Martt did not know. But he guessed, and his heart went cold with fear.
"We must get outside, Frannie. Hold tight! This way--it's nearer! There
goes Frank--we'll join him outside."
Martt was forcing a way for them through the crowd. Frannie stumbled.
Her hold on him was broken. She fell; and before he could reach her
he was knocked backward by a running man. When he regained his feet a
swift-moving group was between him and Frannie. He saw two girls stop
and help her up; then discard her. Saw her turn, confused, and run
into a space where the crowd was thinner. He was being shoved away from
her.
"Frannie! Wait! This way!"
But she did not hear him. And then he could no longer see her; there
were too many people in between. He struggled in that direction, then
he thought he saw me, and turned momentarily the other way. . . .
Martt found himself alone, outside the arcade. The crowd was thinner.
Still he was not certain of the cause of all this panic. Then he saw
the giant. Stood, and stared with tumultuously beating heart.
A man bumped into him; for an instant he thought that it was Brett.
Memory of Brett reminded him that Brett was probably within the arcade,
back of the platform-stage. He saw an opening, there in the arcade
wall; he thought it was a doorway, leading back of the stage. He
started for it, ran headlong into a girl standing there, staring out
over the water to where the giant now had faced about and was wading
away.
"Martt!"
"You, Zee! Where's Brett? Where are Leela and your father?"
She clung to him, her draperies drooping, her hair tumbling in great
dark waves over her white shoulders as she shook her head.
"I do not know. They were in there a moment ago. Frannie came in--she
and Leela were at the other door. Martt--that giant----"
"He's going away, Zee. Look! You see him turned about? Don't be
frightened. We must find Brett. I don't know where Frank is--I lost
him. There he is--isn't that Frank? Oh--Frank!"
They ran toward a man's figure, passing along a distant line of trees.
But when they caught up with it, the man was a stranger. Ahead of them,
hidden by a thicket, voices were shouting. A rhythmic call. Martt and
Zee listened; but Martt could not understand the shouted words.
"What is it, Zee? Can you understand them?"
"They're saying, 'The messenger from Reaf!' Some messenger from Reaf
has come with news."
"Come on. Let's go see what it is."
He gripped her hand. They ran swiftly through the woods. They were
already several hundred feet from the arcade. The lagoon was on
its other side; ahead of them was a patch of woods, dark, for the
lantern-flowers did not grow along here. And beyond the woods, the
shore of the island where the shouting sounded.
They ran. Soon Zee was ahead, leaping like a young chamois, her veils
and hair flying.
"Wait!" he called. "Not so fast!"
She stopped abruptly. And Martt stopped. There was a pounding on the
shore; waves rolling up, as though the peaceful lake were torn by a
storm.
"What's that, Zee?" But the shouting began again; and without
answering, Zee started ahead.
The starlit lake came into view. Like a distant, monstrous shadow, the
retreating giant was visible against the stars. On the shore, white
waves were rolling up. A boat was here, with its sail flapping. A wave
caught it, turned it over.
On the strand a group of people were standing with the man who had come
in this boat from Reaf. Zee joined the group. In a moment she returned.
"He says--the messenger says--that giants are in Reaf! The city is
emptied--the people have scattered into the country. The road to
Crescent is crowded with people coming here."
"Giants! There--as well as here----"
"Yes. They did not attack. There were two giants. They stood in the
lake and laughed while the people fled from the city. Hundreds were
killed in the rush to get out--hundreds were swept away into the
subterranean rivers and the giants stood and laughed. The city is
deserted, and the two giants are there now."
Men were helping the messenger right his boat. The group on the shore
scattered back over the island, calling, "Giants! Giants are in Reaf!"
The messenger climbed into his boat, headed it out over the now calmer
lake.
Martt and Zee momentarily were alone. He stared at her. He was stunned,
confused. Giants, everywhere. This thing that had been worrying Brett
for so long had come. Death, everywhere.
"Let's get back, Zee. We must find Brett."
It seemed shorter along the shore--a turn of the island near by,
into the lagoon, and thus back to the arcade. They started off,
running again. It was deserted along here. Zee was leading. Suddenly
she stopped in full flight, gripped Martt, drew him behind a huge,
pot-bellied tree trunk which stood near the water's edge.
"Zee, what----?"
"There, over there."
"Where? I don't see anything."
She whispered insistently, "Over there--in that open space. Back from
the shore."
She was crouching, and he crouched beside her; followed her gesture
with his gaze--and saw what she saw.
Tiny moving figures on the ground. Four of them, small dark blobs
against the white sand. They were about a hundred feet away from where
Martt and Zee were crouching. They had come out of the woods evidently,
and were crossing this patch of white sand, heading for the water.
Martt blinked and rubbed his eyes, staring at them. They moved in tiny
leaps, bounding soundlessly over the sand. Each of them a foot long
perhaps. Strange in shape; animal or human, he could not say.
"What are they, Zee?"
But she did not answer. Her little body was shrinking against him; he
could feel her shudder.
The figures seemed long and thin, horizontal to the ground, with
something sticking upright like a tower from the middle of them. Martt
gasped. He had thought them four animals, with humps like upright
towers. They were not. He saw them now as running dogs with horns, each
with a tiny human figure on its back. And he gasped again. They were
growing larger!
They crossed the sand in bounds and momentarily stopped. Already they
were fully half normal size. Four horned animals that might have been
grotesque dogs, or horses. Saddled; and mounted upon them, a heavy-set,
half-naked man; a strange, shapeless woman--and two girls!
Normal size now! No, already they were larger! Growing rapidly larger!
Frannie and Leela!
Martt half started to his feet. He opened his mouth to shout
impulsively, but Zee drew him back and silenced him. The four animals
were taking to the water. Swimming with heads stretched out. Martt
could see Frannie and Leela bending forward, each clutching the horn of
her mount. In single file the animals swam swiftly out into the starlit
lake. They did not seem to be growing any further. Twice normal size
perhaps. Soon they were four dark blobs on the shining water. Visually
seeming smaller by distance. V-shaped lines of silver phosphorescence
streamed out in the water behind them with their swift forward
progress.
And presently they were vanished.
* * * * *
Martt and Zee stood up. They could not explain it. They tried to, but
could not. But the main facts were clear. That had been a man and
woman giant, and four of their animals. They had captured Frannie and
Leela. Had made the girls and the animals change size like themselves.
They had all, just now, been very small in size. To escape observation
coming across the island to its shore, Martt concluded.
He said, "We must get to Brett--tell him about this. And then--go after
them----"
Again they started running along the shore, intending to turn at the
lagoon-mouth for the arcade. Martt's thoughts flew swift as his legs.
Leela and Frannie captured . . . they must be rescued . . . then all
of them would get into the vehicle and go to Earth--get out of this
danger. . . .