"No, Aura, that's not our sky. It's only the space in the room above the ring. When we get the size we are going to be finally, our heads will be right up in there. The real sky with its stars will be even then as far above us as your sky at Arite was above you." Aura breathed a long sigh. "It's too wonderful--really to understand, isn't it?" she said. The Very Young Man pulled her down on the ground beside him. "The most wonderful part, Aura, is going to be having you up there." He spoke gently; somehow whenever he thought of this fragile little girl-woman up in his strange bustling world, he felt himself very big and strong. He wanted to be her protector, and her teacher of all the new and curious things she must learn. The girl did not reply at once; she simply met his earnest gaze with her frank answering smile of understanding. The Chemist was calling to them. "Oh, you Jack. We're about ready to start." The Very Young Man got to his feet, holding down his hands to help Aura up. "You're going to make a fine woman, Aura, in this new world. You just wait and see if you don't," he said as they rejoined the others. The Chemist explained his plans to them. "This valley is several times deeper than its breadth; you can see that. We cannot grow large enough to jump out as we did out of the pit; we would be crushed by the walls before we were sufficiently tall to leap out. "But we're not going to do as I did, and climb all the way up. Instead we will stay here at the bottom until we are as large as we can conveniently get between the valley walls. Then we will stop growing and climb up the side; it will only be a short distance then." The Very Young Man nodded his comprehension. "Unless by that time the walls are too smooth to climb up," he remarked. "If we see them getting too smooth, we'll stop and begin climbing," the Chemist agreed. "We're all ready, aren't we?" He began measuring out the estimated quantities of the drug, handing it to each of them. "Say, I'm terrible sorry," began the Very Young Man, apologetically interrupting this procedure. "But you know if it wasn't for me, we'd all starve to death." It was several hours since they had eaten last, and all of them were hungry, although the excitement of their strange journey had kept them from realizing it. They ate--"the last meal in the ring" as the Big Business Man put it--and in half an hour more they were ready to start. When they had reached a size where it seemed desirable again to stop growing the valley resembled a narrow canon--hardly more than a deep rift in the ground. They were still standing on its floor; above them, the parallel edges of the rift marked the surface of the ring. The side walls of the canon were smooth, but there were still many places where they could climb out without much difficulty.