Science fiction -- Periodicals; Science fiction, American -- Periodicals
I let myself down from the tilted doorway, hung by my hands and
dropped. I struck the ramp-like yielding surface of his shirt-bosom. I
slid, tumbling, scrambling, and landed softly in the huge folds of his
trouser fabric. I was unhurt. The width of his belt, high as my body,
was near me. I shrank against it; I found I could cling to its upper
edge.
My hold came just in time. He shifted, and sat up. I was lifted with a
swoop of movement. When it steadied I saw above me the top of his
knee. His left leg was crooked, the foot drawn close to him. Babs was
perched up there on the knee summit. His right leg was outstretched. I
was at the right side of his belt. I could dart off along that curving
expanse of his leg and leap to the ground. If he would hold this
position! One of the pouches of his belt was near me. The vial in it
was black. The enlarging drug! I moved toward it.
But Babs was too high to jump from that summit of his crooked knee! I
think she saw me at his belt. I heard her voice.
"I cannot eat up here. It is too high. Oh, please be careful how you
move! I am so dizzy, so frightened! You move with such great jerks!"
He had what seemed a huge surface of bread and meat. He was breaking
off crumbs to put before her. I reached the pouch of his belt. The
vial was as long as my body. I tugged to try and lift it out.
* * * * *
All the giant contours of Polter's body shifted as he cautiously
moved. I clung. I saw that Babs was being held gently between his
thumb and forefinger. He lowered her to the ground, and she stood
beside the bread and meat he had placed there.
And she had the courage to laugh! "Why this--this is an enormous
sandwich! You will have to break it."
He was leaning over her, half turned on his left side. The vial came
free. I shoved it; but I could not control its weight. I pushed
desperately. It slid over the round brink of his right hip, and fell
behind him. I heard the tinkling thud of it down on the rocks.
There was no alarm. I could not chance leaping from his hip. I
scurried along the convex top of his outstretched leg, and beyond his
knee I jumped.
I landed safely. I could see the black vial back across the broken
rock surface, with the bulge of Polter's hip above it. I ran back and
reached the vial; tugged at its huge stopper. The cork began to yield
under my panting, desperate efforts. In a moment I would have a pellet
of the enlarging drug; make away with it; startle Polter so that Babs
might dart off and escape.
The huge stopper of the vial was larger than my head. It came suddenly
out. I flung it away, plunged in my hand, and seized an enormous round
pellet.
Then abruptly the alarm came, and I had not caused it! Polter ripped
out a startled, rumbling curse and sat upright. Under the curve of his
leg, I saw that Babs had been momentarily neglected. She was running.
Across the boulder-strewn plain, two tiny men had appeared. Polter had
seen them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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