CHAPTER XIII
PERILOUS WAYS
The Very Young Man sat on the floor, between his two friends at the edgeof the handkerchief, and put the first pellets of the drug to histongue. His heart was beating furiously; his forehead was damp with thesweat of excitement and of fear. The pellets tasted sweet, and yet alittle acrid. He crushed them in his mouth and swallowed them hastily.
In the silence of the room, the ticking of his watch suddenly soundedvery loud. He raised his arm and looked at its face; it was just tenminutes past eight. He continued to stare at its dial, wondering whynothing was happening to him. Then all at once the figures on the watchbecame very sharp and vivid; he could see them with microscopicclearness. A buzzing sounded in his ears.
He remembered having felt the same way just before he fainted. He drew adeep breath and looked around the room; it swam before his gaze. Heclosed his eyes and waited, wondering if he would faint. The buzzing inhis head grew louder; a feeling of nausea possessed him.
After a moment his head cleared; he felt better. Then all at once herealized that the floor upon which he sat was moving. It seemed to beshifting out from under him in all directions. He sat with his feet flatupon the floor, his knees drawn close against his chin. And the floorseemed to be carrying his feet farther out; he constantly had to bepulling them back against him. He put one hand down beside him, andcould feel his fingers dragging very slowly as the polished surfacemoved past. The noise in his head was almost gone now. He opened hiseyes.
Before him, across the handkerchief the Banker sat in his chair. He hadgrown enormously in size, and as the Very Young Man looked he could seehim and the chair growing steadily larger. He met the Banker's anxiousglance, and smiled up at him. Then he looked at his two friends, sittingon the floor beside him. They alone, of everything within his range ofvision, had grown no larger.
The Very Young Man thought of the belt around his waist. He put his handto it, and found it tight as before. So, after all, they would not haveto leave anything behind, he thought.
The Doctor rose to his feet and turned away, back under the huge tablethat loomed up behind him. The Very Young Man got up, too, and stoodbeside the Big Business Man, holding to him for support. His head feltstrangely confused; his legs were weak and shaky.
Steadily larger grew the room and everything in it. The Very Young Manturned his eyes up to the light high overhead. Its great electric bulbsdazzled him with their brilliancy; its powerful glare made objectsaround as bright as though in daylight. After a moment the Big BusinessMan's grip on his arm tightened.
"God, it's weird!" he said in a tense whisper. "Look!"
Before them spread a great, level, shining expanse of black, with thering in its center--a huge golden circle. Beyond the farther edge of theblack they could see the feet of the banker, and the lower part of hislegs stretching into the air far above them.
The Very Young Man looked up still higher, and saw the Banker staringdown at him, "Good-by, my boy," said the Banker. His voice came from faraway in a great roar to the Very Young Man's ears.
"Good-by, sir," said the Very Young Man, and waved his hand.
Several minutes passed, and still the Very Young Man stood holding tohis companion, and watching the expanse of handkerchief widening out andthe gleaming ring growing larger. Then he thought of the Doctor, andturned suddenly to look behind him. Across the wide, glistening surfaceof the floor stood the Doctor, leaning against the tremendous columnthat the Very Young Man knew was the leg of the center-table. And as theVery Young Man stood staring, he could see this distance between themgrowing steadily greater. A sudden fear possessed him, and he shouted tohis friend.
"Good Lord, suppose he can't make it!" said the Big Business Manfearfully.
"He's coming," answered the Very Young Man. "He's got to make it."
The Doctor was running towards them now, and in a few moments he wasbeside them, breathing heavily.
"Close call, Frank," said the Big Business Man, shaking his head. "Youwere the one said we must keep together." The Doctor was too much out ofbreath to answer.
"This is worse," said the Very Young Man. "Look where the ring is."
More than two hundred yards away across the black expanse of silkhandkerchief lay the ring.
"It's almost as high as our waist now, and look how far it is!" addedthe Very Young Man excitedly.
"It's getting farther every minute," said the Big Business Man. "Comeon," and he started to run towards the ring.
"I can't make it. It's too far!" shouted the Doctor after him.
The Big Business Man stopped short. "What'll we do?" he asked. "We'vegot to get there."
"That ring will be a mile away in a few minutes, at the rate it'sgoing," said the Very Young Man.
"We'll have to get him to move it over here," decided the Doctor,looking up into the air, and pointing.
"Gee, I never thought of that!" said the Very Young Man. "Oh, greatScott, look at him!"
Out across the broad expanse of handkerchief they could see the hugewhite face of their friend looming four or five hundred feet in the airabove them. It was the most astounding sight their eyes had ever beheld;yet so confused were they by the flood of new impressions to which theywere being subjected that this colossal figure added little to theirsurprise.
"We must make him move the ring over here," repeated the Doctor.
"You'll never make him hear you," said the Big Business Man, as the VeryYoung Man began shouting at the top of his voice.
"We've got to," said the Very Young Man breathlessly. "Look at thatring. We can't get to it now. We're stranded here. Good Lord! What's thematter with him--can't he see us?" he added, and began shouting again.
"He's getting up," said the Doctor. They could see the figure of theBanker towering in the air a thousand feet above the ring, and then witha swoop of his enormous face come down to them as he knelt upon thefloor.
With his hands to his mouth, the Very Young Man shouted up: "It's toofar away. We can't make it--we're too small." They waited. Suddenly,without warning, a great wooden oval bowl fifteen or twenty feet acrosscame at them with tremendous speed. They scattered hastily in terror.
"Not that--the ring!" shouted the Very Young Man, as he realized it wasthe spoon in the Banker's hand that had frightened them.
A moment more and the ring was before them, lying at the edge of thehandkerchief--a circular pit of rough yellow rock breast high. They ranover to it and climbed upon its top.
Another minute and the ring had grown until its top became a narrowcurving path upon which they could stand. They got upon their feet andlooked around curiously.
"Well, we're here," remarked the Very Young Man. "Everything's O.K. sofar. Let's get right around after that scratch."
"Keep together," cautioned the Doctor, and they started off along thepath, following its inner edge.
As they progressed, the top of the ring steadily became broader; thesurface underfoot became rougher. The Big Business Man, walking nearestthe edge, pulled his companion towards him. "Look there!" he said. Theystood cautiously at the edge and looked down.
Beneath them the ring bulged out. Over the bulge they could see theblack of the handkerchief--a sheer hundred-feet drop. The ring curvedsharply to the left; they could follow its wall all the way around; itformed a circular pit some two hundred and fifty feet in diameter.
A gentle breeze fanned their faces as they walked. The Very Young Manlooked up into the gray of the distance overhead. A little behind, overhis shoulder he saw above him in the sky a great, gleaming light manytimes bigger than the sun. It cast on the ground before him an opaqueshadow, blurred about the edges.
"Pretty good day, at that," remarked the Very Young Man, throwing outhis chest.
The Doctor laughed. "It's half-past eight at night," he said. "And ifyou'll remember half an hour ago, it's a very stormy night, too."
The Big Business Man stopped short in his walk. "Just think," he saidpointing up into the gra
y of the sky, with a note of awe in his voice,"over there, not more than fifteen feet away, is a window, looking downtowards the Gaiety Theater and Broadway."
The Very Young. Man looked bewildered. "That window's a hundred milesaway," he said positively.
"Fifteen feet," said the Big Business Man. "Just beyond the table."
"It's all in the viewpoint" said the Doctor, and laughed again.
They had recovered their spirits by now, the Very Young Man especiallyseeming imbued with the enthusiasm of adventure.
The path became constantly rougher as they advanced.
The ground underfoot--a shaggy, yellow, metallic ore--was strewn nowwith pebbles. These pebbles grew larger farther on, becoming huge rocksand bowlders that greatly impeded their progress.
They soon found it difficult to follow the brink of the precipice. Thepath had broadened now so that its other edge was out of sight, for theycould see only a short distance amid the bowlders that everywheretumbled about, and after a time they found themselves wandering along,lost in the barren waste.
"How far is the scratch, do you suppose?" the Very Young Man wanted toknow.
They stopped and consulted a moment; then the Very Young Man clamberedup to the top of a rock. "There's a range of hills over there prettyclose," he called down to them. "That must be the way."
They had just started again in the direction of the hills when, almostwithout warning, and with a great whistle and roar, a gale of wind sweptdown upon them. They stood still and looked at each other with startledfaces, bracing with their feet against its pressure.
"Oh, golly, what's this?" cried the Very Young Man, and sat downsuddenly upon the ground to keep from being blown forward.
The wind increased rapidly in violence until, in a moment, all three ofthe men were crouching upon the ground for shelter.
"Great Scott, this is a tornado!" ejaculated the Big Business Man. Hiswords were almost lost amid the howling of the blast as it swept acrossthe barren waste of rocks.
"Rogers never told us anything about this. It's getting worse everyminute. I----" A shower of pebbles and a great cloud of metallic dustswept past, leaving them choking and gasping for breath.
The Very Young Man got upon his hands and knees.
"I'm going over there," he panted. "It's better."