Inert bare-surfaced looming things inclosed him, from some of which,
when he approached them, he was kicked away. Incredibly huge portals
barred egress to an outer world, from which seeped strange sharp odors.
By calling his one word to the world beyond the doors, Robert endeavored
to explain to the Titans that Ellen might possibly be outside. But they
hushed him with amusement, sometimes with abuse.
There had been others prisoned here like himself while he had not seen,
but they had vanished now, but this bothered him not in the least--his
thoughts were of Ellen, and finally the giants lifted him and put him
into a windowless room and clamped a fretted ceiling over it. The
chamber rocked gently; he realized that it was being moved from one
place to another. Leaping frantically he touched the ceiling's lattice,
clung to it, struggling to force himself through its interstices.
Unsuccessful, tiring, he fell back, crouched in a corner, weeping.
Motion of transit ended--the confining ceiling vanished. Robert
scrambled over a wall, dropped to the ground of the outer world, whose
heavy conflicting odors, dazzling lights and moving shadows alarmed him.
Dim with distance was the withdrawing form of a giant, which he pursued,
crying out his one word, "ELLEN!"
The giant vanished among weird wavering plants. Alone, Robert skulked
nervously through tall rustling things, was terrified at times by an
unexpected sound or motion. But the swaying things appeared unaware of
him and he became self-confidant. Discovering a stretch of damp earth
gemmed with puddles, he drank. His head cocked at a sound reminiscent of
Ellen: her soothing voice.
A giantess had appeared over him. She was--ELLEN! At sight of her,
Robert's pent memories burst free, overwhelming his consciousness with
turbulent pageantry. He thrust up his arms; gently indulgent, the girl
bent and drew him to her breast. She cuddled him, cooing to him. At the
moment her monstrous size did not concern him.
"I've found you! I've found you!" he cried. "Oh, Ellen, if only you knew
how lonely it has been--" He opened his glad heart to her in a
stammering urgency, bliss in his eyes, tears in his voice. Breathless,
he raised his face to the girl's; she hesitated. Then she kissed him and
set him down at her feet. She strode away. Crying with hurt amazement,
he followed. She shook her head. She kept walking swiftly. He could not
keep up with her and he stopped forlornly as she disappeared behind an
obstruction. He stared after her with unbelieving eyes. Tho mysteriously
stunted, he had returned to her from death, and she had not accepted
him. He stepped close to one of her prodigious footprints in the mud and
surveyed it grimly. His eyes sought an impression of his own foot. And
suddenly he cried in mingled grief and horror--for there in the mud was
his footprint--small--strange--the footprint of a half-grown cat!
CONVENTIONAL NOTES or the report on THE S.F.L. BALL GAME
by the editor
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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