A day had passed since the giant had been released, and night had come
again. The Earth-giant now had become a hero to the awed Orite people.
Or at least, whatever terror of him they had was submerged in their
cheering when the monstrous panther was dead.
Nixon had found himself a cave-like recess off at the base of the green
cliff a few hundred yards from Frane's laboratory. Soon he would fix
it up to be comfortable. He brought himself food and water now. This
morning he had explored the nearby valley which opened into this one
through a mile-wide defile. Thousands of the Orites lived in the other
valley; their mound-dwellings dotted the slopes at the base of the
enclosing cliffs. A stream of orange water babbled along one side of
the valley floor, and there were strips of vegetation near the water.
Strangely shaped bluish trees about the height of Nixon bore fruits and
pods of several kinds which were edible.
It was a day of exultation to Nixon, this freedom to roam around and do
things for himself after his long imprisonment. Towering master of this
miniature world. There was another valley where a hundred or so tiny
factories glowed and hummed. Everything stopped when the Earth-giant
appeared, with the workers thronging the little doors and windows,
peering up in awed silence at him.... An exultation to it. And then
suddenly Nixon had felt the sense of responsibility. There was so much
that he would have to learn, and plan, and then put into action.
Last night, when the panther was dead and the panting, bleeding giant
had stood with crowds of tiny figures cheering him, suddenly Nixon had
found himself making a speech. It was halting, certainly, anything but
fluent. Nixon was always a fellow sparse of words. He tried to tell
them that just because he was so gigantic, no one need fear him. That
now he would live among them for a time, and try to help them in every
way he could. His naive, youthful grin accompanied his words. Then the
Orite leaders had arranged to meet with him presently; and whatever now
he needed for his comfort, he need only ask for it....
"The people all want you for our leader," Nona was saying
enthusiastically. "Everyone talks of it. The Gorts look to you for
commands."
It was mid-evening now as Nixon sat in the mouth of his cave, with Nona
and Loto on his upraised knee. A leader. Fair enough, Nixon thought.
No one can argue with a man seventy feet tall! But Frane's growth-drug
soon would change everything. The Orites would be as big as Nixon. A
whole new civilization to be built in the giant size.
"I'll do my best," Nixon said earnestly. He added suddenly, "Where is
Tork?"
In the tumultuous events of the past night and day--the joy of his
release--there had been no time to worry about Tork.
"Where _is_ Tork?" Nixon demanded.
Loto and Nona did not know. "Maybe the panther chewed him some," Nixon
said. "I wouldn't mourn none."
Nona shook her head. "He was with my father, there where you had been
lying."
"Besides, I saw him an hour after that," Loto said.
Nixon's eyes flashed. "You can be sure of one thing," he said grimly.
"As soon as I get my bearings around here, we'll get to the bottom of
Tork's monkey-shines."
Tork's followers, however many of them there might have been, now
certainly seemed to have evaporated. Nixon knew that was natural
enough. Whoever had listened to him, now would probably never admit it.
And Tork now had vanished. Perhaps he feared that he would be blamed
for having so strongly urged the vivisection of the giant. "He's not at
his job in the laboratory, working with your father?" Nixon suggested.
"No, father has not seen him," Nona said. "Father sent to his home, but
Tork has not been there."
Frane had promised that his experiment with the growth-drug this
evening would be the last, his triumph, the final success. It could
come any moment now. And all the little Orite colony knew it, was
waiting with excited expectancy for the waving shaft of violet light
which Frane had said would show from the top of the laboratory building
when the growth-drug was completed.
Down the length of the glass-like cliff-base, Nixon could see the
little laboratory building about a hundred feet away. It was humming
with activity.
"Well," Nixon said, "nothing to do but wait and see. I sure hope he
gets it."
* * * * *
Tensely they waited; the giant hunched at the mouth of his cave with
the two tiny figures perched on his bent knee. The hours passed.
The moon rose. Then Nixon sucked in his breath, and Nona and Loto
gave their little cries. From the top of the laboratory the little
light-beam was waving. Success! Frane had accomplished it.
"He did it!" Nixon exulted.
"Yes, he did it," Nona echoed. "My father, I'm so proud of him."
"Let's go over there," Nixon said. "I'll carry you."
He raised them to his shoulder and they clung to the collar of his
shirt. They were halfway there when a tiny scream sounded. Then another.
"That came from the laboratory!" Loto exclaimed.