They were in the midst of a vast, rock-strewn plain, illumined by a
half twilight. It seemed miles in extent--a rolling country of naked
rock over which, for a sky, hung a remote murk of distance. A naked
landscape, rolling upward to a circular horizon, with the circular
mountain of rock standing beside them at its center.
Leela now seemed quite calm. She said, "We are not unfathomably small.
Too small for Brett to see us, but not if he gets a glass to magnify.
He will mark the spot where we are--he will do something, Frannie--we
must not be too much frightened."
There seemed nothing that they could do to help themselves. No use to
wander; though no great harm either, for they could roam for miles over
this rocky waste to cover no more than a foot or two of the white sand
Brett would be guarding.
To Frannie's imagination came the thought of insects! A crawling ant in
that white sand would now be a monster gigantic! She gazed around in
terror, but there was nothing of the kind in sight.
A desolate landscape, empty of movement. Frannie's heart leaped. In the
distance something was moving! She gripped Leela.
"There's something out there--something moving out there!"
Tiny moving specks. Too terrified to run, the girls stood staring.
A mile or two away, specks were moving across the rocky plain. They
seemed coming nearer. They separated into four specks. Four gray
blobs, coming swiftly forward.
In a few moments they were distinguishable. Four running animals,
bounding, leaping over the rocks. Animals with horns. Two of them
running free; two with riders.
Leela gasped, "That's the giant! And the woman! They're coming to find
us!"
For a moment the two girls stood transfixed, heedless that they would
be discovered. To Frannie came the thought: The giant, the woman and
the four animals had been dwindling. They had stood in the thicket,
hiding from Brett. They were coming from the thicket now, riding over
the vast rocky plain headlong to regain their captives. Brett could not
see them; they were too small. Brett was probably standing a few feet
from here on the sand--afraid to come closer for fear of treading upon
the girls; and those few feet were miles away across this naked desert.
The four animals came leaping forward. They ran low to the ground,
necks extended like huge dogs on a trail. Already they were no more
than half a mile away. The figures of the riding man and woman showed
plainly. They all seemed about normal size as compared to Frannie and
Leela.
Abruptly Frannie recovered her wits. "We must hide! They must not find
us!"
They hid, out of sight around a corner of the lower rock-face of the
mountain; crouched, waiting with wildly beating hearts.
But it was useless. Either they had been seen or the animals scented
them. Soon they heard the man calling his mount. No noise of galloping
hoofs, for the beasts ran lightly on padded feet. A moment, then the
animals burst into view around the jutting rock; bounded up and stopped
before the crouching girls.
The man dismounted. His grin was a leer of triumph. He spoke to
Leela--a harsh, guttural command in her own language, as he had spoken
before when he forced the drug upon her.
Leela dragged herself to her feet, and Frannie after her. The man spoke
again. Less harshly this time, and at greater length. He gestured at
Frannie.
Leela said, with a quiver in her voice that she tried to hold to
calmness, "He tells me that his name is Rokk. This woman here is his
mate--he calls her Mobah. He says they come from a very big world--down
here to our world of infinite smallness. Oh, Frannie, what can we do?
He says they are going to take us with them, up there to that Giant
World."
Frannie, too, strove for calmness. "Ask him--why? What harm have we
done to him? Tell him--we don't want to go----"
Leela turned to this man who had called himself Rokk. Then she appealed
to the woman--but the woman stared dumbly and turned away.
"Frannie--he says we will learn later what he wants. He says--we will
not be harmed if we cause no trouble. We are going--he says he is going
to take us----"
"Which way?" Frannie interrupted.
"I don't know. I suppose to Reaf."
"Ask him."
Leela asked him. "Yes, by way of Reaf. He says we will mount the
animals--he calls them dhranes. They run very swiftly--as Brett
describes your wolves of the northern ice-fields of your Earth."