ve us. He made no move to touch the cage,
except that a few times the great blur of his hand came up to adjust
its angle.

* * * * *

The lurching and jolting was less violent in the tunnel. Polter's
frenzy to escape was subsiding into calmness. He traversed the tunnel
with a methodical swinging stride. We were aware of him climbing over
the noisome litter of the dead giant's body which blocked the tunnel's
further end. We heard his astonished exclamations. But evidently he
did not suspect what had happened, thinking only that the stupid
messenger had miscalculated his growth and been crushed.

We emerged into a less dim area. Polter did not stop at the fallen
giant. Nothing mattered now to him, quite evidently, save his own
rapid exit with Babs from this atomic realm. His movements seemed
calm, yet hurried.

We realized now how different was an outward journey from the trip
coming in. This was all only an inch of golden quartz! The stages
upward were frequently only a matter of growth in size; the distances
in this vast desert realm of golden rock always were shrinking. Polter
many times stood almost motionless until the closing dwindling walls
made him scramble upward into the greater space above.

It may have been an hour, or less. Babs and I, from our smaller
viewpoint, with the landscape so frequently blurred by distance and
Polter's movements, seldom recognized where we were. But I realized
that going out was far easier in every way than coming in. Easier to
determine the route, since usually the diminishing caverns and gullies
made the upward step obvious.... We knew when Polter scrambled up the
incline ramp.

It seemed impossible for us to plan anything. Would Polter make the
entire trip without a stop? It seemed so. We had no drugs. Our cage
was barred beyond possibility of our getting out. But even if we had
had the drugs, or had our door been open, there was no escape. An
abyss of distance was always yawning beyond our lattice--the sheer
precipice of Polter's body from his chest to the ground.

"Babs, we must make him stop. If he sits down to rest, you might get
him to take you out. I must reach his drugs."

"Yes. I'll try it, George."

* * * * *

Polter was momentarily standing motionless as though gazing around
him, judging what to do next. His size seemed stationary. Beyond our
bars we could see the distant circular walls as though