by Ray Cummings
CHAPTER III
It seemed that Alan was stirring. I felt the tiny hand leave my ear. Ithought that I could hear faint little footfalls as the girl scamperedaway, fearful that a sudden movement by Alan would crush her. I turnedcautiously after a moment and saw Alan's eyes upon me. He too had seen,with a blurred returning consciousness, the dwindling figures of Babsand Polter. I followed his gaze. The while slab with the golden quartzunder the microscope seemed empty. The several men in this huge circulardome-room were dispersing to their affairs; three of them sat whisperingby what I now saw was a pile of gold ingots stacked crosswise. But thefellow at the microscope held his place, his eyes glued to its apertureas he watched the vanishing figures of Polter and Babs on therock-fragment.
Alan was trying to convey something to me. He could only gaze and jerkhis head. I saw behind his head the figures of the tiny girl on thefloor behind him. She wanted evidently to approach his head, but didn'tdare. When for an instant he was quiet, she ran forward, but at oncescampered back.
From the group by the ingots, one of the men rose and came toward us.Alan held still, watching. And the girl, Glora, seized the opportunityto come nearer. We both heard her tiny voice:
"Do not move! Close your eyes! Make him think you are stillunconscious."
Then she was gone, like a mouse hiding in the shadows near us.
Amazement swept Alan's face; he twisted, mouthed at his gag. But he sawmy eager nod and took his cue from me.
I closed my eyes and lay stiff, breathing slowly. Footsteps approached.A man bent over Alan and me.
"Are you no conscious yet?" It was the voice of a foreigner, with aqueer, indescribable intonation. A foot prodded us. "Wake up!"
Then the footsteps retreated, and when I dared to look, the man wasrejoining his fellows. It was a strange looking trio. They wereheavy-set men in leather jackets and short, wide knee-length trousers.One wore tight, high boots, and the others a sort of white buckskin,with ankle straps. All were bare-headed--round, bullet heads ofclose-clipped black hair.
I suddenly had another startling realization. These men were not ofnormal size as I had assumed! They were eight or ten feet tall at thevery least! And they and the pile of ingots, instead of being close tome, were more distant than I had thought.
Alan was trying to signal me. The tiny girl was again at his ear,whispering to him. And then she came to me.
"I have a knife. See?" She backed away. I caught the pinpoint gleam ofwhat might have been a knife in her hand. "I will get a little larger. Iam too small to cut your ropes. You lie still, even after I have cutthem."
I nodded. The movement frightened her so that she leaped backward; butshe came again, smiling. The three men were talking earnestly by theingots. No one else was near us.
Glora's tiny voice was louder, so that we both could hear it at once.
"When I free you, do not move or they may see that you are loose. I getlarger now--a little larger--and return."
She darted away and vanished. Alan and I lay listening to the voices ofthe three men. Two were talking in a strange tongue. One called to theman at the microscope, and he responded. The third man said suddenly:
"Say, talk English. You know damn well I can't understand that lingo."
"We say, McGuire, the two prisoners soon wake up."
"What we oughta do is kill 'em. Polter's a fool."
"The doctor say, wait for him return. Not long, what you call three,four hours."
"And have the Quebec police up here lookin' for 'em? An' that damn girlhe stole off the Terrace. What did he call her, Barbara Kent?"
"These two who are drugged, their bodies can be thrown in a gully downbehind St. Anne. That what the doctor plan to do, I think. Then thepolice find them--days maybe from now--and their smashed airship withthem."
Gruesome suggestion!
The man at the microscope called, "They are almost gone I can hardly seethem any more." He left the platform and joined the others. And I sawthat he was much smaller than they--about my own size possibly.
There seemed six men here altogether. Four now, by the ingots, and twoothers far across the room where I saw the dark entrance of thecorridor-tunnel which led to Polter's castle.
Again I felt a warning hand touch my face, and saw the figure of Glorastanding by my head. She was larger now--about a foot tall. She movedpast my eyes; stood by my mouth; bent down over my gag. I felt thecautious slide of a tiny knife-blade inserted under the fabric of thegag. She hacked, tugged at it, and in a moment ripped it through.
She stood panting from the effort. My heart was pounding with fear thatshe would be seen; but the man had turned the central light off when heleft the microscope, and it was far darker here now than before.
I moistened my dry mouth. My tongue was thick, but I could talk.
"Thank you, Glora."
"Quiet!"
I felt her hacking at the ropes around my wrists. And then at my ankles.It took her a long time, but at last I was free! I rubbed my arms andlegs; felt the returning circulation in them.
And presently Alan was free. "George, what--" he began.
"Wait," I whispered. "Easy! Let her tell us what to do."
We were unarmed. Two, against these six, three of whom were giants.
Glora whispered, "Do not move! I have the drugs. But I can not give themto you when I am still so small. I have not enough. I will hide--there."Her little arm gestured to where, near us, half a dozen boxes werepiled. "When I am large as you, I come back. Be ready, quickly to act. Imay be seen. I give you then the drug."
"But wait," Alan whispered. "Tell us--"
"The drug to make you large. Large enough to fight these men. I hadplanned to do that myself, until I saw you held captive. That girl ofyour world the doctor just now steal, she is friend of yours?"
"Yes! But--" A thousand questions were springing in my mind, but thiswas no time to ask them. I amended, "Go on! Hurry! Give us the drug whenyou can."
The little figure moved away from us and disappeared. Alan and I lay aswe had before. But now we could whisper. We tried to anticipate whatwould happen; tried to plan, but that was futile. The thing was toostrange, too astoundingly fantastic.
How long Glora was gone I don't know. I think, not over three or fourminutes. She came from her hiding place, crouching this time, and joinedus. She was, probably, of normal Earth size--a small, frail-looking girlsomething over five feet tall. We saw now that she was quite young,still in her teens. We lay staring at her, amazed at her beauty. Hersmall oval face was pale, with the flush of pink upon her cheeks--a facequeerly, transcendingly beautiful. It was wholly human, yet somehowunearthly, as though unmarked by even the heritage of our Earthlystrifes.
"Now! I am ready." She was fumbling at her robe. "I will give you eachthe same."
Her gestures were rapid. She flung a quick glance at the distant men.Alan and I were tense. We could easily be discovered now, but we had tochance it. We were sitting erect. Alan murmured:
"But what do we do? What happens? What--"
On the palm of her hand were two pink-white pellets. "Take these--onefor each of you. Quickly!"
Involuntarily we drew back. The thing abruptly was gruesome,frightening. Horribly frightening.
"Quickly," she urged. "The drug is what you call highly radioactive. Andvolatile. Exposed to the air, it is gone very soon. You are afraid? No,I assure you it is not harmful."
With a muttered curse at his own reluctance, Alan seized the smallpellet. I stopped him.
"Wait!"
The men momentarily were engaged in a low-voiced, earnest discussion. Idared to hesitate a moment longer.
"Glora, where will you be?"
"Here. Right here. I will hide."
"We want to go after Mr. Polter," I gestured. "Into the little piece ofgolden rock. That's where he went with the Earth girl, isn't it?"
"Yes. My world is there--within an atom there in that rock."
"Will you take us?"
"Y
es! But later."
Alan whispered vehemently, "Why not now? We could get smaller, now."
But she shook her head. "That is not possible. We would be seen as weclimbed the platform and crossed the white slab."
"No," I protested, "not if we get very small, hiding here first."
She was smiling, but urgently fearful of this delay. "Should we get thatsmall, then it would be, from here"--she gestured toward themicroscope--"to there, a journey of very many miles. Don't youunderstand?"
This thing so strange!
Alan was plucking at me. "Ready, George?"
"Yes."
I put the pellet on my tongue. It tasted slightly sweet, but seemed tomelt quickly and I swallowed it hastily. My heart, was pounding, butthat was apprehension, not the drug. A thrill of heat ran through myveins as though my blood were on fire.
Alan was clinging to me as we sat together. Glora again had vanished. Inthe background of my whirling consciousness the sudden thought hoveredthat she had tricked us; done to us something diabolical. But thethought was swept away in the confused flood of impressions upon me.
I turned dizzily. "You all right, Alan?"
"Yes, I--I guess so."
My ears were roaring, the room seemed whirling, but in a moment thatpassed. I felt a sudden growing sense of lightness. A humming was withinme--a soundless tingle. The drug had gone to every tiny microscopic cellin my body. The myriad pores of my skin seemed thrilling with activity.I know now that it was the exuding volatile gas of this disintegratingdrug. Like an aura it enveloped me, acted upon my garments.
I learned later much of the principles of this and its companion drugbut I had no thought for such things now. The huge dimly illumined roomunder the dome was swaying. Then abruptly it steadied. The strangesensations within me were lessening, or I forgot them, and I becameaware of externals.
The room was shrinking! As I stared, not with horror now, but withamazement and a coming triumph, I saw everywhere a slow, steady,crawling movement. The whole place was dwindling. The platform, themicroscope, were nearer than before, and smaller. The pile of ingots,and men near there, were shifting toward me.
"George! My God--this is weird!"
I saw Alan's white face as I turned toward him. He was growing at thesame rate as myself evidently, for in all the scene he only wasunchanged.
We could feel the movement. The floor under us was shifting, crawlingslowly. From all directions it contracted as though it was beingsqueezed beneath us. In reality our expanding bodies were pushingoutward.
The pile of boxes which had been a few feet away, were thrustingthemselves at me. I moved incautiously and knocked them over. Theyseemed small now, perhaps half their former size. Glora was standingbehind them. I was sitting and she was standing, but across the litterour faces were level.
"Stand up!" she murmured. "You all right now. I hide!"
I struggled to my feet, drawing Alan up with me. Now! The time foraction was upon us! We had already been discovered. The men wereshouting, clambering to their feet. Alan and I stood swaying. Thedome-room had contracted to half its former size. Near us was a littleplatform, chair and microscope. Small figures of men were rushing at us.
I shouted, "Alan! Watch yourself!"
We were unarmed. These men might have automatic weapons. But evidentlythey did not. Only knives were in their hands. The whole place wasringing with shouts. And then a shrill siren alarm from outside startedclanging.
The first of the men--a few moments before he had seemed a giant--flunghimself upon me. His head was lower than my shoulders. I met him with ablow of my fist in his face. He toppled backward; but from one sideanother figure came at me. A knife-blade bit into the flesh of my thigh.
The pain seemed to fire my brain. A madness descended upon me. It wasthe madness of abnormality. I saw Alan with two dwarfed figures clingingto him. But he threw them off, and they turned and ran.
The man at my thigh stabbed again, but I caught his wrist and, as thoughhe were a child, whirled him around me and flung him away. He landedwith a crash against the shrunken pile of gold nuggets and lay still.
The place was in a turmoil. Other men were appearing from outside. Butthey now stood well away from us. Alan backed against me. His laugh rangout, half hysterical with the madness upon him as it was upon me.
"God! George, look at them! So small!"
They were now hardly the height of our knees. This was now a smallcircular room, under a lowering concave dome. A shot came from the groupof Pygmy figures. I saw the small stab of flame, heard the zing of thebullet.
We rushed, with the full frenzy of madness upon us--enraged giants. Whatactually happened I cannot recount. I recall scattering the littlefigures; seizing them; flinging them headlong. A bullet, tiny now, stungthe calf of my leg. Little chairs and tables under my feet werecrashing. Alan was lunging back and forth; stamping; flinging his tinyadversaries away.
There were twenty or thirty of the figures here now. I feared that theymight produce more up-to-date weapons. But my fears were unfounded: soonI saw these figures making their escape.
The room was littered with wreckage. I saw that by some miracle ofchance the microscope was still standing, and I had a moment of sanity.
"Alan! Watch out! The microscope--the platform! Don't smash them! AndGlora be careful not to hurt her!"
I suddenly became aware that my head and my shoulders had struck thedome roof. Why, this was a tiny room! Alan and I found ourselves backedtogether, panting in the small confines of a circular cubby with anarching dome close over us. At our feet the platform with the microscopeover it hardly reached our boot tops. There was a sudden silence, brokenonly by our heavy breathing. The tiny forms of humans strewn around uswere all motionless. The others had fled.
Then we heard a small voice. "Here! Take this! Quickly! You are toolarge. Quickly!"
Alan took a step. And sudden panic was on us both. Glora was here at ourfeet. We did not dare turn; hardly dared to move. To change positionmight have crushed her now that she had left her hiding place. My leghit the top of the microscope cylinder. It rocked but did not fall.
Where was Glora? In the gloom we could not see her. We were in a panic.
Alan began, "George, I--"
The contracting inner curve of the dome bumped gently against my head.Our panic and confusion turned into cold fear. The room was closing into crush us.
I muttered, "Alan! I'm going out!" I braced myself and heaved againstthe side and top curve of the dome. Its metal ribs and heavytranslucent, reinforced glass plates resisted me. There was an instantwhen Alan and I were desperately frightened. We were trapped, to becrushed in here by our own horrible growth. Then the dome yielded underour smashing blows. The ribs bent; the plates cracked.
We straightened, pushed upward and emerged through the broken dome, withhead and shoulders towering into the outside darkness and the wind andsnow of the blizzard howling around us.
