Atoms -- Fiction; Chemists -- Fiction; Love stories; Science fiction
"Here!" cried the Very Young Man, thrusting forth the brandy. The
Chemist drank a little of it. Then he sat up, evidently somewhat
revived.
"I seem to have stopped growing," he said. "Let's finish it up now. God!
how I want to be the right size again," he added fervently.
The Doctor helped him extract the vials from under his arm, and the
Chemist touched one of the pills to his tongue. Then he sank back,
closing his eyes. "I think that should be about enough," he murmured.
No one spoke for nearly ten minutes. Gradually the Chemist's body grew,
the Doctor shifting his position several times as it became larger. It
seemed finally to have stopped growing, and was apparently nearly its
former size.
"Is he asleep?" whispered the Very Young Man.
The Chemist opened his eyes.
"No," he answered. "I'm all right now, I think." He rose to his feet,
the Doctor and the Big Business Man supporting him on either side.
"Sit down and tell us about it," said the Very Young Man. "Did you find
the girl?"
The Chemist smiled wearily.
"Gentlemen, I cannot talk now. Let me have a bath and some dinner. Then
I will tell you all about it."
The Doctor rang for an attendant, and led the Chemist to the door,
throwing a blanket around him as he did so. In the doorway the Chemist
paused and looked back with a wan smile over the wreck of the room.
"Give me an hour," he said. "And eat something yourselves while I am
gone." Then he left, closing the door after him.
When he returned, fully dressed in clothes that were ludicrously large
for him, the room had been straightened up, and his four friends were
finishing their meal. He took his place among them quietly and lighted a
cigar.
"Well, gentlemen, I suppose that you are interested to hear what
happened to me," he began. The Very Young Man asked his usual question.
"Let him alone," said the Doctor. "You will hear it all soon enough."
"Was it all as you expected?" asked the Banker. It was his first remark
since the Chemist returned.
"To a great extent, yes," answered the Chemist. "But I had better tell
you just what happened." The Very Young Man nodded his eager agreement.
"When I took those first four pills," began the Chemist in a quiet, even
tone, "my immediate sensation was a sudden reeling of the senses,
combined with an extreme nausea. This latter feeling passed after a
moment.
"You will remember that I seated myself upon the floor and closed my
eyes. When I opened them my head had steadied itself somewhat, but I was
oppressed by a curious feeling of drowsiness, impossible to shake off.
"My first mental impression was one of wonderment when I saw you all
begin to increase in size. I remember standing up beside that chair,
which was then half again its normal size, and you"--indicating the
Doctor--"towered beside me as a giant of nine or ten feet high.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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