ers
in the starlight.

Glora gestured, "The giants are on their island. Everyone sleeps now.
You see the island off there?"

Beyond the city, over the low stone roofs of its flat-topped dwellings,
the silver spread of lake showed a green-clad island some three miles
off shore. The distance made its white stone houses seem small. But as
I gazed, I realized that they were large compared to their environment,
all far larger than those of the little town. The island was perhaps a
mile in length. Between it and the mainland a boat was coming toward us.
It was a dark blob of hull on the shining water, and above it a queerly
shaped circular sail was puffed out, like a balloon parachute, by the
wind.

"The giants live there?" said Alan. "You mean Polter's men?"

"And women. Yes."

"Are there many giants?"

"No."

"How many?" I put in. "How large are they? In relation to us now, I
mean. And to your normal size?"

"You ask so many questions so fast, George. There are two hundred or
more of the giants. And there are more than that many thousands of our
people, here. Slaves, because the giants are four times as large. This
little city, these fields, these hills of stone and metal, all this was
ours to have in peace and happiness until your Polter came."

She gestured. "Everywhere is a great reach of desert and forest. There
are insects, but no wild beasts--nothing to harm us. Nature is kind
here. The weather is always like this. We were happy, until Polter
came."

"And only a few thousand people," Alan said. "No other cities?"

"What lies off in the great distance, we do not know. Our nation is ten
times what is here. We have a few other cities, and some of our people
live in the forests."

She broke off. "That boat is coming for Polter. He is in the city no
doubt of that. The boat will take him and that girl you call Babs, to
the giant's island. His castle is there."

I turned to Alan. "They must have arrived only recently. Before we go
any further we have to decide what size to be. We can't be gigantic
because I'm sure he'd kill Babs if he sees us. We've got to plan!"

If we could get on that boat and go with him to the island--But in what
size? Very small? But then, if we were very small it would take us hours
to get from here to the boat. Glora pointed out where it would
land--just beyond the village where the houses were set in a sparse
fringe. It would be there, apparently, in ten or fifteen minutes. Polter