I must have been standing stupidly confused. I heard Dr. Gryce imploring, "Take hold of it, Frank! We must lift it. We must--our last chance----" But Brett pushed us away. "I'm going inside. I can move the switch--let go of me, Father! That switch--it isn't too big yet--but it will be in a minute. Let go of me!" "No! No, Brett! The shock as you went in--you couldn't take it so suddenly. It might hurt you--kill you. And the switch is too big for your strength." It was out of control--this monster, growing, inexorably growing--it was pushing at the house--a great white giant pushing gently but with an irresistible power at the little toy house beside it. I could see the house shifting on its foundations; a corner of it tilted downward. [Illustration: "The vehicle was out of control, pushing at the house like a great white giant."] "Brett! Father! Try it now. One last try." Martt and Frannie had the pole again in position. With a last despairing effort we raised it; slid it up over the giant table-edge; caught the wide flaring side of the giant switch. Pushing--despairingly; five of us, pigmies struggling there at that giant threshold. The switch moved. Our pole held its place; the switch moved farther, clicked with a tremendous snap that reverberated about us. The growth of the monster was checked. It stood there serene, triumphant, with the little house, tilted, but still standing bravely beside it. White, shaken, we ceased our efforts. Frannie gasped, "We--we only wanted to make it a normal size--so you could load it up with the furniture and things. But it--it got away from us." Dr. Gryce said, "It is a lesson--perhaps a lesson which we needed forced upon us." He gestured to the great quiescent white building which had spread itself over most of the devastated garden. "A lesson," he repeated. "We must guard this power carefully. In unskilled or unscrupulous hands it is a power for evil almost unthinkable. This monster here--if it had gotten beyond us--if we had lost its control--this could destroy the Universe!" _CHAPTER 3_ EXPLORERS INTO INFINITY "You think we've got everything in it?" Frannie asked anxiously.