Beyond the Vanishing Point

ul that a sudden movement by Alan would crush her. I turned cautiously after a moment and saw Alan's eyes upon me. He too had seen, with a blurred return

by what I now saw was a pile of gold ingots stacked crosswise. But the fellow at the microscope held his plac

head the figures of the tiny girl on the floor behind him. She wanted evidently to approach his he

ard us. Alan held still, watching. And the girl, Glora, seized

eyes! Make him think yo

ike a mouse hiding i

ted, mouthed at his gag. But he saw

reathing slowly. Footsteps approa

e of a foreigner, with a queer, indescribab

. They were heavy-set men in leather jackets and short, wide knee-length trousers. One wore tight, high boots, and the o

I had assumed! They were eight or ten feet tall at the very least! And they and the

ny girl was again at his ear, whispe

at might have been a knife in her hand. "I will get a little larger. I am

backward; but she came again, smiling. The three men were

louder, so that we both

may see that you are loose. I get la

f the three men. Two were talking in a strange tongue. One called to t

know damn well I can't

, the two prison

do is kill 'em.

im return. Not long, what y

for 'em? An' that damn girl he stole off the

behind St. Anne. That what the doctor plan to do, I think. Then the pol

me sug

see them any more." He left the platform and joined the others. And

s, and two others far across the room where I saw the dark e

ut a foot tall. She moved past my eyes; stood by my mouth; bent down over my gag. I felt the cautious slide of a t

at she would be seen; but the man had turned the central light off wh

uth. My tongue was th

you,

ui

my ankles. It took her a long time, but at last I was free! I

was free. "George

d. "Easy! Let her

against these six, thr

have not enough. I will hide-there." Her little arm gestured to where, near us, half a dozen boxes were pile

Alan whisper

d planned to do that myself, until I saw you held captive. That gi

my mind, but this was no time to ask them. I amen

fore. But now we could whisper. We tried to anticipate what would happen; tried t

small, frail-looking girl something 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. Her small oval face was pale

fumbling at her robe. "I wi

t men. Alan and I were tense. We could easily be discovered now

we do? What h

o pink-white pellets. "Take the

thing abruptly was gruesome, f

ioactive. And volatile. Exposed to the air, it is gone very

own reluctance, Alan seized t

ai

a low-voiced, earnest discussion.

here will

ht here. I

"Into the little piece of golden rock. That'

here-within an atom

you ta

But

tly, "Why not now? We

ssible. We would be seen as we climbed

ot if we get very sma

hat small, then it would be, from here"-she gestured toward the micro

ing so

king at me. "

es

y and I swallowed it hastily. My heart, was pounding, but that was apprehension, n

y whirling consciousness the sudden thought hovered that she had tricked us; done to us some

ily. "You all

I-I gu

hin me-a soundless tingle. The drug had gone to every tiny microscopic cell in my body. The myriad pores of my skin seemed thrilling with

h things now. The huge dimly illumined room under the dome was swaying. Then abruptly it steadied.

everywhere a slow, steady, crawling movement. The whole place was dwindling. The platform, the microsco

y God-this

He was growing at the same rate as myself eviden

slowly. From all directions it contracted as though it was being squ

iously and knocked them over. They seemed small now, perhaps half their former size. Glora was st

rmured. "You all r

ered. The men were shouting, clambering to their feet. Alan and I stood swaying. The dome-room had contracted to

"Alan! Watc

ey did not. Only knives were in their hands. The whole place was ringing

d was lower than my shoulders. I met him with a blow of my fist in his face. He toppled backwa

was the madness of abnormality. I saw Alan with two dwarfed figure

gh he were a child, whirled him around me and flung him away. He lande

t they now stood well away from us. Alan backed against me. His laugh

, look at th

lar room, under a lowering concave dome. A shot came from the group of P

tering the little figures; seizing them; flinging them headlong. A bullet, tiny now, stung the calf of my leg. Little cha

that they might produce more up-to-date weapons. But my fear

t by some miracle of chance the microscope was

he platform! Don't smash them! And

ing in the small confines of a circular cubby with an arching dome close over us. At our feet the platform with the microscope over it hardly reached our b

"Here! Take this! Quickly!

e turn; hardly dared to move. To change position might have crushed her now that she had left

gloom we could not see

an, "Geo

ly against my head. Our panic and confusion turned

ranslucent, reinforced glass plates resisted me. There was an instant when Alan and I were desperately frightened. We were trapped,

dome, with head and shoulders towering into the outside dark