CHAPTER XVII
THE WELCOME OF THE MASTER
It was nearly twelve hours later, as their watches showed them, that thefirst of the weary adventurers awoke. The Very Young Man it was whofirst opened his eyes with a confused sense of feeling that he was inbed at home, and that this was the momentous day he was to start hisjourney into the ring. He sat up and rubbed his eyes vigorously to seemore clearly his surroundings.
Beside him lay his two friends, fast asleep. With returningconsciousness came the memory of the events of the day and night before.The Very Young Man sprang to his feet and vigorously awoke hiscompanions.
The action of the drug again had ceased, and at first glance the sceneseemed to have changed very little. The incline now was some distanceaway, although still visible, stretching up in a great arc and fadingaway into the blackness above. The ground beneath their feet still ofits metallic quality, appeared far rougher than before. The Very YoungMan bent down and put his hand upon it. There was some form ofvegetation there, and, leaning closer, he could see what appeared to bethe ruins of a tiny forest, bent and trampled, the tree-trunks no largerthan slender twigs that he could have snapped asunder easily between hisfingers.
"Look at this," he exclaimed. "The woods--we're here."
The others knelt down with him.
"Be careful," cautioned the Doctor. "Don't move around. We must getsmaller." He drew the papers from his pocket.
"Rogers was in doubt about this quantity to take," he added. "We shouldbe now somewhere at the edge or in the forest he mentions. Yet we may bevery far from the point at which he reached the bottom of that incline.I think, too, that we are somewhat larger than he was. Probably thestrength of our drug differs from his to some extent."
"How much should we take next, I wonder?" said the Big Business Man ashe looked at his companions.
The Doctor took a pill and crushed it in his hand. "Let us take somuch," he said, indicating a small portion of the powder. The otherseach crushed one of the pills and endeavored to take as nearly aspossible an equal amount.
"I'm hungry," said the Very Young Man. "Can we eat right after thepowder?"
"I don't think that should make any difference," the Doctor answered,and so accustomed to the drug were they now that, quite nonchalantly,they sat down and ate.
After a few moments it became evident that in spite of their care theamounts of the drug they had taken were far from equal.
Before they had half finished eating, the Very Young Man was hardly morethan a third the size of the Doctor, with the Big Business Man abouthalf-way between. This predicament suddenly struck them as funny, andall three laughed heartily at the effect of the drug.
"Hey, you, hurry up, or you'll never catch me," shouted the Very YoungMan gleefully. "Gosh, but you're big!" He reached up and tried to touchthe Doctor's shoulder. Then, seeing the huge piece of chocolate in hisfriend's hand and comparing it with the little one in his own, he added:"Trade you chocolate. That's a regular meal you got there."
"That's a real idea," said the Big Business Man, ceasing his laughterabruptly. "Do you know, if we ever get really low on food, all we haveto do is one of us stay big and his food would last the other two amonth."
"Fine; but how about the big one?" asked the Very Young Man, grinning."He'd starve to death on that plan, wouldn't he?"
"Well, then he could get much smaller than the other two, and they couldfeed him. It's rather involved, I'll admit, but you know what I mean,"the Big Business Man finished somewhat lamely.
"I've got a much better scheme than that," said the Very Young Man. "Youlet the food stay large and you get small. How about that?" he addedtriumphantly. Then he laid carefully on the ground beside him a bit ofchocolate and a few of the hard crackers they were eating. "Stay there,little friends, when you grow up, I'll take you back," he added in agleeful tone of voice.
"Strange that should never have occurred to us," said the Doctor. "It'sa perfect way of replenishing our food supply," and quite seriously bothhe and the Big Business Man laid aside some of their food.
"Thank me for that brilliant idea," said the Very Young Man. Then, asanother thought occurred to him, he scratched his head lugubriously."Wouldn't work very well if we were getting bigger, would it? Don'tlet's ever get separated from any food coming out."
The Doctor was gigantic now in proportion to the other two, and both heand the Big Business Man took a very small quantity more of the drug inan effort to equalize their rate of bodily reduction. They evidently hitit about right, for no further change in their relative size occurred.
All this time the vegetation underneath them had been growing steadilylarger. From tiny broken twigs it grew to sticks bigger than theirfingers, then to the thickness of their arms. They moved slightly fromtime to time, letting it spread out from under them, or brushing itaside and clearing a space in which they could sit more comfortably.Still larger it grew until the tree-trunks, thick now almost as theirbodies, were lying broken and twisted, all about them. Over to one sidethey could see, half a mile away, a place where the trees were stillstanding--slender saplings, they seemed, growing densely together.
In half an hour more the Very Young Man announced he had stopped gettingsmaller. The action of the drug ceased in the others a few minuteslater. They were still not quite in their relative sizes, but a fewgrains of the powder quickly adjusted that.
They now found themselves near the edge of what once was a great forest.Huge trees, whose trunks measured six feet or more in diameter, layscattered about upon the ground; not a single one was left standing. Inthe distance they could see, some miles away, where the untrodden forestbegan.
They had replaced the food in their belts some time before, and nowagain they were ready to start. Suddenly the Very Young Man spied ahuge, round, whitish-brown object lying beside a tree-trunk near by. Hewent over and stood beside it. Then he called his friends excitedly. Itwas irregularly spherical in shape and stood higher than his knees--agreat jagged ball. The Very Young Man bent down, broke off a piece ofthe ball, and, stuffing it into his mouth, began chewing withenthusiasm.
"Now, what do you think of that?" he remarked with a grin. "A crackercrumb I must have dropped when we first began lunch!"
They decided now to make for the nearest part of the unbroken forest. Itwas two hours before they reached it, for among the tangled mass ofbroken, fallen trees their progress was extremely difficult and slow.Once inside, among the standing trees, they felt more lost than ever.They had followed implicitly the Chemist's directions, and in generalhad encountered the sort of country they expected. Nevertheless, theyall three realized that it was probable the route they had followedcoming in was quite different from that taken by the Chemist; and inwhat direction lay their destination, and how far, they had not even thevaguest idea, but they were determined to go on.
"If ever we find this city of Arite, it'll be a miracle sure," the VeryYoung Man remarked as they were walking along in silence.
They had gone only a short distance farther when the Big Business Man,who was walking in front, stopped abruptly.
"What's that?" he asked in a startled undertone.
They followed the direction of his hand, and saw, standing rigid againsta tree-trunk ahead, the figure of a man little more than half as tall asthemselves, his grayish body very nearly the color of the blue-gray treebehind him.
The three adventurers stood motionless, staring in amazement.
As the Big Business Man spoke, the little figure, which had evidentlybeen watching them for some time, turned irresolutely as though about torun. Then with gathering courage it began walking slowly towards them,holding out its arms with the palm up.
"He's friendly," whispered the Very Young Man; and they waited, silent,as the man approached.
As he came closer, they could see he was hardly more than a boy, perhapstwenty years of age. His lean, gray body was nearly naked. Around hiswaist he wore a drab-colored tunic, of a substance they could notidentify.
His feet and legs were bare. On his chest were strapped a thinstone plate, slightly convex. His thick, wavy, black hair, cut at thebase of his neck, hung close about his ears. His head was uncovered. Hisfeatures were regular and pleasing; his smile showed an even row of verywhite teeth.
The three men did not speak or move until, in a moment, more, he stooddirectly before them, still holding out his hands palm up. Then abruptlyhe spoke.
"The Master welcomes his friends," he said in a soft musical voice. Hegave the words a most curious accent and inflexion, yet they were quiteunderstandable to his listeners.
"The Master welcomes his friends," he repeated, dropping his arms to hissides and smiling in a most friendly manner.
The Very Young Man caught his breath. "He's been sent to meet us; he'sfrom Rogers. What do you think of that? We're all right now!" heexclaimed excitedly.
The Doctor held out his hand, and the Oroid, hesitating a moment indoubt, finally reached up and grasped it.
"Are you from Rogers?" asked the Doctor.
The Oroid looked puzzled. Then he turned and flung out his arm in asweeping gesture towards the deeper woods before them. "Rogers--Master,"he said.
"You were waiting for us?" persisted the Doctor; but the other onlyshook his head and smiled his lack of comprehension.
"He only knows the first words he said," the Big Business Man suggested.
"He must be from Rogers," the Very Young Man put in. "See, he wants usto go with him."
The Oroid was motioning them forward, holding out his hand as though tolead them.
The Very Young Man started forward, but the Big Business Man held himback.
"Wait a moment," he said. "I don't think we ought to go among thesepeople as large as we are. Rogers is evidently alive and waiting for us.Why wouldn't it be better to be about his size, instead of ten-footgiants as we would look now?"
"How do you know how big Rogers is?" asked the Very Young Man.
"I think that a good idea," agreed the Doctor. "Rogers described theseOroid men as being some six inches shorter than himself, on theaverage."
"This one might be a pygmy, for all we know," said the Very Young Man.
"We might chance it that he's of normal size," said the Doctor, smiling."I think we should make ourselves smaller."
The Oroid stood patiently by and watched them with interested eyes aseach took a tiny pellet from a vial under his arm and touched it to histongue. When they began to decrease in size his eyes widened with frightand his legs shook under him. But he stood his ground, evidently assuredby their smiles and friendly gestures.
In a few minutes the action of the drug was over, and they foundthemselves not more than a head taller than the Oroid. In this size heseemed to like them better, or at least he stood in far less awe ofthem, for now he seized them by the arms and pulled them forwardvigorously.
They laughingly yielded, and, led by this strange being of anotherworld, they turned from the open places they had been following andplunged into the depths of the forest.