Drake called suddenly, "Dianne! Oh, Dianne!" It startled me; it echoed through the silent trees. We stood listening. Nothing. We went on again. We came to the opposite beach. Drake whispered, "The fire must have been to the south." We went that way. Back from the shore, some fifty feet from the beach we came upon the embers of a small fire. They were still faintly smoking. No one here. We stood in this little glade, our gazes roving. Nothing here. Just a few embers and half-burned sticks. I bent down. "Water was thrown on the fire to put it out," I said softly. "These sticks are wet." I was on one knee. My heart leaped into my throat. There was a patch of grass and ferns near me. Something stirred in them. A bird moving through the grass? But it was not that. I stared. A fern not much higher than my ankle moved and bent aside. My breath stopped. I stared, unbelieving. And Drake saw it. He muttered something and took a backward step. The fern leaf moved further. A tiny figure, no taller than the blades of grass around it, was disclosed. A human figure an inch or so high! And there were others, lurking in the grass. One came out. The figure of a woman the height of my finger. A woman with long golden robe. Pale-gold hair dangling. The tiny face stared up at me, only a few feet away as I knelt. A face the size of my finger nail! The sunlight fell on it. A girl, humanly beautiful. Small and colorful, this living face, as a miniature painted on ivory. And I recognized it. I gasped. "Dianne, it's you!" CHAPTER V _Princess of the Atom_ Drake and I were transfixed; amazed, doubting the evidence of our senses. Yet there was Dianne at our feet. She stood with a hand holding a fern stalk. Her little face was smiling. I heard a voice, of microscopic smallness, but clear. Dianne's voice; her familiar accents. "You came, Frank. I--we've been waiting." I became aware that Drake had taken a step or two forward. The little figures in the grass scattered. Dianne called up sharply, "Careful, Drake! Don't step on us! Stand quiet! In a moment I'll be larger." She turned and ran into the grass. Its blades were no higher than the length of my hand, but as though they were a jungle of huge green stalks they sheltered the small human figures. Half a dozen men, and one other girl, like Dianne, but with a robe of pale silvery white. The figures clustered together. We could hear their faint voices. Words in a language unintelligible. Then the two girls drew apart. The men moved away. Hiding, watching from the concealing grass.