CHAPTER VII

_The Flight in the Cellular Caverns_

Dianne's hand came from her belt. "Here--take this! Just touch it to your tongue. Only that! Then give it back to me!"

Her hand went to her own mouth. I moistened my tongue with the pellet.

Togaro had almost reached us. Drake leaped forward. Dianne cried in agonized terror, "Oh, Drake--Drake, you took too much!"

Drake had gulped all of his pellet. He leaped at the oncoming figure of Togaro. They locked together, fighting. I broke from Dianne. As I jumped forward a corrugation of the floor caught my foot. I fell headlong; stunned for a moment, but I got up.

In the center of the cavern the swaying forms of Drake and Togaro were fighting. They were both already far larger than Dianne and me! Giant fighting forms. Growing swiftly. In a moment they looked fifteen or twenty feet tall. A weaponless, hand-to-hand fight. Togaro was bending Drake backward. Drake's hands gripped the fellow's throat. Then they went down. Rolling together, each struggling to land on top. Still larger now--their lurching bodies filled one end of the cavern.

Dianne clung to me. I became aware that I was struggling to escape her. And aware also that the cave seemed dwindling. A slow contraction, but the dim space here was already noticeably smaller.

"Dianne, let me go!"

"No! They're too large! You'd be killed!"

Large! They were gigantic! A sweep of one of their massive arms or legs would have flung me headlong as though I had been a child. I crouched with Dianne, watching them. Powerless to help Drake.

Then I realized: "Dianne, give me more of the drug."

"No!" She called, "Drake! Drake, you--"

Her words were lost in the turmoil of the fighting giants. The roof of the cavern had a long irregular opening into the space above it. Light filtered down. The light illumined the huge threshing bodies. Togaro was on top. His arm, longer than my body now, went up as he tried to strike at Drake. Then Drake heaved him off.

They had rolled away from where Dianne and I were crouching. They were soon so large that half the cavern scarce contained them. Togaro tried to stand up with Drake lunging at his waist. His shoulders brushed the roof. He could not stand erect.

Dianne was screaming now. "Drake! Drake! Climb out of here! You'll be crushed!" An agony of fear was in her voice.

It swept me with a realization of horror. Growing so fast, these fighting giants, that in a moment more the cavern would not be large enough for them! Crushed in here by their own growth.

I added my shouts to Dianne's. "Drake! Climb out--through the hole up there."

They both realized the danger. They were almost wedged between this hundred-foot floor and roof. We could see Togaro trying to cast Drake backward--trying to escape through the gash overhead. He seemed to succeed. His fist caught Drake full in the face. Drake crumpled, but in a moment recovered. Togaro had cast loose. Scrambling, half climbing, his great body lurched up through the roof opening.

But Drake was after him. He stood, bent double within the narrow confines of these walls. He scrambled up, against all the efforts of Togaro to shove him back.

They fought in the space over us. Already too large to come back. Their bodies fell as again they locked together. Fell across the roof opening, so huge now that we could see only a portion of their legs.

Again the space up there must have been too small. They scrambled higher. The sounds of the fighting faded into the upper distance.

* * * * *

Father sat with Ahlma, watching us as we dwindled before his horrified eyes. He saw us, an inch high, standing by the wall. Dianne called, "Good-by." He saw us smaller, running across the tiny space, still closer to the wall. He did not dare move. He sat by the table with Ahlma beside him. She put her hand out presently and touched his arm; his hand gripped hers and held it.

He said softly, "You love my girl Dianne?"

"Oh, yes. My friend and our princess."

"You're older?"

"A little."

He paused. "Ahlma, will you bring her back to me when this is over? Will you? We'll get the fragment of rock which holds your atom. I'll guard it carefully. Will you bring Dianne back to me?"

She turned her face to him, a face perhaps as beautiful as Dianne's, gentle, thoughtful. She brushed away a straying lock of her golden hair. Her blue eyes regarded father. She said, "Yes. I will urge her. And would you like me to come?"

"Yes," he said. And at the pressure of her hand, he added, "Oh, but don't you understand, Ahlma--Dianne seems to me just my little daughter--I love her."

"I understand." Her gaze still held his. In the blue depths of her eyes he saw a light twinkling like a smile. But her voice was very earnest as she added:

"And I will come also." The twinkling light in her eyes spread to a whimsical smile twitching at her lips. "What a handsome young man your son Drake is."

Half an hour must have passed. Or perhaps more. They sat, watching the small segment of floor into which we had vanished. There was a moment or two, father recalls, when it chanced that they were talking, and their glances strayed away. When they looked back, Ahlma gave a cry.

"I see--"

Father started to his feet, but she held him. He saw nothing. "What? What is it, Ahlma?"

"One of them!"

A single figure. A speck, there on the board. Ahlma lifted the lampshade. He saw it then. Something there--

"One of them!" she repeated. Her voice caught in her throat as terror swept her. "Only one! A man!"

She cautiously drew father forward. They knelt carefully on the floor, bending down over the board. A tiny figure there, an eighth of an inch long. But it grew. Half an inch! A man's figure. Clothes torn and blood-stained.

Drake! He lay on his side. But he moved. He drew himself up on one elbow.

An inch long now. He tried to stand, but swayed and fell back. He had spoken, but they did not hear it. He waved an arm.

A warning, but it was too late! Behind them as they knelt there was a footstep. They turned. Togaro--as large as Ahlma--leaped at them!

* * * * *

Drake, down there in the caverns with the small figures of Dianne and me watching, fought with Togaro. He was aware of the shrinking walls. He heard and understood our tiny screams of warning. He scrambled up through the roof opening after Togaro. The space overhead was a caldron depression. They fought there. Togaro had been the first to take the drug. He was rapidly becoming larger than Drake. His strength was overpowering. They rolled together. Drake felt the big hands gripping his throat. He tried to tear them loose, but could not. It stopped his breath. He tried to heave his adversary off. But Togaro was too large. Too strong.

The lunge jammed them both against a wall which almost wedged them. It must have brought realization to Togaro. He suddenly cast Drake loose.

Drake's senses had almost faded; but with returning breath he strengthened. The walls were closing. Togaro scrambled out. Drake tried to stand up. His head and shoulders came above the closing caldron. He jumped; and as he scrambled out Togaro's fist caught him in the face.

He fell; and though he did not quite lose consciousness he lay motionless. Togaro struck him again. Beat him, kicked him. Drake had just the wits left to pretend insensibility.

This partly open space was again closing. A ravine in the corrugations of the upper surface. Togaro's attention was again distracted by the narrowing space. He evidently thought his adversary dead; or unconscious so that he would lie here and be crushed by his own growth. He left Drake. He leaped away, scrambled up and ran.

For a moment Drake lay quiet. He stayed as long as he dared. Then he tried to sit up. He had barely the strength to pull himself out as the ravine narrowed to a slit beneath him.

He fell prone. Togaro had disappeared. Drake lay amid the tumbled ridges of the upper surface. The ridges crawled and crept under him as his body grew. He was far enough out so that his body pushed itself over the surface undulations with its own growth. He fainted.

When he recovered consciousness--it must have been five minutes or so--he could distinguish the outlines of the giant room. He heard the rumble of father and Ahlma talking--their voices booming far up there in the radiance of the lamplight.

He was still growing. Togaro had escaped being seen by father and the girl. He had run to another corner of the room; stood quietly behind them, growing to their size.

Drake saw the monstrous forms of Father and Ahlma come forward. He lay on his side. They loomed over him--tremendous giants peering down with great faces far overhead. And behind them--almost equally gigantic--he suddenly saw Togaro!

Drake tried to call a warning. But they did not hear him. He was still weak and faint. He got up on one elbow. He gestured frantically. He saw the tremendous figure of Togaro leap at father.

Togaro's growth had stopped. He was as tall as father. His fist caught father and knocked him backward. He would have stamped upon Drake, but Ahlma saw the intention. She hurled herself at Togaro. Fighting, tearing at his face with her hands. And father assailed him also.

Drake saw the three huge figures swaying above him; Togaro, with a foot twice the length of Drake's body, was trying to get near enough to stamp upon him. Drake saw that father and the girl were being worsted. He tried to get to his feet, but he was too weak and dizzy. He sank back.

Then Ahlma broke away. She seized the lamp and flung it. The lamp fortunately was extinguished as it crashed to the floor. The room with its drawn shades, in spite of the daylight outside, was too dim for the small figure of Drake to be seen.

And then Ahlma began screaming. Togaro cursed. Perhaps he thought there was help near by. Whatever he thought, he flung father from him, and turning in the dimness, he fumbled for the door. Snatched it open; ran through the hall and dashed from the house.