alace was rocking! Its roof heaved upward then
smashed and fell aside with the clatter of tumbling masonry. The
monstrous fly, its hideous face mashed and oozing, reared itself up
and, with broken, torn wings tried to soar away. But it could not. It
slipped back. The drone and buzz of its fright sounded over the chaos
of noise. Other things came lurching and twitching upward; slithering
out....

The expanding body of the fly was pushing the palace walls outward. In
a moment they collapsed and it emerged....

To Alan and his companions the scene was all shrinking into a
miniature chaos of horror at their shoe-tops. A diminuendo of screams
mingled down there. Overhead were the stars, shining peacefully
remote. Nearby lay a rapidly narrowing channel of shining water. A
tiny city was across it. Lights were moving. The panic had spread from
the island to Orena. Beyond the tiny city, a range of mountains
showed; a cliff, gleaming in the starlight; tunnel mouths.

Suddenly against the stars off there, Alan saw the enlarging figure of
Polter, his hunched shape unmistakable. He was facing the other way.
He lunged and scrambled into a yawning black hole in the mountains.
Polter was escaping! None of these people except himself had the
drugs. He was escaping with the golden cage, out of this doomed atomic
world to our Earth above.

Glora murmured, "There is our way out. Your way. And that is Polter
going. I think he did not see us. So much is growing gigantic here."
She clung to Alan. "Dear one--"

Dr. Kent muttered, "We will wait a moment--wade across--or leap over,
and follow him out. Babs with him--dear God I hope so! This doomed
realm!"

* * * * *

Alan held Glora close. And suddenly he was laughing--a madness, half
hysteria. "Why, this, all this--why look, Glora, it's funny! This
little world all excited, an ant-hill, outraged! Look! There's our
giant sailboat!"

Down near their feet the inch-long sailboat stood at its dock. Tiny
human figures were rushing for it; others, floundering in the water,
were trying to climb upon it. Dr. Kent had stepped from the shore a
foot or two, and tiny, lashing white rollers rocked the boat, almost
engulfing it.

Alan's laugh rang out, "God! It's funny, isn't it? All those little
creatures, so excited!"

"Steady, lad!" Dr. Kent touched him. "Don't let yourself laugh! A
moment now, then we'll wade across. Polter won't have much start on
us. We must