here."

"He couldn't have fallen," the Doctor exclaimed. "It isn't far down
there--we'd see him."

The truth suddenly dawned on the Doctor. "Don't move!" he commanded
sharply. "Don't any of you move! Don't take a step!"

Uncomprehending, they stood motionless. The Doctor's gaze was at the
rocky floor under his feet.

"It's size," he added vehemently. "Don't you understand? He's taken too
much of the diminishing drug."

An exclamation from Oteo made them all move towards him, in spite of the
Doctor's command. There, close by Oteo's feet, they saw the tiny figure
of the Very Young Man, already no more than an inch in height, and
rapidly growing smaller.

The Doctor bent down, and the little figure waved its arms in terror.

"Don't get smaller," called the Doctor. But even as he said it, he
realized it was a futile command.

The Very Young Man answered, in a voice so minute it seemed coming from
an infinite distance.

"I can't stop! I haven't any of the other drug!"

They all remembered then. Targo had stolen the Very Young Man's vial of
the enlarging drug. It had never been replaced. Instead the Very Young
Man had been borrowing from the others as he went along.

The Big Business Man was seized with sudden panic.

"He'll get lost. We must get smaller with him." He turned sidewise, and
stumbling over a rock almost crushed the Very Young Man with the step he
took to recover his balance.

Aura, with a cry, pushed several of the others back; Oteo and Eena,
frightened, started down the declivity.

"We must get smaller!" the Big Business Man reiterated.

The panic was growing among them all. Above their excited cries the
Doctor's voice rose.

"Stand still--all of you. If we move--even a few steps--we can never get
small and hope to find him."

The Doctor--himself too confused to know whether he should take the
diminishing drug at once or not--was bending over the ground. And as he
watched, fascinated, the Very Young Man's figure dwindled beyond the
vanishing point and was gone!

CHAPTER XXXIX

A MODERN DINOSAUR

The Very Young Man never knew quite how it happened. The Doctor had told
them to check their growth: and he took the drug abstractedly, for his
mind was on Aura and how she would feel, coming for the first time into
this great outer world.

What quantity he took, the Very Young Man afterward could never decide.
But the next thing he knew, the figures of his companions had grown to
gi