"He has been here and seen for himself. He is here now--with a few of his men. You have seen some of them. They happened to be a trifle larger than your normal size and so you call them giants." Drake put in, "Dianne, wait! Can't you answer some questions?" "I would keep her here with us always," father said. "She knows that. But she is going back at once. Her duty lies in there with her people. But more than that--the menace of Togaro here--she must go back!" "You don't talk so we can understand you, father," I objected. The girl Ahlma spoke again. She addressed Dianne, but her gaze was on Drake. "I think, Dianne, you should tell them at once why we came. What it is they must do for us." Father said, "Lads, this Togaro and hordes of his followers are planning to come from the atom. Some are already here. That's what Dianne and her people want to stop. For our sake. She wants us to get this atom of rock from Bird's Nest Island. Bring it here. She will go back within it to her world. We are to keep it here. Guard it. You see? Watch it, or have it watched day and night. Then the coming of Togaro's hordes can be checked. We can see them appear--kill them as they come, when still they are tiny." Dianne interrupted him. "Togaro's plan is to come here--and with his men in a size gigantic even compared to you, he will overrun your Earth! Conquer it! Force your great nations to yield to his giants--" Giants overrunning our world! I could with shuddering fancy imagine one a thousand feet tall toppling the buildings of New York City with sweeps of his arm! Of what use our battleships, our long-range guns--any of our weapons against a horde of such gigantic antagonists? Father said, "Our Earth could be devastated so easily! But if we can get the atom here, now before it is too late--" A cry from Ahlma checked him. There was an instant when all of us sat mute with horror. In a distant corner of the room where a glow of our table light fell upon the floor the small figure of a man was lurking. A man, tall perhaps as the top of my shoe. An instant while we were mute, frozen into immobility. Then I heard Dianne murmur, "Togaro!" And Drake cried, "Father--that is the fellow who called on us last night!" Drake's chair crashed over backward as he leaped to his feet. He stooped. He seized the chair and flung it at the little lurking figure. I shouted, "You missed him, Drake!" I dashed across the room. I had seen the figure dart into a shadow. Dianne lifted off the lampshade and tossed it away. The room floor showed more clearly. We hastily moved the furniture. Then I saw the figure again. Far smaller now--an inch high, no more. It had climbed to the baseboard of the wall. Running upon the narrow ledge. It leaped--the shadow of a chair enveloped it. We ran about the room, searching. Like searching for an insect which every instant was dwindling toward invisibility. Dianne cried, "Too late! He's too small. But I saw him--right near here."