The white-faced men whispered it to each other. The fate of their whole world, now in this breathless moment to hang upon their hasty, frightened decision. They were spared the necessity of answering. A secretary burst in from the adjacent corridor. "Ferrule! Dr. Ferrule!" A message for father! A telephone from Mount Vernon in the northern suburbs of New York City, close now to the enemy lines. Drake Ferrule had been found! He and a strange girl named Ahlma! They were safe. A plane had been sent to them, and they were coming to Washington. And the message for father, from Drake: "Don't yield! We're coming with the drugs." Under the strain of it, the war secretary broke. He burst into an hysterical laugh. "Don't yield! Why, of course we won't yield! Attack them now--we're ready!" The orders went out. Father tried to stop it. "Wait! Get the drugs first!" But in the pandemonium around him he was unheeded. The attack had long been planned. The war planes were ready, massed in all the Jersey airports. The artillery units were ready. The roads and the railways of New Jersey were open and ready for swift transportation. An attack upon the Togarite lines where they crossed, west of the Hudson, at the New Jersey border! And off in the ocean beyond Sandy Hook, the titanic figure of Togaro stood waiting for his answer. But now, behind him, farther out and to the north, other huge figures were swimming! He did not at first see them. Two figures--expanding as they swam, coming to attack him! Then one of them stood on the ocean bottom; stood upright, towering into the sky. A figure almost as huge as Togaro. The figure of a girl! A girl in a golden robe! CHAPTER XXXII _The Fugitives_ It was near the dawn of May 21 when Drake and I, with Dianne and Ahlma, crouched in our boathouse at King's Cove. Giants seemed everywhere outside, towering figures in the moonlight, tramping about the cove. I think that our best chance to escape from the Togarite territory was offered us there at the beginning--those first minutes just before dawn. We had the drugs. We might have plunged into the channel, swimming out, expanding our size and taking the chance that we would not be discovered too soon. How easy to look back on what one might have done! But instead of that we crept from the boathouse and turned inland. Ran back from the cove. Past our house; Togarites in our normal size were thronging it. We were confused. Behind us, giants were rising everywhere. People were pouring from the boathouse. "If we can get to Elton--" Drake panted. We found the road and dashed along it. The moon was momentarily under a cloud. The concealing darkness was helpful. A giant went past us. We ducked off the road. He did not see us--he strode toward Elton.