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 the 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 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 and 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 Babs had been momentarily neglected. She was running.
Across the boulder-strewn plain, two tiny men had appeared. Polter had
seen them.
They were the enlarging figures of Dr. Kent and Alan!
CHAPTER XI
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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