Life is very strange. Brett and I--Frank Elgon of the Interplanetary
Mails--of full maturity, at the peak of our physical and mental
strength--how inglorious were the parts we played! So inconsequential I
scarcely have the heart to recount our futile actions. Yet we thought
always that we were doing our best.
We stood there beside the arcade, helplessly watching Frannie and Leela
disappear into smallness. Brett left me to guard the spot. He rushed
away; came back to tell me that the giant wading in the lake was gone,
that he could not find Martt or Zee.
For a time we watched the small pebble beneath which Leela and Frannie
had vanished. We even dared to move it carefully, but we could not see
them.
The island was emptying of its people. We thought that Martt and Zee
might have gone home. We decided to go and join them. Perhaps to take
our vehicle, make it small to search for Leela, since we had no drugs.
I told Brett of his father's death. And it was well advanced into the
morning before we learned that people on the island had seen Martt and
Zee sailing for Reaf. Hours during which we had aimlessly searched, and
prepared the vehicle for its trip into smallness to try and find Leela
and Frannie.
Martt and Zee had sailed for Reaf! Following the giant! We had thought
of doing that, to try and obtain the drugs. But it had seemed reckless,
foolhardy, impossible of success. Yet Martt had done it without
hesitation. There is a caution comes at thirty which does not hamper
twenty-one.
We procured a boat. Provisioned it. And sailed for Reaf, armed with our
flash-cylinders. And there we found a huge belt lying on the rocks
near a scattered wreck of buildings strewn upon the water.
Martt's belt, of a size which showed us he had used the drug! He had
left the belt to explain that he had gone on to the giant world.
But we were utterly helpless! We could not follow him. We were starting
aimlessly toward the river, when along the rocks there, we saw four
moving figures. Normal in size. Martt, returning with the three girls!
All of them tattered, bruised, blood-stained, their garments dirty and
torn. But unharmed.
They waved at us. We landed and ran along the rocks. Martt's smile was
tired, but very happy.
"Here they are, Brett. I brought them back--Zee and I did--here they
are." He added, "We had a headless thing named Eeff. It led us back,
but just now at the last, it ran away. It said it wanted to find Degg.
It ran, forgetting it needed the drugs. A half-witted, cowardly sort of
thing, but I liked it. Oh, there is so much to tell you----"
Deeds of youth! No caution, no pondering! Glorious deeds of youth,
unfettered by maturity! No theory--just accomplishment!
Frannie was saying to me, "Oh Frank----" I held out my hand, but she
flung herself upon me. "Frank, I--I've wanted so to get back to you!"
She clung to me. Her arms went around my neck. She was kissing me! Me,
Frank Elgon! Poor as a guider of the lower traffic, and just now proved
so inglorious of action. But Frannie was kissing me! And whispering,
"Oh, Frank, I love you! Don't you know it? Haven't you always known it?
You'd never say it to me. Please--please say it now!"
I murmured, "I love you, Frannie!" And held her close. That this could
happen to me, ineffectual Frank Elgon!