CHAPTER XXV

_In the Campfire Light_

There were some forty thousand people on the Togarite ship, adventuring out upon the conquest of the earth. A few hundred men, who were the Togarite leaders. I think there were perhaps six or eight hundred of these in all. They were experienced with the drugs, and constituted Togaro's active army.

Not very many for the conquest of all the nations of our earth. Yet enough! I realized it as I contemplated what they could do. Togaro was planning carefully. There were thousands of other men on this ship--Mitans who had joined his cause. He could easily have trained them. But he was wise enough to realize that the diabolical power of the drugs needed always to be kept under his close control. He could handle his six or eight hundred trusted men; a larger army might have been awkward.

There were several hundred giants aboard the ship now. The rest of the horde was in a tiny size. They had no drugs. They were men--but there were women and children also. I could imagine that all the renegades of Togaro's world were assembled here, eager with the lust of conquest of an earth they had never seen.

They swarmed the vehicle now. They were as small as I. Fortunately none came to this cabin where Dianne was closely watched, and where I was lurking. If they had come, being so small, they would doubtless have discovered me.

I did not dare leave the cabin; nor did I find, during all the voyage which lasted what seemed twenty-four hours perhaps, an opportunity of again communicating with Dianne.

I need not detail this outward voyage. I saw many strange things through that cabin window. The reverse of the inward trip. Diminishing, shrinking space. The stars becoming so small that they flared about us like a rain of sparks.

Great voids of distance, always shrinking. Then at last, the gray glowing molecules. Whirling and tumbling. A few at first, very far away. Then many, very close. Then great clouds of them, rolling and swirling. Dark. But sometimes shimmering. And always shrinking--congealing into solidity.

The transitions from one condition to another--from celestial space to solid, rocky abyss--were never apparent, and impossible of close description. I was watching eagerly for solidity. I did not see it come--I saw only that at last it was there--out there in the void. A vague, distant rocky wall. It dropped downward, as though we were mounting. Barren cliffs gigantic, but dwindling. Closing in upon us.

Activity became apparent throughout the ship as we neared the voyage end. Dianne, after a few hours, had been given into the charge of several giant women. She had been taken away to another cabin. A wild thought came to me that I should cling to her robe. But the thing had come suddenly, unexpectedly. I was across the cabin. I could not reach her; the chances of discovery would have been too great. I lay in a recess niche of the bottom of the wall, and watched her go.

Later I found upon the floor some crumbs of food which she had dropped for me. They were, to my size, great chunks of a baked dough, like bread. I ate part of them. My hunger was appeased, but I suffered from thirst.

Togaro used this cabin now for consultation with some of his men. I lay, carefully hidden. The room was brighter than before, and the guard was constantly alert. Togaro sat at a table with a few of his men around him.

They talked in their native language; I could not understand a word of it. He seemed to be planning his campaign. He had lived in our world for a year. He doubtless knew a good deal about it. He spread upon the table now what seemed to be maps.

The ship landed in the depths of a stunted forest. Dark, shadowed verdure, with a dim effulgence of light upon far distant mountain ranges. The disembarkation took an hour or more. I could hear the people marching out of the ship, clustering in the forest, setting up their first encampment with the giants helping them. There seemed no need for secrecy. Fires began springing up. Portable houses of animal skins, like tents, were erected. Meals were prepared. A myriad duties necessary to the welfare of forty thousand people were under way.

I climbed through the wire-woven side hull of the ship, and reached the ground safely. I stood beside a tree. The giant ship had mangled a great spread of the forest. I found that I had got out none too soon. The ship began shrinking. Its crew was taking it into a smaller size, to hide it--or abandon it somewhere--and then themselves return to rejoin the encampment. It dwindled, and presently was gone. The mashed forest trees lay like broken jackstraws where it had been.

I stood for perhaps an hour there in the darkness, getting my bearings upon these new conditions. I was about normal in size to this forest; this tree was stunted, but its limbs arched out over me for what seemed twenty or thirty feet.

I found, too, that these thousands of people encamped here over several miles of forest territory, were all about my size. And the giants now began dwindling. Evidently they found it dangerous to move about--difficult to avoid trampling the tiny multitude. They dwindled to the smaller stature.

It was presently almost a normal earthly scene. A forest encampment by night. Camp fires of burning brush; cone-shaped tents; like wigwams; families clustered over their outdoor meal; the Togarite leaders giving orders, directing the activity.

I did not see Togaro himself. Nor Dianne. I would have to move about and locate her. I pondered changing size. It did not seem advisable. With a smaller stature I could not, in days, tramp about this camp and find Dianne. Or if now I got larger, I would be instantly conspicuous. I was conspicuous enough already. My garments were different from all these Mitans--my knitted bathing suit marked me for a stranger. My whole aspect--my language--differed.

I made a start. I moved cautiously off through the trees. The lights from the fires were circles of red and yellow. I kept out of them, in the recessed shadows. Somewhere, at one of these fires, Dianne must be sitting. I wondered if I could locate Togaro; he might have Dianne with him.

Occasionally figures passed near me. I was seen no doubt, but only dimly. Once I almost bumped into a man who was gathering brushwood. A woman and a child came up and took it from him. I mumbled something and ducked away.

The incident gave me an idea. The man was garbed in a jacket with puffed, flaring sleeves and a circular bottom that flared like a skirt at his knees. And he wore a cone-shaped hat, broad-brimmed. It was a costume distinctive, and characteristic of most of these men. If I could get possession of such a jacket and hat, they would disguise me.

I wandered on, skulking the fringes of the camp like a lurking Indian in a primitive American forest.

The camp finally settled to sleep. The fires died. The Togarite men patrolled back and forth, silent shadows in the gloom.

I found my opportunity at last. A tent, where by the embers of a fire outside a man's jacket and hat were lying. I watched my chance when no guard was near. I darted forward, seized the garments and made away.

Shrouded by the jacket, hiding my belt of drugs, with the hat brim pulled low over my eyes, I felt a measure of security. I realized that I was exhausted--that all during the outward voyage I had hardly dared relax to sleep. I found now a wooded glen of ferns, dark and secluded, with a blessed little rill of water at which I slaked my burning thirst.

Then I lay down, and in a moment was sleeping heavily.

The sound of voices wakened me. People were passing near me, but they did not see me. Or if they did, my sleeping form caused no comment. How long I had slept I did not know. But I was again hungry. And I found that the camp was fully awake, bustling with its morning duties.

Morning? The darkness was no different from before. The camp fires were lighted again. All that day--if day it could be called--I skulked, an outcast in the encampment, stealing what food I needed. I found that my aspect, unless under too close a scrutiny, was passing unnoticed.

But I could not locate Dianne or Togaro. There were forty thousand people here in the forest. I skulked from one fire to another, but without success.

Had Dianne been taken away? Again I cursed myself for an inept fool. I wondered how long Togaro intended to keep this encampment? Then presently I realized what was being done. I saw near by, in a clearing, a giant rising. He grew to what looked like several hundred feet, and then stopped. A gathered throng was off there, and I made my way in that direction.

The tents were struck here. A thousand people were ready to start away. The giant was giving them the drug. They marched off as they started growing, with the giant leading them--dim figures towering into the immensity of distance until presently they had vanished.

I realized now how this multitude would be taken upward into largeness. There was not a sufficient supply of the drug for them all to have it at a small size. The single Togarite captain, getting large, expanded his drugs and then fed the thousand people in his charge; at every stage of the journey he would do the same.

There were parties such as this starting now at regular intervals. I wandered on; and I found Dianne at last. It was again near the time of sleep. Ten thousand of the people had departed--but thirty thousand were still here awaiting their turn.

Dianne was seated at a camp fire, around which several women were cooking a meal. A tent stood near by--a peaked canopy of skins. It was larger than most of the others, with tasseled drapings at its doorway. Dianne's tent, where she was waited upon by these women, I did not doubt.

I stood in the shadows of a tree, just outside the circle of fire light. The light of the playing logs made Dianne's golden robe glisten; etched her sharply against the darkness behind her. She sat composed and quiet, with a regal dignity as the women prepared to serve her. I thought, as I stood there in the darkness, that I had never seen her so beautiful.

Could I get to her? I saw that for all her composed casual manner, she was very alert.

I stood planning. A smaller size for me alone was not practical--I had tried that before. But now, concealed under my jacket was enough of the diminishing drug for both her and me. If I could get to her unchallenged, she and I could take the drug and escape into smallness.

Whatever chance I had was at once gone. Togaro appeared! In a size normal to Dianne and me, he came sauntering up to her fire and greeted her. He was broadly smiling, evidently in a high good humor. He wore a vivid outer jacket; his whole aspect--the colored sash about his hips, his tasseled leggings--was that of a cavalier in jaunty, debonair mood.

I saw that he had discarded his belt of drugs. He took off his circular hat and cast it to the ground.

The meal was ready. Togaro evidently dismissed the women; they moved back, out of my line of vision behind the tent. I heard his voice saying in English:

"You will serve us, little Dianne. Why not? A supper here together, before we start the upward trip."

I could not hear what she said, but he answered:

"Yes, tonight. When we have eaten, Dianne. I have everything organized--I am not needed here. You and I and your serving maids will start. The next camp will be ready ahead of us--it will not be too long a journey." He laughed. "I would not tire my little Dianne. I am good to you; can you say it that I am not?"

I stood tense. To follow them upward would be difficult. It was now or never.

Dianne moved about, serving the meal. They sat down facing each other beside the fire and began to eat. Dianne was as yet wholly unaware of my presence. I edged a little closer, slipped from one tree to another until I was behind Togaro, with Dianne facing me.

I stood now in the darkness beside the bole of a tree, just beyond the circle of fire light. I was hardly twenty feet from them. I could hear their voices. My foot touched a loose rock. I stooped and picked it up--a chunk larger than my fist. I thought that there might be no one watching the scene. I wanted to creep forward, cross the lighted area, and strike Togaro before he could make an outcry.

But Dianne must be made aware of me first, to be on her guard and ready for my rush.

I took a step forward. She would see me now, I hoped--see me as a vague, shadowy form in the gloom. I took off my hat, and got the diminishing drug quickly available. I stood tense, gripping the chunk of rock, a finger of my other hand to my lips warning her to silence. If she would see me, she must have the presence of mind not to start, or make any sign that would warn Togaro.

I thought I saw her stiffen. She stared my way.

"Togaro--"

It made my heart leap wildly. Was she about to call his attention to my lurking figure? Did she see me, but not recognize me?

She stammered, "Togaro--you know I hate you. But hate and love are very close. I--was wondering why you put on that sash. It's very becoming."

She had recognized me! I could not miss it--I even fancied she had sent me a warning glance. But she looked instantly away, smiling now with a mocking allure upon Togaro.

She leaned toward him. She repeated, "I hate you, Togaro," exactly as before, yet with a great difference.

Though I knew it was deception, it shot a pang through me nevertheless; and it must have struck at Togaro with a surge of emotion. Whatever alertness to his surroundings he had had was gone. He put out a hand and seized her by the shoulder. "Hate me? Why--"

She swayed toward him and was in his arms. But she struggled a little.

"Togaro, how dare you! Don't you dare--"

There is no man who can yield up a woman when she struggles like that. I thought that over his shoulder she had shot me another glance.

I darted forward. Dianne was fighting with Togaro. Playfully--but she saw me coming, and she changed. Gripped him by the face, with one of her small hands over his mouth. Then she lunged, flung herself upon him. The attack knocked him sidewise. He fell upon one arm.

For an instant she held her hand over his mouth against all his surprised effort to tear it away. In that instant I was upon them. I did not dare fling the rock.

Togaro saw me coming. With a lunge he cast off Dianne, and half rose to meet me. We went down together. He was far stronger than I; and though I landed on top of him, he rolled me over.

I was aware of Dianne plucking at us, striving to impede Togaro as we fought.

The rock was still in my hand, but Togaro had my arm pinned. He fought silently, then he let out a bellow. The camp took it up, and the uproar surged toward us.

I was underneath him, and his hands went to my throat. But that released my arm. I struck upward with the chunk of rock. It must have hit him a glancing blow on the head. He relaxed; slumped, a dead weight upon me.

I squirmed out from under him.

"Frank, this way!"

Dianne seized me. The alarm was spreading over all this section of the camp. Men were running toward us. We dashed away into the trees.

"Wait--here, take this, Dianne."

We took the drug; ran on through the underbrush, dodging the firelight. The scene expanded. The shouting in the camp faded into a dim muffled roar overhead, and then was gone.