In the fog and darkness at the foot of the incline, Martt stood tense,
with upraised knife. The green-white thing was poised for its leap. It
was not babbling now; its eye on the stalk glared balefully. A shudder
swept Martt, as Frannie had shuddered an hour before when she and Leela
passed this way, and she had caught a glimpse of this thing lying
somnolent on the platform above.
Martt muttered, "Stay back, Zee." And then the headless thing leaped.
Martt caught it on his outflung hand and knife, but did not stop it. He
felt his hand sinking within it--a soft, sticky warmth. Its body came
on, and struck his chest--a blow as though a soft, yielding pillow had
struck him.
There was a moment, there in the darkness, of unutterable horror as
Martt felt and saw his body mingled with the body of this gleaming
thing clawing at him. He struck wildly, fighting, kicking in a panic of
futility. Wet, warm and sticky! He seemed to tear its body apart. But
the glowing, lurid outlines, wavering, came back always into shape.
The thing itself was in a panic. Lunging, twisting. Its claws scraped
Martt's face, too imponderable to scratch. The slit of its mouth
opened to grip his throat; its teeth sank impotently within his flesh.
Pressing against him . . . the slime of it was warm, with a stench,
noisome. . . .
Horrible! A nausea made Martt reel. And the thing now was crying with
terrible, frightened cries. But they were low, suppressed.
Martt staggered. And suddenly the lurid green shape gathered itself and
fled. Martt saw a quivering dark wound in its side. It fled whimpering
along the rocks of the shore and disappeared.
Martt relaxed. He was unhurt. He stooped to the water and washed the
stickiness from him. He felt a wild, hysterical desire to laugh.
"Zee, it--that thing was as frightened as I was!"
"Are you all right, Martt? It's gone! What was it?" She clutched at him
anxiously.
"Yes--all right. It couldn't hurt me and I couldn't hurt it. Not much."
He laughed again, but suddenly sobered. "Zee, there's a giant up there
asleep. Hear him?"
They listened. From up there in the fog the deep, heavy breathing
still sounded. Martt whispered, "You wait here, Zee. I'll creep up on
him--get the drugs." He turned to her tensely. "Zee, you stay here.
Close against the rocks. Whatever happens, you stay here. I'll--if I
get the drugs--I'll make myself very large. Kill him--then I'll come
back to you. Don't move--whatever happens."
He left her. The wooden incline sloped sharply upward. The fog
momentarily seemed clearing. Martt saw above him the outlines of the
houses, a broad platform connecting them. And stretched the length
of the platform was the huge, recumbent figure of a man. He seemed
about forty feet tall. He lay hunched, cramped for space, with one arm
upflung to the roof of a house, and one leg dangling nearly to the
water.
Martt reached the platform. He crept past the giant's legs. The waist,
wrapped in a skin, was rising and falling with the giant's breathing.
Martt's own breath was held. His heart was thumping wildly. The giant
stirred; Martt stepped nimbly aside to avoid the movement of the great
body.
At the giant's waist he paused, reached up, fumbling. There seemed a
belt here, with pockets. The drugs should be there. The bulge of the
giant's middle was nearly as high as Martt's chest as he stood upright.
He reached up, and over, feeling with careful fingers.
With a thrill of triumph, Martt found two cylinders, each as long
as his forearm. In the starlight he opened them, drew from each a
flat, square tablet of compressed powder. The drugs! But which was
for growth and which for shrinkage? One was larger than the other. It
suggested growth. It was flat and square--the length of Martt's thumb.
Impulsively he would have crushed it in his mouth and swallowed it.
But a thought gave him pause. This giant was nearly seven times larger
than himself. This expanded dose of the drug then would be too great.
Martt bit off a corner of the white tablet. Swallowed it. An acrid
taste. . . . He replaced the remainder in the cylinder and put both
cylinders in his pocket, tying his jacket close around them. Would they
expand with his body? He could only hope so.
Expand? How did he know but that he had taken the wrong drug? Well, he
could soon rectify that. . . . A panic swept Martt that the giant might
awaken too soon. . . . The drug was taking effect; Martt was sick and
dizzy. He reeled to a post at an outer corner of the platform. Clung
there. He all but slipped and fell into the water ten feet below.
A moment, then the sickness passed. He was growing! He could feel
the post shrinking within his grip. The outlines of the houses were
contracting. The knife in his hand, already tiny, slipped and fell into
the water with a splash.
The post soon was too small for Martt to hold. He reached over and
steadied himself upon the grass roof of the nearest house. It was
melting under his hands. The sleeping giant lay at his feet, a giant no
longer; a man, like himself--the two of them crowding a tiny, flimsy
platform with toy houses beside it, and black water flowing sluggishly
close underneath.
A sense of power swept Martt. A triumph. He was not afraid of this man,
unarmed like himself. Already the man was undersized. . . . Why, Martt
could grip him, choke him! . . . These toy houses--a sweep of Martt's
arm would have scattered them.
Martt was bending awkwardly over the roof-tops. A ripping, tearing
noise sounded. The platform, the houses, quivered, wavered, collapsed!
The whole structure, bending beneath the weight of the two huge bodies,
gave way. Martt found himself floundering in warm, muddy water,
entangled in a debris of splintered wood and grasslike house-roofs.
And with him, his antagonist, awakened to a startled confusion,
floundering, struggling to get upon his feet.
Martt rose to his knees. The shallow lake bottom was sticky with mud.
A house-roof hung upon his shoulder. He heaved it off; stood upright,
dripping, breathless. The other man was up also. In the starlight, amid
the floating wreckage, they faced each other. Martt was the taller; and
he was still growing. He saw his enemy shrinking before him. A slim
young fellow, with long black hair. A broad, flat face, with a startled
surprize on it.
Martt laughed. And shouted, "I've got you now!" He would have leaped.
But abruptly he recalled Zee, tiny in size, huddled there by the shore.
A lunge of his body--or of this other man's body--a flip of one of
these torn housebeams--and Zee would be killed. . . .
Martt turned and waded rapidly away. He wondered if the other man would
follow him. Martt wanted to get him farther out into the lake. It was
an error; for as Martt turned to look back, he saw his antagonist's
hand go to his belt; and then to his mouth. More of the drug! Martt
thought that he had in his own pocket all there was of it here. But
the giant had more. Already he was growing. As Martt stood undecided,
he saw the giant growing like himself. He was smaller than Martt now,
but growing more swiftly. He stood for an instant with his arms upflung
toward the stars; then he came wading forward.
The mountains were at Martt's right hand. Shrinking, swiftly
contracting. The water now came not much over his ankles; a small patch
of wreckage marked where the collapsed buildings had stood.
Martt retreated slightly; he turned, moved to the cliff-face with his
back against it.
Then, with a swirl of water, his enemy rushed at him. Martt met the
rush unyielding. They locked. Swaying, struggling each to throw the
other. The lake at their ankles was lashed white. They fought silently,
grimly. The fellow was strong; he pushed Martt backward against the
Mountain. His hands strove for Martt's throat. But Martt ripped them
away. With a body-hold he bent his adversary backward; but always he
could feel the man's body swelling within his grasp.
A desperation seized Martt. If he could not win now, at once, he would
lose. This fellow was growing too large. Beside them, as they swayed,
Martt caught a glimpse of the mountain. It was now a cliff not much
higher than his head. At his feet Martt was dimly aware of a small
black hole in the cliff into which water was rushing.
One of Martt's legs was wrapped around the legs of his adversary; and
suddenly the man tipped. They went down together, Martt on top. It was
like falling into a puddle of water. They lunged, rolled over. And then
the giant rose, with Martt clinging to him. He was much larger than
Martt now; he heaved himself upward, flung Martt against the cliff.
Martt's head and shoulders went over its top. Jagged spires of rock;
loose rocks lying there. The giant jerked Martt back; he fell on his
feet; saw his antagonist towering over him.
But in Martt's hand now was a jagged lump of rock which he had snatched
from the cliff. He flung it, and it caught the giant full on the
forehead. He staggered, and as his grip on Martt loosened, Martt leaped
away.
And the giant came crashing down, his huge body falling before the hole
in the mountain; blocking it so that the surging lake backed up with a
deepening torrent of the hot, black water.