CHAPTER VIII
"I MUST GO BACK"
The tremendous plan for the salvation of their own suffering worldthrough the Chemist's discovery occupied the five friends for some time.Then laying aside this subject, that now had become of the most vitalimportance to them all, the Chemist resumed his narrative.
"My last evening in the world of the ring, I spent with Lylda,discussing our future, and making plans for the journey. I must tell younow, gentlemen, that never for a moment during my stay in Arite was Ionce free from an awful dread of this return trip. I tried to conceivewhat it would be like, and the more I thought about it, the morehazardous it seemed.
"You must realize, when I was growing smaller, coming in, I was able toclimb down, or fall or slide down, into the spaces as they opened up.Going back, I could only imagine the world as closing in upon me,crushing me to death unless I could find a larger space immediatelyabove into which I could climb.
"And as I talked with Lylda about this and tried to make her understandwhat I hardly understood myself, I gradually was brought to realize thefull gravity of the danger confronting us. If only I had made the tripout once before, I could have ventured it with her. But as I looked ather fragile little body, to expose it to the terrible possibilities ofsuch a journey was unthinkable.
"There was another question, too, that troubled me. I had been gone fromyou nearly a week, and you were only to wait for me two days. I believedfirmly that I was living at a faster rate, and that probably my timewith you had not expired. But I did not know. And suppose, when I hadcome out on to the surface of the ring, one of you had had it on hisfinger walking along the street? No, I did not want Lylda with me inthat event.
"And so I told her--made her understand--that she must stay behind, andthat I would come back for her. She did not protest. She saidnothing--just looked up into my face with wide, staring eyes and alittle quiver of her lips. Then she clutched my hand and fell into alow, sobbing cry.
"I held her in my arms for a few moments, so little, so delicate, sohuman in her sorrow, and yet almost superhuman in her radiant beauty.Soon she stopped crying and smiled up at me bravely.
"Next morning I left. Lylda took me through the tunnels and back intothe forest by the river's edge where I had first met her. There weparted. I can see, now, her pathetic, drooping little figure as shetrudged back to the tunnel.
"When she had disappeared, I sat down to plan out my journey. I resolvednow to reverse as nearly as possible the steps I had taken coming in.Acting on this decision, I started back to that portion of the forestwhere I had trampled it down.
"I found the place without difficulty, stopping once on the way to eat afew berries, and some of the food I carried with me. Then I took a smallamount of one of the drugs, and in a few moments the forest trees haddwindled into tiny twigs beneath my feet.
"I started now to find the huge incline down which I had fallen, andwhen I reached it, after some hours of wandering, I followed its bottomedge to where a pile of rocks and dirt marked my former landing-place.The rocks were much larger than I remembered them, and so I knew I wasnot so large, now, as when I was here before.
"Remembering the amount of the drug I had taken coming down, I took nowtwelve of the pills. Then, in a sudden panic, I hastily took two of theothers. The result made my head swim most horribly. I sat or lay down, Iforget which. When I looked up I saw the hills beyond the river andforest coming towards me, yet dwindling away beneath my feet as theyapproached. The incline seemed folding up upon itself, like a telescope.As I watched, its upper edge came into view, a curved, luminous lineagainst the blackness above. Every instant it crawled down closer, moresharply curved, and its inclined surface grew steeper.
"All this time, as I stood still, the ground beneath my feet seemed tobe moving. It was crawling towards me, and folding up underneath where Iwas standing. Frequently I had to move to avoid rocks that came at meand passed under my feet into nothingness.
"Then, all at once, I realized that I had been stepping constantlybackward, to avoid the inclined wall as it shoved itself towards me. Iturned to see what was behind, and horror made my flesh creep at what Isaw. A black, forbidding wall, much like the incline in front, entirelyencircled me. It was hardly more than half a mile away, and towered fouror five thousand feet overhead.
"And as I stared in terror, I could see it closing in, the line of itsupper edge coming steadily closer and lower. I looked wildly around withan overpowering impulse to run. In every direction towered this rockywall, inexorably swaying in to crush me.
"I think I fainted. When I came to myself the scene had not greatlychanged. I was lying at the bottom and against one wall of a circularpit, now about a thousand feet in diameter and nearly twice as deep. Thewall all around I could see was almost perpendicular, and it seemedimpossible to ascend its smooth, shining sides. The action of the drughad evidently worn off, for everything was quite still.
"My fear had now left me, for I remembered this circular pit quite well.I walked over to its center, and looking around and up to its top Iestimated distances carefully. Then I took two more of the pills.
"Immediately the familiar, sickening, crawling sensation began again. Asthe walls closed in upon me, I kept carefully in the center of the pit.Steadily they crept in. Now only a few hundred feet away! Now only a fewpaces--and then I reached out and touched both sides at once with myhands.
"I tell you, gentlemen, it was a terrifying sensation to stand in thatwell (as it now seemed), and feel its walls closing up with irresistibleforce. But now the upper edge was within reach of my fingers. I leapedupward and hung for a moment, then pulled myself up and scrabbled out,tumbling in a heap on the ground above. As I recovered myself, I lookedagain at the hole out of which I had escaped; it was hardly big enoughto contain my fist.
"I knew, now, I was at the bottom of the scratch. But how different itlooked than before. It seemed this time a long, narrow canon, hardlymore than sixty feet across. I glanced up and saw the blue sky overhead,flooded with light, that I knew was the space of this room above thering.
"The problem now was quite a different one than getting out of the pit,for I saw that the scratch was so deep in proportion to its width thatif I let myself get too big, I would be crushed by its walls before Icould jump out. It would be necessary, therefore, to stay comparativelysmall and climb up its side.
"I selected what appeared to be an especially rough section, and took aportion of another of the pills. Then I started to climb. After an hourthe buskins on my feet were torn to fragments, and I was bruised andbattered as you saw me. I see, now, how I could have made both thedescent into the ring, and my journey back with comparatively littleeffort, but I did the best I knew at the time.
"When the canon was about ten feet in width, and I had been climbingarduously for several hours, I found myself hardly more than fifteen ortwenty feet above its bottom. And I was still almost that far from thetop. With the stature I had then attained, I could have climbed theremaining distance easily, but for the fact that the wall above hadgrown too smooth to afford a foothold. The effects of the drug had againworn off, and I sat down and prepared to take another dose. I didso--the smallest amount I could--and held ready in my hand a pill of theother kind in case of emergency. Steadily the walls closed in.
"A terrible feeling of dizziness now came over me. I clutched the rockbeside which I was sitting, and it seemed to melt like ice beneath mygrasp. Then I remembered seeing the edge of the canon within reach abovemy head, and with my last remaining strength, I pulled myself up, andfell upon the surface of the ring. You know the rest. I took anotherdose of the powder, and in a few minutes was back among you."
The Chemist stopped speaking, and looked at his friends. "Well," hesaid, "you've heard it all. What do you think of it?"
"It is a terrible thing to me," sighed the Very Young Man, "that you didnot bring Llyda with you."
"It would have been a terrible thing if I had brought her. But I amgoing back for
her."
"When do you plan to go back?" asked the Doctor after a moment.
"As soon as I can--in a day or two," answered the Chemist.
"Before you do your work here? You must not," remonstrated the BigBusiness Man. "Our war here needs you, our nation, the whole cause ofliberty and freedom needs you. You cannot go."
"Lylda needs me, too," returned the Chemist. "I have an obligationtowards her now, you know, quite apart from my own feelings. Understandme, gentlemen," he continued earnestly, "I do not place myself and minebefore the great fight for democracy and justice being waged in thisworld. That would be absurd. But it is not quite that way, actually; Ican go back for Lylda and return here in a week. That week will makelittle difference to the war. On the other hand, if I go to Francefirst, it may take me a good many months to complete my task, and duringthat time Lylda will be using up her life several times faster than I.No, gentlemen, I am going to her first."
"That week you propose to take," said the Banker slowly, "will cost thisworld thousands of lives that you could save. Have you thought of that?"
The Chemist flushed. "I can recognize the salvation of a nation or acause," he returned hotly, "but if I must choose between the lives of athousand men who are not dependent on me, and the life or welfare of onewoman who is, I shall choose the woman."
"He's right, you know," said the Doctor, and the Very Young Man agreedwith him fervently.
Two days later the company met again in the privacy of the clubroom.When they had finished dinner, the Chemist began in his usual quiet way:
"I am going to ask you this time, gentlemen, to give me a full week.There are four of you--six hours a day of watching for each. It need notbe too great a hardship. You see," he continued, as they nodded inagreement, "I want to spend a longer period in the ring world this time.I may never go back, and I want to learn, in the interest of science, asmuch about it as I can. I was there such a short time before, and it wasall so strange and remarkable, I confess I learned practically nothing.
"I told you all I could of its history. But of its arts, its science,and all its sociological and economic questions, I got hardly more thana glimpse. It is a world and a people far less advanced than ours, yetwith something we have not, and probably never will have--theuniversally distributed milk of human kindness. Yes, gentlemen, it is aworld well worth studying."
The Banker came out of a brown study. "How about your formulas for thesedrugs?" he asked abruptly; "where are they?" The Chemist tapped hisforehead smilingly. "Well, hadn't you better leave them with us?" theBanker pursued. "The hazards of your trip--you can't tell----"
"Don't misunderstand me, gentlemen," broke in the Chemist. "I wouldn'tgive you those formulas if my life and even Lylda's depended on it.There again you do not differentiate between the individual and therace. I know you four very well. You are my friends, with all the bondthat friendship implies. I believe in your integrity--each of you Itrust implicitly. With these formulas you could crush Germany, or youcould, any one of you, rule the world, with all its treasures for yourown. These drugs are the most powerful thing for good in the worldto-day. But they are equally as powerful for evil. I would stake my lifeon what you would do, but I will not stake the life of a nation."
"I know what I'd do if I had the formulas," began the Very Young Man.
"Yes, but I don't know what you'd do," laughed the Chemist. "Don't yousee I'm right?" They admitted they did, though the Banker acquiescedvery grudgingly.
"The time of my departure is at hand. Is there anything else, gentlemen,before I leave you?" asked the Chemist, beginning to disrobe.
"Please tell Lylda I want very much to meet her," said the Very YoungMan earnestly, and they all laughed.
When the room was cleared, and the handkerchief and ring in place oncemore, the Chemist turned to them again. "Good-by, my friends," he said,holding out his hands. "One week from to-night, at most." Then he tookthe pills.
No unusual incident marked his departure. The last they saw of him hewas calmly sitting on the ring near the scratch.
Then passed the slow days of watching, each taking his turn for theallotted six hours.
By the fifth day, they began to hourly expect the Chemist, but it passedthrough its weary length, and he did not come. The sixth day dragged by,and then came the last--the day he had promised would end theirwatching. Still he did not come, and in the evening they gathered, andall four watched together, each unwilling to miss the return of theadventurer and his woman from another world.
But the minutes lengthened into hours, and midnight found thewhite-faced little group, hopeful yet hopeless, with fear tugging attheir hearts. A second week passed, and still they watched, explainingwith an optimism they could none of them feel, the non-appearance oftheir friend. At the end of the second week they met again to talk thesituation over, a dull feeling of fear and horror possessing them. TheDoctor was the first to voice what now each of them was forced tobelieve. "I guess it's all useless," he said. "He's not coming back."
"I don't hardly dare give him up," said the Big Business Man.
"Me, too," agreed the Very Young Man sadly.
The Doctor sat for some time in silence, thoughtfully regarding thering. "My friends," he began finally, "this is too big a thing to dealwith in any but the most careful way. I can't imagine what is going oninside that ring, but I do know what is happening in our world, and whatour friend's return means to civilization here. Under the circumstances,therefore, I cannot, I will not give him up.
"I am going to put that ring in a museum and pay for having it watchedindefinitely. Will you join me?" He turned to the Big Business Man as hespoke.
"Make it a threesome," said the Banker gruffly. "What do you take mefor?" and the Very Young Man sighed with the tragedy of youth.