Business Man.

"That's just what I was considering," said the Doctor thoughtfully.
"There's no use our doing anything until we have attained the right
size. Those hills and the forest and river we are looking for might be
here right at our feet and we couldn't see them while we are as big as
this."

"We'd better take the pills and stay right here until their action wears
off. I'm going to take a sleep," said the Big Business Man.

"I think we might as well all sleep," said the Doctor. "There could not
possibly be anything here to harm us."

They each took the six additional pills without further words.
Physically exhausted as they were, and with the artificial drowsiness
produced by the drug, they were all three in a few moments fast asleep.

CHAPTER XVII

THE WELCOME OF THE MASTER

It was nearly twelve hours later, as their watches showed them, that the
first of the weary adventurers awoke. The Very Young Man it was who
first opened his eyes with a confused sense of feeling that he was in
bed at home, and that this was the momentous day he was to start his
journey into the ring. He sat up and rubbed his eyes vigorously to see
more clearly his surroundings.

Beside him lay his two friends, fast asleep. With returning
consciousness came the memory of the events of the day and night before.
The Very Young Man sprang to his feet and vigorously awoke his
companions.

The action of the drug again had ceased, and at first glance the scene
seemed to have changed very little. The incline now was some distance
away, although still visible, stretching up in a great arc and fading
away into the blackness above. The ground beneath their feet still of
its metallic quality, appeared far rougher than before. The Very Young
Man bent down and put his hand upon it. There was some form of
vegetation there, and, leaning closer, he could see what appeared to be
the ruins of a tiny forest, bent and trampled, the tree-trunks no larger
than slender twigs that he could have snapped asunder easily between his
fingers.

"Look at this," he exclaimed. "The woods--we're here."

The others knelt down with him.

"Be careful," cautioned the Doctor. "Don't move around. We must get
smaller." He drew the papers from his pocket.

"Rogers was in doubt about this quantity to take," he added. "We should
be now somewhere at the edge or in the forest he mentions. Yet we may be
very far from the point at which he reached the bottom of t