The Girl in the Golden Atom
CHAPTER III
AFTER FORTY-EIGHT HOURS
The Banker snored stertorously from his mattress in a corner of theroom. In an easy-chair near by, with his feet on the table, lay the VeryYoung Man, sleeping also.
The Doctor and the Big Business Man sat by the handkerchief conversingin low tones.
"How long has it been now?" asked the latter.
"Just forty hours," answered the Doctor; "and he said that forty-eighthours was the limit. He should come back at about ten to-night."
"I wonder if he _will_ come back," questioned the Big Business Mannervously. "Lord, I wish _he_ wouldn't snore so loud," he addedirritably, nodding in the direction of the Banker.
They were silent for a moment, and then he went on: "You'd better try tosleep a little while, Frank. You're worn out. I'll watch here."
"I suppose I should," answered the Doctor wearily. "Wake up that kid,he's sleeping most of the time."
"No, I'll watch," repeated the Big Business Man. "You lie down overthere."
The Doctor did so while the other settled himself more comfortably on acushion beside the handkerchief, and prepared for his lonely watching.
The Doctor apparently dropped off to sleep at once, for he did not speakagain. The Big Business Man sat staring steadily at the ring, bendingnearer to it occasionally. Every ten or fifteen minutes he looked at hiswatch.
Perhaps an hour passed in this way, when the Very Young Man suddenly satup and yawned. "Haven't they come back yet?" he asked in a sleepy voice.
The Big Business Man answered in a much lower tone. "What do youmean--they?"
"I dreamed that he brought the girl back with him," said the Very YoungMan.
"Well, if he did, they have not arrived. You'd better go back to sleep.We've got six or seven hours yet--maybe more."
The Very Young Man rose and crossed the room. "No, I'll watch a while,"he said, seating himself on the floor. "What time is it?"
"Quarter to three."
"He said he'd be back by ten to-night. I'm crazy to see that girl."
The Big Business Man rose and went over to a dinner-tray, standing nearthe door. "Lord, I'm hungry. I must have forgotten to eat to-day." Helifted up one of the silver covers. What he saw evidently encouragedhim, for he drew up a chair and began his lunch.
The Very Young Man lighted a cigarette. "It will be the tragedy of mylife," he said, "if he never comes back."
The Big Business Man smiled. "How about _his_ life?" he answered, butthe Very Young Man had fallen into a reverie and did not reply.
The Big Business Man finished his lunch in silence and was just about tolight a cigar when a sharp exclamation brought him hastily to his feet.
"Come here, quick, I see something." The Very Young Man had his faceclose to the ring and was trembling violently.
The other pushed him back. "Let me see. Where?"
"There, by the scratch; he's lying there; I can see him."
The Big Business Man looked and then hurriedly woke the Doctor.
"He's come back," he said briefly; "you can see him there." The Doctorbent down over the ring while the others woke up the Banker.
"He doesn't seem to be getting any bigger," said the Very Young Man;"he's just lying there. Maybe he's dead."
"What shall we do?" asked the Big Business Man, and made as if to pickup the ring. The Doctor shoved him away. "Don't do that!" he saidsharply. "Do you want to kill him?"
"He's sitting up," cried the Very Young Man. "He's all right."
"He must have fainted," said the Doctor. "Probably he's taking more ofthe drug now."
"He's much larger," said the Very Young Man; "look at him!"
The tiny figure was sitting sideways on the ring, with its feet hangingover the outer edge. It was growing perceptibly larger each instant, andin a moment it slipped down off the ring and sank in a heap on thehandkerchief.
"Good Heavens! Look at him!" cried the Big Business Man. "He's allcovered with blood."
The little figure presented a ghastly sight. As it steadily grew largerthey could see and recognize the Chemist's haggard face, his cheek andneck stained with blood, and his white suit covered with dirt.
"Look at his feet," whispered the Big Business Man. They were horriblycut and bruised and greatly swollen.
The Doctor bent over and whispered gently, "What can I do to help you?"The Chemist shook his head. His body, lying prone upon the handkerchief,had torn it apart in growing. When he was about twelve inches in lengthhe raised his head. The Doctor bent closer. "Some brandy, please," saida wraith of the Chemist's voice. It was barely audible.
"He wants some brandy," called the Doctor. The Very Young Man lookedhastily around, then opened the door and dashed madly out of the room.When he returned, the Chemist had grown to nearly four feet. He wassitting on the floor with his back against the Doctor's knees. The BigBusiness Man was wiping the blood off his face with a damp napkin.
"Here!" cried the Very Young Man, thrusting forth the brandy. TheChemist drank a little of it. Then he sat up, evidently somewhatrevived.
"I seem to have stopped growing," he said. "Let's finish it up now. God!how I want to be the right size again," he added fervently.
The Doctor helped him extract the vials from under his arm, and theChemist touched one of the pills to his tongue. Then he sank back,closing his eyes. "I think that should be about enough," he murmured.
No one spoke for nearly ten minutes. Gradually the Chemist's body grew,the Doctor shifting his position several times as it became larger. Itseemed finally to have stopped growing, and was apparently nearly itsformer size.
"Is he asleep?" whispered the Very Young Man.
The Chemist opened his eyes.
"No," he answered. "I'm all right now, I think." He rose to his feet,the Doctor and the Big Business Man supporting him on either side.
"Sit down and tell us about it," said the Very Young Man. "Did you findthe girl?"
The Chemist smiled wearily.
"Gentlemen, I cannot talk now. Let me have a bath and some dinner. ThenI will tell you all about it."
The Doctor rang for an attendant, and led the Chemist to the door,throwing a blanket around him as he did so. In the doorway the Chemistpaused and looked back with a wan smile over the wreck of the room.
"Give me an hour," he said. "And eat something yourselves while I amgone." Then he left, closing the door after him.
When he returned, fully dressed in clothes that were ludicrously largefor him, the room had been straightened up, and his four friends werefinishing their meal. He took his place among them quietly and lighted acigar.
"Well, gentlemen, I suppose that you are interested to hear whathappened to me," he began. The Very Young Man asked his usual question.
"Let him alone," said the Doctor. "You will hear it all soon enough."
"Was it all as you expected?" asked the Banker. It was his first remarksince the Chemist returned.
"To a great extent, yes," answered the Chemist. "But I had better tellyou just what happened." The Very Young Man nodded his eager agreement.
"When I took those first four pills," began the Chemist in a quiet, eventone, "my immediate sensation was a sudden reeling of the senses,combined with an extreme nausea. This latter feeling passed after amoment.
"You will remember that I seated myself upon the floor and closed myeyes. When I opened them my head had steadied itself somewhat, but I wasoppressed by a curious feeling of drowsiness, impossible to shake off.
"My first mental impression was one of wonderment when I saw you allbegin to increase in size. I remember standing up beside that chair,which was then half again its normal size, and you"--indicating theDoctor--"towered beside me as a giant of nine or ten feet high.
"Steadily upward, with a curious crawling motion, grew the room and allits contents. Except for the feeling of sleep that oppressed me, I feltquite my usual self. No change appeared happening to me, but everythingelse seemed growing to gigantic and terrify
ing proportions.
"Can you imagine a human being a hundred feet high? That is how youlooked to me as I stepped upon that huge expanse of black silk andshouted my last good-bye to you!
"Over to my left lay the ring, apparently fifteen or twenty feet away. Istarted to walk towards it, but although it grew rapidly larger, thedistance separating me from it seemed to increase rather than lessen.Then I ran, and by the time I arrived it stood higher than my waist--abeautiful, shaggy, golden pit.
"I jumped upon its rim and clung to it tightly. I could feel it growingbeneath me, as I sat. After a moment I climbed upon its top surface andstarted to walk towards the point where I knew the scratch to be.
"I found myself now, as I looked about, walking upon a narrow, thoughever broadening, curved path. The ground beneath my feet appeared to bea rough, yellowish quartz. This path grew rougher as I advanced. Belowthe bulging edges of the path, on both sides, lay a shining black plain,ridged and indented, and with a sunlike sheen on the higher portions ofthe ridges. On the one hand this black plain stretched in an unbrokenexpanse to the horizon. On the other, it appeared as a circular valley,enclosed by a shining yellow wall.
"The way had now become extraordinarily rough. I bore to the left as Iadvanced, keeping close to the outer edge. The other edge of the path Icould not see. I clambered along hastily, and after a few moments wasconfronted by a row of rocks and bowlders lying directly across my lineof progress. I followed their course for a short distance, and finallyfound a space through which I could pass.
"This transverse ridge was perhaps a hundred feet deep. Behind it andextending in a parallel direction lay a tremendous valley. I knew then Ihad reached my first objective.
"I sat down upon the brink of the precipice and watched the caverngrowing ever wider and deeper. Then I realized that I must begin mydescent if ever I was to reach the bottom. For perhaps six hours Iclimbed steadily downwards. It was a fairly easy descent after the firstlittle while, for the ground seemed to open up before me as I advanced,changing its contour so constantly that I was never at a loss for aneasy downward path.
"My feet suffered cruelly from the shaggy, metallic ground, and I soonhad to stop and rig a sort of protection for the soles of them from aportion of the harness over my shoulder. According to the stature I waswhen I reached the bottom, I had descended perhaps twelve thousand feetduring this time.
"The latter part of the journey found me nearing the bottom of thecanon. Objects around me no longer seemed to increase in size, as hadbeen constantly the case before, and I reasoned that probably my staturewas remaining constant.
"I noticed, too, as I advanced, a curious alteration in the form oflight around me. The glare from above (the sky showed only as a narrowdull ribbon of blue) barely penetrated to the depths of the canon'sfloor. But all about me there was a soft radiance, seeming to emanatefrom the rocks themselves.
"The sides of the canon were shaggy and rough, beyond anything I hadever seen. Huge bowlders, hundreds of feet in diameter, were embedded inthem. The bottom also was strewn with similar gigantic rocks.
"I surveyed this lonely waste for some time in dismay, not knowing inwhat direction lay my goal. I knew that I was at the bottom of thescratch, and by the comparison of its size I realized I was well startedon my journey.
"I have not told you, gentlemen, that at the time I marked the ring Imade a deeper indentation in one portion of the scratch and focused themicroscope upon that. This indentation I now searched for. Luckily Ifound it, less than half a mile away--an almost circular pit, perhapsfive miles in diameter, with shining walls extending downwards intoblackness. There seemed no possible way of descending into it, so I satdown near its edge to think out my plan of action.
"I realized now that I was faint and hungry, and whatever I did must bedone quickly. I could turn back to you, or I could go on. I decided torisk the latter course, and took twelve more of the pills--three timesmy original dose."
The Chemist paused for a moment, but his auditors were much too intentto question him. Then he resumed in his former matter-of-fact tone.
"After my vertigo had passed somewhat--it was much more severe thistime--I looked up and found my surroundings growing at a far more rapidrate than before. I staggered to the edge of the pit. It was opening upand widening out at an astounding rate. Already its sides were becomingrough and broken, and I saw many places where a descent would bepossible.
"The feeling of sleep that had formerly merely oppressed me, combinednow with my physical fatigue and the larger dose of the drug I hadtaken, became almost intolerable. I yielded to it for a moment, lyingdown on a crag near the edge of the pit. I must have become almostimmediately unconscious, and remained so for a considerable time. I canremember a horrible sensation of sliding headlong for what seemed likehours. I felt that I was sliding or falling downward. I tried to rousebut could not. Then came absolute oblivion.
"When I recovered my senses I was lying partly covered by a mass ofsmooth, shining pebbles. I was bruised and battered from head tofoot--in a far worse condition than you first saw me when I returned.
"I sat up and looked around. Beside me, sloped upward at an apparentlyincreasing angle a tremendous glossy plane. This extended, as far as Icould see, both to the right and left and upward into the blackness ofthe sky overhead. It was this plane that had evidently broken my fall,and I had been sliding down it, bringing with me a considerable mass ofrocks and bowlders.
"As my senses became clearer I saw I was lying on a fairly level floor.I could see perhaps two miles in each direction. Beyond that there wasonly darkness. The sky overhead was unbroken by stars or light of anykind. I should have been in total darkness except, as I have told youbefore, that everything, even the blackness itself, seemed to beself-luminous.
"The incline down which I had fallen was composed of some smoothsubstance suggesting black marble. The floor underfoot was quitedifferent--more of a metallic quality with a curious corrugation. Beforeme, in the dim distance, I could just make out a tiny range of hills.
"I rose, after a time, and started weakly to walk towards these hills.Though I was faint and dizzy from my fall and the lack of food, I walkedfor perhaps half an hour, following closely the edge of the incline. Nochange in my visual surroundings occurred, except that I seemedgradually to be approaching the line of hills. My situation at thistime, as I turned it over in my mind, appeared hopelessly desperate, andI admit I neither expected to reach my destination nor to be able toreturn to my own world.
"A sudden change in the feeling of the ground underfoot brought me tomyself; I bent down and found I was treading on vegetation--a tinyforest extending for quite a distance in front and to the side of me. Afew steps ahead a little silver ribbon threaded its way through thetrees. This I judged to be water.
"New hope possessed me at this discovery. I sat down at once and took aportion of another of the pills.
"I must again have fallen asleep. When I awoke, somewhat refreshed, Ifound myself lying beside the huge trunk of a fallen tree. I was in whathad evidently once been a deep forest, but which now was almost utterlydesolated. Only here and there were the trees left standing. For themost part they were lying in a crushed and tangled mass, many of thempartially embedded in the ground.
"I cannot express adequately to you, gentlemen, what an evidence oftremendous superhuman power this scene presented. No storm, nolightning, nor any attack of the elements could have produced more thana fraction of the destruction I saw all around me.
"I climbed cautiously upon the fallen tree-trunk, and from thiselevation had a much better view of my surroundings. I appeared to benear one end of the desolated area, which extended in a path about halfa mile wide and several miles deep. In front, a thousand feet away,perhaps, lay the unbroken forest.
"Descending from the tree-trunk I walked in this direction, reaching theedge of the woods after possibly an hour of the most arduous travelingof my whole journey.
"During this time almost my only thoug
ht was the necessity of obtainingfood. I looked about me as I advanced, and on one of the fallentree-trunks I found a sort of vine growing. This vine bore a profusionof small gray berries, much like our huckleberries. They proved similarin taste, and I sat down and ate a quantity.
"When I reached the edge of the forest I felt somewhat stronger. I hadseen up to this time no sign of animal life whatever. Now, as I stoodsilent, I could hear around me all the multitudinous tiny voices of thewoods. Insect life stirred underfoot, and in the trees above anoccasional bird flitted to and fro.
"Perhaps I am giving you a picture of our own world. I do not mean to doso. You must remember that above me there was no sky, just blackness.And yet so much light illuminated the scene that I could not believe itwas other than what we would call daytime. Objects in the forest were aswell lighted--better probably than they would be under similarcircumstances in our own world.
"The trees were of huge size compared to my present stature; straight,upstanding trunks, with no branches until very near the top. They werebluish-gray in color, and many of them well covered with the berry-vineI have mentioned. The leaves overhead seemed to be blue--in fact thepredominating color of all the vegetation was blue, just as in our worldit is green. The ground was covered with dead leaves, mould, and a sortof gray moss. Fungus of a similar color appeared, but of this I did noteat.
"I had penetrated perhaps two miles into the forest when I cameunexpectedly to the bank of a broad, smooth-flowing river, its silversurface seeming to radiate waves of the characteristic phosphorescentlight. I found it cold, pure-tasting water, and I drank long and deeply.Then I remember lying down upon the mossy bank, and in a moment, utterlyworn out, I again fell asleep."