It was still night. +A simple, placid scene, quiet, and in a measure beautiful. A few broad +streets of packed, gray-black snow. Flat, oblong houses of ice blocks +which were white and glittering, with spires and minarets occasionally +adorning them. + +Directly beneath Leela, at the foot of the tower, was a yawning +yellow-red pit. She could see directly down into it; a glare, some +great distance down to where the fires of the earth were broken out. +Rising wisps of smoke . . . a sulfurous, fiery breath . . . and a +torrent of grateful heat surging upward. + +Around the pit, the city was built of stone for a distance, like +a broad, square park. Trees were growing there; huge, graceful +ferns; blue-green leaves like great flopping ears of an animal. And +giant palms, hung with purple fruit. . . . A tropical garden, with +flower-lined, winding paths. . . . By contrast with all this bleak +region Leela had seen, the single little park was very beautiful. + +There were a few women moving about the city--dull, heavy-looking, +shapeless women robed in a monotone of drab garments. Uninspired of +aspect. Yet each had a soul . . . desires . . . longings. . . . + +In the park a woman sat and played with a little girl. There was +another woman, newly arrived here, with a baby at her breast. . . . + +Rokk's voice broke upon Leela's thoughts with a rasp. "But who is to +feed them? It gets very tiresome, giving them food. . . . Ah! Now you +shall see my solution, Lady Leela----" + +Beyond the city walls, out over the starlit, snowy wastes, spots of red +sheen were visible. Moving. Coming nearer. Spots of red sheen resolving +into long, thin lines of red. Undulating, twisting, slithering forward. +Green spots of eyes, waving, peering. + +Red, growing things unrooted. Coming monstrously to do that for which +during all their growth they had been trained. There seemed thousands +of them. Over every distant slope they came closing in upon the city. +Thick red vines a hundred feet long. Others grown into a tangled +clump, every separate tendril of which was in slimy movement. A red +boll, like the bulging trunk of a tree. It rolled, leaped. Another of +a flat, round central growth, with prickling spines like huge needles +standing erect, and waving, groping tentacles. It hitched itself along, +awkwardly. + +They came from everywhere. Red, gleaming monsters of the ground, +advancing with a grim, uncanny silence, closing in upon the city. + +Leela watched, with the blood freezing in her veins. Within the city no +alarm had sounded. The woman in the park played with her little girl. +But the baby at the other woman's breast was crying. . . . + +The first of the red things reached the city wall. Slithered up like +some monstrous red ivy growing there. A thing of dangling green pods +from which a slimy juice was dripping. A segment of it raised high over +the wall, with green eyes staring down. + +In a near-by street a headless, friendly animal gave out its imbecilic +cry. The two women in the park looked and saw, and screamed. . . . + +The red thing rose and slithered over the wall. Stretched its length +down a street; then encircled a house, its wide-flung segments +slithering into every door and window. Screams from in there sounded +over the silent, starlit city. Shrill, throat-tearing screams of +women . . . and the piping, terrified cries of children. . . . + +The alarm spread. The cries were caught up, echoed from everywhere +about the city. Women and girl children were rushing in a panic from +the houses. . . . + +Over the wall at its every point, the red things were climbing . . . +spreading over the city . . . filling the streets . . . climbing with +a red, leafy growth into houses . . . green peering eyes, searching +everywhere. . . . + +One of the flat, round growths with prickling spines--needles each +as long as a human body--lurched itself into the park. With a sudden +spring it caught a running woman. Its tentacles tossed her aloft. She +fell, impaled upon its swordlike spines. Its tentacles pulled an arm +from her body . . . tossed the arm away. . . . The woman was still +screaming--horribly. . . . + +Leela, sickened, covered her face with her hands. She heard Rokk's +gloating voice, "You see--my solution? Look, little white woman! Make +your heart stout, like Rokk's. This is the law of life. Some live, some +die. We--you and I--will live, for love, when this blood-red day is +over." + +Day! The dawn had come. The red sun rose from the horizon in its low +arc. Red, staining everything. + +Leela, with a fascination, again involuntarily stared. The city was a +chaos of terror. From windows, with reason fled, women were leaping. +The red things caught them as they fell. . . . On a flat housetop a +woman crouched with a baby in her arms, and a little girl huddling at +her knees. A slim red arm came up over the parapet of roof. Other red +things came up, and poised with watching green eyes. The woman fought +the red arm with all her meager strength. It seized the baby, waved the +small, gray-white body aloft, dashed it to a red pulp against the stone +of the parapet. Other arms jerked the little girl away. A flat, red +thing engulfed the woman and sat mouthing and tearing. . . . + +In the park a crowd of the women were huddled. Some were trying to +climb the high railing at the pit of fire, but could not. The red +things slithered among them. . . . + +The blood-red day! A white, glittering city, stained crimson now. +Splashed and stained; and upon it the red sun poured a polluting, gory +light. . . . + +The blood-red day. . . . + + + + + _CHAPTER 7_ + + THE FIGHT ON THE PARAPET + + +Martt stood in the starlight at the top of the slope, frozen into +immobility with horror. Frannie was struggling in the grip of the red +vine, being dragged along, with others of its kind leading the way. +Grown and taught for nothing but the blood-red day of the Ice City, +these things with single purpose were dragging Frannie there. + +Martt stood stricken for an instant. The red thing paused. All +its green eyes turned. Beyond it the other things came to a stop, +irresolute, and then slithered on. But the one with Frannie lay +momentarily quiescent; only its eyes were quivering. + +Martt became aware that Zee and Degg were beside him. Eeff was +crouching at its master's feet, whimpering with terror. Martt shouted, +"Zee, run back! Come on, Degg!" + +He caught a glimpse of Degg's face, gray with fright. But his eyes +showed a sudden determination. And Degg leaped, with Martt after him. + +The red thing flung up its forward tentacles, and shoved Frannie +farther back within its folds. Degg leaped for the clump of its +branches where Frannie was entangled. + +Martt, running forward, abruptly stopped. One of the drug cylinders +within his pockets had bumped his thigh. A thought swept him--the +drug for smallness! He stopped; recklessly poured from the cylinder +nearly half its contents. And stood, with a huge buckle of his jacket, +crushing the white tablets into a powder in his hand. + +Degg had fought his way to Frannie. He had torn her loose, thrust her +violently away, but was himself entrapped. He fought, ripping, tearing +at the red branches, struggling to avoid the sinuous tentacles which +curled back at him. A thick tendril of the vine had wound itself about +his legs. . . . + +With the powder in his left hand, Martt rushed forward. There was a +part of the red thing which seemed of lesser size and strength. Martt +rushed in among its lashing brambles. They entwined him. He ducked the +sweep of a tentacle thick as his body. Eyes on the branches peered +into his face. He seized one, pulled it off. A slime with a red +phosphorescence was on his fingers. A pod struck his face; he tore it +open and scattered its seeds. A red, noisome juice spattered him. . . . + +Martt was fighting only with his right hand. One of his legs was +gripped and held; he kicked, striving to free it. + +These smaller branches were easily broken. They mashed, some of them +like a porous, tropical plant, oozing sap. They were spongy. Martt +scattered a little of the white powder; sifted it through his fingers. +The vegetable growth sucked it up--the drug mingled with the sap of its +bruises. + +The branches were dwindling. Upon vegetable the drug acted more +swiftly than upon animal cells. The smaller tendrils shriveled. Then +branches of greater thickness. Martt could feel them letting go their +hold--shrinking, loosening their grip. + +Around him in a moment was a shriveled, shrunken bramble. He kicked +himself free. A huge tentacle from another portion licked back and +seized him; whirled him aloft. But he kept his wits. Tore at it with +his fingers; rubbed the drug into its bruised bark. Along all its +length, the drug acted. Martt's weight brought its shriveled strength +to the ground. He fell upon his feet; tore himself loose again. Stamped +and tore, and leaped away. + +Throughout all the length of the monstrous vine, now, the drug was +acting. Martt momentarily stood inactive, panting. He saw that Degg had +freed Frannie--saw her and Zee huddled at a distance on the slope near +by. Degg was still fighting; one of his legs seemed queerly twisted; an +arm of the red vine held him, but he kept his feet. Eeff was darting +forward and back, too much terrified to approach, yet anxious to help. + +The vine everywhere was shrinking. Martt ran to free Degg. But he was +too late. The largest remaining tentacle lashed forward; it caught +Degg, whirled him up in the air and flung him heavily to the ground. +Degg lay still. + +A moment. Then the vine was so shriveled that Martt waded throughout +its lashing length. Tore it apart. Scattered it. Stamped upon its +twisting, slithering red segments. + +All dwindling. Separate, dismembered segments quivering around +him . . . smaller . . . red, twisting lines, with tiny green +eyes. . . . They winked and vanished into smallness. . . . + + + II + +"Is he dead? Oh, Martt, do you think he is dead?" + +They bent over Degg and he opened his eyes. Martt knelt and lifted +his head. It was evident that he was dying; and evident, too, that he +knew it. He spoke, laboriously whispered words in Zee's language. He +tried to gesture toward Zee; on his face was an earnestness, almost a +desperation lest he might fail to give his dying message. + +Martt said, "Zee, he's trying to talk to you. Bend closer--he's +talking." + +Zee knelt at his head. He was panting, struggling breathlessly with +each word. "Rokk--was going to take your sister Leela to the--City of +Ice. Now that the red things are loose--I think you will find--him and +her--there." + +His breath ended with a long sigh. But he began again. "Eeff will lead +you. Tell Eeff--to take you through the--tunnel into the--stone tower. +And--hurry!" + +His eyes closed. Then they opened very wide. They tried to focus on +Zee's face. She bent lower to hear his faint whisper. "Hurry! You +understand--about Leela, there with Rokk. He means, for her, a thing +very terrible. You must--hurry." He added, with a breath so faint she +barely heard his words, "You are--so very beautiful, little Zee. I +never saw--any woman so beautiful. But I am not Rokk--I could not have +harmed you." + +He stiffened just a trifle; then went limp, his head with staring eyes +dangling backward over Martt's arm. + +Martt laid him gently on the ground. Eeff went and sat by him, crying +softly. + + + III + +It was red day when they approached the City of Ice. Eeff had led them, +as Degg suggested. They saw the city from far off, with a red glow +staining its white glitter. Then Eeff plunged them into a black tunnel. +It seemed miles. Then it ascended, and they emerged into a wave of +heat, with a yellow-red glare beside them. + +They were at the bottom of a tall stone tower; a doorway was near at +hand. Martt gazed up the tower's side. A man was up there, behind a +parapet, gazing out at the city: a man's head and shoulders, queerly +foreshortened. But Martt recognized him. + +Rokk! + +Martt pushed Zee and Frannie hastily into the tower. He commanded, "You +two stay here, with Eeff. I'm going up. You stay here." + +Again Martt thought of the drug cylinders he was carrying. He drew them +from his pockets, handed them swiftly to Zee. "Keep these. Whatever +happens--if I don't come back--use them. Eeff will lead you home. To +Reaf. Ask it if it can lead you." + +Zee said, in her own language, "Eeff, come here. Can you lead me +back--down there where we met Degg in that place called Reaf? You +remember? Where the water was?" + +The headless thing turned its eye upon her. It chattered, "Yes, I +remember. I can go there--but I want Degg. I want to go back to Degg." + +Martt, alone, mounted the circular incline softly, and as swiftly +as he dared. Had Rokk seen him? He did not think so. Was Leela up +there? . . . If he could get behind Rokk unobserved. . . . + +Half-way up there was an oval window in the tower through which Martt +caught his first view of the interior of the city. + +The sun was sinking at the horizon. The end of the blood-red day! A +silence had fallen with the falling sun. A crimson city, strewn with +what had once been living, human flesh and blood--dismembered now . . . +strewn . . . unnamable. . . . + +And climbing the walls, red monsters slithering away--seeking other +horrors. + +The silent nightfall of the blood-red day. + +Martt's gorge rose. He turned from the window, and mounted the incline. + +The room at the top was circular, with many windows. An empty room of +stone, almost dark, with the starlight streaming in dimly to illumine +it. + +Martt crept softly. Through a doorway he could see Rokk's figure on the +balcony outside. And another figure. Leela, white of face, with her +black hair streaming, and her tattered, dirt-stained veiling falling +about her. Leela! She was standing, half turned, shuddering with +horror. She saw Martt! Surprize, wonderment, joy mirrored her face. +His fingers went to his lips warningly. But not quite in time. She +uttered a low cry, instantly checked. + +Rokk swing about. He, too, saw Martt; he stiffened, with his shoulders +flung back against the parapet and his jaw dropping. Martt had +instantly leaped, but Rokk met him squarely, surged forward, and they +fell. + +Rokk was the stronger; Martt knew it at once. He rolled, desperately +struggling to come on top, with his legs braced against the floor. But +Rokk flung him off and regained his feet. + +Instantly Martt was up, quicker, lighter than his antagonist. He struck +for Rokk's face, missed and then caught Rokk full on the chest with +his fist. The man staggered, but he was not hurt. Rokk's swing went +wide, as Martt nimbly ducked. Again they came together. Surged across +the balcony, kicking, tearing, seeking each other's throats. Locked, +with legs entwined they struck the parapet, rebounded, fell and rolled +together to the opposite wall. A primitive struggle of men using only +the weapons with which nature had endowed them. Fighting grimly, almost +silently, each with no thought but to kill. + +[Illustration: "He had no other thought but to kill."] + +Leela, near by, stood helpless, confused, a hand pressed against her +mouth in terror. There was a sound, a startled outcry. Frannie and Zee +were in the tower room, with Eeff cowering behind them. + +Martt momentarily was on top of his adversary, with Rokk's hairy hand +beneath his chin, pressing his head back. Martt ripped the hand away. +He called, "Run! Run--all of you!" + +Rokk heaved him backward, half rose, and surged over on top. Martt +saw vaguely another figure appear on the balcony. A heavy, gray-faced +woman. He heard Rokk pant, "Mobah!" + +The woman leaped upon the scene. She avoided Zee and Frannie. She +strove to get at Martt. She kicked; she tried to strike at him. He +heard Zee's voice, "Frannie! Leela! Help me!" As he fought, he was +aware that the three girls were pulling at the woman--pulling her away, +holding her. + +Martt momentarily had slackened his efforts. Rokk's fist caught him in +the face, dazed him. Martt felt Rokk lifting him up, heaving him. His +body struck the three-foot-wide, level top of the parapet. He clung +desperately, as Rokk leaped up to throw him off. + +They were locked together, rolling on the parapet top! Martt at its +edge, his head momentarily over, felt a wave of heat--saw, far down, +the red-yellow glare. Rokk suddenly tried to cast him loose. Then was +pushing. They were both lying at the edge. + +Scrambling. Panting. And suddenly Zee was up on the parapet, +crouching--her frail white hands gouging at Rokk's face. It confused +him. He relaxed. Martt gave one last desperate surge. He saw, and felt +Rokk's body slipping, sliding over the edge, feet first. Rokk's hold on +Martt was torn away, by his own weight and by Zee's frenzied, plucking +fingers. His face, close to Martt's for an instant, showed wide, +terrified eyes; a mouth that gaped. + +His hold broke. His body slid. He was gone! Martt lay panting at the +edge, with Zee's steadying grip upon him. A cry sounded. A wail. The +woman Mobah had torn loose from Frannie and Leela. She leaped to the +parapet. Poised for an instant--a grim, gray statue of despair. Bereft +of reason, she called, "Rokk! Rokk!" And with a long, shuddering cry, +she plunged. + +There was silence for a moment on the parapet. No one looked down. And +from over the distant, desolate horizon, presently the red sun came up +with the dawn of a new day. + + + + + _CHAPTER 8_ + + YOUTH! + + +Life is very strange. Brett and I--Frank Elgon of the Interplanetary +Mails--of full maturity, at the peak of our physical and mental +strength--how inglorious were the parts we played! So inconsequential I +scarcely have the heart to recount our futile actions. Yet we thought +always that we were doing our best. + +We stood there beside the arcade, helplessly watching Frannie and Leela +disappear into smallness. Brett left me to guard the spot. He rushed +away; came back to tell me that the giant wading in the lake was gone, +that he could not find Martt or Zee. + +For a time we watched the small pebble beneath which Leela and Frannie +had vanished. We even dared to move it carefully, but we could not see +them. + +The island was emptying of its people. We thought that Martt and Zee +might have gone home. We decided to go and join them. Perhaps to take +our vehicle, make it small to search for Leela, since we had no drugs. + +I told Brett of his father's death. And it was well advanced into the +morning before we learned that people on the island had seen Martt and +Zee sailing for Reaf. Hours during which we had aimlessly searched, and +prepared the vehicle for its trip into smallness to try and find Leela +and Frannie. + +Martt and Zee had sailed for Reaf! Following the giant! We had thought +of doing that, to try and obtain the drugs. But it had seemed reckless, +foolhardy, impossible of success. Yet Martt had done it without +hesitation. There is a caution comes at thirty which does not hamper +twenty-one. + +We procured a boat. Provisioned it. And sailed for Reaf, armed with our +flash-cylinders. And there we found a huge belt lying on the rocks +near a scattered wreck of buildings strewn upon the water. + +Martt's belt, of a size which showed us he had used the drug! He had +left the belt to explain that he had gone on to the giant world. + +But we were utterly helpless! We could not follow him. We were starting +aimlessly toward the river, when along the rocks there, we saw four +moving figures. Normal in size. Martt, returning with the three girls! +All of them tattered, bruised, blood-stained, their garments dirty and +torn. But unharmed. + +They waved at us. We landed and ran along the rocks. Martt's smile was +tired, but very happy. + +"Here they are, Brett. I brought them back--Zee and I did--here they +are." He added, "We had a headless thing named Eeff. It led us back, +but just now at the last, it ran away. It said it wanted to find Degg. +It ran, forgetting it needed the drugs. A half-witted, cowardly sort of +thing, but I liked it. Oh, there is so much to tell you----" + +Deeds of youth! No caution, no pondering! Glorious deeds of youth, +unfettered by maturity! No theory--just accomplishment! + +Frannie was saying to me, "Oh Frank----" I held out my hand, but she +flung herself upon me. "Frank, I--I've wanted so to get back to you!" + +She clung to me. Her arms went around my neck. She was kissing me! Me, +Frank Elgon! Poor as a guider of the lower traffic, and just now proved +so inglorious of action. But Frannie was kissing me! And whispering, +"Oh, Frank, I love you! Don't you know it? Haven't you always known it? +You'd never say it to me. Please--please say it now!" + +I murmured, "I love you, Frannie!" And held her close. That this could +happen to me, ineffectual Frank Elgon! + + + II + +Our last evening in Crescent. We were all going to the Earth--all +but old Greedo. Brett and Leela had decided to be married on Earth. +Frannie and I also, for Frannie did not seem to care how poor I was. +Greedo wanted to go; but he said he was too old. A visit to Earth for +his daughters, and then he hoped we would come back. Our last evening. +I chanced to go alone to the roof-top of Greedo's home. Its banks of +flowers were vivid in the twilight. A breeze rustled the tall potted +ferns. The stars overhead were glowing with a silver radiance, mirrored +in the distant, placid waters of the lake. Within the house downstairs, +Leela's softly singing voice floated up. + +Two figures sat in the starlight, among the flowers. Zee and Martt; +close together, with his arm around her, and her head against his side, +the tangle of her dark hair enveloping him. + +I heard him say, awkwardly but very tenderly, "Three couples can be +married at once, on Earth, Zee. Let's do that. Shall we?" + +And heard her answering whisper, "Yes. Let's." + +I tiptoed silently away. + + + THE END + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77512 *** |
