AFTER FORTY-EIGHT HOURS
The Banker snored stertorously from his mattress in a corner of the
room. In an easy-chair near by, with his feet on the table, lay the Very
Young Man, sleeping also.
The Doctor and the Big Business Man sat by the handkerchief conversing
in low tones.
"How long has it been now?" asked the latter.
"Just forty hours," answered the Doctor; "and he said that forty-eight
hours was the limit. He should come back at about ten to-night."
"I wonder if he _will_ come back," questioned the Big Business Man
nervously. "Lord, I wish _he_ wouldn't snore so loud," he added
irritably, nodding in the direction of the Banker.
They were silent for a moment, and then he went on: "You'd better try to
sleep a little while, Frank. You're worn out. I'll watch here."
"I suppose I should," answered the Doctor wearily. "Wake up that kid,
he's sleeping most of the time."
"No, I'll watch," repeated the Big Business Man. "You lie down over
there."
The Doctor did so while the other settled himself more comfortably on a
cushion beside the handkerchief, and prepared for his lonely watching.
The Doctor apparently dropped off to sleep at once, for he did not speak
again. The Big Business Man sat staring steadily at the ring, bending
nearer to it occasionally. Every ten or fifteen minutes he looked at his
watch.
Perhaps an hour passed in this way, when the Very Young Man suddenly sat
up and yawned. "Haven't they come back yet?" he asked in a sleepy voice.
The Big Business Man answered in a much lower tone. "What do you
mean--they?"
"I dreamed that he brought the girl back with him," said the Very Young
Man.
"Well, if he did, they have not arrived. You'd better go back to sleep.
We've got six or seven hours yet--maybe more."
The Very Young Man rose and crossed the room. "No, I'll watch a while,"
he said, seating himself on the floor. "What time is it?"
"Quarter to three."
"He said he'd be back by ten to-night. I'm crazy to see that girl."
The Big Business Man rose and went over to a dinner-tray, standing near
the door. "Lord, I'm hungry. I must have forgotten to eat to-day." He
lifted up one of the silver covers. What he saw evidently encouraged
him, for he drew up a chair and began his lunch.
The Very Young Man lighted a cigarette. "It will be the tragedy of my
life," he said, "if he never comes back."
The Big Business Man smiled. "How about _his_ life?" he answered, but
the Very Young Man had fallen into a reverie and did not reply.
The Big Business Man finished his lunch in silence and was just about to
light a cigar when a sharp exclamation brought him hastily to his feet.
"Come here, quick, I see something." The Very Young Man had his face
close to the ring and was trembling violently.
The other pushed him back. "Let me see. Where?"
"There, by the scratch; he's lying there; I can see him."
The Big Business Man looked and then hurriedly woke the Doctor.
"He's come back," he said briefly; "you can see him there." The Doctor
bent down over the ring while the others woke up the Banker.
"He doesn't seem to be getting any bigger," said the Very Young Man;
"he's just lying there. Maybe he's dead."
"What shall we do?" asked the Big Business Man, and made as if to pick
up the ring. The Doctor shoved him away. "Don't do that!" he said
sharply. "Do you want to kill him?"
"He's sitting up," cried the Very Young Man. "He's all right."
"He must have fainted," said the Doctor. "Probably he's taking more of
the drug now."
"He's much larger," said the Very Young Man; "look at him!"
The tiny figure was sitting sideways on the ring, with its feet hanging
over the outer edge. It was growing perceptibly larger each instant, and
in a moment it slipped down off the ring and sank in a heap on the
handkerchief.
"Good Heavens! Look at him!" cried the Big Business Man. "He's all
covered with blood."
The little figure presented a ghastly sight. As it steadily grew larger
they could see and recognize the Chemist's haggard face, his cheek and
neck stained with blood, and his white suit covered with dirt.
"Look at his feet," whispered the Big Business Man. They were horribly
cut and bruised and greatly swollen.
The Doctor bent over and whispered gently, "What can I do to help you?"
The Chemist shook his head. His body, lying prone upon the handkerchief,
had torn it apart in growing. When he was about twelve inches in length
he raised his head. The Doctor bent closer. "Some brandy, please," said
a wraith of the Chemist's voice. It was barely audible.
"He wants some brandy," called the Doctor. The Very Young Man looked
hastily around, then opened the door and dashed madly out of the room.
When he returned, the Chemist had grown to nearly four feet. He was
sitting on the floor with his back against the Doctor's knees. The Big
Business Man was wiping the blood off his face with a damp napkin.
"Here!" cried the Very Young Man, thrusting forth the brandy. The
Chemist drank a little of it. Then he sat up, evidently somewhat
revived.
"I seem to have stopped growing," he said. "Let's finish it up now. God!
how I want to be the right size again," he added fervently.
The Doctor helped him extract the vials from under his arm, and the
Chemist touched one of the pills to his tongue. Then he sank back,
closing his eyes. "I think that should be about enough," he murmured.
No one spoke for nearly ten minutes. Gradually the Chemist's body grew,
the Doctor shifting his position several times as it became larger. It
seemed finally to have stopped growing, and was apparently nearly its
former size.
"Is he asleep?" whispered the Very Young Man.
The Chemist opened his eyes.
"No," he answered. "I'm all right now, I think." He rose to his feet,
the Doctor and the Big Business Man supporting him on either side.
"Sit down and tell us about it," said the Very Young Man. "Did you find
the girl?"
The Chemist smiled wearily.
"Gentlemen, I cannot talk now. Let me have a bath and some dinner. Then
I will tell you all about it."
The Doctor rang for an attendant, and led the Chemist to the door,
throwing a blanket around him as he did so. In the doorway the Chemist
paused and looked back with a wan smile over the wreck of the room.
"Give me an hour," he said. "And eat something yourselves while I am
gone." Then he left, closing the door after him.
When he returned, fully dressed in clothes that were ludicrously large
for him, the room had been straightened up, and his four friends were
finishing their meal. He took his place among them quietly and lighted a
cigar.
"Well, gentlemen, I suppose that you are interested to hear what
happened to me," he began. The Very Young Man asked his usual question.
"Let him alone," said the Doctor. "You will hear it all soon enough."
"Was it all as you expected?" asked the Banker. It was his first remark
since the Chemist returned.
"To a great extent, yes," answered the Chemist. "But I had better tell
you just what happened." The Very Young Man nodded his eager agreement.
"When I took those first four pills," began the Chemist in a quiet, even
tone, "my immediate sensation was a sudden reeling of the senses,
combined with an extreme nausea. This latter feeling passed after a
moment.
"You will remember that I seated myself upon the floor and closed my
eyes. When I opened them my head had steadied itself somewhat, but I was
oppressed by a curious feeling of drowsiness, impossible to shake off.
"My first mental impression was one of wonderment when I saw you all
begin to increase in size. I remember standing up beside that chair,
which was then half again its normal size, and you"--indicating the
Doctor--"towered beside me as a giant of nine or ten feet high.
"Steadily upward, with a curious crawling motion, grew the room and all
its contents. Except for the feeling of sleep that oppressed me, I felt
quite my usual self. No change appeared happening to me, but everything
else seemed growing to gigantic and terrifying proportions.
"Can you imagine a human being a hundred feet high? That is how you
looked to me as I stepped upon that huge expanse of black silk and
shouted my last good-bye to you!
"Over to my left lay the ring, apparently fifteen or twenty feet away. I
started to walk towards it, but although it grew rapidly larger, the
distance separating me from it seemed to increase rather than lessen.
Then I ran, and by the time I arrived it stood higher than my waist--a
beautiful, shaggy, golden pit.
"I jumped upon its rim and clung to it tightly. I could feel it growing
beneath me, as I sat. After a moment I climbed upon its top surface and
started to walk towards the point where I knew the scratch to be.
"I found myself now, as I looked about, walking upon a narrow, though
ever broadening, curved path. The ground beneath my feet appeared to be
a rough, yellowish quartz. This path grew rougher as I advanced. Below
the bulging edges of the path, on both sides, lay a shining black plain,
ridged and indented, and with a sunlike sheen on the higher portions of
the ridges. On the one hand this black plain stretched in an unbroken
expanse to the horizon. On the other, it appeared as a circular valley,
enclosed by a shining yellow wall.
"The way had now become extraordinarily rough. I bore to the left as I
advanced, keeping close to the outer edge. The other edge of the path I
could not see. I clambered along hastily, and after a few moments was
confronted by a row of rocks and bowlders lying directly across my line
of progress. I followed their course for a short distance, and finally
found a space through which I could pass.
"This transverse ridge was perhaps a hundred feet deep. Behind it and
extending in a parallel direction lay a tremendous valley. I knew then I
had reached my first objective.
"I sat down upon the brink of the precipice and watched the cavern
growing ever wider and deeper. Then I realized that I must begin my
descent if ever I was to reach the bottom. For perhaps six hours I
climbed steadily downwards. It was a fairly easy descent after the first
little while, for the ground seemed to open up before me as I advanced,
changing its contour so constantly that I was never at a loss for an
easy downward path.
"My feet suffered cruelly from the shaggy, metallic ground, and I soon
had to stop and rig a sort of protection for the soles of them from a
portion of the harness over my shoulder. According to the stature I was
when I reached the bottom, I had descended perhaps twelve thousand feet
during this time.
"The latter part of the journey found me nearing the bottom of the
canon. Objects around me no longer seemed to increase in size, as had
been constantly the case before, and I reasoned that probably my stature
was remaining constant.
"I noticed, too, as I advanced, a curious alteration in the form of
light around me. The glare from above (the sky showed only as a narrow
dull ribbon of blue) barely penetrated to the depths of the canon's
floor. But all about me there was a soft radiance, seeming to emanate
from the rocks themselves.
"The sides of the canon were shaggy and rough, beyond anything I had
ever seen. Huge bowlders, hundreds of feet in diameter, were embedded in
them. The bottom also was strewn with similar gigantic rocks.
"I surveyed this lonely waste for some time in dismay, not knowing in
what direction lay my goal. I knew that I was at the bottom of the
scratch, and by the comparison of its size I realized I was well started
on my journey.
"I have not told you, gentlemen, that at the time I marked the ring I
made a deeper indentation in one portion of the scratch and focused the
microscope upon that. This indentation I now searched for. Luckily I
found it, less than half a mile away--an almost circular pit, perhaps
five miles in diameter, with shining walls extending downwards into
blackness. There seemed no possible way of descending into it, so I sat
down near its edge to think out my plan of action.
"I realized now that I was faint and hungry, and whatever I did must be
done quickly. I could turn back to you, or I could go on. I decided to
risk the latter course, and took twelve more of the pills--three times
my original dose."
The Chemist paused for a moment, but his auditors were much too intent
to question him. Then he resumed in his former matter-of-fact tone.
"After my vertigo had passed somewhat--it was much more severe this
time--I looked up and found my surroundings growing at a far more rapid
rate than before. I staggered to the edge of the pit. It was opening up
and widening out at an astounding rate. Already its sides were becoming
rough and broken, and I saw many places where a descent would be
possible.
"The feeling of sleep that had formerly merely oppressed me, combined
now with my physical fatigue and the larger dose of the drug I had
taken, became almost intolerable. I yielded to it for a moment, lying
down on a crag near the edge of the pit. I must have become almost
immediately unconscious, and remained so for a considerable time. I can
remember a horrible sensation of sliding headlong for what seemed like
hours. I felt that I was sliding or falling downward. I tried to rouse
but could not. Then came absolute oblivion.
"When I recovered my senses I was lying partly covered by a mass of
smooth, shining pebbles. I was bruised and battered from head to
foot--in a far worse condition than you first saw me when I returned.
"I sat up and looked around. Beside me, sloped upward at an apparently
increasing angle a tremendous glossy plane. This extended, as far as I
could see, both to the right and left and upward into the blackness of
the sky overhead. It was this plane that had evidently broken my fall,
and I had been sliding down it, bringing with me a considerable mass of
rocks and bowlders.
"As my senses became clearer I saw I was lying on a fairly level floor.
I could see perhaps two miles in each direction. Beyond that there was
only darkness. The sky overhead was unbroken by stars or light of any
kind. I should have been in total darkness except, as I have told you
before, that everything, even the blackness itself, seemed to be
self-luminous.
"The incline down which I had fallen was composed of some smooth
substance suggesting black marble. The floor underfoot was quite
different--more of a metallic quality with a curious corrugation. Before
me, in the dim distance, I could just make out a tiny range of hills.
"I rose, after a time, and started weakly to walk towards these hills.
Though I was faint and dizzy from my fall and the lack of food, I walked
for perhaps half an hour, following closely the edge of the incline. No
change in my visual surroundings occurred, except that I seemed
gradually to be approaching the line of hills. My situation at this
time, as I turned it over in my mind, appeared hopelessly desperate, and
I admit I neither expected to reach my destination nor to be able to
return to my own world.
"A sudden change in the feeling of the ground underfoot brought me to
myself; I bent down and found I was treading on vegetation--a tiny
forest extending for quite a distance in front and to the side of me. A
few steps ahead a little silver ribbon threaded its way through the
trees. This I judged to be water.
"New hope possessed me at this discovery. I sat down at once and took a
portion of another of the pills.
"I must again have fallen asleep. When I awoke, somewhat refreshed, I
found myself lying beside the huge trunk of a fallen tree. I was in what
had evidently once been a deep forest, but which now was almost utterly
desolated. Only here and there were the trees left standing. For the
most part they were lying in a crushed and tangled mass, many of them
partially embedded in the ground.
"I cannot express adequately to you, gentlemen, what an evidence of
tremendous superhuman power this scene presented. No storm, no
lightning, nor any attack of the elements could have produced more than
a fraction of the destruction I saw all around me.
"I climbed cautiously upon the fallen tree-trunk, and from this
elevation had a much better view of my surroundings. I appeared to be
near one end of the desolated area, which extended in a path about half
a mile wide and several miles deep. In front, a thousand feet away,
perhaps, lay the unbroken forest.
"Descending from the tree-trunk I walked in this direction, reaching the
edge of the woods after possibly an hour of the most arduous traveling
of my whole journey.
"During this time almost my only thought was the necessity of obtaining
food. I looked about me as I advanced, and on one of the fallen
tree-trunks I found a sort of vine growing. This vine bore a profusion
of small gray berries, much like our huckleberries. They proved similar
in taste, and I sat down and ate a quantity.
"When I reached the edge of the forest I felt somewhat stronger. I had
seen up to this time no sign of animal life whatever. Now, as I stood
silent, I could hear around me all the multitudinous tiny voices of the
woods. Insect life stirred underfoot, and in the trees above an
occasional bird flitted to and fro.
"Perhaps I am giving you a picture of our own world. I do not mean to do
so. You must remember that above me there was no sky, just blackness.
And yet so much light illuminated the scene that I could not believe it
was other than what we would call daytime. Objects in the forest were as
well lighted--better probably than they would be under similar
circumstances in our own world.
"The trees were of huge size compared to my present stature; straight,
upstanding trunks, with no branches until very near the top. They were
bluish-gray in color, and many of them well covered with the berry-vine
I have mentioned. The leaves overhead seemed to be blue--in fact the
predominating color of all the vegetation was blue, just as in our world
it is green. The ground was covered with dead leaves, mould, and a sort
of gray moss. Fungus of a similar color appeared, but of this I did not
eat.
"I had penetrated perhaps two miles into the forest when I came
unexpectedly to the bank of a broad, smooth-flowing river, its silver
surface seeming to radiate waves of the characteristic phosphorescent
light. I found it cold, pure-tasting water, and I drank long and deeply.
Then I remember lying down upon the mossy bank, and in a moment, utterly
worn out, I again fell asleep."