"I do not know," I said. "I lost them. That giant----"
"The giant is wading the other way now." He pulled me past a thicket,
and pointed. I could see the back of the giant's naked shoulders,
towering up against the stars. He was going the other way--wading
toward the far-distant opposite lake shore. And now against the
island's banks, the waves the giant made were beginning to pound.
Brett said: "I don't know where Leela is. I was in there with her--and
with Zee. I rushed out when the alarm came--when I went back they were
gone." He stood irresolute. "We must find them, Frank. And get back
home." He drew a long breath. "It has come, you see, as I feared."
"I thought I saw Frannie," I said. "Running--that way. But I'm not
sure. I lost sight of her----"
From behind the pavilion came a scream. The scream of a girl.
Familiar. . . . The blood drained from Brett's face. "Leela!"
And then I heard Frannie screaming from there also. We ran. The two
girls were standing there clinging to each other. They seemed unharmed.
But they were trembling, shuddering, arms gripping one another.
"Leela! What is it?" Brett held her off, regarding her. "You're not
hurt, are you? What is it?"
We four seemed alone here beside the arcade. Lantern-flowers were over
us; a thicket was near by. Frannie's arms were around me.
"Frank--oh----" She choked; she seemed struggling to tell me something.
I held her close. "You're not hurt, Frannie. Just frightened. What
became of Martt?"
Oh, horrible! What gruesome, horrible thing was this! Within my arms I
could feel her sensibly shrinking! Her shoulders within my encircling
arm, melting . . . palpably dwindling.
Horrible! And there was a great cry from Brett. "Leela! My God,
Leela----"
At the horror of it, Brett and I stood dumbly staring; and again the
girls clung together. They seemed dizzy; they swayed, almost fell, then
steadied themselves.
Visibly smaller now, like beautifully formed little children, clinging
together, no taller than my waist.
Dwindling!
Then Frannie pointed to the thicket. Two small human figures stood
there--a foot high, no more. A grinning gnomelike man, with black
matted hair on his naked chest; and a woman--a woman thick and
shapeless. A foot in height. But they were shrinking very fast. And
beside them were four small animals with horns--grotesque like a dream
mingling dog and horse and moose. The animals, too, were dwindling.
Brett saw them; but neither he nor I made a move. At our feet Frannie
and Leela, no higher than our ankles now, were gazing up at us, with
tiny upraised arms, pleading.
"Leela! Frannie!" We knelt by them. Then Brett in an agony of terror
lifted Leela in his hand. "Leela! Don't--don't get any smaller!"
Then he put her down. She ran, half fell the distance of my foot to
reach Frannie. And I heard Frannie's tiny voice calling up to us in
gasps, "We're going! He--that man there with the woman--caught us.
Forced--down our throats--a drug. We--going----"
Smaller than my finger. Then so small we knelt to see them. They were
huddled against the side of a pebble. Then they seemed struggling
toward the pebble. Behind it. Under it. Under its curve. . . .
Brett cried, "Don't move, Frank! My God, we might trample on them!
Don't move!"
The figures in the thicket had vanished. By the pebble which Brett
guarded so carefully I thought I saw Leela and Frannie. Saw a movement,
as though an ant were there, hiding under the pebble.
Then--they were not visible. We did not dare look too closely. They
were gone! Still there within a foot of our straining eyes--but so
immeasurably distant! Lost! Gone! Stolen into smallness!
_CHAPTER 3_