Beyond the Vanishing Point

to touch it to our tongue several times, to adjust our size as we became smaller. It took us no more than a minute to diminish. We could hear the roar of the cro

ifty-foot stature, was standing by the gigantic canopy of the dock. He had dispersed t

it," I murmured. "M

lter had backed from the road and was walking to the barge. It lay like the length of an ocean liner, its sail looming an enormo

e stern which momentarily was unoccupied. To Polter and his men we were eight or nine inches tall. We dropped o

s was around us. We could see the bottom of a crossbench looming over head, and the

bench with the steering mechanism before him. Further on, the other men were dispersed, with one or two in the distant bow. Polter reclin

red, "Let's

t was noisy down here-the clank of the steering mechanism; the sw

clining on an elbow, stretched at ease on a cushion. And at the moment, he was fumbling with the chains that fastened the little golden cage to his chest. The cage was double

t, Babs. You come out, sit on my hand and talk w

t on the cushion beside him. He

t, now. Be ca

Alan! We've got to get still closer!

y, "I don't know! I d

red. "But never larger-not here.

enough to afford a footing. I thought that I could climb it. We stood erect. There was a deep shadow along here, but it was brighter on the cushion top. We could see over its edge; a

throaty, rumbling roar above us. "Ca

ight glowed on her blue dress; her black hair was tumbling

seen her so beautiful as in miniature, standing at the door of her go

her sma

you want

Now I put my

. He slid it carefully along the cushion. Babs was barely the

old tight to my finger. Here, I crook th

Then we saw her, twenty feet or so in the air

bs. When we get to the island

n would want to do it also. And, perhaps, even Glora. But that wouldn't work. My chances, however desperate, were better alone. Glo

t billowing cushion spread toward the distant giant pal

must follow Polter. Glora knows the way. Some opportunity will co

"Yes, that's what we're planning

o be sure to follow Polter. Whatever happens, y

ge, w

earful that Alan would be suspicious of me. Yet I had to make s

lan agreed. "L

my love for her. My desperate need of doing something; getting to her, seeing her, being with her. I wanted her near my own size again as though the blessed normality

cushion at Babs. In the shadow of the cushion I moved some ten feet. On the undulating top of the

ied. Alan might discover me. Polter might put Babs back in the cage and close its door. We might be near the i

side was a ridged, indescribably unnatural vista of cliff wall. The fabric was coarse with hairy strands, dented into little ravines

d. I stood peering at it, trying to gauge its size in relation to me. I wanted so intensely now to appear normal in Babs' eyes. The cage seemed about ten

nds of the fabric now had spaces between their curving surfaces. The cage was a shining golden ho

high. Walled solid, top and bottom, and on three sides. The front was

ch fastened to the wall, with a railing around it and handles. It suggested

d enough. There was a grillelike lattice extending down from the seat t

t know. My thoughts were ra

floor of the ten foot cage to the front lattice bars. Outside, there appeared a huge, pink-white,

mality! The same slim little Babs who always stood, since we

allic clank. Babs stood tense, clinging to the wall r

tly, my li

d I was wedged prone under the couch. Then the movement stopped; there was a jolting, rocking, a

reflecting from Polter's shirt bosom. An abyss of dista

er's breathing and an occasional jolt as he shifted his position. The floor was tilted

softly,

, "Babs! Don't cry out! It'

cry. "George-where

cealment and stood up,

She cried again, "George!

down the tilting floor, then released her h

to the railing, George. When th

e had told me how she was captured. A man accosted her on the Terrace, saying he wanted to speak to her about Alan. Then a

hen Polter moves, it i

, Babs. Heavens

, and we had the white sheen from his shirt front. A sheer drop was outside the bars, but looking

giant shapes were outside. The room jolted and s

ormality of largeness. I think that in relation to us, the men were of over two hundred-foot stature, and the hunch

speak to someone. If anyone looked in here you would

could distinguish vegetation on their flat roof

iant voices. I had seen no women among these giants of the island. But now a huge face was at one of the ovals. A dissolute, painted woman of Earth,

o back. Suppose s

st arching doorway into the greater dimness of an echoing interior. I scurried back across the lurching room and again wedged myself under the couch. Babs

en my black vial of the enlarging drug, as yet unused, would take us up, out to our own world. We could not use the drugs now. But the chance might come when Polter would set the cage on the

lm! Were Alan and Glora following us now? I could only hope so. Once out of this, Babs and I would have to rejoin them. But how? Pan

t. I dumped the pellet out. It was spoiling! The exposure to the air and the moisture of my tongue, had ruined it! I r

would give us our chance to fight our way upward. My trembling fingers sought the black vial in my belt. It wasn't there! My

were helpless! Caged! Maroon