The Girl in the Golden Atom

  CHAPTER XXXVIII

  LOST IN SIZE

  The Very Young Man stood ankle deep in the turgid little rivulet, atightness clutching at his chest, and with his head whirling. At hisfeet his antagonist lay motionless. He stepped out of the water, puttinghis foot into a tiny grove of trees that bent and crackled like twigsunder his tread. He wondered if he would faint; he knew he must not.Away to the left he saw a line of tiny hills; beyond that a luminousobscurity into which his sight could not penetrate; behind him there wasonly darkness. He seemed to be standing in the midst of a great barrenwaste, with just a little toy river and forest at his feet--a child'splaything, set down in a man's great desert.

  The Very Young Man suddenly thought of his friends. He stepped into themiddle of the river and out again on the other side. Then he bent downwith his face close to the ground, just above the tops of the tinylittle trees. He made the human figures out finally. Hardly larger thanants they seemed, and he shuddered as he saw them. The end of his thumbcould have smashed them all, they were so small.

  One of the figures seemed to be waving something, and the Very Young Manthought he heard the squeak of its voice. He straightened upright,standing rigid, afraid to move his feet. He wondered what he should do,and in sudden fear felt for the vial of the diminishing drug. It wasstill in place, in the pouch under his armpit. The Very Young Manbreathed a sigh of relief. He decided to take the drug and rejoin hisfriends. Then as a sudden thought struck him he bent down to the groundagain, slowly, with infinite caution. The little figures were stillthere; and now he thought they were not quite as tiny as before. Hewatched them; slowly but unmistakably they were growing larger.

  The Very Young Man carefully took a step backwards, and then sat downheavily. The forest trees crackled under him. He pulled up his knees,and rested his head upon them. The little rivulet diverted from itscourse by the body of Targo, swept past through the woods almost at hisside. The noise it made mingled with the ringing in his head. His bodyached all over; he closed his eyes.

  * * * * *

  "He's all right now," the Doctor's voice said. "He'll be all right in amoment."

  The Very Young Man opened his eyes. He was lying upon the ground, withAura sitting beside him, and his friends--all his own sizeagain--standing over him.

  He met Aura's tender, serious eyes, and smiled. "I'm all right," hesaid. "What a foolish thing to faint."

  Lylda stooped beside him, "You saved us all," she said. "There isnothing we can say--to mean what it should. But you will always know howwe feel; how splendid you were."

  To the praise they gave him the Very Young Man had no answer save asmile of embarrassment. Aura said nothing, only met his smile with oneof her own, and with a tender glance that made his heart beat faster.

  "I'm all right," he repeated after a moment of silence. "Let's getstarted."

  They sat down now beside the Very Young Man, and earnestly discussed thebest plan for getting out of the ring.

  "You said you had calculated the best way," suggested the Doctor to theChemist.

  "First of all," interrupted the Big Business Man. "Are we sure none ofthese Oroids is going to follow us? For Heaven's sake let's have donewith these terrible struggles."

  The Very Young Man remembered. "He stole one of the vials," he said,pointing to Targo's body.

  "He was probably alone," the Chemist reasoned. "If any others had beenwith him they would have taken some of the drug also. Probably Targotook one of the pills and then dropped the vial to the ground."

  "My idea," pursued the Big Business Man, "is for us to get large just asquickly and continuously as possible. Probably you're right about Targo,but don't let's take any chances.

  "I've been thinking," he continued, seeing that they agreed with him."You know this is a curious problem we have facing us. I've beenthinking about it a lot. It seemed a frightful long trip down here, butin spite of that, I can't get it out of my mind that we're only a verylittle distance under the surface of the ring."

  "It's absolutely all in the viewpoint," the Chemist said with a smile."That's what I meant about having an easier method of getting out. Thedistance depends absolutely on how you view it."

  "How far would it be out if we didn't get any larger?" the Very YoungMan wanted to know.

  "Based on the size of a normal Oroid adult, and using the terrestrialstandard of feet and inches as they would seem to us when Oroid size, Ishould say the distance from Arite to the surface of the ring would beabout one hundred and fifty to a hundred and sixty thousand miles."

  "Holy mackerel!" exclaimed the Very Young Man.

  "Don't let's do much walking while we're small."

  "You have the idea exactly," smiled the Chemist.

  "Taking the other viewpoint," said the Doctor. "Just where do you figurethis Oroid universe is located in the ring?"

  "It is contained within one of the atoms of gold," the Chemist answered."And that golden atom, I estimate, is located probably within oneone-hundredth of an inch, possibly even one one-thousandth of an inchaway from the circular indentation I made in the bottom of the scratch.In actual distance I suppose Arite is possibly one-sixteenth of an inchbelow the surface of the ring."

  "Certainly makes a difference how you look at it," murmured the VeryYoung Man in awe.

  The Chemist went on. "It is obvious then, that although when coming downthe distance must be covered to some extent by physical movement--bytraveling geographically, so to speak--going back, that is notaltogether the case. Most of the distance may be covered by bodilygrowth, rather than by a movement of the body from place to place."

  "We might get lost," objected the Very Young Man. "Suppose we gotstarted in the wrong direction?"

  "Coming in, that is a grave danger," answered the Chemist, "because thendistances are opening up and a single false step means many miles oferror later on. But going out, just the reverse is true; distances areshortening. A mile in the wrong direction is corrected in an instantlater on. Not coming to a realization of that when I made the tripbefore, led me to undertake many unnecessary hours of most arduousclimbing. There is only one condition imperative; the body growing musthave free space for its growth, or it will be crushed to death."

  "Have you planned exactly how we are to get out?" asked the Big BusinessMan.

  "Yes, I have," the Chemist answered. "In the size we are now, which youmust remember is several thousand times Oroid height, it will be only ashort distance to a point where as we grow we can move gradually to thecentre of the circular pit. That huge inclined plane slides down out ofit, you remember. Once in the pit, with its walls closing in upon us, wecan at the proper moment get out of it about as I did before."

  "Then we'll be in the valley of the scratch," exclaimed the Very YoungMan eagerly. "I'll certainly be glad to get back there again."

  "Getting out of the valley we'll use the same methods," the Chemistcontinued. "There we shall have to do some climbing, but not nearly somuch as I did."

  The Very Young Man was thrilled at the prospect of so speedy a return tohis own world. "Let's get going," he suggested quickly. "It sounds acinch."

  They started away in a few minutes more, leaving the body of Targo lyingwhere it had fallen across the river. In half an hour of walking theylocated without difficulty the huge incline down which the Chemist hadfallen when first he came into the ring. Following along the bottom ofthe incline they reached his landing place--a mass of small rocks andpebbles of a different metallic-looking stone than the ground aroundmarking it plainly. These were the rocks and boulders that had beenbrought down with him in his fall.

  "From here," said the Chemist, as they came to a halt, "we can go upinto the valley by growth alone. It is several hours, but we need movevery little from this position."

  "How about eating?" suggested the Very Young Man.

  They sat down at the base of the incline and ate another meal--rather amore lavish one this time, for the rest they had taken, and the p
rospectof a shorter journey ahead of them than they had anticipated made theDoctor less strict. Then, the meal over, they took the amount of thedrug the Chemist specified. He measured it carefully--more than ten ofthe pills.

  "We have a long wait," the Chemist said, when the first sickness fromthis tremendous dose had left them.

  The time passed quickly. They spoke seldom, for the extraordinaryrapidity with which the aspect of the landscape was changing, and theremarkable sensations they experienced, absorbed all their attention.

  In about two hours after taking the drug the curving, luminous line thatwas the upper edge of the incline came into view, faint and blurred, butstill distinct against the blackness of the sky. The incline now wasnoticeably steeper; each moment they saw its top coming down towardsthem out of the heights above, and its surface smoothing out andbecoming more nearly perpendicular.

  They were all standing up now. The ground beneath them seemed in rapidmotion, coming towards them from all directions, and dwindling awaybeneath their feet. The incline too--now in form a vertical concavewall--kept shoving itself forward, and they had to step backwardscontinually to avoid its thrust.

  Within another hour a similar concave wall appeared behind them whichthey could follow with their eyes entirely around the circumference ofthe great pit in which they now found themselves. The sides of this pitsoon became completely perpendicular--smooth and shining.

  Another hour and the action of the drug was beginning to slacken--thewalls encircling them, although steadily closing in, no longer seemed tomove with such rapidity. The pit as they saw it now was perhaps athousand feet in diameter and twice as deep. Far overhead the blacknessof the sky was beginning to be tinged with a faint gray-blue.

  At the Chemist's suggestion they walked over near the center of thecircular enclosure. Slowly its walls closed in about them. An hour moreand its diameter was scarcely fifty feet.

  The Chemist called his companions around him.

  "There is an obstacle here," he began, "that we can easily overcome; butwe must all understand just what we are to do. In perhaps half an hourat the rate we are growing this enclosure will resemble a well twice asdeep, approximately, as it is broad. We cannot climb up its sides,therefore we must wait until it is not more than six feet in depth inorder to be able to get out. At that time its diameter will be scarcelythree feet. There are nine of us here; you can realize there would notbe room for us all.

  "What we must do is very simple. Since there is not room for us all atonce, we must get large from now on only one at a time."

  "Quite so," said the Big Business Man in a perfectly matter-of-facttone.

  "All of us but one will stop growing now; one will go on and get out ofthe pit. He will immediately stop his growth so that he can wait for theothers and help them out. Each of us will follow the same method ofprocedure."

  The Chemist then went on to arrange the exact quantities of the drugsthey were each to take at specified times, so that at the end they wouldall be nearly the same size again. When he had explained all this toOteo and Eena in their native language, they were ready to proceed withthe plan.

  "Who's first?" asked the Very Young Man. "Let me go with Loto."

  They selected the Chemist to go first, and all but him took a little ofthe other drug and checked their growth. The pit at this time was hardlymore than fifteen feet across and about thirty feet deep.

  The Chemist stood in the centre of the enclosure, while his friendscrowded over against its walls to make room for his growing body. It wasnearly half an hour before his head was above its top. He waited only amoment more, then he sprang upwards, clambered out of the pit anddisappeared beyond the rim. In a few moments they saw his huge head andshoulders hanging out over the side wall; his hand and arm reached downtowards them and they heard his great voice roaring.

  "Come on--somebody else."

  The Very Young Man went next, with Loto. Nothing unusual marked theirgrowth, and without difficulty, helped by the Chemist's hands reachingdown to them, they climbed out of the pit.

  In an hour more the entire party was in the valley, standing beside thelittle circular opening out of which they had come.

  The Very Young Man found himself beside Aura, a little apart from theothers, who gathered to discuss their plan for growing out of thevalley.

  "It isn't much of a trip, is it, Aura?" the Very Young Man said. "Do yourealize, we're nearly there?"

  The girl looked around her curiously. The valley of the scratch appearedto them now hardly more than a quarter of a mile in width. Aura staredupwards between its narrow walls to where, several thousand feet above,a narrow strip of gray-blue sky was visible.

  "That sky--is that the sky of your world?" she exclaimed. "How pretty itis!"

  The Very Young Man laughed.

  "No, Aura, that's not our sky. It's only the space in the room above thering. When we get the size we are going to be finally, our heads will beright up in there. The real sky with its stars will be even then as farabove us as your sky at Arite was above you."

  Aura breathed a long sigh. "It's too wonderful--really to understand,isn't it?" she said.

  The Very Young Man pulled her down on the ground beside him.

  "The most wonderful part, Aura, is going to be having you up there." Hespoke gently; somehow whenever he thought of this fragile littlegirl-woman up in his strange bustling world, he felt himself very bigand strong. He wanted to be her protector, and her teacher of all thenew and curious things she must learn.

  The girl did not reply at once; she simply met his earnest gaze with herfrank answering smile of understanding.

  The Chemist was calling to them.

  "Oh, you Jack. We're about ready to start."

  The Very Young Man got to his feet, holding down his hands to help Auraup.

  "You're going to make a fine woman, Aura, in this new world. You justwait and see if you don't," he said as they rejoined the others.

  The Chemist explained his plans to them. "This valley is several timesdeeper than its breadth; you can see that. We cannot grow large enoughto jump out as we did out of the pit; we would be crushed by the wallsbefore we were sufficiently tall to leap out.

  "But we're not going to do as I did, and climb all the way up. Insteadwe will stay here at the bottom until we are as large as we canconveniently get between the valley walls. Then we will stop growing andclimb up the side; it will only be a short distance then."

  The Very Young Man nodded his comprehension. "Unless by that time thewalls are too smooth to climb up," he remarked.

  "If we see them getting too smooth, we'll stop and begin climbing," theChemist agreed. "We're all ready, aren't we?" He began measuring out theestimated quantities of the drug, handing it to each of them.

  "Say, I'm terrible sorry," began the Very Young Man, apologeticallyinterrupting this procedure. "But you know if it wasn't for me, we'd allstarve to death."

  It was several hours since they had eaten last, and all of them werehungry, although the excitement of their strange journey had kept themfrom realizing it. They ate--"the last meal in the ring" as the BigBusiness Man put it--and in half an hour more they were ready to start.

  When they had reached a size where it seemed desirable again to stopgrowing the valley resembled a narrow canon--hardly more than a deeprift in the ground. They were still standing on its floor; above them,the parallel edges of the rift marked the surface of the ring. The sidewalls of the canon were smooth, but there were still many places wherethey could climb out without much difficulty.

  They started up a narrow declivity along the canon face. The Chemist ledthe way; the Very Young Man, with Aura just in front of him, was last.They had been walking only a moment when the Chemist called back overhis shoulder.

  "It's getting very narrow. We'd better stop here and take the drug."

  The Chemist had reached a rocky shelf--a ledge some twenty feet squarethat jutted out from the canon wall. They gathered upon it, and tookenough of the dim
inishing drug to stop their growth. Then the Chemistagain started forward; but, very soon after, a cry of alarm from Aurastopped him.

  The party turned in confusion and crowded back. Aura, pale andtrembling, was standing on the very brink of the ledge looking down. TheVery Young Man had disappeared.

  The Big Business Man ran to the brink. "Did he fall? Where is he? Idon't see him."

  They gathered in confusion about the girl. "No," she said. "He--just amoment ago he was here."

  "He couldn't have fallen," the Doctor exclaimed. "It isn't far downthere--we'd see him."

  The truth suddenly dawned on the Doctor. "Don't move!" he commandedsharply. "Don't any of you move! Don't take a step!"

  Uncomprehending, they stood motionless. The Doctor's gaze was at therocky floor under his feet.

  "It's size," he added vehemently. "Don't you understand? He's taken toomuch of the diminishing drug."

  An exclamation from Oteo made them all move towards him, in spite of theDoctor's command. There, close by Oteo's feet, they saw the tiny figureof the Very Young Man, already no more than an inch in height, andrapidly growing smaller.

  The Doctor bent down, and the little figure waved its arms in terror.

  "Don't get smaller," called the Doctor. But even as he said it, herealized it was a futile command.

  The Very Young Man answered, in a voice so minute it seemed coming froman infinite distance.

  "I can't stop! I haven't any of the other drug!"

  They all remembered then. Targo had stolen the Very Young Man's vial ofthe enlarging drug. It had never been replaced. Instead the Very YoungMan had been borrowing from the others as he went along.

  The Big Business Man was seized with sudden panic.

  "He'll get lost. We must get smaller with him." He turned sidewise, andstumbling over a rock almost crushed the Very Young Man with the step hetook to recover his balance.

  Aura, with a cry, pushed several of the others back; Oteo and Eena,frightened, started down the declivity.

  "We must get smaller!" the Big Business Man reiterated.

  The panic was growing among them all. Above their excited cries theDoctor's voice rose.

  "Stand still--all of you. If we move--even a few steps--we can never getsmall and hope to find him."

  The Doctor--himself too confused to know whether he should take thediminishing drug at once or not--was bending over the ground. And as hewatched, fascinated, the Very Young Man's figure dwindled beyond thevanishing point and was gone!