CHAPTER XXXIII

_The Combat of Titans_

I need not concern these pages with further details of Drake and Ahlma. I have already made it clear that they escaped that same morning. Drake awakened, just before dawn, to find that Dianne and I were gone. He and Ahlma rushed outside. There was a commotion off by the coast. They stared at it, half understanding. Drake soon realized that his best move would be not to follow me.

He and Ahlma ran the other way, and took the fifty-foot size. They were desperate; and luck or Fate, as you will, was with them. The patrolling giants were standing in amazement, gazing off toward Long Island. Under ordinary circumstances of those past days Drake and Ahlma would have been attacked in a moment. But now the giants did not notice these fifty-foot figures running along the ground. The boundary of the Togarite lines chanced to be near here. A fifty-foot human runs with strides of thirty or forty feet. Drake and Ahlma, taking every chance now, clung to the open road.

They got past the Togarite area within half an hour. The giants all were behind them. The country was still devastated. Then the pair passed into an abandoned area, still intact, where the giants had not been, and crossed it.

They came at last, just after dawn, within sight of soldiers patrolling the edge of what still was civilization. Drake took the overcoat from Ahlma so that her robe would show. They dwindled to normal size; encountered the soldiers.

Civilization at last! A motor car took them to where a plane was available. Drake learned that father was in Washington--the whole world now knew father's name, and where he was, and what he had to say!

The telephone lines here were down. Drake found a way of sending a radiogram. But at that moment Togaro was devastating New York--in the chaos Drake's message was never delivered. The plane landed in Mount Vernon. Drake telephoned his message: "Don't yield--I have the drugs--"

Meanwhile, in the starlit darkness before dawn, I ran after the fugitive Dianne. She had taken the drug--I took mine also.

"Dianne!"

She saw that she could not shake me off. She stopped abruptly. She had cast away the overcoat because it impeded her running. I dashed up to her golden-robed figure. The trees were dwindling beside us; the open starlight was overhead.

"Dianne, are you crazy?"

"Go back, Frank!"

I was fumbling for the other drug. I pulled at her, but she resisted me.

"Frank, go back. Not two of us--Drake said one was best--he said it to you. He did say it. Frank, I mustn't stay here--I must run--run--"

But still I held her. She exclaimed:

"If you try to stop me, I'll call out!"

"Dianne, you promised me you'd be careful--not try a wild thing like this." I shook her. "Did you promise?"

"Yes. But I've changed my mind."

A madness was on her. She fought to escape me. "Let me go! Oh, Frank, I can make it! I can run very fast, and I know how to handle the drugs."

"No!"

"Then you come with me."

We were head and shoulders above the trees now. Across the dwindling fields I could see the open water of the Sound. A giant was to one side, a mile or so. He had seen us!

It was too late to retreat. Suddenly Dianne jerked away from me. I ran beside her, saying:

"We'll head for the water, straight over the fields."

"Yes, Frank."

A dozen giants who yet were larger than ourselves were near at hand, running at us.

Then they stopped and stared off toward Long Island. A monstrous figure rose up in the distant ocean; stood a moment, and then plunged again. Togaro, swimming down to New York!

Dianne recognized him. "Togaro!"

"Yes. Alone! Dianne, I think he's got all their drugs."

"We must get larger than he is!"

The water off Long Island Sound spread close ahead. Off to one side, down by our feet, a wrecked little village lay in the starlight. We were bounding along--Dianne ran like a fawn.

Giants--diverted momentarily by watching Togaro--were now closing in upon us. One fellow in advance of the others barred our way. I ran at him. His sling whizzed a pebble at me. It struck my shoulder. My fist caught his jaw. He toppled backward into the Sound. Dianne went past him, splashing.

I caught up with her. The other giants had retreated. They had no drugs, and we were now taller than they. Their slings flung a rain of pebbles after us.

We waded the Sound. The giants on Long Island kept away from us. We had grown well over five hundred feet now, and bounded across the little width of the island.

The dawn was coming. We stood gazing out over the placid ocean; it lapped with a foaming line of ripples on the narrow beach.

Togaro was down by Sandy Hook. His monstrous figure loomed up against the fading stars. He had not seen us, evidently. There was no way that these frightened giants near here could communicate with him.

We took more of the drug.

"If we can get as large as he is, Dianne--"

She pulled me down so that we crouched along the empty length of beach. A giant behind us flung a bowlder. But to us now it was small as a pea. It stung my face where it struck.

"Let's try swimming down," I murmured. "Take it slowly and wait until we get large enough to attack him."

My heart was thumping so that it seemed almost to smother me. This would be the supreme test. These Togarite giants to me now were dwindling pygmies. They had none of the drug. Helpless, futile little enemies. The Togarite hordes up in Maine? Why, they would soon be small as ants. The Earth forces, hovering on the outskirts of this little patch of devastated country, were only excited little gnats.

I laughed with a touch of hysteria as the power of my size surged over me.

"Dianne, all that back there amounts to nothing. We can control it. There's only Togaro!"

Just that single enemy left. We heard the rumble of his voice. We saw him stride toward New York City--his head and shoulders towering over the horizon level.

We swam beside a dwindling shore front.

"Dianne, you must keep close behind me."

Fear for her came upon me again. We were both unarmed, but so was Togaro, very probably. There was only the weapon of size.

"Don't go so fast, Dianne. Look, he's coming back from the city! Are we large as he is?"

She was swimming ahead of me.

"Try standing up, Dianne. See if you can wade yet. Dianne, wait! Keep behind me, I tell you!"

She was a faster swimmer than I. She did not heed me. The curve of the tiny island was beside us. A cove, with a headland a few feet high, was to our right--the entrance to New York harbor. A line of buoys, smaller than fishing bobs, lay on the water to mark the ship channel.

Togaro was farther out in the open sea. My foot touched the ocean bottom.

Dianne suddenly stood up. Then Togaro turned and saw us!

I called: "Dianne! Come back!"

Togaro was still somewhat taller than Dianne. He was what seemed a hundred feet from her. I was swimming frantically, twenty feet or so behind her. She and I were growing; and I saw Togaro's hand go to his mouth. He had taken more of the enlarging drug!

He stood for just an instant, surprised by our presence. Then he shouted:

"You! Why--"

She made a rush forward, and dived into the water. With all my strength I swam. Togaro moved sidewise, then came at me. But Dianne suddenly appeared, rose up at his waist, where the water surged, and gripped him.

He bellowed: "Dianne--let go of me, you fool!"

She must have tripped him. He went down, splashing, roaring. I saw him strike her and heave her off.

I had stood up. The water was below my waist now. The little headlands of the land seemed only a few hundred feet away. I waded, and as Togaro shook Dianne loose and heaved himself upright, I closed with him.

He was a full head taller. His powerful arms went around me, bending me backward. His evil face leered at me.

"So, Frank Ferrule? You want to make a test like this? I'll kill you now--as I should have long ago."

He was horribly strong. His arms were crushing me. We were both expanding. We swayed and struggled, lashing the water white around us. His drug belt, with its water-tight metal vials, pressed against me. One of his legs went behind me, but I twisted, avoiding being thrown.

The water level was receding. It was down to our knees now. I straightened and got a hand under Togaro's chin. He suddenly cast me loose, and as I staggered and almost fell he leaped upon my back, forcing me down.

We had surged away from Dianne. I called frantically: "Dianne--keep off! You make it harder for me."

I found myself bent down by Togaro's weight, so that I was half sprawled upon a tiny shore front. A little line of cliffs the size of my hand. Fortifications here--a child's toy fort, smashed by a chunk of rock lying upon it.

I sprawled. There were humans here, frantic little insects running.

I managed to get up and twisted again to face Togaro. I got a blow in the face as we broke apart. But I gave one in return, then I hit him in the chest and ducked his swing.

Blood from my forehead where his knuckles had cut was in my eyes. I dashed it away.

I was more agile than Togaro with my fists; unskilled, yet I soon saw that I had more science than he. I gave him two blows for one, at the least. He staggered over and tripped on the cliffs of the shore.

But I knew it was a ruse. He had tried to clinch with me, but I was avoiding him. He knew I had him at a disadvantage if I could keep him away. He half fell, but instead of following I stepped backward. Dianne was beside me.

"Get back," she cried.

She had found a rock on the ocean bottom. She heaved it, dripping, at Togaro as he rose. It caught his shoulder, but did not seem to hurt him.

I gasped: "Dianne--back, for God's sake."

She obeyed me and retreated.

Togaro came at me again.

There was an instant as I stood there, waiting with raised fists to receive him, that a horrible sense of dizziness swept me. I felt myself standing a mile or two in the air. I could see down the lower bay, the Narrows--and see the wrecked buildings of Manhattan. All far below me, as though I were poised in a plane--this whole familiar scene dwarfed into miniature by my altitude.

Then my viewpoint changed. I was of normal size, standing here in a foot or two of water. This, at my feet, was a little green and brown model of New York harbor.

Togaro was rushing me. He hit me in the body. As I went a step backward from the impact he tried to grip me. But I was too quick; and as he rushed he launched a swing which, had it caught my chin, would have finished me. I ducked it. He slewed around with the effort. Then I hit him in the forehead. He stood swaying, then fell.

I was afraid to go near him. I stood away. He was up again in a moment. But there was a difference now. I was taller than he! My dose of the drug was still effective, but his had stopped!

He knew it was the end; defeat. I was ready with a blow that would have finished him, and he knew it. The expression on his face held me transfixed for an instant. A stupid, bewildered surprise. But that faded. There came something else. A look of regret as he flung a glance down at the tiny landscape? Regret, as he saw Dianne crouching behind me? If it were that, it was instantly gone. His hand went to his mouth!

A trick? But he leaped backward, flung up his arms with a gesture that stopped me again. He was staggering. He stood swaying, with one foot upon the few inches of the cliffs. The blood was draining from his face.

He had taken poison--his last titanic gesture!

He stood, and upon his livid, contorted face came a twisted leer of irony.

"Dianne, you win." From his belt he plucked a small globe of metal. "You win--but your--damned Mitans--lose!"

The fragment of rock was in that little globe! I knew it! As I leaped he flung the gleaming sphere over my head. It rose in an arc and fell into the sea. It must have burst with the impact. There was a puff. Within it, the tiny grain which held the Mitan world was lost forever.

Togaro kept to his feet a moment longer. He gasped again:

"You win--damn you both!"

Then he crumpled limply and fell at our feet, his monstrous body crashing down across the Highlands, and his head and shoulders sprawled far into the Lower Bay!