There was fear at that motion of the enormous head, but a roar of panic
sounded from the watchers when, with marked caution, the growing giant
moved one foot from the grass into the street behind and the other into
the nearby base of Fifth Avenue, just above the Arch. Fearing harm,
they were gripped by terror, and they fought back while the trembling
policemen tried vainly to control them; but the panic soon ended when
they saw that the leviathan's arms remained crossed and his smile kinder
yet. By now he dwarfed the houses, his body looming a hundred and fifty
feet into the sky. At this moment a woman back of the semicircle slumped
to her knees and prayed hysterically.
"Someone's coming out of his house!" shouted one of the closest
onlookers.
* * * * *
The door of the house from which the giant had first appeared had
opened, and the figure of a middle-aged, normal-sized man emerged. For a
second he crouched on the steps, gaping up at the monstrous shape in the
sky, and then he scurried down and made at a desperate run for the
nearest group of policemen.
He gripped the sergeant and cried frantically:
"That's Dr. Wesley! Why don't you do something? Why don't--"
"Who are you?" the officer asked, with some return of an authoritative
manner.
"I work for him. I'm his janitor. But--can't you do anything? Look at
him! Look!"
The crowd pressed closer. "What do you know about this?" went on the
sergeant.
The man gulped and stared around wildly. "He's been working on
something--many years--I don't know what, for he kept it a close secret.
All I knew is that an hour ago I was in my room upstairs, when I heard
some disturbance in his laboratory, on the ground floor. I came down and
knocked on the door, and he answered from inside and said that
everything was all right--"
"You didn't go in?"
"No. I went back up, and everything was quiet for a long time. Then I
heard a lot of noise down below--a smashing--as if things were being
broken. But I thought he was just destroying something he didn't need,
and I didn't investigate: he hated to be disturbed. And then, a little
later, I heard them shouting out here in the Square, and I looked out
and saw. I saw him--just as I knew him--but a giant! Look at his face!
Why, he has the face of--of a god! He's--as if he were looking down on
us--and--pitying us...."
For a moment all were silent as they gazed, transfixed, at the vast form
that towered two hundred feet above them. Almost as awe-inspiring as the
astounding growth was the fine, dignified calmness of the face. The
sergeant broke in:
"The explanation of this must be in his laboratory. We've got to have a
look. You lead us there."
* * * * *
The other man nodded; but just then the giant moved again, and they
waited and watched.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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