CHAPTER XXXII
AN ANT-HILL OUTRAGED
"We'll have to get smaller," said the Doctor.
"There's Rogers' house."
They had been walking along the beach from the king's palace hardly morethan a hundred yards. The Doctor and the Big Business Man were in front,and Oteo, wide-eyed and solemn, was close behind them.
The Doctor was pointing down at the ground a few feet ahead. There, at aheight just above their ankles, stood the Chemist's house--a littlebuilding whose roof did not reach more than half-way to their knees,even though it stood on higher ground than the beach upon which theywere walking. On the roof they could see two tiny figures--the Chemistand Lylda--waving their arms.
The Big Business Man stopped short. "Now see here, Frank, let'sunderstand this. We've been fooling with this thing too damned long.We've made a hell of a mess of it, you know that." He spokedeterminedly, with a profanity unusual with him. The Doctor did notanswer.
"We got here--yesterday. We found a peaceful world. Dissatisfaction init--yes. But certainly a more peaceful world than the one we left. We'vebeen here one day--one day, Frank, and now look at things. This child,Loto--stolen. Jack disappeared--God knows what's happened to him. Arevolution--the whole place in an uproar. All in one day, since we tookour place in this world and tried to mix up in its affairs.
"It's time to call a halt, Frank. If only we can get Jack back. That'sthe bad part--we've got to find Jack. And then get out; we don't belonghere anyway. It's nothing to us--why, man, look at it." He waved his armout over the city. In the street beside them they could see a number oflittle figures no bigger than their fingers, staring up into the air."What is all that to us now, as we stand here. Nothing. Nothing but akid's toy; with little animated mannikins for a child to play with."
"We've got to find Jack," said the Doctor.
"Certainly we have--and then get out. We're only hurting these littlecreatures, anyway, by being here."
"But there's Rogers and Lylda," added the Doctor. "And Loto and Lylda'ssister."
"Take them with us. They'll have to go--they can't stay here now. But wemust find Jack--that's the main thing."
"Look," the Doctor said, moving forward. "They're shouting to us."
They walked up and bent over the Chemist's house. Their friend wasmaking a funnel of his hands and trying to attract their attention. TheBig Business Man knelt upon the beach and put his head down beside thehouse. "Make yourselves smaller," he heard the Chemist shouting in ashrill little voice.
"We think it best not to. You must come up to us. Serious things havehappened. Take the drug now--then we'll tell you." The Big Business Man,with his knees upon the beach, had one hand on the sand and the other atthe gate of Lylda's garden. His face was just above the roof-top.
The two little figures consulted a moment; then the Chemist shouted up,"All right; wait," and he and Lylda disappeared into the house. A momentafterwards they reappeared in the garden; Eena was with them. Theycrossed the garden and turned into the street towards the flight ofsteps that led down to the lake.
The Big Business Man had regained his feet and was standing ankle-deepin the water talking to the Doctor when Oteo suddenly plucked at hissleeve.
"The Master--" he cried. The youth was staring down into the street,with a look of terror on his face. The Big Business Man followed thedirection of his glance; at the head of the steps a number of men hadrushed upon the Chemist and the two women, and were dragging them backup the hill. The Big Business Man hesitated only a moment; then hereached down and plucking a little figure from one of the strugglinggroups, flung it back over his shoulder into the lake.
The other assailants did not run, as he had expected, so he gently priedthem apart with his fingers from their captives, and, one by one, flungthem into the air behind him. One who struck Lylda, he squashed upon theflagstones of the street with his thumb.
Only one escaped. He had been holding Eena; when he saw he was the last,he suddenly dropped his captive and ran shrieking up the hill into thecity.
The Big Business Man laughed grimly, and got upon his feet a littleunsteadily. His face was white.
"You see, Frank," he said, and his voice trembled a little. "Good God,suppose we had been that size, too."
In a few moments more the Chemist, Lylda and Eena had taken the drug andwere as large as the others. All six stood in the water beside theChemist's house. The Chemist had not spoken while he was growing; now hegreeted his friends quietly. "A close call, gentlemen. I thank you." Hesmiled approvingly at the Big Business Man.
Eena and Oteo stood apart from the others. The girl was obviouslyterror-stricken by the experiences she had undergone. Oteo put his armacross her shoulders, and spoke to her reassuringly.
"Where is Jack?" Lylda asked anxiously. "And my father--and Aura?" TheBig Business Man thought her face looked years older than when he hadlast seen it. Her expression was set and stern, but her eyes stared intohis with a gentle, sorrowful gaze that belied the sternness of her lips.
They told her, as gently as they could, of the death of her father andthe disappearance of the Very Young Man, presumably with Aura. She boreup bravely under the news of her father's death, standing with her handon her husband's arm, and her sorrowful eyes fixed upon the face of theBig Business Man who haltingly told what had befallen them. When he cameto a description of the attack on the palace, the death of the king, andthe triumph of Targo, the Chemist raised his hands with a hopelessgesture.
The Doctor put in: "It's a serious situation--most serious."
"There's only one thing we can do," the Big Business Man added quickly."We must find Jack and your sister," he addressed Lylda, whose eyes hadnever left his face, "and then get out of this world as quickly as wecan--before we do it any more harm."
The Chemist began pacing up and down the strip of the beach. He hadevidently reached the same conclusion--that it was hopeless to continuelonger to cope with so desperate a situation. But he could not bringhimself so easily to a realization that his life in this world, of whichhe had been so long virtually the leader, was at an end. He strode backand forth thinking deeply; the water that he kicked idly splashed upsometimes over the houses of the tiny city at his side.
The Big Business Man went on, "It's the only way--the best way for allof us and for this little world, too."
"The best way for you--and you." Lylda spoke softly and with a sweet,gentle sadness. "It is best for you, my friends. But for me----" Sheshook her head.
The Big Business Man laid his hands gently on her shoulders. "Best foryou, too, little woman. And for these people you love so well. Believeme--it is."
The Chemist paused in his walk. "Probably Aura and Jack are together. Noharm has come to them so far--that's certain. If his situation weredesperate he would have made himself as large as we are and we would seehim."
"If he got the chance," the Doctor murmured.
"Certainly he has not been killed or captured," the Chemist reasoned,"for we would have other giants to face immediately that happened."
"Perhaps he took the girl with him and started off to Orlog to findLoto," suggested the Doctor. "That crazy boy might do anything."
"He should be back by now, even if he had," said the Big Business Man."I don't see how anything could happen to him--having those----" Hestopped abruptly.
While they had been talking a crowd of little people had gathered in thecity beside them--a crowd that thronged the street before the Chemist'shouse, filled the open space across from it and overflowed down thesteps leading to the beach. It was uncanny, standing there, to see theseswarming little creatures, like ants whose hill had been desecrated bythe foot of some stray passer-by. They were enraged, and with an ant'sunreasoning, desperate courage they were ready to fight and to die,against an enemy irresistibly strong.
"Good God, look at them," murmured the Big Business Man in awe.
The steps leading to the beach were black with them now--a swaying,struggling mass of little
human forms, men and women, hardly a finger'slength in height, coming down in a steady stream and swarming out uponthe beach. In a few moments the sand was black with them, and alwaysmore appeared in the city above to take their places.
The Big Business Man felt a sharp sting in his foot above the sandal.One of the tiny figures was clinging to its string and sticking a swordinto his flesh. Involuntarily he kicked; a hundred of the littlecreatures were swept aside, and when he put his foot back upon the sandhe could feel them smash under his tread. Their faint, shrill, squeakingshrieks had a ghostly semblance to human voices, and he turned suddenlysick and faint.
Then he glanced at Lylda's face; it bore an expression of sorrow and ofhorror that made him shudder. To him at first these had been savage,vicious little insects, annoying, but harmless enough if one kept uponone's feet; but to her, he knew, they were men and women--misguided,frenzied--but human, thinking beings like herself. And he found himselfwondering, vaguely, what he should do to repel them.
The attack was so unexpected, and came so quickly that the giants hadstood motionless, watching it with awe. Before they realized theirsituation the sand was so crowded with the struggling little figuresthat none of them could stir without trampling upon scores.
Oteo and Eena, standing ankle-deep in the water, were unattacked, and ata word from the Chemist the others joined them, leaving little heaps ofmangled human forms upon the beach where they had trod.
All except Lylda. She stood her ground--her face bloodless, her eyesfilled with tears. Her feet were covered now; her ankles bleeding from adozen tiny knives hacking at her flesh. The Chemist called her to him,but she only raised her arms with a gesture of appeal.
"Oh, my husband," she cried. "Please, I must. Let me take the drug nowand grow small--like them. Then will they see we mean them no harm. AndI shall tell them we are their friends--and you, the Master, mean onlygood----"
The Big Business Man started forward. "They'll kill her. God,that's----" But the Chemist held them back.
"Not now, Lylda," he said gently. "Not now. Don't you see? There'snothing you can do; it's too late now." He met her gaze unyielding. Fora moment she stared; then her figure swayed and with a low sob shedropped in a heap upon the sand.
As Lylda fell, the Chemist leaped forward, the other three men at hisside. A strident cry came up from the swarming multitude, and in aninstant hundreds of them were upon her, climbing over her and thrustingtheir swords into her body.
The Chemist and the Big Business Man picked her up and carried her intothe water, brushing off the fighting little figures that still clung toher. There they laid her down, her head supported by Eena, who knelt inthe water beside her mistress.
The multitude on the sand crowded up to the water's edge; hundreds,forced forward by the pressure of those behind, plunged in, swam about,or sank and were rolled back by the surf, lifeless upon the shore. Thebeach crawled with their struggling forms, only the spot where Lylda hadfallen was black and still.
"She's all right," said the Doctor after a moment, bending over Lylda. Acry from Oteo made him straighten up quickly. Out over the horizon,towards Orlog, there appeared the dim shape of a gigantic human form,and behind it others, faint and blurred against the stars!