doubts assailed me. None of Polter's men had gotten large enough to fight us. Evidently he did not trust them with the drug. We could well believe that, for the thing misused, was diabolical beyond human conception. A single giant, a criminal, a madman, by the power of giant size alone, could menace and destroy beyond belief. The drug lost, or carelessly handled, could get loose. Animals, insects eating it, could roam the Earth, gigantic monsters. Vegetation[Pg 34] nourished with the drug, might in a day overrun a big city, burying it with jungle growth! [Pg 34] How terrible a thing, if the realm of smallness were suddenly to emerge, consume this awe inspiring drug! Monsters of the sea, marine organisms, could expand until even the ocean was too small for them. Microbes of disease, feeding upon it— Alan was prodding me. "We're ready, George." "Okay, let's go." This was not the largeness we were facing now, but smallness. I thought of Babs, down there with Polter, beyond the vanishing point in the realm of infinitely small. They had been gone an hour at least. Every moment lost now was adding to Babs' danger. Glora sat with us on the platform. Strange little creature! She was wholly calm now; methodical with her last directions. There had been no time for her to tell us anything about herself. Alan had asked her why she had come here and how she had gotten the drugs. She waved him away. "On the way down. Plenty of time then." "How long will it take us?" Alan demanded. "Not too long if we are careful with managing the trip. About ten hours." And now we were ready to start. She told us calmly: "I will give you each your share of the drugs, but then you take only as I tell you." She produced from her robe several small vials a few inches long. They were tightly stoppered. The feel of them was cool and sleek; they seemed to be made of some strange, polished metal. Some of them were tinted black while the others glowed opalescent. She gave each of us one vial of each kind. "The light ones are for diminishing," she said. "We take them very carefully, one small pellet only at first."[Pg 35] [Pg 35]
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