_From a Drop of Water_
I lay concealed, and Babs stood at the lattice of our cage room. I was
aware that Polter had entered some vast apartment of this giant
palace. A brighter light was outside; I heard voices--Polter's and
another man's. I could see the distant monster shape of one. He was at
first so far away that all his outline was visible. A seated man, in a
huge white room. I thought there were great shelves with enormous
bottles. The spread of table tops passed under our cage as Polter
walked by them. They held a litter of apparatus, and there was the
smell of chemicals in the air. It seemed that this was a laboratory.
The man stood up to greet Polter. I had a glimpse of his head and
shoulders level with us. He wore a white linen coat, open, soft collar
and black tie. He seemed an old man, queerly old, with snow-white
hair....
I had an instant of whirling, confused impressions. Something was
familiar about his face. It was seamed and wrinkled with lines of age
and care. There were gentle blue eyes.
Then all I could see was the vast spread of his white shirt and coat,
a black splotch of his tie outside our bars as Polter faced him.
Babs gave a low cry. "Why--why--dear God--"
And then I knew! And Polter's words were not needed, though I heard
their rumble.
"I am back again, Kent. Are you still rebellious? You haf still
determined to compound no more of our drugs? You would rather I killed
you? Then see what I haf here. This little cage, someone--"
It was Dr. Kent, a prisoner here all these years!
Babs turned her white face toward me. "George, it's father! He's
alive! Here!"
"Quiet, Babs! Don't let them know I'm here. Remember!"
The old man recognized her. "Babs!" It was an agonized cry. The blur
of him was gone as he sank down into his chair.
Polter continued standing. I could envisage his sardonic grin. Babs
was calling:
"Father, dear! Father!"
From over us came Polter's rumble. "She iss glad to see you, Kent. I
haf her here, safe. You always knew I would nefer be satisfied until I
had my little Babs? Well, now I haf her. Can you hear me?"
A sudden desperate calmness fell on Babs. She called evenly, "Yes, I
hear you. Father, do not anger him. Do not rebel; do what he commands.
Dr. Polter, will you let me be with my father? After all these years,
let me be with him, just for a little while. In his size--normal."
"Hah! My Babs iss scheming."
"No! I want to talk to him, after so long. These years when I thought
he was dead."
"Scheming. You think, my little Babs, that he has the drugs? I am not
so much a fool. He makes them. He can do that, and the last secret
reactions only he can perform. He iss stubborn. Never would he tell me
that one reaction. But he makes no drugs complete, only when I am
here."
"No, Dr. Polter! I want only to be with him."
The old man's broken voice floated up to us. "You will not harm her,
Polter?"
"No. Fear nothing. But you no longer rebel?"
"I will do what you tell me." The tones carried hopeless resignation,
years of being beaten down, rebelling--but now this last blow
vanquished him. Then he spoke again, with a sudden strange fire.
"Even for the life of my daughter, I will not make your drugs, Polter,
if you mean to harm our Earth."
The golden cage room swooped as Polter sat down. "Hah! Now we bargain.
What do you care what I do to your world? You never will see it again.
I can lie to you. My plans--"
"I do care."
"Well, I will tell you, Kent. I am good natured now. Why should I not
be, with my dear little Babs? I tell you. I am done with the Earth
world. It iss so much nicer here. My friends, they haf a good time
always. We like this little atom realm. I am going out once more. I
must hide the little piece of golden quartz so no harm will come to
it."
* * * * *
Polter was evidently in a high good humor. His voice fell to an
intimate tone of comradeship; but still I could not mistake the irony
of it.
"You listen to me, Kent. There was a time, years ago, when we were
good friends. You liked your young assistant, the hunchback Polter.
Iss it not so? Then why should we quarrel now? I am gifing up the
Earth world. I wanted of it only the little Babs.... You look at me so
strange! You do not speak."
"There is nothing to say," retorted Dr. Kent wearily.
"Then you listen. I haf much gold above, in Quebec. You know that. So
very simple to take it out of our atom, grow large with it, to what we
call up there the size of a hundred feet. I haf a place, a room,
secluded from prying eyes under a dome-roof. I become very tall,
holding a piece of gold. It is large when I am a hundred feet tall. So
I haf collected much gold. They think I own a mine. I haf a smelter
and my gold quartz I make into ingots, refined to the standard purity.
So simple, and I am a rich man.
"But gold does not bring happiness, my friend Kent." He chuckled
ironically at his use of the platitude. "There is more in life than
the ownership of gold. You ask my plans. I haf Babs, now. I am gifing
up our Earth world. The mysterious man they know as Frank Rascor will
vanish. I will hide our little fragment of quartz. No one up there
will even try to find it. Then I come down here, with Babs, and we
will haf so nice a little government and rule this world. No more of
the drugs then will be needed, Kent. When you die, let the secret die
with you."
Again Polter's voice turned ingratiating, even more so than before.
"We will be friends, Kent. Our little Babs will lof me; why should
she not? You will tell her--advise her--and we will all three be very
happy."
Dr. Kent said abruptly, "Then leave her with me now. That was her
request, a moment ago. If you expect to treat her kindly, then why
not--"
"I do! I do! But not now. I cannot spare her now. I am very busy, but
I must take her with me."
* * * * *
Babs had been silent, clinging to the bars of our cage. She called:
"Why? I ask you to put this cage down."
"Not now, little bird."
"And let me be with my father."
It struck a pang through me. Babs was scheming, but not the way Polter
thought. She wanted the cage put on the floor, herself out, and a
chance for me to escape. I had not yet told her of my miserable
stupidity in losing the vial.
Polter was repeating. "No, little bird. Presently; not now. I may take
you out with me, my last trip out. I want to talk with you in a normal
size when I haf time."
Our room swooped as he stood up. "You think over what I haf said,
Kent. You get ready now to make the fresh drugs I will need to bring
down all my men from the outer world. They will all be glad to come,
or, if not--well, we can easily kill those who refuse. You make the
drugs. I need plenty. Will you?"
"Yes."
"That iss good. I come back soon and gif you the catalyst for that
last reaction. Will you be ready?"
"Yes."
The blur outside our bars swung with a dizzying whirl as Polter turned
and left the room, locking its door after him with a reverberating
clank.
* * * * *
Left alone in his laboratory, Dr. Kent began his preparations for
making a fresh supply of the drugs. This room, with two smaller ones
adjoining, was at once his workshop and his prison. He stood at his
shelves, selecting the basic chemicals. He could not complete the
final compounds. The catalyst which was necessary to the final
reaction would be brought to him by Polter.
How long he worked there with his thoughts in a whirl at seeing Babs,
he did not know. His movements were automatic; he had done all this so
many times before. His mind was confused, and he was trembling from
head to foot, an old, queerly, unnaturally old man now--unnerved. His
shaking fingers could hardly hold the test tubes.
His thoughts were flying. Babs was here, come down from the world
above. It was disaster--the thing he had feared all these years.
He suddenly heard a voice.
"Father!"
And again: "Father!" A tiny voice, down by his shoe-tops. Two small
figures were there on the floor beside him. They were both panting,
winded by running. They were enlarging; they had come from a smaller
size.
It was Alan and Glora, who had followed Polter from the boat,
diminished again, and come running through the tiny crack under the
metal door of the laboratory.
They grew to a foot in size, down by Dr. Kent's legs. He was too
unnerved; he sat in a chair while Alan swiftly told him what had
happened. Babs was in the golden cage. Dr. Kent knew that; but none of
them knew what had happened to me.
"We must make you small, Father. We have the drugs, here with us."
"Yes! Yes, Alan. How much have you? Show me. Oh, my boy, that you are
here--and Babs--"
"Don't you worry, we'll get away from him."
* * * * *
Glora and Alan had almost reached Dr. Kent's size before their excited
fingers could get out the vials. They took some of the diminishing
drug to check their growth. Alan handed his father a black vial.
"Yes, lad--"
"No! Wait, Father! That's the wrong drug. This other--"
Dr. Kent had opened the vial. His trembling hand spilled some of the
pellets, but none of them noticed it.
"Father, dear, this one." Alan held an opalescent vial. "This one."
Glora said abruptly, "Listen! Is that someone coming?"
They thought they heard approaching footsteps. A moment passed, but no
one came into the room.
"Hurry," urged Glora. "It is nothing. We wait too long."
"My boy--Alan, dear, after all these years--"
They were about to take the diminishing drug. From across the room
there came a very queer sound. A scuttling, scratching, and the drone
of wings.
"Father, good God--look!"
Over by the wall, a giant fly was running across the floor. It was
growing larger!
At Dr. Kent's feet the pellets he had dropped were crushed by his
footsteps and strewn on the floor. A fly had eaten of the sweetish
powder.
The enlarging drug was loose!
A few drops of water lay mingled with the drug on the floor. And from
the water nameless hideous things were rising!