out-riders on both sides--they could see it held
but a single occupant, a man who sat in its stern--a figure about as
long as one of the Very Young Man's fingers.

The Very Young Man and Aura were swimming side by side, now. The water
was perfect in temperature--neither too hot nor too cold; they had not
been swimming fast, and were not winded.

"We've got him, what'll we do with him," the Very Young Man wanted to
know in dismay, as the thought occurred to him. He might have been more
puzzled at how to take the drug to make them smaller while they were
swimming, but Aura's answer solved both problems.

"There is an island," she said flinging an arm up out of the water. "We
can push the boat to it, and him we can leave there. Is that not the
thing to do?"

"You bet your life," the Very Young Man agreed, enthusiastically.
"That's just the thing to do."

As they came within reach of the boat the Very Young Man stopped
swimming and found that the water was not much deeper than his waist.
The man in the boat appeared now about to throw himself into the lake
from fright.

"Tell him, Aura," the Very Young Man said. "We won't hurt him."

Wading through the water, they pushed the boat with its terrified
occupant carefully in front of them towards the island, which was not
more than two or three hundred yards away. The Very Young Man found this
rather slow work; becoming impatient, he seized the boat in his hand,
pinning the man against its seat with his forefinger so he would not
fall out. Then raising the boat out of the water over his head he waded
forward much more rapidly.

The island, which they reached in a few moments more, was circular in
shape, and about fifty feet in diameter. It had a beach entirely around
it; a hill perhaps ten feet high rose near its center, and at one end it
was heavily wooded. There were no houses to be seen.

The Very Young Man set the boat back on the water, and they pushed it up
on the beach. When it grounded the tiny man leaped out and ran swiftly
along the sand. The Very Young Man and Aura laughed heartily as they
stood ankle-deep in the water beside the boat, watching him. For nearly
five minutes he ran; then suddenly he ducked inland and disappeared in
the woods.

When they were left alone they lost no time in becoming normal Oroid
size. The boat now appeared about twenty-five feet long--a narrow,
canoe-shaped hull hollowed out of a tree-trunk. They climbed into it,
and with a