Expand? How did he know but that he had taken the wrong drug? Well, he
could soon rectify that. . . . A panic swept Martt that the giant might
awaken too soon. . . . The drug was taking effect; Martt was sick and
dizzy. He reeled to a post at an outer corner of the platform. Clung
there. He all but slipped and fell into the water ten feet below.
A moment, then the sickness passed. He was growing! He could feel
the post shrinking within his grip. The outlines of the houses were
contracting. The knife in his hand, already tiny, slipped and fell into
the water with a splash.
The post soon was too small for Martt to hold. He reached over and
steadied himself upon the grass roof of the nearest house. It was
melting under his hands. The sleeping giant lay at his feet, a giant no
longer; a man, like himself--the two of them crowding a tiny, flimsy
platform with toy houses beside it, and black water flowing sluggishly
close underneath.
A sense of power swept Martt. A triumph. He was not afraid of this man,
unarmed like himself. Already the man was undersized. . . . Why, Martt
could grip him, choke him! . . . These toy houses--a sweep of Martt's
arm would have scattered them.
Martt was bending awkwardly over the roof-tops. A ripping, tearing
noise sounded. The platform, the houses, quivered, wavered, collapsed!
The whole structure, bending beneath the weight of the two huge bodies,
gave way. Martt found himself floundering in warm, muddy water,
entangled in a debris of splintered wood and grasslike house-roofs.
And with him, his antagonist, awakened to a startled confusion,
floundering, struggling to get upon his feet.
Martt rose to his knees. The shallow lake bottom was sticky with mud.
A house-roof hung upon his shoulder. He heaved it off; stood upright,
dripping, breathless. The other man was up also. In the starlight, amid
the floating wreckage, they faced each other. Martt was the taller; and
he was still growing. He saw his enemy shrinking before him. A slim
young fellow, with long black hair. A broad, flat face, with a startled
surprize on it.
Martt laughed. And shouted, "I've got you now!" He would have leaped.
But abruptly he recalled Zee, tiny in size, huddled there by the shore.
A lunge of his body--or of this other man's body--a flip of one of
these torn housebeams--and Zee would be killed. . . .
Martt turned and waded rapidly away. He wondered if the other man would
follow him. Martt wanted to get him farther out into the lake. It was
an error; for as Martt turned to look back, he saw his antagonist's
hand go to his belt; and then to his mouth. More of the drug! Martt
thought that he had in his own pocket all there was of it here. But
the giant had more. Already he was growing. As Martt stood undecided,
he saw the giant growing like himself. He was smaller than Martt now,
but growing more swiftly. He stood for an instant with his arms upflung
toward the stars; then he came wading forward.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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