met Aura's tender, serious eyes, and smiled. "I'm all right," he
said. "What a foolish thing to faint."

Lylda stooped beside him, "You saved us all," she said. "There is
nothing we can say--to mean what it should. But you will always know how
we feel; how splendid you were."

To the praise they gave him the Very Young Man had no answer save a
smile of embarrassment. Aura said nothing, only met his smile with one
of her own, and with a tender glance that made his heart beat faster.

"I'm all right," he repeated after a moment of silence. "Let's get
started."

They sat down now beside the Very Young Man, and earnestly discussed the
best plan for getting out of the ring.

"You said you had calculated the best way," suggested the Doctor to the
Chemist.

"First of all," interrupted the Big Business Man. "Are we sure none of
these Oroids is going to follow us? For Heaven's sake let's have done
with these terrible struggles."

The Very Young Man remembered. "He stole one of the vials," he said,
pointing to Targo's body.

"He was probably alone," the Chemist reasoned. "If any others had been
with him they would have taken some of the drug also. Probably Targo
took one of the pills and then dropped the vial to the ground."

"My idea," pursued the Big Business Man, "is for us to get large just as
quickly and continuously as possible. Probably you're right about Targo,
but don't let's take any chances.

"I've been thinking," he continued, seeing that they agreed with him.
"You know this is a curious problem we have facing us. I've been
thinking about it a lot. It seemed a frightful long trip down here, but
in spite of that, I can't get it out of my mind that we're only a very
little distance under the surface of the ring."

"It's absolutely all in the viewpoint," the Chemist said with a smile.
"That's what I meant about having an easier method of getting out. The
distance depends absolutely on how you view it."

"How far would it be out if we didn't get any larger?" the Very Young
Man wanted to know.

"Based on the size of a normal Oroid adult, and using the terrestrial
standard of feet and inches as they would seem to us when Oroid size, I
should say the distance from Arite to the surface of the ring would be
about one hundred and fifty to a hundred and sixty thousand miles."

"Holy mackerel!" exclaimed the Very Young Man.

"Don't let's do much walking while we're small."

"You have the idea exactly," smiled