THE RESCUE OF LOTO
The Very Young Man heard the clang of the closing door with sinking
heart. The two newcomers, passing close to him and Aura as they stood
shrinking up against the wall, joined their friends at the table. The
Very Young Man turned to Aura with a solemn face.
"Are there any other doors?" he asked.
The girl pointed. "One other, there--but see, it, too, is closed."
Far across the room the Very Young Man could make out a heavy metal door
similar to that through which they had entered. It was closed--he could
see that plainly. And to open it--so huge a door that its great golden
handle hung nearly a hundred feet above them--was an utter
impossibility.
The Very Young Man looked at the windows. There were four of them, all
on one side of the room--enormous curtained apertures, two hundred feet
in length and half as broad--but none came even within fifty feet of the
floor. The Very Young Man realized with dismay that there was apparently
no way of escape out of the room.
"We can't get out, Aura," he said, and in spite of him his voice
trembled. "There's no way."
The girl had no answer but a quiet nod of agreement. Her face was
serious, but there was on it no sign of panic. The Very Young Man
hesitated a moment; then he started off down the room towards one of the
doors, with Aura close at his side.
They could not get out in their present size, he knew. Nor would they
dare make themselves sufficiently large to open the door, or climb
through one of the windows, even if the room had been nearer the ground
than it actually was. Long before they could escape they would be
discovered and seized.
The Very Young Man tried to think it out clearly. He knew, except for a
possible accident, or a miscalculation on his part, that they were in no
real danger. But he did not want to make a false move, and now for the
first time he realized his responsibility to Aura, and began to regret
the rashness of his undertaking.
They could wait, of course, until the conference was over, and then slip
out unnoticed. But the Very Young Man felt that the chances of their
rescuing Loto were greater now than they would be probably at any time
in the future. They must get out now, he was convinced of that. But how?
They were at the door in a moment more. Standing so close it seemed,
now, a tremendous shaggy walling of shining metal. They walked its
length, and then suddenly the Very Young Man had an idea. He threw
himself face down upon the floor. Underneath the door's lower edge there
was a tiny crack. To one of normal Oroid size it would have been
unnoticeable--a space hardly so great as the thickness of a thin sheet
of paper. But the Very Young Man could see it plainly; he gauged its
size by slipping the edge of his robe into it.
This crack was formed by the bottom of the door and the level surface of
the floor; there was no sill. The door was perfectly hung, for the crack
seemed to be of uniform size. The Very Young Man showed it to Aura.
"There's the way out," he whispered. "Through there and then large again
on the other side."
He made his calculation of size carefully, and then, crushing one of the
pills into powder, divided a portion of it between himself and the girl.
Aura seemed tired and the drug made her very dizzy. They both sat upon
the stone floor, close up to the door, and closed their eyes. When, by
the feeling of the floor beneath them, they knew the action of the drug
was over, they stood up unsteadily and looked around them.
They now found themselves standing upon a great stone plain. The ground
beneath their feet was rough, but as far away as they could see, out up
to the horizon, it was mathematically level. This great expanse was
empty except in one place; over to the right there appeared a huge,
irregular, blurred mass that might have been, by its look, a range of
mountains. But the mass moved as they stared at it, and the Very Young
Man knew it was the nearest one of Targo's men, sitting beside the
table.
In the opposite direction, perhaps a hundred yards away from where they
were standing, they could see the bottom of the door. It hung in the air
some fifty feet above the surface of the ground. They walked over and
stood underneath; like a great roof it spread over them--a flat, level
surface parallel with the floor beneath.
At this extraordinary change in their surroundings Aura seemed
frightened, but seeing the matter-of-fact way in which her companion
acted, she maintained her composure and soon was much interested in this
new aspect of things. The Very Young Man took a last careful look around
and then, holding Aura by the hand, started to cross under the door in a
direction he judged to be at right angles to its length.
They walked swiftly, trying to keep their sense of direction, but having
no means of knowing whether they were doing so or not. For perhaps ten
minutes they walked; then they emerged on the other side of the door and
again faced a great level, empty expanse.
"We're under," the Very Young Man remarked with relief. "Do you know
where Loto is from here?"
Aura had recovered her self-possession sufficiently to smile.
"I might, perhaps," she answered, with a pretty little shrug. "But it's
a long way, don't you think? A hundred miles, it may be?"
"We get large here," said the Very Young Man, with an answering smile.
He was greatly relieved to be outside the audience room; the way seemed
easy before them now.
They took the opposite drug, and after several successive changes of
size, succeeded in locating the upper room in the palace in which Loto
was held. At this time they were about the same relative size to their
enemies as when they entered the audience chamber on the floor below.
"That must be it," the Very Young Man whispered, as they cautiously
turned a hallway corner. A short distance beyond, in front of a closed
door, sat two guards.
"That is the room of which they spoke," Aura answered. "Only one door
there is, I think."
"That's all right," said the Very Young Man confidently. "We'll do the
same thing--go under the door."
They went close up to the guards, who were sitting upon the floor
playing some sort of a game with little golden balls. This door, like
the other, had a space beneath it, rather wider than the other, and in
ten minutes more the Very Young Man and Aura were beneath it, and inside
the room.
As they grew larger again the Very Young Man at first thought the room
was empty. "There he is," cried Aura happily. The Very Young Man looked
and could see across the still huge room, the figure of Loto, standing
at a window opening.
"Don't let him see us till we're his size," cautioned the Very Young
Man. "It might frighten him. And if he made any noise----" He looked at
the door behind them significantly.
Aura nodded eagerly; her face was radiant. Steadily larger they grew.
Loto did not turn round, but stood quiet, looking out of the window.
They crept up close behind him, and when they were normal size Aura
whispered his name softly. The boy turned in surprise and she faced him
with a warning finger on her lips. He gave a low, happy little cry, and
in another instant was in her arms, sobbing as she held him close to her
breast.
The Very Young Man's eyes grew moist as he watched them, and heard the
soft Oroid words of endearment they whispered to each other. He put his
arms around them, too, and all at once he felt very big and very strong
beside these two delicate, graceful little creatures of whom he was
protector.
A noise in the hallway outside brought the Very Young Man to himself.
"We must get out," he said swiftly. "There's no time to lose." He went
to the window; it faced the city, fifty feet or more above the ground.
The Very Young Man make a quick decision. "If we go out the way we came,
it will take a very long time," he explained. "And we might be seen. I
think we'd better take the quick way; get big here--get right out," he
waved his hands towards the roof, "and make a run for it back to Arite."
He made another calculation. The room in which they were was on the top
floor of the palace; Aura had told him that. It was a room about fifty
feet in length, triangular in shape, and some thirty feet from floor to
ceiling. The Very Young Man estimated that when they had grown large
enough to fill the room, they could burst through the palace roof and
leap to the ground. Then in a short time they could run over the
country, back to Arite. He measured out the drug carefully, and without
hesitation his companions took what he gave them.
As they all three started growing--it was Loto's first experience, and
he gave an exclamation of fright at the sensation and threw his arms
around Aura again--the Very Young Man made them sit upon the floor near
the center of the room. He sat himself beside them, staring up at the
ceiling that was steadily folding up and coming down towards them. For
some time he stared, fascinated by its ceaseless movement.
Then suddenly he realized with a start that it was almost down upon
them. He put up his hand and touched it, and a thrill of fear ran over
him. He looked around. Beside him sat Aura and Loto, huddled close
together. The walls of the room had nearly closed in upon them now; its
few pieces of furniture had been pushed aside, unnoticed, by the growth
of their enormous bodies. It was as though they were crouching in a
triangular box, almost entirely filling it.
The Very Young Man laid his hand on Aura's arm, and she met his anxious
glance with her fearless, trusting smile.
"We'll have to break through the roof now," whispered the Very Young
Man, and the girl answered calmly: "What you say to do, we will do."
Their heads were bent down now by the ever-lowering ceiling; the Very
Young Man pressed his shoulder against it and heaved upwards. He could
feel the floor under him quiver and the roof give beneath his thrust,
but he did not break through. In sudden horror he wondered if he could.
If he did not, soon, they would be crushed to death by their own growth
within the room.
The Very Young Man knew there was still time to take the other drug. He
shoved again, but with the same result. Their bodies were bent double
now. The ceiling was pressing close upon them; the walls of the room
were at their elbow. The Very Young Man crooked his arm through the
little square orifice window that he found at his side, and, with a
signal to his companions, all three in unison heaved upwards with all
their strength. There came one agonizing instant of resistance; then
with a wrenching of wood, the clatter of falling stones and a sudden
crash, they burst through and straightened upright into the open air
above.
The Very Young Man sat still for a moment, breathing hard. Overhead
stretched the canopy of stars; around lay the city, shrunken now and
still steadily diminishing. Then he got unsteadily upon his feet,
pulling his companions up with him and shaking the bits of stone and
broken wood from him as he did so.
In a moment more the palace roof was down to their knees, and they
stepped out of the room. They heard a cry from below and saw the two
guards, standing amidst the debris, looking up at them through the torn
roof in fright and astonishment.
There came other shouts from within the palace now, and the sound of the
hurrying of many little feet. For some minutes more they grew larger, as
they stood upon the palace roof, clinging to one another and listening
to the spreading cries of excitement within the building and in the city
streets below them.
"Come on," said the Very Young Man finally, and he jumped off the roof
into the street. A group of little figures scattered as he landed, and
he narrowly escaped treading upon them.
So large had they grown that it was hardly more than a step down from
the roof; Aura and Loto were by the Very Young Man's side in a moment,
and immediately they started off, picking their way single file out of
the city. For a short time longer they continued growing; when they had
stopped the city houses stood hardly above their ankles.
It was difficult walking, for the street was narrow and the frightened
people in it were often unable to avoid their tread, but fortunately the
palace stood near the edge of the city, and soon they were past its last
houses and out into the open country.
"Well, we did it," said the Very Young Man, exulting. Then he patted
Loto affectionately upon the shoulder, adding. "Well, little brother, we
got you back, didn't we?"
Aura stopped suddenly. "Look there--at Arite," she said, pointing up at
the horizon ahead of them.
Far in the distance, at the edge of the lake, and beside a dim smudge he
knew to be the houses of Arite, the Very Young Man saw the giant figure
of a man, huge as himself, towering up against the background of sky.